Why Bolivar basketball star Kyle Pock said picking Northern Iowa was 'common sense'
All throughout Kyle Pock's recruitment, the Bolivar basketball star prioritized the relationships he built with different coaches while noting the amount of time they put into him.
So it couldn't have been more perfect that when Pock shot a text to Northern Iowa head coach Ben Jacobson that he wanted to call him after school with good news, Jacobson replied saying he was already halfway to Bolivar and that the senior star could tell him that he wanted to be a Panther in person.
Pock (it's pronounced "Poke," Valley fans) announced on Saturday night that he committed to play college basketball at Northern Iowa — whose basketball staff made the trip down to Bolivar from Cedar Falls, Iowa, five weeks in a row to build a relationship that helped Pock realize where he wanted to be.
"It's been great," Pock said in a phone interview with the News-Leader on Sunday. "They've come down a lot and we've really built that relationship up with the whole coaching staff."
Southwest Missouri's top Class of 2023 basketball recruit picked UNI over schools including Missouri State, South Dakota State, Indiana State, Illinois Chicago, Saint Louis, Lipscomb, Princeton and others.
The 6-foot-6 forward who can play anywhere on the court has had three seasons with the Bolivar Liberators while already being a 1,700-point scorer with more than 700 rebounds and 200 assists. He led the Liberators to a state runner-up finish as a sophomore.
Pock didn't catch Northern Iowa's eye until this past summer when he broke out during AAU ball while playing alongside some of the top basketball prospects in the country with MOKAN Elite which he helped lead to a prestigious Peach Jam title. That's when Jacobson and staff began its full-court press to make Pock a Panther.
"(UNI) really just really put it all on," Pock said."I was talking to all four coaches pretty much every week and Coach Jake pretty much every single day. I was talking to them a lot, asking questions and I think we Zoomed a few times and I went up there. When I went up there for the official, that's when the relationship really grew."
During Pock's visit to Cedar Falls, he'd spend most of the days with the coaches and then spend the evenings with players on the team. In addition to the relationships he formed, Pock likes his academic setup at UNI where he will major in physics before likely going into engineering during his post-basketball career.
Pock also likes the fact that Northern Iowa still builds through recruiting high school players and developing them as opposed to having transfer players coming in and out all the time. A priority for Pock throughout his recruitment was to find somewhere he wanted to be for four years. There are no transfers on Northern Iowa's current 15-man roster.
"That was a huge plus for me," Pock said.
On the basketball side, Pock also identified UNI as his perfect fit as a basketball player. He feels like he can play any position in Jacobson's system while noting the smart style the team plays with and the one he wants to play in. After observing a few practices, he liked Jacobson's style and the way he interacts with his players.
"They play in the Missouri Valley Conference, which is a really good conference and they have all the intangible stuff, like with the people and players that I met while I was on the visit. It just became the perfect fit," Pock said. "It was just common sense."
Wyatt D. Wheeler is a reporter and columnist with the Springfield News-Leader. You can contact him at 417-371-6987, by email at wwheeler@news-leader.com or Twitter at @WyattWheeler_NL. He's also the co-host of Sports Talk on Jock Radio weekdays from 4-6 p.m.
This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Bolivar's Kyle Pock says why he picked Northern Iowa basketball
