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Recruit Breakdown: Khalil Iverson

Two Big Ten teams are making a late charge at a three star small forward out of Ohio. What's all the fuss about? Let's breakdown Khalil Iverson.

Here's your offer Khalil.
Here's your offer Khalil.
Mike McGinnis/Getty Images

College basketball doesn't have a big national signing day bacchanalia like college football, but that clearly doesn't make college hoops recruiting any less important. In fact, since class sizes and rosters are so much smaller in basketball you could make the argument that college basketball recruiting is much MORE important than college football. One miss in a class, and you have a dead roster spot and are already behind the eight ball for the next recruiting cycle.

Anyways, this is not a post about comparing the two recruiting cycles of major college sports, it is about a three star small forward out of Ohio that is garnering some major interest from the Big Ten recently. Khalil Iverson (Delaware, OH) out of Rutherford B. Hayes High School picked up an offer from the conference leading Wisconsin Badgers last week and is now planning on visiting Ohio State Wednesday. All this is in addition to the offers he already holds from Tennessee, Penn State, and Bowling Green. There is considerable interest from West Virginia, Xavier, and Indiana as well.

Iverson is 6'5" and tips the scales at just over 200 pounds. While this appears to be the stature of the dreaded "tweener," Hayes has show excellent slashing ability for a small forward and improved ball handling and passing to potentially slide over to be a long point guard. Here are some highlights from this season that show off Iverson's myriad skills.

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Veyqo9F_NgM" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

He also has the ability to do this.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Eih5QokKQs4" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

When the ref has to stop the game for a moment to tell fans to get back in the bleachers, you know it was a damn good dunk.

Iverson, out of necessity, has played a lot more point guard this year and you can see in the first highlight video that his court vision is solid and despite having the ability to get to the rack at will, Iverson still looks for his teammates for easy layups off his creating. Despite his height, Iverson crashes the boards well and can also protect the rim. His most recent stat line for Hayes was 12 points, 13 rebounds, seven assists, and six blocks. Filling up the stat sheet to say the least.

Since they offered last week, all the Crystal Ball predictions have swung towards the Badgers and Iverson only has nice things to say about Bo Ryan and Madison. However, he is also quick to say that he's taking a "wait and see" approach because the Wisconsin offer could trigger other schools to take a second look at him. Since the Badgers offered, Tennessee did the same and the Buckeyes renewed their scouting of him.

Hayes is the 60th ranked small forward in the nation and is making a late run up teams' recruiting boards. Coming out of the heart of Big Ten country, conference teams have a location advantage, but if Hayes takes his high school team deep in the playoffs some of the nation's big boys might start sniffing around.