Iowa State schedules visit with 5-star wing Omaha Biliew; Gonzaga shows interest
Matthew Bain
Iowa State has scheduled a recruiting visit with arguably the most highly regarded in-state prospect since Harrison Barnes in 2010.
Waukee five-star 2023 wing Omaha Biliew will take an unofficial visit to Iowa State on June 16, his trainer, Tyler Sass, told the Register on Wednesday. Assistant coach J.R. Blount has been in contact recently and set up the visit on Wednesday.
The Cyclones plan to have Biliew watch practice, give him a tour of campus and introduce him to the new coaching staff and their vision for the future.
Biliew, a 6-foot-8, 200-pounder who excels on the perimeter and in the paint, is a consensus five-star prospect ranked as high as No. 5 in the country by 247Sports. He holds offers from Kansas, Iowa, Arkansas, Georgia, Nebraska, Michigan, Illinois and Western Kentucky. Schools such as Baylor, Miami and Kentucky have shown interest, and Sass said Gonzaga has also entered the picture in the past week.
Kentucky has ramped up its interest in Biliew in recent weeks, as both new assistant coaches Orlando Antiguia and Ron Coleman both recruited him while at Illinois. The Wildcats are pushing for a June unofficial visit.
So far, Biliew has only one other unofficial visit scheduled: to Nebraska on June 6.
Biliew has been performing well with MOKAN Elite's 16U team so far on the AAU circuit this spring. During a tournament two weekends ago, Sass said Biliew met with former NBA star Rod Strickland, the manager of the NBA G League's professional path program that recent elite recruits like Jalen Green have done.
Matthew Bain covers recruiting and pretty much anything else under the sports sun for the Des Moines Register and USA TODAY Network. Contact him at mbain@dmreg.com and follow him on Twitter @MatthewBain_.