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Fran McCaffery is bringing a Kirkwood Community College basketball player into his Pennsylvania program.
Joining an Ivy League program isn’t the typical next step for a junior college player, but Kirkwood Community College’s Lucas Lueth isn’t common. At 6-foot-7, Lueth plays guard but can defend just about every position.
Lueth had offers from Brown of the Ivy League and Drexel, so he wasn’t an unknown in Eastern recruiting circles. Steve Donahue recruited Lueth before he was fired as Penn’s coach in March and later replaced by McCaffery, Iowa’s coach of the past 15 years.
While at the NCAA Division I men’s Final Four this spring, Kirkwood Coach Tim Sandquist bumped into Penn assistant Tristan Spurlock, who followed McCaffery from Iowa City to Philadelphia. Sandquist encouraged Spurlock to take a look at Lueth.
“Once they dove into Lucas’ film, they went at him pretty hard,” Sandquist said.
Because of Ivy League rules, coaches can’t comment on recruits in the current signing period until Thursday.
Lueth is from Ames, and was part of Ames High’s 2022 Class 4A basketball state-champions. Rather than go to a Division II school where he had offers, he said he felt his better option for eventually getting to D-I was by going to Kirkwood.
He took a medical redshirt season in 2023-24 to deal with bone spurs.
Lueth averaged 10 points and 4.5 rebounds. He made his mark in the National Junior College Athletic Association Division II national tournament, helping Kirkwood (33-3) to the title. He was named the tourney’s Most Valuable Player. His defense was stellar in the event. He had seven steals and nine blocked shots.
“I think overall I’m a winner,” Lueth said. “I want to win. That’s ultimately my goal, as well as getting better. So I think (Penn’s coaches) value that a lot, and also my athleticism and my length for my position.”
Lueth is more than a basketball player on Kirkwood’s campus. He works in the school’s cafe, and has been involved in some of the school’s student clubs. He will be one of the speaker’s at the school’s commencement ceremony Saturday.
Lueth intends to enter Penn’s prestigious Wharton School of Business.
“I want to pursue business management and maybe minor in pre-med types of things,” he said. “The level that school’s got, where students all around me can push me to be a better student in the business world and the medical world, I think is a good fit for me.”
Comments: (319) 398-8440; mike.hlas@thegazette.com
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