Muscatine’s Wieskamp named Mr. Basketball
Future Hawkeye finishes career as Class 4A?all-time scoring leader
DES MOINES — One of the best prep basketball players to grace the courts in Iowa earned the biggest honor an individual can receive from the Iowa Print Sports Writers Association today.
Following a legendary four-year career, Muscatine senior Joe Wieskamp has been named Mr. Basketball.
Wieskamp, a 6-foot-6 forward who is a consensus top-75 recruit in the 2018 class nationwide, was oftentimes a one-man show for a Muskies’ program that he helped to vault into the Class 4A state tournament for the first time in 16 years. He accounted for nearly 60 percent of his team’s scoring, shot 56 percent from the field and hovered around 85 percent from the free-throw line.
The future Iowa Hawkeye piled up a 4A-record 2,376 points in his career, a total that puts him sixth on the state’s all-time scoring leaderboard. He scored in double figures in 88 of his 91 career games, including the last 62 in succession, and registered 46 double-doubles.
As a senior, Wieskamp averaged 33.5 points and 13.5 rebounds per game. He ranked second in the state, all classes, in scoring behind only 4A first-team member Garrett Sturtz (34.7) of Newton.
Wieskamp was also a member of the 4A all-tournament team at state. He put up 29 points and 11 rebounds in a 62-50 quarterfinal-round loss to eventual state runner-up Iowa City West.
To be selected as Mr. Basketball, a player must be a senior and must have been selected to the all-state first team in his respective class. After a nomination process and a discussion takes lace, a vote is taken among the sports writers and coaches in attendance. The player receiving a majority of the votes is declared Mr. Basketball.