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Bettendorf's Van Deest commits to play hoops at Drake

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By Andrew Petersen | Thursday, August 21, 2008 |

In a time when kids as young as 9 are vying for attention at AAU basketball events, Seth Van Deest almost missed his chance.

The 6-foot-9, 205-pound Bettendorf senior-to-be played his first AAU circuit this summer, but his relative inexperience didn’t hurt his reception.

Four months after his first competition with the Ames-based All-Iowa Attack, Van Deest verbally committed to play for Drake University last weekend.

“It was nice to get it out of the way,” he said. “I think I built a good relationship with coach (Justin) Ohl and coach (Mark) Phelps.”

Phelps replaced Keno Davis as Drake’s head coach in April after two seasons as an assistant at Arizona State. The Bulldogs won 22 or their first 23 games last season en route to a 28-5 finish, a Missouri Valley Conference title and an NCAA tournament appearance.

Van Deest, who has grown 4 inches since his sophomore year, began last season as a reserve for Bettendorf before working his way into the starting lineup. By season’s end, he averaged nine points and seven rebounds and was a second team all-Mississippi Athletic Conference selection.

“His upside is out of this world,” Bettendorf coach Kevin Skillett said. “As he continues to mature — he only just turned 17 — he could be 6-10, 6-11, and he’ll continue to put on more strength and weight.”

Van Deest had other offers from Indiana State and Milwaukee-Wisconsin. He said he also received considerable interest from Iowa, Iowa State and Northern Iowa.

At Drake, he’ll join All-Iowa Attack teammate Reece Uhlenhopp, a soon-to-be senior at Urbandale.

Van Deest will spend his fall continuing to lift weights four days a week. Between open gyms, he’ll also reacquaint himself with MAC competition in preseason league play at Davenport West.

With Davenport Central’s L.A. Pomlee graduated, Van Deest is the most experienced — and arguably the best — big man in the conference.

His thoughts on the topic are fairly straight forward.

“That’d be nice.”

Andrew Petersen can be contacted at (563) 383-2288 or apetersen@qctimes.com.