Over the past few years Iowa State has continued to recruit the state of Wisconsin well and this looks to be continuing. The Cyclones already have two 2025 commitments out of Wisconsin in their recruitment class with Xzavion Mitchell and Jamarion Batemon and have now added one for their 2026 recruitment class.
This newest commitment out of Wisconsin came from Yusef Gray Jr. He is a 6’4” guard of West Allis Central High School. The commitment comes after Gray took a visit to Iowa State back in August as well as one in October of 2023. He was first offered by Iowa State weeks before his first visit. “Great, I had a wonderful time” is what he had to say about his visit back last summer.
Gray picked Iowa State over several other scholarship offers. Other schools also extending an offer included Arkansas State, Creighton, DePaul, Grambling State, and others.
Right now Gray is averaging 22.5 point per game for the 9-4 West Allis Central. He is also averaging 8.5 rebounds, 4.8 assists, 2.1 steals, and 0.8 blocks per game. In Gray, Iowa State is landing a nationally ranked player in the 2026 class. He sits at the 148th spot in On3’s Industry rankings as well to being a four-star player by both Rivals and ESPN.
Gray marks the first commitment in the Cyclones 2026 recruiting class. Though they do have four commitments total in their 2025 recruiting class. In addition to the two players from Wisconsin, they also have ones from Macari Moore and Killyan Toure to give them a top twenty ranked class in the nation.