Patrick McCaffery announces his commitment to the Hawkeyes

Patrick McCaffery has committed to play basketball for the Iowa Hawkeyes, the Iowa City West junior announced via Twitter Thursday night.

"It may come as a big surprise," he tweeted, "but I have decided to commit to play for my father at the University of Iowa."

McCaffery's recruitment was quite the peculiar one, to say the least, as even during his meteoric rise this summer, schools didn't show interest. That’s almost certainly because most assumed he’ll play for his dad, Fran McCaffery, at Iowa.

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Patrick told HawkCentral.com that Arizona sent him a letter a couple years ago, but that was it.

A 6-foot-8 forward/wing combo, McCaffery averaged 13.8 points on 60.6 percent shooting to help Iowa City West win a Class 4-A state title last year. 

He's a consensus four-star prospect. Rivals ranks him 30th nationally, Scout ranks him 42nd and the 247Sports Composite ranks him 36th.

McCaffery will presumably join his older brother, Connor, on the Hawkeyes. Connor McCaffery is a 6-foot-5 freshman point guard for Iowa, but is redshirting this season as he concentrates on playing baseball.

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The Hawkeyes also have the Rivals No. 40 national prospect in the Class of 2018, shooting guard Joe Wieskamp of Muscatine, committed. Wieskamp can sign in November.

Patrick McCaffery is the first commit for Iowa's 2019 class. The Hawkeyes have two more open slots.

Matthew Bain covers preps, recruiting and the Hawkeyes for the Iowa City Press-Citizen, The Des Moines Register and HawkCentral. Contact him at mbain@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter at @MatthewBain_.