RECRUITING

Cedar Falls' AJ Green commits to Northern Iowa

Dargan Southard Cody Goodwin
The Des Moines Register

The sharpshooter from Cedar Falls is staying in Cedar Falls.

AJ Green, a rising senior at Cedar Falls High School, committed to Northern Iowa Friday. He becomes the Panthers' first 2018 commitment.

Green, a 6-foot-3, 160-pound point guard, chose UNI over Iowa State, Nebraska, Minnesota and Virginia, among other schools. His father, Kyle Green, is an assistant with the Panthers under head coach Ben Jacobson. 

Cedar Falls and Iowa Barnstormers guard AJ Green committed to Northern Iowa Friday, giving the Panthers a top-100 2018 recruit.

"First off, he’s just so self-driven," Cedar Falls coach Ryan Schultz said. "He’s the hardest worker I’ve seen, and I’ve been coaching for about 20 years now. Everything’s at game speed. Everything’s done the right way. He’s in the gym every day. He’s in the weight room every day. So I think it’s that work ethic — but then it’s that mindest, his confidence, his ability to lead.

"All the intangibles are there. Everybody knows he can shoot it and can score in a lot of different ways. But he’s one of those rare ones who brings all those other intangibles to the table." 

MORE GREEN: Inside top-100 guard AJ Green's unique recruiting process

Tabbed as a four-star recruit by Rivals, Green was a consensus top-100 player in the 2018 class. He averaged 21.5 points per game during the 2016-17 season with Cedar Falls, shooting 47.4 percent from the floor and 43.4 percent from three, guiding the Tigers to a 16-8 overall record.

"You can already kind of feel some of the excitement around (Cedar Falls)," Schultz said. "I talked to a few people since he announced, and you can just kind of feel it. A lot of people are excited that he’s staying home.

"Everybody knows it’s a big recruit for UNI, and it’ll be fun for community members who have seen him up, who have seen him since he was a ball boy at UNI, to getting brought up early within our system at Cedar Falls and now to play for the hometown team. It’s going to be a lot of fun and excitement over the next few years."

Dargan Southard covers preps, recruiting, Iowa and UNI athletics for the Iowa City Press-Citizen, The Des Moines Register and HawkCentral.com. Email him at msouthard@gannett.com or follow him on Twitter at @Dargan_Southard.