St. Charles North's Neari chooses Iowa

Nick Neari has come a long way in a short amount of time with basketball, and now the sport is taking him all the way to the Big Ten.

Neari, the 6-foot-3 senior point guard on St. Charles North's record-setting team this winter, decided Friday to play his college basketball at Iowa, where he will be a preferred walk-on.

That means he'll get to dress for all the games, travel on the road and get a chance to compete for minutes in a backcourt that has been decimated by transfers and graduation.

Not bad for a sport that he didn't even consider his best most of his life. The starting quarterback on the North Stars football team his junior year who split time between quarterback and wide receiver this season, Neari spent most of his time the past few summers working to play college football, not basketball.

Now after averaging 14.5 points, 4 assists and 4 rebounds for sectional finalist St. Charles North, Neari will get a chance at Iowa, which he picked over Division II Colorado State at Pueblo and several Division III schools.

After making the decision, Neari spent Friday night hoisting up 500-odd shots at St. Charles North, then Saturday night at the school's prom.

Neari was shooting Friday with Cully Payne, a close friend since sixth grade and the reason the option of going to Iowa became possible. Payne, a senior at Schaumburg, decided on Iowa this spring after earlier committing to DePaul and Alabama.

Neari's high school coach Tom Poulin said he thinks Neari can earn minutes at Iowa. Poulin said the biggest challenge for Neari is developing the quickness to stay with the caliber of point guards he'll see at that level.