Knar connects with Northern Iowa

Advanced placement calculus and psychology class seemed a little less strenuous on Monday.

Friends also seemed friendlier, and pickup basketball games after school seemed even more fun than usual.

In Robert Knar’s world, the birds were probably chirping louder and more in unison, too.

It’s funny how one’s outlook on everything seems a bit more breezy, rosy and bright when stress is taken out of the equation.

“I feel like a 10-pound weight has been lifted off of my shoulders,” said Knar, a junior with a 4.0 grade point average at Mundelein who also happens to be one of the best point guards in the northern suburbs and the eighth most prolific scorer in Lake County history with more than 1,800 career points.

“School went so smooth today,” Knar said. “I had no worries in my AP classes. My friends were coming up to me all happy and excited and, at open gym, I felt like I was playing carefree and a lot lighter.

“I’m definitely stress-free now.”

On Sunday, less than 24 hours earlier, Knar decided to verbally commit to play college basketball at Northern Iowa, starting with the 2013-14 season. It was a life-changing moment for him that tied up so many issues into a neat little bow.

And Knar, weary of recruiting and desperate to play basketball simply for fun again, needed neat.

He turned down scholarship offers from Bucknell, Toledo, Albany, Santa Clara and Central Michigan, and even took himself out of the admissions process at Stanford, where the coaches there were showing high interest in him, because he was eager to say yes to a program that was beyond anxious to hear it. And, besides that, Knar wanted to say goodbye to the recruiting process. For good.

“I’m so happy for Robert, because he just wanted to go to a place where he fit and he’s getting that,” said Dick Knar, the head coach at Mundelein and Robert’s dad. “I also think he didn’t really care for the whole recruiting process and he was ready to be done with the whole thing. The process had gotten long for him.”

Knar first started getting college scholarship offers, including the one from Northern Iowa, late last summer after a strong showing at the AAU National Tournament that was held at Disney World in Florida. His Rising Stars 16-and-under team finished sixth in the country there and he was scoring points, pulling down rebounds and defending like crazy. He gained a lot of fans among college coaches.

“After that, everything (letters and contacts from college coaches) just started pouring in,” said Knar, who only upped his stock by averaging 22 points, 7.4 rebounds, 6.1 assists and 2.6 steals per game for the Mustangs this past season. “My dad said it would be fun at first but that it would probably get old after a while, and he was right.

“The last eight months have felt like eight years.”

Knar said he grew weary of the phone calls and the waiting and the deliberating and the entire recruiting game in general. He says that he was planning on making a verbal commitment by the end of the school year but that he decided on the drive home from an AAU Tournament in St. Louis over the weekend that he didn’t want to wait even that much longer.

“I didn’t want this to drag on anymore,” Knar said. “I think I was kind of waiting to see what would happen with Stanford. Was I going to get in? And then what would happen after that? Would they offer?

“But as we were coming home, I thought a lot about it and I think I just realized that I had subconsciously decided on Northern Iowa a long time ago, and that I had truly wanted to go there all along.”

Knar got his first taste of Northern Iowa last summer at its team camp. His dad took the Mustangs there for a few days in June to compete against other high school teams. Knar put together some big games and the Northern Iowa coaches were hooked.

And they let Knar know it, showing up at more than 30 games since then to not only evaluate Knar but to also let him know of their unmistakable interest.

“The coaches at Northern Iowa did such a great job with the recruiting, I just can’t thank them enough,” Knar said. “They showed from the very beginning that they had a lot of interest in me and they stuck with me. I think everyone wants to go somewhere they feel really wanted and that’s the way they made me feel.

“Maybe the academics aren’t the same at Northern Iowa as they are at Stanford. And Northern Iowa is a mid-major and Stanford is a high major. But I know I chose the right place for me. I feel like Northern Iowa has a family atmosphere that will not only help me grow as a student and as a basketball player, but also as a young man.

“And the comfort level I have with Northern Iowa is far superior to anything I felt with Stanford or some of the other schools I was looking at. It’s just a great fit for me. I have a great feeling about it.”

Ditto for leaving the recruiting process behind. Knar feels really great about that. He turns 18 on Thursday and says he’ll be able to really enjoy the celebration.

“I’ve been having fun all through school with my friends and definitely with basketball,” Knar said. “But now that I’ve got this behind me, I’m going to be able to enjoy things even more.”