KANSAS CITY, Mo. - A single, 24-point AAU performance this summer helped JeVon Lyle burst onto the recruiting radar throughout the Midwest.

The University of Northern Iowa, however, had already been aware of Lyle's basketball skills for more than a year. Perhaps that explains why Lyle, a 6-foot-1 shooting guard from Kansas City, Mo., verbally committed to the Panthers late last week.

"He went to Las Vegas, they played a team out of Indiana with a couple kids around 6-foot-8, 6-10, there were about 40 college coaches there, and (Lyle) was turning heads," noted Todd Magwire, Lyle's coach at O'Hara High School in Kansas City.

Evansville offered Lyle, a member of the Class of 2011, a scholarship. Wichita State showed interest, as did Santa Clara, among others.

But, after attending a couple offseason camps at UNI - and after playing a few pickup games in the McLeod Center with current Panthers - Lyle was won over.

"They were like role models," the 16-year-old prep junior said of the Panthers. "They were serious and working hard."

Lyle, who averaged nearly 10 points per game for an 18-9 O'Hara High School squad last year, hopes to ply his trade with similar focus in Cedar Falls in two years. Magwire is confident the guard will have no problems fitting in at UNI.

"He's an absolutely tremendous young man," said Magwire, whose O'Hara team had no fewer than four Division I prospects last season. "He's athletic and can really hit from the outside. He's got a nice, pure shot. He's a slasher and can take the ball to the hole. Really good jumping ability, too.

"UNI's very lucky. I'm very lucky - I've got him for two more years," Magwire noted, also praising Lyle's skills as a man-to-man defender.

The only knock on Lyle is the fact he has tendinitis in both knees. Yet, the guard is confident he'll be completely healthy by this winter.

By the late stages of the summer, virtually everyone in the Missouri Valley Conference wanted a piece of Lyle. Yet, coaches like assistant P.J. Hogan made UNI feel like home for the 16-year-old.

"It's just one big family, and it was so comfortable," Lyle said. "They make you feel so loved. It just feels right. The program fit me."