It’s a world apart from Phoenix, Ariz., but Ames is the locale Cyclone guard Thomas Watkins has chosen to set the stage for the realization of his hoop dreams.

“Pursuit,” Watkins said, explaining his decision to attend Iowa State. “They [Eustachy’s staff] were pursuing me hardest, and [Iowa State] is a good school academically as well as for basketball.”

The 6-2, 220-lb. junior was an all-state performer at South Mountain High School in Phoenix his senior year, averaging 16 points, 8 assists and 6 rebounds per game.

Following high school, Watkins chose to play at nearby Mesa Community College, leading the Thunderbirds to consecutive National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) tournament appearances.

A NCJAA all-American candidate, Watkins blazed the nets with 51.5 percent shooting, while connecting on 48.2 percent of his three-point attempts.

Part of a stellar recruiting class, Watkins joins a deep guard corps, one that has head coach Larry Eustachy feeling optimistic about a position the Cyclones were thin in last season.

“I think we really improved our guard play,” Eustachy said. “We can really have some versatility with this group.”

Watkins described himself as an “outside shooting threat,” something the Cyclones lacked to a great degree last season.

“Teams played off outside shooters and double or triple-teamed inside players,” Watkins said.

The addition of Watkins and his three-point shooting proficiency should help free up All-American candidate forward Marcus Fizer and other interior players.

“Being the main focus,” Watkins said, along with the weather, was the biggest change from life in Phoenix.

With the presence of professional sports franchises like the Arizona Cardinals and the Phoenix Suns, college hoops are of secondary importance, Watkins said, despite the success of Lute Olsen’s program at Arizona.

“I don’t think Arizona and Arizona State see college basketball as such a big thing,” Watkins said.

Looking ahead to Iowa State’s Nov. 10 exhibition game with Global Sports a little more than three weeks away, Watkins is eager to contribute.

“Thomas Watkins is probably our best pure shooter,” Eustachy said. “He’ll always be the off [shooting] guard”

The primacy of his first major college basketball contest is not lost on Watkins.

“Like Coach Eustachy said, it’s gonna be the hardest game of our lives,” Watkins said. “I’ve never been in this kind of atmosphere before.”

Perhaps to alleviate feelings of homesickness, players were allowed to return home for visits prior to the beginning of practice, Watkins said.

“I burned up,” he said, referring to the stifling heat of the Arizona desert. “I’d gotten used to Iowa’s weather.”

Whatever the forecast, Thomas Watkins hopes to blister the nets in Ames and elsewhere, defying the frigid Midwestern winter and delivering Hilton-massed Cyclone fans to a bright, sun-swept March.

“I can’t wait,” he said. “I’ve never played in front of a big crowd.”