Per U of MN: Ralph Sampson III Returning for Senior Season

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GopherLady

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Thanks to J.B. Bauer for breaking this story this morning - now it's official per U of MN press release:

Minnesota junior forward Ralph Sampson III has announced that he has withdrawn his name from consideration for the 2011 NBA Draft and will remain at the University of Minnesota for his senior campaign.



“We want to welcome Ralph Sampson III back to the Golden Gopher basketball program,” said Golden Gopher Head Coach Tubby Smith. “One thing the NCAA allows players to do is test the draft waters and having done that and also by consulting with his family he came to the decision to return to Minnesota. He is coming off a good junior season and I think having gone through the NBA workouts will only help him as we head into next season.”



Sampson III will enter his senior campaign with career averages of 8.2 points, 5.2 rebounds and 1.7 blocks per game in 97 career games (87 starts). He is 202 points shy of becoming the 37th player in Minnesota history to amass 1,000 career points. In doing so, he will also become one of 18 players to finish a career with at least 1,000 points and 500 rebounds and one of five players to finish with at least 1,000 points, 500 rebounds and 150 blocks.



He is currently fourth on the Gophers all-time blocks list with 166, 25 behind his former teammate Damian Johnson for third all-time and is coming off a junior season that saw him average a career-high 10.2 ppg while blocking 63 shots, the eighth-most in a single season at Minnesota.



Sampson III, and fellow senior to be Trevor Mbakwe, will enter the 2011-12 season as the only seniors on the roster. Minnesota is adding freshman Joe Coleman and Andre Hollins and junior college transfers Andre Ingram and Julian Welch to a roster that is young but experienced. True freshmen Maverick Ahanmisi (29 games played, five starts), Chip Armelin (31 games played) and Austin Hollins (31 games played, five starts) played key roles for the Gophers last season.



Minnesota’s roster will also include sophomore Rodney Williams (63 career games, 32 starts), freshman Maurice Walker, who missed all but 12 games last season due to a knee injury, and Elliott Eliason, Chris Halvorsen and Oto Osenieks. Eliason, Halvorsen and Osenieks redshirted last season.





-UM-
 


Lady

GL,

You failed to mention Mo's medical redhirt.

:confused:
 




Order has been restored to the world. RSIII has the skills, ability and size to play in the NBA. He needs some drive and intensity if he wants to make it, though.
 


It's nice to be able to pencil in a starting power forward who has a chance to get you a double x2 every game, alongside a senior 6-11 center who has started nearly every game of his college carrier...not always a ball of fire, but experienced and with a chance to get better. (Wow, that was a really long sentence) Rodney needs to step it up and oh yeah...we will only go as far as our guards take us, a cliche but with this team, it will be very true.
 

"Per U of MN: Ralph Sampson III Returning for Senior Season"

Thank you GL. Now I will stop being cranky, enjoy a beer, and relax. Remember, 1st beer (maybe more) is on me. :)
 



Great news! This bumps the Gophs from a 7th or 8th place B10 team up to possibly a 6th or 7th place team.
 

centerofmn said:
Order has been restored to the world. RSIII has the skills, ability and size to play in the NBA. He needs some drive and intensity if he wants to make it, though.
Click to expand...

Sadly, that's not something that generally improves from year to year.

Maybe if he just slams a 5-hour energy every time he checks into the game he'll be ok.
 


I apologize if that has been covered in one of the other Sampson III threads, but how has Ralph stayed in good academic standing? We know he's been training in Chicago and I don't believe he was on campus during finals.
 




EG#9 said:
I apologize if that has been covered in one of the other Sampson III threads, but how has Ralph stayed in good academic standing? We know he's been training in Chicago and I don't believe he was on campus during finals.
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LOL!!! The same way Mbakwe somehow finished his classes down in Miami even though he skipped town a month before they ended because he did not assault that woman.
 

GopherLady said:
Minnesota junior forward Ralph Sampson III has announced that he has withdrawn his name from consideration for the 2011 NBA Draft and will remain at the University of Minnesota for his senior campaign.
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I really don't believe anything posted on GopherHole anymore ... can you please supply the link to the press release? (if it does really exist, that is)
 

EG#9 said:
I apologize if that has been covered in one of the other Sampson III threads, but how has Ralph stayed in good academic standing? We know he's been training in Chicago and I don't believe he was on campus during finals.
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Finals just started today (Monday), so...
 


I think it's pretty difficult to predict where we'll finish. I think the Big Ten will be relatively wide open this year.
 

Saber said:
Sadly, that's not something that generally improves from year to year.

Maybe if he just slams a 5-hour energy every time he checks into the game he'll be ok.
Click to expand...

He needs a two-liter bottle.
 


Huh?

centerofmn said:
RSIII has the skills, ability and size to play in the NBA.
Click to expand...

26 Teams at the Nets NBA Draft Combine disagreed.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

↓ ↓ ↓ YOU CAN'T POSSIBLY BE THAT STUPID ↓ ↓ ↓
 



From GophersBBGuy Myron P. Medcalf Twitter:

I have the numbers from Sunday's predraft camp in Jersey. Sampson held his own statistically. Again, I wasn't there. But here are the #s

In 5-on-5, Sampson went 4 for 9 from the field, grabbed six rebounds (four offensive), three steals, two blocks and a turnover, 8 points

In drills, he went 10 for 16 from the field and 3 of 4 from the charity stripe. In comparison, OSU's Jon Diebler was 10 for 14, 0 for 3 FT.

I got the numbers from someone who attended the camp Sunday.

Again, numbers don't tell the whole story but they suggest that Sampson was respectable. He had one of the better all-around performances.
 

NCAAGophers said:
From GophersBBGuy Myron P. Medcalf Twitter:

I have the numbers from Sunday's predraft camp in Jersey. Sampson held his own statistically. Again, I wasn't there. But here are the #s

In 5-on-5, Sampson went 4 for 9 from the field, grabbed six rebounds (four offensive), three steals, two blocks and a turnover, 8 points

In drills, he went 10 for 16 from the field and 3 of 4 from the charity stripe. In comparison, OSU's Jon Diebler was 10 for 14, 0 for 3 FT.

I got the numbers from someone who attended the camp Sunday.

Again, numbers don't tell the whole story but they suggest that Sampson was respectable. He had one of the better all-around performances.
Click to expand...


Who cares about statistics?! NurumbiCongo has talked to many NBA scouts and has personally talked to representatives from 26 NBA teams who said that Ralph Sampson III is not ready for the NBA!
 

I guess those scouts didn't read Moreon's article last year-

For the first time in Tubby Smith's tenure at Minnesota, the Gophers might have a few players who will consider their pro options before graduation.

Ralph Sampson III has the height, the skill set and pedigree to play at the next level. We're all waiting, however, for him to put it all together and add a little aggressiveness to his game so he can fulfill his potential. A big year by Sampson will certainly get the scouts talking even more than they are now. Plus, consider guys like Hassan Whiteside, Jerome Jordan and even, Cole Aldrich. The year before they hit the NBA radar, few knew much about them. It doesn't take much for a big man to raise his draft stock.

If Devoe Joseph adds some muscle to his frame and builds on his All-Tournament worthy performance in March's Big Ten tournament, he'll have a shot at the next level. Down the stretch, Joseph ran the team. I think he's a point at the next level, if he gets there. And I think the Gophers will play him at point guard next season, too. He needs to be consistent. But he has raw skills that were on display during that magical run in the Big Ten tourney. He's not there yet, but he could be the next Big Ten guard to land on the NBA map.

Rodney Williams should be a different player next season. During a short stretch his freshman year, he lived up to the premature hype about his pro potential. He was a top-5 pick on nbadraft.net's 2011 mock draft at the start of the season. But he struggled throughout the year and didn't play much during the Big Ten season. He should've redshirted. But when he was on the floor, he pulled off some above-the-rim maneuvers that are hard to describe. He needs to prove that he can handle the ball, hit a 15-foot jump shot and defend on the perimeter. But he has all the makings of a poor man's Wesley Johnson. If he cracks the starting rotation, a possibility with Minnesota's lack of depth at small forward, and plays well during the Big Ten season, Williams will move up on a lot of real NBA draft boards.

Different people say different things about Trevor Mbakwe. A few days after he signed with the Gophers in 2009, he told me that he'd already talked to Tubby Smith about going pro after his junior season. Legal issues prevented him from playing last year and they might keep him off the floor next season, too, depending on the outcome of his trial in June. One person close to the program told me that he doesn't think Mbakwe will start for the team. Others think he'll lead the Gophers to big victories over their toughest opponents. The 6-8, 240-pound forward certainly has an NBA frame. If he showcases pro-level skills next year, he'll get NBA looks, too.
______________________________

Darren Wolfson
Talked w/ someone who was at the draft workout in NJ. RSIII's play makes today's news understandable... although he said all the bigs stunk.

Myron Pee-
Ralph Sampson AAU coach: "Ralph's staying in the draft.... He feels like it's his time."

Myron Pee-
@TheHoopsReport how did ralph sampson look?

TheHoopsReport (Ryan Feldman)
I don't have today's video, but nobody there said much about him. RT @GophersBBGuy how did ralph sampson look?

________________

Your right, Ralph didn't come back because the NBA wasn't interested, he just wants to help the team he is passionate about for one more season.
 


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