UPDATED 6/21: Wally Ellenson qualifies for Junior World T&F Championships in Columbia

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UPDATED 6/21: Wally Ellenson qualifies for Junior World T&F Championships in Columbia

MN Daily: High jump ‘fuels’ basketball player
Wally Ellenson is thriving on the track after battling injuries on the court.

“I had some moments, up and down, riding the bench a lot in basketball this season,” said Ellenson, who is finishing up his last week of basketball practice before summer. “Track has fueled me as my sport.”

“My dreams are to do both sports. want to make the Olympics,” Ellenson said. “Hard thing is, you have to have two different body types in each to compete at a high level like that. Something might have to give.”

http://www.mndaily.com/sports/athle...-player?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

Go Gophers!!
 

Huh, I hope that doesn't mean he is thinking about dropping basketball. I would like to see him have a chance to develop. I don't think it is a bad thing for a college player to ride the pine for a year or two before earning their place on the court.
 

When people blasted his decision to red-shirt and Tubby allowing it... I speculated he might want to prep. for the 2016 Olympics. There is nothing wrong with that, good for him.

However he does have to be committed to playing basketball if that is where his scolly is coming from, he's right, something might have to give.
 

HOOP DREAMS said:
When people blasted his decision to red-shirt and Tubby allowing it... I speculated he might want to prep. for the 2016 Olympics. There is nothing wrong with that, good for him.

However he does have to be committed to playing basketball if that is where his scolly is coming from, he's right, something might have to give.
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I'd imagine he'll be able to get a track scholly pretty easily. Dude's incredible at the high jump
 

HOOP DREAMS said:
However he does have to be committed to playing basketball if that is where his scolly is coming from, he's right, something might have to give.
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You can't teach athletic ability, and he has it. He has to work on his shot, and dribbling, but that has to come with actual playing time. Look at Oto, Tubby said he was the best shooter we had, but the games didn't show it.

However, him playing two sports is better than him only playing one. We recruited him knowing his intention was to play both sports, and we still gave him the scholarship. If this hurts the basketball program in the long run, we can not place the blame on him. Also, we recruited him for his 6-10 top25 recruit brother for the 2015 class. I assume that Wally might help us get his brother.

It could limit his reaching his full ability i.e. Bo Jackson. Not comparing him to Bo at all, just first two sport athlete that came to mind.
 




KSBGopher said:
I'd imagine he'll be able to get a track scholly pretty easily. Dude's incredible at the high jump
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For men’s programs a fully funded NCAA D1 track team will have 12.6 scholarships, The vast majority of track scholarships are given as partial scholarships.

Because jumpers end up being specialists in their event, they can’t contribute to as many events in high-level track meets. While having strong jumpers is still important to coaches, they won’t often earn much scholarship money. When you earn the marks of other college-level jumpers, you know that coaches may express interest in you, but you will need to be proactive and contact them first.
 

Thugunin said:
However, him playing two sports is better than him only playing one. We recruited him knowing his intention was to play both sports, and we still gave him the scholarship.
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Yes, but your missing the point. Wally is hinting at focusing on one sport at some point and his number one sport is not basketball. I'm sure he will play basketball the 13-14 season, but will he want to play the 14-15 season? He may need that time to focus on his track body if he wants to make a serious run at the Olympics.

More power to him, he'll make the right decision for him.
 



Thugunin said:
You can't teach athletic ability, and he has it. He has to work on his shot, and dribbling, but that has to come with actual playing time. Look at Oto, Tubby said he was the best shooter we had, but the games didn't show it.

However, him playing two sports is better than him only playing one. We recruited him knowing his intention was to play both sports, and we still gave him the scholarship. If this hurts the basketball program in the long run, we can not place the blame on him. Also, we recruited him for his 6-10 top25 recruit brother for the 2015 class. I assume that Wally might help us get his brother.

It could limit his reaching his full ability i.e. Bo Jackson. Not comparing him to Bo at all, just first two sport athlete that came to mind.
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We didn't recruit him because of his brother. The fact that Henry is so good is just a bonus. Wally has plenty of potential and will fit Pitino's system well. Henry has been a good prospect for a while, but he was nowhere near the player he is now back when we offered Wally.
 


HOOP DREAMS said:
Yes, but your missing the point. Wally is hinting at focusing on one sport at some point and his number one sport is not basketball. I'm sure he will play basketball the 13-14 season, but will he want to play the 14-15 season? He may need that time to focus on his track body if he wants to make a serious run at the Olympics.

More power to him, he'll make the right decision for him.
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It'll suck if he ends up quitting basketball at some point, but if he has a shot at the Olympics you can't blame the guy. Hopefully he's able to play basketball 4 years and still have a chance at the Olympics.
 

GophersOnTheRise said:
We didn't recruit him because of his brother. The fact that Henry is so good is just a bonus. Wally has plenty of potential and will fit Pitino's system well. Henry has been a good prospect for a while, but he was nowhere near the player he is now back when we offered Wally.
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I player of Henry's caliber can easily be projected that high as 7th grader. I assume that was Henry's age that we started recruiting Wally.
 



Thugunin said:
I player of Henry's caliber can easily be projected that high as 7th grader. I assume that was Henry's age that we started recruiting Wally.
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Haha you can't just generalize things like that. Every player develops at a different rate. Henry was a 6'7" PF who wasn't as strong nor as skilled as he is now. He was already much bigger than his older brother. What if he hadn't grown? You think a 6'7" PF who isn't an elite athlete is going to be a 5-star? There was no way of knowing exactly how much he would grow or how much he would improve. If you think you know who the top prospects are going to be when they're in 7th grade you are clueless.
 

GophersOnTheRise said:
There was no way of knowing exactly how much he would grow or how much he would improve. If you think you know who the top prospects are going to be when they're in 7th grade you are clueless.
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What about Tyus???? and he younger brother Tre?? I know they aren't big men, but they were both projected top prospects! All the AAU programs and basketball camps allow for younger ages to be scouted. It does create to much hype for people who don't pan out, but a good portion do pan out to become a top prospect. (I am not saying they pan out in the college or NBA though.)
 




I've seen enough from the other video, I'm avoiding the All Things Tre Jones Thread for at least two, three years.
 

MadtownGopher said:
We already have an 'All Things Tre Jones Thread' FYI
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I wasn't trying to make this an all Tre thread, but someone said you can't project talent in 7th grade. But, obviously you can with elite talent.
Case in point Tyus, and soon to be Tre.
 

Thugunin said:
What about Tyus???? and he younger brother Tre?? I know they aren't big men, but they were both projected top prospects! All the AAU programs and basketball camps allow for younger ages to be scouted. It does create to much hype for people who don't pan out, but a good portion do pan out to become a top prospect. (I am not saying they pan out in the college or NBA though.)
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You're a little confused. Of course you can make projections, but those projections are very fluid and change a LOT each year. If the best scout in the world made a top 10 list of the best 7th graders and then updated it when they were seniors, most years there would be either 1 or 0 players that remained top 10. Can you identify who is good at that time and make projections based on that? Sure, but it is rarely going to be accurate. Finding examples of a couple guys who do remain top 10 from 7th grade all the way to senior year does not prove that wrong. It is literally impossible to know exactly how someone is going to develop physically and how much they're to improve their skill from that young, therefore it is impossible to project top talent from that young with any consistency. It isn't difficult. It's impossible. Doesn't matter who you are.

Back to the original point, Henry was not a can't miss prospect when he was in middle school and was not yet worth a Gopher offer. It was not easy nor possible to predict at that time that he would be this big and this good, therefore it wouldn't have made sense to offer Wally because of him.
 

Thugunin said:
I wasn't trying to make this an all Tre thread, but someone said you can't project talent in 7th grade. But, obviously you can with elite talent.
Case in point Tyus, and soon to be Tre.
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Not exactly what I meant. I never saw Wiggins in 7th grade, but I did see him in 8th grade and he was clearly big time. Guys like him who already have an NBA body and athleticism at that age are extremely rare though. And even though he was incredibly impressive and deserving of being rated #1 at that time, no one knew how much he would improve or how much other kids his age would improve, so no one knew exactly where he would be ranked by the time he was a senior, although it seemed logical to expect it to be high. My whole point though was to say this makes no sense:

"I player of Henry's caliber can easily be projected that high as 7th grader. "

You're making it sound like you can know all the top 25 soon-to-be juniors ahead of time when they were 7th graders. That would be an insane thing to think. Watching 7th graders and knowing who will be top 25 in several years is not "easy" like you said it is. Flat out doesn't make sense.
 

Wally is hinting at focusing on one sport at some point and his number one sport is not basketball. I'm sure he will play basketball the 13-14 season, but will he want to play the 14-15 season? He may need that time to focus on his track body if he wants to make a serious run at the Olympics.

More power to him, he'll make the right decision for him.[/QUOTE]


Wally will make a great contribution to Coach Pitino's game and hopefully develop both his basketball and track skills in the next years. He will make Minnesota proud of a fine young man and athlete.
 


Wally is a talented high jumper and a talented basketball player. Wally earned his basketball scholarship to the U. of M. off his own merit. His athleticism will fit very well in Coach Pitino's system. Coach Pitino was very complimentary about Wally in a recent radio interview. I suspect that Wally realizes (like a lot of young athletes do today) that it is challenging to focus on multiple sports at the college level. Wally went through multiple medical issues during his freshman year at the U. I think he will be a strong contributor in basketball this season. And his brother Henry is also a very talented basketball player with a totally different skill set. Both of the Ellenson's love to play fast paced basketball so both would fit very well in the Pitino system.
 

CDH27 said:
Wally is a talented high jumper and a talented basketball player. Wally earned his basketball scholarship to the U. of M. off his own merit. His athleticism will fit very well in Coach Pitino's system. Coach Pitino was very complimentary about Wally in a recent radio interview. I suspect that Wally realizes (like a lot of young athletes do today) that it is challenging to focus on multiple sports at the college level. Wally went through multiple medical issues during his freshman year at the U. I think he will be a strong contributor in basketball this season. And his brother Henry is also a very talented basketball player with a totally different skill set. Both of the Ellenson's love to play fast paced basketball so both would fit very well in the Pitino system.
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I would guess 80% of the kids will say they would like to play in a fast paced program. Very few would say Wisconsin or Northwestern. Far fewer prosper where defense becomes your offense. There is a reason why every team doesn't run.
 

underground629 said:
What post are you referring to exactly? I didn't see anything extreme or way off base.
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I think when someone said we offered Wally because of his younger brother, which doesn't make sense since Henry wasn't a can't-miss recruit at the time. He's come a long way since then.
 

Wow. I don't know how I missed that, haha. Maybe I wished I hadn't read such an illogical statement.

GophersOnTheRise said:
I think when someone said we offered Wally because of his younger brother, which doesn't make sense since Henry wasn't a can't-miss recruit at the time. He's come a long way since then.
Click to expand...
 



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