Interesting read 17 yrs later: Daily story on El-Amin recruitment, Clem blamed media

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BleedGopher

BleedGopher

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Hat-tip to the STrib's Howard Sinker who had a link to this 1996 Minnesota Daily/El-Amin story in his Quentin Snider story.

Per the Daily story:

Last week, El-Amin retracted his verbal commitment. He issued a statement saying he decided to "explore other options concerning [his] collegiate career." Considering the overall health of the Gophers' program, it's hard to blame him.

But Haskins, to no one's surprise, gave credit to his news-gathering friends. "You can blame this one on the media," Haskins said. "I can't blame him (El-Amin) after all the negative publicity recently on all the talk shows and newspapers."

What? Sorry, Clem, but maybe El-Amin's decision had more to do with the Gophers' sloppy performance the first half of the season -- an opinion not limited to reporters.

El-Amin's signing with the Gophers is hit-or-miss, and will probably stay that way until the early signing period next November. Chances are good, sources say, that he'll still play for Minnesota, but nobody -- except for maybe the El-Amin family -- knows for sure what he's going to do. My advice to Khalid: Minnesota fans would love to have you, but you can do better.

Problem is, Clem can't.

http://www.mndaily.com/1996/02/21/among-el-amins-suitors-u-has-tough-company

Go Gophers!!
 

Funny, we just had a former coach this year say how hard it is to recruit at Minnesota. Of course, that was not meant to echo Clem's comments. Yet the new coach seems to be opening doors never seen at Minnesota. It's refreshing to hear a coach that hasn't yet say the word "can't" and who wants to blame others for lack of effort on their own part...
 


Reading the article, one might think the Gophers finished pretty low. Their conference mark was 10-6 which gave them the same record as 4th place Michigan. (Michigan won the only game between the two.) Penn State was 12-6, tied with Indiana for best record. A quirk in the schedule due to a tourney led to Nebraska being the opponent in the 3rd and 6th games of the season.
http://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/schools/minnesota/1996-schedule.html
 

The media in this town treats the Gophers like a pro team. The negative vibe really can hurt a college team and keep them down. Because unlike pro teams with draft helping the poorest teams in college the recruiting process hurts the teams trying to build. In the NBA the bad teams get the best college players. In college the Dukes and Kentuckys get the best high school players. The lazy reporters in this market just have their file Gopher rip job article ready to go and post it when the see a chance to kick the Gophers when there struggling. It's a vicious cycle that Kill and Pitino will hopefully end.
 


fan of Ray Williams said:
Reading the article, one might think the Gophers finished pretty low. Their conference mark was 10-6 which gave them the same record as 4th place Michigan. (Michigan won the only game between the two.) Penn State was 12-6, tied with Indiana for best record. A quirk in the schedule due to a tourney led to Nebraska being the opponent in the 3rd and 6th games of the season.
http://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/schools/minnesota/1996-schedule.html
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Actually, Purdue ran away with the Big Ten title (3rd in a row) that year at 15-3 and got a #1 seed in the NCAA Tourney only to flame out in the 2nd round. I'm confused about the vacated wins on this website because Purdue still claims the '96 Big Ten Championship (banners, trophies, etc.). I was in school there at the time and I know there were some transgressions involving Asst. Coach Frank Kendrick and a player name Luther Clay, but I'm not sure of the official stance from Purdue or the NCAA. It's been 17 years already so I've almost forgotten about it.
 

Yep good old Russ. First he decided to beat the snot out of El-Amin, all but assuring El-Amin would have nothing to do with the Gophers. Then he decided to be a terrible student and get caught. His actions helped to destroy our program in multiple ways, and he gave the University of Connecticut its first title.

Now, I certainly blame Haskins for the academic scandal, but all you can do is laugh to see how destructive one player can be to a program.
 

How often do you think Clem thinks, what if we had never recruited that guy?
 

Gopherguy0723 said:
Now, I certainly blame Haskins for the academic scandal, but all you can do is laugh to see how destructive one player can be to a program.
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Agreed. Clem was the Great Deceptor in the giant mess, there's no debating that, but every time I hear the name Archambault it's hard not to think about his "connection" to El-Amin and Jan Gangelhoff, and what it led to for the Gopher program. Does anyone know what he's doing nowadays?
 



MinnesotaBoiler99 said:
Actually, Purdue ran away with the Big Ten title (3rd in a row) that year at 15-3 and got a #1 seed in the NCAA Tourney only to flame out in the 2nd round. I'm confused about the vacated wins on this website because Purdue still claims the '96 Big Ten Championship (banners, trophies, etc.). I was in school there at the time and I know there were some transgressions involving Asst. Coach Frank Kendrick and a player name Luther Clay, but I'm not sure of the official stance from Purdue or the NCAA. It's been 17 years already so I've almost forgotten about it.
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Yeah Boiler, my eyes took me down to where the Gophers sat in the standings and I neglected to note the 15-3 by the Boilermakers. My tunnel vision was locked on the 10-8.
 

Gopherguy0723 said:
Yep good old Russ. First he decided to beat the snot out of El-Amin, all but assuring El-Amin would have nothing to do with the Gophers. Then he decided to be a terrible student and get caught. His actions helped to destroy our program in multiple ways, and he gave the University of Connecticut its first title.

Now, I certainly blame Haskins for the academic scandal, but all you can do is laugh to see how destructive one player can be to a program.
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When did Russ beat up El-Amin? I've never heard this story before. Grew up hating Archambault just because he was tough to beat when Sartell came to town.
 

El-Amin didn't go to UConn because of the fight with Russ, he went to UConn because he got paid. A lot. This has been repeated many times by people in the know. And he wasn't the first or the last in Calhoun's program to get paid.

Remember the context. El-Amin ended up making his college commitment in April 1997, mere weeks after the Gophers went to the Final Four. So the quality of the program, media treatment, etc. had nothing to do with it.

Also note that this article was from the MN Daily... can you imagine the student reporter from the school newspaper at Kentucky, Indiana, Duke, or (frankly) any other school with big time aspirations in bb saying in print that a recruit "can do better"? Wow, just wow. That kid (the writer) would get the snot beat out of him at many schools.
 




sonnygarcia said:
Khalid was likely never coming to MN after the fight with Russ,
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Not true. El-Amin's recruitment was a long running soap opera with many twists and turns. The fight with Russ was just one of many blips.

From what I know, the El-Amin recruitment and result exhibited all that's wrong with college basketball.
 


Tom Linnemann recently told a story on ESPN 1500 about how he was terrified of Archambault after watching Russ go behind the counter of the St. Cloud Taco Bell and steal maybe $10 worth of tacos after one of the state all-star functions. Does anyone cheat if Russ doesn't cheat? Maybe a taco bell employee chases him down and he never comes to the U. I'm imagining multiple final fours/titles without Russ around.
 

AO54 said:
When did Russ beat up El-Amin? I've never heard this story before. Grew up hating Archambault just because he was tough to beat when Sartell came to town.
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I can't remember the circumstances on why El-Amin was at the gym (whether it was an official visit, unofficial, etc.). However, at the gym El-Amin and Archambault got into it. I don't remember how it started, but I believe El-Amin ran his mouth and acted tough, while Archambault was a hot head and a bad person. Well, El-Amin got more than he could handle because Archambault either didn't back down or didn't take kindly to what El-Amin had to say. They got in a fight and Archambault beat the heck out of him. Clem was extremely mad.

I don't know if that is the final reason why El-Amin didn't come here, but I guarantee it was a factor.
 


Hard to believe El-Amin ran his mouth. lol I don't blame him for going to U Conn if he got paid. And from the stories about him driving fancy cars and such there seem to indicate that was the case. I always felt Kahlid was a Minnesota kid who really felt some loyality to the U. Where today's players especially Tyus could care less about his homestate. The combination of UConn giving him things and the punk beating the heck out of him along with Clem maybe letting him know he was the boss in no uncertain terms probably all together lead him to leave. .
 

Who freaking knows if he was paid or not. He committed to the U when he was pretty early in his career. The most significant thing that happened from what I remember is that it came out that he was married when he was 16 years old. There was a lot of negative pub because of that, and I don't blame him for wanting to get out. Besides the fact that most people in the know knew the Clem was allowing his players to cheat, etc. I don't blame him for going elsewhere, whether he was paid or not.

On a related note, as someone who was in high school during this time, and played against El-Amin a couple of times in high school, this was a seriously weird situation all around. I remember thinking when it came out that he was married, "who the H would get married at 16? Dude I just learned how to drive".
 

AO54 said:
Tom Linnemann recently told a story on ESPN 1500 about how he was terrified of Archambault after watching Russ go behind the counter of the St. Cloud Taco Bell and steal maybe $10 worth of tacos after one of the state all-star functions. Does anyone cheat if Russ doesn't cheat? Maybe a taco bell employee chases him down and he never comes to the U. I'm imagining multiple final fours/titles without Russ around.
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Um, ya. The guy never should have been allowed here, but pretty silly to blame the whole Clem mess on him. He was a symptom a hell of a lot more than a cause.
 

Mulligan said:
Um, ya. The guy never should have been allowed here, but pretty silly to blame the whole Clem mess on him. He was a symptom a hell of a lot more than a cause.
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apparently, you haven't seen the butterfly effect. Russ is well deserving of the "cause" title. Maybe others were as well, but he's no innocent symptom.
 

Fascinating thread. Good hearsay/information. I'm not doubting alot/all of it's true.
 

AO54 said:
apparently, you haven't seen the butterfly effect. Russ is well deserving of the "cause" title. Maybe others were as well, but he's no innocent symptom.
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Now I understand. Russ, because he's out partying and didn't come to the U to sit in class, neglects to write a paper. So he thinks, "I'll go over to the tutoring office and ask that nice lady, Jan what the hell's her name, to help me out." Jan has never done this before, but reluctantly agrees. The paper gets a good grade much to her satisfaction, and Jan goes to Clem and says, "Mr. Haskins, I know you're very much against cheating in any form, but some of these young lads you've brought in might be good at playing buckets, but they ain't exactly scholars. I think I can help them out a bit. Courtney has this paper due and ... " Before you know it, Jan is churning out papers, Clem sees that cheating is okay if it helps a fine young man obtain a degree, but the NCAA thinks it's wrong; and I watched and rooted for a team that never existed.

All this chaos because Butterfly Russ neglected to go to class.
 

Jan was boning one of clem's assistant that's why the whole scandal went down than when the coach called it off she went to the pioneer press. So said one of my professors
 

Sparlimb said:
Funny, we just had a former coach this year say how hard it is to recruit at Minnesota. Of course, that was not meant to echo Clem's comments. Yet the new coach seems to be opening doors never seen at Minnesota. It's refreshing to hear a coach that hasn't yet say the word "can't" and who wants to blame others for lack of effort on their own part...
Click to expand...

What doors does Pitino seem to be opening that we have never seen at Minnesota?????
 

bemidjigopher said:
Jan was boning one of clem's assistant that's why the whole scandal went down than when the coach called it off she went to the pioneer press. So said one of my professors
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I read something similar a little while back, something about someone associated with the program, probably an assistant, rejecting her advances or something and she leaked the scandal for revenge.
 

Parski1 said:
What doors does Pitino seem to be opening that we have never seen at Minnesota?????
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What is your deal? You're the one of the biggest homers for Gopher football and Jerry Kill, but anything positive directed towards Richard Pitino you make a response like this.
 

WanderingGopher said:
Not true. El-Amin's recruitment was a long running soap opera with many twists and turns. The fight with Russ was just one of many blips.

From what I know, the El-Amin recruitment and result exhibited all that's wrong with college basketball.
Click to expand...

That fight, not really a fight but a beating, was more than a BLIP..
 

Buttcheeks McGaffigan said:
What is your deal? You're the one of the biggest homers for Gopher football and Jerry Kill, but anything positive directed towards Richard Pitino you make a response like this.
Click to expand...


I thought it was a fair question. Perhaps it would have been a better question coming from someone else....but his question isn't too far off base.
 

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