Gophers Recruiting Situation

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student

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Most high school basketball recruits want to play in the NBA eventually. The U does not have a good track record of putting players in the NBA. There is currently 1 NBA player in the NBA from Minnesota. That has to change if the U wants to start getting more 4 star and 5 star guys. Related to that is the lack of B1G stars in the NBA. No NBA all stars this year are from the Big 10. For all the talk about the Big Ten being the best conference in basketball, it does a terrible job of developing players into stars. Currently the best Big Ten player is one of Zach Randolph, Jamal Crawford, or Mike Conley.
 


student said:
Most high school basketball recruits want to play in the NBA eventually. The U does not have a good track record of putting players in the NBA.
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The U of M has put more players (41) in the NBA/ABA over the years than the substantial majority of D1 programs. Yes, there's only one now, but there aren't that many schools that have more than three or so current NBA players. Iowa State gets some pretty good players and they don't have any current players in the NBA. You get a good recruiter and some national success and good players, some of who are capable of playing in the NBA, start coming to your program. Baylor has only put 12 players in the NBA/ABA in their entire history but they five of them recruited by current coach, Scott Drew, have played in the league this year.
 




Not a 'star' quite yet and maybe never will be one, but Jared Sullinger is a pretty nice player nonetheless, a top ten power-forward in the NBA, and at 22 years old, I'd bet a pretty significant amount of money that he'll have an NBA All Star Game or three to look forward to in his future.
 


Admittedly we haven't put anyone in the NBA recently, but I think we're something like 4th in the Big Ten in NBA players all-time. Probably can't really sell that to recruits, but just thought I'd point it out.
 

As cjb pointed out, historically the U has an excellent track record of putting players in the NBA. Of course any program's record of doing so is largely irrelevant -- it's each particular coaching staff's record that's relevant. And obviously it's too soon to judge with Pitino (though he helped develop several NBA players while at Louisville and Florida).

If you're talking NBA all stars/superstars, I think the argument about certain programs producing NBA stars is completely circular. Those guys for the most part aren't developed from nothing into something in college; they were star players before they came to college, stayed a year (maybe two) then moved on. The lack of B1G NBA all stars has more to do with recruiting [very few top 10 recruits have signed with B1G schools the past 5 years or so], not the other way around. And the B1G has been the best conference because it gets a lot of very good players in the 25-100 range that are coached extremely well and stay 3-4 years rather than one-and-done's.
 



student said:
Most high school basketball recruits want to play in the NBA eventually.
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Well most high school basketball recruits don't play in the NBA eventually. The B1G has fewer stars but is usually a better conference due to the belief of playing as a team, especially on defense.
 

I wonder what the by conference numbers of total professional players are across all international and american leagues? Point is I wonder if more mid tier guys from the big ten find basketball jobs even if they aren't at the highest level.
 

PTalberg said:
Evan Turner is another decent player
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Decent at best, and pretty erratic, during his NBA career. After being the national player of the year as a junior, he has definitely underwhelmed in the pros. Having said that, he seems to have found a home as a starting point guard for the Celtics this year and may yet blossom into something more consistent than he has been in the past.
 

There are really only a hand full of schools that put large number of players in the NBA, Kentucky, North Carolina, Duke, Kansas, Arizona, UCLA, and Florida, beyond that the number of players in the NBA from any given school is not that great. Competing with schools on the recruiting circuit that are just below these programs is the key and there are a ton of them, schools like Louisville, Connecticut, Syracuse, Texas, Ohio State, Wisconsin etc...
 



I think cbsportsline had an article showing the number of 5* recruits for each conference, and the B1G was last of the major conferences over the last decade. Instead of looking at it as a negative, I'd say considering we have the least 5* we definitely are in the conversation for best conference most years. Great coaching, scouting, and the physical play of the big ten are the reasons. A majority of 5* guys play on the east coast, the south, or California. Not exactly big ten country. It seems that Ohio St. is the only B1G team that gets a ton of those players, occassionally you will see the Michigan's, and if Indiana returns to prominance.
 

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