Lost recruit you agonized the most over?

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Slim Tubby

Slim Tubby

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The obvious most recent answer would certainly be Cole Aldrich but I'm rolling with Jerry Gee who eventually signed with Illinois. That recruitment happened when I was really falling in love with Gopher hoops and the recruiting process and it was my first major disappointment. Thoughts?
 

Khalid El-Amin

Watched him in the state tourney his senior season and was really pumped to see him in the Barn.
 







I'd have to say Cole too, since I personally remember trying to head up the Cole campaign, making hundreds of flyers, etc...and it's clear he turned out to be a stud.

Another one would be in hindsight, Ben Woodside. It's been said a million times, but what would have been had we taken him over Rico Tucker. That PG position was seriously lacking for a looooong time.
 

what would've been is Kalin Lucas and Talor Battle averaging 40 pts a game on us for their careers
 



festmeister said:
Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson - just kidding.
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Actually if you read the new book (which I have because I'm so awesome and got an advanced copy) Magic took a visit to the U and said it was the best visit he took, but he just couldn't imagine leaving the state of Michigan.
 


Darius Lane

Clem got the wrong guy from the Monticello-Totino Grace matchups.
 

Ben Coleman to Maryland

When he went to Maryland which wasn't a huge surprise it was tough nonetheless. He was such a powerful big in High School at North, could really influence a game.
 



Top three:

1. Khalid El-Amin,
2. Cole Aldrich,
3. Chris Carrawell,

Although losing out on Darius Lane and Troy Bell sucked too.
 

Wasn't Chris Webber considering the Gophers before signing on with the Fab 5?
 

kindofgreen said:
When he went to Maryland which wasn't a huge surprise it was tough nonetheless. He was such a powerful big in High School at North, could really influence a game.
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Didn't Ben actually play a year for the Gophers and then transferred to Maryland?
 

jamiche said:
Definitely Khalid.
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I thought that too, but could you imagine what his presence would have added to the NCAA investigation?

I'll take Krabbenhoft. His loss took any hope of competency away from our recruiting and led to a string of questionable recruits. Not a great career, but a symbolic loss of a guy who grew up in a Gopher family and Monson's reaction killed our program's credibility.
 

MRJ said:
Although losing out on Darius Lane and Troy Bell sucked too.
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As I recall we didn't "lose out" on Bell. Clem didn't have much interest. The three schools that offered and showed the most interest were Wyoming, Tennessee and BC. So you can't lose out on a kid you didn't recruit.

And Kahlid has to be the biggest disappointment with no one else really even close.

Although after the long illustrious career Doug Wren had.....oh wait, nevermind.
 

Doug Wrenn

Wrenn was a dynamic, top 20 talent from out of state. We were coming off the Final 4 and had his attention. We had wrapped up Przy and Burleson. All signs pointed towards signing Wrenn and on his visit he seemed to be as much as delivered. Then Clem had a falling out with his Mom and it all fell apart.

As it turned out, he was a pretty big headcase and caused considerable problems, so it's probably best we didn't get him. But, at the time, it felt like a pretty big, unexpected blow. There was lots of talk about Wrenn on the original Gopher Hole. I can feel the yellow burning into my eyes again just thinking of it. Good times!
 


Glen Rice

For me it was Rice. He actually committed to us, but then travelled to Europe with a high school all-star team where Michigan followed and recruited him hard there and convinced him to change his committment.
 

Adrian Dantley
Just thought of another one. Dantley picked Notre Dame.
 


Southpaw said:
Wasn't Chris Webber considering the Gophers before signing on with the Fab 5?
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Not unless the Gophers had about 200k for him.

Of course, that payment did not give the Michigan program a competitive advantage, so I have been told.
 

I believe Marcus Fizer had Minnesota in his last 3 or so schools before deciding on Iowa State.
 

Going way back, Tom Hammonds who had us at number 2 on his list. The aforementioned Glen Rice is also a tough one since we had to watch him in the Big 10.
 


Age Showing

Glen Rice would have brought us a national championship.

Agree that Krabby was a huge symbolic blow to the program, even if he was not a star in college.
 

This is a pretty depressing topic. :(

Jake Sullivan was another huge miss. He almost certainly would have been a Gopher but Clem thought he was too small and didn't offer him. To Monson's credit he did offer him after he took over, but by that time Sullivan was already committed to Iowa State and he stuck with them.

Chris Webber almost came here too, I think that us and Michigan were his two finalists.

It's amazing that Troy Bell, Jake Sullivan and Ben Woodside are all Minnesota guys who had huge careers elsewhere because they never got offers from the U.
 

El Amin. Without a doubt the program's all time biggest miss.

The decommitment, the buzzer beater in the state championship, the Archambeault story coming out later ... it all added to the legend. And then he goes on to win an NCAA championship (wasn't he Final Four mvp or something, or all tourney team?)


Aldrich wouldn't have mattered so much if he had gone pro last year as expected. The fact that he's coming back for a 3rd year makes his loss pretty big too, though I think we wouldn't have gotten Sampson and Iverson.
 

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