All Things Brad Davison Recruitment Thread

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I would guess since he is a 247 composite 4 star he is athletic enough to play in the B1G. Seeing as how Wisconsin is recruiting him he must be able to defend a little. My hope is he goes to Stanford. If he ends up just to the east of here it might not be good for us.
 

I have been lucky to watch Brad play a number of times since his Freshman year and I have always been high on him. I agree 100% I think the Gophers should be recruiting him because I feel like he fits a role that we have not had in awhile. Although he lacks some athleticism compared to Wright, he makes up for it all in hard work, gritty type of basketball player with a very high basketball IQ. It would be nice to see the Gophers have a solid PG who is pass first, doesn't turn it over type player. I personally have had enough of the "fast athletic cant shoot PG's" like Dre Mathei who turn it over 4-6 times a game. I would prefer someone like Davison who can run the team and hit open shots consistently.

I will say the downfall I noticed this year is the fact that 95% of his attacks to the hoop are going to the right with right hand dribble. You can tell that no matter what he is doing on the pick and rolls he is going to try and cross over and get back to his right hand. This is easy to identify and wont work in the Big10.
 

MadtownGopher said:
I know almost nothing about Davison. Is he athletic? He is listed at 6'1 (I think) but he looks shorter than that. I'm wondering if our staff is concerned about his ability to defend at the next level, if he doesn't have the length and/or athleticism to guard the top PGs in the conference. Like I said, I don't know much about Davison, so I could be way off.

ETA: I guess he's listed at 6'3 in most places. That's pretty good height for a PG.
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I read that he's 6'3" as well. I like that. That's my concern about Washington and McCabe because those guys are legitimately in the 5'11"-6'0" range, right? I know that Pitino, dad, Shaka, and that group love the stifling defensive athletes and can get a lot out of 6'0" PGs along with it, but I don't know if we're in line to get one of them that works out. For every Napier or Peyton Siva, there are 5 guys that are only situational players given their size liability.
 

bleedgold said:
I have been lucky to watch Brad play a number of times since his Freshman year and I have always been high on him. I agree 100% I think the Gophers should be recruiting him because I feel like he fits a role that we have not had in awhile. Although he lacks some athleticism compared to Wright, he makes up for it all in hard work, gritty type of basketball player with a very high basketball IQ. It would be nice to see the Gophers have a solid PG who is pass first, doesn't turn it over type player. I personally have had enough of the "fast athletic cant shoot PG's" like Dre Mathei who turn it over 4
True it be nice to see a PG who can shoot, although the couple times I've seen Wright I came away impressed with his pull up jump shot. Definitely a better shooter than Lil Dre, not as quick, but still really quick. Haven't seen Davision play hoops, just football. I think Davision's a good athlete on the gridiron. If anyone has seen the two and can compare, I guess my question would be if Wright is quicker and has a good pull up shot than wouldn't make more sense to recruit him based on what Pitino is trying to do. I think Davision has some ivy league offers on top of Stanford and Northwestern and Michigan. Certainly some great academic options on top of some pretty good basketball one's as well. Just hope he doesn't go to Wisconsin
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bleedgold said:
I have been lucky to watch Brad play a number of times since his Freshman year and I have always been high on him. I agree 100% I think the Gophers should be recruiting him because I feel like he fits a role that we have not had in awhile. Although he lacks some athleticism compared to Wright, he makes up for it all in hard work, gritty type of basketball player with a very high basketball IQ. It would be nice to see the Gophers have a solid PG who is pass first, doesn't turn it over type player. I personally have had enough of the "fast athletic cant shoot PG's" like Dre Mathei who turn it over 4-6 times a game. I would prefer someone like Davison who can run the team and hit open shots consistently.

I will say the downfall I noticed this year is the fact that 95% of his attacks to the hoop are going to the right with right hand dribble. You can tell that no matter what he is doing on the pick and rolls he is going to try and cross over and get back to his right hand. This is easy to identify and wont work in the Big10.
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The bold part really concerns me. If he can't finish with his left, he isn't going to do much at the next level. Shading a guy on his dominant side is a really easy way to stop a player like that.
 


MadtownGopher said:
The bold part really concerns me. If he can't finish with his left, he isn't going to do much at the next level. Shading a guy on his dominant side is a really easy way to stop a player like that.
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I feel like it's something that could be improved. It's no less of a weakness than possibly having Washington or McCabe as a possible recruit and teams can just assume they won't be going to the basket at all.
 

RickDornsby said:
I feel like it's something that could be improved. It's no less of a weakness than possibly having Washington or McCabe as a possible recruit and teams can just assume they won't be going to the basket at all.
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I am assuming Washington can drive and finish based on the fact he's a NYC PG, that's their DNA. I admit I've never seen him play though. McCabe suppose to be more of a facilitator right?
 

I find it rather odd that we are recruiting McCabe over Davison, maybe because Davison wouldn't appreciate being 3rd choice and McCabe would?? I've seen neither play (watched Davison a bit when he was a wee lad) other than their respective highlight reels. Davison just smells like a kid that goes to Wisconsin and torches us. This all is for naught if we land either Wright or Washington as I see they fit the mold better, but damnit Pitino, you better close on either or both.

Edit: Mccabe is 2018

Nevermind, I'm an asshat
 

Again, I don't think this should be an insult to us, but either Davison isn't interested in us or maybe he/Pitino don't see a stylistic fit. I don't think we have Davison on some sort of waiting list or he's at the bottom of the list due to an embarrassment of riches that we have. We're not Duke in recruiting right now.

As painful as it is, look to the east. Becky has had top in-state guys go elsewhere and they've played their style and won so it's not a terrible revelation. We can do the same. I don't necessarily think Pitino's style is going to be the right one in the long run, but that's a different conversation.

I think we're recruiting McCabe for this reason. Davison is long gone. He's not a borderline top 100 kid just waiting to commit because he's waiting for the Gophers to graciously extend an offer after they fail at a couple other guys. So be it.
 



bemidjigopher said:
I am assuming Washington can drive and finish based on the fact he's a NYC PG, that's their DNA. I admit I've never seen him play though. McCabe suppose to be more of a facilitator right?
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Sure...but there are also liabilities to a guy of this size. Harder to get his shot off and probably has to guard someone 3 inches taller at all times. I was just commenting to the poster(s) that said "oh, Davison can't go left...don't want him" and then beg for Washington, who has liabilities I would assume. Almost all players do.
 

RickDornsby said:
Again, I don't think this should be an insult to us, but either Davison isn't interested in us or maybe he/Pitino don't see a stylistic fit. I don't think we have Davison on some sort of waiting list or he's at the bottom of the list due to an embarrassment of riches that we have. We're not Duke in recruiting right now.

As painful as it is, look to the east. Becky has had top in-state guys go elsewhere and they've played their style and won so it's not a terrible revelation. We can do the same. I don't necessarily think Pitino's style is going to be the right one in the long run, but that's a different conversation.

I think we're recruiting McCabe for this reason. Davison is long gone. He's not a borderline top 100 kid just waiting to commit because he's waiting for the Gophers to graciously extend an offer after they fail at a couple other guys. So be it.
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McCabe is the Class of 2018.

Go Gophers!!
 

RickDornsby said:
Again, I don't think this should be an insult to us, but either Davison isn't interested in us or maybe he/Pitino don't see a stylistic fit. I don't think we have Davison on some sort of waiting list or he's at the bottom of the list due to an embarrassment of riches that we have. We're not Duke in recruiting right now.

As painful as it is, look to the east. Becky has had top in
Were recruiting McCabe in 2018 because as of now we have five available scholarships, we would need multiple PG's in that class and it would be foolish to hedge our bets on Tre Jones. Has nothing to do with Davison, Even if Davision came here we would still recruit McCabe, Gabe Kalschuler, Tre Jones etc.
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RickDornsby said:
Again, I don't think this should be an insult to us, but either Davison isn't interested in us or maybe he/Pitino don't see a stylistic fit. I don't think we have Davison on some sort of waiting list or he's at the bottom of the list due to an embarrassment of riches that we have. We're not Duke in recruiting right now.

As painful as it is, look to the east. Becky has had top in-state guys go elsewhere and they've played their style and won so it's not a terrible revelation. We can do the same. I don't necessarily think Pitino's style is going to be the right one in the long run, but that's a different conversation.

I think we're recruiting McCabe for this reason. Davison is long gone. He's not a borderline top 100 kid just waiting to commit because he's waiting for the Gophers to graciously extend an offer after they fail at a couple other guys. So be it.
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I think your assessment of Davison is spot on, but I just disagree with the staff. This kid can play in the Big 10 (IMO), he is a good ball handler, he's tough, he can shoot, I don't see any reason why this kid doesn't get an offer and contribute in the Big 10.
 



Bob_Loblaw said:
I think your assessment of Davison is spot on, but I just disagree with the staff. This kid can play in the Big 10 (IMO), he is a good ball handler, he's tough, he can shoot, I don't see any reason why this kid doesn't get an offer and contribute in the Big 10.
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I agree with that assessment. If it's truly the staff not wanting him and not the other way around, it's probably due to style. They want someone to run and gun and that probably isn't Davison. One of my annoyances is that IF Pitini gets canned, the next coach is going to inherit a team built to run/press (who knows how good it will be) and will have to clean that up in a hurry if he has a different style.
 

This is already turning into the same conversation as the Reuvers situation. I'm not telling you all what to think, but it makes absolutely the most sense to me to just let things play out before bashing the staff for not recruiting certain players. The Gophers could easily end up with two of their current targets who are going to end up being similarly ranked as Reuvers and Davison, and the staff clearly has their preferences and they obviously have the best idea of where they currently stand with recruits. Unless you are completely in favor of Reuvers compared to John or Sims, or completely in favor of Davison compared to Washington or Wright, there's not much to get upset about at this point in my opinion. Wait to judge until they actually miss on their top recruits, which hasn't happened at all yet.
 

The good sign is that Minnesota is producing more good players than the U can bring in. Each year we will have these discussions about the players we "didn't go after hard enough". We can only hope that Pitino gets the right ones a majority of the time.


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I'm not really knocking them for choosing Sims/Wright/John over Davison/Reuvers. Personal opinion that the latter of the two generally tend to pan out better as college players. From what I understand, Sims and John have some work to do in development on the offensive side of the ball in terms of skill.

I'm not against Pitino finally getting a good fast-paced/pressing style of play going, but I just don't know if is a wise route to go at a place where we generally aren't pulling in elite recruits. Part 2 of that is that if he gets canned, the next guy will probably be a change of style coach that will need to repurpose Pitino's guys.

If they get any or all of the Sims/Wright/John crew or comparable players, I'll sit back and enjoy it. Just expressing my personal opinion at style of play. Running up and down the floor is exciting, but we aren't Texas, Louisville, or UNC where we'll eventually have the depth of athletes to pull it off.
 

RickDornsby said:
I'm not really knocking them for choosing Sims/Wright/John over Davison/Reuvers. Personal opinion that the latter of the two generally tend to pan out better as college players. From what I understand, Sims and John have some work to do in development on the offensive side of the ball in terms of skill.

I'm not against Pitino finally getting a good fast-paced/pressing style of play going, but I just don't know if is a wise route to go at a place where we generally aren't pulling in elite recruits. Part 2 of that is that if he gets canned, the next guy will probably be a change of style coach that will need to repurpose Pitino's guys.

If they get any or all of the Sims/Wright/John crew or comparable players, I'll sit back and enjoy it. Just expressing my personal opinion at style of play. Running up and down the floor is exciting, but we aren't Texas, Louisville, or UNC where we'll eventually have the depth of athletes to pull it off.
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I guess my opinion on the matter is it's easier to teach players to slow down than it is to speed up, I think as long Pitino keeps bringing in more talent, even if he doesn't win there's still a good foundation for a new coach. A new coach will have plenty of length and athleticism on his roster, that works for just about any system.
 

BleedGopher said:
Yep, he's playing football again this year, and for those that don't know, he's a standout QB at the HS level. A great all around athlete.

Without rehashing many of the posts in this thread and the 2017 recruiting thread, it baffles me that we aren't recruiting him. His parents run the Maple Grove youth basketball program and I have gotten to know them through this and they wanted him to be recruited by us over the past year, and have been baffled why we basically stopped recruiting him (their words). Brad arguably has the best offer list among the trio of guards often mentioned (Davison, Washington and Wright) and appears to be picking up substantial offers at a quicker rate than the other two. That isn't a definitive correlation to him being the best college prospect nor the best fit for our program, but some very successful programs have offered him, and we appear to be passing on a big opportunity.

I hope we end up with a guard who has a better career than Brad, but it would certainly have been nice to have him as an option, which right now we don't. I hope our coaches have made the right decision with our PG recruitment in this class.

Go Gophers!!
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Thanks for the information, though it's very disappointing and confusing to hear. That's quite the list he's accumulating.
 



Jaykay said:
Just got a Gopher offer.
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This one baffles me. We could've offered long ago, or at the least a month or so ago when Davison was in the midst of a very solid summer season. So why the wait? His momentum train has been rolling for awhile now and we're very late to the party, despite him being in our back yard. I doubt very much we land him.
 

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McKinley Wright had a few high major offers before we got in on him, and I'd say we're very much in the running. Same with Jarvis Johnson, granted some of those offers came before Pitino was hired, but I don't think Tubby ever offered Jarvis. Who knows how it will turn out with Davison, but I doubt he just gives us the bird and doesn't even consider us just because we offered him late-ish.
 

Jaykay said:
Just got a Gopher offer.
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Has he committed yet?

WanderingGopher said:
Are you joking? Davison and his family have (or had) Gopher season tickets and went to every game. He was a regular visitor on campus unofficials his fresh/soph years. He would've been a Gopher already if Pitino had offered. If there is "no interest" now it's due to no offer. Which unfortunately is a mistake on our part, I believe. Implication of recent posts in this thread, that we could still land him if we offered now, probably are moot anyway because this staff isn't going to do it.

Rivals new ratings came out yesterday and Davison is 119. Top 75 would be almost as high as Amir Coffey was, and while I love Davison's game he isn't close to Coffey as a prospect.
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WanderingGopher said:
You really have no idea what you're talking about so why don't you just stop. The offers Davison is deciding among all came within about the past month...Stanford, Northwestern, Michigan, Wisconsin, maybe one other I'm forgetting. Point is he'd be a Gopher already if the staff wanted him...this thread is about fans discussing/lamenting that.

Like I said, Bossi (Rivals) just ranked Davison 119 yesterday.
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justthefacts said:
Has he committed yet?
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Don't know, but apparently Pitino reads Gopherhole. Lmao

You're quoting the statement about him committing if we offered NOW...read the full sentence. Not my promise, was referencing the thread. Might be too late, a la Kasl. Or might not even be commitable right now, who knows for sure. The whole sequence is weird.
 

WindyCityGopher said:
This one baffles me. We could've offered long ago, or at the least a month or so ago when Davison was in the midst of a very solid summer season. So why the wait? His momentum train has been rolling for awhile now and we're very late to the party, despite him being in our back yard. I doubt very much we land him.
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I'm baffled by this timing as well. Davison's been playing the same (i.e., well) for a long time, and our staff sees every single Pulley game. Nothing's changed. So why now instead of many months ago?
 

I'm happy we finally offered, and I hope its not too late to get a serious look from him. He was on a recent road trip of visits in the last week.

Go Gophers!!
 

Optics of this offer suck. Unless Pitino and staff all of a sudden really want Davison and also believe there is a good chance he will commit why offer now? You look terrible if the kid commits to another B1G school (especially Wisconsin) and now in the eyes of many you have lost two in state kids to direct competition. You also look terrible because this kid was in your backyard, you've invited him to games for years, he's tore up the EYBL for months, already been on visits to Stanford and Michigan, and you offer at the Peach Jam. You either don't know what you want in a guard and/or have a significant issue with evaluating talent. I defended this staff when they didn't offer Davison because I believed they were looking for a different style of point guard. Now it's really tough to defend them in this situation.

Happy for Davison to get the offer as I am sure that it is some validation for him to get that home school offer even if it seems (to an outsider) as it probably won't interest him at this point. It's really cool to read about Minnesota having one of the better teams on both the Adidas and Nike circuits right now.
 

I've seen Brad and his family at a lot of games over past few years and their always in the same seats, so I think their season ticket holders, though I might be wrong. Word has always been that he grew up a gopher fan, so I think we have better shot than most think, waiting this long to offer will hurt us but it's not the nail in coffin.
 

Interesting. Could be a way of putting pressure on Wright and Washington.
 

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