Zach Lofton Update

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MadtownGopher said:
He will be a redshirt sophomore his first year on campus. He'll then be a 4th year junior and then a 5th year senior.
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Not how that works. He will be a true junior his first year and then a redshirt junior his 2nd year and a redshirt senior his 3rd year. Anyway it's just semantics, the important thing is that he will sit out his first year and then have two years of eligibility remaining.
 


New quotes per Marcus' article:

Braziel, now Bloomington Kennedy's coach, said Pitino would be getting an extremely talented offensive player, a "big-time steal" and not, despite the suspension, a potential risk.

"Zach is not a kid who demands the ball. He's going to do what you ask him to do. He's very coachable," Braziel said. "He's a great basketball player to have on your team. It's not going to be an off-court behavior thing with Zach. I know him. He's not going to do those things. He'll do anything he can to play basketball."

Braziel said the Gophers would not regret bringing Lofton in.

"It's just his competitiveness more than his attitude," he said. "There will be nobody in that program who will work harder. For him now, he knows it's an opportunity to go to a place he's always wanted to go. He wants to be home."

http://www.twincities.com/sports/ci...rce=rss&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

Go Gophers!!
 

BleedGopher said:
New quotes per Marcus' article:

Braziel, now Bloomington Kennedy's coach, said Pitino would be getting an extremely talented offensive player, a "big-time steal" and not, despite the suspension, a potential risk.

"Zach is not a kid who demands the ball. He's going to do what you ask him to do. He's very coachable," Braziel said. "He's a great basketball player to have on your team. It's not going to be an off-court behavior thing with Zach. I know him. He's not going to do those things. He'll do anything he can to play basketball."

Braziel said the Gophers would not regret bringing Lofton in.

"It's just his competitiveness more than his attitude," he said. "There will be nobody in that program who will work harder. For him now, he knows it's an opportunity to go to a place he's always wanted to go. He wants to be home."

http://www.twincities.com/sports/ci...rce=rss&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

Go Gophers!!
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Welcome aboard Zach.
Very excited about this pick up, I knew you could do it.

Pitino is a good judge of talent and character.
Congrats Coach.
 

I just hope he isn't a Malik Smith clone. Refreshing to hear that a Minnesotan who has some talent wants to be here desperately.
 



GophersOnTheRise said:
I think they are entirely different types of players, so I wouldn't call them clones at all.
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Maybe not necessarily in their abilities, but you can't ignore the fact that Lofton loves to let it fly from 3 (just like Smith) and does have the ability to make very difficult shots. The issue is shot selection (just like Smith). They may be completely different players but their tendency to fall in love with the 3 is what worries me about Lofton a little bit.
 


Former Goofer said:
Maybe not necessarily in their abilities, but you can't ignore the fact that Lofton loves to let it fly from 3 (just like Smith) and does have the ability to make very difficult shots. The issue is shot selection (just like Smith). They may be completely different players but their tendency to fall in love with the 3 is what worries me about Lofton a little bit.
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If he is asked to shoot the ball 322 times next year I will be utterly shocked. Less volume, more open, higher percentage would be my expectations
 



Former Goofer said:
I just hope he isn't a Malik Smith clone. Refreshing to hear that a Minnesotan who has some talent wants to be here desperately.
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When Minnesota is far and away his best option, of course he wants to be here. We need to get Minnesotans who have other good options because they're in demand.
 

dpodoll68 said:
When Minnesota is far and away his best option, of course he wants to be here.We need to get Minnesotans who have other good options because they're in demand.
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My goodness, dpo. You finally are sharing your opinion on something!!! :)
 

dpodoll68 said:
When Minnesota is far and away his best option, of course he wants to be here. We need to get Minnesotans who have other good options because they're in demand.
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You're either on somethin' or on to something.
 

Lofton is a Gopher RT @ZachLofton: I WILL BE SIGNING TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA TO CONTINUE MY COLLEGE BASKETBALL CAREER TMRW ! #GOGOPHERS #NATION
 



<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>I WILL BE SIGNING TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA TO CONTINUE MY COLLEGE BASKETBALL CAREER TMRW ! <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23GOGOPHERS&src=hash">#GOGOPHERS</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23NATION&src=hash">#NATION</a></p>— Zach Lofton (@ZachLofton) <a href="https://twitter.com/ZachLofton/statuses/459161889335824384">April 24, 2014</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Go Gophers!!
 

So is he 100% definitely getting a scholarship next year? Should I give up all hope that he'd walk on for one year?
 

MadtownGopher said:
So is he 100% definitely getting a scholarship next year? Should I give up all hope that he'd walk on for one year?
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I haven't heard any indication that he would be walking on next season other than speculation from Gopher Hole posters. The Gophers interest would certainly make a lot more sense if he was walking on for a season though.
 

Happy for him and I think he'll be a good addition. He replaces what we had for the first half of the season with Malik but I think Zach has more to his game. He'll take shots that will drive you crazy but can get hot and completely take over a game.
 

Marcus tweeted a story saying Lofton would be applying for hardship waiver to play right away but even Zach doesn't think it will be granted. Doesn't sound like he will be walking on. Seems to have a rep that I hope doesn't follow him here
 

I'm pumped that Lofton is going to be a Gopher. He's athletic, can handle the ball, can guard people... I trust that our staff wouldn't sign Lofton if they didn't see a lot of value.

Welcome to The U!
 

Wish all the top Minnesota kids would want to be Gophers as bad as this kid!
 


He's a Gopher now...time to offer a clean slate and root our a$$es off for him to be successful. Welcome, Zach!
 

Slim Tubby said:
He's a Gopher now...time to offer a clean slate and root our a$$es off for him to be successful. Welcome, Zach!
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The skill level and potential of this kid gives us Gopher fans plenty of reasons to be excited. If he really works as hard as people around him say he does and has a team first mentality, there's no reason why he can't be a significant player here at the U!
 


Sid Hartman said:
Marcus tweeted a story saying Lofton would be applying for hardship waiver to play right away but even Zach doesn't think it will be granted. Doesn't sound like he will be walking on. Seems to have a rep that I hope doesn't follow him here
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There's always a > 2% chance when you pull the handle on the NCAA random decision generator.
 




If we're looking at transfers I'd feel a lot better if they were leaving a program further up the food chain and not from a mid-major worse than us. King and Lofton may be great, but it's tough to get very excited about transfers from Drake and Illinois State.
 


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