Lofton Dismissed Due To Not Meeting Expectations and Obligations Of Team

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Never was a huge fan of bringing him. Not super disappointed. Most of the disappointment is that we could of had AI.
 

I saw a tweet saying he will still be on scholarship for 14-15 year, so I think the scholarship will be put to 2016 class
 

PTalberg said:
I saw a tweet saying he will still be on scholarship for 14-15 year, so I think the scholarship will be put to 2016 class
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No, he will remain on scholarship this academic year. That opens up a scholarship to sign for a kid coming in the Fall of 2015. No way will we bank a scholarship. I'm sure we'll hit the JUCO ranks hard looking for a scoring SG that has college experience, or if we can add a highly sought after wing.

Go Gophers!!
 

So... Time to revive the All things 2015 recruiting thread?
 


PTalberg said:
I saw a tweet saying he will still be on scholarship for 14-15 year
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That's if he says in school here for the whole year. Is Shell using Gaston's fall scolly now? Maybe he can use Lofton.s spring scolly if he doesn't stay enrolled.

Either way open scolly for next year.
 

All this talk about AI... did I miss something? Did he say he would have gone to MN over WI if they had an open scholarship?
 

As Bobby Bowden use to say a verbal only shows who the competition is. Need to apply that with our neighbors to the east. IMO ll or bust this year. Bank for 2016 otherwise
 

BleedGopher said:
No, he will remain on scholarship this academic year. That opens up a scholarship to sign for a kid coming in the Fall of 2015. No way will we bank a scholarship. I'm sure we'll hit the JUCO ranks hard looking for a scoring SG that has college experience, or if we can add a highly sought after wing.

Go Gophers!!
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yes. The 14-15 year is this academic year... Whoops. I got got caught up thinking the 2015 class was done. So we should have another 2015 scholarship
 




NotGrant said:
All this talk about AI... did I miss something? Did he say he would have gone to MN over WI if they had an open scholarship?
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Considering he committed to WI less than a week after Jarvis filled our last scholarship position, I think it's safe to say that he was very heavily considering the Gophers.

But I'm not sure we can assume that if we had Lofton's scholarship open, that we'd have had any more room for AI. Hypotheticals are fun, but there's a very good chance that we would have filled that scholarship some other way and still had only 4 scholarships available for the 2015 class.
 

Suppose having sacar and Jarvis may help with Coffey and mar. I'll back off my last comment if sacar helps bring in top in state talent. After all wasn't that Loftons purpose in the first place?
 

Glad that if there was a behavior/attitude problem, we cut ties now rather than waiting for him to embarrass us and cause a distraction during the season.
 




Very interesting to see what Pitino does with the scholarship. As of now this is what our roster looks like for next season.

Mason/Dorsey
Mcneil/Johnson
Morris/McBrayer
King/Martin/Buggs/Diedhiou?
Konate/Nwankwo

Our depth at the 1-3 is all-freshmen, not ideal. The best thing we could do is get a grad transfer wing who could start or at least be a sixth man type off of the bench. Or possibly go the JUCO route. I also wouldn't count out on another scholly being available as well. Sacar is also an option.
 


How is Sacar Anim rated a four star for ESPN and not even rated for 247. I usually go by 247sports because they mostly just rank players and evaluate them, but that's quite the difference.
 

Does anyone know if we would actually consider Sacar? Seems to me the kid has a good attitude, works hard, and good athleticism. Just struggles to shoot the 3 a bit.
 

A good source told me Lofton was out drinking with Andrew Wiggins and it was on someone's social media or something and Pitino found out.
 

DeathClutch said:
Very interesting to see what Pitino does with the scholarship. As of now this is what our roster looks like for next season.

Mason/Dorsey
Mcneil/Johnson
Morris/McBrayer
King/Martin/Buggs/Diedhiou?
Konate/Nwankwo

Our depth at the 1-3 is all-freshmen, not ideal. The best thing we could do is get a grad transfer wing who could start or at least be a sixth man type off of the bench. Or possibly go the JUCO route. I also wouldn't count out on another scholly being available as well. Sacar is also an option.
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If I was gambling, I'd say the Gophers will have 3 scholarships open this Spring. I think a JUCO/5th year transfer back court player is the most likely addition. Ideally, that player can shoot it as that will be the biggest area of need.
 


#GnawEmDown said:
A good source told me Lofton was out drinking with Andrew Wiggins and it was on someone's social media or something and Pitino found out.
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I thought Lofton was 21, isn't he? (Pretty sure he had an extra year of prep school or something like that before starting college). So big deal if he was out and had some drinks.
 

WanderingGopher said:
I thought Lofton was 21, isn't he? (Pretty sure he had an extra year of prep school or something like that before starting college). So big deal if he was out and had some drinks.
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Yeah players go out all the time. Not sure what the issue with that would be? Unless Lofton is on a stricter plan than others.
 

Very Sad news to me as I have always had the upmost faith in zachs talent and character....
I really want to know why this decision was made, idk if we will ever be privileged to that info. I just wonder wtf it may have been in comparison to Royce White or other players that have been dismissed in the past....

He musta done some really foul behavior to warrant a dismissal. (Theft, drugs, late to meetings, bad influence on the team, etc.)
The staff knew they were getting an emotional player (bit of a cry baby) but does that warrant dismissal? Seems a little brash. idk, I hope everything works out for all parties

I'll let time tell, but I'm a little confused right now. the program probably has other plans for the future.
 

Gopherfan12 said:
Does anyone know if we would actually consider Sacar? Seems to me the kid has a good attitude, works hard, and good athleticism. Just struggles to shoot the 3 a bit.
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Sounds like Andrew wiggins... I like Sacar, he probably does deserve a chance. Or marshawn Wilson.
 

NotGrant said:
All this talk about AI... did I miss something? Did he say he would have gone to MN over WI if they had an open scholarship?
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Not sure where you've been, but Minnesota was widely thought to be the eventual choice for Illikainen during most of his 2-3 years of recruitment. Nobody expected the run of commitments in August and early Sept to fill all 4 spots in the class that soon.

However ... this departure doesn't change the fact that we still have 4 returning PF's on our roster.
 


Jigga said:
Very Sad news to me as I have always had the upmost faith in zachs talent and character....
I really want to know why this decision was made, idk if we will ever be privileged to that info. I just wonder wtf it may have been in comparison to Royce White or other players that have been dismissed in the past....

He musta done some really foul behavior to warrant a dismissal. (Theft, drugs, late to meetings, bad influence on the team, etc.)
The staff knew they were getting an emotional player (bit of a cry baby) but does that warrant dismissal? Seems a little brash. idk, I hope everything works out for all parties

I'll let time tell, but I'm a little confused right now. the program probably has other plans for the future.
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Look, no need to be coy at this point. Very sorry to hear this news.

I know that nobody in the know can/should talk about what happened, but I'm disturbed by the implication that it was not cut and dried. Cutting a guy loose just months into his tenure, while he's sitting out a redshirt year (maybe a little bored/frustrated by that) and maybe still adjusting to a new coach, is obviously a very harsh punishment. I don't think you need a Royce White situation to be dismissed - that would be the extreme - but if it was something ambiguous like "bad attitude" ... I don't know, seems to me that a good coach would work on that over some time.

In any event, I really thought Lofton would be focused during this redshirt year and be a force for us on the court next year.
 

Disappointing news, hopefully things work out for him. That being said, Sacar Anim please.
 

WanderingGopher said:
I thought Lofton was 21, isn't he? (Pretty sure he had an extra year of prep school or something like that before starting college). So big deal if he was out and had some drinks.
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Wiggins is only 19 yrs old, so I could see why providing to a minor (especially #1 pick in the NBA draft) could be detrimental to the program...

Hope everything works out for all both are extremely talented hate to see anything go to waste.
 

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