Jonathon Nwanko Given Release from His Letter Of Intent

Donate To GopherHole

tinyarch said:
I don't agree with this mentality at all. I'd rather have the U of MN raise standards to Stanford levels than to drop them down to North Carolina levels. Time for kids to spend more time in the books and come to college prepared for the academic rigors. No one to blame but the high school and the kid for not rising to the academic levels necessary.
Click to expand...

station19 said:
You have no idea what the situation is. Quit pointing fingers when you don't know the facts. It's not very Christian of you.
Click to expand...

None of us know what the situation is.

My point is that the U of MN should not lower standards and if an athlete cannot meet those standards then the responsibility for failing to meet the grade lies upon the athlete and the schools s/he has already attended.

Now...take the stick out of your crapper and breathe.
 

tinyarch said:
I don't agree with this mentality at all. I'd rather have the U of MN raise standards to Stanford levels than to drop them down to North Carolina levels. Time for kids to spend more time in the books and come to college prepared for the academic rigors. No one to blame but the high school and the kid for not rising to the academic levels necessary.
Click to expand...

tinyarch said:
None of us know what the situation is.

My point is that the U of MN should not lower standards and if an athlete cannot meet those standards then the responsibility for failing to meet the grade lies upon the athlete and the schools s/he has already attended.

Now...take the stick out of your crapper and breathe.
Click to expand...

Do you see how those two quotes don't quite go together?

Also: You seem to be getting rather petty. I mean really, you of all people.
 

station19 said:
Do you see how those two quotes don't quite go together?

Also: You seem to be getting rather petty. I mean really, you of all people.
Click to expand...

Wow. Talk about picking the fly poop out of the pepper. No wonder you have 19k posts.
 

station19 said:
Either that or he told Pitino he was leaning heavily towards W. I think the idea that we choose Nwankwo over Illikanen is preposterous.
Click to expand...

I get the feeling that Pitino will not wait forever on a recruit. I bet that Illk was still waffling and Pitino gave him one more chance to commit before he gave it to another player. You can see that repeatedly in how Pitino has met with top target recruit and then moves on if they won't commit.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 


Had a busy day today so I haven't been able to see if there were any updates on this matter until now; disappointed that we don't really know anything.
 

Just a thought re: the potential issues. There can be extra complications with internationals. I don't recall when Nwankwo came to the US, but can't help but wonder if that might be a factor. We had a British recruit lose a year of eligibility due to rules for internationals recently. Possibly more trouble than U of MN wanted to deal with?
 


LehighFan said:
Just a thought re: the potential issues. There can be extra complications with internationals. I don't recall when Nwankwo came to the US, but can't help but wonder if that might be a factor. We had a British recruit lose a year of eligibility due to rules for internationals recently. Possibly more trouble than U of MN wanted to deal with?
Click to expand...
This is it. Word is it was an issue with him attending an international school for a portion of 9th grade (the other portion being in the U.S.).
 



Pitino should have taken the Bama job...I guarantee he can get athletes in school.....this university is an pompous arrogant joke and takes themselves way too seriously....this is two kids out of two years.....Good Bye young richie....
 

golfing18now said:
Depending on who you believe in this thread, it very well may not have been an issue with the University admissions.

I'm not advocating we should cheat to keep players eligible. I would just like to see us be on par with other universities from an admissions standpoint. We already have some of the well-documented challenges to recruit here. Why should I feel good about then rising to a Stanford level of academic achievement? Once a recruit signs an LOI, I'd prefer not to need to hold my breath on whether or not he gets admitted. Within reason.....providing an academic opportunity for somebody that wouldn't get it otherwise isn't a bad thing, in my opinion. Not trying to be Kentucky, but also not pretending to be Stanford.
Click to expand...

Even though you and tiny have 2 separate arguments, I actually agree with both of you if that's even possible. Why can't we take a chance on borderline recruits and then demand that our coaching staff gets the most out of them on the court and that out teaching faculty gets the most out of them in the classroom? Isn't that what a major public University is supposed to do? Not every kid peaks in high school academically. My god...accept the responsibility and the challenge to prepare these kids in all phases to succeed in the future.
 

millions2spare said:
Pitino should have taken the Bama job...I guarantee he can get athletes in school.....this university is an pompous arrogant joke and takes themselves way too seriously....this is two kids out of two years.....Good Bye young richie....
Click to expand...
It was a NCAA issue not the U.
 

MadtownGopher said:
It was a NCAA issue not the U.
Click to expand...


that is not known..if he can get in another school, it was clearly an U of M admissions issue. Jeeeze.....the kid was an honor student, good citizen, and wanted to play here...as I say, this University is a prideful arrogant Lot of admission bigots and needs to get with the real world.....these kids are here to first play ball second go to school.... third be part of the community.....the University has a responsibility to create an environment where the team has a chance to win and the kids can pass with some academic capabilities....ala a degree.... ...someone said the Ghost of Jan googlehof is alive and thriving at the U of M......this will ultimately cost us a very good coach....and provide many more mediocre seasons....
 



MadtownGopher said:
It was a NCAA issue not the U.
Click to expand...

Yep. But that doesn't fit Millions' narrative, so he's sticking with the only mantra he'll ever know. We University of Minnesota, we hate sports, we're out to make our sports teams fail, yadda, yadda, yadda. I find it rather humorous.
 

Based on your distaste for the U and your inability to complete a sentence, I'm guessing you didn't get accepted.
 

MadtownGopher said:
Based on your distaste for the U and your inability to complete a sentence, I'm guessing you didn't get accepted.
Click to expand...


my distaste is with the admissions office.....not the U.....My distaste is for you folks who complain about poor seasons and refuse to look at the root cause... who refuse to even admit that
it is possible that the reason for our poor performance for decades let's say verses Wisconsin is caused by US! Us being the University loser culture...from the Board of regents on down....
Do you want to win? Do you want to become relevant? If not, then keep doing the same crapola that has gotten us this far.....you are running on a tread mill going NO PLACE!....
 

MadtownGopher said:
It was a NCAA issue not the U.
Click to expand...

At this point it is an NCAA issue. If he gets cleared and goes somewhere else then we will have to wonder. It sounds to me like he hasn't cleared NCAA hurdles yet but that Nwankwo's advisor thinks he will clear. However, it seems that they do not believe they will clear the U of M. So this is debatable at best.
 

millions2spare said:
my distaste is with the admissions office.....not the U.....
Click to expand...

You not only have a problem writing, but your reasoning skills aren't exactly stellar. If you do live in California, isn't there some college there you could cheer for and advise?
 


Winasota Gopher said:
Piper
Konate
Gaston
And now nwanko

Trend?
Click to expand...
It could be a trend, If the young man gets admitted to another d1 school, then we have cause to question, and be quite angry. Let us just wait and see what the final result is before we jump to conclusions. However, we need to wonder what is going on behind the scenes if it does turn out to be a University issue. If it is a NCAA problem, we cannot fix that.
 

jimmyvalvanoguy said:
It could be a trend, If the young man gets admitted to another d1 school, then we have cause to question, and be quite angry. Let us just wait and see what the final result is before we jump to conclusions. However, we need to wonder what is going on behind the scenes if it does turn out to be a University issue. If it is a NCAA problem, we cannot fix that.
Click to expand...

Pitino didn't exactly hide his frustration with Gaston's situation. He'll give us an indication if it's a University issue. Looking at some of the football players Tim Brewster got here not that long ago, it might be a stretch to, all of a sudden, determine that the admissions office is out to sabotage the basketball program. Especially with a president greatly admired because "he gets it" where athletics are concerned.
 

Winasota Gopher said:
Piper - JUCO
Konate - On the team
Gaston - On the team
And now nwanko - ???

Trend?
Click to expand...

Yeah it has been a struggle, but as of now we haven't lost any of them to another D1 program. If Nwanko goes JUCO, then we know it wasn't just a U problem.
 

I'm not suggesting it's a university thing. Just a bit concerned about the fact we keep spending time on players that may not qualify. Pitino more than once blamed some of the results on Bakary having class and Gas being out half the year. Recruiting time is limited and he's gotta be flawless given where we are as a program.
 

Need a grad transfer. One and done. Even if just a decent role player with serviceable minutes. Pitino shut out Illikainen with JK? LOL!

Best of luck to JK. Maybe he will light up JUCO and come back.
 

diehard said:
Need a grad transfer. One and done. Even if just a decent role player with serviceable minutes. Pitino shut out Illikainen with JK? LOL!

Best of luck to JK. Maybe he will light up JUCO and come back.
Click to expand...

Who is JK?
 

diehard said:
Need a grad transfer. One and done. Even if just a decent role player with serviceable minutes. Pitino shut out Illikainen with JK? LOL!

Best of luck to JK. Maybe he will light up JUCO and come back.
Click to expand...

Illikainen had a what I would assume to be a commitable offer out at the time we took Nwankwo's commitment, so it's believable that Pitino decided that a bird in the hand was worth two in the bush and took Nwankwo's commitment instead of waiting on Illikainen. Plus I think Nwankwo fits the profile of a center which is maybe something Pitino decided he wanted more than the sort of stretch 4 that I think Illikainen is.

MinneStoa said:
Who is JK?
Click to expand...

Joey King silly. :)

Maybe Nwankwo got discouraged after realizing that he was quickly going to join the list of "players whose names still get routinely misspelled even after playing here for 2+ years" with the likes of Julian Welsh, Al Nolan, Elliot Elliason, and Otto Osenieks. Honorable mention to Justin Cobb. I know I've seen Nwanko, Wonk Woo, and I think I saw Kwanko within the last couple days.
 

On the bright side, the more Gaston plays the 5, the less chance he'll have to heave up 3-pointers.
 

This hurts. Anyone pretending it doesn't is kidding themselves. Nwanko was supposed to be an immediate impact guy in terms of rebounding, toughness and defensive presence. It was expected his offensive game would be a work in progress and that he'd have foul trouble issues, but if he could just grab some boards & play some D before fouling out every night it would have been a big upgrade to our baby-butt soft front court.

Bakary is skilled and isn't a sissy, but we desperately need some toughness up front and now where's that coming from? Gaston hasn't earned any real minutes yet at his own position, much less at the 5. To my knowledge he has never played a single minute at the Center position for us? Lynch is a year off still. King and Buggs are non factors for rebounding, defense or toughness. It's not the end of the world, but Nwanko was probably the second most important recruit behind Dorsey in terms of immediate impact.
 

He was never even officially accepted to the university. It doesn't mean much but he didn't even apply by the U's priority admission deadline... I can't say how I know for privacy reasons, but I was right about Gaston too.
 


You must log in or register to reply here.



Top Bottom