All Things 2019 Gophers Basketball Recruiting Thread - Tweets, Links, Video, Analysis

Correct me if I am wrong, but, as of right now, we have 10 scholarship players next season.

Projected roster next season
PG: Washington/Carr
SG: Kalscheur/Willis
SF: Coffey/Hurt/Williams
PF: Curry/Omersa
C: Oturu

I would think our depth chart would look like this:

Projected depth chart next season
PG: Carr/Washington
SG: Kalscheur/Willis
SF: Coffey/Hurt/Williams
PF: Curry/Omersa
C: Oturu

It will be interesting to see if the Coffey at point experiment will continue next year. We have two new guys who are capable of manning the point. If this experiment was only done out of necessity, then I could see a Carr/Kalscheur/Coffey/Curry/Outuru lineup going far. It gets weird if Pitino insists on playing Coffey at the point. That would likely mean either freshman Williams or senior Hurt will get the starting nod

I don't know necessarily think make a depth chart with 5 named positions during a new era of positionless basketball is fair way to monitor this. I think it's more valuable to break into 3 groups, Posts, Wings, Point/Ball handlers and some overlap e.g. Coffey or McBrayer.

Points (1 Spot): Carr, Washington, Coffey
Wings (2-3 Spots): Coffey, Kalscheur, Willis, Williams, Hurt
Posts (1-2 spots): Curry, Omersa, Oturo, Hurt (If necessary)

Depth is most needed by this metric in the Posts (Only 1 and hopefully get some in 2020), otherwise it's about adding quality wing depth. It will be interesting to see if the Gophers offense changes without Murphy as a part. More 4 out and spacing around Oturo, not as much high low?
 

Dereon Seabron committed to NC State. Ryan James in the latest Talk Gopher Buckets podcast that apparently Seabron enjoyed his visit here but said something to the effect of "but it's so damn cold up here," and Ryan said he knew then and there that he wouldn't be committing here. There's some other recruiting info in it in the final 5-10 minutes or so for anyone who wants to listen. I think he said a lot of the guys we're pursuing right now will likely be waiting until the end of their high school basketball seasons to make a decision.

https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/luke-buer/talk-gopher-buckets

Also

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Rivals: Bossi's Best: Prospects on the verge of upward mobility

We are nearing our annual winter refresh of the Rivals rankings. In this week's edition of Bossi's Best I wanted to take a look at some players who could be in line to get a bump in star level, make a nice move up or flat out crash the rankings.

I've chosen 10 players (six from 2019 and four from 2020) to spotlight in advance of the rankings refresh that will take place the week of Jan. 28. Players are listed by how they are currently ranked and then alphabetical order for those that are looking to enter the rankings.

Tre Williams

Why he is on the rise: Williams has been ranked in the Rivals150 before and showed a lot of promise going into his junior year. As a senior, he's gotten back on track and taken a big step up. He's found his confidence on the offensive end and shows the tools to be a high-level defender as well.

Recruitment: Signed with Minnesota.

https://basketballrecruiting.rivals.com/news/bossi-s-best-upward-mobility

Go Gophers!!
 

Rivals: Bossi's Best: Prospects on the verge of upward mobility

We are nearing our annual winter refresh of the Rivals rankings. In this week's edition of Bossi's Best I wanted to take a look at some players who could be in line to get a bump in star level, make a nice move up or flat out crash the rankings.

I've chosen 10 players (six from 2019 and four from 2020) to spotlight in advance of the rankings refresh that will take place the week of Jan. 28. Players are listed by how they are currently ranked and then alphabetical order for those that are looking to enter the rankings.

Tre Williams

Why he is on the rise: Williams has been ranked in the Rivals150 before and showed a lot of promise going into his junior year. As a senior, he's gotten back on track and taken a big step up. He's found his confidence on the offensive end and shows the tools to be a high-level defender as well.

Recruitment: Signed with Minnesota.

https://basketballrecruiting.rivals.com/news/bossi-s-best-upward-mobility

Go Gophers!!

hey something positive today!!

I also see on that list his teammate Tristan Enaruna a SF is on that list. Wouldn't mind taking a harder look at him as well!
 


Grant Sherfield was just on one of the ESPN channels with his Sunrise Christian team playing Vernon Carey Jr's team. I just caught the 4th quarter, but Sherfield was really good in crunch time scoring like 12 or 14 in the quarter to lead his team to the win. The announcers mentioned that they asked him who he was considering after decommitting from UCLA and he mentioned Minnesota first among a list of 5 or 6 schools (Purdue, Gonzaga, Wichita State were other that I remember). Sherfield is a short guard, but he's stocky and has a noticeable burst to get around defenders. He ended the game with a break away 2 handed slam, so he can get up as well. Interestingly, by his own admission, he's much more of a scorer than a point guard by his own admission. He handled the ball a lot for Sunrise, but looked for his own shot more than others. Interestingly his backcourt mate is Austin Crowley who the Gophers lost to a recruiting battle to Vanderbilt for this Fall. In this very small sample size, Sherfield was the more impactful and impressive player. One other quick note is that Sherfield/Crowley play for Sunrise's high school team as opposed to the prep team which includes former Gopher commit Tray Jackson. The high school team has 4 guys who are ranked 4 stars or higher by one service or another and then the prep team has a number of big prospects as well. I would imagine Pitino is/was counting on Lindsted to bring some of that Sunrise talent to Minneapolis.
 

Grant is 6'2 with a 6'5 span. Kansas thinks they have him if they still want him. Would be a good grab here if we know how to use him.
 

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Interesting that we are showing interest in David Skogman, from what I hear, he has a heart condition and it is unknown if he will be cleared at the college level, so teams are shying away. Considering our recent history with Jarvis it's interesting that Pitino would be willing to risk a scholarship spot for at least a year for a complete unknown. He would be nice player with good size if cleared. I do think we really need to find a big in this class for depth along with another wing(preferably a combo gaurd), so I it's nice to hear that they are looking at bigs as it's been pretty quiet on that front so far
 
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I just read a long article about David. In June, he collapsed at the free throw line. His heart simply stopped beating. His mom, an RN, was at the game. She started CPR on him until a defribulator was used on him, which worked to restart his heart. He spent a week undergoing tests and the doctors could not find out anything wrong with his heart, so he was cleared to play again.

Any doctors on this board? I would love to hear your thoughts on his situation as far as his chances to play college ball. My understanding is that Jarvis Johnson has a known heart condition. Thus far, David does not. How common (or more appropriately, uncommon) is it for someone without a known heart condition for their heart to shut down suddenly, and at such a young age? Will university doctors deny him the ability to play even though nothing has been diagnosed?

On the basketball front, he sounds like someone we need, as he is a big who can shoot well, including the three ball. It sounds like Wisconsin might be getting involved (from another article I read). I’m hoping he commits on his visit this weekend.


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I just read a long article about David. In June, he collapsed at the free throw line. His heart simply stopped beating. His mom, an RN, was at the game. She started CPR on him until a defribulator was used on him, which worked to restart his heart. He spent a week undergoing tests and the doctors could not find out anything wrong with his heart, so he was cleared to play again.

Any doctors on this board? I would love to hear your thoughts on his situation as far as his chances to play college ball. My understanding is that Jarvis Johnson has a known heart condition. Thus far, David does not. How common (or more appropriately, uncommon) is it for someone without a known heart condition for their heart to shut down suddenly, and at such a young age? Will university doctors deny him the ability to play even though nothing has been diagnosed?

On the basketball front, he sounds like someone we need, as he is a big who can shoot well, including the three ball. It sounds like Wisconsin might be getting involved (from another article I read). I’m hoping he commits on his visit this weekend.


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Excessively uncommon for the heart to stop in absence of a cause. I don’t know what workup was done and this would only be speculating poorly so I’d say it’s imosai to say and he’s have to repeat the entire work up which would then dictate his clearance. Do you have a link to the article?
 




Something to keep an eye on, per RJ on GI. Jericho Sims has had his playing time severely reduce at Texas, partly due to an ankle injury. It's absolutely a possibility he leaves Texas, and the Gophers would be a great fit for him. Not much depth in the front-court after Oturu and Curry for next season, barring a huge improvement from Omersa.
 

Something to keep an eye on, per RJ on GI. Jericho Sims has had his playing time severely reduce at Texas, partly due to an ankle injury. It's absolutely a possibility he leaves Texas, and the Gophers would be a great fit for him. Not much depth in the front-court after Oturu and Curry for next season, barring a huge improvement from Omersa.

‪There’s probably a lot of NBA draft hype around Jaxson Hayes next year and with Texas having two highly touted bigs coming in, you could see why Jericho might look around. Only downside is we’d be pretty thin without a rule change next year but Sims is the type of talent you take every time if you can get him. ‬I think RJ mentioned this on the last Talk Gopher Buckets pod too so definitely something to keep an eye on.

2020 could be a special year if we can get things rolling again on the recruiting front.
 
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Something to keep an eye on, per RJ on GI. Jericho Sims has had his playing time severely reduce at Texas, partly due to an ankle injury. It's absolutely a possibility he leaves Texas, and the Gophers would be a great fit for him. Not much depth in the front-court after Oturu and Curry for next season, barring a huge improvement from Omersa.

No way, the U is not a fall back school for kids! He had his chance, get another younger player that wants to be here.


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No way, the U is not a fall back school for kids! He had his chance, get another younger player that wants to be here.


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I'm with this. Unless he somehow has someway to come back without having to sit a year. But he spurned us to go play for Texas and now they stink and he's not even getting decent paying time. Transfer within the conference and take it to the Longhorns for the remainder of your career imo.
 

I'm with this. Unless he somehow has someway to come back without having to sit a year. But he spurned us to go play for Texas and now they stink and he's not even getting decent paying time. Transfer within the conference and take it to the Longhorns for the remainder of your career imo.

Whatever. Everyone on this sight has been talking this guy as unbelievable NBA talent and this guy cant start or get minutes for texas so why do we want this guy?
 

Whatever. Everyone on this sight has been talking this guy as unbelievable NBA talent and this guy cant start or get minutes for texas so why do we want this guy?

Idk why would we want a 6 foot 9 nba athletic dude that can get a hardship waiver to play right away when our frontcourt is going to be weak next year....ohhh btw if you have actually watched any of his games or followed his career at texas you would realize hes a pretty decent player and has done a pretty good job considering the minutes hes been getting....lol troll
 

Idk why would we want a 6 foot 9 nba athletic dude that can get a hardship waiver to play right away when our frontcourt is going to be weak next year....ohhh btw if you have actually watched any of his games or followed his career at texas you would realize hes a pretty decent player and has done a pretty good job considering the minutes hes been getting....lol troll

So! Does he play defense? Can he shoot at this level under pressure? Can he play brawl ball in the B1G? Etc.... We have seen “NBA athletic ability” not be top B1G level players.

I am tired of the press and other fans automatically thinking that we would want any former Minnesota “high school star” that isn’t really playing on their current team. Not every player reaches their HS potential or rating. And just because he was from MN doesn’t mean that we should be blinded by “his potential”.

We can not be considered a fall back school by MN recruits! Why would anybody ever pick the U if they know that they can just transfer to the U if it doesn’t work out somewhere else? We need to be their primary choice and compete as such. You got one shot to ride this train. If you don’t want the ticket then bye, we have others who want the ticket!


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So! Does he play defense? Can he shoot at this level under pressure? Can he play brawl ball in the B1G? Etc.... We have seen “NBA athletic ability” not be top B1G level players.

I am tired of the press and other fans automatically thinking that we would want any former Minnesota “high school star” that isn’t really playing on their current team. Not every player reaches their HS potential or rating. And just because he was from MN doesn’t mean that we should be blinded by “his potential”.

We can not be considered a fall back school by MN recruits! Why would anybody ever pick the U if they know that they can just transfer to the U if it doesn’t work out somewhere else? We need to be their primary choice and compete as such. You got one shot to ride this train. If you don’t want the ticket then bye, we have others who want the ticket!


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You take him in a second. We have THREE open scholarships!
 

I don't like using a scholarship on Sims either. I'd rather see one if not two of the spots for the 2019 class go to grad transfers. I want 4 or 5 open spots available for the 2020 reruiting class. We have a legit shot at Garcia, Walton, Hadley, Dainja and who knows maybe even Suggs if we have a good season. If Sims had 3 years of eligibility, I'd maybe feel different...but he only has two years and I think we could get the same level of production from a grad transfer who won't take up a scholarship for two years.

Also to a lesser extent, I kind of agree of not letting players use MN as a fall back school. I will always take a player who was not good enough to play P5 out of HS and wants to come home(aka Lynch, Lofton, and if we would have landed Crandall), but Sims had his chance to come here. He decided that Texas was a better option and he has not panned out as a player, it happens. I wish him the best, but don't want him.
 

I’m guessing you guys didn’t want Trevor Mbakwe either then right? At worst Sims is a solid rotational big. If we are willing to take on Stockman (who turned us down out of HS btw) to sit one and play one then taking a superior player for a potential sit 1 and play two is a no brainer.
 
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I’m guessing you guys didn’t want Trevor Mbakwe either then right? At worst Sims is a solid rotational big. If we are willing to take on Stockman (who turned us down out of HS btw) to sit one and play one then taking a superior player for a potential sit 1 and play two is a no brainer.

But, on the other hand, personnel and expectations do not remain static...they change over time.
 

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Go Gophers!!
 

Was Skogman on an official, or just a “guest” tonight?


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Go Gophers!!

Need this guy, 6'10'' gets 18 pts shoots 73% from the free throw line. we cant rely on 3 bigs next year, imagine the foul trouble....

Curry, Orturo, and Jarvis as the only back up?

Why did Pitino pass on Hedstrom? could have red shirted him like wisco is doing now.
 

I'd be happy to take Sims if he wanted to come here if we felt he had a good chance to get a waiver granted. We desperately need a backup 5 and if we don't get a grad transfer, Sam Freeman seems like he would be that guy. I'd much rather have Sims than Freeman as our backup 5 next year. If we don't have good reason to believe that he'd get a waiver then I'd have to think about it but wouldn't be opposed.
 

Also Sims, isn't really Minnesotan, he is a Chicago kid that just so happened to play his senior year in Minnesota.

If some Chicago kid had that we offered and wanted bad picked another school out of HS and then wanted to transfer to Minnesota, would we be saying he can't take him because we aren't a fall back school? I don't think we would care at all and would gladly take him. Shouldn't be different with Sims if we think he can help us out.
 

Also Sims, isn't really Minnesotan, he is a Chicago kid that just so happened to play his senior year in Minnesota.

If some Chicago kid had that we offered and wanted bad picked another school out of HS and then wanted to transfer to Minnesota, would we be saying he can't take him because we aren't a fall back school? I don't think we would care at all and would gladly take him. Shouldn't be different with Sims if we think he can help us out.

This isn’t true. I went to elementary school with Jericho and I know his mom who works at the school. It’s true he is from Chicago but he went to high school in Minneapolis and grew up here.


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