2017 Recruiting Opinions

As someone that watches from afar I am interested to hear from those of you that either have a better pulse on the program or have more time to follow recruiting. I do read the recruiting posts here but individually it is hard to gauge the importance of individual recruits or the faith we may land them. I would love to hear who folks think would be the most impactful targets and realistic chances they end up in maroon and gold. In my world 1.5 thumbs up means we'll see them playing for the gophers and 1.5 thumbs down means we've got no realistic shot. (Some of the long term posters will understand that joke from when I used to post as Markymark98.). Thanks in advance. Living in Indianapolis I get all Indiana, Purdue, and Butler talk.


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Gary Trent Jr. - Clearly the best player the Gophers are even interested in, Minnesota native, but the gophers have no chance.

Theo John - Minnesotan. Personally, my favorite player that I think the gophers have a realistic shot at. Game-changer on the defensive end, raw on offense, but I think he deserves more credit than he is given. Rarely makes dumb passes or bad turnovers, he won't hurt you. The post moves and jump shot aren't there yet, but there's potential.

Jericho Sims - Minnesotan. I've personally never seen him play, so I can't speak much, but he clearly has ELITE athleticism, and has been skyrocketing up recruiting charts in the past year. Most people seem to be leaning gophers with him, but it's still up in the air.

Isaiah Washington - New Yorker, so I've never seen him play either, but he is fairly highly rated, and on tape he looks impressive. More of a scorer than playmaker. Gophers seem to be one of the favorites, but again, not overwhelmingly.

McKinley Wright - Minnesotan, plays HS with Theo John. Strong, hard-nosed PG. Can drive to the basket and finish, is a pretty good playmaker. Not a great shooter, but not awful. Recruiting doesn't really seem to be leaning one way or the other.

Other players gophers have offered are Wabissa Bede (Point guard from Boston) and Jacob Epperson (Center from Australia) but I know little about them. Both have fairly good offer lists for what it's worth.

In order of how I'd rank the possible recruits.

Trent Jr- very small chance he's a Gopher
Wright- Tough player. His shot is not far away
Washington- know nothing about him other than his ratings
Sims- athlete. Seems to be the type of player pitting is looking for.
John- Saw CP play 3 times last winter (all 3 were losses) and came away not as impressed as I was with Wright. Is definitely athletic, but doesn't have much touch

2018 note- Oturu from CDH should be the priority. He is more impressive than John imo

Rank as to which of these guys may end up being Gophers:

1. John - seems like he is focusing on the Midwest schools. May want to stay close to home.
2. Wright - All depends on John, playing with your HS teammate in college and all.
3. Sims - Father was a Gopher and he may want to be a legacy. Blue-bloods are recruiting and may seduce him away.
4. Washington - Dream is to play for Syracuse. Get feeling Gophers are his fall-back option if he doesn't get what he wants.
5. Bede - He is getting offers from good programs on the East coast. I don't think he will be interested in the end.
6. Epperson - I don't know much about this guy at all.

100. Trent - everything in the tea leaves says he is going to Duke, Kentucky or Kansas. Gophers have 0% chance.

Otis said:

Rank as to which of these guys may end up being Gophers:

1. John - seems like he is focusing on the Midwest schools. May want to stay close to home.
2. Wright - All depends on John, playing with your HS teammate in college and all.
3. Sims - Father was a Gopher and he may want to be a legacy. Blue-bloods are recruiting and may seduce him away.
4. Washington - Dream is to play for Syracuse. Get feeling Gophers are his fall-back option if he doesn't get what he wants.
5. Bede - He is getting offers from good programs on the East coast. I don't think he will be interested in the end.
6. Epperson - I don't know much about this guy at all.

100. Trent - everything in the tea leaves says he is going to Duke, Kentucky or Kansas. Gophers have 0% chance.

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So last year commits came fast in a three or four week period and it was over by the third/fourth week in sept. Will we see something similar this year or was last year just unusual?

macgopher said:

So last year commits came fast in a three or four week period and it was over by the third/fourth week in sept. Will we see something similar this year or was last year just unusual?

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Well Michael Hurt committed in January I think, he was our earliest commit probably since 2009 or so, then Coffey and Curry committed in the same week. Historically, I think most of our commits come around late September.