Big STrib profile: Minnesota basketball talent boom bypassing Gophers so far

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BleedGopher

BleedGopher

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This article goes beyond just the 2017 recruiting class, so I figured I'd put it as its own thread as well. Per Marcus:

Missing out on top local prospects happened to former U coaches Dan Monson and Tubby Smith, too, and Pitino experienced it his first year. You lose some, but you usually get some, too.

The state has four seniors ranked in the national top 100.

“It was a big year in Minnesota this year,” Rivals.com recruiting analyst Eric Bossi said. “And I’m sure they would’ve liked to have somebody. I’m sure it’s something that causes them some concern. I’m sure it’s something that causes the fan base a little bit of concern.”

“The most talent that I can remember coming out of the state,” Scout.com recruiting director Evan Daniels said.

Recruiting analysts said Pitino did the right thing by taking the better player in Washington. Wright had a chance to make a commitment earlier but didn’t.

“It’s important to get the right kid,” Pitino said last month. “Obviously, if he’s from the state, that’s great. But you’ve got to get the right fit on and off the court. We’ve got some momentum with good kids, some good players from our home state that’s worked out great. We want to continue to do that.”

“If there’s any room for concern [for Gophers fans], it might be that guys like Davison and Sims who were maybe a bit under the national radar [went elsewhere],” Bossi said. “And you had a little more time to work on them before other people came in. Maybe there can be some questions asked about what type of evaluation was done on them.”

http://www.startribune.com/minnesota-basketball-talent-boom-bypassing-gophers-so-far/393491051/

Go Gophers!!
 


As one of the commenters said: If French comes here, the Gophers only missed on one of their top choices, Sims.

Wright dilly-dallied and Washington said yes.

John saw the writing on the wall with French and went to Marquette.
 

Wright and Illikanian had a lot of time to be Gophers. They lost out and RP brought in Washington and Murphy. I think that will be a plus for the UM.

I don't think RP really wanted Davison for what ever reason.

Sims? You can't get them all.
 



BleedGopher said:
“It’s important to get the right kid,” Pitino said last month. “Obviously, if he’s from the state, that’s great. But you’ve got to get the right fit on and off the court. We’ve got some momentum with good kids, some good players from our home state that’s worked out great. We want to continue to do that.”
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It's great to say that, but they recruited Kevin Dorsey knowing that he was a bit on the sketchy side.
 

Frustrating article. We have 2 open scholarships and we just filled one of them with a national recruit that's the 3rd highest rated commit we've had in a decade, just ever so slightly lower rated than Coffey. That should be celebrated as a huge win for the program, but instead it gets a tiny blurb in all these articles lamenting the fact that we didn't fill our scholarships with much lower rated players from MN.

I've always though Marcus is a great writer but it sure seems like he's going to fall in line with the strib's policy of skewing the facts to bash the Gophers at all costs.
 

This article has it's own thread on the badger board. They love it.

This is the second ****ing article on this topic as well. Marcus had one locked and loaded for release right after the Wright and John commitments. Talk about unnecessary. The Strib definetly has some sort of agenda against gopher athletics. They love writing **** like this.
 

Wright's decision to wait and ultimately commit to Dayton is more perplexing to me than Simm's or John's decision, the Gophers roster would have provided playing time right out of the box at his natural position. Simm's and John are PF that perhaps could play in the middle, with Murphy and Curry on campus there is a fair amount of competition for playing time, if you look at the rosters of Marquette and Texas they both have a big need for a power forward in 2017. I can't help but believe part of the right fit that is talked about so often also includes roster makeup and when everything else was taken into consideration going elsewhere seemed like the right thing to do for them.
 



jovs said:
Wright's decision to wait and ultimately commit to Dayton is more perplexing to me than Simm's or John's decision, the Gophers roster would have provided playing time right out of the box at his natural position. Simm's and John are PF that perhaps could play in the middle, with Murphy and Curry on campus there is a fair amount of competition for playing time, if you look at the rosters of Marquette and Texas they both have a big need for a power forward in 2017. I can't help but believe part of the right fit that is talked about so often also includes roster makeup and when everything else was taken into consideration going elsewhere seemed like the right thing to do for them.
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Yeah Wright f'd up. RJ said Wright spent most of his Dayton trip worrying about what was going on in Minneapolis.
 

Bayfieldgopher said:
Wright and Illikanian had a lot of time to be Gophers. They lost out and RP brought in Washington and Murphy. I think that will be a plus for the UM.

I don't think RP really wanted Davison for what ever reason.

Sims? You can't get them all.
Click to expand...

I agree on Wright, but not on Murphy. Jordan pretty much fell into our laps after Shaka left VCU. I don't think Pitino wanted Davison either. Haven't seen him play much so couldn't tell you why, but that late offer it almost seemed like it was just for show.
 

I consider us 1 for 2. It sounds like Washington was the top PG target all along. We got him. Hopefully it works out.
 

Golden_Sloth said:
Frustrating article. We have 2 open scholarships and we just filled one of them with a national recruit that's the 3rd highest rated commit we've had in a decade, just ever so slightly lower rated than Coffey. That should be celebrated as a huge win for the program, but instead it gets a tiny blurb in all these articles lamenting the fact that we didn't fill our scholarships with much lower rated players from MN.

I've always though Marcus is a great writer but it sure seems like he's going to fall in line with the strib's policy of skewing the facts to bash the Gophers at all costs.
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Couldn't agree more. The guy is clearly coaching for his job over the next year or two and he should be concerned with meeting a Minnesota recruit quota? Twelve months after signing the top two kids in the State. Unbelievable to me.

Get the best talent you can. Win more games. Change the culture and the Minnesota kids will fall in line.
 



Why doesn't the author of this article recognize that these kids are exactly that; kids! They earned the right to choose where they want to go! No one has any idea how the actual recruiting of these kids went, let alone Marcus Fuller. Conjecture, heresay, rumor, and misinformation rules. Who really knows!

Sims is going to Texas to play for Shaka Smart. Who wouldn't want to go there? Austin is freaking awesome and Shaka has a HUGE program moving in a positive direction. Reuvers went to Wisky. We were on him too late but in the end Wisky is a perfect fit for his style of play (see Leuer, Breusewitz, on and on). Davidson, same as Reuvers (see Brust, Bohannon, etc.). John is going to Marquette, an excellent school that's close MN, and Wojo is a winner. We recruited over Wright and he made the best decision for him. Trent was never considering us (and he shouldn't for his own best interest).

Why is anyone obligated to come here? The writers in this town assume that everyone should come to the U and it is the coaches fault when they don't. These kids have earned the right to do what they want. Kudos to them.

In the words of Papa Pitino, "All the negativity in this town sucks!"

In the end, win and it won't matter. Let's focus on that versus who we didn't get or don't have.
 

DeathClutch said:
This article has it's own thread on the badger board. They love it.
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Which is ironic as last year wisconsin didn't sign Stone or Ellenson, two of the highest rated kids in state history.

Go Gophers!!
 

BleedGopher said:
Which is ironic as last year wisconsin didn't sign Stone or Ellenson, two of the highest rated kids in state history.

Go Gophers!!
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Exactly! Who gives a bleep what the Badger fans say. Win and it won't matter. Focus people!!
 

Juicer said:
Exactly! Who gives a bleep what the Badger fans say. Win and it won't matter. Focus people!!
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Let them laugh if they perceive us to be recruiting poorly. Our last four commitments have been very impressive on almost any standards, certainly on Wisconsin's.

Wisco, for all that they do to develop players, has a terrible track record recruiting top ranked talent out of wisco. Tokoto, blue, stone, Wesley Matthews come to mind immediately.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

DeathClutch said:
Marcus has gone to the dark side.
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He covers all the angles very well and informs the public to make some of their own decisions on it. I just believe that this all goes away if they are at least a Bubble team this year. Throwing transfers and young talent together will really show Pitino's coaching ability. I think he gets fired if they don't have a good season.
 

bc2211 said:
Let them laugh if they perceive us to be recruiting poorly. Our last four commitments have been very impressive on almost any standards, certainly on Wisconsin's.

Wisco, for all that they do to develop players, has a terrible track record recruiting top ranked talent out of wisco. Tokoto, blue, stone, Wesley Matthews come to mind immediately.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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I don't know that Wisconsin has recruited any better than Minnesota has the last couple of years, time will tell but the way things have been going I would expect Minnesota to be very competitive with Wisconsin in another year.

The one thing Pitino hasn't dissappointed at the last couple of years is recruiting.
 

bizzle22 said:
I agree on Wright, but not on Murphy. Jordan pretty much fell into our laps after Shaka left VCU. I don't think Pitino wanted Davison either. Haven't seen him play much so couldn't tell you why, but that late offer it almost seemed like it was just for show.
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We still had to get Murphy after he docommitted Oregon and Indiana made big pushes as well, credit to the staff for getting it done in short order, imagine adding Murph to that loaded Hoosier front court
 

bemidjigopher said:
We still had to get Murphy after he docommitted Oregon and Indiana made big pushes as well, credit to the staff for getting it done in short order, imagine adding Murph to that loaded Hoosier front court
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Guess the only one I remember being worried about was BC. I didn't know Oregon was even involved and I know Indiana was full up on scholarships at that point. Guess they could have pulled one from someone else though and we all know Crean is not above doing that
 

Bayfieldgopher said:
Wright and Illikanian had a lot of time to be Gophers. They lost out and RP brought in Washington and Murphy. I think that will be a plus for the UM.

I don't think RP really wanted Davison for what ever reason.

Sims? You can't get them all.
Click to expand...

Illikanian lost out because of Nwankwo, who then didn't get into the U(?) and then we got Murphy.
 

FWIW the headline in the physical paper is Gophers Recruiting Woes: A border with leaks. To be fair, the second part is true but the first part is absolutely false. The article takes up half of the front page and the entire back page of the sports section. Just unnecessary.

Sent from my LGL41C using Tapatalk
 

WI would not admit Stone for academic reasons and Ellenson wanted to be the "BMOC". In any event,both were announced certain one and done and neither played in the Sweet 16 but WI did.
Two years of final 4 and then the 16 is in stark contrast to MN record so WI must be doing something right that MN isn't.
 

Tim1406 said:
Illikanian lost out because of Nwankwo, who then didn't get into the U(?) and then we got Murphy.
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Actually I believe Jarvis took the last scholarship leaving Illikainen out. Nwankwo couldn't get in later opening up a spot for Murphy.

Pretty much what you said though.
 

olddoc said:
WI would not admit Stone for academic reasons and Ellenson wanted to be the "BMOC". In any event,both were announced certain one and done and neither played in the Sweet 16 but WI did.
Two years of final 4 and then the 16 is in stark contrast to MN record so WI must be doing something right that MN isn't.
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They are doing well. But an article with the headline Badgers can;t or won't recruit Milwuakee city kids would be very accurate. They could not even keep Vander Blue in town.
 

DeathClutch said:
This article has it's own thread on the badger board. They love it.

This is the second ****ing article on this topic as well. Marcus had one locked and loaded for release right after the Wright and John commitments. Talk about unnecessary. The Strib definetly has some sort of agenda against gopher athletics. They love writing **** like this.
Click to expand...

Oh yeah, if people think ruppert is bad here, imagine a small army of Gopher fans just eagle-eyeing Buckyville and reporting their findings here on a daily basis. I remember the day it was announced that they got a 2 seed in the 2014 NCAA tournament, there was a thread on the front page about us going to the NIT.

You should have seen their reaction to Washington committing here. First of all, his offer list means that he's overrated by the recruiting services, but we still had to cheat to get him by giving him hookers and duffel bags full of money. He's going to decommit when Pitino is inevitably fired, where Wright would not have because he's local, meaning Wright was the better choice all along, and apparently Pitino should be accounting for the possibility of his own firing in his recruiting strategy. They also believe Davison will end up having been the better player after all is said and done despite his lower ranking, which admittedly is less ridiculous than the rest of it.

bc2211 said:
Let them laugh if they perceive us to be recruiting poorly. Our last four commitments have been very impressive on almost any standards, certainly on Wisconsin's.

Wisco, for all that they do to develop players, has a terrible track record recruiting top ranked talent out of wisco. Tokoto, blue, stone, Wesley Matthews come to mind immediately.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

They didn't get Kevon Looney either.

Blackhammer said:
They are doing well. But an article with the headline Badgers can;t or won't recruit Milwuakee city kids would be very accurate. They could not even keep Vander Blue in town.
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Vander Blue was committed to Wisconsin at one point, and there's even a kind of bizarre story about him decommitting because of Badger fans trashing him on internet message boards.
 

olddoc said:
WI would not admit Stone for academic reasons...
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You badger fans sure like to believe that don't you?

"On his grades

Recruiting gets ugly when the uninformed begin talking about a high school player's grades. Yes, the academics are an obviously important part of the whole process. But we know nothing about the kind of student Stone was, is or will be.

For the past several years, Wisconsin fans have wondered -- increasingly more so if you read our comment sections with frequency -- if admissions standards are too high relative to the rest of the Big Ten. In this case, Stone dismissed those concerns in relation to his recruitment.

While Stone's decision was hailed by Maryland fans, some Badgers fans weren't as kind or diplomatic. One theme, before and after the announcement, was to assume that Stone did not meet the academic requirements to attend Wisconsin.

"It's just people's opinions. It didn't really get to me," he said. "My guidance counselor emailed my mom and he was like, 'Do you want me to send Diamond's ACT scores out,' so people can just leave me alone, because that wasn't the case.

"I told her people are always going to have something bad to say about you. At least we know the truth. Somebody said I had a 3 on my ACT. How is that possible? I got a 20. I was fine to go to Wisconsin. I just picked Maryland.""

Just keep lying to yourself.
 

olddoc said:
WI would not admit Stone for academic reasons and Ellenson wanted to be the "BMOC". In any event,both were announced certain one and done and neither played in the Sweet 16 but WI did.
Two years of final 4 and then the 16 is in stark contrast to MN record so WI must be doing something right that MN isn't.
Click to expand...

BWAaaaaahahahahahahahhhahBwahahahhahha they wouldn't accept Diamond Bwahhhhahahha that's ****in rich, even from you,
 

Cayman said:
You should have seen their reaction to Washington committing here. First of all, his offer list means that he's overrated by the recruiting services, but we still had to cheat to get him by giving him hookers and duffel bags full of money. He's going to decommit when Pitino is inevitably fired, where Wright would not have because he's local, meaning Wright was the better choice all along, and apparently Pitino should be accounting for the possibility of his own firing in his recruiting strategy. They also believe Davison will end up having been the better player after all is said and done despite his lower ranking, which admittedly is less ridiculous than the rest of it.
Click to expand...

Who knew you had to go to Buckyville to get the straight scoop!
 

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