Orono PF Jarvis Thomas Commits to the Gophers

Thomas is 16. He could still grow. That would shoot his stock up even higher.

This kid will be special if he is willing to work hard on his offense and strength.
 


Very excited...this kid could be a beast in a couple years with hard work...and he is still growing!
 

I am excited for this kid not least because he is so excited to be here!


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per Marcus:

On Sunday, Thomas called coach Richard Pitino to become a member of the Gophers’ 2018 recruiting class, joining Howard Pulley AAU teammate Daniel Oturu, a 6

Interesting timing. Sunday at 5:11pm was when Race Thompson tweeted he had committed to Indiana, as best I can tell. Now MN may not have been Race's top choice but it is possible that Jarvis called Pitino sometime early on Sunday to commit to MN and the coaches at MN then called Race to rescind their offer to him. It was then later Sunday that Race accepted the offer from Indiana. Not that it matters much from a fan perspective, I'm absolutely thrilled to have Jarvis join MN, but the timing is a wake-up to future fence sitters of a Gopher scolly offer that that offer can disappear.
 


Thomas is 16. He could still grow. That would shoot his stock up even higher.

This kid will be special if he is willing to work hard on his offense and strength.

Not picking on this post in particular, but it seems like the consensus a couple months ago was he was not worthy of a scholarship and now he is on the verge of stardom.....what are we really getting with him? Are the current evaluations tainted because he is a local kid? Same question for me on Gabe? I don't watch much high school basketball so I'm not trying to make an evaluation here.....
 

Watch some of the videos. His athleticism for a 16 year old is obviously very high and others say he is a hard worker and his game has improved significantly in the last 12 months. That's all I need to know. Those ingredient make the upside very high which is really what it is all about when recruiting high school talent - You can't coach height or athleticism.
 

Not picking on this post in particular, but it seems like the consensus a couple months ago was he was not worthy of a scholarship and now he is on the verge of stardom.....what are we really getting with him? Are the current evaluations tainted because he is a local kid? Same question for me on Gabe? I don't watch much high school basketball so I'm not trying to make an evaluation here.....

He has improved a lot. Ryan James who covers local hoops and high school hoops raves about his improvements and he apparently grew an inch or 2
 

I listened to the Gopher Hoops podcast and James said a year ago he couldn't see how Jarvis was going to attract high major offers given his size and non-existent skill set. To go from that to having offers from IA St, Marquette, Pitt, Tex A&M, Wake Forrest, etc. gives a pretty good indication of his trajectory. Ryan said he grew 2" in that 12 month time frame as well, imagine if he grows another 2"... will be interesting to see where he lands in the final rankings next summer.
 



I saw him play a few times as a sophomore at Tartan and once last year with Orono and came away pretty unimpressed.

Really looking forward to seeing him this year to see the strides he's made.
 

Yeah Thomas has risen pretty quick but he has a very very long way to go especially offensively which is always a concern for me. You can get away with being just about bodied raw athlete as a post much more than a backcourt guy but I always get concerned when offensive ability isn't exactly a strong suit. That's something that doesn't just suddenly change with college coaching.

Basically, I think Jarvis is a major conference D1 player but this "sky is the limit" narrative is a little overplayed. He'll be a big physical and athletic body which there's nothing wrong with and has value to a team but I can already see the complainants on here a few years from now about how he doesn't do much besides putbacks and dunks on offense
 

^Agreed. The Coffey commitment was the key to turning the corner. Somebody has to take that first step to show other elite players it's going to happen here, and it was Coffey. A commitment from Tre or Matt Hurt would be the next step.

Coffey wasn't first. Jarvis Johnson was. That started to turn the tide. Well, first in a while at least.
 

I think we all overreact to signings on "I don't see him being a good/great" starter in the B1G. He might never be. But if he is a strong 7th or 8th man, that is not bad. Maybe he never develops offensively, is just a big body who can guard some guys, rebound and get layups/dunks. Plenty of worse recruits in the past 10-15 years than that.
 



Coffey wasn't first. Jarvis Johnson was. That started to turn the tide. Well, first in a while at least.

What are we defining as "first" for this narrative? For example, Rodney Williams was rated comparably to Coffey and much higher than Jarvis Johnson. "First" what? First five-star? Obviously, none of those mentioned are five-stars. The "first" five-star to commit to the Gophers in a long while was Royce White, and his cranial-rectal inversion kept him from ever stepping on the Williams Arena floor for a real game.
 

per Marcus:

On Sunday, Thomas called coach Richard Pitino to become a member of the Gophers’ 2018 recruiting class, joining Howard Pulley AAU teammate Daniel Oturu, a 6

Interesting timing. Sunday at 5:11pm was when Race Thompson tweeted he had committed to Indiana, as best I can tell. Now MN may not have been Race's top choice but it is possible that Jarvis called Pitino sometime early on Sunday to commit to MN and the coaches at MN then called Race to rescind their offer to him. It was then later Sunday that Race accepted the offer from Indiana. Not that it matters much from a fan perspective, I'm absolutely thrilled to have Jarvis join MN, but the timing is a wake-up to future fence sitters of a Gopher scolly offer that that offer can disappear.

Way to blatantly disregard facts to pimp a make believe point, Marcus! Race reclassified to 2017 therefore was no competition with Jarvis for a scholarship.
 




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