Washington, with Jelly Fam brand in tow, gives U basketball a recruit like none other

BleedGopher

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Richard Pitino stared in awe at the hundreds of fans lining the hallway outside of the St. Raymond locker room after Isaiah Washington’s final high school basketball game.

Kids, teenagers, adults — all waiting for the new Prince of New York City basketball to emerge. Some fans were lucky enough to get their hands on purple “Just Jelly” custom T-shirts, honoring the nickname for the flashy finger-roll layup he has perfected, given away for Washington to sign. It was Senior Day, likely their last chance to see the celebrity point guard in the Bronx before he left for the University of Minnesota.

Unlike any Gophers recruit before him — perhaps in any sport — Washington has arrived in Minneapolis this summer with the fame and fanfare of a social-media superstar. And less than four months before his expected Gophers debut, St. Raymond’s all-time leading scorer is driving the already substantial buzz around his style and abilities even higher with riveting summer-league play.

Pitino calls Washington a throwback New York City point guard, comparing his showmanship to legends such as Kenny Anderson, Sebastian Telfair and Stephon Marbury. Byers agreed.

“He’s the next one,” Byers said. “New York City adores Isaiah Washington. They love the kid. They support the kid everywhere he goes. Not only has he tore up the AAU circuit, but all the high level tournaments here in New York City. … Right now, New York City belongs to him. They’re going to follow him. Minnesota has basically gained a whole new spectrum of fans with Isaiah going there.”

It’s up to Pitino to make sure the attention on Washington and #jellyfam hype doesn’t disrupt chemistry for a team facing lofty expectations.

“I’ve got no problem with that coming to Minnesota,” Pitino said. “I think it’s awesome. It’s brought great awareness to basketball. People love it. … But if he tries to do one of those layups at Michigan State and it gets punched into the student section, we’re going to have to have a conversation with him about it. He knows that. And I told him, ‘Isaiah when you come here, people are going to know who you are. That’s a good a thing. Handle it the right way, and hopefully you play here, have a great career and go on one day to play for money and market yourself even more.’ ”

http://www.startribune.com/isaiah-w...sketball-a-recruit-like-none-other/436072533/

Go Gophers!!
 


This is the first PG we've had in a long time that will be able to beat his guy off the dribble and not depend on ball screens. His ability to freeze defenders and get them leaning the wrong way will open up his shot, and all of the help D that will be sent his way to double will open up shots for his teammates.
 

Let's hope IW doesn't have an overbearing mediahog father. Nothing would turn me off more.
I've been following him for a while now and I haven't heard anything about, or from, his Dad at all so I very much doubt that's the case here.

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Where'd this come from? Kind of a weird reaction to the story. Having a bad day?


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I mean, this is a Minnesota fan base. It wouldn't be right if we didn't have at least one person trying to quell our excitement by bringing up any number of imagined scenarios that will surely develop just "because we can't have nice things", right?

I LOVE the Gophers and the state of Minnesota. But the whole defeatist attitude is so so tired. These people need to find a new bit. The tides are a-changing in Gopherland
 


Let's hope IW doesn't have an overbearing mediahog father. Nothing would turn me off more.

LaVar Ball pulled his Big Ballers AAU team off the court during a game Saturday after he was whistled for a technical foul for arguing a foul call and uttering a profanity toward a referee.

The incident occurred during a playoff game at the Double Pump Best of Summer Tournament in Anaheim, California. The game was ruled a forfeit, giving the victory to the opposing team.

Link
 




Probably the Lavar Ball effect

So there's one complete whack-job, to that level, of a parent associated with college bball players and the poster automatically comes to the conclusion this is commonplace?


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I mean, this is a Minnesota fan base. It wouldn't be right if we didn't have at least one person trying to quell our excitement by bringing up any number of imagined scenarios that will surely develop just "because we can't have nice things", right?

I LOVE the Gophers and the state of Minnesota. But the whole defeatist attitude is so so tired. These people need to find a new bit. The tides are a-changing in Gopherland

Haha, completely agree. Kinda entertaining to see fans get uptight/insecure about Washington having some swag and getting attention. I'm sure he plays the exact same in streetball and clips without defenders as he will in the Big Ten...
 




LaVar Ball pulled his Big Ballers AAU team off the court during a game Saturday after he was whistled for a technical foul for arguing a foul call and uttering a profanity toward a referee.

The incident occurred during a playoff game at the Double Pump Best of Summer Tournament in Anaheim, California. The game was ruled a forfeit, giving the victory to the opposing team.

Link

I'm torn between mad genius or complete train wreck when it comes to LaVar Ball. I'm starting to lean towards the latter.

BTW, thanks for being one of the few who gets me on here.
 


Does being stuck at O'Hare for 17 hours qualify?

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Stuck at Ohare for 17 hours? If you're on your way back to MN you could have just driven home.
 


Either get ready to love IW and JellyFam or get out of here. This is the new Gophers. We land the guys we want. We win. The Barn will rise again.

Just wait until Tre Jones commits.

IW will add over 50,000 followers in a month. He hasn't played a game. People are hyped.
 

Either get ready to love IW and JellyFam or get out of here. This is the new Gophers. We land the guys we want. We win. The Barn will rise again.

Just wait until Tre Jones commits.

IW will add over 50,000 followers in a month. He hasn't played a game. People are hyped.

Preach!!
 


Where'd this come from? Kind of a weird reaction to the story. Having a bad day?


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For those that read the entire article, the discussion about Pitino checking in with the NCAA about potential conflicts with the Jelly Fam brand leads directly to similarities with Big Baller Brand. So a question about Washington's father is reasonable whether Gophers7NatTitlesBadgers0 was having a bad day or not.
 

IW up to 314,000 followers on Instagram. Gopher mens basketball is under 10,000.

His brand/name/impact is going to be helpful as the program tries to get into the national spotlight.
 

Gopher's being contenders for a B1G conf title could help some as well.

And how they did 2 seasons ago, its not hard to believe that they only had hardcore fans following them last year.

Minnesota band wagon fans are that way. Losing only 1 game in the ooc last year wasn't going to be enough to get any of them jumping on the bandwagon. Then the 5 game losing streak meant that none of them were going to jump on unless something miraculous happened to finish out the season. And had they beaten Wisconsin that last game of the regular season, they might have started to jump onboard, but of course they didn't.

And even now this season, most of them won't jump onboard until the team is probably half way through the conference season, unless they go undefeated through the ooc and into the conf season? They are just a hard bunch to win over to Gopher athletics. The Vikes only need to win 2 or 3 in a row to start a season and the whole damn state seems to jump on their bandwagon, lol.
 

IW up to 314,000 followers on Instagram. Gopher mens basketball is under 10,000.

His brand/name/impact is going to be helpful as the program tries to get into the national spotlight.

Hopefully his New York following will make the game vs Ohio State at MSG feel like a home game.
 

Gopher's being contenders for a B1G conf title could help some as well.

And how they did 2 seasons ago, its not hard to believe that they only had hardcore fans following them last year.

Minnesota band wagon fans are that way. Losing only 1 game in the ooc last year wasn't going to be enough to get any of them jumping on the bandwagon. Then the 5 game losing streak meant that none of them were going to jump on unless something miraculous happened to finish out the season. And had they beaten Wisconsin that last game of the regular season, they might have started to jump onboard, but of course they didn't.

And even now this season, most of them won't jump onboard until the team is probably half way through the conference season, unless they go undefeated through the ooc and into the conf season? They are just a hard bunch to win over to Gopher athletics. The Vikes only need to win 2 or 3 in a row to start a season and the whole damn state seems to jump on their bandwagon, lol.

As long as they stay ranked as long as possible there will be bandwagoners.
 


I mean, this is a Minnesota fan base. It wouldn't be right if we didn't have at least one person trying to quell our excitement by bringing up any number of imagined scenarios that will surely develop just "because we can't have nice things", right?

I LOVE the Gophers and the state of Minnesota. But the whole defeatist attitude is so so tired. These people need to find a new bit. The tides are a-changing in Gopherland

There's so much truth here. Most fan bases I'm aware of are characteristically overly optimistic and delusional. We on the other hand are conditioned and browbeaten to not be homers. It's never been clear to me why fans shouldn't be allowed to be homers, but that's what we get told. Ironically, as a result, we end up the least homer-ish fan base in existence but still get ridiculed for being homers. Still not sure how that works.

Soooo, is it completely f-ing stupid of us to wonder whether a guy like Washington could be the Johnny Dawkins or the Devin Harris that takes the program to the next level and marks its ascendancy to national prominence? I don't think it is. That's the type of thing that fans are SUPPOSED to wonder and hope.

Washington has physical talent but also a pile of intangibles. I feel like the sky is the limit of what the program could accomplish during his career. There, I've said it!
 

There's so much truth here. Most fan bases I'm aware of are characteristically overly optimistic and delusional. We on the other hand are conditioned and browbeaten to not be homers. It's never been clear to me why fans shouldn't be allowed to be homers, but that's what we get told. Ironically, as a result, we end up the least homer-ish fan base in existence but still get ridiculed for being homers. Still not sure how that works.

Soooo, is it completely f-ing stupid of us to wonder whether a guy like Washington could be the Johnny Dawkins or the Devin Harris that takes the program to the next level and marks its ascendancy to national prominence? I don't think it is. That's the type of thing that fans are SUPPOSED to wonder and hope.

Washington has physical talent but also a pile of intangibles. I feel like the sky is the limit of what the program could accomplish during his career. There, I've said it!


Take off you marooned colored glasses, homer!
 





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