What is your most disappointing recruiting "miss"?

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SelectionSunday said:
Admit I'm thinkly mostly about this team and what it's lacking, so I'll go with Macura. This squad could use a sniper, and Macura is certainly much more than that.
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His numbers show he actually hasn't been that great of a 3 point shooter. Just 34.2% in his three years at Xavier which is lower than Mason and McBrayer's career numbers. Overall he a good player, just don't think his outside shooting has been that good.
 

What is your most disappointing recruiting "miss"?

Khalid is an easy choice. Especially irksome because we had him committed before Russ punched him. I'm going back to the Kevin Burleson signing with the hope that we'd get his HS teammate-Doug Wren. In the end, Burleson had a solid career (much better than some of the ball-handling gaffs for which he is remembered). Wren was the one we really wanted, though.
 

GophersInIowa said:
His numbers show he actually hasn't been that great of a 3 point shooter. Just 34.2% in his three years at Xavier which is lower than Mason and McBrayer's career numbers. Overall he a good player, just don't think his outside shooting has been that good.
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JP Macura for me too. I watched him play...I knew he was going to be good. I knew he was somebody we could realistically get. Loved his attitude, as does the Xavier coach. He's willing to do what's needed for the team to be better. He could definitely score more if that was his role.

Khalid was a disappointment. It hurt even more with the success at UConn, imagining what might have been, because he was coming to the U of M at one time. Ours to lose as Jaimiche said.

Reid did seem like he was a Gopher....that sucked.

I agree with the pipe dream comment too, if it never seemed like it was good possibility they were coming, it wasn't like we got jilted at the altar.
 

goldenboy said:
Khalid is an easy choice. Especially irksome because we had him committed before Russ punched him. I'm going back to the Kevin Burleson signing with the hope that we'd get his HS teammate-Doug Wren. In the end, Burleson had a solid career (much better than some of the ball-handling gaffs for which he is remembered). Wren was the one we really wanted, though.
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Agree on both accounts. Not sure how Khalid isn't first on everyone's list for the biggest lost recruit. He was a stud for UCONN. With all due respect to JP Macura comments, he is no Khalid. At least Doug Wren didn't amount to much in college so the miss didn't hurt that bad and KB had a solid career as you mentioned.

I actually think Rick Rickert was the last local boy we landed that also had an offer from a top 5 program... Arizona at the time was akin to Duke now.
 

WindyCityGopher said:
He was the #1 player in the country and Clem got him in for an official visit, so while it may not have been huge, as Lloyd Christmas said "so you're telling me there's a chance."
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I don't really consider Weber a recruit we missed on based on a 1,000,000 to 1 long shot. I guess he preferred tricked out rides at Michigan to Ganglehoff term papers here. :cool:
 


Gophers7NatTitlesBadgers0 said:
I don't really consider Weber a recruit we missed on based on a 1,000,000 to 1 long shot. I guess he preferred tricked out rides at Michigan to Ganglehoff term papers here. :cool:
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We had to back off on Webber after the suite incident:

"Haskins was also penalized for allowing this year's prized recruit, Chris Webber, to be entertained in the university's Metrodome luxury suite during a football game. Webber has since

committed to Michigan."

We were a serious contender for Webber.


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Rouser said:
Agree on both accounts. Not sure how Khalid isn't first on everyone's list for the biggest lost recruit. He was a stud for UCONN. With all due respect to JP Macura comments, he is no Khalid. At least Doug Wren didn't amount to much in college so the miss didn't hurt that bad and KB had a solid career as you mentioned.

I actually think Rick Rickert was the last local boy we landed that also had an offer from a top 5 program... Arizona at the time was akin to Duke now.
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Wasn't Humphries suppose to go to Duke?
 

What is your most disappointing recruiting "miss"?

gopherlaney said:
Clearly you aren't a fan of Gopher hoops historically. Clem coached Marbury multiple years with the USA program and it was down to us and Georgia Tech.


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Clearly you have your facts wrong. Clem did coach Stephon on a National team, but Syracuse was the big favorite in landing Marbury. We were not in the picture.

http://www.nytimes.com/1995/01/06/sports/marbury-makes-choice-ga-tech.html?mcubz=0





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Rouser said:
Agree on both accounts. Not sure how Khalid isn't first on everyone's list for the biggest lost recruit. He was a stud for UCONN. With all due respect to JP Macura comments, he is no Khalid. At least Doug Wren didn't amount to much in college so the miss didn't hurt that bad and KB had a solid career as you mentioned.

I actually think Rick Rickert was the last local boy we landed that also had an offer from a top 5 program... Arizona at the time was akin to Duke now.
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El-Amin was almost 20 years ago. If not for this board, I might not even know who he is. I have my degree from the U and I was in elementary school when he was being recruited. Anything I know about his recruitment is just stuff I've heard on here 15+ years after the fact. Reid Travis is probably the biggest recruiting gut punch I've experienced in my time as a fan. El-Amin is too far back for me to totally relate to.

As far as guys with offers from top programs, Daniel Oturu had a Kansas offer, and Amir Coffey had offers from Arizona and Michigan State. Debatable if Arizona is a top tier basketball program, but they bring in a top 10 class most years.
 



alchemy2u said:
We had to back off on Webber after the suite incident:

"Haskins was also penalized for allowing this year's prized recruit, Chris Webber, to be entertained in the university's Metrodome luxury suite during a football game. Webber has since

committed to Michigan."

We were a serious contender for Webber.


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Yeah I recall that incident, but I also believe Michigan was still considered the heavy favorite and that was more of a pulling out the stops to sway him kind of move. I don't think he had Minnesota real high on his list.
 


Gophers7NatTitlesBadgers0 said:
Yeah I recall that incident, but I also believe Michigan was still considered the heavy favorite and that was more of a pulling out the stops to sway him kind of move. I don't think he had Minnesota real high on his list.
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My recollection is we were number 2. He lived right behind Voshon and they were good friends. That's my memory...
 

gopherlaney said:
That article portrays us in the top 4, not top 2. Big deal.


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I'd say it's a big deal. Syracuse was the front runner, choosing Ga Tech was a bigger surprise than coming to Minnesota. I don't believe speculation going into decision day had Minnesota at four.
 




Every single one of them set the program back from where it could be.

It's a cliche, but if you can't get the kids in your backyard, there is no hope of going anywhere beyond round 1 of the NCAA. They occasionally get the token Coffey, or the three star who overachieves....but until they can land one guy like Tyus, Tre, Rashad, Trent, Hurt, or Suggs it's basically futile.

Does it get worse than having the talent to be a national powerhouse sitting there in your backyard, and watching all stroll across the border and become a legend at some other program? Makes me sick (or about as sick as I can get when it comes to college BB).
 

At the time, Cole Aldrich really hurt the program. I think we got Bryce Webster though.

Aldrich was pretty fantastic at Kansas.
 


bemidjigopher said:
Didn't Vo go to school with Jalen Rose. Weber was a private school kid
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Yes, and Webber almost transferred to the same high school. They were all buddies.


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Not futile, we just gotta recruit someone else from out of state to replace them. Totally agree with your list of difference makers Heracles, but I. Washington is pretty special too. It's just not ever going to happen that any school gets all the top rated guys from a state. You are going to live a life of disappointment if you think that it's going to consistently ever happen we get unanimous commitments from people the caliber of your list. Nobody would.
 

Sparlimb said:
My recollection is we were number 2. He lived right behind Voshon and they were good friends. That's my memory...
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If we were number 2, it was a distant number 2. We had 2 schollies to offer and I think the prospect of being able to play with both Jalen Rose and Juwan Howard was too great to pass up. We ended up with a pretty nice player in Jayson Walton who had Rodney Williams like explosiveness until messed up his knee.

And yes, Webber, Rose, and Lenard all grow up in the same Detroit neighborhood. Let that sink in for a moment.
 

My first thought is Khalid El-Amin for sure, Why? Because we had him, and lost him, and he didn't give UConn 2 years, he gave them 4 years and almost single handedly transformed UConn from a wannabe program into an Elite program. Missing out on Khalid was the first straw that broke the back that was the RISING Gopher bb program. And the reason we lost him was indirectly related to why we lost everything, that being his fight with Russ Archembald(sp?), as I remember wondering if Clem had kicked Russ off the team for that incident, might that have inspired El-Amin to stick to his commitment to us?

BUT, we are Minnesota, this is not a state that conspires together to cover up cheating in favor of winning, and the cheating was already going on, kicking Russ off the team may have inspired him to blow the whistle on the cheating going on even sooner than it got reported, and even if El-Amin played 4 years for us, helping to lead us to much greater heights than we achieved, maybe even a Natl Title? All that would have done was make more for the NCAA to take away from us.


So I'd say missing out on Webber might have been the bigger miss. Why? Clem once stated that it was his frustration with the lack of local talent and the pressure to repeat his early success that led him to resort to cheating to keep the players he was able to recruit eligible. Had he brought in Webber, the success the team may have had for the next 2 years may have given Clem the mojo needed to bring in other top notch recruits in the following years, and MAY have, and I emphasize only the possibility, that it MAY have kept Clem from resorting to cheating? Because landing a guy like Webber at that time may have led Clem to not need to resort to recruiting a loser like Russ, and may have made it easier to keep someone like Khalid around, especially with no Russ on the team to get in a fight with him.


But my gut feeling says that even landing Webber may not have prevented Clem from resorting to cheating and here in Minnesota, that would have gotten sniffed out eventually. So I have to say that I think our biggest miss is Tre Jones, as landing him would have had the biggest and longest lasting LEGITIMATE positive impact on the program.
 

Hands down winner, not anyone even in the same universe: John Wooden
 

GopherJake said:
Hands down winner, not anyone even in the same universe: John Wooden
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John Wooden obviously is a very well respected coach. I like many of his quotes. Having said that, he didn't win an NCAA title at UCLA in his first 15 years there. Then he started getting amazing recruits and won.
So, to suggest the results would have been the same in Minnesota is unlikely. Westwood or Dinkytown hmmm let me think? Sam Gilbert or Sid Hartman? hmmm

http://articles.latimes.com/2010/jun/08/sports/la-sp-0609-wooden-gilbert-20100609
 

60's Guy said:
John Wooden obviously is a very well respected coach. I like many of his quotes. Having said that, he didn't win an NCAA title at UCLA in his first 15 years there. Then he started getting amazing recruits and won.
So, to suggest the results would have been the same in Minnesota is unlikely. Westwood or Dinkytown hmmm let me think? Sam Gilbert or Sid Hartman? hmmm

http://articles.latimes.com/2010/jun/08/sports/la-sp-0609-wooden-gilbert-20100609
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Sid also has story that the Gophers also just about hired Close Personal Friend, Bobby Knight.
 

Two not on the list yet are Glenn Rice and Troy Bell. Troy may not count since part of the problem is that Clem really didn't recruit him. He basically said take or leave it without allowing him to check any other options. In a shooters game he was a shooter. Great career at Boston College. Really idiotic move.

Rice was a different story. Dutcher has repeated this many times. He had great ties to Michigan and recruited Rice hard and thought it was locked up. Rice did some European trip and Dutch chose not to blow the travel budget on the trip. Michigan went. Rice landed there and gave them a national championship.
 

We have a lot of candidates, at least we opened up the discussion beyond the Jones brothers and our current "woe is us" thinking. The U can compete at the top level, it just requires the belief and a few more players.


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60's Guy said:
John Wooden obviously is a very well respected coach. I like many of his quotes. Having said that, he didn't win an NCAA title at UCLA in his first 15 years there. Then he started getting amazing recruits and won.
So, to suggest the results would have been the same in Minnesota is unlikely. Westwood or Dinkytown hmmm let me think? Sam Gilbert or Sid Hartman? hmmm

http://articles.latimes.com/2010/jun/08/sports/la-sp-0609-wooden-gilbert-20100609
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Uhhhhhhhhh:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wooden

SeasonTeamOverallConferenceStandingPostseason
UCLA Bruins[SUP][28][/SUP] (Pacific Coast Conference) <small style="font-size: 11.305px;">(1948–1959)</small>
1948–49UCLA22–710–21st <small style="font-size: 11.305px;">(South)</small>
1949–50UCLA24–710–21st <small style="font-size: 11.305px;">(South)</small>NCAA Regional Fourth Place
1950–51UCLA19–109–4T–1st <small style="font-size: 11.305px;">(South)</small>
1951–52UCLA19–128–41st <small style="font-size: 11.305px;">(South)</small>NCAA Regional Fourth Place
1952–53UCLA16–86–63rd <small style="font-size: 11.305px;">(South)</small>
1953–54UCLA18–77–52nd <small style="font-size: 11.305px;">(South)</small>
1954–55UCLA21–511–11st <small style="font-size: 11.305px;">(South)</small>
1955–56UCLA22–616–01stNCAA Regional Third Place
1956–57UCLA22–413–3T–2nd
1957–58UCLA16–1010–63rd
1958–59UCLA16–910–6T–3rd
UCLA Bruins[SUP][28][/SUP] (Pacific-8 Conference) <small style="font-size: 11.305px;">(1959–1975)</small>
1959–60UCLA14–127–52nd
1960–61UCLA18–87–52nd
1961–62UCLA18–1110–21stNCAA Fourth Place
1962–63UCLA20–98–5T–1stNCAA Regional Fourth Place
1963–64UCLA30–015–01stNCAA Champions
1964–65UCLA28–214–01stNCAA Champions
1965–66UCLA18–810–42nd
1966–67UCLA30–014–01stNCAA Champions
1967–68UCLA29–114–01stNCAA Champions
1968–69UCLA29–113–11stNCAA Champions
1969–70UCLA28–212–21stNCAA Champions
1970–71UCLA29–114–01stNCAA Champions
1971–72UCLA30–014–01stNCAA Champions
1972–73UCLA30–014–01stNCAA Champions
1973–74UCLA26–412–21stNCAA Third Place
1974–75UCLA28–312–21stNCAA Champions

<tbody>
</tbody>

In the 1948–1949 season, John Wooden was hired as the fourth basketball coach in UCLA history. He succeeded Fred Cozens, Caddy Works, and Wilbur Johns; Johns became the school's athletic director. Wooden signed a three-year contract for $6,000 in the first year. Prior to being hired at UCLA, he had been pursued for the head coaching position at the University of Minnesota, and it was his and his wife's desire to remain in the Midwest, but inclement weather in Minnesota prevented Wooden from receiving the scheduled phone offer from the Golden Gophers. Thinking that they had lost interest, Wooden instead accepted the head coaching job with the Bruins. Officials from the University of Minnesota contacted Wooden immediately after he accepted the position at UCLA, but he declined their offer because he had already given his word to UCLA.[SUP][3][/SUP][SUP][26]
[/SUP]
Wooden had immediate success, fashioning the mark of the rarest of coaches, an "instant turnaround" for an undistinguished, faltering program. Part of this success was due to his unique offensive system, the same system that countless coaches use today. John Wooden stated, "I believe my system is perfectly suited to counter all the modern defenses I have seen, and that includes run-and-jump, 1–3–1 trapping, box-and-one, triangle-and-two, and switching man-to-man."[SUP][27][/SUP]

Prior to his arrival in Westwood, UCLA had only had two conference championship seasons in the previous 18 years. In his first season, he took a UCLA team that had posted a 12–13 record the previous year and transformed it into a Pacific Coast Conference(PCC) Southern Division champion with a 22–7 record,[SUP][3][/SUP] the most wins in a season for UCLA since the school started playing basketball in 1919.[SUP][28][/SUP] He surpassed that number the next season with 24–7 and a second division title and overall conference title in 1950, and would add two more in his first four years. Up to that time, UCLA had collected a total of two division titles since the PCC began divisional play, and had not won a conference title of any sort since winning the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference in 1927.
 

Khalid, Chris Webber, Alan Anderson


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Gophers7NatTitlesBadgers0 said:
I don't really consider Weber a recruit we missed on based on a 1,000,000 to 1 long shot. I guess he preferred tricked out rides at Michigan to Ganglehoff term papers here. :cool:
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We had a legit shot until the suite incident


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More recently; Isaiah Whitehead.

I really wanted Rakeem Buckles, that was a blow!

A more interesting list (to me) would be local kids we didn't go after that would have been great gophers-

Mike Muscala!

I would have loved guys like Rundels, Diggs and Jett in maroon and gold.
 

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