Would you swap McKinley Wright over IW for the next 4 years?

Pdiddy

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Easy to say after the fact but it looks like we let a good one slip out of our back yard. We spent too much time recruiting the self centered don’t give a hoot about Minnesota Jones brothers (but stud ball players especially Tre) and should have spent more focus on McKinley. I hope more than anyone that IW can figure it out but I feel too many people defend him as “well he is only a freshman” if he’s that good he should be showing it. McKinley is doing it and he’s a freshman. Shooting 48% and IW 33% and 13% from three. But he’s only a freshman right, so to be expected.
 


No


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"You can't go back...you can never go back..."
 


Yes.

I’m not mad at the recruiting “miss” because I did not see anywhere near this offensive skill out of McKinley. But I’d take a guy that can shoot in a heartbeat. Washington may eventually put his offensive game together but his shooting %s have a very long way to go.
 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but Wright was not known as a strong shooter coming out of high school was he?
 

His shooting improved. Averaged 23 in high school. He would have come to Minnesota but we already signed Stephon Marbury and we’re holding out hope on Tre Jones. We should have nabbed him after he decommited from Dayton. We didn’t have room and we certainly didn’t want to send Gas or Konate packing because they are such good kids and hard workers.
 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but Wright was not known as a strong shooter coming out of high school was he?

That’s much understanding and why in my post I’m kinda surprised, but if given revisionist history, would take Wright.
 



Hindsight is 20-20. IW may be the better player by Year 3. Or maybe not. No longer matters. Good luck to MW.
 

Wright is more athletic than Washington, probably a slightly better shooter, similar in scoring ability. I'm guessing Wright just wasn't interested in Minnesota or he would be here.
 

I think we had a scholarship available after Wright decommitted from Dayton, the staff even brought him to campus a few times. I think Pitino and staff recognized his talent but in the end couldn't take three undersized guards in the same class. I don't blame Pitino for taking Washington over Wright, he was the higher rated recruit by everybody, that said I would take Wright all day over Washington now.
 

I think we had a scholarship available after Wright decommitted from Dayton, the staff even brought him to campus a few times. I think Pitino and staff recognized his talent but in the end couldn't take three undersized guards in the same class. I don't blame Pitino for taking Washington over Wright, he was the higher rated recruit by everybody, that said I would take Wright all day over Washington now.
No we didn't have a scholarship available or he would be here. We already had Stockman to fill the scholarship that opened with Gilbert leaving. Gophers tried to get Wright to go to prep school for a year and be part of their 18 class.
 



"Would you swap McKinley Wright over IW for the next 4 years?"

Absolutely without reservations. Unfortunately, we can't do trades in college basketball and, if we could, Colorado would never make that trade (we'd have to throw in another significant contributor to make them consider it).

Unlike many posters here, I don't pay attention to high school recruits because I feel that is wasted energy. I wait to see what kind of players we have after we get them. So, I had no opinion on Wright until I saw his freshman stats earlier in the season. Later I watched about 10 minutes of a Colorado game and that was all it took to be convinced that 1) he was vastly underrated in high school and 2) oh boy, we missed out.
 

Wright is more athletic than Washington, probably a slightly better shooter

Slightly better?

True Shooting Percentages (a much better measure than field goal percentage) so far as freshmen:

Wright: 56%
Washington: 40.3%

To put that in perspective, McBrayer and Dorsey, who were abysmal shooters as freshmen, were 44.6% and 45.3% respectively that year.
 

I would not take Wright over IW, but I would take him over Harris. I'm still puzzled as to why Pitino wanted Harris. He can make a 3 when he's open but brings almost nothing else to the table.
 

Not so much disappointed that the Gophers didnt recognize McKinley's talent, because most colleges didnt. His only offers were Dayton and Colorado....

Im much more disappointed that the Gophers had so many bad scholarship's on the team, that they werent able to get anyone from the deepest in state class in a long time. Gary Trent doesnt really hurt, hard to recruit against the likes of Duke...Jericho kind of hurts, he's a Coffey, Oturu level of recruit that the Gophers need to hit on at a high clip, but its still understandable to lose one of these guys...but then we got the other tier where there were 7 other kids in the state that went D1 in the class...two of them crossed the border to Wisconsin, and many of these kids are having immediate success...After IW and Harris, the Gophers had no scholarships to offer to any of these guys.
 

We're conveniently forgetting that Wright was set to commit to the Gophers before IW committed to Pitino on his official visit. Wright raved about the coaching staff and the chance to be close to home. Then his spot was taken. It's not on the coach when Wright could have committed months before.

IW has all the potential in the world to be great, just needs time. Wright found a great fit at Colorado, and he's a great kid. Good for him, let's stop being bitter that he's not a Gopher.
 

Not so much disappointed that the Gophers didnt recognize McKinley's talent, because most colleges didnt. His only offers were Dayton and Colorado....

He had offers from at least 8 other high majors, including Minnesota.
 

We're conveniently forgetting that Wright was set to commit to the Gophers before IW committed to Pitino on his official visit. Wright raved about the coaching staff and the chance to be close to home. Then his spot was taken. It's not on the coach when Wright could have committed months before.

IW has all the potential in the world to be great, just needs time. Wright found a great fit at Colorado, and he's a great kid. Good for him, let's stop being bitter that he's not a Gopher.

Thank you. Wright had every opportunity to be here, he took too long to pull the trigger. If Archie Miller had been hired away a year earlier, maybe Wright would have been 100% sold on Minnesota a little earlier and committed. He had a spot if he wanted it.
 


Wright is more athletic than Washington, probably a slightly better shooter, similar in scoring ability. I'm guessing Wright just wasn't interested in Minnesota or he would be here.

We slow played Wright once Washington started giving us serious interest. If we would have made Wright our #1 priority at PG, he would be a gopher.
 

Yes. In a heartbeat. One guy just lead his team to back to back wins over top 15 teams. While another guy is averaging 4 ppg in Big 10 play.
 

We slow played Wright once Washington started giving us serious interest. If we would have made Wright our #1 priority at PG, he would be a gopher.
Wright could've committed for a long time there was no slow play. Wright visited Minnesota and enjoyed it but wanted to stick to his word and take his Dayton visit the next weekend and at the same time he did that Washington visited Minnesota and committed on his visit. Towards the end the Gopher staff might've had Washington a little higher but Wright was pursued hard for many months before that happened and could've committed at anytime.
 

I still think IW has a chance, but there is no comparison at this point in their young careers.
There were some things in play to make sure IW got the first chance to commit...also, never take a kid because he is 'rated' higher, they need to fit your system and vision for the program. IW had hype behind him because of a couple very impressive unstructured games and his Jelly Jam following. This is recruiting to help you build a resume and land that next job (ranking of recruiting classes). Unfortunately you also need to win games now and into the future, in case you don't get that next job. Fatal mistake by Pitino and young staff, MW may have helped get a couple other players in future classes, IW won't...because Jelly Jam has been pushed to the back of the fridge, haven't seen it all year. Also, what happened to the argument that Colorado is a team that won't even sniff the NIT? They still may not make it, but those are two impressive wins and they were lead by MW. Too late now, MW isn't going anywhere.
People need to take note of Pitino's recruiting history while at Minnesota. I think most really like this coming class of 2018, but besides 2016, every class has had a minimum of one recruit be dismissed, transfer without ever impacting the team on a positive note, or not live up to expectations. There has been theft, sexual misconduct multiple times, other dismissals for who knows what reason...Murphy (lucky to get) and Coffey are only two who have excelled on the court and stayed out of trouble. Give credit to Mason, he has grown as a person and a player, but he was almost dismissed as well. Just some food for thought.
 

If Wright wanted to be a Gopher, he would be. Can we stop it with these stupid threads and posts? I for one am happy to have IW on the team. I would have been happy with Wright too, but that is irrelevant.
 


If Wright wanted to be a Gopher, he would be. Can we stop it with these stupid threads and posts? I for one am happy to have IW on the team. I would have been happy with Wright too, but that is irrelevant.

Excuse me but the question was: Would you swap Washington for Wright? Whatever may or may not have happened in the past is irrelevant to one's opinion on that question. This is simply a poll type question; it doesn't address what we did, didn't, coulda, or shoulda done. Some other posters simply turned the thread into that.
 

Excuse me but the question was: Would you swap Washington for Wright? Whatever may or may not have happened in the past is irrelevant to one's opinion on that question. This is simply a poll type question; it doesn't address what we did, didn't, coulda, or shoulda done. Some other posters simply turned the thread into that.

It is relevant. This is a IW vs Wright thread. Its a way overplayed theme on GH, and its irrelevant because Wright would be here if he wanted to be...he didnt. Do we get the "would you swap Tre Jones for IW" threads next year?
 

If Wright wanted to be a Gopher, he would be. Can we stop it with these stupid threads and posts? I for one am happy to have IW on the team. I would have been happy with Wright too, but that is irrelevant.

True but if we are doing what ifs here, what if the Gophers signed Wright and Washington instead of Harris. The backcourt would have been undersized, but maybe like Eric Harris and Bobby Jackson they could have played well together.
 




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