There has been a lot of talk in both active recruiting threads ('18 and '19) on Coach Pitino's in-state recruiting strategy. I had a lot I wanted to say/ask about in-state recruiting and didn't want to bury potentially important recruiting notes with my thoughts and questions that are more general than specific to anyone player or class.
First, with the open assistant coaching position, I've been wondering if there is anyone Coach Pitino could hire than would make an immediate difference with multiple in-state recruits? I am not talking about Richard Hurt, but is there a local high school coach or former player that trains kids that is really popular with the '18, '19, even '20 kids? I really think recruiting has to be the priority with this 3rd assistant coach spot as we currently have two former mid/low major head coaches on the bench next to Pitino.
I am sure many of you have noticed, but Ben Johnson has moved quickly to offer a number of Minnesota kids since moving to Xavier (Terry, Nnaji, Hurt, and Garcia) . Part of me wonders if Ben wanted to offer these kids (or offer them earlier) than Coach Pitino did while he was at Minnesota. Minnesota still has not offered Garcia, but Johnson/Xavier has.
This kind of leads me in to the controversy over Pitino's in-state offer strategy. I am not in the camp that believes Minnesota needs to offer every high major kid in-state. Some kids just won't be fits for various reasons and I feel like we (as fans) have to be willing to give the coaches (whoever they are) the benefit of the doubt on that. I am also not in the camp that believes Minnesota needs to be the first high major to offer every Minnesota kid they are interested in. For various reasons, Pitino might be more cautious on an in-state kid for fear of someone wanting to commit who they might eventually want to pull an offer from (this happened years ago under Monson with a kid that committed his Sophomore year). That said, what frustrates me, is the seeming inability to be early/first on any local kids. I feel like it's fair to expect Coach Pitino to be confident in someone outside of the absolute national elite (Hurt, Suggs) to extend an offer early and hopefully secure some commitments from in-state kids prior to the Spring after Junior year period where players usually blow up like Nnaji has this year and Davison did last year. Jericho Sims is another example. Pitino offered mid April just before or during the first week of travel games. Nebraska offered in mid October just before his JR season of high school. If Pitino offered in October, does Jericho become a Gopher, before he plays in the shoe games and blows up? He ended up no.53 in the country and earned an offer from Kansas that Spring/Summer. To his credit, Pitino got just such a commitment from Oturu who actually is/was close to that elite level. Unfortunately, that seems to be the exception rather than the rule. I don't understand how a skilled ~6'10 kid from Minnesota in Dawson Garcia can get offers from Texas and Baylor before the home state school. With the '19 kids, Wisconsin, Creighton, Nebraska, and possibly Iowa all offered Zeke before Minnesota and Iowa, Nebraska, Butler, and Baylor all offered Tyrell before Minnesota. Wisconsin offered Tyler Wahl before Minnesota. With the '20 class Baylor, Texas and Xavier have offered Dawson Garcia, Stanford and Nebraska have offered Ben Carlson, and Iowa has offered Dain Dainja. I am not advocating that Minnesota should want all of these players or that they should offer all of them. I do think that among a group of 6 players over 2 classes to earn high major offers that Minnesota should have been first (and hopefully secured an early commitment) from someone. The being cautious thing (if it's even a thing, makes sense to me, may not make sense to others) can't be an excuse for all these guys. At some point you have to be confident in your evaluation and take advantage of being the home state school that gets to see these guys more often.
Obviously if the '19 class is a successful one for Pitino in-state, then concerns like mine or others become invalid. That would make two straight years of landing top in-state talent and a generally good record of landing in-state talent with the exception of the '17 class.
First, with the open assistant coaching position, I've been wondering if there is anyone Coach Pitino could hire than would make an immediate difference with multiple in-state recruits? I am not talking about Richard Hurt, but is there a local high school coach or former player that trains kids that is really popular with the '18, '19, even '20 kids? I really think recruiting has to be the priority with this 3rd assistant coach spot as we currently have two former mid/low major head coaches on the bench next to Pitino.
I am sure many of you have noticed, but Ben Johnson has moved quickly to offer a number of Minnesota kids since moving to Xavier (Terry, Nnaji, Hurt, and Garcia) . Part of me wonders if Ben wanted to offer these kids (or offer them earlier) than Coach Pitino did while he was at Minnesota. Minnesota still has not offered Garcia, but Johnson/Xavier has.
This kind of leads me in to the controversy over Pitino's in-state offer strategy. I am not in the camp that believes Minnesota needs to offer every high major kid in-state. Some kids just won't be fits for various reasons and I feel like we (as fans) have to be willing to give the coaches (whoever they are) the benefit of the doubt on that. I am also not in the camp that believes Minnesota needs to be the first high major to offer every Minnesota kid they are interested in. For various reasons, Pitino might be more cautious on an in-state kid for fear of someone wanting to commit who they might eventually want to pull an offer from (this happened years ago under Monson with a kid that committed his Sophomore year). That said, what frustrates me, is the seeming inability to be early/first on any local kids. I feel like it's fair to expect Coach Pitino to be confident in someone outside of the absolute national elite (Hurt, Suggs) to extend an offer early and hopefully secure some commitments from in-state kids prior to the Spring after Junior year period where players usually blow up like Nnaji has this year and Davison did last year. Jericho Sims is another example. Pitino offered mid April just before or during the first week of travel games. Nebraska offered in mid October just before his JR season of high school. If Pitino offered in October, does Jericho become a Gopher, before he plays in the shoe games and blows up? He ended up no.53 in the country and earned an offer from Kansas that Spring/Summer. To his credit, Pitino got just such a commitment from Oturu who actually is/was close to that elite level. Unfortunately, that seems to be the exception rather than the rule. I don't understand how a skilled ~6'10 kid from Minnesota in Dawson Garcia can get offers from Texas and Baylor before the home state school. With the '19 kids, Wisconsin, Creighton, Nebraska, and possibly Iowa all offered Zeke before Minnesota and Iowa, Nebraska, Butler, and Baylor all offered Tyrell before Minnesota. Wisconsin offered Tyler Wahl before Minnesota. With the '20 class Baylor, Texas and Xavier have offered Dawson Garcia, Stanford and Nebraska have offered Ben Carlson, and Iowa has offered Dain Dainja. I am not advocating that Minnesota should want all of these players or that they should offer all of them. I do think that among a group of 6 players over 2 classes to earn high major offers that Minnesota should have been first (and hopefully secured an early commitment) from someone. The being cautious thing (if it's even a thing, makes sense to me, may not make sense to others) can't be an excuse for all these guys. At some point you have to be confident in your evaluation and take advantage of being the home state school that gets to see these guys more often.
Obviously if the '19 class is a successful one for Pitino in-state, then concerns like mine or others become invalid. That would make two straight years of landing top in-state talent and a generally good record of landing in-state talent with the exception of the '17 class.
