Marcus: There's no need to recruit many big men outside of the state of Minnesota

BleedGopher

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Go Gophers!!
 

You can't just assume the years you need a good big man that Minnesota will have one.
 


And you can't assume that every Minnesota big man will choose The "U".

Really stupid tweet by Fuller.

And you need to evaluate the game and role of the big man now. The way the game is going, they all need to shoot 3's. A little different than the McHale era.
 

And you can't assume that every Minnesota big man will choose The "U".

Really stupid tweet by Fuller.
I don't think its a stupid tweet. He just saying that Minnesota produces enough big men that the coaches shouldn't have to recruit outside of Minnesota for them. It doesn't mean they will sign every big man that can play college basketball.
 


And you need to evaluate the game and role of the big man now. The way the game is going, they all need to shoot 3's. A little different than the McHale era.

Correct. Randy Breuer would not have the impact today that he did in his day. Of course, the big men today are a lot more athletic than back then. Randy was a 7ft center that couldn’t jump or dunk, not too useful in today’s game.


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Indeed. The world of plodding big men camping in the lane is long gone.
And you need to evaluate the game and role of the big man now. The way the game is going, they all need to shoot 3's. A little different than the McHale era.
 

I recall the night the Brew scored 40+ points for the Timberwolves. It was a thing of beauty. [emoji41]
Correct. Randy Breuer would not have the impact today that he did in his day. Of course, the big men today are a lot more athletic than back then. Randy was a 7ft center that couldn’t jump or dunk, not too useful in today’s game.


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I think part of what he's saying is that we could've gotten a center the equal of or better than Elliott Eliason, Bakary Konate or Gaston Diedhiou within the borders of this state, and in asserting that, he would be right.
 



I think part of what he's saying is that we could've gotten a center the equal of or better than Elliott Eliason, Bakary Konate or Gaston Diedhiou within the borders of this state, and in asserting that, he would be right.

But that is not the type of players we need.


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I think part of what he's saying is that we could've gotten a center the equal of or better than Elliott Eliason, Bakary Konate or Gaston Diedhiou within the borders of this state, and in asserting that, he would be right.

He is just flat out wrong. The state can go years without a big 10 above average big. Then you still have to get them. Pitino is doing the right thing and casting a wide net. I simply can not find all these bigs from the state that have been dominant.
 

I think part of what he's saying is that we could've gotten a center the equal of or better than Elliott Eliason, Bakary Konate or Gaston Diedhiou within the borders of this state, and in asserting that, he would be right.

Who would those players be? In the class of 2010, Kevin Noreen had a few high major offers and went to West Virginia with no Gopher offer. To my surprise, 247 had him as a 4 star and #101 overall. He was comparable to Eliason statistically, slightly fewer minutes, slightly higher shooting percentage, but fewer points than Elliot.

In 2014, Konate’s class, it seems like Reid Travis was the only high major local big man and obviously we didn’t slow play or pass over him.

This just from me looking up old recruiting rankings, I don’t know if you’re maybe referring to some unknown recruits with little to no high major interest who greatly outplayed their rankings at a school like Wofford or South Dakota State or something. My googling would probably miss players like that.
 

I see both sides of it. Marcus didn't say ONLY Minnesota big guys. He said "mainly local prospects." Pitino definitely has cast a wider net than just the state of MN when it comes to post players, and that isn't a bad thing. But going after MN bigs might also help establish an identity for the program, something which is lacking at the moment. Even if some of those guys don't become major contributors they probably couldn't be any worse on the court than BK or Gas.

Basically, I wouldn't say Marcus is totally wrong if you look at what the 18, 19, and 20 MN classes have to offer. Could be a chance to establish a pipeline. The high school recruits out of MN were pretty weak (in general) in Tubby's time here. Pitino has a chance to build this program back up with some local guys. Let's hope he is able to do that.
 



He isn't wrong. We could get all our bigs from Minnesota.

2019 - Hurt, Ninaji
2018 - Oturu, Omersa
2017 - Rueters, John
2016 - ??????
2015 - Travis
There was also an Orono kid who played for Gonzaga, I want to say he graduated the same or year before Travis.

Since you don't need a Big every year, he isn't wrong that you could meet all your big man needs by getting Minnesotans. Poaching from Wisky, Iowa, South and North Dakota as well.
 

He isn't wrong. We could get all our bigs from Minnesota.

2019 - Hurt, Ninaji
2018 - Oturu, Omersa
2017 - Rueters, John
2016 - ??????
2015 - Travis
There was also an Orono kid who played for Gonzaga, I want to say he graduated the same or year before Travis.

Since you don't need a Big every year, he isn't wrong that you could meet all your big man needs by getting Minnesotans. Poaching from Wisky, Iowa, South and North Dakota as well.

2020- Carlson, Garcia, Dainja
2017, Race Thompson, Jericho Sims
2015 Illikainen, admittedly he hasn't been that great
2014 Travis
2013 Kyle Washington
 

He isn't wrong. We could get all our bigs from Minnesota.

2019 - Hurt, Ninaji
2018 - Oturu, Omersa
2017 - Rueters, John
2016 - ??????
2015 - Travis
There was also an Orono kid who played for Gonzaga, I want to say he graduated the same or year before Travis.

Since you don't need a Big every year, he isn't wrong that you could meet all your big man needs by getting Minnesotans. Poaching from Wisky, Iowa, South and North Dakota as well.

Dower was a 2009 Grad. Same year as Royce, Rodney, Bruizewitz (Sorry for the mispelling), Broghammer, Muscala, Brommer. (Just naming guys that could be considered "posts" or PF)

Berggren in 2008
Noreen in 2010,
 

if the Coaches have a choice between an In-State and an Out-state player, and they are relatively even in talent, go ahead and take the In-state player.

but, if the out-state player is better (more talented), then take the out-state player. Talent trumps the birth certificate any time.

If the Gophers land some 4* or 5* post from out of state, and he leads the team to a B1G title, nobody will give a rat's butt that they didn't take the home-town prospect.
 

If his point was you don’t need to take fliers on unskilled foreign bigs...I tend to agree
 

If his point was you don’t need to take fliers on unskilled foreign bigs...I tend to agree
Seriously, you might have just recruited a football player to play as a big man instead. The odds of the football player being better are about 60/40 and your team stats would have been about the same.

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