Isaiah Ihnen Commits to Gophers

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Slim Tubby said:
There's no "hate" in questioning if a commit is ready to contribute right away and I think your take on this is more than fair. I see "6.9', 210# athletic kid that can run" and I'm ready to anoint the guy as the next Kevin Durant. He certainly has the size and athletic prowess to give the coaching staff something to mold. I would imagine sauerkraut sales on Brats at Williams Arena are about to see a large spike.
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Agree, as long as it doesn’t get personal.


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I haven't read through this much, been very busy.

Are we excited for this kid? Please summarize.
 


Bob_Loblaw said:
What are you talking about? You really think when Pitino was hired we knew and accepted that a couple of years would be "learning experience"?

I think Pitino has earned an extension and I am excited about the Ihnen commitment, but as fans we should always be analyzing our coach. We should always consider the entire body of work.
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I think it would have been unrealistic not to expect a couple of years of “learning experience” at the time Pitino was hired. He was 30 years old with one year of head coaching experience. It’s certainly appropriate for fans continuously to evaluate a coach, but in assessing his long-term potential, I think one needs to consider his initial lack of experience. Reasonable people can differ, but I think he is on track to bring this program to a new level, and I think the Ihnen commit is a good step in that direction. I’m excited about next year.
 

UpAndUnder43 said:
I haven't read through this much, been very busy.

Are we excited for this kid? Please summarize.
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4 star, top 100 recruit
Stretch 4 that seems to shoot and handle the ball well.
Offers from Tennessee, TCU, Stanford and Arizona State.

Call me giddy
 





Yeah Pitino's hirehad a moneyball feel to it. Trying to find a diamond in the rough. At the time I thought he could have some success early, but would struggle in year three. I think he knew that too and took chances on character that all backfired and made that season even worse. I thought year four would be the year we figured it out if Richard could be the guy and IMO that was his best season. Year five was unfortunate, needs to be accountable for the depth, but those were hard circumstances for anyone. Had a nice 2018 class, a decent 2019 class, won a game in the tourney last year. Team is set up well next year if Coffey is back and a core of Carr, Gabe, Oturu, Omersa, Williams, Freeman and Inhan could be here for the next three. Hopefully we can bring in a good 2020 class and keep building. It's a long climb when you're not a Blueblood, no short cuts. Took Clem 11 years before 97.

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bemidjigopher said:
Yeah Pitino's hirehad a moneyball feel to it. Trying to find a diamond in the rough. At the time I thought he could have some success early, but would struggle in year three. I think he knew that too and took chances on character that all backfired and made that season even worse. I thought year four would be the year we figured it out if Richard could be the guy and IMO that was his best season. Year five was unfortunate, needs to be accountable for the depth, but those were hard circumstances for anyone. Had a nice 2018 class, a decent 2019 class, won a game in the tourney last year. Team is set up well next year if Coffey is back and a core of Carr, Gabe, Oturu, Omersa, Williams, Freeman and Inhan could be here for the next three. Hopefully we can bring in a good 2020 class and keep building. It's a long climb when you're not a Blueblood, no short cuts. Took Clem 11 years before 97.

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Pow [emoji95], to the Moon!


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BleedGopher said:
Doogie chimes in:

<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Go Gophers!!
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The defense in the game footage looks pretty poor.
 

bemidjigopher said:
Yeah Pitino's hirehad a moneyball feel to it. Trying to find a diamond in the rough. At the time I thought he could have some success early, but would struggle in year three. I think he knew that too and took chances on character that all backfired and made that season even worse. I thought year four would be the year we figured it out if Richard could be the guy and IMO that was his best season. Year five was unfortunate, needs to be accountable for the depth, but those were hard circumstances for anyone. Had a nice 2018 class, a decent 2019 class, won a game in the tourney last year. Team is set up well next year if Coffey is back and a core of Carr, Gabe, Oturu, Omersa, Williams, Freeman and Inhan could be here for the next three. Hopefully we can bring in a good 2020 class and keep building. It's a long climb when you're not a Blueblood, no short cuts. Took Clem 11 years before 97.

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2020 is setup to send the program in the right trajectory. Hopefully Pitino and crew capitalize.
 





Shooting, shooting, shooting. In today’s game, you have to have multiple guys who can stroke it from three to go far in the tournament. We are adding more of them and Isaiah is one more piece. It is also very exciting to see that he has some handles as well. At 6’9”, if he can actually create and hit his own jump shot, we’ve really got something on offense. Now defense-that’s a whole other matter. If he’s quick, combined with his 7’4” wingspan, he should be able to learn to defend well. I’m hoping he is a hard worker, teachable, and has a decent level of “game smarts”, whatever that intangible thing is.


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This has rick pitino fingers all over it...which isnt a bad thing....hes got an eye for talent....after watching a few videos...kid has an elite first step, super quick, long, can shoot, at best, imagine siakim for the raptors
 

schlegs said:
This has rick pitino fingers all over it...which isnt a bad thing....hes got an eye for talent....after watching a few videos...kid has an elite first step, super quick, long, can shoot, at best, imagine siakim for the raptors
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Interesting.... For the record, Kyle Linsted was the lead recruiter on Ihnen- although there could have been a tip from Rick. :)
 


schlegs said:
This has rick pitino fingers all over it...which isnt a bad thing....hes got an eye for talent....after watching a few videos...kid has an elite first step, super quick, long, can shoot, at best, imagine siakim for the raptors
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Hoping for the best, but: Konate & DooDoo
 

LesBolstad said:
Hoping for the best, but: Konate & DooDoo
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Because he is an international player? Is that your correlation here? Otherwise, I don't see anything about Ihnen's talent evaluations, style of play or offer list that is remotely similar to Bakary or Gaston.
 

Awesome news. I wasn't aware that he this highly rated. Definitely beat out a few other solid offers.
 

WriterGoph said:
Because he is an international player? Is that your correlation here? Otherwise, I don't see anything about Ihnen's talent evaluations, style of play or offer list that is remotely similar to Bakary or Gaston.
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No foreign players have ever been successful in college basketball.
 

WriterGoph said:
Because he is an international player? Is that your correlation here? Otherwise, I don't see anything about Ihnen's talent evaluations, style of play or offer list that is remotely similar to Bakary or Gaston.
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All bigs, international players with Pitino's "fingers all over it". Again, hoping for the best. And Konate had comparable offers- Louisville, Ole Miss, Oregon; and was rated fairly highly (not quite as high as Ihnen).
 
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LesBolstad said:
All bigs, international players with Pitino's "fingers all over it". Again, hoping for the best. And Konate had comparable offers- Louisville, Ole Miss, Oregon; and was rated fairly highly (not quite as high as Ihnen).
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The thing about Konate is that he showed pretty well early on, with the exception of reaction time and the ability to catch the ball. Those things never got better and it appears that coordination and reaction time were the limitations for him that were not forseen. Ihnen certainly appears to have the athletic ability and a nice looking shot in addition to the size and speed.
 

bga1 said:
The thing about Konate is that he showed pretty well early on, with the exception of reaction time and the ability to catch the ball. Those things never got better and it appears that coordination and reaction time were the limitations for him that were not forseen. Ihnen certainly appears to have the athletic ability and a nice looking shot in addition to the size and speed.
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And Bakary could not handle the ball as it appears Ihnen can. In general, Bakary touching the ball was not a good thing, unless it was blocking a shot.


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I think they thought they were getting his brother!
 

LesBolstad said:
All bigs, international players with Pitino's "fingers all over it". Again, hoping for the best. And Konate had comparable offers- Louisville, Ole Miss, Oregon; and was rated fairly highly (not quite as high as Ihnen).
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Pretty big difference in terms of rankings

Konate: National Comp. Rank 238, 3 star .8546
Ihnen: Nation Comp. Rank 87, 4 Star .9639

and just for comparison, Diedhiou: National Comp. Rank 413, 3 Star .8162
 

Konate was an impressive athlete. I can see why teams gave him a chance. One thing you cannot have in basketball is bad hands. In football you can play defensive line. Too bad he could never overcome that.
 


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