Recruiting has a lot to do with how I view the state of the program. We're going to miss out on Hurt. Whatever, it sucks, but I'll live with that. However, if no less than three of Dainja, Suggs, Garcia, Holmgren, Walton and Carlson are wearing Minnesota uniforms, I will be beyond ready to get rid of Pitino. If only one or two come, that's a bad sign. Part of a successful program is getting local kids to be excited about gophers basketball and wanting to play for the hometown BIG team.
I understand not all will want to play in Minneapolis-some want to get away from family and Zeke Njaji wanted to play somewhere warm; I get that. But look at the number of Indiana kids on Indiana and the number of Michigan kids playing for Michigan State.
Looking back at the last four recruiting cycles of Minnesota basketball players....who did we "miss" on? The Minnesota talent is good but it isn't final four worthy as many on this board have suggested. According to 247sports composite rankings.
2015 -- would be our seniors this year
1. Alex Illikainen -- out of basketball, not a miss
2. Jarvis Johnson --- Gophers signee, unfortunate circumstance
3. Sacar Anim -- 6.1 PPG for career at Marquette a miss?
4. Justin Dahl -- 2.0 PPG at Northern Iowa not a miss
5. Kyle McKinley -- 0.2 PPG at Louisian Tech currently not a miss
2016 -- our junior class this year
1. Amir Coffey -- already a Gopher
2. Michael Hurt -- already a Gopher
3. Brock Bertram -- 1.1 PPG, 0.6 RPG at Buffalo
4. Reed Nikko -- 2.5 PPG at Missouri
5. nobody else even worth mentioning
2017 -- our sophomore class this year
1. Jericho Sims -- 4.2 PPG in 14.0 minutes per game at Texas
2. Nate Reuvers -- 8.3 PPG and 3.0 RPG at Wisconsin, probably the one guy on this list I would like to have the most
3. Brad Davison -- 11.3 PPG at Wisconsin, nice player
4. Race Thompson -- has played a total of 4 minutes at Indiana
5. Theo John -- 6.0 PPG at Marquette
2018 -- our freshman class
1. Tre Jones -- as has been pointed out a million times on this forum, top 20/25 recruits rarely stay home. they go blue blood. they just do.
2. Daniel Oturu -- already on Minnesota
3. Jarvis Omersa -- already on Minnesota
4. Gabe Kascheur -- already on Minnesota
5. Adam Trapp -- does he even play? South Dakota School of Mines??
6. Joe Hedstrom -- redshirt project at Wisconsin
I understand the 2020 class has some nice players. Even five or six years we have a class like that. However, in the last four years, how many Minnesota recruits did we miss on? It's one of the most over-used excuses for why we can't win here. Pitino has recruited Minnesota players as well as expected, imo. None of the "misses" above would have transformed this team to a Big Ten champion.