Over a third of these players didn't have offers from the Gophers. Dain Dainja had academic concerns out of high school, so the Gophers backed off. We backed off of Daniel Freitag several months before he committed to Wisconsin, since we prioritized Isaac Asuma as our point guard prospect, and got him. Camden Heide and Tre Holloman both committed within like 3 months of Ben Johnson getting hired. Jalen Suggs, Chet Holmgren, and Kendall Brown were all 5 stars who committed to national championship contenders, and were one and dones. I didn't get the sense we ever pursued Steven Crowl or Will Tschetter very hard. They had offers because Pitino sent out a token offer to every high major recruit in the state, seemingly whether he actually wanted them on the team or not. Ben Johnson doesn't seem to do this so much.
Kerwin Walton, oh well, we lost a recruiting battle to North Carolina, no shame in that. I thought we initially went after Walton, then flipped to focusing on Gabe Madsen, but maybe backed off of Madsen because he was gonna bring his brother as a package deal, and the brother maybe wasn't a high major player. Gabe Madsen and Ben Carlson are both at Utah now. Ben Carlson is a bench player but Madsen appears to have steadily improved throughout his college career and is now the second leading scorer on his team. I saw Madsen mentioned by some 247 guy as a fringe NBA prospect along with Cam Christie.
Nolan Winter is one of the only players here that I think we really wanted, pursued hard, had a good shot at, and just got beat.
Taison Chatman I think both sides backed off when it seemed like getting NIL money early on was important for Chatman, and that wasn't something we could promise. Chatman actually intrigues me as a potential transfer prospect this offseason. If he's actually homesick, not enjoying the situation at Ohio State, coach just got fired, maybe he and Ben Johnson give each other a second look in a few weeks here. I know he's barely played this year, but I feel like it's not that common that a top 50 high school prospect just isn't at all cut out for high major basketball. But it's Ben Johnson's job to figure that out, not mine. Another guard with some size, handling, and scoring ability sounds like a great add, if Chatman is up to the task.
