All Things Gophers Basketball 2017 Recruiting Thread

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MadtownGopher said:
Agreed. Local kids need to start realizing they don't have a guaranteed spot with the Gophers. Illikainen and McKinley are great examples of that. Gophers ended up with Jordan Murphy and now Isaiah Washington instead. Not bad.
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Completely agree. I truly want the MN kids to stay at home, and want them to want to be here. If there is a MN kid vs a out state and all things are equal, give me the MN kid.

However:

Washington > Davison/McKinley
 

I am also not as big of a fan of Wright as some people are. Although he is quick and athletic he lacks in shooting and I have spent years watching Gophers teams that cannot shoot from the guard position so I will take Washington and not blink an eye. I would be careful what you wish for above about Davison though. He seems like the typical MN player that signs with Wisconsin and ends up being a thorn in our side for many years to come.
 

I think Davison is very good. I was always surprised the Gophers didn't show more interest. I wish he had ended up outside of the BIG. But my point was that I would still prefer Washington over Davison.
 

bleedgold said:
I am also not as big of a fan of Wright as some people are. Although he is quick and athletic he lacks in shooting and I have spent years watching Gophers teams that cannot shoot from the guard position so I will take Washington and not blink an eye. I would be careful what you wish for above about Davison though. He seems like the typical MN player that signs with Wisconsin and ends up being a thorn in our side for many years to come.
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Hope he doesn't dagger us, but he'll almost surely hit a last-second 45-footer to beat Michigan State.
 




I'm kind of glad that some of these out of state guys are committing and becoming the main focus. It will tell in state guys of the future that they need to pull the trigger on the gopher commit earlier than later or you'll be stuck picking a different school.

If these guys want to be here they can commit early and prove it. If not, well it looks like there are going to be other guys out there who will take their place.
 

BballJones said:
French looks like he would fit well in the BIG. Any chance we can get Epperson on a visit though?
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Epperson might be a tough get. I know he recently had Steve Alford of UCLA at his prep school for a visit.
 



MadtownGopher said:
Word is that McKinley was almost 100% lock for us before Washington committed. Thus McKinley had his heart broken. I can't see Theo committing to Minnesota at a joint announcement with McKinley. I think McKinely goes Dayton and Theo goes Marquette. Hopefully we get French.
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Agreed. But I don't think Washington's commitment has an impact on John's decision. They never played AAU together and they didn't visit at the same time. My guess is John was always a Marquette lean. If Wright wanted to be here why take the Dayton visit, especially knowing a higher rated PG was coming in for a visit. Honestly good luck to them but the Washington commit is bigger then those 2 leaving. I really hope there press conference isn't to show up the Gophers BB program. They both had there chance. They chose to move on (if they have). Be classy
 

SoMpls said:
I don't think Washington's commitment has an impact on John's decision. They never played AAU together and they didn't visit at the same time.
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When you say "they", do you mean Wright and John? Washington and John did visit at the same time.
 

Has anyone heard if Bede is still visiting this weekend? I'm assuming not but haven't heard anything.
 




dpodoll68 said:
When you say "they", do you mean Wright and John? Washington and John did visit at the same time.
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My point was someone mention Wright was a 100% lock for the Gophers before Washington committed. That point was assumed that because Washington's commitment probably meant they stopped recruiting Wright impacted John's decision. I wouldn't agree in my opinion and that's based on them never playing AAU together and not visiting the same weekend. I believe John was already a Marquette lock.
 

SoMpls said:
My point was someone mention Wright was a 100% lock for the Gophers before Washington committed. That point was assumed that because Washington's commitment probably meant they stopped recruiting Wright impacted John's decision. I wouldn't agree in my opinion and that's based on them never playing AAU together and not visiting the same weekend. I believe John was already a Marquette lock.
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Ya I thought read somewhere Sacar Anim was Theo John's neighbor growing up. I am sure that had an impact and quite frankly some kids just want to get away from home. I still think Wright could commit here, even with Washington we still don't have a lot of guards on the roster. There's a spot if he wants to come in and compete
 

Don't buy the "Wright was set on committing to MN" line. Don't care where it came from. If the kid wanted to be here, he'd be here.

I've said from the start I think all the local kids romanticize about the idea of playing at home in front of the hometown crowd and they like getting recruited by the home team. But in the end, the program isn't good enough and they don't like it enough to want to stay here and try to change the culture.

Can't blame them for that. That whole deal is a massive uphill battle and likely a losing one. Sure there are a few that go for it, but if I had a choice between playing at Dayton for a good coach with tournament success or playing in a tougher conference for a team that's been to the tournament once since I was in middle school, I'd choose the former.
 


Sounds like Theo to Marquette is official.
 

Biggsohnasty said:
Don't buy the "Wright was set on committing to MN" line. Don't care where it came from. If the kid wanted to be here, he'd be here.

I've said from the start I think all the local kids romanticize about the idea of playing at home in front of the hometown crowd and they like getting recruited by the home team. But in the end, the program isn't good enough and they don't like it enough to want to stay here and try to change the culture.

Can't blame them for that. That whole deal is a massive uphill battle and likely a losing one. Sure there are a few that go for it, but if I had a choice between playing at Dayton for a good coach with tournament success or playing in a tougher conference for a team that's been to the tournament once since I was in middle school, I'd choose the former.
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It came from Ryan James who spoke with someone in the inner circle.
 




Bummer but their choice


Time to tweet them how much they let me down
 



Will be fun to follow Wright at Dayton. If he develops a reliable jump shot, he'll be a good player. That's kind of a big 'if' though.
 


So in the deepest in-state class in recent memory we have:

McKinley Wright: Dayton
Theo John: Marquette
Brad Davison: Wisconsin
Nathan Reuvers: Wisconsin
Goanar Mar: George Mason
Jericho Sims: Texas

Not how any of us wanted it to play out obviously but if they can keep landing guys like Washington it doesn't really bother me.
 

It appears RP is looking for a certain personality. I will follow both players thru there careers and wish them the best,
 

This is truly unprecedented in the time I've closely followed recruiting. The Gophers have lost three players that they made a priority to non-Blue Blood schools in the last 20 years or so: Lawrence McKenzie, Rashad Vaugh, and Reid Travis. It's easy to explain away Travis and Vaughn, due to Pitino's short time recruiting them, but this year is a really, really bad look. Losing a legacy recruit like Sims to Texas, then losing John to Marquette despite recruiting him longer is just awful. You can argue that Wright wasn't a miss because of Washington, but they made Wright the local priority guard (over Davison) and couldn't get him to commit before taking a visit to Dayton. That's a recruitment that should have been wrapped up in the Spring given his offer list, and then it's fair to wonder what Sims and John do if Wright is committed.

Pitino had done a solid job recruiting in state landing the best player the past two seasons, so you just hope this is a hiccup...but it's a terrible time to have one. Pitino himself talked a lot about the importance of keeping the best in state kids home in the last 6-12 months and he failed at an epic level in this recruiting cycle.
 

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