All Things Dain Dainja Recruitment Thread (Class of 2020) Gophers Offered

He had a Gopher offer. I don't think they offered for ****s and giggles. Perhaps he just saw more playing time for himeself at CSU. He would certainly fill a need now with Amir leaving (same with Wahl).
They offered, but we clearly had our sights set on bigger fish, he was plan D at best, as evidence by who we ultimately got, if it was commitable he would be either here or at Northwestern where his Breck buddy plays football. In fact if Roddy wasn't so stubborn he would be playing P5 football, but he refused to play TE, thinks he's a QB. Not all offers are created equal. Roddy is too short to play the four, too slow for the wing, not athletic enough to be a poor man's Murphy

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Yeah, you're right, why would a top 10 or top 40 player want to stay in state to play B1G basketball, how ridiculous.

Why did JP Tokoto, Kevon Looney, Diamond Stone, Henry Ellenson, and Tyler Herro not go to Wisconsin? Why did Garry Harris, Glenn Robinson III, Branden Dawson, Marquis Teague, Deshaun Thomas, and Greg Oden not go to Indiana? Why did Harrison Barnes and DJ Carton not go to Iowa? Why did Luke Kennard and Adreian Payne not go to Ohio State? Not to mention the countless blue chip recruits from Chicago that never go to Illinois. Top recruits leave their home state all the time for more prestigious programs. If you believe we should be consistently landing local 5 star recruits over programs that compete for national champions and put players in the NBA, then we'll have to agree to disagree. We did get Amir Coffey and Daniel Oturu, who were similarly ranked, maybe a little lower.
 
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I certainly am no fan of Pitino's recruiting, but I don't think he "lost" Roddy, Wahl, or Terry. It didn't take long to realize he probably should have made Terry a priority given where he quickly found himself in guard recruiting and especially given where he ended up even if he wasn't necessarily a fit for how Pitino wanted to play. On the issue of in state recruiting, it simply has to get better...unless out of state recruiting takes a major leap forward or Pitino starts developing kids outside the top 100 in to difference makers like Wisconsin has done or attract the right transfers like Iowa State has done. The clearest path to improvement is recruiting his own state better. That means occasionally beating out a blue blood for a Hurt or a Nnaji and consistently beating out the Baylor's, Marquette's, and Xavier's of the world for the next tier. You do that and that's a solid talent base to sustainable success where you can maybe start batting close to .500 on the elite kids once you've had a couple nice NCAA runs and put a Minnesota kid or two in to the NBA. Like I said, there's other ways to build a winner, but time is running out. We're going in to year 7 and I don't buy any excuses for the roster to be what it appears to be on paper with all the talent that has been available in state over the past few classes.
 

I certainly am no fan of Pitino's recruiting, but I don't think he "lost" Roddy, Wahl, or Terry. It didn't take long to realize he probably should have made Terry a priority given where he quickly found himself in guard recruiting and especially given where he ended up even if he wasn't necessarily a fit for how Pitino wanted to play. On the issue of in state recruiting, it simply has to get better...unless out of state recruiting takes a major leap forward or Pitino starts developing kids outside the top 100 in to difference makers like Wisconsin has done or attract the right transfers like Iowa State has done. The clearest path to improvement is recruiting his own state better. That means occasionally beating out a blue blood for a Hurt or a Nnaji and consistently beating out the Baylor's, Marquette's, and Xavier's of the world for the next tier. You do that and that's a solid talent base to sustainable success where you can maybe start batting close to .500 on the elite kids once you've had a couple nice NCAA runs and put a Minnesota kid or two in to the NBA. Like I said, there's other ways to build a winner, but time is running out. We're going in to year 7 and I don't buy any excuses for the roster to be what it appears to be on paper with all the talent that has been available in state over the past few classes.

Agree with this. 2020 is a pivotal recruiting season with all the in-state talent and our program can't afford to strike out as much as we did this year. I believe Pitino's tenure here rides on how good our 2020 class is.

Honestly is it so hard to just snag 2-3 four star / five star Minnesota kids when there's like 8 of them next year?
 
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You guys do realize Pitino's 2019 class is ranked 4th according to 247? Right? There are basketball players outside of the state of Minnesota I think. I get as frustrated by Pitino's recruiting methods as much as anyone but he has been decent during his years here. The key players in this class are Garcia, Walton, Crowl and Madsen. I think Suggs is a pipe dream but you never know. I think Carlson is going to Stanford or Wisconsin. It's early still, take a deep breath.
 


Fans freak out over recruiting rankings when coaches do not even use them. If you go by those foolish rankings ours average 55th since Pitino got here, UVA has averaged 52nd over that time. Just go down the top 25 programs and see where they have been ranked in recruiting. Sure you need great players but they do not need to come from some geeks top 50 to build a great team or great program.
 

Fans freak out over recruiting rankings when coaches do not even use them. If you go by those foolish rankings ours average 55th since Pitino got here, UVA has averaged 52nd over that time. Just go down the top 25 programs and see where they have been ranked in recruiting. Sure you need great players but they do not need to come from some geeks top 50 to build a great team or great program.

Correct, it's about finding guys who are skilled, but have good character are willing to work hard, and are good fits. It's on the coaching staff to identify if a recruit has these fits and to sell themselves to the recruit. They went after Dain early, but it was obvious as of late that Dain and the gophers realized they didn't share the same interests. No shame on either party. It gets old when some MN kid decides the U isn't what they want and people need to degrade the kid and the coach. It was quite apparent for awhile this wasn't going to be a match.
 

Fans freak out over recruiting rankings when coaches do not even use them. If you go by those foolish rankings ours average 55th since Pitino got here, UVA has averaged 52nd over that time. Just go down the top 25 programs and see where they have been ranked in recruiting. Sure you need great players but they do not need to come from some geeks top 50 to build a great team or great program.
Agreed look at UVA PG last year, kid wasn't even ranked, just like Greenlee and he started on a national championship team. People also forget Mason and Murphy, weren't highly touted and you could make an argument that both deserve to have their numbers in rafters. Murphy for sure, Mason probably didn't have enough team success. Both are no doubt the best two players of Pitino's tenure so far.

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Fans freak out over recruiting rankings when coaches do not even use them. If you go by those foolish rankings ours average 55th since Pitino got here, UVA has averaged 52nd over that time. Just go down the top 25 programs and see where they have been ranked in recruiting. Sure you need great players but they do not need to come from some geeks top 50 to build a great team or great program.

Except our idiot AD uses rankings to justify firing and hiring coaches...
 



Agreed look at UVA PG last year, kid wasn't even ranked, just like Greenlee and he started on a national championship team. People also forget Mason and Murphy, weren't highly touted and you could make an argument that both deserve to have their numbers in rafters. Murphy for sure, Mason probably didn't have enough team success. Both are no doubt the best two players of Pitino's tenure so far.

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Exactly. I could teach a 10 year old to evaluate that top 10 but what i want is that kid that fits with his team and i could care less where they come from.
 

Except our idiot AD uses rankings to justify firing and hiring coaches...

If teams were winning, players were graduating and behaving, and donations were ok, then an AD will move on from recruiting. When the others are not happening and an AD is nitpicking, its another point of data he can use. Coyle never used it as a sole reason for a firing.
 

If teams were winning, players were graduating and behaving, and donations were ok, then an AD will move on from recruiting. When the others are not happening and an AD is nitpicking, its another point of data he can use. Coyle never used it as a sole reason for a firing.
He literally said it in the press conference, along with other mundane reasons, because he knew himself and his department were equally at fault for how that whole played out. What kind of gong show had players eligible for road games and suspended for home, due to a restraining order. Say what you will about Maturi, but that wouldn't have happened under his watch. Claeys, his staff and players had every right to be mad as they did everything the department told them to do during the season and received no answers from Coyle and Kaler. That debacle made the Trump administration look competent.

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He literally said it in the press conference, along with other mundane reasons, because he knew himself and his department were equally at fault for how that whole played out. What kind of gong show had players eligible for road games and suspended for home, due to a restraining order. Say what you will about Maturi, but that wouldn't have happened under his watch. Claeys, his staff and players had every right to be mad as they did everything the department told them to do during the season and received no answers from Coyle and Kaler. That debacle made the Trump administration look competent.

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I didn't say AD's don't use it nor really disagree with anything here. I said they do if they feel their as a reason to add on and without moving too far off topic, my point was it's not the sole reason they would fire a coach.
 



Fans freak out over recruiting rankings when coaches do not even use them. If you go by those foolish rankings ours average 55th since Pitino got here, UVA has averaged 52nd over that time. Just go down the top 25 programs and see where they have been ranked in recruiting. Sure you need great players but they do not need to come from some geeks top 50 to build a great team or great program.


What a shock, BB is pimping out a bennet

And agreed :)
 

What a shock, BB is pimping out a bennet

And agreed :)

Well then check out the recruiting at UW and see how much they win. It does not have to be Tony Bennett, it just has to be some other coach with a incredible eye for under valued recruit with a tremendous ability to develop players and build a team. I could care less what the person's name is. Besides, he is now introduced as National Champ. Who is the coach you most admire ?
 

This board is becoming almost unbearable. Is there anywhere else to get gopher specific recruiting news without the banter?


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Follow Bossi with premium, follow two dozen twitter accounts or facebook sites. Talk to high school and AAU coaches. Message boards will always be a place to share opinions. Find someone on the board you enjoy and message them questions about recruits. They will answer the best they can. Skip all the posts your not interested in. I skip over dozens and dozens. This is a free site.
 

Dainja announced he is leaving Baylor. Can't remember, was he someone Pitino didn't want or was he going to have a tough time getting through admissions? Hasn't played much but hard to crack that lineup too.
 

Dainja announced he is leaving Baylor. Can't remember, was he someone Pitino didn't want or was he going to have a tough time getting through admissions? Hasn't played much but hard to crack that lineup too.

Heard he’s lazy, would like his size.
 


Heard he’s lazy, would like his size.

sounds like he’s struggled to lose weight since coming back from injury. Super skilled kid though, could be like a Biggie Swanigan if he puts it all together. Not sure I see it happening but would love to see him play for the U.
 

Based on some of the things I have heard people say about him I wouldn’t be surprised if we didn’t end up taking him. That’s if he is even interested in coming home. But it is surely worth Ben to reach out to his friend Jared Nuness to ask some questions. Could be cool to have him come back and give him a chance. We need bigs.
 



why? bigs take too long to develop. a roster of 6'6" guys could be more productive
I guess maybe bigs that don’t need years of development. I don’t mind lots of 6’6” Murphy’s though with a point guard and versatile wings.
 

I guess maybe bigs that don’t need years of development. I don’t mind lots of 6’6” Murphy’s though with a point guard and versatile wings.
"Each one of us is a point guard, a wing, a shooting guard, a center, and a power forward."

sincerely yours,
the chicago bulls
 

Based on some of the things I have heard people say about him I wouldn’t be surprised if we didn’t end up taking him. That’s if he is even interested in coming home. But it is surely worth Ben to reach out to his friend Jared Nuness to ask some questions. Could be cool to have him come back and give him a chance. We need bigs.

If he has the grades to get in Minnesota he would be one guy I would take a chance on. One of those big body guy's that can clog up the lane on defense with good offensive skills, not a stretch 4 type that can spread the floor though.
 
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side note on this when looking it up....He is the first undergraduate player to transfer at Baylor since 2018...ha just thought that was a big crazy in the transfer happy world we live in
 

Dainja announced he is leaving Baylor. Can't remember, was he someone Pitino didn't want or was he going to have a tough time getting through admissions? Hasn't played much but hard to crack that lineup too.
There were academic concerns at the time, I remember Pitino and staff were really on him and than all of sudden they just stopped. Dain's dad played for Clem in the early 90's when Thorson was there as well, I'm sure if academics were sorted out at Baylor there will be enough interest on both sides to have a conversation about a potential fit.
 




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