All Things Gophers Basketball Class of 2022 Recruiting Thread



In Richfield we always just referred to them as SLP, I would think of Park Rapids before St. Louis Park if someone simply said "Park", but that's just me : )
Yeah I know, all kinds of "Park" 's in the metro:

St Louis
Spring Lake
St Paul
Highland
 




Brooklyn!
I was thinking high schools (Park of CG is named for St Paul Park), and there is no BPHS. But there certainly is Park Center. Not sure how many refer to that as "Park", probably some.

Doubt anyone refers to Champlin Park as "Park".
 

I grew up going to the park off of 131st Ave. Of course, the one next to Ted's store was always a fun bike trip.
 





Think ISU will have Gabe in his ear saying Minnesota is a terrible place for a local guy to play?
 



Gabe's been at Iowa St for like 3 months and played 0 games there so he won't have a ton of MN this ISU that information to give yet. He left MN when we fired our coach and the coach he committed to play for. Had Pitino not been fired my guess is Gabe is still a gopher.

I'm guessing there isn't a great deal of hate that he will sell anyone on.
 




Gabe's been at Iowa St for like 3 months and played 0 games there so he won't have a ton of MN this ISU that information to give yet. He left MN when we fired our coach and the coach he committed to play for. Had Pitino not been fired my guess is Gabe is still a gopher.

I'm guessing there isn't a great deal of hate that he will sell anyone on.
Ben Johnson was his lead recruiter to gophers

Reports are he was 100% gone if Pitino had stayed, he was reconsidering sticking for Ben
 


Worried about this one. Think Ben and staff need to start working hard on out of state kids and plan B MN kids like BJ Omot and Pharrell Payne and at least get a few of them to stay.
Yep- if Ben loses another guy like this to ISU that is cause for concern. It is one thing to lose home town guys to Duke or MSU, another kettle of fish to lose them to ISU. Right now, it appears that Gabe is an enemy of the U program.
 

Worried about this one. Think Ben and staff need to start working hard on out of state kids and plan B MN kids like BJ Omot and Pharrell Payne and at least get a few of them to stay.

The way things have been trending, as far as the feedback from the recruits we want for next year aside from one, this wont end well for us.

Seems like the bar has officially been pushed back on here and the 23 class is where we judge Bens recruiting abilities.
 

Yep- if Ben loses another guy like this to ISU that is cause for concern. It is one thing to lose home town guys to Duke or MSU, another kettle of fish to lose them to ISU. Right now, it appears that Gabe is an enemy of the U program.
Watson, Payne, Lee, Omot, Carrington and others don’t have the existing relationships with coaches/schools that the ones that committed so far had (and what we hear Tre has with MSU). Ben and the U are in the same spot and should have a great chance to get this group, yet I’m concerned.
 

The way things have been trending, as far as the feedback from the recruits we want for next year aside from one, this wont end well for us.

Seems like the bar has officially been pushed back on here and the 23 class is where we judge Bens recruiting abilities.
I'm only willing to temper expectations on Holloman for 22 class, these other guys that got noticed later are on a much more level playing field, big misses in that group could be telling.
 

Or Gabe was ‘let go’ to ISU by Ben to be a double agent and sell MN kids on actually staying home
Ah, BJ's secret plan revealed -- scatter all your players across the country to infiltrate their ranks and send any potential new 'cruits our direction.
 

The way things have been trending, as far as the feedback from the recruits we want for next year aside from one, this wont end well for us.

Seems like the bar has officially been pushed back on here and the 23 class is where we judge Bens recruiting abilities.
The bar for losing to ISU should not be pushed back. If you lose players to ISU that is an immediate red flag. ISU was terrible last year and they have a first year coach. The excuse for King was the prior relationship, ok fine, but this first year coach does not have relationships with other MN kids. I am pretty surprised how low the bar is being pushed by people. If Ben is going to succeed in the B1G you do not lose recruiting your home state to ISU. If he can't out recruit ISU then he is not going to beat the mid to upper echelon of the B1G.
 
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The bar for losing to ISU should not be pushed back. If you lose players to ISU that is an immediate red flag. ISU was terrible last year and they have a first year coach. The excuse for King was the prior relationship, ok fine, but this first year coach does not have relationships with other MN kids. I am pretty surprised how low the bar is being pushed by people. If Ben is going to succeed in the B1G you do not lose recruiting your home state to ISU. If he can't out recruit ISU then he is not going to beat the mid to upper echelon of the B1G.
Each recruit gets 5 official visits... and most take all 5. The local team usually gets an unofficial visit. It's a VISIT. You are all going to be miserable if you are going to react this way to every local recruit.
 

Ben Johnson was his lead recruiter to gophers

Reports are he was 100% gone if Pitino had stayed, he was reconsidering sticking for Ben
I knew the Ben part but I hadn't heard the Pitino part...interesting.
 

The bar for losing to ISU should not be pushed back. If you lose players to ISU that is an immediate red flag. ISU was terrible last year and they have a first year coach. The excuse for King was the prior relationship, ok fine, but this first year coach does not have relationships with other MN kids. I am pretty surprised how low the bar is being pushed by people. If Ben is going to succeed in the B1G you do not lose recruiting your home state to ISU. If he can't out recruit ISU then he is not going to beat the mid to upper echelon of the B1G.
What if the kids simply wants to go to ISU? Maybe they just want to go somewhere new, but still be close enough for family to get to games. That could be ISU, Iowa, WI, Creighton, etc. Many, many non-athletes leave the state to go to college. It is not always a negative reflection on the coach when a kid chooses another school. Some simply want to experience something different.
 

What if the kids simply wants to go to ISU? Maybe they just want to go somewhere new, but still be close enough for family to get to games. That could be ISU, Iowa, WI, Creighton, etc. Many, many non-athletes leave the state to go to college. It is not always a negative reflection on the coach when a kid chooses another school. Some simply want to experience something different.
Kids choose schools primarily on the coach/relationship. It's funny how people are making this close but not too close excuse when MN loses to the ISU's of the world, but funny, we don't see the Iowa, Wisconsin kids coming to MN for that reason. It only seems to be a one direction excuse.
 

What if the kids simply wants to go to ISU? Maybe they just want to go somewhere new, but still be close enough for family to get to games. That could be ISU, Iowa, WI, Creighton, etc. Many, many non-athletes leave the state to go to college. It is not always a negative reflection on the coach when a kid chooses another school. Some simply want to experience something different.
Ben was hired to win more of the recruiting battles locally. He might do it. Early signs are worrisome. That is all.
 


The bar for losing to ISU should not be pushed back. If you lose players to ISU that is an immediate red flag. ISU was terrible last year and they have a first year coach. The excuse for King was the prior relationship, ok fine, but this first year coach does not have relationships with other MN kids. I am pretty surprised how low the bar is being pushed by people. If Ben is going to succeed in the B1G you do not lose recruiting your home state to ISU. If he can't out recruit ISU then he is not going to beat the mid to upper echelon of the B1G.

So how many of the top 10 MN kids for the 22 class are good enough to start in the B1G by their sophomore year? Aside from the top 3. I have done no research on this.
 

So how many of the top 10 MN kids for the 22 class are good enough to start in the B1G by their sophomore year? Aside from the top 3. I have done no research on this.
that is a great questions......
Holloman
King
Heide
Watson
Lee
Carrington
Payne....i may get flack for this but this guy is rising....and if he keeps taking the strides he has hes a starter by his sophmore year for sure

Prince?
Nnaji?
 




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