Gopher-centric Portal Short List

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Beerculees said:
I'd assume Evans (he visited yesterday). Apparently Evans is on a visit to Iowa today but sounds like he is still on track to come here. I am really hoping to get some news today, but we may have to wait until tomorrow.
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If Evans is a lock, as some have said. What the heck is he doing visiting Iowa? Why would we let it go there? Pretty sure I could convince him Iowa has a better chance to be in the tournament again than Minnesota. Minnesota is offering X you say...we'll give you X+2....done I'm a Hawkeye.
Love to be very wrong...but don't understand the strategy.

I know there are 2,000 guys in the portal....it's not like we can't sign 7 guys...it's just there was/is a pecking order to the level of talent. And we didn't choose guys all that amazingly well last year. Yes, Tyson with no where else to go turned into an NBA prospect, but he was not any where close to a sure thing for us. JCJ came with Niko. Durkin settled in but we all seem like him off the bench better going forward. Reynolds blossomed after Willis got hurt....maybe at best we batted at 50% overall. 5 of our signees basically did not play and are in the transfer portal for somebody else....not a good batting average.

Edit: Evans on campus is good news!
 

I don't have instagram but someone will have to let us know if he puts an Iowa picture on his story tomorrow
 


60's Guy said:
If Evans is a lock, as some have said. What the heck is he doing visiting Iowa? Why would we let it go there? Pretty sure I could convince him Iowa has a better chance to be in the tournament again than Minnesota. Minnesota is offering X you say...we'll give you X+2....done I'm a Hawkeye.
Love to be very wrong...but don't understand the strategy.

I know there are 2,000 guys in the portal....it's not like we can't sign 7 guys...it's just there was/is a pecking order to the level of talent. And we didn't choose guys all that amazingly well last year. Yes, Tyson with no where else to go turned into an NBA prospect, but he was not any where close to a sure thing for us. JCJ came with Niko. Durkin settled in but we all seem like him off the bench better going forward. Reynolds blossomed after Willis got hurt....maybe at best we batted at 50% overall. 5 of our signees basically did not play and are in the transfer portal for somebody else....not a good batting average.

Edit: Evans on campus is good news!
Click to expand...
Such a bad take. The guys Niko brought in last year likely would have been a tournament team if it hadn't been for the bad luck with injuries. You keep Willis, Vaihola, and Omot on the roster and that is a really strong team - the added depth gets them 4-5 more wins over the year that were close losses. There was no way he could have foreseen the injuries to Willis and Vaihola for the entire year, and JCJ as well. Omot had an injury the previous year, but every reason to believe when they signed him he was past that.

Just relax and see who he brings in.
 
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60's Guy said:
If Evans is a lock, as some have said. What the heck is he doing visiting Iowa? Why would we let it go there? Pretty sure I could convince him Iowa has a better chance to be in the tournament again than Minnesota. Minnesota is offering X you say...we'll give you X+2....done I'm a Hawkeye.
Love to be very wrong...but don't understand the strategy.

I know there are 2,000 guys in the portal....it's not like we can't sign 7 guys...it's just there was/is a pecking order to the level of talent. And we didn't choose guys all that amazingly well last year. Yes, Tyson with no where else to go turned into an NBA prospect, but he was not any where close to a sure thing for us. JCJ came with Niko. Durkin settled in but we all seem like him off the bench better going forward. Reynolds blossomed after Willis got hurt....maybe at best we batted at 50% overall. 5 of our signees basically did not play and are in the transfer portal for somebody else....not a good batting average.

Edit: Evans on campus is good news!
Click to expand...
I had a completely different reaction when I heard this. My take is that Kyan is a smart kid. He knows that Medved and McCollum are two of the best schematic coaches in the midwest, and he thinks either of them could get him and his game back where he wants it to be. It's probably what I'd do if I were him. You want to make sure. The Gophers and Niko are a sure thing: mutual interest and known coaching and development commodity. Iowa is a second option worth investigating.
 


60's Guy said:
If Evans is a lock, as some have said. What the heck is he doing visiting Iowa? Why would we let it go there? Pretty sure I could convince him Iowa has a better chance to be in the tournament again than Minnesota. Minnesota is offering X you say...we'll give you X+2....done I'm a Hawkeye.
Love to be very wrong...but don't understand the strategy.

I know there are 2,000 guys in the portal....it's not like we can't sign 7 guys...it's just there was/is a pecking order to the level of talent. And we didn't choose guys all that amazingly well last year. Yes, Tyson with no where else to go turned into an NBA prospect, but he was not any where close to a sure thing for us. JCJ came with Niko. Durkin settled in but we all seem like him off the bench better going forward. Reynolds blossomed after Willis got hurt....maybe at best we batted at 50% overall. 5 of our signees basically did not play and are in the transfer portal for somebody else....not a good batting average.

Edit: Evans on campus is good news!
Click to expand...
Hey USAF, quick come call me out for being wrong! Looks like I heard bad info on Kyan being at Iowa on a visit, but I have heard the interest is there from Iowa. When you are applying to jobs, do you only apply to one and interview for one? I think not. Lock or not, stuff happens and plans can change. If we brought in *insert top guard prospect* and were no longer an option to Kyan, he would need some sort of backup plan.

I will say if he were to choose Iowa, I would become his biggest hater of all time.
 






Here is an interesting rankings of transfers from 247 from last year;



1. Yaxel Lendenborg
33. Pharrel Payne
60. Elliot Cadeau
97. Kyan Evans
220. Cam Heide
244. Chansey Willis
247. Last player ranked - Cade Tyson (ranked 34th best transfer in 2024 leaving Belmont for UNC)
 
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Spottedmuskie said:
Here is an interesting rankings of transfers from 247 from last year;



1. Yaxel Lendenborg
33. Pharrel Payne
60. Elliot Cadeau
97. Kyan Evans
220. Cam Heide
244. Chansey Willis
247. Last player ranked - Cade Tyson
Click to expand...


This year,

44. Terrence Brown
91. Isaac Celiscar
95. Kyle Evans
130. Daniel Freitag
147. Nick Janowski
210. BJ Omot
227. Nasir Whitlock
232. Kyan Evans
 


60's Guy said:
If Evans is a lock, as some have said. What the heck is he doing visiting Iowa? Why would we let it go there? Pretty sure I could convince him Iowa has a better chance to be in the tournament again than Minnesota. Minnesota is offering X you say...we'll give you X+2....done I'm a Hawkeye.
Love to be very wrong...but don't understand the strategy.

I know there are 2,000 guys in the portal....it's not like we can't sign 7 guys...it's just there was/is a pecking order to the level of talent. And we didn't choose guys all that amazingly well last year. Yes, Tyson with no where else to go turned into an NBA prospect, but he was not any where close to a sure thing for us. JCJ came with Niko. Durkin settled in but we all seem like him off the bench better going forward. Reynolds blossomed after Willis got hurt....maybe at best we batted at 50% overall. 5 of our signees basically did not play and are in the transfer portal for somebody else....not a good batting average.

Edit: Evans on campus is good news!
Click to expand...
Understand your take but id like to see stats nationwide not sure that 5 of 10 isn't about average nationally. It seems from the outside looking in very few except maybe the top 20% of the transfers do great or pan out at there new schools and many transfer again after 1 year! What do you think?
 

60's Guy said:
If Evans is a lock, as some have said. What the heck is he doing visiting Iowa? Why would we let it go there? Pretty sure I could convince him Iowa has a better chance to be in the tournament again than Minnesota. Minnesota is offering X you say...we'll give you X+2....done I'm a Hawkeye.
Love to be very wrong...but don't understand the strategy.

I know there are 2,000 guys in the portal....it's not like we can't sign 7 guys...it's just there was/is a pecking order to the level of talent. And we didn't choose guys all that amazingly well last year. Yes, Tyson with no where else to go turned into an NBA prospect, but he was not any where close to a sure thing for us. JCJ came with Niko. Durkin settled in but we all seem like him off the bench better going forward. Reynolds blossomed after Willis got hurt....maybe at best we batted at 50% overall. 5 of our signees basically did not play and are in the transfer portal for somebody else....not a good batting average.

Edit: Evans on campus is good news!
Click to expand...
Maybe he's spying for Niko before he commits here. :sneaky:
 

Spottedmuskie said:
Here is an interesting rankings of transfers from 247 from last year;



1. Yaxel Lendenborg
33. Pharrel Payne
60. Elliot Cadeau
97. Kyan Evans
220. Cam Heide
244. Chansey Willis
247. Last player ranked - Cade Tyson (ranked 34th best transfer in 2024 leaving Belmont for UNC)
Click to expand...

Amazing how Tyson's skills and abilities deteriorated so much from that one year at UNC!

Obviously, a lot of these rankings can be taken with a grain of salt.
 

Bad Gopher said:
I had a completely different reaction when I heard this. My take is that Kyan is a smart kid. He knows that Medved and McCollum are two of the best schematic coaches in the midwest, and he thinks either of them could get him and his game back where he wants it to be. It's probably what I'd do if I were him. You want to make sure. The Gophers and Niko are a sure thing: mutual interest and known coaching and development commodity. Iowa is a second option worth investigating.
Click to expand...
I'm not looking at it from the Kyan perspective. I wanna close deals. I'm looking at it from the Minnesota perspective.
 

Spottedmuskie said:

This year,

44. Terrence Brown
91. Isaac Celiscar
95. Kyle Evans
130. Daniel Freitag
147. Nick Janowski
210. BJ Omot
227. Nasir Whitlock
232. Kyan Evans
Click to expand...

Is Kyle Evans the forward from UC Irvine? I watched a fair number of Big West games on ESPN+ this past season. He's a good player. Very lean but very active and intense. 1st Team All Conference and Defensive POY. I see that he played for Niko at CSU in his first two seasons. I didn't realize that when I watched him play. Has he been mentioned as a possible Gopher portal target?
 

Beerculees said:
Hey USAF, quick come call me out for being wrong! Looks like I heard bad info on Kyan being at Iowa on a visit, but I have heard the interest is there from Iowa. When you are applying to jobs, do you only apply to one and interview for one? I think not. Lock or not, stuff happens and plans can change. If we brought in *insert top guard prospect* and were no longer an option to Kyan, he would need some sort of backup plan.

I will say if he were to choose Iowa, I would become his biggest hater of all time.
Click to expand...
We apply for jobs differently. I definitely do some research and rank the jobs. I'm all over the one I want. I expect to get it. Sometimes you interview and decide...hmmm I don't wanna work here.
Sometimes you know at the interview your chances are weak. But most of the time, I pick the job I want and get hired.
Only, after I learn I don't want to be there or learn they really only pay 10 bucks an hour not $120k or this ain't gonna likely work for me...only then am applying at #2. And that didn't happen very much for me.
So we approach things differently.
Backup plans are put in place only after catastrophes happen. I got one but I'm not worried about it on the front end. Kyan is on his backup plan...North Carolina didn't work.
 


MTBeaudry said:
It seems from the outside looking in very few except maybe the top 20% of the transfers do great or pan out at there new schools and many transfer again after 1 year!
Click to expand...

Well, if you're saying great OR pan out, I think our success rate has been better than 20% since the free-for-all transfer situation started. Just listing a few names:

Battle
Willis (second time)
Garcia
Hawkins
Mike Mitchell (at least in his first year here)
Patterson
Crocker-Johnson
Tyson
Reynolds
Durkin

Obviously, these weren't all great players but they were all significant contributors.
 

60's Guy said:
I'm not looking at it from the Kyan perspective. I wanna close deals. I'm looking at it from the Minnesota perspective.
Click to expand...
I hate to break it to you, but you're in no position to close any deals. We all would like to see certain things, but we don't have any control over the situation. Even the coaches can only make their best pitch. Even the best coaches lose their share of fish off the line.
 

MTBeaudry said:
Understand your take but id like to see stats nationwide not sure that 5 of 10 isn't about average nationally. It seems from the outside looking in very few except maybe the top 20% of the transfers do great or pan out at there new schools and many transfer again after 1 year! What do you think?
Click to expand...
Good point, it's all new, idk. Kentucky spent $22M and was unhappy. Michigan spent a lot and was pleased. Iowa had 15 new guys and has one in the portal. Purdue and Michigan St maybe nobody? Wisconsin is hurting. I think it's a school by school basis, year by year...you have new coaches in a lot of places. Tough to know what normal is after two years of big money and coaches moving around. Good point...
 

TwistingMyMelon said:
Is Kyle Evans the forward from UC Irvine? I watched a fair number of Big West games on ESPN+ this past season. He's a good player. Very lean but very active and intense. 1st Team All Conference and Defensive POY. I see that he played for Niko at CSU in his first two seasons. I didn't realize that when I watched him play. Has he been mentioned as a possible Gopher portal target?
Click to expand...

Yes someone mentioned him a week ago or so, I was very intrigued as they said he was at CSU with Niko, and then again surprised he was ranked 95th so I included him in this list
 

Bad Gopher said:
I hate to break it to you, but you're in no position to close any deals. We all would like to see certain things, but we don't have any control over the situation. Even the coaches can only make their best pitch. Even the best coaches lose their share of fish off the line.
Click to expand...
Wow! Thank you! I had no idea I wasn't in position to negotiate contracts for the Gophers.
I'm on message board offering takes for people to disagree with and boost their own self esteem telling me what an idiot I am. That's my position. I'm aware what my place is. Thank you, though for your concern in reminding me.
 

Beerculees said:
Hey USAF, quick come call me out for being wrong! Looks like I heard bad info on Kyan being at Iowa on a visit, but I have heard the interest is there from Iowa. When you are applying to jobs, do you only apply to one and interview for one? I think not. Lock or not, stuff happens and plans can change. If we brought in *insert top guard prospect* and were no longer an option to Kyan, he would need some sort of backup plan.

I will say if he were to choose Iowa, I would become his biggest hater of all time.
Click to expand...
TF are you babbling about?

I laughed at you suddenly cooling on Willis as soon as he said adios. You loved him 24 hours earlier.
 


60's Guy said:
Wow! Thank you! I had no idea I wasn't in position to negotiate contracts for the Gophers.
I'm on message board offering takes for people to disagree with and boost their own self esteem telling me what an idiot I am. That's my position. I'm aware what my place is. Thank you, though for your concern in reminding me.
Click to expand...
Don't mention it.
 

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