All Things 2014 Basketball Recruiting Thread

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jaymil said:
Macura is sounding more and more like a lock. If he commits in the next week or two, hopefully that starts a little bit of a domino effect. JP has made himself a known commodity becoming a fringe top 100 recruit. Other guys will take notice of that. And while the Duke/Travis news sucks, we still have Paul White and Josh Martin taking officials here. They're a downgrade from Reid but they're still talented players with very good offer lists.
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Duke isn't for everybody and home has a big attraction. I think we get two of the big four with Macura being first to commit. Macura and any one of the other three would be the start of a very good class.
 

bga1 said:
Duke isn't for everybody and home has a big attraction. I think we get two of the big four with Macura being first to commit. Macura and any one of the other three would be the start of a very good class.
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I think our best shot is a late commit from Vaughn. He is going to be one and done and we will have absolutely no one on the team that can score like him from the 2. We will have some nice pieces at the point, center and wing which will allow him to drive and shoot at will. I also think he is most intrigued at being "the man" locally and being pointed at as the player that started a resurgence led by Ricco & Co. Pure speculation, but it is what I read between the lines. As long as we get some other solid players at 3 & 4 for next year, and we play like Ricco says he wants to...we are home with Vaughn. No way we sign Tyus or Reid IMO. One is already looking at housing at Duke and the other is headed west.
 

Counter intuitively, MN has its best chance the more we can delay commitments of our targets (exception Macura) to November, so recruits can see RP's Gophers in action and see that the represented up tempo style is for real. That's when Gophs have their best chance to get two of the big 3. So we can't necessarily write off guys who try on competing programs for size.
 

Bad Gopher said:
This is only the purest of speculation, but what I suspect might be happening is that Minnesota enters these elite recruits' picture on the strength of a good pitch and copious attention from Pitino and his staff, and they're impressed with the coaches and their message. Once the Gophers make final lists, we start to become the target of negative recruiting by the other finalists, and who knows what all they're saying, but I can guess. I'd say we're an easier target than most programs because of our lack of recent success, lesser facilities, relatively unproven coaching regime and brutal winter weather. Again, this is merely speculative, but it would explain the pattern we've been seeing of recruits getting very warm on us and then cooling considerably after they've named their finalists.
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Bad Gopher -- your last two posts on this thread have been very good. I think Pitino needs to raise the profile of this program before we can realistically expect to get some of these elite out-of-state recruits, for some of the very reasons that you cite here. Still hopeful though.
 

march madness said:
Either that or they havent seen this coach's team play a regular season game. To get an out of state top 50 guy without coaching 1 game at a major school would be somekind of salesmanship. I would love it but I am not holding out hope for it. Peoples expectations given our situation is a bit out of reality.
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And when those unrealistic expectations come no where close to being met the meltdown on GopherHole will be epic.
 


Bad Gopher said:
This is only the purest of speculation, but what I suspect might be happening is that Minnesota enters these elite recruits' picture on the strength of a good pitch and copious attention from Pitino and his staff, and they're impressed with the coaches and their message. Once the Gophers make final lists, we start to become the target of negative recruiting by the other finalists, and who knows what all they're saying, but I can guess. I'd say we're an easier target than most programs because of our lack of recent success, lesser facilities, relatively unproven coaching regime and brutal winter weather. Again, this is merely speculative, but it would explain the pattern we've been seeing of recruits getting very warm on us and then cooling considerably after they've named their finalists.
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Add to that the fact that any of these potential one and done players(possibly even a two and done) can go to one of the 'helmet schools' and have a surrounding cast already in place to make a long run in the tournament.

Guys like Tyus, Rashad and others can't really build a program all by themselves in one or possibly two years. If these guys were going to be here for three or four years there would be a better chance to build something before they leave.
 

scools12 said:
And when those unrealistic expectations come no where close to being met the meltdown on GopherHole will be epic.
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I think we have a new quote that will appear as everyone's tagline on GopherHole. Nice work scools12
 

station19 said:
Add to that the fact that any of these potential one and done players(possibly even a two and done) can go to one of the 'helmet schools' and have a surrounding cast already in place to make a long run in the tournament.

Guys like Travis, Rashad and others can't really build a program all by themselves in one or possibly two years. If these guys were going to be here for three or four years there would be a better chance to build something before they leave.
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Pretty confident Travis will be a 4-year player. Rashad is one and done barring injury or a fluke season though.
 




GophersOnTheRise said:
Pretty confident Travis will be a 4-year player. Rashad is one and done barring injury or a fluke season though.
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Thinking the same. That's why I didn't mention his(Travis) name. He would be a tremendous building block.

Like some others have said he might be the best of the three for us and one to really build around. We can only hope.
 

station19 said:
Thinking the same. That's why I didn't mention his(Travis) name. He would be a tremendous building block.

Like some others have said he might be the best of the three for us and one to really build around. We can only hope.
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Either you said Travis where you meant to say Tyus, or I just misinterpreted your last post. I think I would take 2 years of Tyus over 4 years of Travis, but if Tyus were to only play 1 year then I'd take Travis. I agree that he would be a great player to build around though. Really hope we get him.

Sorry for saying Travis so many times.
 

GophersOnTheRise said:
Either you said Travis where you meant to say Tyus, or I just misinterpreted your last post. I think I would take 2 years of Tyus over 4 years of Travis, but if Tyus were to only play 1 year then I'd take Travis. I agree that he would be a great player to build around though. Really hope we get him.

Sorry for saying Travis so many times.
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Ah yes. Thanks for catching that.

Will fix.......................it will be a Parski-ism.
 

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>4 star Paul White arrived for Miami visit yesterday. Will have an in-home with Minnesota on Sept 19th. Word from Rivals is no AZ visit.</p>— Ryan James (@RyanJamesMN) <a href="https://twitter.com/RyanJamesMN/statuses/375998758963937280">September 6, 2013</a></blockquote>
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Arizona out of the picture is a good thing. Wonder if Newton committing to Miami makes them even more attractive to White.
 



Really two years of Tyus over four from Travis, not me. I'll take Travis first even for the same amount of time. A really smart, disciplined kid that can score playing PF is not that common.
 

corcoran1 said:
Really two years of Tyus over four from Travis, not me. I'll take Travis first even for the same amount of time. A really smart, disciplined kid that can score playing PF is not that common.
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I think that I will take Tyus for 2 years over Travis for 2 for sure. Getting a pure point guard to pair with Dre for a season would have to be one of the best guard combos in the big ten. However, I think I would take Travis for 4 over Tyus for 2.
 


Potion apparently looking at another SG option. Marial Shayok from Ottawa, CA. Listed at 6'6", 200 LBS, currently a rivals 3 star. Just in case his info isn't posted yet! Does seem to hold a MN offer.

Adam Zagoria (@AdamZagoria)
9/10/13, 8:56 AM
Marquette coach @TeamCoachBuzz will be in to Blair (NJ) Academy today to see 2014 wing @ToOffical_11 . Minny's Richard Pitino in tomorrow.
 

Florida State Landed Cinmeon Bowers (6'7" PF). Don't know if this has any effect on Josh Martin's recruitment, but I don't think it hurt our chances at all
 

Just bought a month subscription to NorthStarHoopsReport the other day by the way, would recommend it to others. A lot of information on lesser known recruits such as JP, Delshon, players like that. Good if you are looking for more information on MN high School basketball in general. (RJ writes for them)
 


MadtownGopher said:
That definitely seems like it would help us.
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Don't understand why he isn't talked about more. Seems to really like us, noticed he has retweeted many Gopher fans tweets and seems interested in the campus. I know tweets really don't mean much, but i think he would be a good get. Good rebounder, shooter, and we need a PF bad, could play some SF too.
 

GoldyForLife said:
Don't understand why he isn't talked about more. Seems to really like us, noticed he has retweeted many Gopher fans tweets and seems interested in the campus. I know tweets really don't mean much, but i think he would be a good get. Good rebounder, shooter, and we need a PF bad, could play some SF too.
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Pretty sure 99% of the people that post on GH would be ecstatic with him, but there hasn't been a lot of news regarding him, especially from the local media.
 

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>While the Gophers are on the East Coast visiting with Isaiah Whitehead they will also watch Bonzie Colson</p>— Ryan James (@RyanJamesMN) <a href="https://twitter.com/RyanJamesMN/statuses/377551644822872064">September 10, 2013</a></blockquote>
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Contemplating on these top tier players is like trying to figure out how you are going to spend the money if you win the lottery after purchasing a ticket. It is nice, but you haven't won yet.
 

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p><a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23Gophers&src=hash">#Gophers</a> were showing some interest in Bearden. RT <a href="https://twitter.com/DaveTelep">@davetelep</a>: How about Buffalo getting PG Lamonte Bearden. Impressive addition at the...</p>— GopherHole.com (@GopherHole) <a href="https://twitter.com/GopherHole/statuses/377625470042640384">September 11, 2013</a></blockquote>
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Thought I should post this information for those of you who don't follow other teams recruiting as closely...

Robert Johnson a top 100 player, who plays shooting guard out of Richmond, Virginia is set to announce his decision on September 20th. He is not considering the gophers but the front runner seems to be UNC, which would make him their 3rd wing recruit they have gotten a verbal commit from for the class of 2014, which presumably should eliminate UNC from Vaughn's list.

I would also like to add that, that the other team that some people think has a chance at Johnson, is Indiana, which is also targeting Whitehead, who is also a gopher target. So if he doesn't shock the world and picks Indiana or UNC, the gophers would greatly benefit from his decision, at least one would assume.

Teams on his final list... UNC, Indiana, Virginia, FSU, and PITT

247 "crystal ball" has UNC at 86% and Indiana at 14%, take that as you wish
 


Not much new info in this article, but Tum Tum is expecting to have a decision pretty quickly after his September 20th visit with Indiana. I believe you need to be a member to read it. Here's what he had to say about Minnesota: "It's a great place. I didn't know what to expect but it is right in the city and you never have to leave. Everything you could want is right there. They have a great staff and I believe Coach Pitino is goin to turn the situation around. They are really good people. Whenever I talk to coach Pitino it's about life and not basketball and I just really believe it is a good situation."

http://basketballrecruiting.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1548031
 

GophersOnTheRise said:
Not much new info in this article, but Tum Tum is expecting to have a decision pretty quickly after his September 20th visit with Indiana. I believe you need to be a member to read it. Here's what he had to say about Minnesota: "It's a great place. I didn't know what to expect but it is right in the city and you never have to leave. Everything you could want is right there. They have a great staff and I believe Coach Pitino is goin to turn the situation around. They are really good people. Whenever I talk to coach Pitino it's about life and not basketball and I just really believe it is a good situation."

http://basketballrecruiting.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1548031
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Hmmmm I would consider those comments to be good news for us. Sounds like we have a really good shot.
 

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Here at Blair Academy where Minnesota's Richard Pitino & Dan McHale are watching 2014 wing Marial Shayok. Pitino will see <a href="https://twitter.com/Isaiah_W15">@Isaiah_W15</a> later</p>— Adam Zagoria (@AdamZagoria) <a href="https://twitter.com/AdamZagoria/statuses/377873924522246144">September 11, 2013</a></blockquote>
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Go Gophers!!
 

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