All Things 2018 Gophers Basketball Recruiting Thread

Donate To GopherHole
Crackhouse said:
Oh, my snarky comment was indeed in reply to your's, but let's agree that we're both a little bit of a ******.

For background, first and foremost, I reside in De Pere, graduated from Pulaski, and then the U. So its actually nice to hear someone else in NEW is a Gopher Fan. Not many of us here! I actually searched it on LinkedIn a few months ago, 126 graduates of the U in the Greater GB area, at least listed there.


You'll have to excuse me for the Koch/Jesperson mix up and my inability to name Cody Wichman, from Pulaski, off the top of my head on Wednesday.

I'll agree that NEW doesn't produce Top 150 players on a routine basis. But it has produced its share over the years with a population base of roughly 350k (I'm taking an educated guess) (GB to Menasha down 41 and Sheboygan down 43 (I only go 45 mins south to Sheboygan because they are in the FRCC with all of the GB Schools), and west to Shawano let's say) its not the void of talent you claim, nor poor BB.

First, from a team perspective, Bay Port, Kaukauna, Pulaski, De Pere, GB Notre Dame, to name a few, have all had runs through state or won championships in the past few years. As a comparison, when I was a kid, typically Milwaukee area dominated state. I still remember Bay Port running up and down with Maymon and Blue from Madison at State a few years ago.

But to your point, I believe, inside your general statement about the state of HS Basketball in NEW; I knew Brian Wardle a bit when he was at UW-GB (or GB as they now prefer to market themselves) He was under some booster pressure to recruit local products Wichman or Koch, as he had been recruiting most of the kids from Milwaukee and Chicago. He told me what the area lacked, and he was being general, was the toughness of the inner city kids to get hit in the nose and still stay on the ball defending a trait he felt players like Fletcher, Carriignton Love, etc... had. He said AAU experience had helped in that regard, but it wasn't the same game.

To further your point, The last McDonald's All-American was Brian Butch 2006

However, there has been some talent that signed with P5 schools recently:

Brevin Pritzl (De Pere) was the last kid from NEW to sign with a Power 5 school (Wisconsin 2015) 5th ranked kid in the stated behind Stone and Ellenson who will both be drafted this year.

Cohen (Seymour) with Marquette in 2014 (he also played more than 20 minutes last year)

Lowe was the top kid in NEW in 2013 signed with GB, so you win that year, if your argument is LC is out of the sample area, it defaults to Verhagen from Appleton who went to Eastern Illinois. Although, Moesch (GBSW) is a PWO at Wisconsin.

2012 - Dekker (Sheboygan to Wisconsin)

In the end, your comment felt like your stating most of the HS's in NEW still run the four corners offense and play Dick Bennett defense, in nut huggers. There's been some talent that has come out of here, albeit the last NBA player was Tony Bennett.

I hope that explains my position a little better.
Click to expand...


Good to hear, need more gopher fans in the world let alone NEW.

Lets end it with this, I agree with Wardle. Neither he nor I said it was an area void of talent, or an area of 4 corners with nut huggers, that was purely your idea. Both of us don't trust the talent level coming out of the area and would like to/need to see those kids play well in the AAU ranks to evaluate/see what they are capable of, because playing against the Red Raiders isn' a good indication of ability to compete in the Big 10. ;)


Cause if it was, I should be in the Major Leagues by now.....
 


I have never seen him play but I have seen the big numbers. Is his game similar to Theo John?


GameDay said:
Oturu is good. Probably like 6'9, 210 lbs. Good leaper, nice transition game, demonstrated he could step out and hit the three, and while his shot needs some consistency, the potential for a nice mid-range, perimeter jump shot to add to his game is definitely there and something I can see him working on over time. Very strong rebounder at this age, defense is so-so. He'll get a bunch of offers and a Gopher offer eventually, I believe he'll end up a Gopher. Has the rest of the summer (including 3 more EYBL events) and next summer to rack up the offers. I think he's a top 150 guy.
Click to expand...
 




A bit of hot-dogging there, and a couple moves that would be a travel or a carry in the B1G, but a lot to like. Creative passer and good shooter (if mostly a set shot). Quick enough with a good handle but no vertical explosiveness (stays on the floor and dishes a lot).
 

It also seems possible that he's waiting for a Wisconsin offer and will commit if/when he gets it.
 





<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Go Gophers!!
 


Isaiah Washington's teammate. I believe we offered both of them at the same time. Reclassifying from 2017 to 2018.

<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 

Are we not actively pursuing Trapp because we are going after Oturo?
 



<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 


<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 

<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 

I keep thinking about the implications of the success of Howard Pulley and D1MN this spring/summer. Obviously many of the players on both of those teams are top 2017 targets for the Gophers.

I have to believe that both those teams are having a blast playing together. Would be a huge momentum-builder to get a commitments from John, Wright, Sims, (now Davison) etc. in order for them to get in the ears of some of the 2018/2019 players on those teams (Jones, Gabe, Oturu, Hurt, etc.), talk up the hometown team, and the opportunity to play together again. Gotta believe the relationships on those teams have gotten to be pretty tight.

I have to believe the opposite could be true. If they swing and miss on a lot of these 2017 players, I imagine that there will be lots of conversations with the younger guys about why they passed up on the U.

Basically what I'm trying to say is that the recruiting of our 2017 class will likely have significant ripple effects to our in-state targets for 2018 and beyond.
 

LM21 said:
I keep thinking about the implications of the success of Howard Pulley and D1MN this spring/summer. Obviously many of the players on both of those teams are top 2017 targets for the Gophers.

I have to believe that both those teams are having a blast playing together. Would be a huge momentum-builder to get a commitments from John, Wright, Sims, (now Davison) etc. in order for them to get in the ears of some of the 2018/2019 players on those teams (Jones, Gabe, Oturu, Hurt, etc.), talk up the hometown team, and the opportunity to play together again. Gotta believe the relationships on those teams have gotten to be pretty tight.

I have to believe the opposite could be true. If they swing and miss on a lot of these 2017 players, I imagine that there will be lots of conversations with the younger guys about why they passed up on the U.

Basically what I'm trying to say is that the recruiting of our 2017 class will likely have significant ripple effects to our in-state targets for 2018 and beyond.
Click to expand...

I agree with most of what you say above but I don't necessarily think that we need to land all 2017 in state guys to have successful in state recruiting in the future.

We swung and missed on Jones, Vaughn, Travis, and Macura in 2014 and still got Jarvis the next year. We also then got Hurt and Coffey in 2016. We likely will miss on on Trent and Jones again in the near future as well regardless of anyone we're recruiting for 2017 coming here or not.
 

tmvander said:
I agree with most of what you say above but I don't necessarily think that we need to land all 2017 in state guys to have successful in state recruiting in the future.

We swung and missed on Jones, Vaughn, Travis, and Macura in 2014 and still got Jarvis the next year. We also then got Hurt and Coffey in 2016. We likely will miss on on Trent and Jones again in the near future as well regardless of anyone we're recruiting for 2017 coming here or not.
Click to expand...

Yeah, my intention was not to say that we need everybody, but rather that landing 1 or 2 could really help, and striking out with everyone could have ramifications down the road. Also agree with you that Trent and likely Jones are all but gone, but getting back to my original point, I do think that the success of this year's AAU teams may make the situation a little different than Tyus's class and even Jarvis's since the players have been so successful together at this level and may be more inclined to play with each other again in college.
 

LM21 said:
Yeah, my intention was not to say that we need everybody, but rather that landing 1 or 2 could really help, and striking out with everyone could have ramifications down the road. Also agree with you that Trent and likely Jones are all but gone, but getting back to my original point, I do think that the success of this year's AAU teams may make the situation a little different than Tyus's class and even Jarvis's since the players have been so successful together at this level and may be more inclined to play with each other again in college.
Click to expand...

Also, just to clarify, I don't have any sources to say that any of the players are actually thinking this way. Just thinking to myself if I'm a part of either of those top-ranked teams, I'm more than willing to consider playing with my teammates again in college.
 

Tyus and Travis Reid played together a lot and they never had any interest of playing together in college. I believe Duke was even in on Reid towards the end of his recruitment. A lot of these kids have egos and differing interests that lead them to different types of college programs. So I don't know if 2017 will say much about 2018, at least not as much as the team's final standings this coming season.
 

I'll go out on a limb and say we will sign two instate guys this year and three in 2018 to go with the two we signed in 2016. Throw in the two instate walkons and hopefully people will stop complaining about a lack of instate talent choosing the maroon and gold
 

That 2018 class is a big one for the Gophers in that they'll be having to replace Mason, Lynch, Konate and Fitzgerald at least.

that's four guys that figure to be main rotation guys for the team the next two seasons - or more in the case of the Mason.

Assuming they've got no shot at Tre Jones - which doesnt feel like too far of a leap - they could still bring in a combination of Kalscheur, Oturu, Thompson and I'm sure there are a handful of out-of-staters and form a nice little class.

Would love to bring in as many 2017 kids as possible, though I don't imagine we'll have more than 3 open slots. Got 2 right now for that class and I'd assume one will open up with a transfer.
 


Jarvis Thomas of Tartan picked up an offer from Oregon State recently.
 





You must log in or register to reply here.



Top Bottom