All Things 2018 Gophers Basketball Recruiting Thread

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per Marcus:

The Gophers’ two main targets remaining for their last scholarship are four-star Oak Hill Academy (Va.) wing Keyontae Johnson and three-star South Kent School (N.Y.) point guard Anthony Nelson. But neither player has scheduled an official visit with Minnesota yet.

The 6-5 Johnson, who has a 41-inch vertical, officially visited Wichita State on Sept. 15 and is expected to make a trip to Georgia Tech on Oct. 6. Nelson visited Dayton last week and will reportedly make official trips to Seton Hall this weekend and Clemson on Oct. 6.

There's speculation that point guards being recruited in 2018 are worried about playing time with current freshman Isaiah Washington likely to be Gophers floor leader for years to come. Washington tweeted a photo of himself, senior guard Nate Mason and junior guard Jarvis Johnson. Mason will be gone next season. Johnson is still not medically cleared to play because of a heart condition (and is not likely to in his career as of now).

http://www.startribune.com/four-sta...nter-jr-will-not-visit-the-gophers/447719613/

Go Gophers!!
 

Too bad. But the writing's been on the wall on this one for a couple weeks it seems.
 

I much preferred Hunter. Either of Nelson or Johnson I can deal with for that last spot
 

RatherBeGolfing said:
Either of Nelson or Johnson I can deal with for that last spot
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If they aren't scheduled to visit, I doubt we are any serious consideration. Not at this point in the year anyway. I hope the last schollie doesn't end up going to a "project." Might as well bank it for later.
 


GibsonSG said:
If they aren't scheduled to visit, I doubt we are any serious consideration. Not at this point in the year anyway. I hope the last schollie doesn't end up going to a "project." Might as well bank it for later.
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Well they both have visits they can still schedule. I do believe we got Austin Hollins without a visit. It's rare but never say never in this biz
 

If they can't get Johnson... id say stash the scholly for next year. Tyrell Terry looks like a very good PG for next year's recruiting class who would be a realistic get. Plus with Curry and Fitgerald having knee problems, you might need a grad transfer in a year or two.
 

Frank Grimey Grimes said:
If they can't get Johnson... id say stash the scholly for next year. Tyrell Terry looks like a very good PG for next year's recruiting class who would be a realistic get. Plus with Curry and Fitgerald having knee problems, you might need a grad transfer in a year or two.
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I don't know what the deal with Anthony Nelson not being ranked on 247 sports, but he should absolutely be a take if he wants to come here. He has some other good high majors going after him and had good production on the EYBL AAU circuit. I do agree that if we miss out on those two that we shouldn't be reaching after that. Save it for the Spring to see if you can get a transfer or a good Spring decommit, like we did with Murphy.
 

Hunter just posted a video similar to Tres on his twitter account announcing his commitment to Purdue
 



Man this is a major disappointment. I really thought things were trending in the right direction with Hunter and I am not one of the more optimistic fans on the board. I really wonder if we would have Haliburton in the fold now if Hunter would have given us an indication he wasn't even going to take his official when we had the recent home visit with him? Either the staff really misread Eric or we go strung along here.

Big picture, Hunter was the only guy the Gophers have been strongly connected to that I could talk myself in to being a top offensive option. We started off really strong with Oturu, but now our class is ranked 6th in the B1G. Maryland is 7th and they have a much stronger average recruit than we have, they just only have 2 commitments. Wisconsin is also below us but have an Oturu level instate commitment as their only commitment (they still have one scholly to give for this class). The Gophers ended up near the bottom in the rankings last year because they only had 2 scholarships to give. It's strange because this staff has done well out of state in previous years, but have missed on a lot of targets (specifically guard targets) in this class so maybe the playing time thing is an issue.

Keyontae Johnson appears to be the most highly regarded option still available among Gopher targets. He'd be a really interesting fit because between him and Jarvis Thomas the Gophers would have two really elite athletes at the 3 and the 4, but he has a lot of questions surrounding his shooting and reminds me a bit of an even more athletic Joe Coleman (in his videos you see him passing up open look/feet set 3's to drive to the basket).

I think if we're patient we can end up with a good player, it's just surprising that we are struggling a bit on the recruiting trail coming off a very good season, opening new facilities, and being ranked by everyone going in to this season. Pitino's job is now secure and he's got more to sell...so hopefully we get some good news eventually. It's really been nothing but bad news from Dupree's stress fracture to Eric Curry's knee injury to Reggie Lynch needing a surgery to recruiting misses for a few months now.
 

EG#9 said:
Keyontae Johnson appears to be the most highly regarded option still available among Gopher targets. He'd be a really interesting fit because between him and Jarvis Thomas the Gophers would have two really elite athletes at the 3 and the 4, but he has a lot of questions surrounding his shooting and reminds me a bit of an even more athletic Joe Coleman (in his videos you see him passing up open look/feet set 3's to drive to the basket).
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Someone else sees it! He’s just a taller Joe Coleman (that’s not a good thing)
 

EG#9 said:
Man this is a major disappointment. I really thought things were trending in the right direction with Hunter and I am not one of the more optimistic fans on the board. I really wonder if we would have Haliburton in the fold now if Hunter would have given us an indication he wasn't even going to take his official when we had the recent home visit with him? Either the staff really misread Eric or we go strung along here.

Big picture, Hunter was the only guy the Gophers have been strongly connected to that I could talk myself in to being a top offensive option. We started off really strong with Oturu, but now our class is ranked 6th in the B1G. Maryland is 7th and they have a much stronger average recruit than we have, they just only have 2 commitments. Wisconsin is also below us but have an Oturu level instate commitment as their only commitment (they still have one scholly to give for this class). The Gophers ended up near the bottom in the rankings last year because they only had 2 scholarships to give. It's strange because this staff has done well out of state in previous years, but have missed on a lot of targets (specifically guard targets) in this class so maybe the playing time thing is an issue.

Keyontae Johnson appears to be the most highly regarded option still available among Gopher targets. He'd be a really interesting fit because between him and Jarvis Thomas the Gophers would have two really elite athletes at the 3 and the 4, but he has a lot of questions surrounding his shooting and reminds me a bit of an even more athletic Joe Coleman (in his videos you see him passing up open look/feet set 3's to drive to the basket).

I think if we're patient we can end up with a good player, it's just surprising that we are struggling a bit on the recruiting trail coming off a very good season, opening new facilities, and being ranked by everyone going in to this season. Pitino's job is now secure and he's got more to sell...so hopefully we get some good news eventually. It's really been nothing but bad news from Dupree's stress fracture to Eric Curry's knee injury to Reggie Lynch needing a surgery to recruiting misses for a few months now.
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We aren't struggling on the recruiting trail at all. Sure we missed out on Hunter but we already have a very good class just with the 3 commits we have and I'm confident the staff will add another solid player to that group whether it is this fall or they wait until the spring.
 

EG#9 said:
Man this is a major disappointment. I really thought things were trending in the right direction with Hunter and I am not one of the more optimistic fans on the board. I really wonder if we would have Haliburton in the fold now if Hunter would have given us an indication he wasn't even going to take his official when we had the recent home visit with him? Either the staff really misread Eric or we go strung along here.

Big picture, Hunter was the only guy the Gophers have been strongly connected to that I could talk myself in to being a top offensive option. We started off really strong with Oturu, but now our class is ranked 6th in the B1G. Maryland is 7th and they have a much stronger average recruit than we have, they just only have 2 commitments. Wisconsin is also below us but have an Oturu level instate commitment as their only commitment (they still have one scholly to give for this class). The Gophers ended up near the bottom in the rankings last year because they only had 2 scholarships to give. It's strange because this staff has done well out of state in previous years, but have missed on a lot of targets (specifically guard targets) in this class so maybe the playing time thing is an issue.

Keyontae Johnson appears to be the most highly regarded option still available among Gopher targets. He'd be a really interesting fit because between him and Jarvis Thomas the Gophers would have two really elite athletes at the 3 and the 4, but he has a lot of questions surrounding his shooting and reminds me a bit of an even more athletic Joe Coleman (in his videos you see him passing up open look/feet set 3's to drive to the basket).

I think if we're patient we can end up with a good player, it's just surprising that we are struggling a bit on the recruiting trail coming off a very good season, opening new facilities, and being ranked by everyone going in to this season. Pitino's job is now secure and he's got more to sell...so hopefully we get some good news eventually. It's really been nothing but bad news from Dupree's stress fracture to Eric Curry's knee injury to Reggie Lynch needing a surgery to recruiting misses for a few months now.
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This is a pretty pessimistic take tbh. Don't get too caught up in recruiting rankings. Jarvis is going to provide us with a defensive versatility that we haven't had since Damien Johnson. That is very valuable in itself regardless of how he develops offensively. Kalscheur was one of the best shooters on the EYBL circuit against some of the top players in the country and averaged 15ppg. Those two aren't chopped liver as recruits.

Sent from my LGL41C using Tapatalk
 



I like Anthony Nelson better than Hunter on video. I think you guys are maybe only looking at rankings? We'll get a good player, but we do need another point guard next year. imo And on video Hunter wasn't that...maybe he is now with improvement or will be and we missed. Again, I think we'll be fine. I would like Nelson.

Little worried about big guy depth this year.
 

60's Guy said:
I like Anthony Nelson better than Hunter on video. I think you guys are maybe only looking at rankings? We'll get a good player, but we do need another point guard next year. imo And on video Hunter wasn't that...maybe he is now with improvement or will be and we missed. Again, I think we'll be fine. I would like Nelson.

Little worried about big guy depth this year.
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Judging a player based on highlights is like judging a movie based on its trailer. Rankings are a much more reliable way to project talent (although rankings obviously aren't perfect either).
 

I certainly will concede that I am more pessimistic than the average poster in some areas, but my main points were just that the Gophers class so far is just right around average in the B1G and that they've missed out on numerous guard targets. The list starts with Tre Jones, AJ Green, and Noah Locke (who hasn't decided yet, but hasn't mentioned the Gophers in a long time). Those 3 are all understandable misses as Tre and Noah both had great offer lists and AJ stayed home to play for his dad. Then you have Jaelin Llewellyn, Marcus Zegarwoski, and Eric Hunter. These 3 were certainly within the Gophers reach, but they didn't land any of them. After that group you have guys like Nate Hinton and Tyrese Haliburton who went elsewhere and I don't know if the Gophers would have taken a commitment from either one at the time they announced. So that's anywhere between 6-8 guards that the Gophers have offered and chose to go elsewhere in the past few months. Like I said in my original post, I still think the Gophers can get a good player if they are patient (might have to hope for a de-commit in the spring, a Juco, a grad transfer, even a traditional transfer), but it can't be spun as anything but disappointing that they haven't landed one of these guard targets IMO. There's always a chance this turns out to be for the best as maybe Jordan Murphy is never a Gopher if Jon Nwankwo was able to be a Gopher. Hopefully recent history repeats itself and we get a really good player with the open scholarship.
 

I don’t think we are getting an impact grad transfer in the fall given there will be a dearth of guard minutes available next year. If Washington is who we all expect him to be you’re looking at 30+ minutes at each of the guard and wing positions locked up by Mcbrayer, Coffey and Washington. That leaves 30 minutes for those three positions combined. You’ll have sophomore Harris in the mix for those minutes as well, although you would think a 4ish star type player/transfer would have confidence of beating him out for those minutes.

He needs to be smart here and land someone that fits the style. If not, class balance is not a bad thing, taking a transfer or banking the scholarship could have worse implications. We would be very thin in the backcourt without another athlete.
 

Winasota Gopher said:
I don’t think we are getting an impact grad transfer in the fall given there will unlikely be a dearth off guard minutes available next year. If Washington is who we all expect him to be you’re looking at 30+ minutes at each of the guard and wing positions locked up by Mcbrayer, Coffey and Washington. That leaves 30 minutes of or for those three positions combined. You’ll have sophomore Harris in the mix for those minutes as well, although you would think a 4ish star type player/transfer would have confidence of beating him out for those minutes.

He needs to be smart here and land someone that fits the style. If not, class balance is not a bad thing, taking a transfer or banking the scholarship could have worse implications. We would be very thin in the backcourt without another athlete.
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And here is why we have missed. It's hard to get 2 good PG in back to back classes. Purdue, outside of being the hometown team, will have starter minutes for Hunter at PG no later than his junior year depending on future recruiting. Not sure that is officially the issue or not but that could be a reason.
 

DeathClutch said:
This is a pretty pessimistic take tbh. Don't get too caught up in recruiting rankings. Jarvis is going to provide us with a defensive versatility that we haven't had since Damien Johnson. That is very valuable in itself regardless of how he develops offensively. Kalscheur was one of the best shooters on the EYBL circuit against some of the top players in the country and averaged 15ppg. Those two aren't chopped liver as recruits.

Sent from my LGL41C using Tapatalk
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Nate Mason was barely a top 200 recruit, same with Murphy. Reggie Lynch was a two star transfer. Rankings are nice, but they're not everything. Gabe K and Jarvis both bring plenty to the table along with Jamir Harris. Wisconsin Sophomore starting PG, Trice was barely a top 300 recruit. Which is odd because his brother was very good at Michigan State
 

bemidjigopher said:
Nate Mason was barely a top 200 recruit, same with Murphy. Reggie Lynch was a two star transfer. Rankings are nice, but they're not everything. Gabe K and Jarvis both bring plenty to the table along with Jamir Harris. Wisconsin Sophomore starting PG, Trice was barely a top 300 recruit. Which is odd because his brother was very good at Michigan State
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Rivals had Murphy at #113. But in general I do agree with you.
 

We're not getting Keyontae Johnson or Nelson, the writing is on the wall with both. Johnson probably going to Wichita St. and Nelson to Dayton. We were too late on their recruitment since we were concentrating on Hunter.
 

It's certainly possible with the fallout of the bribery case still to be felt, there may be a number of top 50 players released from their commitments in the coming months. Extra Schollies might be a really good thing right now.
 

Sparlimb said:
It's certainly possible with the fallout of the bribery case still to be felt, there may be a number of top 50 players released from their commitments in the coming months. Extra Schollies might be a really good thing right now.
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Very true.
 

bemidjigopher said:
Well they both have visits they can still schedule. I do believe we got Austin Hollins without a visit. It's rare but never say never in this biz
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Austin Hollins had his official visit here the weekend of September 19, 2009, and attended the football game against Cal. He committed the Wednesday of the following week.

http://www.startribune.com/austin-hollins-commits-to-minnesota/60904147/

I believe the only enrolled scholarship player in the Pitino era without an official visit was Diedhiou.
 

tommypoly said:
We're not getting Keyontae Johnson or Nelson, the writing is on the wall with both. Johnson probably going to Wichita St. and Nelson to Dayton. We were too late on their recruitment since we were concentrating on Hunter.
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Both could still set up official visits here. I think Ryan James said they were trying to get Johnson here sometime in October.
 

Cayman said:
Both could still set up official visits here. I think Ryan James said they were trying to get Johnson here sometime in October.
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Right, they still "could" get them, anything can still happen. In all likelihood though, the signs say otherwise that's all.
 

EG#9 said:
I certainly will concede that I am more pessimistic than the average poster in some areas, but my main points were just that the Gophers class so far is just right around average in the B1G and that they've missed out on numerous guard targets. The list starts with Tre Jones, AJ Green, and Noah Locke (who hasn't decided yet, but hasn't mentioned the Gophers in a long time). Those 3 are all understandable misses as Tre and Noah both had great offer lists and AJ stayed home to play for his dad. Then you have Jaelin Llewellyn, Marcus Zegarwoski, and Eric Hunter. These 3 were certainly within the Gophers reach, but they didn't land any of them. After that group you have guys like Nate Hinton and Tyrese Haliburton who went elsewhere and I don't know if the Gophers would have taken a commitment from either one at the time they announced. So that's anywhere between 6-8 guards that the Gophers have offered and chose to go elsewhere in the past few months. Like I said in my original post, I still think the Gophers can get a good player if they are patient (might have to hope for a de-commit in the spring, a Juco, a grad transfer, even a traditional transfer), but it can't be spun as anything but disappointing that they haven't landed one of these guard targets IMO. There's always a chance this turns out to be for the best as maybe Jordan Murphy is never a Gopher if Jon Nwankwo was able to be a Gopher. Hopefully recent history repeats itself and we get a really good player with the open scholarship.
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Some of these guys they didn't even really recruit so can't really be called misses at all. Just because a guy has an offer doesn't mean the staff is recruiting them hard. They didn't really recruit Locke at all, liked Green some but knew he would go to UNI, knew Hinton wanted to stay south so didn't spend much time on him, and wanted Haliburton to visit in October as he was a backup plan to Hunter but Haliburton was afraid of ended up with no spot if the Gophers got Hunter, Cincy had just got a commit, and Nebraska was in a pretty good spot for a guard too so he jumped on the Iowa State offer and decided not to risk all the spots filling up. Really the 2 guys they went really hard after and just didn't get were Tre and Hunter.
 

I would think all of the blue bloods will be impacted, it will be interesting to see how the NCAA handles it, I would think it will be telling on whether they add any value or not, this could be the end of the NCAA.
 

Sparlimb said:
It's certainly possible with the fallout of the bribery case still to be felt, there may be a number of top 50 players released from their commitments in the coming months. Extra Schollies might be a really good thing right now.
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Wouldn't even need to be released from their commitments. None have signed a LOI, correct? They could switch commitments at any time.
 

Heracles said:
It's more likely we find out Pitino learned a little more than he should have from his father, and paid off Washington to come out to Minnesota in the winter.
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Every true Minnesotan from the "we don't deserve nice things" generations is right there with you on this concern. Fun to watch the neighbor you hate have his house burn down, until it catches your house on fire.
 

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