All Things 2023 Gophers Basketball Recruiting Thread

Winter after his Wisconsin official:

“The UW campus was just beautiful,” Winter said. “The college feel made it extra special; everybody there loves the Badgers, and the culture is awesome. The coaches and players are really cool, super easy to talk to, and are very nice.”

“I definitely could. Everything about UW is amazing, and it really does check all the boxes. Playing in Madison would be awesome, and more specifically in the Kohl center would be unreal.”

“I really like the coaches. Coach Gard, coach Krabbenhoft, and the others are super easy to talk to and want what’s best for me. They [UW] are honest with me about where I’m at and say the sky’s the limit on where I could wind up – they can benefit me greatly in the long run.”

Lakeville Badger bagmen boosters go to him. Classic
 


Sounds eerily similar to the mindset that has made Wisconsin a perennial NCAA tournament contender and us a bubble team.
Letting in-state high major talent waltz out of the state is actually something Wisconsin does frequently.
 







Letting in-state high major talent waltz out of the state is actually something Wisconsin does frequently.
For me, it's not so much about making sure no in-state high major talents walk out of the state, it's about making sure we get our "fair share". We aren't going to get all of them (maybe even not most of them), but we need to land some of them. Wisconsin has done a much better job of recruiting locally than we have done.
 









We don’t want one and dones period imo. We win by getting 3-4 year players. MN produces plenty of those too
Agreed. That hasn't really worked out for Penny and Cal lately. Or Duke for that matter.
 

Agreed. That hasn't really worked out for Penny and Cal lately. Or Duke for that matter.
Yeah Memphis is the best example. Arkansas will be interesting to watch this year. Be quite the experiment. The best rosters can handle one or maybe two, but most of them have 3-4 yr guys. The NCAA championship game was a perfect example
 

For me, it's not so much about making sure no in-state high major talents walk out of the state, it's about making sure we get our "fair share". We aren't going to get all of them (maybe even not most of them), but we need to land some of them. Wisconsin has done a much better job of recruiting locally than we have done.
Agree. UW was able to take many kids from Minnesota that were not blue blood type recruits and win several conference titles and get to a few final 4's. Of course they have had far better coaching from scouting to development to playing efficiently. That is the Ben Johnson plan.
 

Yeah Memphis is the best example. Arkansas will be interesting to watch this year. Be quite the experiment. The best rosters can handle one or maybe two, but most of them have 3-4 yr guys. The NCAA championship game was a perfect example
Yeah the top 2-3 recruiting classes each year are the interesting teams to see how they gel given the fact that all feel they should be the stud. With the Hogs, Muss does an unbelievable job with the portal as well. Him and Chris Beard are darn good at that.
 

Agree. UW was able to take many kids from Minnesota that were not blue blood type recruits and win several conference titles and get to a few final 4's. Of course they have had far better coaching from scouting to development to playing efficiently. That is the Ben Johnson plan.
I like the plan, but just to keep everything above board, no Minnesotans were contributors on either of the bo Ryan final fours. None on the 2013-2014 rosters, Dearring and Jordan Smith were redshirted the 2014-2015 season.
 

High profile local recruits are important in getting the casual fan more engaged with the program. No he’s not a one and done but he’s the kind of guy we want.
Not really, wining is what will get the more casual fan engaged in the program. They jump on the bandwagon of a winner an what is popular at the moment.

Do you actually think the casual fan even knows who Winter is, let alone cares if he plays for the U?
 

Agree. UW was able to take many kids from Minnesota that were not blue blood type recruits and win several conference titles and get to a few final 4's. Of course they have had far better coaching from scouting to development to playing efficiently. That is the Ben Johnson plan.
But it also has to do with the style of play and discipline. UW has never been able to land the high profile, extremely talented players because most are not willing to play in that style.

Ben's plan is more of the Virginia style instead of Sconny....
 

Not really, wining is what will get the more casual fan engaged in the program. They jump on the bandwagon of a winner an what is popular at the moment.

Do you actually think the casual fan even knows who Winter is, let alone cares if he plays for the U?
Yes. Minnesota kids draw the attention of Minnesota people. We are the most provincial people in the country. Of course winning will draw attention but high profile local recruits will draw attention before winning.
 

Yes. Minnesota kids draw the attention of Minnesota people. We are the most provincial people in the country. Of course winning will draw attention but high profile local recruits will draw attention before winning.
How many locals played a significant role on our Final Four teams
 






Winning matters first and foremost. If you are say 8-19 you might have under 10 people who go "hey I want to go see if that kid from Lakeville is doing well" but if they are 19-8 you might get 2000+ that go "hey this team might be pretty good lets check them out!"

I think for the casual fan they tune into the NCAA tournament and hear "Tyus Jones out of Apple Valley" or flip on Michigan/CSU this year "The rams are tough led by CPOY David Roddy out of Minnesota" and go well this is dumb we have talent on all the teams that win and we dont! If the Gophers were a 2 seed no one cares if Roddy is CPOY or Macura is getting buckets for Xavier, but when you lose its easy for casuals to say "just get the MN kids and we will win".
 


I like the plan, but just to keep everything above board, no Minnesotans were contributors on either of the bo Ryan final fours. None on the 2013-2014 rosters, Dearring and Jordan Smith were redshirted the 2014-2015 season.
Thanks for making it clear. They had recruits from outside the state that were not recruited by blue bloods to get to final 4's and several Minnesota players won conference titles. My apologies for such poor and misleading writing. Jon Bryant played a huge role on the 2000 final 4 as regional MVP.
How many locals played a significant role on our Final Four teams
We did not have multiple final 4 teams. We cheated to get to one.
 




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