All Things Christian Wiggins Recruitment Thread (Wayzata Guard, 2026)

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Crazy that we're barely recruiting Christian and seemingly haven't offered despite nearly every P4 team in the region has offered.
 

Stan said:
Crazy that we're barely recruiting Christian and seemingly haven't offered despite nearly every P4 team in the region has offered.
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Why should Ben waste his time? Recruiting high school kids has officially become irrelevant at Minnesota. It's 2024...but we're still talking as if we're living in the past.
 

CBJ seems to be recruiting, building rosters, establishing a culture around people of faith. That may or may not explain the recruitment or lack thereof regarding certain players. Merely an observation.
 


EasyThere Pilgrim said:
Why should Ben waste his time? Recruiting high school kids has officially become irrelevant at Minnesota. It's 2024...but we're still talking as if we're living in the past.
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How has it become irrelevant? If anything it would be more advantageous for us to go after high school players and develop then trying to go all portal kids. We have lived in the portal during the Johnson era and it hasn't solved much.
 

GopherPlaya said:
How has it become irrelevant? If anything it would be more advantageous for us to go after high school players and develop then trying to go all portal kids. We have lived in the portal during the Johnson era and it hasn't solved much.
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Carrington, Payne, and JOJ was supposed to be the savior local class.........
 

BarnBurner said:
Carrington, Payne, and JOJ was supposed to be the savior local class.........
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We don't need a savior local class but we damn sure need shooters and Christian is easily one of the better shooters in the state. Also how was Carrington, Payne, & JOJ the savior class when none of them were top 5 rank players locally in that class. We whiffed on the guys ranked above.
 

GopherPlaya said:
We don't need a savior local class but we damn sure need shooters and Christian is easily one of the better shooters in the state. Also how was Carrington, Payne, & JOJ the savior class when none of them were top 5 rank players locally in that class. We whiffed on the guys ranked above.
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So why hasn't cbj offered?

Payne would look awfully good in a Mn uniform this season.
 









BarnBurner said:
So why hasn't cbj offered?

Payne would look awfully good in a Mn uniform this season.
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Payne & Hawkins would both look great in Gopher uniforms this year. But we're officially a feeder program now. I don't see how @GopherPlaya and others missed what happened this off-season. It's only entertainment...so willful delusion is fine if you choose to maintain hope. But I advise against investing any emotion into the games and won/loss results.

Plus Christie. It's a total waste of time. Plus Amari Allen...Ben wasted a lot of time on him...Allen was rumored to like Minnesota the most...but then Alabama offers the big cash at the last minute.
 

EasyThere Pilgrim said:
Payne & Hawkins would both look great in Gopher uniforms this year. But we're officially a feeder program now. I don't see how @GopherPlaya and others missed what happened this off-season. It's only entertainment...so willful delusion is fine if you choose to maintain hope. But I advise against investing any emotion into the games and won/loss results.

Plus Christie. It's a total waste of time. Plus Amari Allen...Ben wasted a lot of time on him...Allen was rumored to like Minnesota the most...but then Alabama offers the big cash at the last minute.
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Good god your a damn broken record, you need to learn to let shit go
 

EasyThere Pilgrim said:
Payne & Hawkins would both look great in Gopher uniforms this year. But we're officially a feeder program now. I don't see how @GopherPlaya and others missed what happened this off-season. It's only entertainment...so willful delusion is fine if you choose to maintain hope. But I advise against investing any emotion into the games and won/loss results.

Plus Christie. It's a total waste of time. Plus Amari Allen...Ben wasted a lot of time on him...Allen was rumored to like Minnesota the most...but then Alabama offers the big cash at the last minute.
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If we are a feeder program then trying to build our squad via the portal will not be a sustainable model
 


BarnBurner said:
Unless you are willing to pay, there is no other sustainable model.
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That means we will be getting low-tier transfers, which is why we are continuously at the bottom of the Big Ten. We have a better chance at getting and developing freshmen than getting transfers who can get us over the top. We can agree to disagree, but a Jr transfer will cost more NIL money than a high school kid who is not a McDonalds All-American.
 

PJ goes after every top in state recruit hard, and lands most of them. BJ doesn't bother if he thinks they are going to have better offers.

Thankfully the last season of BJ is nearly here. Then this nightmare will finally be over and we can hire a real coach.
 


GopherPlaya said:
That means we will be getting low-tier transfers, which is why we are continuously at the bottom of the Big Ten. We have a better chance at getting and developing freshmen than getting transfers who can get us over the top. We can agree to disagree, but a Jr transfer will cost more NIL money than a high school kid who is not a McDonalds All-American.
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Getting and developing are two things.

Retaining after the first two is key. And as we witnessed this past year, retaining at Mn appears quite difficult.
 

BarnBurner said:
Getting and developing are two things.

Retaining after the first two is key. And as we witnessed this past year, retaining at Mn appears quite difficult.
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We lost a transfer who we got from the portal, and two of the three MN players we didn't retain left for reasons they would have before NIL or the portal existed. You dont think JOJ or Carrington falling out of the rotation played a part in those two leaving. Christie going to the NBA should be a recruiting bonus instead of a negative. I think we overstate the loss of kids because of NIL. Pharrell's situation was a bit different, but there probably is more to the story than just NIL.
 
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GopherPlaya said:
We lost a transfer, and two of the three players we didn't retain left for reasons they would have before NIL or the portal existed. You think JOJ or Carrington falling out of the rotation played a part in those two leaving. Christie going to the NBA should be a recruiting bonus instead of a negative. I think we overstate the loss of kids because of NIL. Pharrell's situation was a bit different, but there probably is more to the story than just NIL.
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Agreed. However, if Mn wants to develop kids, and nothing stops them from leaving once they develop, how is that going to help win?
 

BarnBurner said:
Agreed. However, if Mn wants to develop kids, and nothing stops them from leaving once they develop, how is that going to help win?
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If we get 3 years out of a player compared to a 1 year rental, we will have a better chance at building culture. The football team isn't losing their premier kids on a regular basis. Outside of Bucky Irving what other guys are we losing there that have been impactful. A roster full of transfers like this year or the one 2 years ago will only hinder opportunities to build chemistry and if we aren't getting the best transfers then we aren't going to compete regardless. We meet as well get kids who have potential and develop them and see how that goes. TBH, Carrington not panning out isn't that surprising he wasn't even best player on his high school team or ever a consistent shooter in high school.
 

That's a big if at Mn. Yes 3 years would be great, but not always better than a 1 year player.
Mn's success at getting the top hs kids hasn't been even mediocre.
 

GopherPlaya said:
If we get 3 years out of a player compared to a 1 year rental, we will have a better chance at building culture. The football team isn't losing their premier kids on a regular basis. Outside of Bucky Irving what other guys are we losing there that have been impactful. A roster full of transfers like this year or the one 2 years ago will only hinder opportunities to build chemistry and if we aren't getting the best transfers then we aren't going to compete regardless. We meet as well get kids who have potential and develop them and see how that goes. TBH, Carrington not panning out isn't that surprising he wasn't even best player on his high school team or ever a consistent shooter in high school.
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A roster full of potential only goes so far. Ben's year 2 team had a lot of "potential" but they were a disaster on the court. Now that they have expanded the scholarship number, that could allow for better balance between prep recruits and transfers. If we are going after preps to win, they need to be top 100, and if not we are going to need them to stick around at least 3 years. Ben has only gotten 1 guy in the top 100 and he left after his freshman year. Everyone else outside the top 100 has left before 3 years or has not made a legitimate impact on the floor. Transfers have been the most impactful for Ben in his tenure.
 


GopherWeatherGuy said:
PJ goes after every top in state recruit hard, and lands most of them. BJ doesn't bother if he thinks they are going to have better offers.

Thankfully the last season of BJ is nearly here. Then this nightmare will finally be over and we can hire a real coach.
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PJ is an excellent coach.

But there usually aren't any 4-star in-state football recruits. And PJ rarely lands any 4-stars. And we're never going to be a contender in football either.

And what's a new basketball coach going to do?? Get better players than Payne, Hawkins, Christie, & García?
 

BarnBurner said:
Getting and developing are two things.

Retaining after the first two is key. And as we witnessed this past year, retaining at Mn appears quite difficult.
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Exactly. I want someone to explain how we can be good if we can't retain our players.
 

GopherPlaya said:
I think we overstate the loss of kids because of NIL. Pharrell's situation was a bit different, but there probably is more to the story than just NIL.
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Losing Payne & Hawkins is overstated??

You can choose to believe it wasn't the money. You can choose to believe that it's no big loss.

But keep in mind, we have other things working against us too. BEFORE officially becoming a feeder program, we had only won 2 NCAA games in 27 years.
 

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