All Things Class of 2025 Gophers Basketball Recruiting Thread

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FinnGopher said:
I posit that the NIL in connection with divas has helped reduce the season ticket holders. People are tired of the game outside the game.
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OK pumpkin. Whatever you say.

It’s past your bedtime, so finish your Ensure, and just watch that Murder She Wrote rerun tomorrow.
 


TimetoWin said:
STH are declining because of a bad hire and historically bad teams over the past 3 years. If they win, STH will come back and support the program.
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Gophers will never win in the current conditions of college basketball. We are much like Boston College. We are an after thought in this market and donors are not going to buy us a winning team.
 

Chico Gopher said:
This feels like a conundrum. We need you to donate to NIL, so we can start winning. We're not donating more until you start winning.
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Is it harder to get 10,000 people to buy a season ticket and enjoy the product. Or to find 5-10 mega donors to give $1-2 million a year (like mini Phil Knights) to support a product that at the moment generates only luke-warm enthusiasm. That is the conundrum. Might add that the product is potentially as entertaining as many products out there that have much more NIL support. Nothing wrong with Garcia, Fox, Mitchell (all great and fun to watch) and supporting cast including some very good players and stories. Asuma could play out as a mini Perich story. The other Mitchell (the big one) could become a fan favorite. (maybe delayed just a little by Ben yelling at him to dive on the floor in an exhibition game.) There are others with talent who could find satisfying roles on a good team. I was eager to see Cochran, very experienced, MAC defensive player of the year, has had some monster games. (how about 33 points, 8 rebounds, five assists, four steals against Marshall last year). Then Patterson, Odukale, Rigsby, Edmonds all have talent and it will be interesting to see how they compete for minutes and roles. What about Betts, Grove, Williams, Reader. One or more could surprise and make a real contribution at some point in season. My point is tthat is it really can be an interesting season and a lot of fun. Sold out barn would help a lot. And a fan base that gets to know the players and supports the team as the season unfolds.
 




Classof 66 said:
Is it harder to get 10,000 people to buy a season ticket and enjoy the product. Or to find 5-10 mega donors to give $1-2 million a year (like mini Phil Knights) to support a product that at the moment generates only luke-warm enthusiasm. That is the conundrum. Might add that the product is potentially as entertaining as many products out there that have much more NIL support. Nothing wrong with Garcia, Fox, Mitchell (all great and fun to watch) and supporting cast including some very good players and stories. Asuma could play out as a mini Perich story. The other Mitchell (the big one) could become a fan favorite. (maybe delayed just a little by Ben yelling at him to dive on the floor in an exhibition game.) There are others with talent who could find satisfying roles on a good team. I was eager to see Cochran, very experienced, MAC defensive player of the year, has had some monster games. (how about 33 points, 8 rebounds, five assists, four steals against Marshall last year). Then Patterson, Odukale, Rigsby, Edmonds all have talent and it will be interesting to see how they compete for minutes and roles. What about Betts, Grove, Williams, Reader. One or more could surprise and make a real contribution at some point in season. My point is tthat is it really can be an interesting season and a lot of fun. Sold out barn would help a lot. And a fan base that gets to know the players and supports the team as the season unfolds.
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All true or possible. The problem now is that it is easy to just wait and see. You can get good tickets for any game so the motivation for getting season tickets has gone down the drain. If they were smart, they would give season ticket holders 30-40% off for a few seasons just to regain some loyalty. Best shot they have now is to sweep the non conference and build some excitement so that single game ticket holders can fill the stands for Big Ten games.
 

Classof 66 said:
Is it harder to get 10,000 people to buy a season ticket and enjoy the product. Or to find 5-10 mega donors to give $1-2 million a year (like mini Phil Knights) to support a product that at the moment generates only luke-warm enthusiasm. That is the conundrum. Might add that the product is potentially as entertaining as many products out there that have much more NIL support. Nothing wrong with Garcia, Fox, Mitchell (all great and fun to watch) and supporting cast including some very good players and stories. Asuma could play out as a mini Perich story. The other Mitchell (the big one) could become a fan favorite. (maybe delayed just a little by Ben yelling at him to dive on the floor in an exhibition game.) There are others with talent who could find satisfying roles on a good team. I was eager to see Cochran, very experienced, MAC defensive player of the year, has had some monster games. (how about 33 points, 8 rebounds, five assists, four steals against Marshall last year). Then Patterson, Odukale, Rigsby, Edmonds all have talent and it will be interesting to see how they compete for minutes and roles. What about Betts, Grove, Williams, Reader. One or more could surprise and make a real contribution at some point in season. My point is tthat is it really can be an interesting season and a lot of fun. Sold out barn would help a lot. And a fan base that gets to know the players and supports the team as the season unfolds.
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Sold out barn??

Dream on.
 




combes1 said:
As always, attendance depends on the product on the court. Arenas are selling out all over the country.
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No. Most arenas are half full. Buying players is now legal and the teams with alum willing to piss their excess money away will buy themselves a championship.
 

I like it when people project their own frustrations into a belief held by all. I like not having to form my own opinions. Thanks for doing the work for the rest of us. It's good to have a savior.
 


WoodburyTim said:
Saying that the reason there are 2k people at the barn because of NIL, social media, or an old arena is unfair to Ben. You put an awful product on the floor for 3 and 1/2 years you should at least get credit for it.
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I agree with you. NIL has only magnified the problem.
 







Per the U:
University of Minnesota men's basketball coach Ben Johnson has announced the addition of Kai Shinholster (Philadelphia, Pa.) and Jacob Ross (Bristow, Va.) to the 2025-26 roster. The duo is set to join the team in the summer of 2025.

Ross, a 6-foot, 6-inch guard, is playing his senior season at SoCal Academy after competing at Long Island Lutheran (N.Y.) as a junior. Along with his high school play, Ross has also played AAU basketball with Team Melo and Team Loaded Virginia. In 2023-24, Ross played in all 12 Nike EYBL conference games and shot a team-best 61 percent from the field. He also competed in five games with Team Loaded at the 2024 17U Shoe Circuit where he helped his team go 5-0 during that span. Last year, Ross was a part of LuHi's New York Class A State championship team. As a sophomore helped LuHI win its ninth conference championship. During his prep tenure, Ross was also the Saint James team most valuable player and a two-time Chipotle Nationals participant. Ross is listed as a four-star recruit from Rivals and three-star recruit from 247Sports. Ross comes from an athletic family with both parents being student-athletes at Rutgers and his brother, Jayden, is currently a sophomore on Connecticut's men's basketball team.

"We're really excited to add Jacob Ross to our program," Johnson said. "Jacob has great athleticism, size, length and versatility. Jacob has the ability to be one of the better defenders in our league. I love how he naturally competes and has always found ways to win. He brings a certain level of toughness out of high school and plays extremely hard. He fits in perfectly with our culture."

Shinholster, a 6-foot, 5-inch guard, plays at William Penn Charter School and K-Low Elite on the Adidas. Shinholster, a senior captain for William Penn Charter, is a three-time Inter-AC champion. Over the course of his high school career, Shinholster was a two-time Inter-Academic All-League selection his sophomore and junior seasons. Despite having an injury his junior year, Shinholster averaged 11.2 points to help his team to its first Inter-AC league title in 20 years. Shinholster was also named the most valuable player as Penn Charter were Tampa Bay tournament champions in 2022. With K-Low Elite this summer, he averaged nine points, 4.7 rebounds, 1.5 assists and 1.2 steals last season. Shinholster is listed as a three-star recruit by 247Sports and Rivals. Kai is the second in his family to play collegiate basketball as his dad, Rick, played at Jefferson University in Philadelphia.

"Kai has an elite skill level and can play both on and off the ball," head coach Ben Johnson said. "He has the ability to create offense for himself as well as others. Kai has a unique knack for scoring at all three levels. He's got a great first step, great speed and offensively is in a position to develop and grow as a player. He's won at every level he's played at and can bring that winning mentality here. We're thrilled to have him as a part of our program."

Go Gophers!!
 

Parker Jefferson is supposed to announce between us and USC tomorrow 🤞🤞🤞
 




A Parker Jefferson commitment would be nice. But I no longer expect highly regarded recruits to sign with us because they can get big NIL money elsewhere. And if they did sign with the UMN, one good season and they flee for a better payday, like Hawkins and Payne did. That leaves the Gophers looking for mid major transfers who meet the Gophers’ NIL. The biggest losers are the mid majors, who can’t raise enough NIL money. It’s the Hunger Games, NCAA style. The rich get richer, the poor get poorer. Less and less parity.
 

Bobek said:
A Parker Jefferson commitment would be nice. But I no longer expect highly regarded recruits to sign with us because they can get big NIL money elsewhere. And if they did sign with the UMN, one good season and they flee for a better payday, like Hawkins and Payne did. That leaves the Gophers looking for mid major transfers who meet the Gophers’ NIL. The biggest losers are the mid majors, who can’t raise enough NIL money. It’s the Hunger Games, NCAA style. The rich get richer, the poor get poorer. Less and less parity.
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The mid-majors are the new Jr Colleges of the basketball landscape.
 

FinnGopher said:
The mid-majors are the new Jr Colleges of the basketball landscape.
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The middling Power Four conference teams, like the Gophers, are now the Jr. College transfer schools for the big boys with loads of NIL money and other highly paid opportunities. Rumor is that Payne got $500,000:to transfer to Texas A & M. He was t even the best player on the team.
 

Bobek said:
A Parker Jefferson commitment would be nice. But I no longer expect highly regarded recruits to sign with us because they can get big NIL money elsewhere. And if they did sign with the UMN, one good season and they flee for a better payday, like Hawkins and Payne did. That leaves the Gophers looking for mid major transfers who meet the Gophers’ NIL. The biggest losers are the mid majors, who can’t raise enough NIL money. It’s the Hunger Games, NCAA style. The rich get richer, the poor get poorer. Less and less parity.
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I think we have an opportunity that is greater than before to sign good HS recruits- except for the status of our current coach. In years past the top 25 teams have been loading up on the top 100 HS players. Now, they are still recruiting them but they also are recruiting older guys from teams like ours (Payne, Hawkins types) so the HS players sit longer at the big time programs unless they are stars.

At our level we can sell the Cam Christie story. There's a kid that was rated at about 100 in HS but got to showcase himself here and got paid by the NBA. That's a pretty good story for a team in a major conference that has struggled. Come here and we put you on the court right away. They know they can transfer up if they want but this is a chance.

The problem for us is the coach is on a burning hot seat.
 

It is not like we are a junior college team where our best players move off to a much higher level situation. We are actually in a conference where our best players can simply move for more money to a team in our own conference that will pay them more. In the end you cannot have a competitive conference that way. It is sort of like if we were a junior college in a conference where there were one or two schools in our own conference that could write any of our players (of their choosing) a $500,000 check to leave us and join them, at the same level of the sport. They would probably win. We would probably not. Whole thing is going to end killing college sports as something with broad appeal that is a major spectator draw. At the very least the BIG could ban within conference transfers. But there would be lawsuits and appeals until that was rejected.
 

Bobek said:
A Parker Jefferson commitment would be nice. But I no longer expect highly regarded recruits to sign with us because they can get big NIL money elsewhere. And if they did sign with the UMN, one good season and they flee for a better payday, like Hawkins and Payne did. That leaves the Gophers looking for mid major transfers who meet the Gophers’ NIL. The biggest losers are the mid majors, who can’t raise enough NIL money. It’s the Hunger Games, NCAA style. The rich get richer, the poor get poorer. Less and less parity.
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My bigger concern is what any commitment between now and April even means

Considering there’s like a 95% chance we will have a new coach that chances said commitment.
 

MUgopher32 said:
My bigger concern is what any commitment between now and April even means

Considering there’s like a 95% chance we will have a new coach that chances said commitment.
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The likelihood of a better coach is pretty high. I would give him or her a decent shot at re recruiting him successfully. There is no downside to signing him now.
 

Holy Man said:
The likelihood of a better coach is pretty high. I would give him or her a decent shot at re recruiting him successfully. There is no downside to signing him now.
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Of course there's no downside to the U signing him. I'm talking more from a excitement as a fan stand point. We know anything tomorrow is far from official

Also, decent shot is generous regardless. Even if the new coach is better they still have to convince that kid to stay for any number of reasons. The previous coach builds the relationships and gets the commitment for a specific reasons. Also.....said new coach obviously has to even want said player themselves.

An out of state recruit sticking with a new coach? Possible. But far far far from likely in this landscape.
 

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