All Things Gophers Basketball 2017 Recruiting Thread

Donate To GopherHole
Local scribes are foaming at the mouth right now. I can hear them slurping.
 


EG#9 said:
This is truly unprecedented in the time I've closely followed recruiting. The Gophers have lost three players that they made a priority to non-Blue Blood schools in the last 20 years or so: Lawrence McKenzie, Rashad Vaugh, and Reid Travis. It's easy to explain away Travis and Vaughn, due to Pitino's short time recruiting them, but this year is a really, really bad look. Losing a legacy recruit like Sims to Texas, then losing John to Marquette despite recruiting him longer is just awful. You can argue that Wright wasn't a miss because of Washington, but they made Wright the local priority guard (over Davison) and couldn't get him to commit before taking a visit to Dayton. That's a recruitment that should have been wrapped up in the Spring given his offer list, and then it's fair to wonder what Sims and John do if Wright is committed. Pitino had done a solid job recruiting in state landing the best player the past two seasons, so you just hope this is a hiccup...but it's a terrible time to have one. Pitino himself talked a lot about the importance of keeping the best in state kids home in the last 6-12 months and he failed at an epic level in this recruiting cycle.
Click to expand...

I don't buy this at all. Pitino missed on two guys. John and Sims. Ruevers was never a priority, neither was Mar. Davidson may be good, but Washington is arguably better and fits the system way better. They wanted Wright, but he sat on his a** too long and lost his spot. 0-2 is what Pitino really was. And he still has a scholarship to give
 

Tired of Minnesota boys stringing the U along till the last moment - we will get a big as good as John soon...
 

I believe John is there only true miss and that might not be a bad thing. Just have not been impressed. Sims wasn't coming. Once Texas and Kansas started offering it was over. Token offer to Davidson. Didn't prioritize Reuvers the way WI did. Wright may or may not have committed of it wasn't for Washington but he didn't. MN accepted Washington's commitment which meant Wright was out. Might have swayed John, but I doubt that Pitino turns down that packaged deal for Washington. I like the young nucleus the Gophers are obtaining. Now they need to start winning.
 


DLguy said:
I don't buy this at all. Pitino missed on two guys. John and Sims. Ruevers was never a priority, neither was Mar. Davidson may be good, but Washington is arguably better and fits the system way better. They wanted Wright, but he sat on his a** too long and lost his spot. 0-2 is what Pitino really was. And he still has a scholarship to give
Click to expand...

I don't disagree with what you are saying here. I think he lost 3 instate guys they would have love to have for sure (have to include Trent Jr, even if that was a very tall task), but both John and Sims were really bad misses and VERY rare for any coach at Minnesota in the past 20 years. As I said, there's been 3 guys various staff have recruited hard from in state in the past that went elsewhere that was not a Blue Bood: McKenzie, Vaughn and Travis. Pitino just lost a kid to Texas who's Dad and Brother both played at the "U"...have to land the legacy kid and Pitino just lost a kid he made a priority for two years in Theo John who chose to go to Marquette where the coach is 4-14 and 8-10 (and losing a first round pick off that roster) in his two years on the job...have to win that recruiting battle. I think claiming "Pitino went 0-6" is over the top and misleading, but he still failed miserably in this class and it's cause for concern.
 

Somebody has to know some info on what all has gone down the last 3 weeks in recruiting. The pieces just don't add up. C'mon...spill it people.
 

Biggsohnasty said:
Don't buy the "Wright was set on committing to MN" line. Don't care where it came from. If the kid wanted to be here, he'd be here.

I've said from the start I think all the local kids romanticize about the idea of playing at home in front of the hometown crowd and they like getting recruited by the home team. But in the end, the program isn't good enough and they don't like it enough to want to stay here and try to change the culture.

Can't blame them for that. That whole deal is a massive uphill battle and likely a losing one. Sure there are a few that go for it, but if I had a choice between playing at Dayton for a good coach with tournament success or playing in a tougher conference for a team that's been to the tournament once since I was in middle school, I'd choose the former.
Click to expand...

So if someone doesn't make a decision on your arbitrary timeline, they never had interest? Makes sense!
 





EG#9 said:
This is truly unprecedented in the time I've closely followed recruiting. The Gophers have lost three players that they made a priority to non-Blue Blood schools in the last 20 years or so: Lawrence McKenzie, Rashad Vaugh, and Reid Travis. It's easy to explain away Travis and Vaughn, due to Pitino's short time recruiting them, but this year is a really, really bad look. Losing a legacy recruit like Sims to Texas, then losing John to Marquette despite recruiting him longer is just awful. You can argue that Wright wasn't a miss because of Washington, but they made Wright the local priority guard (over Davison) and couldn't get him to commit before taking a visit to Dayton. That's a recruitment that should have been wrapped up in the Spring given his offer list, and then it's fair to wonder what Sims and John do if Wright is committed. Pitino had done a solid job recruiting in state landing the best player the past two seasons, so you just hope this is a hiccup...but it's a terrible time to have one. Pitino himself talked a lot about the importance of keeping the best in state kids home in the last 6-12 months and he failed at an epic level in this recruiting cycle.
Click to expand...

You make some very good points here. The reality is that the seeds were sown with his earlier classes, guys like McNeil, Morris, Dorsey, and even Lofton whom all made the program look bad. Despite all that, if he had simply prioritized Davison from the beginning, we'd be looking at a class of two four-star guards at worst.
 


Just another yearly reminder for us that only Hopkins kids go to the U.

And yet for some reason, people hate them.
 



We only have two scholarships available

that makes things fairly difficult. On the plus side we had several top rated players interested. We landed the highest rated point guard to a commitment. Recruiting is going just fine. Maybe we will be forced to actually recruit a shooter/scorer? Be nice if we had one someday...you know Burton, Tucker, Hoffarber, Lenard, a healthy Hollins, even Joey King etc ... somebody who has to be accounted for as a scoring threat.
 

Sucks to lose out on local kids who can help us, but in the end, we need kids that want to be Gophers.
 

60's Guy said:
that makes things fairly difficult. On the plus side we had several top rated players interested. We landed the highest rated point guard to a commitment. Recruiting is going just fine. Maybe we will be forced to actually recruit a shooter/scorer? Be nice if we had one someday...you know Burton, Tucker, Hoffarber, Lenard, a healthy Hollins, even Joey King etc ... somebody who has to be accounted for as a scoring threat.
Click to expand...

Isn't Michael Hurt suppose to be a shooter? The Delasalle kid Kaluscher (sp?) had a nice looking shot in the state tournament, of course he will only be an 11th grader this year.
 

Pitino's poor instate recruiting is probably the result of his 2-16 big ten record. No one wants to jump on a sinking ship. hopefully he can have a good year this year and change the local perception of the program.
 

The sheen of the Washington commitment seems to have worn off very quickly. A few days after landing an out of state 4 star guard and the 2017 class is a "miserable failure."
 

PlayRoyce said:
Pitino's poor instate recruiting is probably the result of his 2-16 big ten record. No one wants to jump on a sinking ship. hopefully he can have a good year this year and change the local perception of the program.
Click to expand...

Washington French >> wright John

Let's see where this ends up. I liked last year's class.
 

Let's be honest, Washington is a better recruit than anyone in-state with the possible exception of Sims. The dream class for 2017 has been Washington and Sims for a while. In my book Pitino went 1/2.
 

Love this thread


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Please fans u tell me u would not be happy with Wahington and French? I think that would be a awesome class! Back to back years of great talent.
 

gopherhoopsguy said:
Please fans u tell me u would not be happy with Wahington and French? I think that would be a awesome class! Back to back years of great talent.
Click to expand...

I'd love it.

2017-2018
PG: Nate mason (SR) / Isaiah Washington (FR)
SG: Dupree McBrayer (JR) / Ahmad Gilbert (SR)
SF: Amir Coffey (SO) / Davonte Fitzgerald (SR) / Michael Hurt (SO)
PF: Jordan Murphy (JR) / Eric Curry (SO) / Hasahn French (FR)
C: Reggie Lynch (SR) / Bakary Konate (SR) / Gaston Diedhiou (SR)

ETA: I could see Curry + French being the main backups in the front court (beating out Konate and Diedhiou) and Hurt beating out Fitzgerald at back up SF.
 

And the reality of in state players dissing the Golden Gopher MBB program continues.

Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk
 

Not that rankings are everything but have so many media members trolls hatas bitches and hoes beenso butt hurt over losing two sub top 200 recruits in the composite rankings?
 

60's Guy said:
that makes things fairly difficult. On the plus side we had several top rated players interested. We landed the highest rated point guard to a commitment. Recruiting is going just fine. Maybe we will be forced to actually recruit a shooter/scorer? Be nice if we had one someday...you know Burton, Tucker, Hoffarber, Lenard, a healthy Hollins, even Joey King etc ... somebody who has to be accounted for as a scoring threat.
Click to expand...

Yes, a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth right now - and comparison to past recruiting seasons - but let's have some perspective. It's hard to compare this to past years when you just had arguably the worst season in program history and then some unseemly off-court stuff to boot. Let's face it, this scene is a tough sell right now. There are legit questions whether Pitino can run a program and how well he and his staff can coach. Considering all this, landing a four-star guard and being in the mix for decent frontcourt players can be considered an accomplishment. If the Gophers begin an on-court improvement curve, players like Sims will certainly want to play here. If not, we won't be able to complain about Richard's recruiting because he'll be gone.
 

Bad Gopher said:
Yes, a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth right now - and comparison to past recruiting seasons - but let's have some perspective. It's hard to compare this to past years when you just had arguably the worst season in program history and then some unseemly off-court stuff to boot. Let's face it, this scene is a tough sell right now. There are legit questions whether Pitino can run a program and how well he and his staff can coach. Considering all this, landing a four-star guard and being in the mix for decent frontcourt players can be considered an accomplishment. If the Gophers begin an on-court improvement curve, players like Sims will certainly want to play here. If not, we won't be able to complain about Richard's recruiting because he'll be gone.
Click to expand...

We just landed a 4 star point guard that is better than any in state recruit. :banghead: Its comical how folks want fret about this. Folks do realize that if Washington didn't come here, we would have Wright in the fold as we speak, and likely John. And its okay that we don't.. just because you only read about a few local recruits (because thats what we know) over and over doesn't mean they are the only recruits. A 4 star point guard from NY? How does that not excite folks?

Frustrating only begins to describe the last couple pages of this thread.
 

Rouser said:
We just landed a 4 star point guard that is better than any in state recruit. :banghead: Its comical how folks want fret about this. Folks do realize that if Washington didn't come here, we would have Wright in the fold as we speak, and likely John. And its okay that we don't.. just because you only read about a few local recruits (because thats what we know) over and over doesn't mean they are the only recruits. A 4 star point guard from NY? How does that not excite folks?

Frustrating only begins to describe the last couple pages of this thread.
Click to expand...

Not to be too cynical but, what happens if Syracuse offers to Washington?
 

MadtownGopher said:
I'd love it.

2017-2018
PG: Nate mason (SR) / Isaiah Washington (FR)
SG: Dupree McBrayer (JR) / Ahmad Gilbert (SR)
SF: Amir Coffey (SO) / Davonte Fitzgerald (SR) / Michael Hurt (SO)
PF: Jordan Murphy (JR) / Eric Curry (SO) / Hasahn French (FR)
C: Reggie Lynch (SR) / Bakary Konate (SR) / Gaston Diedhiou (SR)

ETA: I could see Curry + French being the main backups in the front court (beating out Konate and Diedhiou) and Hurt beating out Fitzgerald at back up SF.
Click to expand...

If Ahmad Gilbert plays 1 minute at the 2 guard we are the slowest, least athletic backcourt in the country.
 

Winasota Gopher said:
If Ahmad Gilbert plays 1 minute at the 2 guard we are the slowest, least athletic backcourt in the country.
Click to expand...
I tend to agree with you Winasota. There is no way that Gilbert should see the floor at the 2 spot. He started last season injured so I hope he comes out healthy to start the year and we get to see a little different Ahmad Gilbert.
 

You must log in or register to reply here.



Top Bottom