It's tough to separate fact from fiction on Watson because the usual suspects who have defended Ben Johnson or at the very least framed things very favorably for him among the Minnesota recruting sites and social media community are the ones that have come out and said (or strongly hinted) that Minnesota moved on.
Here's what I know that doesn't come from those sources that backs that line of thinking
- Watson didn't perform well at all at Pangos and then has not performed well on the circuit either
- His offer list, at least at the high major level, was shrinking. Vandy doesn't think he was a take for them either at this point...so you're looking at ISU and Cal if Minnesota was out and that could explain why an announcement was made on a random Monday IF offers were drying up.
Here's what doesn't
- The same people that are saying Watson wasn't a take now reported that he was a priority at the beginning of Johnson's tenure. That's quite a dropoff in a short period of time. Somehow Iowa State got an official visit while this line of thinking still existed and Minnesota did now.
- Ryan James reported a month ago(or so) that he didn't think Minnesota was going to get Watson with the reported reason (excuse IMO) that he didn't want to play the 4 in the Big Ten.
I honestly don't know what to think here. It seems awfully convenient that an absolutely devastating miss (losing a SECOND guy to Iowa State?!!!) wasn't actually a miss, but it's not hard to see that a kid that didn't do much as a high school junior who was being recruited on potential and then instead of blowing up this Spring/Summer plateaued or regressed would fall down the pecking order. Even if you suggest he had all commitable offers a group of Iowa State, Vanderbilt, and California is not exactly who you want to be competing with and clearly shows that Watson wasn't making a push in to the top 100 that some expected in the Spring. On the other hand, even that group of schools represents an upgrade from what we've seen so far. With so many scholarships to give it seems hard to believe that they will end up using all of them on guys better than Watson. It's actually a good thing (IMHO) that Doogie has been pretty clear in saying Watson wasn't a take for this staff. Just last week Doogie reported that Steffon Mitchell would have went to San Diego State and not Minnesota if he returned to college so he clearly has no issue tweaking the U even if he does have access to Ben Johnson.
So where is the truth? Hard to say. The one thing that seems clear to me though is that the "early" excuse is BS at this point. Iowa State has 3 commitments in the '22 class. Xavier (where Ben was previously) has 2. 5 teams in the B1G have multiple commitments. It's not necessary to have a commitment by now but in these unique circumstances (how this roster was set up for '21, why this hire was made, etc) it's more than fair to be skeptical of what is going on. I have been hoping that they've wanted to give Tre the opportunity to be the first guy to commit, to give him that shine but that's just optomistic hope on my part and not based on anything I've heard.
Slim Tubby, I’m so shocked to hear the news. Are you able to share the circumstances of the disappearance?
