All Things Gophers Basketball Class of 2022 Recruiting Thread

I never felt like the point was to be all Minnesotan, but rather if the homegrown talent don't feel its worthy program, what exactly are you selling to out of state recruits?

Whether Duke does or doesn't have any N Carolina recruits isn't the point.

If they are a top player from NC and are a good enough player to be offered by Duke, or a Kansan offered by Kansas or an Ohioan offered by OSU, you would expect them to listen.

Minnesota should be that way.

Thats all I am looking for in the program.

If you grow up in MN and aren't a Gopher lean, there is a problem.
 

I never felt like the point was to be all Minnesotan, but rather if the homegrown talent don't feel its worthy program, what exactly are you selling to out of state recruits?

Whether Duke does or doesn't have any N Carolina recruits isn't the point.

If they are a top player from NC and are a good enough player to be offered by Duke, or a Kansan offered by Kansas or an Ohioan offered by OSU, you would expect them to listen.

Minnesota should be that way.

Thats all I am looking for in the program.

If you grow up in MN and aren't a Gopher lean, there is a problem.
Team has to perform better, win more consistently on a higher level.
 


My career is getting kids into college. Most stay in-state by huge percentages.
That is different than D1 athletes on full rides, and/or thinking about NBA. Most other kids are trying to cut costs through in state tuition. This is not an issue for athletes as evidenced by most D1 athletes do not stay in-state.
 

Team has to perform better, win more consistently on a higher level.
Absolutely. The desire to win and achieve “status” will always be more desirable than being a foundational building block for a floundering program. I’m disappointed as hell when our most talented kids go out of state but how in the heck can anyone truly blame them.
 









As others have noted, the "in-state recruiting" is a catch-22 for MN.

If the Gophers are winning, very few people care whether there are 1, 2, 3 or 0 MN players on the roster.

But if the team is losing, that is where we see the "should have recruited more in-state players" crowd rise up.

And, as a native Minnesotan, I will be the first to say that I think some people (not all) have a tendency to over-rate MN players as compared to the national recruiting scene. We see a MN kid dominate the local competition - but we don't stop to consider that other recruits from different parts of the country are often facing a higher level of competition.

for the very best MN kids, we can see them playing in the national AAU tournaments, so we get a chance to compare apples to apples.

the trick is with that second rung of talent that may not get a chance to face similar competition. those are the kids who might turn out to be really good, but they might also have weaknesses exposed when moving up to play D1 level competition. those are the kids who can make or break a program.
In any given year there are 8-10 AAU programs playing in national tournaments against other very strong and coordinated programs. It isn’t just Howard Pulley, D1 MN and Grassroots. Fury, Comets, Selects, Playmakers, etc all do it. Plenty of opportunity to watch nearly every D1 and D2 kid play against kids of similar pedigree all spring/summer
 










I never felt like the point was to be all Minnesotan, but rather if the homegrown talent don't feel its worthy program, what exactly are you selling to out of state recruits?

Whether Duke does or doesn't have any N Carolina recruits isn't the point.

If they are a top player from NC and are a good enough player to be offered by Duke, or a Kansan offered by Kansas or an Ohioan offered by OSU, you would expect them to listen.

Minnesota should be that way.

Thats all I am looking for in the program.

If you grow up in MN and aren't a Gopher lean, there is a problem.
Why ? Kids from all over have teams they love from all over.
 

Is he coming to the u? The Ahjany kid. He doesn’t look like a wi/ia recruit.
 






What do you mean? 🙄
Spaulding likes to poke fun frequently at Wisconsin basketball's atypically low average level of melanin (in keratinocytes [1]). It's a bit at this point.

[1] Fun fact: people of all skin tones have more or less the same total amount of melanin in their skin (with the exception of those with albinism), it's only the distribution between layers of the skin that leads to the visual differences.
 



D1 Minnesota trying to hype up Elvis? I don't think Ben offered him or Chase Carter, but reoffered the other '22 minnesota recruits
It will be interesting to see how the local AAU crowd reacts to Ben’s way of recruiting. Pitino seemed to give a “token” offer to many of the players whether he really wanted them or not. It looks like Ben will spend more time nurturing those lines of communication, but will only offer the local players that he wants. so there may be more local players that do not get offers from the U. Ben has already gone on record as says there will not be enough room for all players and that he may have to pass on some very good players because of fit.
 





Top Bottom