All Things Kerwin Walton Recruitment Thread (Class of 2020)

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NWMetroGopherFan said:
It's between the Gophers and Arizona. He's also still in contact with UNC, per RJ, but they don't have an open scholarship right now. My gut tells me he's staying home. Pitino has made Walton his top priority for a while now, and the last scholarship left for 2020 is his if he wants it. Kerwin has to do his due diligence and look at all options, and that's why he hasn't committed yet.

I think he's a Gopher 1 week from today, but a lot can change in a week.
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Hope your right
 

Biggsohnasty said:
Get your popcorn. Oh I can just see it now.

Walton drags his feet. We take Peterson (or insert some decent transfer who isn't one of us). Walton picks Vanderbilt after his options dry up.

Doogie zooms/skypes him and he's bitter because Pitino betrayed him and took somebody when he was willing to come here.

Oh the mob will eat him alive.

And if he's reading this post and becomes offended that I'd consider this possibility, pick a school already. I very much want it to be Minnesota. But at this point I'd rather take a transfer (if this hypothetical becomes a reality) than wait, lose out on transfers, lose out on Walton and take the dude who is deciding between us and Wyoming.
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I think we lost out on that guy, to powerhouse North Texas.
 

NWMetroGopherFan said:
It's between the Gophers and Arizona. He's also still in contact with UNC, per RJ, but they don't have an open scholarship right now. My gut tells me he's staying home. Pitino has made Walton his top priority for a while now, and the last scholarship left for 2020 is his if he wants it. Kerwin has to do his due diligence and look at all options, and that's why he hasn't committed yet.

I think he's a Gopher 1 week from today, but a lot can change in a week.
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Arizona pays a lot of $$$. Ask Sean Miller.
 

NWMetroGopherFan said:
It's between the Gophers and Arizona. He's also still in contact with UNC, per RJ, but they don't have an open scholarship right now. My gut tells me he's staying home. Pitino has made Walton his top priority for a while now, and the last scholarship left for 2020 is his if he wants it. Kerwin has to do his due diligence and look at all options, and that's why he hasn't committed yet.

I think he's a Gopher 1 week from today, but a lot can change in a week.
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Yes it can. We've seen it before. At least with us, he's not flirting with possible NCAA sanctions. As others have said, he's had plenty of time to decide, and I would take the next wing/guard who wants to commit AND is 100% eligible to play next season. I think taking another possible sit out transfer is pretty high risk.
 

Holy Man said:
Yes it can. We've seen it before. At least with us, he's not flirting with possible NCAA sanctions. As others have said, he's had plenty of time to decide, and I would take the next wing/guard who wants to commit AND is 100% eligible to play next season. I think taking another possible sit out transfer is pretty high risk.
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I just don't really know what he's waiting on if he really wanted to go to a certain school. Maybe he truly still is up in the air but that's tough. Johnson or Markusson both GT with us in final 3/4 schools. Most likely next 2 to announce with us in the running. Clearly want Johnson in that matchup. If Johnson's in, take him, let's go. Or give Walton the choice that "hey if Johnson picks us this weekend we're taking him. You're in if you want the spot right now. Or we gotta move on."

If Johnson's out, Markusson's in, do you take him or wait for Walton/Peterson/Other? Wait?
 
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Just Gopher It!! said:
Did he improve that much in you opinion from HS or was it a big miss by everyone? I think about Decker when asking these type of questions based on how he ended up a Gopher.
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Not sure how I got to this post but...

Wolters was always really good. He played on a relatively unknown AAU team and in Central MN. He was unreal for a few years of high school. The most dominant player I’ve seen in central MN and it isn’t close.

Ice in is veins. Great teammate. Had he been a gopher he wouldn’t have been as good due to not being THE guy for 4 years but he was relentless.

As for Decker—a lot of the same. Didn’t camp, no exposure at Rocori. He wasn’t dominant in high school all the time. A lot of people I know were shocked when he got offered by the gophers. He seemed like a kid who’d be at SCSU. Eric was a solid hooper and amazing baseball player. I thought football was his 3rd sport...but I’m not paid to know who to recruit.
 

I'm holding out for Walton as long as I can over a few kids who couldn't even dominate at the mid major level. Name the last Hopkins standout who didn't pan out at the D1 level? These kids are ready to go from day 1 and I wouldn't be surprised at all if Walton was a double figure scorer and one of our top defenders next season. He's played at a 5 star level since this time last year and you just cannot afford to pass that up.
 

eker0016 said:
I would think the uncertainty of COVID-we were19 helps us a bit. Fingers crossed you are right!
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MplsGopher said:
I think we lost out on that guy, to powerhouse North Texas.
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May well be Pitino told him he'd give him a scholarship if we hadn't filled it by May 1 (hence that date), so he was our "safety recruit" in this scenario and Pitino told him, we don't have a spot for you - so do what you need to snd that's why he moved his announcement all the way up from May 1 to now.

makes sense as we were his only P5 offer on the recruiting website I looked at.

I take this as a positive that we are going to land a higher calibar player than him.
 
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LongLiveMilesTarver said:
No, guys like El-Amin, Lane, Bell, Althoff, Horvath, Gilbert, Taylor, Taylor, Aldrich, Leuer, etc all went elsewhere.

Johnson, Boone, Ohnstad, McKenzie, and Mbakwe went elsewhere and then transferred back. Hargrow came here, left, and came back. Schilling, Coleman, and White came here and then transferred. Rickert and Humphries committed elsewhere before eventually signing here.

We have never locked down the border in the past 25 years. If we had Gopherhole in 1998 people would have been melting down (and this the year after we made the Final Four).

Also contributing is Minnesota used to produce a quality player every couple years, then eventually a couple every year, and now we pump out a bunch of guys so every year there are bound to be more misses just on sheer numbers.
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Did the Gophers even offer Matt Janning? What about Shelby Moats or Ethan Wragge?
 



EG#9 said:
Johnson and Ohnstad did not have Gopher offers out of high school, I am not sure Trevor did either. Schilling, White, Rickert, and Humphries all committed to the Gophers so they would count as successes? The program was solid enough under Clem that a lot of local kids with good offers were not Gopher offers including Troy Bell who had a great career at Boston College and Nick Horvath who went to Duke (imagine a local kid not having a Gopher offer and going to Duke now but he wasn't tough/physical enough for Clem). There is no precedent for the 2020 class or the 2017 class in the 25 years prior in terms of just whiffing on a ton of kids especially ones that didn't go to blue bloods.
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Gophers never offered Troy Bell??
 

bc2211 said:
I’m pretty sure White committed publicly before he had an official offer under Tubby. Hope I’m not perpetuating rumors here. The dude clearly has an affinity to being close to home.
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Yep, have seen him at a few Hopkins games this past season.
 


JoshuaT81 said:
I know they never offered Janning or moats. I am unsure about Wragge.
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Pretty sure we offered Moats. Rivals says we did. He’s the only example I can think of of a Minnesota high school player that Tubby offered and didn’t get, not counting the 2014 class that didn’t commit until after he was fired.
 







eker0016 said:
I would think the uncertainty of COVID-19 helps us a bit. Fingers crossed you are right!
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I would imagine this is a factor. Its pretty much a given in the medical/scientific world that COVID will make a comeback in the Fall/Winter (barring hail mary vaccine this summer). I would hate to have this the only reason, but it must be a factor. It would be if I was a parent.
 

BarnBurner said:
I dont believe so. Clem missed bad on that one.
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I loved his game and The Big East was my jam n back in the day.

I forgot that he was this kind of great

2x conference player of the year 2001& 2003 (puts hin in company the company of Ewing, Mullins and Rip Hamilton) - which also earned him being a consensus All-American those years.

Leading scoter in school history with 2"600 points and appropriately had his number retired.

Crazy and painful, huh?
 

alchemy2u said:
The point is the last scholarship is available for a couple of players, the first that commits gets it.

Walton has let this play on long enough. At first it was good because his stock rose and he got attention from a lot of good schools. But now it is dragging on and spots are filling up. The U has been there from the beginning and still has a spot for him right now. He better just grab it before it is gone. Pitino will not keep it open for him if another very good player wants it.
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Walton has been the top priority for Pitino for a while now, and all I can tell you is there will be a spot for him if he wants it. There have been a few transfer wings considering Minnesota that have committed elsewhere or not decided yet, and that's not a coincidence.
 

NWMetroGopherFan said:
Walton has been the top priority for Pitino for a while now, and all I can tell you is there will be a spot for him if he wants it. There have been a few transfer wings considering Minnesota that have committed elsewhere or not decided yet, and that's not a coincidence.
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Good.

I understand the delay by him and wish him the best. In the back of my mind I cannot help but think that Minnesota kids waiting until late to decide and us keeping spots open has cost us a lot of good options. Seems like it happens every year.

I hope, hope, hope that is not the case here and Walton becomes a Gopher!
 

Cayman said:
Pretty sure we offered Moats. Rivals says we did. He’s the only example I can think of of a Minnesota high school player that Tubby offered and didn’t get, not counting the 2014 class that didn’t commit until after he was fired.
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Directly from a teammate of Shelby's in high school is that he was using basketball to get an outstanding education to establish a career, thus the choice of Vanderbilt. He played very little in his time there and got an outstanding education. One example of a guy who put education ahead of his sport, which could very well have irritated his coaches.
 

Holy Man said:
Directly from a teammate of Shelby's in high school is that he was using basketball to get an outstanding education to establish a career, thus the choice of Vanderbilt. He played very little in his time there and got an outstanding education. One example of a guy who put education ahead of his sport, which could very well have irritated his coaches.
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The evidence backs this up as well. If you look back at his offer list on 247 it was full of high end private schools like Harvard, Lehigh, Princeton, NW, Yale etc. in addition to Vandy
 

With Johnson in the Minnesota fold, the only way to bring on Walton now would be a transfer out or a medical retirement. That's also the case with North Carolina.

It appears Arizona is the only program that, as of this moment, has room for him.
 


Would not be shocked if Pitino made room for Walton and Markusson ....With the leash being short Pitino will make the moves
 

theczar said:
Would not be shocked if Pitino made room for Walton and Markusson ....With the leash being short Pitino will make the moves
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Other than the odd scenario of Matz out and then Matz back in, do we have any precedent of this under the Pitino regime? I don't remember any examples of Creaning to make room. Truthfully, Pitino has had less transfers than most coaches during the less seven years.
 

Urbandale said:
With Johnson in the Minnesota fold, the only way to bring on Walton now would be a transfer out or a medical retirement. That's also the case with North Carolina.

It appears Arizona is the only program that, as of this moment, has room for him.
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Looks like Willis just opened up a spot
 

Urbandale said:
With Johnson in the Minnesota fold, the only way to bring on Walton now would be a transfer out or a medical retirement. That's also the case with North Carolina.

It appears Arizona is the only program that, as of this moment, has room for him.
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Walton ain’t coming to Carolina. I can almost guarantee it. Although Cole Anthony has not submitted his name to the draft, you can’t give his scholly if there is still a chance he comes back. Plus Walton was never a top priority for Roy (sort of a fall back option). Carolina is bringing in a loaded class and they are full.
 


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