All Things Kerwin Walton Recruitment Thread (Class of 2020)

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Q: The Gophers have one scholarship left. Are they in the position of waiting for Kerwin Walton to decide before offering it to someone else? – Ed Shinbach (@shinbache)

A: Waiting for Kerwin Walton to decide was always the plan for Richard Pitino and his staff. The four-star Hopkins senior guard is their top remaining high school target. Walton is announcing his decision Saturday between Arizona, Creighton, Georgetown, Minnesota, North Carolina, and Vanderbilt. Pitino and assistant Ed Conroy have worked hard to make feel wanted. The 6-foot-5 sharpshooter would be ideal to fill the role of starting guard Payton Willis, who transferred earlier this month. Still, word is the Gophers are not the favorite at this point. North Carolina coach Roy Williams made Walton a priority and opened up a scholarship for him. Arizona turned Walton’s former high school teammate Zeke Nnaji into a potential first round pick in the NBA Draft in one year. Creighton has the chance to be a top-10 team in the country next season, which is appealing. Vanderbilt coach Jerry Stackhouse has continued to give Walton a lot of love, and his program has maybe the biggest need for him to be a prominent piece as a freshman. Can the home state program beat out those four schools? We shall see fairly soon. If Walton goes elsewhere, the Gophers probably turn to the transfer market again to fill the scholarship.

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Answering your questions about big men, including Chet Holmgren of Minnehaha Academy, transfers and upping the Gophers' local recruiting game.
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Go Gophers!!
 


alchemy2u said:
Tick, Tick, Tick.... are we there yet?

Just bumping the thread while waiting for the 25th when Walton tells us he is a Gopher.
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This whole wait til the 25th nonsense is what bothers me about recruits. You know where you want to go. Just say so and move on. But, no. Instead, just drag it out and keep attention just a bit longer.
Honestly, if this is Walton's choice to play this childish game, it doesn't speak well to his concept of team.
 


MennoSota said:
This whole wait til the 25th nonsense is what bothers me about recruits. You know where you want to go. Just say so and move on. But, no. Instead, just drag it out and keep attention just a bit longer.
Honestly, if this is Walton's choice to play this childish game, it doesn't speak well to his concept of team.
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I don't mind it. I think that sometimes it is an okay idea to make a decision, then sleep on it and see how it feels. It sounds like he is leaning to NC or AZ but the Covid is making it tough for him to leave home.
 


MennoSota said:
This whole wait til the 25th nonsense is what bothers me about recruits. You know where you want to go. Just say so and move on. But, no. Instead, just drag it out and keep attention just a bit longer.
Honestly, if this is Walton's choice to play this childish game, it doesn't speak well to his concept of team.
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I agree with what youre saying. But they all do this. This is how high end sport college recruitment has evolved. Everyone does it now. So tough for me call out Walton specifically on this
 


MennoSota said:
This whole wait til the 25th nonsense is what bothers me about recruits. You know where you want to go. Just say so and move on. But, no. Instead, just drag it out and keep attention just a bit longer.
Honestly, if this is Walton's choice to play this childish game, it doesn't speak well to his concept of team.
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I understand the frustration, but I think it's a bit strong to condemn him and his "concept of team". Setting a date and holding to a date is common thing in society. When Apple announces a new iPhone they don't just say hey were all set and just release it a couple of weeks early. Walton probably has 100 people asking him everyday if he has made a decision yet, giving a date gets those 100 requests a day off his back. He probably is organizing some scheduling around it; maybe an announcement video, maybe a Zoom call, who knows. All of that requires coordination and planning. When he declared a date he probably knew he was close but wasn't quite sure yet, but 4/25 was far enough out he felt comfortable that he could work it out by then.

I say if you give a date, then stick to your word. I find it much worse if he gives a date and then reaches that date and then pushes the date out. If that date doesn't work for a team they could have made a choice and gone a different direction. It would have been more selfish to have no date and just string things along indefinitely, that would be more deserving of such condemnation, but providing a date and holding to it, no.
 

MennoSota said:
This whole wait til the 25th nonsense is what bothers me about recruits. You know where you want to go. Just say so and move on. But, no. Instead, just drag it out and keep attention just a bit longer.
Honestly, if this is Walton's choice to play this childish game, it doesn't speak well to his concept of team.
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Assuming he actually knows.
 




SixBySix said:
People seem to be taking this weirdly personally.
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That he would be the umpteeth Minnesota high-level recruit to string along the Gophers fanbase when he never had any intention of choosing us?

Yeah, weird.
 





WadeHokenson said:
Maybe don't get so wrapped up with a high school student's though processes? Yeah, I would love for him to commit here, but the amount of anger/frustration shown by some on setting a date for an announcement is so odd to me.
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If the date had been somewhere in Apr 11-18, the anger/frustration would have been exponentially less.

The 25th date just makes the whole thing smell worse.
 

bga1 said:
I don't mind it. I think that sometimes it is an okay idea to make a decision, then sleep on it and see how it feels. It sounds like he is leaning to NC or AZ but the Covid is making it tough for him to leave home.
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If Walton truly would like to be somewhere else, but COVID-19 is keeping him home, then what's to keep him here once the virus threat is diminished? Transferring is easy anyway, and even more so when you had your heart set on another school in the first place.
 

Urbandale said:
If Walton truly would like to be somewhere else, but COVID-19 is keeping him home, then what's to keep him here once the virus threat is diminished? Transferring is easy anyway, and even more so when you had your heart set on another school in the first place.
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I don't think it's all covid. He's close to his family and it shows how tight they are by not really leaking anything his whole recruitment. It's always been a factor to him.
 

Urbandale said:
If Walton truly would like to be somewhere else, but COVID-19 is keeping him home, then what's to keep him here once the virus threat is diminished? Transferring is easy anyway, and even more so when you had your heart set on another school in the first place.
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If he enjoys his time here and becomes close with his teammates, I'm sure he'll want to stay.
 

Here is the thing...the only reason we are on page 43 of this string is that he is a MN Kid...Just because he is the last notable player yet to sign from the state is giving him (and Pitino to a degree) a lot of attention. Any 4* player from outstate would get a fraction of the attention.

A starting 5 of all MN kids would be novel and kinda fun, but that is just not reality. This isn't Doug Woog Hockey. It doesn't happen here- it doesn't happen anywhere.


He is not the messiah. Which is good, because if he were (at best) would be here one year. There are others who will take this scholly if he passes on the Gophers. They might contribute more or not as much as Walton would as a Frosh.
 

THE Chitown Gopher said:
Here is the thing...the only reason we are on page 43 of this string is that he is a MN Kid...Just because he is the last notable player yet to sign from the state is giving him (and Pitino to a degree) a lot of attention. Any 4* player from outstate would get a fraction of the attention.

A starting 5 of all MN kids would be novel and kinda fun, but that is just not reality. This isn't Doug Woog Hockey. It doesn't happen here- it doesn't happen anywhere.


He is not the messiah. Which is good, because if he were (at best) would be here one year. There are others who will take this scholly if he passes on the Gophers. They might contribute more or not as much as Walton would as a Frosh.
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Yeah, I'll be pissed if Walton was stringing us along for 6 months but I think we can definitely still get a good grad transfer who DOES want to represent Minnesota. My suspicion is Drew Peterson is waiting on Walton and will commit here if Walton doesn't take the final spot.
 

Parcival said:
Yeah, I'll be pissed if Walton was stringing us along for 6 months but I think we can definitely still get a good grad transfer who DOES want to represent Minnesota. My suspicion is Drew Peterson is waiting on Walton and will commit here if Walton doesn't take the final spot.
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I think I'd rather have Kier from George Mason than Peterson if we have our choice
 

THE Chitown Gopher said:
Here is the thing...the only reason we are on page 43 of this string is that he is a MN Kid...Just because he is the last notable player yet to sign from the state is giving him (and Pitino to a degree) a lot of attention. Any 4* player from outstate would get a fraction of the attention.

A starting 5 of all MN kids would be novel and kinda fun, but that is just not reality. This isn't Doug Woog Hockey. It doesn't happen here- it doesn't happen anywhere.


He is not the messiah. Which is good, because if he were (at best) would be here one year. There are others who will take this scholly if he passes on the Gophers. They might contribute more or not as much as Walton would as a Frosh.
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Perhaps true. However, he would be a great 3-4 year player, and that is what this program desperately needs.
 




THE Chitown Gopher said:
Here is the thing...the only reason we are on page 43 of this string is that he is a MN Kid...Just because he is the last notable player yet to sign from the state is giving him (and Pitino to a degree) a lot of attention. Any 4* player from outstate would get a fraction of the attention.
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Exactly. By staying here he's an instant fan favorite. If he goes anywhere else, he's just another recruit trying to get some game time. Hurt is a classic example, he he'd stayed he would have had a big fan base and following, in Duke's game he just blends in with the scenery on the bench.
 

Livingat45north said:
Exactly. By staying here he's an instant fan favorite. If he goes anywhere else, he's just another recruit trying to get some game time. Hurt is a classic example, he he'd stayed he would have had a big fan base and following, in Duke's game he just blends in with the scenery on the bench.
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Livingat45north said:
Exactly. By staying here he's an instant fan favorite. If he goes anywhere else, he's just another recruit trying to get some game time. Hurt is a classic example, he he'd stayed he would have had a big fan base and following, in Duke's game he just blends in with the scenery on the bench.
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My favorite players are the ones that do things to win games. A kid’s fan base has no bearing on the quality of his game, his impact on the team, and his ability to grow within a program.
 

I could care less that he’s from MN. Kerwin is a stud that shoots the 3 at a high level and defends well. He would be a huge addition and better than any transfer we’d get at this time as a freshman imo.
 

UpAndUnder43 said:
Did coaches prior to Pitino lock down the border? Serious Q. Haven’t looked into it too much.
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Was relatively locked down under Tubby, but during those years the state also had nowhere near the same amount of top 100 recruits as in the Pitino era so it's not really a fair comparison.
 

A nonymous said:
I’m staying too. The government said I cant leave my house
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Exactly, where's W
bc2211 said:
My favorite players are the ones that do things to win games. A kid’s fan base has no bearing on the quality of his game, his impact on the team, and his ability to grow within a program.
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I'll disagree with you on that one, but of course it's just an opinion. I think basketball has a lot do to with confidence, and when you have fans solidly behind you the confidence comes along with it, and with that comes growth. Also, post basketball having a large fan base pays dividends.
 

bc2211 said:
My favorite players are the ones that do things to win games. A kid’s fan base has no bearing on the quality of his game, his impact on the team, and his ability to grow within a program.
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I also find it a little funny that Hurt was brought up, considering the Hurt brother we did get, who is from Minnesota and committed to the Gophers quite early on, gets crapped on all the time. Definitely did not get the hometown hero treatment.
 

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