All Things Paige Bueckers Recruitment Thread - Videos, Analysis, Tid-Bits, Articles

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I guess I can't blame her for the decision. If I had been recruited by Geno and the most elite team in the country for as many years, why wouldn't I? How many young MN girls can even begin to have such a dream at such a young age? And if she did paid attention to the Gophers she might have noticed that one great MN born player isn't enough. Banham couldn't do it. Wagner couldn't either. Perhaps the answer is to get a few top MN girls to commit much like the freshman trio did for the MN men's team. That will help for the future success of the program. But Whalen needs time to pull that off.
 

https://www.courant.com/sports/ucon...0190402-nwb7xg7isfhanftx2prxtxecuy-story.html

Hartford Courant Interview with Brian Cosgriff:

Q: Were you surprised when Paige chose UConn?

A: “I wasn’t surprised at all. I was hoping she would choose UConn. First of all, Geno did by far the best job of recruiting her. I’ve never seen a college coach do such due diligence in recruiting a player, and there’s a reason why UConn’s great every year. There just is. Between him and [associate head coach Chris Dailey], they did an amazing job in recruiting her. They built this relationship over three years ago, and it didn’t surprise me at all. I was in tears of joy that she was going to UConn.”
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Wow. Her highschool coach was even rooting against us. It is obvious that Geno was around here before Whalen was, but they shouldn't hold that against her. Tears of joy? Give me a break.
 

She said she wanted to go somewhere where she could make an impact right away...Minnesota would have been the place to do it. Oh well.
 

#2Gopher said:
Wow. Her highschool coach was even rooting against us. It is obvious that Geno was around here before Whalen was, but they shouldn't hold that against her. Tears of joy? Give me a break.
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Her AAU coach wanted her to go to uconn or nd too, easier for them to recruit the youngsters for their programs when they can say they developed a uconn player.
 
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whalenfan said:
Her AAU coach wanted her to go to uconn or nd too, easier for them to recruit the youngsters for their programs when they can say they developed a uconn player.
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That's an interesting take, and might be true. Maybe some of Brian's tears of joy were for himself.
 

People are sheep. Not enough kids looking to blaze there own trail. Too many followers. Sad really.
 

Sad to hear the news she wanted to play for a blue blood instead of her hometown Gophers. Paige moved on....we move on too. Please delete this post. No reason to keep hashing this dead thread!
 

I agree wholeheartedly with the the idea that a lot of kids today especially are followers rather than pacesetters. Programs like Minnesota need those kids that are program transformers in order to elevate their programs just like UConn did back in the day.
 



Paige reminds me of Joe Mauer. Mauer wasn't a leader either and had no courage to speak out when there were club house issues when he was around. Joe too could have helped the Gopher football program but instead committed to play in Florida. Too busy looking at himself and counting his money. Paige will do the same if and when she makes it to the WNBA (she could break a leg you know). Not sure why we are still honoring Mauer for what he could have done but didn't. Hopefully the Lynx won't draft her.
 

People here shouldn't be so mean spirited. There are a dozen valid reason for her to make the choice of UCONN and only one for her to have stayed home - and that reason has only been in place for 8 months (there is no way she would have played for Stollings who visited Hopkins once in 4 years). If there had ever been a chance it needed to have begun years ago. Call it unfortunate timing. If Paige was a 2021 or 2022 grad or Lindsay had the U job a few years earlier... this may have been different. Or maybe not. I will wish her luck and if the Lynx happen to draft her one day.. that'll be cool, too.
 

Cool that the Lynx draft her? No. Was it cool that the Twins drafted Mauer? No.
 

#2Gopher said:
Cool that the Lynx draft her? No. Was it cool that the Twins drafted Mauer? No.
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Still got that butthurt feeling? It's always cool to have a hometown player on a pro team - as long as that player doesn't compromise the team in some way.
Was it cool that we drafted Mauer? Yes. Did he help the team by winning two batting titles? Yes. Did the Twins then give him way too large a contract for way too many years? Also yes.. so I'll agree not cool - because at that point it compromised the team. So back to Paige: If she's good enough to be drafted into the WNBA, I'd want her with the Lynx. Drafted in the right spot (not passing on a clearly better player to get a hometown girl) and signing an appropriate contract. I'm not aware of any WNBA team having crippling salary issues right now - not the way the league is set up. But if that changes I wouldn't want her, or Keke Bell for that matter, to be overpaid because of her MN ties.
 



The difference between Joe Mauer & Paige Bueckers is that Mauer was never going to step foot on the FSU campus.

I am glad that he signed with FSU before joining the Twins organization. Just think how butthurt Gopher football fans would have felt if he was a Gopher commit that signed a baseball contract.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
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Aesop70 said:
Still got that butthurt feeling? It's always cool to have a hometown player on a pro team - as long as that player doesn't compromise the team in some way.
Was it cool that we drafted Mauer? Yes. Did he help the team by winning two batting titles? Yes. Did the Twins then give him way too large a contract for way too many years? Also yes.. so I'll agree not cool - because at that point it compromised the team. So back to Paige: If she's good enough to be drafted into the WNBA, I'd want her with the Lynx. Drafted in the right spot (not passing on a clearly better player to get a hometown girl) and signing an appropriate contract. I'm not aware of any WNBA team having crippling salary issues right now - not the way the league is set up. But if that changes I wouldn't want her, or Keke Bell for that matter, to be overpaid because of her MN ties.
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I don't think that you have to worry about WNBA players ever being overpaid.
 

Who?

This is a Minnesota Basketball forum and last time I checked this person isn't or won't be playing for the Gophers. They are free to do what they choose, but so are the Gopher fans, so don't expect any more local accolades.

End of story.
 

I'm sure she'll be heartbroken, alchemy. A little bitter, are we?
 

alchemy2u said:
Who?

This is a Minnesota Basketball forum and last time I checked this person isn't or won't be playing for the Gophers. They are free to do what they choose, but so are the Gopher fans, so don't expect any more local accolades.

End of story.
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Just like the football and the MBB forums, these are places to talk college sports.
 


Hope Paige enjoyed watching ND beat puke conn as much as I did. IRISH !
 

GringaGopher said:
Hope Paige enjoyed watching ND beat puke conn as much as I did. IRISH !
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That just means Paige will become an even bigger internationally-renowned legend when she helps end UConn's "long" championship drought.
 



Described Minnesota’s recruiting process as a “late push”.

A little too little, a little too late.
 


Shades said:

Described Minnesota’s recruiting process as a “late push”.

A little too little, a little too late.
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It's pretty clear in hindsight that the "late push" by Whay and team was fairly well doomed from the start. No matter how much Paige loves Whalen's career and accomplishments (and that love/respect was evident elsewhere in the video where she talked about Lynx achievements), recruiting is relationship building, and the Gophers started out from a relationship "hole" that was pretty hard to dig out of. We can pretty much fault Marlene and crew for the "lack of an early push."

When you think about it, why weren't the former coaching staff "all over" the best guard recruit of her class who was just a short drive across town? Seems a bit puzzling at first. I think I have the answer. Marlene was recruiting for the short term. She didn't envision herself here in 2-5 years. Stollings did do some pretty good short/medium-term recruiting (witness Diva Hubbard, Destiny Pitts, Keke Bell, the Bellos, Perez, etc. - and of course Banham and Wagner were going to be here in any event). But she didn't waste any of her energy recruiting for the era that was far enough in the future that she figured she'd be springboarded to her next coaching gig by then.
 

I agree with the thought that recruiting top-quality players like Paige is all about relationship-building. Most of these top-quality players are heavily recruited from the time they are in 8th or 9th grade. That may well be a reason why it's going to take Whalen at least a few years to make some inroads in recruiting some of the talent she'll need to make the Gophers a nationally prominent program. And I agree with the thought that Stollings was a decent recruiter, although the lack of interest/success locally is baffling. Not sure if that was because she viewed the Gopher coaching job as a short-term job or not. Maybe, maybe not. I still don't view Texas Tech as a step up, although the salary there and the length of the contract there were certainly a step up. But I think she could have achieved similar salary and terms at Minnesota if she had had tremendous success.
 

alchemy2u said:
Who?

This is a Minnesota Basketball forum and last time I checked this person isn't or won't be playing for the Gophers. They are free to do what they choose, but so are the Gopher fans, so don't expect any more local accolades.

End of story.
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Out of curiosity, what college/university did you attend?
 

This isn't exactly the right place for this but didn't want to start an entire thread: Bueckers' U Conn will be playing in a better conference than the team has outclassed for the last few seasons. No official announcement yet but word is we'll hear for sure that U Conn is going back to the Big East starting with Bueckers' freshman season.
 

thatjanelpick said:
This isn't exactly the right place for this but didn't want to start an entire thread: Bueckers' U Conn will be playing in a better conference than the team has outclassed for the last few seasons. No official announcement yet but word is we'll hear for sure that U Conn is going back to the Big East starting with Bueckers' freshman season.
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More, speculative, details:

https://www.espn.com/college-sports/story/_/id/27030819/sources-uconn-expected-rejoin-big-east
UConn is expected to leave the American Athletic Conference and return to the Big East for basketball and other sports in 2020, sources told ESPN.

Nothing is official at this point, but an announcement could come as early as next week, sources said. The UConn board of trustees has not yet voted on the move, but approval is expected.

...
The biggest remaining question surrounds what happens with UConn's football team. The Big East does not have football, and it's unlikely UConn would remain in the American with just football, sources told ESPN. Sources said the football program is expected to play in the American in 2019 but could go independent after that or join another conference.

Conference bylaws require UConn to pay a $10 million withdrawal fee and give 27 months' notice before leaving, but the Huskies are expected to join the Big East in 2020.

In a statement Saturday, the school said "our responsibility to always be mindful of what is in the best interest of our student athletes, our fans and our future. With that being said, we have been and remain proud members of the American Athletic Conference."
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