All Things Rakeem Buckles Thread

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So as of now Buckles isn't here? Does it all hinder on Buckles getting a waiver?
 



Would be a nice to have him here to battle it out with Buggs next season.


http://www.startribune.com/sports/blogs/202145641.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter - Old Amelia Strib post-
Buckles played three seasons for Louisville before transferring to Florida International after tearing his left ACL in January of 2012. Buckles had sustained an ACL tear in his right knee just a year earlier.

Despite the injury troubles, the power forward has shown sparks of potential. In his last full season in 2010-11, Buckles averaged 6.8 points and 6.1 rebounds in 18.8 minutes a game at Louisville. The 6-7, 215-pound Buckles has been away from the game for a long time now, a la Mo Walker, but the 22-year-old could still have something left in the tank. If Buckles does in fact decide to come to Minnesota, the question will be when he will be allowed to play.

Buckles, who could graduate from FIU this spring, would be required to sit out a full season, unless Minnesota were to submit and be granted a waiver based on his unique situation.

To complicate things more, Buckles would have to submit a waiver just to play in 2014-15 because if the forward doesn’t play this season, his five-year clock would end, and he would need to be granted a sixth year by the NCAA.

It’s hard to predict what the NCAA will do, but in this environment – one the NCAA has created – in which coaches are allowed to jump around at will (see Steve Alford), but players remain tethered to rigid rules that interrupt their careers if they decide to go elsewhere, allowing Buckles to follow his coach would only seem fair.

If he was allowed to play right away at Minnesota, it could be the best of both worlds for the Gophers. They are thin in the frontcourt with Rodney Williams, Trevor Mbakwe and Andre Ingram all departing, but at the same time Buckles would only be on scholarship for one season, leaving it open again for the loaded class of 2014 prep players.
 

HOOP DREAMS said:
If he can't play until the following year would we want him? I don't think so.

Would be a nice to have him here to battle it out with Buggs if he can play next season.
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I don't think he'd come unless he can play next year.
 




HOOP DREAMS said:
Minnesota’s new head coach Richard Pitino inherits a roster lacking experienced power forwards. There are some possibilities including Oto Osenieks (will be a redshirt junior), Charles Buggs (redshirt sophomore) and Alex Foster (incoming freshman), but the team loses seniors Trevor Mbakwe and Rodney Williams and their production won’t be replaced.

I think you are a little confused GW.
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He wrote that on April 8th.
 





If he is close enough to graduating where he is only a couple summer classes from graduating and DOESN'T do it... then I don't even want him on the team. You want to be a gopher? Graduate. Otherwise, have fun at FIU.
 

afurry91 said:
If he is close enough to graduating where he is only a couple summer classes from graduating and DOESN'T do it... then I don't even want him on the team. You want to be a gopher? Graduate. Otherwise, have fun at FIU.
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It doesn't matter if he graduates, he still needs a waiver to play for the Gophers next year.
 




afurry91 said:
Couldn't he then utilize the graduate transfer rule?
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The graduate transfer rule actually does not require that a kid graduate. Nonetheless, the issue with Buckles is that he has already transferred once (Louisville to FIU). There is a one-time automatic exception provided to graduates who have NEVER transferred before. That's the issue, but he may very well be granted a waiver (also would need to be accepted into graduate school).

See that April 8, 2013 link from a few posts above for more boring details.
 


GophersOnTheRise said:
If FIU is banned from post season play he should be able to get a waiver.
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Excellent point. Because he's got only one year left this is a very real possibility. I think* it'll be another month before the APR scores are released publicly, but they are essentially set at this point. Based on some quick calcs under different scenarios, it appears highly likely that FIU will be banned from postseason play in 2013-14.
 



SelectionSunday said:
Last season's APR postseason bans were announced June 20. Not sure if they're on that same timetable to make the announcment this year.
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Could he still decide to transfer and sign after that date or does signing period end May 15th or whatever it is?
 


Gopher Warrior said:
Excellent point. Because he's got only one year left this is a very real possibility. I think* it'll be another month before the APR scores are released publicly, but they are essentially set at this point. Based on some quick calcs under different scenarios, it appears highly likely that FIU will be banned from postseason play in 2013-14.
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Selfishly, I hope you are correct.
 


The more I look into Buckles, the more pumped I get. His stats are very misleading due to his injuries. He was becoming a beast at the end of his freshman season and beginning of sophmore year at Louisville (look at game logs). Then blows out a knee in middle of sophmore year. His sophmore stats still pretty dang good. He then comes back and misses the first chunk of his junior year as he recovers before coming back.. after 11 games or so, the other knee. So, he barely had worked himself back into shape his junior year before the second injury, so his stats his junior year are worthless to analyze.

The key here is his knees. Its been a long time since he blew out either knee. It will have been close to two years since his last injury when he steps on court this Fall (hopefully for Gophers). Plenty of time to recover (versus a slighly less than a year when he returned from first injury). Trevor seemed to recover nicely by the end of the season.. and I don't see why Buckles won't be ready.. ACL is not a death blow for your career anymore.

So, if healthy, he would be a FANTASTIC fit for us in the middle. Plus, he can shoot from three which he added to his game at the end of his run at Louisville. A former top 50 recruit, played 3 years at Louisville, including some big games. He would be a very very nice addition.

Crossing fingers.
 

"So, if healthy, he would be a FANTASTIC fit for us in the middle."

I am also intrigued by Buckles potential, but at 6-7, I'm not sure I see him as the Gophers solution in the middle. I do think he could help to fill a rather large hole at power forward.
 

Rouser said:
The more I look into Buckles, the more pumped I get. His stats are very misleading due to his injuries. He was becoming a beast at the end of his freshman season and beginning of sophmore year at Louisville (look at game logs). Then blows out a knee in middle of sophmore year. His sophmore stats still pretty dang good. He then comes back and misses the first chunk of his junior year as he recovers before coming back.. after 11 games or so, the other knee. So, he barely had worked himself back into shape his junior year before the second injury, so his stats his junior year are worthless to analyze.

The key here is his knees. Its been a long time since he blew out either knee. It will have been close to two years since his last injury when he steps on court this Fall (hopefully for Gophers). Plenty of time to recover (versus a slighly less than a year when he returned from first injury). Trevor seemed to recover nicely by the end of the season.. and I don't see why Buckles won't be ready.. ACL is not a death blow for your career anymore.

So, if healthy, he would be a FANTASTIC fit for us in the middle. Plus, he can shoot from three which he added to his game at the end of his run at Louisville. A former top 50 recruit, played 3 years at Louisville, including some big games. He would be a very very nice addition.

Crossing fingers.
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With Buckles I feel they have a good chance to get in the NCAA tournament again, the two needs going into next season were a PF and a PG, I feel they will have filled those needs and will be at least as competitive as last year, sure they lose a fair amount of rebounding but good team defense can compensate for lack of outright rebounding talent on the defensive board.
 

jovs said:
With Buckles I feel they have a good chance to get in the NCAA tournament again, the two needs going into next season were a PF and a PG, I feel they will have filled those needs and will be at least as competitive as last year, sure they lose a fair amount of rebounding but good team defense can compensate for lack of outright rebounding talent on the defensive board.
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This is how I feel as well. I think we'll be a much better shooting team next year as well.
 

This is a nice goal, but I am less ready to say we'll be as competitive as last year simply because we have a new coach and a new system for most of our players to learn. Rather than thinking we'll be equal to or better than last years team I'd rather look to see the 2013-14 team make strides of improvement so that it is clear they are better at the end of the season than they were at the beginning. One of the knocks of a Tubby team is that they played their best basketball in November and December and then started a downward slope from that point on. It will be refreshing if we see an upward slope from beginning to end this next season.

The B1G will be tough again, this upcoming year, so if we make the dance I will be extremely pleased with this squad.

jovs said:
With Buckles I feel they have a good chance to get in the NCAA tournament again, the two needs going into next season were a PF and a PG, I feel they will have filled those needs and will be at least as competitive as last year, sure they lose a fair amount of rebounding but good team defense can compensate for lack of outright rebounding talent on the defensive board.
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Darren Wolfson ‏@DarrenWolfson 1m
From someone close to Rakeem Buckles: "Still trying to get up there but still has work to do academically to be able to transfer." #gophers
 

InfraRen said:
Darren Wolfson ‏@DarrenWolfson 1m
From someone close to Rakeem Buckles: "Still trying to get up there but still has work to do academically to be able to transfer." #gophers
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Well, since Spring semester is presumably over, does that mean he has to go to summer school (at FIU??) so we won't know until Fall?

I wonder what that academic work is. My understanding is that his graduation from FIU is NOT what would make him eligible here. He's not a graduate transfer since he already transferred once. Rather, it's FIU's upcoming APR ban combined with the fact that Buckles has 1 yr eligibility left, that would make him eligible here.

So I wonder if this is a University of Minnesota issue (i.e., accepting him as a transfer academically) and not an issue wrt finishing up his FIU degree.
 

He has said all along that he'd have to take some summer classes in order to graduate before transferring.
 

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