All Things Shamorie Ponds Recruiting Thread - UPDATED 9/16/15: Visit cancelled

[jovs]

The in home visit was September 18th. The commits from Coffey and Curry publicly came the 21st and the 23rd. Is it so hard to believe that the players had already told Pitino that they were highly likely picking MN? you make the in home visit out of respect for a kid you have recruited hard and has connections with your staff. But overall it might have been your way too. I'd say it's about 50:50 as to which happened.

I wonder if this scenario has ever happened before, wait a minute didn't Pitino have an in home visit with Ilikianen just prior to the Nwanko commitment, followed by a couple of weeks before Ilikianen made his commitment to Wisconsin after the scholarships being filled at Minnesota.

 

[golfing18now]

I wonder if this scenario has ever happened before, wait a minute didn't Pitino have an in home visit with Ilikianen just prior to the Nwanko commitment, followed by a couple of weeks before Ilikianen made his commitment to Wisconsin after the scholarships being filled at Minnesota.

Yep....Illikainen met unofficially the Friday before Nwankwo was on campus for his official.

We can argue about what Pitino "should" be able to do, but I'll believe the Gophers will over sign when I see it.

 

[bemidjigopher]

For the Class of 17, unless there's transfers or other issues, which given our history... Stay tuned, Pitino will have to over sign if he wants some sort of balance between the classes, not to mention with a deep in state recruiting class, it would hurt the program that there's a perception of not being able to lock down the boarders, even it isn't a reality, just too many good in state guys to let them all go.

 

[WanderingGopher]

I don't think we cooled on him at all. I just don't see the university of Minnesota would allow us to take 4 commitments with 3 open scholarships.

Correct.

And my informed speculation is that while we didn't tell Ponds "we're full, don't visit," our standing with Curry and Coffey played a role. With all the effort Pitino put in, and Ponds' relationship with Kimani, do not believe for a second that we just so happened to be the only one of his final four he *chose* not to visit, then took another several weeks to decide.

Also remember Coffey, who I believe was firmly our #1 priority, wants to handle the ball. And Ponds' ranking compared to Curry's has little relevance. Position dictated the 3rd scholarship.