Caledonia native Eli King in portal from Iowa State

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Can he essentially make up for the loss of Henley in the build plan? If so, sign him up.
 

Bayfieldgopher said:
The question is……..will he make us better?
I hope Ben has more choices to make than in the past. IMO, King is not a great choice at this stage.
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I personally think, for the best sake of the program, you can't be in completely short-term, save-my-job mode. If you have a promising, longer term prospect come available, you owe it to the program to bring him in.

I know it's expecting a lot to ask a coach who's probably on the hot seat to take a longer view, but what's the chicken and what's the egg here? In order words, you're not gong to have a very long career in the end anyways if you construct your roster based only on short-term considerations from year to year.
 

Wet_Blanket_Guy said:
This will be telling if Ben is open to take a player who openly chose another program over the Gophers maybe 18 months ago. Will he be the bigger person and open him with a full embrace as a traditional new recruit who didn’t burn the program…time will tell.

I say get the kid. In the worst case scenario, pull a Rick Pitino after 1 year and tell him it isn’t working for you and he’s got to find greener pastures.
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Are you hoping Johnson gets him so that he is here for the next coach? Don't get me wrong, I'm all for bringing back a local kid and hoping he develops into a strong player but is Johnson in a position to go after a potential project in the portal knowing he has to win now?

Seems like that may be a tough balancing act in terms of looking to the future but also making sure you do everything possible to win more right away as well. There are enough open spots to potentially do both but gotta think Johnson is going to prioritize guys he thinks will be ready to roll right away over guys that may need more time to develop before they are ready to make an impact.
 


bga1 said:
Less than 40 minutes for the whole year. The concern is- can he shoot?
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If he can play on ball defense, he can probably help sooner rather than later, but you are correct that we can’t afford any more guys on the roster that can’t shoot.
 

Holy Man said:
If he can play on ball defense, he can probably help sooner rather than later, but you are correct that we can’t afford any more guys on the roster that can’t shoot.
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His stats from HS ought to be knowable, right? (I don't know myself how to look them up.) If he can shoot a free throw, I'll take him.
 

Personally I'd like to see them go hard after guards who have a lot more experience playing at the college level. I'd like some veteran leadership...neither of which King has.
 






Aside from Lipsey, ISU has 3 guards in the rotation graduating. I'd have thought King would be in line for PT, except that Otzelberger was likely to recruit/portal over him. He couldn't hack it at a program MN would like to be competitive with.

At this point, King is like a HS recruit who you'd bring in on potential. Nothing wrong with that, but there are some real holes to fill and the advantage of the portal is that you can fill them with players you've seen compete and actually produce at the college level. They can do that, too, but this is a reach.
 

His Dad was quoted in the Rochester Post Bulletin saying many teams reached out to him yesterday after the news broke, and the Gophers werent one of them.
 



MBIII_Fan said:
His Dad was quoted in the Rochester Post Bulletin saying many teams reached out to him yesterday after the news broke, and the Gophers werent one of them.
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would have been interesting to see what schools actually reached out.....
was it Northern Iowa/St. Thomas type schools? higher end that that?(i doubt it)
 

Gophs24 said:
would have been interesting to see what schools actually reached out.....
was it Northern Iowa/St. Thomas type schools? higher end that that?(i doubt it)
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Good question. The article did not specify and I agree with you on which schools likely already reached out. The line about the Gophers was literally the last line of the article.


The high-flying guard was highly recruited before settling on Iowa State in April of 2021. King also received offers from Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, Marquette and Stanford.

King’s father, Brad King — who was also his Caledonia boys basketball coach — said that Wednesday was a busy day for Eli, with lots of schools showing interest in him.

“He had a bunch of teams reach out to him today, all telling him why he would be good at their school and how they would use him in their system,” Brad said. “It’s been a busy day.”

Brad King said that Minnesota was not one of the schools to make contact with him.
 


Schnauzer said:
Struggling for playing time at Iowa State? This should be a St. Thomas target, not the Gophers.
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I don't understand shade towards ISU. They've been much better than the Gophers for over a decade in a better conference. The Gophers are definitely not above most Power 5 schools back up players currently and I'd have taken Eli King over Taurus Samuels in a heartbeat.
 

I'm not saying he's a 100% lock take who will be great, but I wouldn't use 40 min played this year as a deterrent. FYI, Henley wouldn't have played much more than 40 min all year for ISU and had king been here he'd have played much more. Again all relative.
 


Wet_Blanket_Guy said:
This will be telling if Ben is open to take a player who openly chose another program over the Gophers maybe 18 months ago. Will he be the bigger person and open him with a full embrace as a traditional new recruit who didn’t burn the program…time will tell.

I say get the kid. In the worst case scenario, pull a Rick Pitino after 1 year and tell him it isn’t working for you and he’s got to find greener pastures.
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This used to be a pet peeve of mine. If someone wanted to go somewhere else and use the Gophers as a fallback option if it didn't work out, screw 'em. But the easy transfer rules and free agency aspect of college sports have changed everything. I now expect every player to leave a program before their eligibility expires. I'm not talking about King specifically, but if a Minnesota player leaves, wants to come back and would help us, let's take him.
 

No word from Ben.

Makes you wonder what his priority targets are.

King would be a good backup to a veteran transfer pg. Maybe like Ihnen playing the 2, he thinks Carrington can run the point or Christie.
 

If he wasn’t from MN we wouldn’t be talking about him. He isn’t a good shooter or great ball handler. He doesn’t add a ton of value. ISU was good this year, not great. They had good guards, not great. He still didn’t get any time, and with spots open next year he’s still leaving. This screams the staff has told him he isn’t going to see time.

ISU is not Kansas. They are a good program, but not one we should be dying to get castoffs from. King is simply not a real good player.
 

Schnauzer said:
Struggling for playing time at Iowa State? This should be a St. Thomas target, not the Gophers.
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That should be but unfortunately that's not where we are (IMO).

We have 5 scholarships available and most of those scholarships will be used on guys who wouldn't have played much at Iowa State last year.
 


Gophs24 said:
would have been interesting to see what schools actually reached out.....
was it Northern Iowa/St. Thomas type schools? higher end that that?(i doubt it)
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Not sure that really matters, you've got 5 positions to fill, you don't need 5 game ready looks like a lock to succeed guys, you can take a chance. If they only had two spots to fill and needed someone to come in and start then I would say no.
 

I imagine in Ben's mind Carrington/Christie are already filling the role of the "up-and-coming SG prospects." I'd even throw Ihnen in that group if Ben was serious about him starting at the #2.

At this point, he has to be going after experienced guards who have proven something at the D1 level.
 

Tucker32 said:
If he wasn’t from MN we wouldn’t be talking about him. He isn’t a good shooter or great ball handler. He doesn’t add a ton of value. ISU was good this year, not great. They had good guards, not great. He still didn’t get any time, and with spots open next year he’s still leaving. This screams the staff has told him he isn’t going to see time.

ISU is not Kansas. They are a good program, but not one we should be dying to get castoffs from. King is simply not a real good player.
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I would add the word "yet" at the end, but this echoes my view.
 

Hates Monikers said:
This used to be a pet peeve of mine. If someone wanted to go somewhere else and use the Gophers as a fallback option if it didn't work out, screw 'em. But the easy transfer rules and free agency aspect of college sports have changed everything. I now expect every player to leave a program before their eligibility expires. I'm not talking about King specifically, but if a Minnesota player leaves, wants to come back and would help us, let's take him.
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I think all 3 King brothers have transferred at least once.
 


jovs said:
Not sure that really matters, you've got 5 positions to fill, you don't need 5 game ready looks like a lock to succeed guys, you can take a chance. If they only had two spots to fill and needed someone to come in and start then I would say no.
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i mean it matters only because i was interested in who was reaching out to him.....
 

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