Chris Monter on the importance of July hoops recruiting & what's ahead for the Gophs

[GopherHole Staff]

Chris Monter on the importance of July hoops recruiting & what's ahead for the Gophs

July is a major time for college basketball coaches who are allowed to be back on the road watching the country’s top prospects. This also makes the perfect time to address some recent questions I have received about the Minnesota Golden Gopher recruiting efforts.

http://www.forums.gopherhole.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1439

 

[Go4]

chris this is good stuff. some interesting takes. please keep us updated this summer. what tournaments will you be at?

 

[SelectionSunday]

Thanks Chris. An interesting read. Amazing how a prospect you're not even assured of getting 3 years down the road (Tyus Jones) can impact recruiting at his position in the preceding years.

 

[march madness]

Tyus

If Tyus keeps improving and grows a few inches he will be a McDonald's All-American and it wont matter who Minnesota has as there point guard. He would expect to come in and start. Sometimes they share time in the backcourt.

 

[katze019]

How would you rate the Gopher coaching staff as far as recruiters compared to other Big Ten schools?

I think that the Gopher coaches have done a solid job in recruiting. They have gotten the top players from in-state (Royce White, Rodney Williams and Joe Coleman) when they were worthy and didn’t feel necessary to land a local players just for the sake of keeping fans and high school coaches happy. I’m not convinced that there is a local player that they have to sign in the class of 2012 or 2013. If they go out-state, they will have to fight schools like Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois and others, so relationships with high school and AAU coaches are important. Most of the players that they missed out have struggled and several have transferred. --Am I misreading this line? The players the gophers wanted to get, but missed out on turned out to be busts anyways? If so, that doesn't speak well of our recruiting/scouts.--

Two in-state recruits, Synai Chambers and Isaiah Zierden are starting to get higher profile scholarship offers. Do you think the Gophers should and will offer these two?

I think the two are very talented players, but I don’t consider them must-haves. There is a chance that they could become Gophers, but I think that it is more likely that they go elsewhere for a better fit.

Thanks JohnnyGopher

 

[Chris Monter]

I look at players that visited and did not sign with Minnesota and most of the players have done little and some have transferred such as Scott Haralson (Connecticut then Tulsa), Josh Crittle (Oregon then Central Florida) , Darius Smith (Connecticut,then CSI then Eastern Illinois), Krys Faber (DePaul), Trevor Williams (Colorado State).

The best players they missed out on might be Verdell Jones (Indiana). This year, they missed out on Josh Oglesby (Iowa) and Nadir Tharpe (Kansas). Time will tell on those two.

Chris Monter

 

[Blackhammer]

Makes you wonder about their talent evaluation if the guys they can't get turn out to be stiffs.Verdell Jones would have really helped the last two years.Might have gotten us in the tourny last season.

 

[Chris Monter]

Every team has their hits and misses. Two of those players signed with Connecticut, the national champions and flamed out after their freshman year and left the school for a fresh start. From the Class of 2007, 43 of the top 150 have transferred since starting their college career, so there are plenty of schools that have players leave their program.

Chris Monter