Daniel Edozie a Gopher commit, per Amelia UPDATED (11/26) Edozie signs with Iowa St

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Altho this is embarrassing, it is better that this guy is not on the team. He either lacked the skills or the academic ability to succeed in the B1G. Size does not always matter. There are a lot of quality uncommitted players available at this point; no reason to get desperate.
 

Gopher Warrior said:
I hadn't posted here about Edozie, but in private conversations have thought this sounded like a case of the young man jumping the gun. Perhaps some of this is due to a writer poking around for an update, getting one & sharing it, and then things snowballed with others who believed it as well.

It doesn't look good, but my take is this has little to do with the Gophers staff and more to do with the young fella and media.

I do firmly believe Minnesota should work the JUCO angle hard for a PF / back to the basket / interior type that can board and defend. It's a need for 2013-14. There aren't a lot of possibilities that will could make a nice impact in a year, but there are some.



Not doubting he said that, but there was a span of just 9 weeks from the time he quit Marquette to "go the JuCo route" and the time he committed to Minnesota.
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I absolutely believe we offered, he committed, jirsa watched him play at juco event and decided he wasnt good enough and consequently approached kid/kid coach and rescinded offer.
 

Biglew33 said:
I absolutely believe we offered, he committed, jirsa watched him play at juco event and decided he wasnt good enough and consequently approached kid/kid coach and rescinded offer.
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That's a very scary thought.
 

Biglew33 said:
I absolutely believe we offered, he committed, jirsa watched him play at juco event and decided he wasnt good enough and consequently approached kid/kid coach and rescinded offer.
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Just because this is what you want to believe so you can complain more about Tubby?

The kid jumping the gun sounds more logical to me but either way, I have no idea what happened and neither do you.
 


GophersInIowa said:
Just because this is what you want to believe so you can complain more about Tubby?

The kid jumping the gun sounds more logical to me but either way, I have no idea what happened and neither do you.
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What part of ryan james report did u not see?
 

The staff can't defend itself without violating NCAA rules. The most likely scenario is that they got a call from the JC coach asking them to look at the kid. So they did. The kid simply jumped the gun.
 

Atl Gopher said:
The staff can't defend itself without violating NCAA rules.
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Exactly right. I'd be curious to know what the comments are from the thing Big Lew is referring to - most specifically, the source. I think most likely the young man jumped the gun, helped by some prodding from a newspaper person (who I privately expressed my doubts to upon that person's initial story).

If in fact Minnesota did, in no uncertain terms, give Edozie the green light to 'publicly' express a commitment, that's horrible. I just don't believe it.

Now, the staff might get a 'shame on you' if they didn't make it clear that his recruitment was a fluid process and things could change - he must check in with them before making any kind of 'decision' or proclamation... but if that happened, or the kid simply jumped the gun, then I think the right approach would be to physically go down to meet with the kid and have a face to face to talk about the experience and counsel him on the need to look elsewhere.
 





Both Doogie and Fuller are also reporting the same thing as Ryan James. We won't hear the Gopher's side of this but it doesn't sound great.
 

Marcus tweet: "Did just get confirmed that the #Gophers told JC recruit Daniel Edozie to look elsewhere after previously taking his commitment a week ago."

"Tubby Smith and an assistant were at a JC event over weekend to see Edozie play for first time. One bad half made them rethink it. #Gophers"

Go Gophers!!
 

No matter what-this isn't an ideal situation. I would hope situations like this (confusion between coaching staff and player) wouldn't be happening ever let alone more than once.
 



tikited said:
No matter what-this isn't an ideal situation. I would hope situations like this (confusion between coaching staff and player) wouldn't be happening ever let alone more than once.
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There wasn't any confusion according to Ryan James, Marcus Fuller, and Doogie. The Gophers/Tubby offered the kid. The kid accepted. The Gophers told him the offer was no longer on the table a couple of days later after watching him play this weekend. How is that confusion? It sure sounds like buyers remorse to me.

It's damning they offered that type of recruit in the first place. It's doubly-damning how they handled the situation.

Tubby better have a good year and parlay that into better recruits. Recruiting has been UGLY recently. Reminds me of Mason towards the end. He had decent teams in '05 and '06 but the writing was on the wall. Those 2 classes along with the '07 class were just absolutely brutal. If Maturi didn't fire him after the '06 season, certainly he would have been fired the following season. No coach wins with the talent Mason recruited on that '07 team. I'm afraid the same thing will happen to our basketball program in 2 to 3 years.
 

Pewterschmidt said:
There wasn't any confusion according to Ryan James, Marcus Fuller, and Doogie. The Gophers/Tubby offered the kid. The kid accepted. The Gophers told him the offer was no longer on the table a couple of days later after watching him play this weekend. How is that confusion? It sure sounds like buyers remorse to me.

It's damning they offered that type of recruit in the first place. It's doubly-damning how they handled the situation.
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That would not be confusion - however, the issue is that some people don't believe that to be an accurate/fair assessment of what happened.
 

clearly he accepted an offer that was rescinded after THESCOUT! posted his anemic numbers for a pedestrian juco team
 

Pewterschmidt said:
The Gophers/Tubby offered the kid. The kid accepted. The Gophers told him the offer was no longer on the table a couple of days later after watching him play this weekend. How is that confusion? It sure sounds like buyers remorse to me.

It's damning they offered that type of recruit in the first place. It's doubly-damning how they handled the situation.
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Sure sounds like we were confused to me.

Different kind of confusion I guess, but there has been a lot of confusion the last few years in a few different situations.
 


Pewterschmidt said:
Tubby better have a good year and parlay that into better recruits. Recruiting has been UGLY recently. Reminds me of Mason towards the end. He had decent teams in '05 and '06 but the writing was on the wall. Those 2 classes along with the '07 class were just absolutely brutal. If Maturi didn't fire him after the '06 season, certainly he would have been fired the following season. No coach wins with the talent Mason recruited on that '07 team. I'm afraid the same thing will happen to our basketball program in 2 to 3 years.
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how exactly would you justify this opinion? Is it Andre Hollins, who may potentially be a stud, or Joe Coleman, who has shown flashes? Maybe you have a problem with Austin Hollins or Elliot Elliason? If you are completely basing this statement off of Charles Buggs and Wally Ellenson, who haven't played a single dribble of college ball, and/or the current class, which hasn't filled out yet, then I don't think it's very fair.

Don't get me wrong I think this Edozie situation is a little alarming, but I'm going to reserve my judgement until we actually found out what happened for sure.
 

It's a Pig Man! said:
how exactly would you justify this opinion? Is it Andre Hollins, who may potentially be a stud, or Joe Coleman, who has shown flashes? Maybe you have a problem with Austin Hollins or Elliot Elliason? If you are completely basing this statement off of Charles Buggs and Wally Ellenson, who haven't played a single dribble of college ball, and/or the current class, which hasn't filled out yet, then I don't think it's very fair.

Don't get me wrong I think this Edozie situation is a little alarming, but I'm going to reserve my judgement until we actually found out what happened for sure.
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Really, it all still goes back to the transfer barrage from before with Devoe, Cobbs, etc. It's thrown all the numbers and all the balance off, and left the staff scrambling, and they're still trying to recover. I have had little issue with the fall recruiting to this point so far, they usually get pretty solid recruits in the end. Buggs is the first fall recruit where I've been just a little like "Hmmm...", but even he had some pretty decent offers out there. But when you're scrambling to recover in the spring, and you're already not a big "recruiting" guy, the results may leave some to be desired.
 

Gopher Warrior said:
That would not be confusion - however, the issue is that some people don't believe that to be an accurate/fair assessment of what happened.
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From the stuff you wrote about Mbakwe alone, I find it impossible that you would have access to any inside information.
 

I can only speak for myself. This episode is alarming and discouraging. I'm not going to repeat what others have written above, but how does this even happen? When I picked up the paper this morning, I had to read it twice to make sure I read what I thought I read. My faith in this coaching staff slid down a few notches today. There's nothing that should bother a fan more than roster mismanagement.

If, as Doogie has reported, the U administration is watching the basketball program closely, having this happen under such scrutiny does not bode well for the coach. It's one thing to question the quality of the coaching or the overall direction of the program, but when you can point to an obvious flub-up like this...
 

Offered a scholarship and accepted a commitment first, then saw him play for the first time afterwards? I love Tubby, but man, come on. Anyone should be able to see that's backwards. Every high school/JUCO coach is going to talk up their players. You can't just take their word that they're actually good enough to deserve a scholarship. Again, I'd classify myself as a Tubby supporter, but he really needs to step up his recruiting if this is true. Not acceptable. Let's hope this information isn't accurate.

EDIT: Hopefully what really happened was Edozie wanted to play for us so Tubby offered him a walkon spot and said he would potentially offer him a scholarship after seeing him if he was impressed enough. Then after not seeing what they had hoped for, told him he wouldn't be getting a scholarship and Edozie felt insulted and decommitted. That would be more acceptable.
 



Gopher Warrior said:
That would not be confusion - however, the issue is that some people don't believe that to be an accurate/fair assessment of what happened.
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The best case scenario is that there was miscommunication during the official visit. If that is the case, it isn't the first time that it has happened. Not sure how someone could confuse "we'd like to offer you a scholarship" with "we may be interested in offering if x, y and z happen" if the latter is being communicated clearly.
 

The part that baffles me about the miscommunication angle on this story is the part where Daniel leaks his acceptance to the media before contacting the coaching staff with his decision. One would think that at that time the coaching staff would have undoubtedly set him straight on the fact that he didn't have an offer but that they had interest in him. Obviously that would have saved embarrassment for everyone involved. Is this not how it happened? Seems like several missteps were made here by both parties if the offer was never made. This is why Ryan James explanation makes the most sense to me. Offered... Accepted... Sucky Performance... Pulled... Embarrassing...
 

jamalo said:
The best case scenario is that there was miscommunication during the official visit. If that is the case, it isn't the first time that it has happened. Not sure how someone could confuse "we'd like to offer you a scholarship" with "we may be interested in offering if x, y and z happen" if the latter is being communicated clearly.
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Please provide some facts not speculations like many do around here myself included (sometimes). Other than Gopher Lady's phone call from Joe (?), do you have any facts that this has happened before? I don't trust MN journalists a bit. Until I hear from the coaching staff, I don't make any conclusions. Like your friend Dr. Don said, maybe Tubby is too classy to confront this kid for going to the media before he gets any offer. Your hate for Tubby is becoming unhealthy. What will you do from not to March? Are you going to pray that Gophers would lose so you can come back here and prove us supporters wrong. Give these guys a break. Nobody is perfect. These guys have made some mistakes and hopefully learned from them.

Go Gophers
 

jamalo said:
The best case scenario is that there was miscommunication during the official visit. If that is the case, it isn't the first time that it has happened.
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Yep - and based partly on some of the young man's comments late last week (i.e., per newspaper folks, he made it clear to one that he had been offered by Iowa State in high school, while to the other newspaper he made it clear that he had not been offered), I think he just got ahead of himself a bit and there's probably fault on the side of the Gophers staff as well for not being as direct as they could have been.

I don't see it as a huge deal and it was 'cleaned up' quickly with an in person visit down in Duncanville.

By the way, Tyler is a great program. In 2008, two fellas joined Marquette... one of them committed to MU having never visited campus. He would go on to play three years at MU and go from an unknown JUCO player from Tyler to an NBA first round draft pick. Jimmy Butler - Chicago Bulls.

Clem - Thanks for bringing up Mbakwe AGAIN. I still stand by everything I said. There's an amazing story there, but people don't want to touch it. I won't either. If you should one day become enlightened, though, feel free to apologize. (PS - we made a bet on this year's season right? I need to find that thread and see what the specifics were... I think 4th or better in B1G you win, 6th or worse I win... tough call, this team could* be pretty good.)
 

BleedGopher said:
Marcus tweet: "Did just get confirmed that the #Gophers told JC recruit Daniel Edozie to look elsewhere after previously taking his commitment a week ago."

"Tubby Smith and an assistant were at a JC event over weekend to see Edozie play for first time. One bad half made them rethink it. #Gophers"

Go Gophers!!
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LOL - scools12 earlier in this thread ripped myself and others for our stance that this commitment seemed dumb because the kid had no other offers, and his youtube video was sub-par according to some (I personally didn't watch it; was only basing my opinion on the fact that he had no other D-I offers). This poster actually believed Tubby had some grand knowledge of this kid that was superior to any other coach in the country, and ripped us for it - "how dare we think Tubby could be at fault, he knows more than all fans/all D-I coaches????!!!!" He also had the nerve to insinuate that all the other coaches in the country were lazy recruiters, and that Tubby must deserve credit for this diamond in the rough - when in fact, the opposite was actually true.

Priceless.

Scools12 - care to retract your thoughts throughout this thread?
 

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