Eli King says had Ben Johnson been hired earlier in his recruiting process he "definitely would have been interested in [Minnesota]"

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Nice lip service, but his current coach recruited and coached his older brothers, granted his cousin played football here. Best of luck to Eli, hope his knee heels and he has a good career and if he decides to transfer here one day, great!
 




Ope3 said:
Never too late Eli, as your brothers have demonstrated to decommit and/or transfer.
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I'm skeptical. This is an easy PR move to sooth a frustrated fan base. He could have still committed here. He could have delayed his commitment to ISU while he gave Ben a chance to sell him on the U and his vision. Eli was first out of the shoot to commit elsewhere. I'm not buying the story.
 



Yeah these comments are weird, does his current coach not care that he says he would have considered elsewhere?
 




GopherWeatherGuy said:
TJ Otzelberger has been at Iowa St 3 days longer than Ben Johnson at Minnesota.

This is complete BS from King.
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His oldest brother Owen played for him at South Dakota State so he had a relationship with him already.

I don’t think Eli King is feeling any push back for not picking the Gophers. I don’t know why some people are trying to dispute the narrative that Pitino was not well liked by many local recruits. It seems pretty obvious. What does he have to gain by saying this if it wasn’t true?

Pitino is gone and won’t be coming back. If you are bummed out by it go cheer for New Mexico or New Mexico State or where ever he is at. The Gopher Basketball Program is better off for it.
 

ethomasp31 said:
His oldest brother Owen played for him at South Dakota State so he had a relationship with him already.

I don’t think Eli King is feeling any push back for not picking the Gophers. I don’t know why some people are trying to dispute the narrative that Pitino was not well liked by many local recruits. It seems pretty obvious. What does he have to gain by saying this if it wasn’t true?

Pitino is gone and won’t be coming back. If you are bummed out by it go cheer for New Mexico or New Mexico State or where ever he is at. The Gopher Basketball Program is better off for it.
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I wanted Pitino fired 3 years ago, that has nothing to do with it.

TJ wasn't recruiting King at UNLV, nor would have King played there. You're telling me TJ being at Iowa St 3 days longer helped sell him on going there over staying in MN?

If King was serious about staying in MN, he would have given Ben a chance. But he didn't and this commentary is BS from King.
 





GopherWeatherGuy said:
I wanted Pitino fired 3 years ago, that has nothing to do with it.

TJ wasn't recruiting King at UNLV, nor would have King played there. You're telling me TJ being at Iowa St 3 days longer helped sell him on going there over staying in MN?

If King was serious about staying in MN, he would have given Ben a chance. But he didn't and this commentary is BS from King.
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I think the relationship the coach had with the family made Iowa State the favorite to land Eli King. I don’t think he is bringing this up because he is feeling pressure because he didn’t pick the Gophers. Personally I think King should have gone to Notre Dame to play football....but that is just me.
 

ethomasp31 said:
I think the relationship the coach had with the family made Iowa State the favorite to land Eli King. I don’t think he is bringing this up because he is feeling pressure because he didn’t pick the Gophers. Personally I think King should have gone to Notre Dame to play football....but that is just me.
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I think he should have committed to Minnesota, to play football. All three Kings I have felt football was their best sport, but they are more dedicated to hoops.
 

Ope3 said:
I think he should have committed to Minnesota, to play football. All three Kings I have felt football was their best sport, but they are more dedicated to hoops.
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i saw Eli and Noah play in Rochester against Waseca when Eli was a 10th grader. He was very athletic....but one of our friends said he looked like Randy Moss as a 10th grader in the Prep Bowl. You’re right....playing football for the Gophers would have been awesome....but going to Notre Dame to play football would be iconic.

At least he is going to ISU instead of Iowa. As someone who went to college in Iowa....at a small school...it always felt like ISU was treated like second class citizens compared to the University of Iowa.
 

ethomasp31 said:
i saw Eli and Noah play in Rochester against Waseca when Eli was a 10th grader. He was very athletic....but one of our friends said he looked like Randy Moss as a 10th grader in the Prep Bowl. You’re right....playing football for the Gophers would have been awesome....but going to Notre Dame to play football would be iconic.

At least he is going to ISU instead of Iowa. As someone who went to college in Iowa....at a small school...it always felt like ISU was treated like second class citizens compared to the University of Iowa.
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There's a certain HS Coach, who we both know, that certainly wishes all 3 Kings focused on basketball year round. He'd have multiple Prep Bowl wins, undoubtedly.
 

ethomasp31 said:
His oldest brother Owen played for him at South Dakota State so he had a relationship with him already.

I don’t think Eli King is feeling any push back for not picking the Gophers. I don’t know why some people are trying to dispute the narrative that Pitino was not well liked by many local recruits. It seems pretty obvious. What does he have to gain by saying this if it wasn’t true?

Pitino is gone and won’t be coming back. If you are bummed out by it go cheer for New Mexico or New Mexico State or where ever he is at. The Gopher Basketball Program is better off for it.
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I don’t think anyone is bummed about Pitino being gone. I think people are sick of hearing the fabricated reasons, stories, and excuses that recruits spin to justify their decisions (see suggs). I’m happy for King that he was strongly committed to ISU because of the relationships he built. I think this is a pretty reasonable and innocent response to a simple question and it probably goes under the radar if Suggs wasn’t so full of shit about wanting to be a gopher.
 

bc2211 said:
I don’t think anyone is bummed about Pitino being gone. I think people are sick of hearing the fabricated reasons, stories, and excuses that recruits spin to justify their decisions (see suggs). I’m happy for King that he was strongly committed to ISU because of the relationships he built. I think this is a pretty reasonable and innocent response to a simple question and it probably goes under the radar if Suggs wasn’t so full of shit about wanting to be a gopher.
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Key words, "innocent response" to a question. Polite, diplomatic and nothing wrong with it.
 


Blackhammer said:
You ask a seventeen year old a question and what’s he going to say ? He disliked Minnesota and Ben Johnson ? Seemed like a nice diplomatic response. Don’t understand the need to be critical?
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No issue with being diplomatic. But there's no reason to not be honest. He wanted to go to Iowa St. to play for that coach. No reason to lie and say that if Johnson had been here longer....he would have taken a harder look. As others have said....King committed early. If he had any thoughts otherwise....he would have waited and checked out his options.
 



bc2211 said:
I don’t think anyone is bummed about Pitino being gone. I think people are sick of hearing the fabricated reasons, stories, and excuses that recruits spin to justify their decisions (see suggs). I’m happy for King that he was strongly committed to ISU because of the relationships he built. I think this is a pretty reasonable and innocent response to a simple question and it probably goes under the radar if Suggs wasn’t so full of shit about wanting to be a gopher.
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Mathew Hurt too.

I'm ecstatic Pitino is gone, but what more could Pitino have done for that family? He essentially gave them $100K.

It doesn't entitle us to Mathew's commitment, but it should make him feel sheepish in implying that he would have come here but for whatever BS reason he gave. He wanted to go to Duke because he thought it would be fun and he thought that was his best chance to get to the NBA. That's cool. I get it! It's his talent to choose what he wants to do with it. However, making yourself into this martyr who was driven from his hometown is just gross.
 

Holy Man said:
I'm skeptical. This is an easy PR move to sooth a frustrated fan base. He could have still committed here. He could have delayed his commitment to ISU while he gave Ben a chance to sell him on the U and his vision. Eli was first out of the shoot to commit elsewhere. I'm not buying the story.
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Yeah. Super easy to say…yeah I would’ve come now even though I didn’t
 


GopherWeatherGuy said:
I wanted Pitino fired 3 years ago, that has nothing to do with it.

TJ wasn't recruiting King at UNLV, nor would have King played there. You're telling me TJ being at Iowa St 3 days longer helped sell him on going there over staying in MN?

If King was serious about staying in MN, he would have given Ben a chance. But he didn't and this commentary is BS from King.
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Yes because he isn’t playing due to his injury. I think he felt he needed to jump on an offer he wanted early instead of someone else taking it.
 

That's now multiple recruits saying they left the state because of Pitino.

And the same multiple Pitino apologists who just can't admit they were wrong, and Pitino should have been gone years ago.

Jeebus.
 


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