Former Minnesota HS player starting on a top 5 team, and his name isn't Jones.

Donate To GopherHole
sal

sal

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 20, 2008
Messages
1,483
Reaction score
275
Points
83
Freddie Gillespie at Baylor. 6-9 245, starting forward. Former East Ridge HS player. Played 2 years of DIII at Carleton. I said Carelton. Anybody else with a back story? it seems to be a below the radar story.

Info
 

Marcus did tweet about it, last week I think. Does remind me of how Michigan grabbed Duncan Robinson from D3 a few years ago. Marcus' point was that D1 schools like Minnesota need to be scouting D3--especially big men, who are sometimes hard to scout coming out of high school and who can develop/grow a great deal as underclassmen.
 

Bad Gopher said:
Marcus did tweet about it, last week I think. Does remind me of how Michigan grabbed Duncan Robinson from D3 a few years ago. Marcus' point was that D1 schools like Minnesota need to be scouting D3--especially big men, who are sometimes hard to scout coming out of high school and who can develop/grow a great deal as underclassmen.
Click to expand...
The Lakers got Vern Mikkelsen from Hamline. He was supposedly the first power forward.
 

I remember seeing him play for Carleton, I thought he was really good for that level.

The 2016-17 season was a fun one for the Knights. Early on they lost 6 of 8 games and then finished MIAC schedule by winning 13 straight, largely on Gillespie's back (plus a couple of sharp shooters).
 

sal said:
Freddie Gillespie at Baylor. 6-9 245, starting forward. Former East Ridge HS player. Played 2 years of DIII at Carleton. I said Carelton. Anybody else with a back story? it seems to be a below the radar story.

Info
Click to expand...
Interesting find! Carleton does make it more intriguing. Hard to guess one should scout there. All conference honors must have elevated the visibility. I note he had some injuries in HS that probably affected his development.
 


Moonlight said:
Interesting find! Carleton does make it more intriguing. Hard to guess one should scout there. All conference honors must have elevated the visibility. I note he had some injuries in HS that probably affected his development.
Click to expand...

Yeah sounds like he started playing basketball late and was injured for a lot/most of his high school career. Makes it less surprising that he's such a late bloomer, but still a really cool story.
 

Scouting stories are funny. Gillespie a feel good story here.

Favorite story was the assistant coach that Wanted Coach Musselman to scout an intramural player. Musselman was like "I'm not watching an intramural game!" Asst. coach prevailed, got Mussel to watch one game. Player turned out to be Dave Winfield.....
 


Spaulding!No! said:
another U BB failure.
Click to expand...

No it's not. Just an example of a guy that worked hard and developed. If we recruited a player that had only DIII offers out of high school, Pitino would be ripped for reaching (even with the Minnesota bias we have here).
 



I believe Freddie's mom and nuness's mom or family member worked together and thats how he got to Baylor
 

I watched him play while he was in the MIAC, he made an impact (blocks, rebounds, etc.), but looking back, he only averaged 10ppg.
 


Coincidentally, a player by the name of Nuni Omot played for Baylor a few years ago. He went to high school in Mahtomedi.

With Jared Nuness being on Scott Drew's staff, several Minnesota high school players have had Baylor offers over the years.
 



Spaulding!No! said:
another U BB failure.
Click to expand...
Hotdish said:
Coincidentally, a player by the name of Nuni Omot played for Baylor a few years ago. He went to high school in Mahtomedi.

With Jared Nuness being on Scott Drew's staff, several Minnesota high school players have had Baylor offers over the years.
Click to expand...
Thank you. So much of it about relationships.
 

golfing18now said:
No it's not. Just an example of a guy that worked hard and developed. If we recruited a player that had only DIII offers out of high school, Pitino would be ripped for reaching (even with the Minnesota bias we have here).
Click to expand...

I don't fault Pitino for "missing" out on Gillespie, not one bit. I would guess that the previous comment was sarcastic.

Regardless, he went to Baylor as a walk-on so it was pretty risk-free for Drew. At worst he got a player that would have been a good practice body and someone to help out with GPA/APR. Nobody would have "ripped" Pitino and nor would it have been deemed a "reach".
 

Ope3 said:
I don't fault Pitino for "missing" out on Gillespie, not one bit. I would guess that the previous comment was sarcastic.

Regardless, he went to Baylor as a walk-on so it was pretty risk-free for Drew. At worst he got a player that would have been a good practice body and someone to help out with GPA/APR. Nobody would have "ripped" Pitino and nor would it have been deemed a "reach".
Click to expand...
It does make a reasonable person wonder, though, how Drew knew he'd be good enough for a roster spot but our coaches didn't. The answer is usually what you hear through informal networks, and it would be bummer if other teams had better local sources on this kind of thing than the local D1 team does.
 

Bad Gopher said:
It does make a reasonable person wonder, though, how Drew knew he'd be good enough for a roster spot but our coaches didn't. The answer is usually what you hear through informal networks, and it would be bummer if other teams had better local sources on this kind of thing than the local D1 team does.
Click to expand...
Like one poster mentioned gillepsies mom worked with a mom from someone assocated with baylor, was not found through traditional scouting or basketball relationships which makes it a more compelling story
 

As a Carleton alum, I've enjoyed seeing them get some national press, although it's strange to see it related to basketball rather than ultimate frisbee.
 

Ope3 said:
I don't fault Pitino for "missing" out on Gillespie, not one bit. I would guess that the previous comment was sarcastic.

Regardless, he went to Baylor as a walk-on so it was pretty risk-free for Drew. At worst he got a player that would have been a good practice body and someone to help out with GPA/APR. Nobody would have "ripped" Pitino and nor would it have been deemed a "reach".
Click to expand...

As a walk-on or a scholarship player? As a walk-on, no problem with recruiting a player like that out of high school. As one of three scholarship players? I don't know. That would be trying too hard to fill your team with MN zip codes, in my opinion.

But kudos to him for working hard and putting himself in a much better position basketball-wise. As others have said, it is a good story.
 

golfing18now said:
No it's not. Just an example of a guy that worked hard and developed. If we recruited a player that had only DIII offers out of high school, Pitino would be ripped for reaching (even with the Minnesota bias we have here).
Click to expand...
You're wrong. We should be using our 85 scholarships to offer every college recruit in the state. Let's just get everyone so there's no chance of missing on a local kid.
 

golfing18now said:
As a walk-on or a scholarship player? As a walk-on, no problem with recruiting a player like that out of high school. As one of three scholarship players? I don't know. That would be trying too hard to fill your team with MN zip codes, in my opinion.

But kudos to him for working hard and putting himself in a much better position basketball-wise. As others have said, it is a good story.
Click to expand...

As a Walk-on which is what I stated in my post how he arrived in Waco. Yeah, no kiddng if Pitino (or any other mid-major or higher coach) had offered Gillespie a scholarship it would have been considered a reach.

Drew was not even able to utilize him until mid-January last year. In non-Conference he racked up several DNPs and only played in garbage time.

Along with my APR comment, he has been on the fall & spring Big 12 Commissioner;s Honer Rolls for the past 2 years. Bonus.
 


Watching him last night on Big Monday against Oklahoma, wow he's really good.

When I first heard he was opting up to DI, my gut feeling was that he did have a decent chance after a redshirt year to be a role player. Maybe come off the bench, absorb some fouls against the other teams bigs, grab some rebounds and get a put-back now and then.

Player of the Game on ESPN vs a Big 12 foe?!? I never could have imagined that. He will be a pro, somewhere.
 

jmag21 said:
As a Carleton alum, I've enjoyed seeing them get some national press, although it's strange to see it related to basketball rather than ultimate frisbee.
Click to expand...

Off topic, Ultimate frisbee, is Carleton any good, my nephew is big into that, he's going to school out east, an example of a kid wanting to get away rather than play for a local school I guess.
 

You must log in or register to reply here.



Top Bottom