Fuller: Flip says Wolves can help Pitino and Gophers "build basketball in the state"

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The presence of an NBA team nearby should be a recruiting tool for Pitino, Saunders said.

“One of the positives the Gophers should have when you look at Big Ten schools is that outside of Northwestern, we’re right here being in an NBA city and being five miles from campus,” he said. “Every time a team comes here to play, they’re going to have some scout, coach or someone go over and watch the Gophers, if they’re in town. So for the Gophers, it’s a great opportunity for players to be showcased in front of NBA people.”

Go Gophers!!
 

BleedGopher said:
The presence of an NBA team nearby should be a recruiting tool for Pitino, Saunders said.
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Glad to hear they want to work together in the best interest of the program. Hope Ryan takes Pitino up on his offer to come to practice.


BleedGopher said:
“One of the positives the Gophers should have when you look at Big Ten schools is that outside of Northwestern, we’re right here being in an NBA city and being five miles from campus,” he said. “
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The details Nazi in me has to point out that that West Bank is only 1.5 miles from the Target Centers front door, 2-1/4 mile from The Barn.
 


98VQueens said:
The details Nazi in me has to point out that that West Bank is only 1.5 miles from the Target Centers front door, 2-1/4 mile from The Barn.
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Not only that, but I don't know where this myth came from that Northwestern is in the heart of Chicago. It's a 40-45 min drive (~12 miles) to get to the United Center from campus. People keep acting like there are two urban campuses in the Big Ten, but there's only one, and it's us. Hell, the University of Maryland is closer to the Verizon Center than Northwestern is to the United Center.
 


dpodoll68 said:
Not only that, but I don't know where this myth came from that Northwestern is in the heart of Chicago. It's a 40-45 min drive (~12 miles) to get to the United Center from campus. People keep acting like there are two urban campuses in the Big Ten, but there's only one, and it's us. Hell, the University of Maryland is closer to the Verizon Center than Northwestern is to the United Center.
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Because Evanston and Chicago share a border? :)
 

dpodoll68 said:
Not only that, but I don't know where this myth came from that Northwestern is in the heart of Chicago. It's a 40-45 min drive (~12 miles) to get to the United Center from campus. People keep acting like there are two urban campuses in the Big Ten, but there's only one, and it's us. Hell, the University of Maryland is closer to the Verizon Center than Northwestern is to the United Center.
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I'd probably still classify Northwestern as "urban" with a huge city like Chicago and its many suburbs despite the distance, but yeah, it's borderline. I've been to Chicago tons of times, but I have yet to hit Evanston, it's like a completely different area.
 

Monty519 said:
I've been to Chicago tons of times, but I have yet to hit Evanston, it's like a completely different area.
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I'm not sure any how often athletes or in this case basketball players take courses in the Northwestern Chicago Campus (maybe very rarely), but it is there, in the heart of the city.
 

Monty519 said:
I've been to Chicago tons of times, but I have yet to hit Evanston, it's like a completely different area.
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That's the opposite of what you should be doing. Evanston is beautiful and Chicago's only had something like 880 Gun Incidents through the first half of this year. Personally, Chicago is just as high as Detroit on my list of cities to see at the moment.
 



Sparlimb said:
That's the opposite of what you should be doing. Evanston is beautiful and Chicago's only had something like 880 Gun Incidents through the first half of this year. Personally, Chicago is just as high as Detroit on my list of cities to see at the moment.
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Yeah, I'm not exactly hitting that part of Chicago haha
 



I like Flip a lot, but I would actually just like to see the NBA leave the state. The games are a horrible, noisy waste of money. I don't enjoy the pro game at all.
 



Sparlimb said:
That's the opposite of what you should be doing. Evanston is beautiful and Chicago's only had something like 880 Gun Incidents through the first half of this year. Personally, Chicago is just as high as Detroit on my list of cities to see at the moment.
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There are parts of Evanston you don't want to hang out in either, my man. If you're coming to Chicago and staying in the West or South sides (where all the gun violence happens) you need a new travel agent.
 

dpodoll68 said:
Not only that, but I don't know where this myth came from that Northwestern is in the heart of Chicago. It's a 40-45 min drive (~12 miles) to get to the United Center from campus. People keep acting like there are two urban campuses in the Big Ten, but there's only one, and it's us. Hell, the University of Maryland is closer to the Verizon Center than Northwestern is to the United Center.
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The UC, located West of the Loop, is hardly the heart of the city (nobody who lives here would consider it as such). You can get from the Northwestern campus to the incredibly alive Wrigleyville area (which some will say is the heart of Chicago) on the L in 15 minutes and downtown in 30, so yeah, I'd say it's every bit the urban campus as the U.
 

WindyCityGopher said:
The UC, located West of the Loop, is hardly the heart of the city (nobody who lives here would consider it as such). You can get from the Northwestern campus to the incredibly alive Wrigleyville area (which some will say is the heart of Chicago) on the L in 15 minutes and downtown in 30, so yeah, I'd say it's every bit the urban campus as the U.
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The quote talked about how close the NBA arena is to campus, so that was the frame of reference I used.

The U of M is practically in downtown, not 15 or 30 minutes away. It's not even close to the same.
 

BleedGopher said:
The presence of an NBA team nearby should be a recruiting tool for Pitino, Saunders said.

“One of the positives the Gophers should have when you look at Big Ten schools is that outside of Northwestern, we’re right here being in an NBA city and being five miles from campus,” he said. “Every time a team comes here to play, they’re going to have some scout, coach or someone go over and watch the Gophers, if they’re in town. So for the Gophers, it’s a great opportunity for players to be showcased in front of NBA people.”

Go Gophers!!
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It's funny, if the Gophers were good things like this would be talked about as a huge positive for the program. They still are when outsiders talk about the failures of Gopher athletics and what could be built at the U of M, but a vocal segment of hardcore Minnesota Gopher fans (football and basketball) love to make excuses for why pro teams (or various other things) prevent the University from being successful in the Big Ten, much less nationally. I'd love to see more of the quotes like this from Flip, and less of the crowd that sets standards low. When the Gophers win, there will be more talk of the advantages and less of the disadvantages (real or imagined), but that's just the nature of sports I guess.
 

corcoran1 said:
I like Flip a lot, but I would actually just like to see the NBA leave the state. The games are a horrible, noisy waste of money. I don't enjoy the pro game at all.
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I agree. But the majority of college hoops players see the NBA as their main goal in life.
 


This thread is ripe for a good pissing on....

Cant wait for the zippers to come undone.
unzipping_pants_in_30_seconds-55572.gif
 

dpodoll68 said:
The quote talked about how close the NBA arena is to campus, so that was the frame of reference I used.

The U of M is practically in downtown, not 15 or 30 minutes away. It's not even close to the same.
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Those are two completely unrelated arguments. Northwestern is most certainly located in a large urban area, which by definition makes it an urban campus. Proximity to an NBA arena has zero relation to making it an urban campus, other than the random criterion you or another poster chose. By that logic Cincinnati, Xavier and Pittsburgh aren't urban campuses because they're hundreds of miles from an NBA arena.
 

Use the full context of the quote

“One of the positives the Gophers should have when you look at Big Ten schools is that outside of Northwestern, we’re right here being in an NBA city and being five miles from campus,” he said. “Every time a team comes here to play, they’re going to have some scout, coach or someone go over and watch the Gophers, if they’re in town. So for the Gophers, it’s a great opportunity for players to be showcased in front of NBA people.”

NBA city is the part comparing Minnesota to Northwestern, not the distance between locations. He never said "Northwestern is only five miles from United Center."
 

Flip's argument would carry more weight if the Wolves were a top NBA team. They're not. I don't see any great desire by recruits to be in the same metro area as an NBA team that hasn't sniffed the playoffs since Fido had pups.

Now, let's see if recruiting picks up for Akron, Cleveland State, and other schools that can bask in the aura of LeBron..........
 

short ornery norwegian said:
Flip's argument would carry more weight if the Wolves were a top NBA team. They're not. I don't see any great desire by recruits to be in the same metro area as an NBA team that hasn't sniffed the playoffs since Fido had pups.

Now, let's see if recruiting picks up for Akron, Cleveland State, and other schools that can bask in the aura of LeBron..........
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Flip's argument would carry more weight for you if you actually understood what he was saying.

"Every time a team comes here to play, they’re going to have some scout, coach or someone go over and watch the Gophers"

He said nothing about the Wolves being good. The point is that every NBA team will be in the same city as the University of Minnesota at least one time every season.
 

Coach: and if you sign with us, you'll be playing in the same market as an NBA team.

recruit: what team?

Coach: The Timberwolves.

Recruit: Damn, I was going to commit to Duke, but If I can be in the same market as the Timberwolves,......

Sorry, I just don't buy the argument. The NBA manages just fine to scout players who don't play in the same market as an NBA franchise. The advantage of being in an "NBA market" is minimal, at best. Good players want to go somewhere where they can play right away, play with other good players, and make the NCAA tournament. If the Gophs make a run at a B1G title, or make a run in the NCAA tournament, that will do more for recruiting than any tenuous connection to the Timberwolves.
 

WindyCityGopher said:
Those are two completely unrelated arguments. Northwestern is most certainly located in a large urban area, which by definition makes it an urban campus. Proximity to an NBA arena has zero relation to making it an urban campus, other than the random criterion you or another poster chose. By that logic Cincinnati, Xavier and Pittsburgh aren't urban campuses because they're hundreds of miles from an NBA arena.
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Calling the U or Northwestern urban had nothing to do with their proximity to an NBA arena. It had to do with where they are located. The U is in the city of Minneapolis, one of the largest cities in the US. Northwestern is in Evanston, which is slightly larger than St. Cloud. Evanston is what is commonly referred to as a "suburb" by the layperson. Therefore, by definition, Northwestern is a suburban campus. You need to go back and brush up on your understanding of the difference between urban, suburban, exurban, and rural. The examples you gave above are very poor, as those schools actually are in urban areas. You may be the only person on Earth who considers Evanston, IL an urban city.
 

If I remember correctly, I think Flip invented coach-speak.
 


Yeah I'm sure he's just lying. He doesn't care about the Gophers. He really wants to turn his alma mater into the worst program in NCAA history.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
Coach: and if you sign with us, you'll be playing in the same market as an NBA team.

recruit: what team?

Coach: The Timberwolves.

Recruit: Damn, I was going to commit to Duke, but If I can be in the same market as the Timberwolves,......

Sorry, I just don't buy the argument. The NBA manages just fine to scout players who don't play in the same market as an NBA franchise. The advantage of being in an "NBA market" is minimal, at best. Good players want to go somewhere where they can play right away, play with other good players, and make the NCAA tournament. If the Gophs make a run at a B1G title, or make a run in the NCAA tournament, that will do more for recruiting than any tenuous connection to the Timberwolves.
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My feelings exactly. If a player is good, NBA scouts will find him no matter what market he plays in during college. About the only thing the U can use the Timberwolves for in terms of recruiting is that Minneapolis is big enough to have a local NBA team.
 

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