Gaston Diedhiou Update

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SelectionSunday said:
Millions' post got me to thinking. How many basketball recruits in the last 10 years (random number) that committed to the U via a NLI ended up not getting into school? I've tried to come up with others, but Diedhiou is the only one I come up with. Am I missing anyone? Seems to me this is the first time it's happened in I don't know how long?
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Your question technically is narrower, but I'd say 8 months ago was the last time Admissions blocked an NCAA-qualified recruit that Pitino wanted. They wanted Shanks as a walk on (with potential for scholarship down the road), he wanted to come here, he was an NCAA qualifier and native Minnesotan, and admissions wouldn't let him in. That still blows my mind. It was essentially a "freebie" for the team and the U screwed it up.

Also, the situations with Mbakwe and Royce White and rumors that administrators were deciding the suspensions (rather than the coach) rankled some people as well.
 

WanderingGopher said:
Also, the situations with Mbakwe and Royce White and rumors that administrators were deciding the suspensions (rather than the coach) rankled some people as well.
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Those 2 situations had nothing to do with Admissions. Mbakwe & White already were students at the U. Millions very clearly is raking on one department.
 

The bungled handling of the Mbakwe and White situations were on the esteemed Athletic Director. If he was letting someone from Admissions are elsewhere order him around, it wouldn't be surprising, but it's still on his dithering head.
 


BarnBoy said:
I tend to agree...
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It seems odd to me that this issue was not resolved prior to commitment.It also seemed odd when Piper was refused admission. In that case I was suspicious until no other Division I schools enrolled him. I am just guessing that there are moving parts to recruitment and always will be and my feeling is Pitino will be all over this issue along with Teague and the process will be tightened up as much as possible.
 

millions2spare said:
Mark down the moment that Gaston Diedhiou was declined admittance as the beginning of the end of the Richard Pitino Era at the University of Minnesota.
When a bureaucrat without any objective reasoning or standards can affect a coach's ability to get a NCAA qualified player enrolled into the school demonstrates a school that is not committed to winning. The arrogance of the admissions department to "flex" their muscle against what everyone says is a real good kid hurting the basketball program and the individual is unconscionable. Coaches, like Pitino trying to build something special at the U already have a difficult time getting kids to come to this "God Forsaken" climate and to be interested in a BB program with a checkered past. Now he has to wonder if some bureaucrat can single handedly dictate who can play on his team or not? He does not need the drama and FUD created by this process. By the way, there seems to be no appeals process regarding this decision? The hypocrisy of calling this a multicultural, international, open minded, etc,etc,etc. University makes me gag.

Mark this as the first event we can cite as a reason Richard moves on to a school committed to winning and creating a top tier basketball program. The University of Minnesota should be ashamed of the events surrounding the denial of Gaston Diedhiou to this "Great" University. The reputation of this University being anti-athletics is still in tact.
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So much stupidity in this post that a real response just wouldn't even be worth my time...
 

millions2spare said:
Mark down the moment that Gaston Diedhiou was declined admittance as the beginning of the end of the Richard Pitino Era at the University of Minnesota.
When a bureaucrat without any objective reasoning or standards can affect a coach's ability to get a NCAA qualified player enrolled into the school demonstrates a school that is not committed to winning. The arrogance of the admissions department to "flex" their muscle against what everyone says is a real good kid hurting the basketball program and the individual is unconscionable. Coaches, like Pitino trying to build something special at the U already have a difficult time getting kids to come to this "God Forsaken" climate and to be interested in a BB program with a checkered past. Now he has to wonder if some bureaucrat can single handedly dictate who can play on his team or not? He does not need the drama and FUD created by this process. By the way, there seems to be no appeals process regarding this decision? The hypocrisy of calling this a multicultural, international, open minded, etc,etc,etc. University makes me gag.

Mark this as the first event we can cite as a reason Richard moves on to a school committed to winning and creating a top tier basketball program. The University of Minnesota should be ashamed of the events surrounding the denial of Gaston Diedhiou to this "Great" University. The reputation of this University being anti-athletics is still in tact.
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I don't know about Millions2Spare's other quotes but he has a point here. Dude passed an English language ACT; LOL. Can't wait to see the posts from the "higher standards" UofM;folks; LOL because no one outside of UofM admissions views them that way
 

millions2spare said:
Mark down the moment that Gaston Diedhiou was declined admittance as the beginning of the end of the Richard Pitino Era at the University of Minnesota.
When a bureaucrat without any objective reasoning or standards can affect a coach's ability to get a NCAA qualified player enrolled into the school demonstrates a school that is not committed to winning. The arrogance of the admissions department to "flex" their muscle against what everyone says is a real good kid hurting the basketball program and the individual is unconscionable. Coaches, like Pitino trying to build something special at the U already have a difficult time getting kids to come to this "God Forsaken" climate and to be interested in a BB program with a checkered past. Now he has to wonder if some bureaucrat can single handedly dictate who can play on his team or not? He does not need the drama and FUD created by this process. By the way, there seems to be no appeals process regarding this decision? The hypocrisy of calling this a multicultural, international, open minded, etc,etc,etc. University makes me gag.

Mark this as the first event we can cite as a reason Richard moves on to a school committed to winning and creating a top tier basketball program. The University of Minnesota should be ashamed of the events surrounding the denial of Gaston Diedhiou to this "Great" University. The reputation of this University being anti-athletics is still in tact.
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I am terribly afraid that what you are stating here will end up being spot on true.
 



SelectionSunday said:
Millions' post got me to thinking. How many basketball recruits in the last 10 years (random number) that committed to the U via a NLI ended up not getting into school? I've tried to come up with others, but Diedhiou is the only one I come up with. Am I missing anyone? Seems to me this is the first time it's happened in I don't know how long?
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Respectfully SS, if this is at all an attempt to ignore the obvious differences in admitting athletes into schools across the USA, take another look.

Nothing to see in Chapel Hill, right?
 

There are some implications in this thread that the coaching staff cooled on him, and basically used Admissions to get out of the commitment. I think that's extremely unlikely (not going to say 2%, but unlikely), and it would be highly illogical for the staff to handle it that way even if they did cool on a committed prospect.

They would more likely talk to the kid and his camp privately, and quietly part ways. Not have a big headline splashed across the sports section that he tried to get in and was rejected, not only embarrassing the kid, but giving the impression that the basketball coach was undermined.

If the kid does in fact show up to the off campus English program, then we'll know the answer. If he doesn't, and doesn't show up on another high major team this year, then I'd reexamine the situation.
 

GameDay said:
So much stupidity in this post that a real response just wouldn't even be worth my time...
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I love how the blind supporters of this "great" University cannot understand that to create a winning culture you need the AD's office, the president's office, and the Admissions office on the same page in order to change this culture. The U of M has been Mediocre in Athletics for decades. I would like some investigative reporter to really dig in and find if this bureaucrat has some bias against athletics, foreigners, men, or some other personal hang up that skewed her decision. What about an appeals process? There are a lot of questions that I would like to see answered by officials at this Great University. I guarantee you that Richard Pitino will move on to another school without the barriers than try to fix these types of problems. As I said, this University should be embarrassed as I am sure the basketball staff is ashamed at the way the school handled this kid and the precedent this sends for future recruits.

Imagine if you are R Pitino and the BB Staff telling this kid that you passed all the NCAA requirement but you cannot get into this school because at Minnesota, we take our english seriously. Yes you could get into 95% of the other D1 schools but our standards are higher here, you should feel proud to be part of such an institution. That message does not resonate real well with most people. I thought we were supposed to be multi-cultural, International,
and create an environment for higher learning that supports our student Athletes. The Kid passed all the NCAA requirements and has the aptitude to do well based on the other hurdles he jumped.
 

BarnBurner said:
Respectfully SS, if this is at all an attempt to ignore the obvious differences in admitting athletes into schools across the USA, take another look.

Nothing to see in Chapel Hill, right?
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That's fair BB. I agree, there's plenty to see in Chapel Hill, however, that's not the question I asked. I specifically asked about Millions' initial post, where he clearly put the onus on the university's admissions office/standards in terms of the basketball program not getting who they want (whether it was Monson, Tubby, or Pitino). (Millions has since made another post saying it's a combined administrative effort, which is a whole another argument).

To this point, roughly 21 hours after posting my initial query wondering how many (basketball) scholarship prospects (read: NLI signees) have not gotten into the U of M in recent times (reportedly because of admissions), the last prospect someone came up with was Wesley Washington in 2003. That's quite a while ago. If there are others, no one has been able to come up with 'em, and we certainly have a lot of die-hard Gopher basketball fans here who would remember such things! Unless there are others, that's 11 years between Washington and Diedhiou; I think that's a pretty significant amount of time.
 



SelectionSunday said:
That's fair BB. I agree, there's plenty to see in Chapel Hill, however, that's not the question I asked. I specifically asked about Millions' initial post, where he clearly put the onus on the university's admissions office/standards in terms of the basketball program not getting who they want (whether it was Monson, Tubby, or Pitino). (Millions has since made another post saying it's a combined administrative effort, which is a whole another argument).

To this point, roughly 21 hours after posting my initial query wondering how many (basketball) scholarship prospects (read: NLI signees) have not gotten into the U of M in recent times (reportedly because of admissions), the last prospect someone came up with was Wesley Washington in 2003. That's quite a while ago. If there are others, no one has been able to come up with 'em, and we certainly have a lot of die-hard Gopher basketball fans here who would remember such things! Unless there are others, that's 11 years between Washington and Diedhiou; I think that's a pretty significant amount of time.
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Wins start with getting kids into school.

That, to me, is the bottom line. If other schools get em in, and MN doesn't, the supposed level playing field is tilted.
 

millions2spare said:
I love how the blind supporters of this "great" University cannot understand that to create a winning culture you need the AD's office, the president's office, and the Admissions office on the same page in order to change this culture. The U of M has been Mediocre in Athletics for decades. I would like some investigative reporter to really dig in and find if this bureaucrat has some bias against athletics, foreigners, men, or some other personal hang up that skewed her decision. What about an appeals process? There are a lot of questions that I would like to see answered by officials at this Great University. I guarantee you that Richard Pitino will move on to another school without the barriers than try to fix these types of problems. As I said, this University should be embarrassed as I am sure the basketball staff is ashamed at the way the school handled this kid and the precedent this sends for future recruits.

Imagine if you are R Pitino and the BB Staff telling this kid that you passed all the NCAA requirement but you cannot get into this school because at Minnesota, we take our english seriously. Yes you could get into 95% of the other D1 schools but our standards are higher here, you should feel proud to be part of such an institution. That message does not resonate real well with most people. I thought we were supposed to be multi-cultural, International,
and create an environment for higher learning that supports our student Athletes. The Kid passed all the NCAA requirements and has the aptitude to do well based on the other hurdles he jumped.
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I understand your frustration with this decision however you're not the official spokesperson for "most people" or coach Pitino. Just because you feel a certain way doesn't mean that everyone or even most people are going to agree.

This seems like a really small issue to me. If he wants to play here he will do what's needed to get in. If he wants to go elsewhere he can do that too. There is absolutley no evidence that he is going to be a good player anyway so lets just see how this all works out before we throw Coach Pitino a goodbye party. I am of the opinion that if coach leaves us there is nothing anyone can do about it. Something like this won't be the reason he leaves. Being a great coach and some other school giving him a offer he can't turn down will be the reason. IMO. :)
 

shickmyjanski said:
I understand your frustration with this decision however you're not the official spokesperson for "most people" or coach Pitino. Just because you feel a certain way doesn't mean that everyone or even most people are going to agree.

Run a poll on this question. I bet 90% of anyone polled would say he should have been allowed in school. Also, yes he may leave. This being the only reason? No. Let me add them up..1) recruiting to this godforsaken climate, 2) lack of facilities, 3) poor basketball tradition at best, 4) settling for mediocrity as the athletic culture, and 5) now we give him another reason---He cannot get players he wants who are NCAA qualified into school as the administration is anti-athletics? hmmmm....I think the first qualified offer that comes along, poof he is gone.....
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millions2spare said:
shickmyjanski said:
I understand your frustration with this decision however you're not the official spokesperson for "most people" or coach Pitino. Just because you feel a certain way doesn't mean that everyone or even most people are going to agree.

Run a poll on this question. I bet 90% of anyone polled would say he should have been allowed in school. Also, yes he may leave. This being the only reason? No. Let me add them up..1) recruiting to this godforsaken climate, 2) lack of facilities, 3) poor basketball tradition at best, 4) settling for mediocrity as the athletic culture, and 5) now we give him another reason---He cannot get players he wants who are NCAA qualified into school as the administration is anti-athletics? hmmmm....I think the first qualified offer that comes along, poof he is gone.....
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Getting 90% of people to agree on anything is next to impossible. If you asked die hard gopher fans who don't understand anything about how college admissions works you might get 75%. If you want coach to leave to give you an excuse to be mad thats fine but he can decide for himself if he likes it here. Pretty sure he already knew about #'s 1,2 and 3 on your list before he took the job. We are talking about one player who may or may not have ever gotten any playing time for us. If this were some 5 star recuit I would be more inclined to agree. Everything isn't a conspiracy. Sometimes things just don't work out perfectly for everyone. The door is still open for this young man. We're all going to be OK.
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millions2spare said:
shickmyjanski said:
I understand your frustration with this decision however you're not the official spokesperson for "most people" or coach Pitino. Just because you feel a certain way doesn't mean that everyone or even most people are going to agree.

Run a poll on this question. I bet 90% of anyone polled would say he should have been allowed in school. Also, yes he may leave. This being the only reason? No. Let me add them up..1) recruiting to this godforsaken climate, 2) lack of facilities, 3) poor basketball tradition at best, 4) settling for mediocrity as the athletic culture, and 5) now we give him another reason---He cannot get players he wants who are NCAA qualified into school as the administration is anti-athletics? hmmmm....I think the first qualified offer that comes along, poof he is gone.....
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According to those criteria, why didn't he just take the job at Tennessee than? They have a warmer climate, they have some of the best facilities in the country, and they have a better basketball tradition as well as a better sports tradition than us as well.

I truly believe Pitino when he says he loves it here. The key is getting the practice facility built to take that next step in recruiting. If we get that built in a reasonable ammount of time, their is no reason we can't be a top notch basketball program.
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DeathClutch said:
millions2spare said:
According to those criteria, why didn't he just take the job at Tennessee than? They have a warmer climate, they have some of the best facilities in the country, and they have a better basketball tradition as well as a better sports tradition than us as well.

I truly believe Pitino when he says he loves it here. The key is getting the practice facility built to take that next step in recruiting. If we get that built in a reasonable ammount of time, their is no reason we can't be a top notch basketball program.
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With tennessee it was pure timing. I hope you are right, this decision certainly does not help this situation. If Pitino has major success this year, I can tell you without any reasonable doubt he will be gone.....Pitino is utterly embarrassed that he cannot keep his promise to this kid. The Kid did all that was asked of him and to be rejected is a slap on Pitino's reputation and is a personal insult to his integrity. This decision caught him flat footed as it was all out of his control. He is pissed.
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millions2spare said:
DeathClutch said:
With tennessee it was pure timing. I hope you are right, this decision certainly does not help this situation. If Pitino has major success this year, I can tell you without any reasonable doubt he will be gone.....Pitino is utterly embarrassed that he cannot keep his promise to this kid. The Kid did all that was asked of him and to be rejected is a slap on Pitino's reputation and is a personal insult to his integrity. This decision caught him flat footed as it was all out of his control. He is pissed.
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Didn't realize you were a close personal friend, Sid. Or maybe you've been taking some mind reading night classes?
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millions2spare said:
shickmyjanski said:
I understand your frustration with this decision however you're not the official spokesperson for "most people" or coach Pitino. Just because you feel a certain way doesn't mean that everyone or even most people are going to agree.

Run a poll on this question. I bet 90% of anyone polled would say he should have been allowed in school. Also, yes he may leave. This being the only reason? No. Let me add them up..1) recruiting to this godforsaken climate, 2) lack of facilities, 3) poor basketball tradition at best, 4) settling for mediocrity as the athletic culture, and 5) now we give him another reason---He cannot get players he wants who are NCAA qualified into school as the administration is anti-athletics? hmmmm....I think the first qualified offer that comes along, poof he is gone.....
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I think you're being far too negative. I'm sure that you're right about Pitino being upset about the Diedhiou admission decision, but as someone else pointed out, this has not been a regular occurrence at Minnesota and in the end it may work out to be in everyone's best interest. Even if Gaston had been admitted, I suspect he would have been a good candidate for a red shirt anyway, and he will have an opportunity to work on his English skills increasing his chances for academic success on down the road. I also realize that to a recruit from other parts of the country, such as Palos Verdes, the reputation of Minnesota's climate is often a negative factor, but it is only one factor. Even Palos Verdes has its negatives, such as June Gloom and horrendous traffic congestion in the LA area. The Twin Cities and environs have much to offer as a place to live and work. As for facilities, I personally regard the Barn as a treasure giving us a good home court advantage. We also are now seeing tangible progress towards an overall upgrade of our facilities with the announcement of Land O'Lakes' contribution to the University. On the questions of our athletic traditions and acceptance of mediocrity, I'm old enough to have experienced a time when Minnesota was a football power. We played in the Rose Bowl my junior and senior years at Minnesota and we were crowned National Champion one of those years. But the faculty senate at the time was very unhappy with the emphasis on intercollegiate athletics and that lead to several decades of de-emphasis. In my opinion, our new president, Eric Kaler, and AD, Norwood Teague, are much more committed to intercollegiate athletics than any of their predecessors since the 1960s, and I am hopeful that they can bring about dramatic change. Coach Pitino strikes me as a pretty savvy guy and mature beyond his years. I doubt one set-back like this is going to sour him on our prospects if overall we are making progress. If the University gives him the resources and support he needs to win, as I believe it now will, I think there is a reasonable chance that he will stay at Minnesota for a long time.
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VAGOHHER: I do hope you are correct! Time will tell....I think Pitino is a rare find and want to do everything we can to create a winning culture...

By the way, the weather in Minnesota does suck.........of course Minnesota is always home but the weather really is difficult to acclimate to and certainly
not a reason to attend the University.....
 

If Pitino does well this year, he will be in line for a very large raise. Give him that, and he's not bolting for some medicore SEC job. He will probably leave someday, for Florida or Louisville. But it needn't be any time soon. I'm sure this is upsetting. But tangible progress on facilities and a large boost in pay will matter far more than this one incident.
 

millions2spare said:
VAGOHHER: I do hope you are correct! Time will tell....I think Pitino is a rare find and want to do everything we can to create a winning culture...

By the way, the weather in Minnesota does suck.........of course Minnesota is always home but the weather really is difficult to acclimate to and certainly
not a reason to attend the University.....
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Actually the weather in Minnesota tends to be very nice in the summer and fall. Winter, not so much. But as Tubby once said, "they play basketball indoors." You're very privileged to live in Palos Verdes. Beautiful area. We have very good friends who have lived there for 30-40 years. And I agree. I think Pitino is the real deal, and the U needs to treat him right.
 

vagopher said:
Actually the weather in Minnesota tends to be very nice in the summer and fall. Winter, not so much. But as Tubby once said, "they play basketball indoors." You're very privileged to live in Palos Verdes. Beautiful area. We have very good friends who have lived there for 30-40 years. And I agree. I think Pitino is the real deal, and the U needs to treat him right.
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I'll take the mild summer temperature and cold winters over the heat in many of the southern states.
 

STrib: Pitino surprised by international recruit's difficult journey to Minnesota

Minnesota coach Richard Pitino, who is not permitted to speak about specifics of Diedhiou’s situation per university rules, said his staff was stunned by the decision, which ultimately was made by Director of Admissions Rachelle Hernandez.

“We were surprised by it,” Pitino said. “Anytime you have a bright kid who is a full qualifier, you normally expect him to be admitted. Certainly, we had penciled him in on the roster as one of our frontcourt guys we could rely on and then, when he’s not admitted at the end of the day, it’s a bit of a curveball, a bit of a tough situation.

“But like anything else, we’re trying to make the best of it and certainly trying to get him here second semester, get him ready to go.

http://www.startribune.com/sports/gophers/273863521.html

Go Gophers!!
 

BleedGopher said:
STrib: Pitino surprised by international recruit's difficult journey to Minnesota

Minnesota coach Richard Pitino, who is not permitted to speak about specifics of Diedhiou’s situation per university rules, said his staff was stunned by the decision, which ultimately was made by Director of Admissions Rachelle Hernandez.

“We were surprised by it,” Pitino said. “Anytime you have a bright kid who is a full qualifier, you normally expect him to be admitted. Certainly, we had penciled him in on the roster as one of our frontcourt guys we could rely on and then, when he’s not admitted at the end of the day, it’s a bit of a curveball, a bit of a tough situation.

“But like anything else, we’re trying to make the best of it and certainly trying to get him here second semester, get him ready to go.

http://www.startribune.com/sports/gophers/273863521.html

Go Gophers!!
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In my opinion, this is the type of crap that Pitino will remember when he gets offered and moves on to another job. He'll definitely want to give a big F U to the admissions people and I wouldn't blame him one bit.
 

Gopher Warrior said:
Sometimes the real story is fed in a certain way for effect.
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So do you believe the original story yet, or still holding out from some conspiracy to "hide the truth"? Diedhou is now here and he is indeed enrolled in this $13,000 language program, and we are holding his scholarship for him. Per the paper today, and Teague's interview on the radio, the athletic people were stunned by the decision by Admissions.

Are you going to admit you were wrong?





"Minnesota coach Richard Pitino, who is not permitted to speak about specifics of Diedhiou’s situation per university rules, said his staff was stunned by the decision, which ultimately was made by Director of Admissions Rachelle Hernandez.

“We were surprised by it,” Pitino said. “Anytime you have a bright kid who is a full qualifier, you normally expect him to be admitted. Certainly, we had penciled him in on the roster as one of our frontcourt guys we could rely on and then, when he’s not admitted at the end of the day, it’s a bit of a curveball, a bit of a tough situation.

“But like anything else, we’re trying to make the best of it and certainly trying to get him here second semester, get him ready to go.
 

...Also, once again Amelia confirms, contrary to some in this thread, THERE IS NO MINIMUM TOEFL SCORE required for admission to the U of M. It is a subjective, "holistic" evaluation.

P.S. Who do you think is paying for this? [the story says it can be bankrolled by "anyone outside the program."] That's pretty surprising.

Diedhou is here
 

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