Gopher Recruiting

DuggieD

New member
Joined
Jan 29, 2013
Messages
12
Reaction score
0
Points
1
The Winning formula for Gopher basketball has and always will be.... to Lock down the border when it comes to the best recruits in the State and then effectively recruit outside it's borders..... Unfortunately too many people that post on Gh..... seem to lack the historical vision of how good Gopher hoops was from the Early 70's thru 97.... Mussleman, Dutcher and Haskins all new and could keep the best players in state...... With Minnesota starting to produce top flight national players on the High School level more consistently....their is absolutely no reason the the Program shouldn't be a consistent powerhouse in the Big Ten..... 2014 recruiting class for Minnesota will basically tell the Boosters and the Administration if Tubby is a viable coach moving forward or another exspensive contract buyout for the U
 

Actually....

The Winning formula for Gopher basketball has and always will be.... to Lock down the border when it comes to the best recruits in the State and then effectively recruit outside it's borders..... Unfortunately too many people that post on Gh..... seem to lack the historical vision of how good Gopher hoops was from the Early 70's thru 97.... Mussleman, Dutcher and Haskins all new and could keep the best players in state...... With Minnesota starting to produce top flight national players on the High School level more consistently....their is absolutely no reason the the Program shouldn't be a consistent powerhouse in the Big Ten..... 2014 recruiting class for Minnesota will basically tell the Boosters and the Administration if Tubby is a viable coach moving forward or another exspensive contract buyout for the U

It was Muss, Dutch, and Clem's ability to recruit big time players outside the state that led to whatever success they had. Sure, there were Bru, McHale and Sam but the majority of talent came from elsewhere.
 

Agree with most of this, though "powerhouse" might be a little strong. One real handicap Tubby has had in recent years has been that the state of Minnesota went through a talent drought between the Royce/Rodney class and the Tyus/Rashad class. Tubby did land both Royce and Rodney and he hasn't really lost an in state recruit that he wanted yet (but he hasn't had to recruit top level in state talent off of really down years before either). I think the best case scenario for '14 is landing one of Jones/Vaughn and then hoping that Travis stays home as well.
 

Clem did not recruit all the best in state talent. Missed on his biggest prize, El-Amin...along with Darius Lane, and multiple others...

Monson recruited possibly the two highest rated recruits - Rickert and Humphries - that anyone in MN has ever landed....
 

It was Muss, Dutch, and Clem's ability to recruit big time players outside the state that led to whatever success they had. Sure, there were Bru, McHale and Sam but the majority of talent came from elsewhere.

That's exactly right. Dutcher always said his goal was to get the top Minnesota player each year and then he would go elsewhere for the rest of the players. There are years where the state will produce a crop you can load up on and there are a couple of those coming. What killed Monson was not his coaching- it was his poor out of state recruiting.
 


Clem did not recruit all the best in state talent. Missed on his biggest prize, El-Amin...along with Darius Lane, and multiple others...

Monson recruited possibly the two highest rated recruits - Rickert and Humphries - that anyone in MN has ever landed....

as I remember it, Rickert and Humphries both were fluke deals, neither kid wanted to be here. Rickert wanted to go to Arizona but his family wanted him here and Humphries wanted to go to Duke but all the Duke players didn't like him so Coach K told him no. Boone was another one that left and came back.
 

as I remember it, Rickert and Humphries both were fluke deals, neither kid wanted to be here. Rickert wanted to go to Arizona but his family wanted him here and Humphries wanted to go to Duke but all the Duke players didn't like him so Coach K told him no. Boone was another one that left and came back.

Fair enough, but both signed with MN. Not saying by any means that Monson was a great recruiter, but he landed two McDonalds All Americans at MN, something Clem or Tubby have not done. BTW, I totally agree with Humphies, not as sure with Rickert, but you could be correct...
 

Clem did not recruit all the best in state talent. Missed on his biggest prize, El-Amin...along with Darius Lane, and multiple others...

Monson recruited possibly the two highest rated recruits - Rickert and Humphries - that anyone in MN has ever landed....

+1. Monson's problem was how he recruited the 3-13 scholarships. And Clem's best players were generally not Minnesotans. Still keeping the local kids is job 1 for most schools. MN is in a major metro area and the only division one school in a major state of 5 million people. That's a pretty good starting point.
 

I agree with the last couple of comments, I don't remember Clem keeping all the good talent in state at home. There were not as many marquee players in state and it seemed like clem swung and missed on a few..and landed a few. About 50/50. For every Sam Jacobson or Joel P, there was Lane or El-Amin or Bell that went elsewhere. Tubby has at least done as well as Clem with in state recruits... and I think if it were not for early defections and problems with Devoe, and Royce.. we would have better numbers as Tubby has made a few late picks that have been okay at best.
 



[QUOTE we would have better numbers as Tubby has made a few late picks that have been okay at best.[/QUOTE]

that might be it right there-- Tubbys fall recruits have been good- just wish they had all stayed (Cobbs, Joseph,White, Iverson, Carter)- his spring recruits have ended up looking like panic moves (Mav, Chip, Oto) . The spring recruits probably look like that in every program it is just in ours they have to play. Now if Tubby can get Julius Randle to be his spring panic move this spring we may be on to something.
 

If we can keep 80% of the best in-state kids home and NOT have any "spring recruits," we will certainly become an upper-echelon B1G team.
 

I think of the final four team and I believe Harris, Jackson, James, Lewis, Charles Thomas and Tarver were out of state, John Thomas, Jacobson and maybe Winter were Minnesotans. I always thought we wound up with Humpheries because Duke was higher on Lual Deng and he didn't want to come off the bench
 

I am not saying that recruiting outside the state isn't important...... it absolutely is..... However.... Mark oberding... langenfelter... Kevin Mc....Bru... Jacobson... Colman..... You could always count on the Mr. Basketball from Minnesota coming to the U..... It wasn't until ElAmin ...decommitted and decided to sign with U Conn.... did You even think that the Mr. Basketball from Minn. would sign anywhere else...... The Uniqueness of being the only D I school instete and also being in the BigTEN conference..... Gives the right Coach a chance to build a true Powerhouse here.....
 



Unfortunately too many people that post on GH..... seem to lack the historical vision of how good Gopher hoops was from the Early 70's thru 97.

You seem to lack the historical vision to understand how underwhelming most of Clem's tenure really was. Even if you include the 96'- 97' year where he cheated (anyone believe this was the only year?) & went 16-2 in the B1G, Clem still holds an overall losing B1G record & couldn't win a road game to save his life. The 9 year span between the Elite-8 appearance & the Final 4 appearance we won 1 NCAA tournament game. Those teams with Randy Carter, Voshon Lenard, Jason Walton, Arriel McDonald, Townie Orr et al were huge underachievers. If it wasn't for the 96'-97' season people would look at Clem as a flop imo.
 

True...except for Vason Lenard..... outstate recruiting...was not as strong..... remember...big loss when Webber decided to go to Michagan.... but elite eight and sweet sixteen...... that gave Clem alot of breathing room..... also he was a coach on alot of USA Basketball teams....that brought the recruiting up going into the 93-97 run...... No question outstate recruiting is important.... My base statement is still..... close the borders and nab one or 2 skilled players from the outside to compliment them and this team should be very strong year in...year out
 

I agree with the last couple of comments, I don't remember Clem keeping all the good talent in state at home. There were not as many marquee players in state and it seemed like clem swung and missed on a few..and landed a few. About 50/50. For every Sam Jacobson or Joel P, there was Lane or El-Amin or Bell that went elsewhere. Tubby has at least done as well as Clem with in state recruits... and I think if it were not for early defections and problems with Devoe, and Royce.. we would have better numbers as Tubby has made a few late picks that have been okay at best.

Clem got the Minnesota kids he wanted. That doesnt mean he missed on offering a kid. He didn't go after Lane. And, there were other circumstances with El-Amin.
 

Look at Nebraskas facilities, they are state of the art. Now we have to compete with that? Want to recruit the best, get the coach and the facilities. We have the coach, the practice facilities.......
 

True...except for Vason Lenard..... outstate recruiting...was not as strong..... remember...big loss when Webber decided to go to Michagan.... but elite eight and sweet sixteen...... that gave Clem alot of breathing room..... also he was a coach on alot of USA Basketball teams....that brought the recruiting up going into the 93-97 run...... No question outstate recruiting is important.... My base statement is still..... close the borders and nab one or 2 skilled players from the outside to compliment them and this team should be very strong year in...year out

Ellipses are not a suitable replacement for actual punctuation.
 

I am not saying that recruiting outside the state isn't important...... it absolutely is..... However.... Mark oberding... langenfelter... Kevin Mc....Bru... Jacobson... Colman..... You could always count on the Mr. Basketball from Minnesota coming to the U..... It wasn't until ElAmin ...decommitted and decided to sign with U Conn.... did You even think that the Mr. Basketball from Minn. would sign anywhere else...... The Uniqueness of being the only D I school instete and also being in the BigTEN conference..... Gives the right Coach a chance to build a true Powerhouse here.....

There were 23 Mr. Basketballs before El-Amin. Of them, only 9 attended the U. Counting El-Amin, 7 out of the last 17 Mr. Basketballs have gone to the U. That's actually a tiny bit better percentage than before El-Amin and does not include players like Boone and Busch who transfered back to MN.
 

RIGHT ON
Clem did not recruit all the best in state talent. Missed on his biggest prize, El-Amin...along with Darius Lane, and multiple others...

Monson recruited possibly the two highest rated recruits - Rickert and Humphries - that anyone in MN has ever landed....
 

True...except for Vason Lenard..... outstate recruiting...was not as strong..... remember...big loss when Webber decided to go to Michagan.... but elite eight and sweet sixteen...... that gave Clem alot of breathing room..... also he was a coach on alot of USA Basketball teams....that brought the recruiting up going into the 93-97 run...... No question outstate recruiting is important.... My base statement is still..... close the borders and nab one or 2 skilled players from the outside to compliment them and this team should be very strong year in...year out

Did we go after Chris Webber? If so I wouldn't blame him for picking Michigan with the amount of money he was being paid to go there. I think we were actually not cheating at the time, but even if we were I have to imagine being paid tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars at Michigan is more appealing than having someone do your homework for you at Minnesota.

Ellipses are not a suitable replacement for actual punctuation.

I was kind of thinking the same thing, as I was reading it, I was imagining the poster having just finished his morning jog or something, and trying to talk while still catching his breath, breathing in where the ellipses were.
 

I'm a MN rube as well but it hasn't been until recently that you could base your roster off local kids and then add the good out of state recruits to suppliment.

Under Clem, think of the really good ball players, the vast majority of them were not from MN.
 




Top Bottom