Gophers target: Davidson transfer Michael Jones

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Why Ben not showing interest? Doesn't seem like it Jones not showing the interest.. he's good enough for Alabama but not us?
 

Spottedmuskie said:
Why Ben not showing interest? Doesn't seem like it Jones not showing the interest.. he's good enough for Alabama but not us?
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I think Ben did show interest, I don't think Jones is interested, Bama seems random, but maybe he likes Nate Oats, Oats probably was still at Buffalo when Jones was in high school, maybe he recruited him and Davidson won out but the relationship was good?
 


This makes no sense. I'm trying to be as optimistic with this staff as possible. I thought the signing of Garcia and Cooper were a step in the right direction even though i was realistic that Garcia fell into our laps. But, there's no excuse for us not going hard after Jones. I mean, what do we need? A 3 point shooter who plays D. We have a Minnesota kid who's transferring after a successful run at a good basketball school who fits the description and we are being out-worked by Northwestern and Stanford? Makes me sick thinking about it.....
 


cheeseheadgophfan said:
This makes no sense. I'm trying to be as optimistic with this staff as possible. I thought the signing of Garcia and Cooper were a step in the right direction even though i was realistic that Garcia fell into our laps. But, there's no excuse for us not going hard after Jones. I mean, what do we need? A 3 point shooter who plays D. We have a Minnesota kid who's transferring after a successful run at a good basketball school who fits the description and we are being out-worked by Northwestern and Stanford? Makes me sick thinking about it.....
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how do you know we didn't and he just doesn't want to come here? Not everyone wants to "go home"
 

The Tweet sure seems to indicate that those schools are the ones he's "hearing from the most." Not even his top 3. The ones who are recruiting him the hardest. Why isn't he hearing "the most" from the Gophers?
 

cheeseheadgophfan said:
The Tweet sure seems to indicate that those schools are the ones he's "hearing from the most." Not even his top 3. The ones who are recruiting him the hardest. Why isn't he hearing "the most" from the Gophers?
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Possibly he has indicated that he’s not interested in returning to Minnesota. You have no idea what’s going on behind the scenes.
 

cheeseheadgophfan said:
The Tweet sure seems to indicate that those schools are the ones he's "hearing from the most." Not even his top 3. The ones who are recruiting him the hardest. Why isn't he hearing "the most" from the Gophers?
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First off, making assumptions based on anything on Twitter is dangerous business.

None of us knows the inner workings of the recruiting process....if the Gophers aren't interested in Jones there is probably a reason and we will never hear what that reason was. But the reality is that as fans all we have to go on are little pieces of info here and there that could mean any number of different things.
 



cheeseheadgophfan said:
This makes no sense. I'm trying to be as optimistic with this staff as possible. I thought the signing of Garcia and Cooper were a step in the right direction even though i was realistic that Garcia fell into our laps. But, there's no excuse for us not going hard after Jones. I mean, what do we need? A 3 point shooter who plays D. We have a Minnesota kid who's transferring after a successful run at a good basketball school who fits the description and we are being out-worked by Northwestern and Stanford? Makes me sick thinking about it.....
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I'll join your grumbling party. Really more frustrating than last year. From outside looking in, it appears we are shy a quality (and veteran) shooting guard from being a really competitive team, and the appearance is that we are giving up on guys who might fill that need.

I hope I am proven wrong and they have someone we don't know about or they know that Carrington and/or Henley are ready to go in the B1G right away.
 


MNVCGUY said:
First off, making assumptions based on anything on Twitter is dangerous business.

None of us knows the inner workings of the recruiting process....if the Gophers aren't interested in Jones there is probably a reason and we will never hear what that reason was. But the reality is that as fans all we have to go on is little pieces of info here and there that could mean any number of different things.
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True. But I'm still grumbling. It is my right, if not duty, as a loyal fan.
 




ecoperson said:
I keep repeating the following mantra to myself; "We have upgraded our talent at nearly every position. We have more depth than last year. This is a work in progress."
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If you are taking two steps, why not take 3 if you can?
 

cheeseheadgophfan said:
This makes no sense. I'm trying to be as optimistic with this staff as possible. I thought the signing of Garcia and Cooper were a step in the right direction even though i was realistic that Garcia fell into our laps. But, there's no excuse for us not going hard after Jones. I mean, what do we need? A 3 point shooter who plays D. We have a Minnesota kid who's transferring after a successful run at a good basketball school who fits the description and we are being out-worked by Northwestern and Stanford? Makes me sick thinking about it.....
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What if he doesn’t want to come back? We were listed as a school showing interest at the beginning of the process. Also Jones is a 3 point shooter not a defender. Also there is no evidence we weren’t after him hard he basically narrowed it down to his top 3
 

Holy Man said:
If you are taking two steps, why not take 3 if you can?
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How do you know we aren't?

Reality is we have no clue what the freshman are going to bring to the table. Just as we have no clue if they will still bring in additional transfers. All we can do is sit back and let the process play out and see what happens.
 

MNVCGUY said:
How do you know we aren't?

Reality is we have no clue what the freshman are going to bring to the table. Just as we have no clue if they will still bring in additional transfers. All we can do is sit back and let the process play out and see what happens.
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Also while thinking about the portal wouldn’t it benefit us more to play the freshmen and not give them limited minutes if we want to keep kids here. We have 10 guys who I think can get minutes
 

There are two posters in this thread just making outlandish assumptions that if we had simply prioritized Jones, he would have never even looked at a different school and come to the U right away. Do you know how many kids leave for college and never want to move back? Jones isn't going to play in the NBA, so maybe he wants to get a super high end MBA out of his extra year?

This provincialism some posters have on any kid with a Minnesota connection - even when the Gophers didn't give some of these kids the time of the day coming out of high school - where they just assume it is every Minnesotans' dream to be a Gopher (and if we don't get them, then Ben must not have tried hard enough) is the silliest narrative of this offseason.
 

WriterGoph said:
There are two posters in this thread just making outlandish assumptions that if we had simply prioritized Jones, he would have never even looked at a different school and come to the U right away. Do you know how many kids leave for college and never want to move back? Jones isn't going to play in the NBA, so maybe he wants to get a super high end MBA out of his extra year?

This provincialism some posters have on any kid with a Minnesota connection - even when the Gophers didn't give some of these kids the time of the day coming out of high school - where they just assume it is every Minnesotans' dream to be a Gopher (and if we don't get them, then Ben must not have tried hard enough) is the silliest narrative of this offseason.
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You aren't all wrong here, but Ben was hired specifically for his ability to recruit along those provincial lines. You have to concede that.
 

bga1 said:
You aren't all wrong here, but Ben was hired specifically for his ability to recruit along those provincial lines. You have to concede that.
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No, he was hired SPECIFICALLY to win games and build a good program. Coyle gave a soundbite that said he expects Ben to be able to recruit well locally. But don't try and tell me you think that if Ben recruited all Minnesota kids and was under .500 for five straight years that he would keep his job because of where his recruits were from?

Anyway, let's just do a quick recap of all his provincial players. How many Minnesota kids is enough?

Last year:
(Kept) Thompson
Fox
Battle
Willis (you're "one of us" if you played at the U already)
Sutherlin
Ramberg

This year:
Carrington
JOJ
Payne
Garcia

By my count, that's currently EIGHT Minnesotans on the 2022-23 roster. There aren't enough roster spots for all the Minnesota players in D1. So where does this whole bit end?
 

WriterGoph said:
No, he was hired SPECIFICALLY to win games and build a good program. Coyle gave a soundbite that said he expects Ben to be able to recruit well locally. But don't try and tell me you think that if Ben recruited all Minnesota kids and was under .500 for five straight years that he would keep his job because of where his recruits were from?

Anyway, let's just do a quick recap of all his provincial players. How many Minnesota kids is enough?

Last year:
(Kept) Thompson
Fox
Battle
Willis (you're "one of us" if you played at the U already)
Sutherlin
Ramberg

This year:
Carrington
JOJ
Payne
Garcia

By my count, that's currently EIGHT Minnesotans on the 2022-23 roster. There aren't enough roster spots for all the Minnesota players in D1. So where does this whole bit end?
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Well stated, and there is so much that we don't know behind the scenes. We may end up with a poor shooting guard or an excellent one, but we won't know for a while. Disappointment is really easy to come by after a bunch of crappy to mediocre seasons, but let's let this thing play out.
 


WriterGoph said:
No, he was hired SPECIFICALLY to win games and build a good program. Coyle gave a soundbite that said he expects Ben to be able to recruit well locally. But don't try and tell me you think that if Ben recruited all Minnesota kids and was under .500 for five straight years that he would keep his job because of where his recruits were from?

Anyway, let's just do a quick recap of all his provincial players. How many Minnesota kids is enough?

Last year:
(Kept) Thompson
Fox
Battle
Willis (you're "one of us" if you played at the U already)
Sutherlin
Ramberg

This year:
Carrington
JOJ
Payne
Garcia

By my count, that's currently EIGHT Minnesotans on the 2022-23 roster. There aren't enough roster spots for all the Minnesota players in D1. So where does this whole bit end?
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It'll be enough for me when we don't have a glaring hole at the exact position where a player like Michael Jones plays. I don't expect Ben to land every local player and I wouldn't be annoyed by Jones looking elsewhere if were bringing in a player at that position (local or not).

As of right now, we desperately need a wing and we just had a local wing appear to put Northwestern and Alabama higher than us. It's a problem if we weren't pursuing him. It's a negative if we pursued him and couldn't crack the top 3.

It's like everything with recruiting, it's not about Michael Jones specifically, but it's about the development of the program as a whole. If we are able to fill out our remaining scholarships with quality players, people won't remember Michael Jones. If we have to eat scholarships (again) or use them on players who are clearly out of their depth, people will point to missing out on Jones.
 

Formerswish said:
Well stated, and there is so much that we don't know behind the scenes. We may end up with a poor shooting guard or an excellent one, but we won't know for a while. Disappointment is really easy to come by after a bunch of crappy to mediocre seasons, but let's let this thing play out.
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It's play it out or give up. Not many on here are wanting to give up, but asking us to be hopeful without enough data is a pretty heavy lift. What we don't know could end up much better than most of us expect. But it could also go the other way, and having a bunch of us saying, "What if we had just got an experienced shooting guard to supplement the quality front court" in the middle of next season. I don't want to be saying that, but so far it's headed in that direction. It can change, and I hope it does.
 

Stanford or Northwestern make sense if academics are a high priority for him. As others have said, not everyone who grows up here dreams of playing for the Gophers. I’m actually surprised at how often “mid-major star who attended high school in Minnesota” puts on the maroon and gold at the snap of our coaches’ fingers: Joey King, Zach Lofton, Reggie Lynch, Jamison Battle, Parker Fox, Sean Sutherlin. Calling King and Sutherlin stars might be pushing it, but they both took the opportunity to play high-major basketball for their home state school when it was presented to them. But it won’t work out that way with everyone.
 

Holy Man said:
It's play it out or give up. Not many on here are wanting to give up, but asking us to be hopeful without enough data is a pretty heavy lift. What we don't know could end up much better than most of us expect. But it could also go the other way, and having a bunch of us saying, "What if we had just got an experienced shooting guard to supplement the quality front court" in the middle of next season. I don't want to be saying that, but so far it's headed in that direction. It can change, and I hope it does.
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We have 9 scholarship players I expect for us to add another guard but as far as wings go, we have 2 freshmen that will be possibly in the rotation as wings & flexible players like Jamison & Ihnen. We can add one more wing but if we add one that will eat up majority of the minutes I can’t imagine the freshmen being happy about very limited playing time when that may have been there biggest draw to committing here
 


Bob_Loblaw said:
It'll be enough for me when we don't have a glaring hole at the exact position where a player like Michael Jones plays. I don't expect Ben to land every local player and I wouldn't be annoyed by Jones looking elsewhere if were bringing in a player at that position (local or not).

As of right now, we desperately need a wing and we just had a local wing appear to put Northwestern and Alabama higher than us. It's a problem if we weren't pursuing him. It's a negative if we pursued him and couldn't crack the top 3.

It's like everything with recruiting, it's not about Michael Jones specifically, but it's about the development of the program as a whole. If we are able to fill out our remaining scholarships with quality players, people won't remember Michael Jones. If we have to eat scholarships (again) or use them on players who are clearly out of their depth, people will point to missing out on Jones.
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"It's a problem if we weren't pursuing him." Isn't that Ben's prerogative? Seems like you're taking your opinion and projecting what you personally feel we need on the roster. Last I checked, Ben and the staff are the only ones who have seen Ihnen's development the past 2 years (for example). Ben also has spent plenty of time watching the incoming freshmen (way more than any of us). He has to make a judgment call on how he fills out the roster. Even if we only pick up one more guard, seems hard to be calling anything a failure in May - unless you are personally attending workouts or know someone on the staff.

"It's a negative if we pursued him and couldn't crack the Top 3." Again, is it?? Based solely on your personal feelings of how our last-place program should be perceived by college kids? Unless you know Michael Jones and what his goals are for his extra year of basketball and grad school, you're projecting your personal opinions on the situation. Last I checked, Northwestern and Stanford are two of the top schools in the nation. Perish the thought a kid might have other goals than just basketball when considering grad school options.
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
It'll be enough for me when we don't have a glaring hole at the exact position where a player like Michael Jones plays. I don't expect Ben to land every local player and I wouldn't be annoyed by Jones looking elsewhere if were bringing in a player at that position (local or not).

As of right now, we desperately need a wing and we just had a local wing appear to put Northwestern and Alabama higher than us. It's a problem if we weren't pursuing him. It's a negative if we pursued him and couldn't crack the top 3.

It's like everything with recruiting, it's not about Michael Jones specifically, but it's about the development of the program as a whole. If we are able to fill out our remaining scholarships with quality players, people won't remember Michael Jones. If we have to eat scholarships (again) or use them on players who are clearly out of their depth, people will point to missing out on Jones.
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He’s a perfect fit for us. I can guarantee our staff reached out cause they line it too. Maybe he didn’t want to come home. You can’t force a kid to like you.
 

bga1 said:
You aren't all wrong here, but Ben was hired specifically for his ability to recruit along those provincial lines. You have to concede that.
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He wasn't hired to recruit transfers who played high school ball in Minnesota. Transfers are pursued to fill specific and, usually, immediate needs. Where they grew up is not important other than a case like Garcia where his home comes into play.
 

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