Gophers target: Merrimack transfer Mikey Watkins

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If this is another backup ball handler option, the numbers look pretty good. Actually looks a bit like a poor man’s Ta’Lon Cooper haha
 


I think i'd rather throw a scholarship at Dodd or DJ Jefferson (or someone similar) than Watkins or Samuels.
 

I think Dodd in looking at the guys we are now recruiting might have been a better option.
 




Dodd signed with Texas A & M Commerce. I think he had real limited committable offers… there was a reason he was sitting there…
 

The options seem to be getting worse as we go. Was really hoping to fill another guard spot with a really good transfer, not an also ran at a small school
 





MNVCGUY said:
Lol. I love how confident some posters are in their evaluations of players they know almost nothing about.
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It's almost like Luke Loewe wasn't a serviceable player last year. But half these posters didn't even know what a William & Mary was before he committed.
 

WriterGoph said:
It's almost like Luke Loewe wasn't a serviceable player last year. But half these posters didn't even know what a William & Mary was before he committed.
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Last year, considering we finished 14th is not a great benchmark for comfort. What we have this year appears to be much more promising. I just think people are concerned that we might not get that last piece that brings us up enough to have a shot at a tournament berth. Nothing wrong with people that are interested in what's going to happen.

BTW Luke averaged 16 pts a game his last year there- I think we would be pretty excited to see someone with that stat line headed our way, right about now.
 



Maybe I’m reading too much into things, but I see 5’11” and relatively high assist numbers and I assume this player is being recruited as a reserve ball handler, not a starting shooting guard. We’re not offering players like this because we were too lazy to recruit Michael Jones or Kerwin Walton or Josiah Strong. Watkins and Samuels are being recruited for different reasons. I assume Watkins is receiving interest from mid-majors because they want him to start, and he’s deciding between starting at a lower level or being a backup at a higher level (the Big Ten, Minnesota). At least that’s my justification for not panicking about spring recruiting right now. Plus if we panic too much now, we’ll have no energy left to panic about not having a 2023 high school commit yet in June!
 

GopherPlaya said:
I don’t even understand why anyone would mention Dodd as an option. He plays 0 defense and is a low major D1 player at best.
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That’s hilarious! Even if that’s true, which I’ve never heard it doesn’t matter. He’s quick enough, fast enough, smart enough, and tough enough for Ben and Thorson coach him up. His number one issue as a HM or MM D1 player is his ability to shoot the 3.
 

WriterGoph said:
It's almost like Luke Loewe wasn't a serviceable player last year. But half these posters didn't even know what a William & Mary was before he committed.
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It's almost like Luke Loewe "serviceable" level players get you to weakling Wednesday.

We aren't getting anywhere good recruiting this level of player. Disappointing.
 

bga1 said:
Last year, considering we finished 14th is not a great benchmark for comfort. What we have this year appears to be much more promising. I just think people are concerned that we might not get that last piece that brings us up enough to have a shot at a tournament berth. Nothing wrong with people that are interested in what's going to happen.

BTW Luke averaged 16 pts a game his last year there- I think we would be pretty excited to see someone with that stat line headed our way, right about now.
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But Luke Loewe ended up being a really solid defensive player. Overmatched athletically many times, but worked his ass off. There would have been no way to deduct that from a tweet showing his PPG. My point was that nobody knows anything about this kid other than they don't know Merrimack. If we can get another Luke Loewe as a backup guard, that would be great.
 

SoMpls said:
That’s hilarious! Even if that’s true, which I’ve never heard it doesn’t matter. He’s quick enough, fast enough, smart enough, and tough enough for Ben and Thorson coach him up. His number one issue as a HM or MM D1 player is his ability to shoot the 3.
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At least he’s not a 5-10 25 year old. He has some upside. If not Dodd , a high school kid with upside seems to be a more promising option than some of these low majors names we are now seeing.
 


Blackhammer said:
At least he’s not a 5-10 25 year old. He has some upside. If not Dodd , a high school kid with upside seems to be a more promising option than some of these low majors names we are now seeing.
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You sure? Summit League made offers.
 


Blackhammer said:
At least he’s not a 5-10 25 year old. He has some upside. If not Dodd , a high school kid with upside seems to be a more promising option than some of these low majors names we are now seeing.
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Any high school player still available will be a project like Mav, Greenlee, or the big from Texas we signed with Pitino. No high school player worth signing is still available.
 

jovs said:
I agree, now is not the time to add marginal 4 year development guys. With the transfer portal I think the time for that is diminishing, you don't want to have many of those on the roster anymore.
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Yeah hope they sign one of the two backup PG option and a solid wing. Hopefully one that's okay being a role player.
 

Johnnyboy18 said:
Yeah hope they sign one of the two backup PG option and a solid wing. Hopefully one that's okay being a role player.
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Positionally, I agree with you as to how the roster should be filled out. The caveat I would add is they need at least one more good long range shooter. I don't believe the roster, as it currently stands, has the ability to consistently hit outside shots with the exception of Battle and Garcia. The freshmen could solve the problem, but in the games I saw Carrington was an inconsistent shooter and the three point shot does not appear to be a strength of Henley's game. I like the freshmen class a lot but I'm not sure they can be counted on immediately to provide consistent outside shooting. Long way of saying I think they need one more player who can consistently hit a 3 point shot.
 

GopherPlaya said:
Any high school player still available will be a project like Mav, Greenlee, or the big from Texas we signed with Pitino. No high school player worth signing is still available.
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Well, not quite "any." There are about 5 or 6 Top 100 players on 247's board who haven't committed yet. These are the type of players waiting for the early entries to announce from elite programs. You see a few of them every year. Also, the transfer portal has negatively impacted prep recruiting. If you're trying to fill out a roster, it's less risk to go with an older, short-term player who has shown at least something at a the D1 level.
 

jovs said:
I agree, now is not the time to add marginal 4 year development guys. With the transfer portal I think the time for that is diminishing, you don't want to have many of those on the roster anymore.
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Especially since we were just given the opportunity to replace one of those because of a transfer.
 

bga1 said:
Last year, considering we finished 14th is not a great benchmark for comfort. What we have this year appears to be much more promising. I just think people are concerned that we might not get that last piece that brings us up enough to have a shot at a tournament berth. Nothing wrong with people that are interested in what's going to happen.

BTW Luke averaged 16 pts a game his last year there- I think we would be pretty excited to see someone with that stat line headed our way, right about now.
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What I find kind of amusing is we had a lot of hand wringing last year about not developing young players....and now when it looks like we might be leaving a spot available for a couple of young players to get an opportunity we have people complaining that we aren't going out and finding a transfer to eliminate that opportunity.

Will repeat what I said earlier in this thread....we have a lot of people in here that seem very sure of their evaluations of players they know next to nothing about.
 

MNVCGUY said:
What I find kind of amusing is we had a lot of hand wringing last year about not developing young players....and now when it looks like we might be leaving a spot available for a couple of young players to get an opportunity we have people complaining that we aren't going out and finding a transfer to eliminate that opportunity.

Will repeat what I said earlier in this thread....we have a lot of people in here that seem very sure of their evaluations of players they know next to nothing about.
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I for one plead guilty to not knowing much about the players other than looking at their film. I didn't much care that they didn't develop young players last year because they really didn't have any besides Thompson and Thiam and it was obvious that neither was ready. When we were down 20+ - yes we should have put them on the court.

For the coming year, I see two options: If we can get a really solid SG in here- we might just compete for a tournament slot which would be huge for momentum for Ben. Case closed, no further questions on Ben for a while. If we can't then we can't, then we should play the heck out of the young guys and see what they can do, I don't want to throw a couple old plow horses out there only to lose games anyway- if we are going to lose, lose young. I think everyone should be able to agree that 3 scholarship guards is not enough and even 4 if we add Samuels is not enough.

Let's face it, is there anyone that wouldn't love to get an Eric Hunter or someone like that in here to compete with our young guys? It might make everyone better.
 

Cayman said:
Maybe I’m reading too much into things, but I see 5’11” and relatively high assist numbers and I assume this player is being recruited as a reserve ball handler, not a starting shooting guard. We’re not offering players like this because we were too lazy to recruit Michael Jones or Kerwin Walton or Josiah Strong. Watkins and Samuels are being recruited for different reasons. I assume Watkins is receiving interest from mid-majors because they want him to start, and he’s deciding between starting at a lower level or being a backup at a higher level (the Big Ten, Minnesota). At least that’s my justification for not panicking about spring recruiting right now. Plus if we panic too much now, we’ll have no energy left to panic about not having a 2023 high school commit yet in June!
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It's not laziness. This staff has decided that Carrington is going to start next season and it was likely part of their pitch to keep him home. Their recruiting at the guard position has been focused on backups this spring. I don't really agree with it, but it is what it is at this point.
 

GopherWeatherGuy said:
It's not laziness. This staff has decided that Carrington is going to start next season and it was likely part of their pitch to keep him home. Their recruiting at the guard position has been focused on backups this spring. I don't really agree with it, but it is what it is at this point.
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Josiah Strong was here on a visit. I don't get where the staff is lazy narrative is coming from. I coach high school ball. This staff is far from lazy they have been connecting with coaches all over. We don't even have a D1 level player for at least 2 or 3 years
 

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