In-State Recruiting

[MaxyJR1]

After watching the tournaments and seeing the speed at which teams want to play, Pitino has his work cut out for him to find guys that can play and defend at top speed. It will also be interesting to see how many MN kids Pitino thinks are worthy of staying home and can play his system. I think we will be luck to have 1 a year on average with length and athleticism to play at that level. (Having 3 McDonald's All-American's is not the norm) Maybe I'm underestimating our in-state talent. I don't think it is as critical to get in-state players as it is in Football.

People get caught up on in-state talent and it's interested that five of the past seven Indiana Mr. Basketballs have gone to colleges outside the state. I want the top talent where ever we can find it.

 

[golfing18now]

After watching the tournaments and seeing the speed at which teams want to play, Pitino has his work cut out for him to find guys that can play and defend at top speed. It will also be interesting to see how many MN kids Pitino thinks are worthy of staying home and can play his system. I think we will be luck to have 1 a year on average with length and athleticism to play at that level. (Having 3 McDonald's All-American's is not the norm) Maybe I'm underestimating our in-state talent. I don't think it is as critical to get in-state players as it is in Football.

People get caught up on in-state talent and it's interested that five of the past seven Indiana Mr. Basketballs have gone to colleges outside the state. I want the top talent where ever we can find it.

I couldn't agree more, however it is a minority position on this board.

We have people suggesting that the lack of progress on the Big Three is what doomed Tubby. I think that is absurd, but it definitely has been suggested here. A number of people also think the recruitment of Jarvis and Alex are "necessary", "must haves", "can't misses", whatever.....

I want players regardless of zip code.

 

[GuyFawkes]

Not sure why you'd say that the state of Minnesota can't produce enough talent when in the foreseeable future things are looking great for Minnesota Basketball, here are some names to watch, and keep in mind we are still ways out for some of these classes, there are going to be pretty good player that will emerge as we get closer to the year of their recruiting classes. (JP Macura). Yeah they won't match the class of 2014, but how many states can?

2015: Alex Illikainen, Jarvis Johnson (Sacar Anim, Marshawn Wilson, JT Gibson, Sam Neumann)

2016: Amir Coffey, Reed Nikko

2017: Brad Davison, Gary Trent jr

I'm sure I'm missing a ton, but this just going off the top of my head. I do agree with you however that we should go after the best recruits, and not give special treatment to instate kids over others if their talent isn't as good.

 

[BarnBoy]

I chuckle when I see blanket statements professing our program's imminent demise if we don't lock up the borders next year.

We want Gophers that want to be Gophers. No doubt locking up top in-state recruits would help, but the program is not going to implode if we don't. Pretty sure of that.

 

[GoldenAle]

If we want more in-state kids to fit an up tempo system, maybe we should start by having mandatory shot clocks?

 

[oleboy41]

The state of Michigan has 2 great basketball programs. James Young went to KY. Texas has UT, Baylor and SMU all doing well and that's ignoring other D1 programs in the state. Their top 3 players went to KY. UCONN's 3 best players are from Mass, Chicago and LA. I really think the AAU culture has changed things (no I'm not talking about cheating and paying players) in that these kids are now used to being away from home. They know all the guys from around the country and they follow the careers of kids they've played against. It doesn't seem like there are a ton of high school kids that grew up really following their hometown team. For all of the great basketball players produced by Chicago, none of them stay home. Same with Baltimore. Seattle for whatever reason produces a ton of great players yet Washington is up and down and WSU usually sucks. The only school in NY or NJ that's any good is Cuse even though both states produce a ton of talent. Instate recruiting is only important to us because we don't have a program that attracts kids from elsewhere so we hope to keep the hometown kids around. We didn't care about instate recruiting when Tubby's first class came in and we won't if/when Pitino brings in a good haul

 

[BleedGopher]

Since 1970, the majority of our best players are from out of state (this is just a sampling off the top of my head, not meant to turn this into a "best of Gophers" debate, merely pointing out that most of our all time greats are from different states, and obviously Joel and Kris didn't leave the legacy that many of these others did, but their personal stats/awards warrant inclusion on this list if only to show a contrasting opinion). This also demonstrates though, that the single largest state we have had our most success from is Minnesota. When looking at this list, the biggest fan favorites collectively are probably Thompson, McHale, Burton, Jackson, Jacobson and Lewis, four of the six from out of state.

Jim Brewer - Illinois
Ray Williams - New York
Mychal Thompson - Bahamas
Kevin McHale - Minnesota
Randy Breuer - Minnesota
Trent Tucker - Michigan
Willie Burton - Michigan
Melvin Newbern - Ohio
Richard Coffey - North Carolina
Voshon Leonard - Michigan
Ariel McDonald - Illinois
Bobby Jackson - North Carolina
Eric Harris - New York
Sam Jacobson - Minnesota
John Thomas - Minnesota
Quincy Lewis - Arkansas
Joel Przybilla - Minnesota
Kris Humphries - Minnesota
Rick Rickert - Minnesota
Vincent Grier - North Carolina
Trevor Mbakwe - Minnesota
Austin Hollins - Tennessee

Go Gophers!!

 

[Winasota Gopher]

I think the big debate about the "big three" needing to stay home and the conversations about locking down the boarders are so loud because we aren't recruiting better than what seems to be leaving the state on a yearly basis.

Tubby went out of state while instate guys went to Wisconsin, Harvard, NDSU, etc and were difference makers. Throw in the 2014 class being all world and it made it seem so much more important. You referenced Indiana not taking the Mr Basketball's from their home state, well thats ok because they are getting Mr Basketball's or similar players from all over the US, makes the instate kids less important.

The other piece is that all those other states, are recruiting against many other state schools. We are the only d1 school in the state. If kids grew up watching College basketball (not so much these days because of how easy it is to access bball on tv but that wasn't always the case) they should have been begging for the UofM to accept them.

I completely agree 1 a year and likely 1 mid level player a year is all we should expect. And that player is likely going to be more of a role player than a standout.

 

[oleboy41]

I think the big debate about the "big three" needing to stay home and the conversations about locking down the boarders are so loud because we aren't recruiting better than what seems to be leaving the state on a yearly basis.

Tubby went out of state while instate guys went to Wisconsin, Harvard, NDSU, etc and were difference makers. Throw in the 2014 class being all world and it made it seem so much more important. You referenced Indiana not taking the Mr Basketball's from their home state, well thats ok because they are getting Mr Basketball's or similar players from all over the US, makes the instate kids less important.

The other piece is that all those other states, are recruiting against many other state schools. We are the only d1 school in the state. If kids grew up watching College basketball (not so much these days because of how easy it is to access bball on tv but that wasn't always the case) they should have been begging for the UofM to accept them.

I completely agree 1 a year and likely 1 mid level player a year is all we should expect. And that player is likely going to be more of a role player than a standout.

That's true about almost every state unless you're UCLA, KS, KY or NC. Most of the top 25-40 players are going to the same 10-15 schools so if you have 2 top 50 kids in a state, chances are they're leaving and you hope to get the other guys. That's why I was more bothered by losing Macura to Xavier and Travis to Stanford. Those aren't schools that are winning a ton of recruiting battles. The Vaughn's and Jones' of the world will rarely stay home no matter where they're from. I've lived in and near Chicago for 10 years and even though Chicago people are fiercely loyal and prideful about Chicago, and even though they produce multiple All Americans seemingly every year and a dozen other high major recruits, they almost all give ILL, NW, DePaul, Southern ILL, Northern ILL, Bradley, ISU, UIC, etc the cold shoulder. Yea there are enough players in the area that they're still filling their rosters with 3rd tier ILL prospects but even though U of I is about 90 minutes down the rode and a ton of Chicago students go there, they all leave. The last top prospect to pick ILL was Jereme Richmond who turned out to be crazy. So all these kids love their hometown but leave anyway.

 

[EG#9]

This is an interesting topic that I think is a bigger issue due to our lack of success post-Clem. The Gophers have not been very good and it really bothers some fans to see the Gophers struggle and Minnesota kids (especially those who were not offered) succeed elsewhere. To me it's a ridiculous to be angry about the Gophers "passing on" a kid like Woodside at NDSU, Wittman at Cornell, or Wolters at SDSU. The Gophers didn't just pass on those kids, but so did at least one, if not multiple, tiers of schools below Minnesota. Prior to this year, the Gophers have done a very solid job of keeping in state talent at home relative to most other schools. This year was a big miss that can be attributed to a lot of factors, but you (or at least I) worry about it becoming a trend. Each kid that leaves the state makes it easier for the next kid to leave, especially if that kid has success.

I don't care where the Gophers get the talent, as long as they get talent. That said, we haven't shown an ability to really even get in the conversation with top kids (at least consistently) from out of state for a number of years. If Pitino misses out on Jarvis Johnson, but lands a Jalen Adams (or any other comparable PG) that's fine with me. This year isn't the best example as the Minnesota talent was really elite with the Big 3, but we missed on all three of those guys and don't have a single recruit rated among the Rivals 150. That's not a recipe for success and I don't think anyone would argue it is. Obviously, Coach Pitino had numerous handicaps with the 2014 class, so that's not a reflection on him.

I would hope most fans would just want to win and don't care where the players happen to be from. I can't imagine too many natives of Connecticut played on any of UCONN's four national championship teams.

 

[WanderingGopher]

Instate recruiting is only important to us because we don't have a program that attracts kids from elsewhere so we hope to keep the hometown kids around.

Well, yeah, that's the point. That's always been the point. We need sustained success to change that, and sustained success is most likely to start by getting a couple stars to stay home. Haskins' highest rated recruits were Sam Jacobson and Joel Przybilla. Monson's highest rated recruits were Rick Rickert and Kris Humphries. Tubby's highest rated recruits were Royce White and (via transfer) Trevor Mbakwe.

Our Final Four team showed how it "should" work. The two local must-gets (John Thomas and 5* Sam Jacobson) in the mid-90's stayed home. Then Haskins can build on those big commitments to sell a few 4* players from other states that we're a program on the rise, he adds an impact transfer like Bobby Jackson, and boom, we're there. Thomas and Jacobson weren't the best players on that team, but they were necessary for MN to get, for that team to be what it was. And if El-Amin had followed suit (and Gangelhoff never existed) Haskins may have had sustained success at the top. Wisconsin's in a similar boat ... landing Dekker and Koenig helped them get to another level. They wouldn't have gotten guys like that from, say, Florida to come up to Wisconsin. (But now they might).

 

[WanderingGopher]

I think the big debate about the "big three" needing to stay home and the conversations about locking down the boarders are so loud because we aren't recruiting better than what seems to be leaving the state on a yearly basis.

I think this, along with the point that we are the only D1 school in the state, sums it up perfectly.

I don't get bent out of shape about "missing" on guys like Wolters, because it would require hindsight to correctly choose which of the 20 MN HS players like him is going to turn out to be the productive college player. I don't get upset missing on guys like Vaughn who are wrapped up with a handler, because we are an esteemed university that just shouldn't be playing that game.

I get VERY upset when guys like Macura and Reid Travis leave (and even a guy like Tyus Jones), because I think that is our most readily-available foundation for a championship team.

 

[GuyFawkes]

Well, yeah, that's the point. That's always been the point. We need sustained success to change that, and sustained success is most likely to start by getting a couple stars to stay home. Haskins' highest rated recruits were Sam Jacobson and Joel Przybilla. Monson's highest rated recruits were Rick Rickert and Kris Humphries. Tubby's highest rated recruits were Royce White and (via transfer) Trevor Mbakwe.

Our Final Four team showed how it "should" work. The two local must-gets (John Thomas and 5* Sam Jacobson) in the mid-90's stayed home. Then Haskins can build on those big commitments to sell a few 4* players from other states that we're a program on the rise, he adds an impact transfer like Bobby Jackson, and boom, we're there. Thomas and Jacobson weren't the best players on that team, but they were necessary for MN to get, for that team to be what it was. And if El-Amin had followed suit (and Gangelhoff never existed) Haskins may have had sustained success at the top. Wisconsin's in a similar boat ... landing Dekker and Koenig helped them get to another level. They wouldn't have gotten guys like that from, say, Florida to come up to Wisconsin. (But now they might).

+1, I don't have an issue on skipping on local kids if the coaching staff doesn't seem to think he is a good fit, never understood why people were so upset about wolters, considering the class we had coming in that year, yes most didn't work out, but hindsight is 20/20, and its hard to be upset about a guy who's best offer was from SDSU, he was on no high major radar. But if we want to make the next step, we need to keep highly rated recruits home, its a lot easier to convince a 4/5 star stay home then it is to convince someone out of state where people think we live in igloos year round. Simple fact is, in state kids know how great the twin cities area is and what it has to offer. Tubby did a great job at keeping in state talent that he wanted, home (The state didn't give him much from 10-13 besides coleman), hopefully Pitino can do the same especially with good seems to be good talent pool in the foreseeable future

 

[golfing18now]

I think this, along with the point that we are the only D1 school in the state, sums it up perfectly.

I don't get bent out of shape about "missing" on guys like Wolters, because it would require hindsight to correctly choose which of the 20 MN HS players like him is going to turn out to be the productive college player. I don't get upset missing on guys like Vaughn who are wrapped up with a handler, because we are an esteemed university that just shouldn't be playing that game.

I get VERY upset when guys like Macura and Reid Travis leave (and even a guy like Tyus Jones), because I think that is our most readily-available foundation for a championship team.

Who are you upset with? The players? The University? The head coach? The situation?

If Macura wanted to go to a small school (as some have indicated on this site) and Jones wanted to go to a higher profile basketball school as the number two or three recruit in the country and Travis wanted a different academic opportunity.....what should we be upset about? It's a square peg, round hole argument to me. The University just can't offer those things, regardless of who is trying to sell the product.

 

[bemidjigopher]

Who are you upset with? The players? The University? The head coach? The situation?

If Macura wanted to go to a small school (as some have indicated on this site) and Jones wanted to go to a higher profile basketball school as the number two or three recruit in the country and Travis wanted a different academic opportunity.....what should we be upset about? It's a square peg, round hole argument to me. The University just can't offer those things, regardless of who is trying to sell the product.

With Travis it came down to his parents wanted to say they had one son at Stanford and one at Harvard, I will always believe that Travis wanted to come here and if he ever transfers, which I doubt, it would be to the U

 

[Gophers7NatTitlesBadgers0]

Since 1970, the majority of our best players are from out of state (this is just a sampling off the top of my head, not meant to turn this into a "best of Gophers" debate, merely pointing out that most of our all time greats are from different states, and obviously Joel and Kris didn't leave the legacy that many of these others did, but their personal stats/awards warrant inclusion on this list if only to show a contrasting opinion). This also demonstrates though, that the single largest state we have had our most success from is Minnesota. When looking at this list, the biggest fan favorites collectively are probably Thompson, McHale, Burton, Jackson, Jacobson and Lewis, four of the six from out of state.

Jim Brewer - Illinois
Ray Williams - New York
Mychal Thompson - Bahamas
Kevin McHale - Minnesota
Randy Breuer - Minnesota
Trent Tucker - Michigan
Willie Burton - Michigan
Melvin Newbern - Ohio
Richard Coffey - North Carolina
Voshon Leonard - Michigan
Ariel McDonald - Illinois
Bobby Jackson - North Carolina
Eric Harris - New York
Sam Jacobson - Minnesota
John Thomas - Minnesota
Quincy Lewis - Arkansas
Joel Przybilla - Minnesota
Kris Humphries - Minnesota
Rick Rickert - Minnesota
Vincent Grier - North Carolina
Trevor Mbakwe - Minnesota
Austin Hollins - Tennessee

Go Gophers!!

You left out Hosea Crittenden - Minnesota and Miles Tarver - California from this list

 

[goldy93]

The problem is that we are not replacing the in state talent with kids of equal or better talent. It is a lot harder to get talented, top tier kids from the west, south and east to head to MN, compared to getting top tier kids from MN to head west, south and east. Maybe that will change, but our best hope is to keep local talent here.

 

[WanderingGopher]

Who are you upset with? The players? The University? The head coach? The situation?

Hmm, good question. I guess the answer is, everyone in the twin cities who doesn't support the U and understand how great this basketball program has been, could be, and should be. When it comes to star local players who go elsewhere, I'd look at the parents and coaches...these decisions are not made by kids in a vacuum. If Macura or Reid Travis were my kid, they would be at the U. I'm not saying I'd "make" them, I'm saying if they were my kid they would have grown up understanding everything the U has to offer and what it means to the state, and everything they would have to gain by going there.

And to some extent, I still blame George Dohrmann, Russ Archambeault, Jan Gangelhoff and the gang for the manner in which they secretly built the story and unleashed it at a time and in a manner to inflict maximum damage on the U and maximum gain for themselves, torpedoing our program long after the actions underlying the story had occurred (when Gangelhoff was long gone). Dorhmann got his professional awards, etc. and promptly skipped town never to return, Russ and Jan (and Courtney James?) got their revenge, and an entire generation of Minnesota kids grew up not seeing what MN basketball should be...something we are still paying for.

 

[Jigga]

2015: Alex Illikainen, Jarvis Johnson (Sacar Anim, Marshawn Wilson, JT Gibson, Sam Neumann)

Of these guys I like Marshawn Wilson the most he could be special very athletic, strong, can handle the rock, and is a decent shooter.
Sam Neumann can be lethal from behind the arc.

I was curious to know whats up with Saint Thomas Academy's Jalen Patterson and what his plans are for college.
Seemed like a good kid and solid all around player, maybe he's undersized at 6'2" but he is very athletic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUcj2HtR19I

 

[Blackhammer]

The state of Michigan has 2 great basketball programs. James Young went to KY. Texas has UT, Baylor and SMU all doing well and that's ignoring other D1 programs in the state. Their top 3 players went to KY. UCONN's 3 best players are from Mass, Chicago and LA. I really think the AAU culture has changed things (no I'm not talking about cheating and paying players) in that these kids are now used to being away from home. They know all the guys from around the country and they follow the careers of kids they've played against. It doesn't seem like there are a ton of high school kids that grew up really following their hometown team. For all of the great basketball players produced by Chicago, none of them stay home. Same with Baltimore. Seattle for whatever reason produces a ton of great players yet Washington is up and down and WSU usually sucks. The only school in NY or NJ that's any good is Cuse even though both states produce a ton of talent. Instate recruiting is only important to us because we don't have a program that attracts kids from elsewhere so we hope to keep the hometown kids around. We didn't care about instate recruiting when Tubby's first class came in and we won't if/when Pitino brings in a good haul

+2

 

[dpodoll68]

understand how great this basketball program has been

Just out of curiosity...when was this again?

 

[SoMpls]

+1, I don't have an issue on skipping on local kids if the coaching staff doesn't seem to think he is a good fit, never understood why people were so upset about wolters, considering the class we had coming in that year, yes most didn't work out, but hindsight is 20/20, and its hard to be upset about a guy who's best offer was from SDSU, he was on no high major radar. But if we want to make the next step, we need to keep highly rated recruits home, its a lot easier to convince a 4/5 star stay home then it is to convince someone out of state where people think we live in igloos year round. Simple fact is, in state kids know how great the twin cities area is and what it has to offer. Tubby did a great job at keeping in state talent that he wanted, home (The state didn't give him much from 10-13 besides coleman), hopefully Pitino can do the same especially with good seems to be good talent pool in the foreseeable future

Tubby also did a bad job of identifying outstate talent. Mav, Chip, Wally, Buggs and Oto were huge misses. Walker was actually a miss until Pitino came in and lit a fire under him. How much better would we have been if we had Jett and Sam Dower instead of Mav, Chip, or Oto. Tubby also never reached out to Macura. We could've had King as a freshman. Tubby was willing to take chances on lower-rated outstate players but no local players.

 

[GuyFawkes]

Tubby also did a bad job of identifying outstate talent. Mav, Chip, Wally, Buggs and Oto were huge misses. Walker was actually a miss until Pitino came in and lit a fire under him. How much better would we have been if we had Jett and Sam Dower instead of Mav, Chip, or Oto. Tubby also never reached out to Macura. We could've had King as a freshman. Tubby was willing to take chances on lower-rated outstate players but no local players.

I chuckle every time someone tries to blame the loss of JP on Tubby, when xavier wasn't in contact with JP until after the gophers. Dower was in the 2009 class, which was my graduating class, so I know that class pretty well, as I did play with a lot of those guys, and maybe I'm a little biased but that was the deepest class from Minnesota probably ever, and tubby got the better rated players from that class. Jett, yeah maybe, but he did end up at St. Louis, wasn't like other high majors saw his talent and Tubby didn't. Considering that Buggs is only coming off his freshman year, I'd like to hold judgement for a bit before I call him a bust. Chip was here one year then forced out for Trevor. Mav, Wally, Oto? I'd like for you to find me a team that never has guys who don't contribute much, just look at the final 4 team of Wisconsin with Anderson and Marshall, and Bo probably is one of the best at identifying talents, all coaches have misses. Walker was top 150 player, so I would not call him a miss, even if they don't work out, coaches have the right idea by going after highly rated players and getting them.

The notion that Tubby could not identify out of state talent is ludicrous, Cobbs, Iverson, Austin, Andre, Ellis. Than lets not forget that he went after Hayes, Schilling, Thomas, and those were just from last year, yeah he didn't land them, but he did identify them.

Why are Gh'ers always trying to discredit what Tubby did here, He used to be the head coach for our favorite team and he left them better off than when he got them, embrace that, move on and root for the current squad and head coach and hope that we build on to that.

 

[BballJones]

I chuckle every time someone tries to blame the loss of JP on Tubby, when xavier wasn't in contact with JP until after the gophers. Dower was in the 2009 class, which was my graduating class, so I know that class pretty well, as I did play with a lot of those guys, and maybe I'm a little biased but that was the deepest class from Minnesota probably ever, and tubby got the better rated players from that class. Jett, yeah maybe, but he did end up at St. Louis, wasn't like other high majors saw his talent and we he didn't. Considering that Buggs is only coming off his freshman year, I'd like to hold judgement for a bit before I call him a bust. Chip was here one year then forced out for Trevor. Mav, Wally, Oto? I'd like you to find me a team that never has guys who don't contribute much? just look at the final 4 team of wisconsin with Anderson and Marshall, and Bo is probably is one of the best i identifying talents, all coaches have misses. Walker was top 150 player, so I would not call him a miss, even if they don't work out, coaches have the right idea by going after highly rated players and getting them.

The notion that Tubby could not identify out of state talent is ludicrous, Cobbs, Iverson, Austin, Andre, Ellis. Than lets not forget that he went after Hayes, Schilling, Thomas, and those were just from last year, yeah he didn't land them, but he did identify them.

Why are Gh'ers always trying to discredit what Tubby did here, He used to be the head coach for our favorite team and he left them better off than when he got them, embrace that, move on and root for the current squad and head coach and hope that we build on to that.

Great post. Tubby's overall recruiting wasn't bad (aside from a few underwhelming spring recruits)- it was the transfers, legal issues with some players and the coaching. If Richard pulls in recruiting classes like Tubby did, I'll be happy. I think Richard will do a better job handling the players and coaching in general.

 

[The Brain Trust]

I chuckle every time someone tries to blame the loss of JP on Tubby, when xavier wasn't in contact with JP until after the gophers. Dower was in the 2009 class, which was my graduating class, so I know that class pretty well, as I did play with a lot of those guys, and maybe I'm a little biased but that was the deepest class from Minnesota probably ever, and tubby got the better rated players from that class. Jett, yeah maybe, but he did end up at St. Louis, wasn't like other high majors saw his talent and we he didn't. Considering that Buggs is only coming off his freshman year, I'd like to hold judgement for a bit before I call him a bust. Chip was here one year then forced out for Trevor. Mav, Wally, Oto? I'd like you to find me a team that never has guys who don't contribute much? just look at the final 4 team of wisconsin with Anderson and Marshall, and Bo is probably is one of the best i identifying talents, all coaches have misses. Walker was top 150 player, so I would not call him a miss, even if they don't work out, coaches have the right idea by going after highly rated players and getting them.

The notion that Tubby could not identify out of state talent is ludicrous, Cobbs, Iverson, Austin, Andre, Ellis. Than lets not forget that he went after Hayes, Schilling, Thomas, and those were just from last year, yeah he didn't land them, but he did identify them.

Why are Gh'ers always trying to discredit what Tubby did here, He used to be the head coach for our favorite team and he left them better off than when he got them, embrace that, move on and root for the current squad and head coach and hope that we build on to that.

Jordair went to prep school in MA. 2nd team all state in MN not rated nationally, King had no major offers out of highschool. Tubby should have taken a flyer on a number of MN. kids ...but hindsight is 20/20

 

[The-Real-Truth]

I chuckle every time someone tries to blame the loss of JP on Tubby, when xavier wasn't in contact with JP until after the gophers. Dower was in the 2009 class, which was my graduating class, so I know that class pretty well, as I did play with a lot of those guys, and maybe I'm a little biased but that was the deepest class from Minnesota probably ever, and tubby got the better rated players from that class. Jett, yeah maybe, but he did end up at St. Louis, wasn't like other high majors saw his talent and Tubby didn't. Considering that Buggs is only coming off his freshman year, I'd like to hold judgement for a bit before I call him a bust. Chip was here one year then forced out for Trevor. Mav, Wally, Oto? I'd like for you to find me a team that never has guys who don't contribute much, just look at the final 4 team of Wisconsin with Anderson and Marshall, and Bo probably is one of the best at identifying talents, all coaches have misses. Walker was top 150 player, so I would not call him a miss, even if they don't work out, coaches have the right idea by going after highly rated players and getting them.

The notion that Tubby could not identify out of state talent is ludicrous, Cobbs, Iverson, Austin, Andre, Ellis. Than lets not forget that he went after Hayes, Schilling, Thomas, and those were just from last year, yeah he didn't land them, but he did identify them.

Why are Gh'ers always trying to discredit what Tubby did here, He used to be the head coach for our favorite team and he left them better off than when he got them, embrace that, move on and root for the current squad and head coach and hope that we build on to that.

During the FF event, he got the biggest cheers when introduced. Even those angry UK fans loved him. These people are the most ungrateful fans I have ever seen.

 

[underground629]

Mo was ranked pretty highly, had an impressive list of offers, and was solid as a freshman until he got hurt. I remember GW said he was a lock for Pitt.

Tubby also did a bad job of identifying outstate talent. Mav, Chip, Wally, Buggs and Oto were huge misses. Walker was actually a miss until Pitino came in and lit a fire under him. How much better would we have been if we had Jett and Sam Dower instead of Mav, Chip, or Oto. Tubby also never reached out to Macura. We could've had King as a freshman. Tubby was willing to take chances on lower-rated outstate players but no local players.

 

[bemidjigopher]

Tubby also did a bad job of identifying outstate talent. Mav, Chip, Wally, Buggs and Oto were huge misses. Walker was actually a miss until Pitino came in and lit a fire under him. How much better would we have been if we had Jett and Sam Dower instead of Mav, Chip, or Oto. Tubby also never reached out to Macura. We could've had King as a freshman. Tubby was willing to take chances on lower-rated outstate players but no local players.

To early to tell with Buggs, Mo actually was playing well his freshman year, I wouldn't call chip a bust he had some good moments in his two years, but he was never going to be a starter. The other three, nuff said

 

[bott12]

Sconnie went to the final 4 with eight guys from mn or wi on their roster. currently we have only one of those types on our roster. They found a way to win with upper Midwest guys.

 

[GopherJake]

During the FF event, he got the biggest cheers when introduced. Even those angry UK fans loved him. These people are the most ungrateful fans I have ever seen.

Yes, we should build statues of him and every other coach that never finished above .500 in the conference and won one NCAA game.