Indiana State River College (JUCO) guard Abdoulaye Thiam commits to Minnesota

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Is anyone else trying to figure out what the heck is going on with recruiting what appears to be non big 10 caliber recruits? I don't believe we have got one player coming in with big 10 talent? Am I wrong?
 

UpAndUnder43 said:
Imagine believing everything said in interviews. Find the guy who says “I really don’t worry about defense. I’m not a team player, I don’t work very hard” or a coach that says “yeah, we’re gonna not play D, not work hard, not be exciting and recruit low character guys”

you can’t take every word spoken as gospel.
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Amen! I do find that more than a few people around here fail to understand that:

1) rhetoric is not reality; and

2) often life is like a foreign film - it has subtitles
 

alaska said:
Is anyone else trying to figure out what the heck is going on with recruiting what appears to be non big 10 caliber recruits? I don't believe we have got one player coming in with big 10 talent? Am I wrong?
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We won't know whether or not you are wrong yet so the question is pointless at this time.

Also, how do you define "Big Ten talent?" That ranges all the way from Victor Oladipo or Draymond Green down to Michael Hurt.
 

cjbfbp said:
We won't know whether or not you are wrong yet so the question is pointless at this time.

Also, how do you define "Big Ten talent?" That ranges all the way from Victor Oladipo or Draymond Green down to Michael Hurt.
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Fair point, and I know it is all speculation at this time....which is why we are here!

I guess, I am just down in the dumps a bit with the recruits coming in being mid major players who "seem" to be below average when it comes to comparisons of starting 5s across the big ten landscape. I am hoping I am wrong and they come out running..... Michael hurt was not a big ten player if you are asking me....he should of went and played for an Indiana State and been a solid player on a squad like that....
 

alaska said:
Michael hurt was not a big ten player if you are asking me....he should of went and played for an Indiana State and been a solid player on a squad like that....
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I'm not at all confident that he would have been very successful rotational player for Indiana State. In high school, he received offers from two small but academically prestigious D1 schools: Davidson and Bucknell. I'm pretty confident that he never would have started at Davidson and I don't think he would have been more than a rotational player at Bucknell.

The point is that there are plenty of weak players throughout the Big Ten but, somewhere along the line, someone thought they were good enough for a Big Ten athletic scholarship in one of the highest profile sports. Those appraisals were wrong but people making these decisions are often wrong.
 


cjbfbp said:
I'm not at all confident that he would have been very successful rotational player for Indiana State. In high school, he received offers from two small but academically prestigious D1 schools: Davidson and Bucknell. I'm pretty confident that he never would have started at Davidson and I don't think he would have been more than a rotational player at Bucknell.

The point is that there are plenty of weak players throughout the Big Ten but, somewhere along the line, someone thought they were good enough for a Big Ten athletic scholarship in one of the highest profile sports. Those appraisals were wrong but people making these decisions are often wrong.
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Your point is valid but Hurt was a special case due to his younger brother. I have zero doubt that the older Hurt got a scholarship to the U in hopes it would convince the younger brother to stay home.
 

MNVCGUY said:
Your point is valid but Hurt was a special case due to his younger brother. I have zero doubt that the older Hurt got a scholarship to the U in hopes it would convince the younger brother to stay home.
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Yes, I would agree with that. However, he was the second rated player in the state that year (Coffey was first) by the rating services I viewed at the time. Even in a weak year, that couldn't possibly have been true. He also received 9 D1 offers including ones from two other Big Ten schools (Nebraska and Northwestern). He might have had more had he not committed in September of his senior year. Again, this is just another example of the uncertain state of the art of internet ratings and the fact that offers are often based on flawed appraisals.
 

MennoSota said:
Well, I read what his high school coach and JC coach say about him. I read what Ben Johnson is looking for in players and I see the video of Thiam playing.
The kid is working hard and improving. I look forward to seeing his improvement over the next four years.
Now back to you, Oscar...
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I do as well. But to automatically assume everything that these people say is true is naive.
 

cjbfbp said:
Yes, I would agree with that. However, he was the second rated player in the state that year (Coffey was first) by the rating services I viewed at the time. Even in a weak year, that couldn't possibly have been true. He also received 9 D1 offers including ones from two other Big Ten schools (Nebraska and Northwestern). He might have had more had he not committed in September of his senior year. Again, this is just another example of the uncertain state of the art of internet ratings and the fact that offers are often based on flawed appraisals.
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To be fair Hurt was a better player than a lot of other former gophers.
 



alaska said:
Is anyone else trying to figure out what the heck is going on with recruiting what appears to be non big 10 caliber recruits? I don't believe we have got one player coming in with big 10 talent? Am I wrong?
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I think most fans are accepting the probability that the next two years are going to be tough.

Win 6-7 OOC games and 1-2 conference games and hope the team is ready to compete in the 23/24 season.
 

Q&A with newest Gophers basketball transfer Abdoulaye Thiam​

By Chris Monter

gopherhole.com

Q&A with newest Gophers basketball transfer Abdoulaye Thiam - GopherHole.com

Interview conducted by Chris Monter Abdoulaye Thiam, a 6-foot-3 guard from Indian Rivers (FL) State College, committed to Minnesota Friday. The junior college product was a full qualifier out of high school and will have four years of college eligibility for the Gophers. Thiam averaged 15.0...
gopherhole.com gopherhole.com
 

UpAndUnder43 said:
I do as well. But to automatically assume everything that these people say is true is naive.
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Yet, you have automatically assumed the negative, but somehow that isn't naive???

Either we are going to give a new coach some slack or we are going to bitch and moan before a kid dribbles a ball on the Williams Arena floor. I choose to cut some slack.
 

MennoSota said:
Yet, you have automatically assumed the negative, but somehow that isn't naive???

Either we are going to give a new coach some slack or we are going to bitch and moan before a kid dribbles a ball on the Williams Arena floor. I choose to cut some slack.
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What did I say that was negative? I said you can’t believe everything you hear in a press conference. That is realistic, not negative.
Are you a season ticket holder? Do you donate to the program?
 



UpAndUnder43 said:
To be fair Hurt was a better player than a lot of other former gophers.
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Well, yes, he certainly was better than Gaston but since Gaston played only 361 minutes over 4 years I would say that he was more of an athlete on a Big Ten roster than a "Big Ten player."

My time as a Gopher fan has been relatively short compared to most around here but Hurt was one of the worst players who actually played significant minutes over that time. I would say that he was worse than the much maligned Maverick Ahanmisi and Bakary Konate. Konate at least had imposing size to give him some value.
 

MennoSota said:
Well, I read what his high school coach and JC coach say about him. I read what Ben Johnson is looking for in players and I see the video of Thiam playing.
The kid is working hard and improving. I look forward to seeing his improvement over the next four years.
Now back to you, Oscar...
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Not like they'd be biased at all, trying to help him out. Can you provide some quotes of any HS coach, any time in history, bad mouthing a player who was trying to make it at the next level?
 

cjbfbp said:
Well, yes, he certainly was better than Gaston but since Gaston played only 361 minutes over 4 years I would say that he was more of an athlete on a Big Ten roster than a "Big Ten player."

My time as a Gopher fan has been relatively short compared to most around here but Hurt was one of the worst players who actually played significant minutes over that time. I would say that he was worse than the much maligned Maverick Ahanmisi and Bakary Konate. Konate at least had imposing size to give him some value.
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I’ll never speak a negative word again about BK because he was so proud to be a gopher on his senior night. Dude rules.
good point on the minutes. Hurt just never seemed comfortable with touching the ball. I’m sure he is a great guy and wish him the best. But he wasn’t good.
 

MennoSota said:
Yet, you have automatically assumed the negative, but somehow that isn't naive???
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I don't think we're assuming much in terms of the negative - it's been shown to us that most other teams trying to compete at this level don't take guys like this.

Buying a lottery ticket and assuming you are going to win is naive. Buying a lottery ticket and assuming you are going to lose is not naive.
 


UpAndUnder43 said:
I’ll never speak a negative word again about BK because he was so proud to be a gopher on his senior night. Dude rules.
good point on the minutes. Hurt just never seemed comfortable with touching the ball. I’m sure he is a great guy and wish him the best. But he wasn’t good.
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When it comes to BK, I also fault the coaching staff somewhat for terrible player development where he was concerned. Early in his soph year, BK was developing a pretty effective turnaround hook shot. Over the first 6 games of that season, he averaged 7.2 points per game while shooting 67% from the field. Then, for some unknown reason he went away from that shot for most of the remainder of his career.
 

People get way too caught up on this site with the college offers (or lack thereof) given to players. Many examples every year of unheralded recruits working their butts off to become good players for teams. Thiam is motivated, can shoot the ball, and it appears he'll be coachable. Good enough for me.
 

manderson1984 said:
No kidding what's all the hate on Michael for? Not every recruit is going to be a star or even a starter. He was also a willing and positive bench guy who didn't complain about his role.
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If we didn't need him to be better his inability to do that wouldn't have mattered but we did. He remained here for four years with little improvement and took up a scholarship from someone who might have been able to contribute at a higher level. As Clint Eastwood famously once said: "A man's gotta know his limitations."
 

cjbfbp said:
If we didn't need him to be better his inability to do that wouldn't have mattered but we did. He remained here for four years with little improvement and took up a scholarship from someone who might have been able to contribute at a higher level. As Clint Eastwood famously once said: "A man's gotta know his limitations."
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That’s Hurts fault? He worked hard and was a good student. Blame the coach who offered him the scholarship. That’s on him.
 

gopherguy15 said:
People get way too caught up on this site with the college offers (or lack thereof) given to players. Many examples every year of unheralded recruits working their butts off to become good players for teams. Thiam is motivated, can shoot the ball, and it appears he'll be coachable. Good enough for me.
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Of course what you say here is absolutely true. The odds, however, would favor the guys that are highly rated by a lot of bigger schools. That said, we agree, the coach has to make his own determination as to fit, potential and character. If you are competing against Western Michigan and other directional schools, all of the time- you are in serious trouble. To win big, you are going to have a win your share of the recruiting battles against others that win big. Ben Johnson is not going to out chess master Tom Izzo with an army of pawns.
 


MplsGopher_fan said:
I don't think we're assuming much in terms of the negative - it's been shown to us that most other teams trying to compete at this level don't take guys like this.

Buying a lottery ticket and assuming you are going to win is naive. Buying a lottery ticket and assuming you are going to lose is not naive.
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What’s your proof on this? What teams are your comp? How do you even know what this player is yet?
 

manderson1984 said:
That’s Hurts fault? He worked hard and was a good student. Blame the coach who offered him the scholarship. That’s on him.
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It's his fault for not improving his game or, absent that, not coming to terms with his limitations and transferring to a lower level. If you stayed at a job where you were completely ineffective just because you could keep that job for four years, I'd say the same things about you. Of course, in that hypothetical, you likely would have bigger concerns that kept you there. All Hurt had to do was find a scholarship at a lower level school and he probably could have if he left after one or two years.
 

cjbfbp said:
It's his fault for not improving his game or, absent that, not coming to terms with his limitations and transferring to a lower level. If you stayed at a job where you were completely ineffective just because you could keep that job for four years, I'd say the same things about you. Of course, in that hypothetical, you likely would have bigger concerns that kept you there. All Hurt had to do was find a scholarship at a lower level school and he probably could have if he left after one or two years.
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So player development falls solely on the player? No coaching staff responsibility there? I wonder how our player development under Pitino compared to the player development in other programs over the same time period. Hard thing to measure I guess. I'm not trying to remove responsibility to get better over time from Hurt, but I think there are other factors involved.
 

cjbfbp said:
It's his fault for not improving his game or, absent that, not coming to terms with his limitations and transferring to a lower level. If you stayed at a job where you were completely ineffective just because you could keep that job for four years, I'd say the same things about you. Of course, in that hypothetical, you likely would have bigger concerns that kept you there. All Hurt had to do was find a scholarship at a lower level school and he probably could have if he left after one or two years.
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Lol, man not all 13 guys can play or be stars. His life dream was to play at the U. He did that and represented the University at the highest level as a student-athlete. I also know from plenty of people around the program that he did work hard, it just didn’t translate on the court. The fact you think he needs to “come to terms with his limitations” and transfer down is ridiculous. He met the requirements of the scholarship he was offered
 


bfriedrichs10 said:
So player development falls solely on the player? No coaching staff responsibility there? I wonder how our player development under Pitino compared to the player development in other programs over the same time period. Hard thing to measure I guess. I'm not trying to remove responsibility to get better over time from Hurt, but I think there are other factors involved.
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Yes, I think a player development program is critical for a coach and I agree that Pitino was terrible at that. Had Pitino's program been much better at that I think Konate could have been significantly better than he was. But Hurt demonstrated that he simply could not play at this level so I think he should have transferred out at least by the end of his second year.
 

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