"It definitely is surprising," Jackson McAndrew on not receiving Gophers' offer

[Dakota2]

Some posters have been spot on regarding a number of topics here on the bb forum the past couple years.

Others, not so much. Your performance cheerleading is great. Being correct, well.....

There are no cheerleaders here. But a lot of folks like you who feel special piling on a pig pile.

 

[formerlybis]

I get where you are coming from and obviously we would all love to see as many top in state guys choose to stay home as possible. But the reality is there is only so much any coach can do. You make your pitch, other teams make theirs and the 18 year old picks where they want to go to school.

It is frustrating as heck when local kids go star somewhere else but it is what it is, and it happens everywhere in the country.

In the end you need to find category 2 guys, but it doesn't matter where they grew up.

Agree on the last sentence, for sure, and pretty much everything else, but ...

Johnson's forte was supposed to be with the local recruiting pipeline.

 

[Dakota2]

Well, the brilliant posters here wont admit it, but, yes, that is the case.

Do you advocate a roster of 13 Minnesota kids?

 

[Crappie]

There are no cheerleaders here. But a lot of folks like you who feel special piling on a pig pile.

vc guy is nothing but a cheerleader. Stating the obivous is piling on? Please, grow up.

 

[Crappie]

Do you advocate a roster of 13 Minnesota kids?

if they are the best players in the country.

Do you advocate a roster of 13 Minnesota kids?

I advocate doing what is required to WIN. Recruit, teach, coach, motivate, plan, strategize, etc etc.

Why dont you want to have a coach and team that wins?

 

[Dakota2]

Who cares about Pitino? Surely not any MN fan. Except you, apparently.

No, clearly you do because you are loudly proclaiming Johnson is getting different treatment than Pitino. Why the Pitino cheerleading?

 

[Dakota2]

vc guy is nothing but a cheerleader. Stating the obivous is piling on? Please, grow up.

Stating the obvious a time or two is one thing. Bleating it over and over every day for months is piling on and evidence of limited intelligence.

 

[Dakota2]

I advocate doing what is required to WIN. Recruit, teach, coach, motivate, plan, strategize, etc etc.

Why dont you want to have a coach and team that wins?

So apparently that does not mean all Minnesota kids. Thanks. You are growing up a little.

 

[Crappie]

No, clearly you do because you are loudly proclaiming Johnson is getting different treatment than Pitino. Why the Pitino cheerleading?

I said he should be fired two years before he actually was fired. Try harder.

 

[MNVCGUY]

Agree on the last sentence, for sure, and pretty much everything else, but ...

Johnson's forte was supposed to be with the local recruiting pipeline.

The local recruiting angle gets way overblown on here.

 

[Crappie]

Stating the obvious a time or two is one thing. Bleating it over and over every day for months is piling on and evidence of limited intelligence.

Looking in the mirror, I assume.

 

[MNVCGUY]

So apparently that does not mean all Minnesota kids. Thanks. You are growing up a little.

lol....no he isn't

 

[Crappie]

So apparently that does not mean all Minnesota kids. Thanks. You are growing up a little.

Why dont you want a coach and team that wins?

 

[Crappie]

lol....no he isn't

Stay positive and keep cheering, guy!!

 

[PMWinSTP]

Well, the brilliant posters here wont admit it, but, yes, that is the case.

Good Grief.

 

[MNVCGUY]

Stay positive and keep cheering, guy!!

It honestly cracks me up that you mean that post as an insult. Good lord that is pathetic.

I will stay positive and keep cheering because I hope things to work out with Johnson and he is able to get things turned around. Another year like the last two and it will be time to move on to someone else.

 

[jovs]

The thing I like about McAndrew is his competitiveness. The guys a winner with good basketball skills. Hard to find combination.

 

[Dakota2]

Why dont you want a coach and team that wins?

I do. Never met a fan who didn't. Since I don't hire any of the coaches, I support the ones who I know will have the job next season.

 

[Crappie]

It honestly cracks me up that you mean that post as an insult. Good lord that is pathetic.

I will stay positive and keep cheering because I hope things to work out with Johnson and he is able to get things turned around. Another year like the last two and it will be time to move on to someone else.

Hope, hope, hope, cheerleader!

 

[SelectionSunday]

Let's segment local HS talent (oversimplified):

1 - high-end players with blue-blood offers/possible one-and-dones (Suggs, Holmgren, the Joneses)
2 - players with P6 (successful) team interest
3 - players with P6 (lesser) team interest (I'm thinking of Butler, DePaul, and their ilk)
4 - players with mid-low major interest (Summit League or MVC type)

The last few cycles have not produced anyone in category 1. You might have a case for Garcia since he did end up at a blue-blood, but he was a transfer-in.

Category 2 is where you want to spend your time and resources. There's only a few of these, so you want to have a good hit rate. If I'm not mistaken, the only ones are Chatman and Winter this year. Then you've got Freitag, Robison, Asuma, and McAndrew next year. Unless something changes, that looks like a hit rate of one out of six (and btw, UW could go 4/6 on these).

I get that there's lots of reasons why you don't go after guys, but doesn't this concern you?

I'm not sure how many category 3 and 4 guys there are, but these days, you let them go, see if they develop and try to get them in the portal on the rebound. This is now really a minor league system.

Well done.

Agree. .., need to get more of the second level guys. They’re typically going to be guys you can win with in the Big Ten.

 

[GopherPlaya]

Mekonnen from Eastview is a better prospect than McAndrews. We have a realistic shot at him and Groves (even though I don't think he belongs in the Big Ten). We have Asuma already committed. I don't feel like this is a miss or a need. He was good in the state tourney but isn't a can't-miss prospect.

 

[Gopher_In_NYC]

Everyone knows the obvious, and wont state the obvious.

Enlighten us Oracle

 

[Tucker32]

Sure, they count. All the hits and misses do. I have growing concerns about this staff's ability to identify, recruit and retain enough quality players to successfully compete in the Big Ten. If you think things are going great in those regards, that's swell, we just disagree.

Ben’s recruiting of high school talent has been pretty good. His identification of talent has been good as well, even when they don’t come here. I don’t think recruiting of high school players is a concern right now - we need to see how he uses them once on campus, and we’ve only had one class to gauge with that. Good news is that each of the freshman looked better at the end of the year than earlier in the year. They need to make a big jump in year two.

The idea some have to offer and waste time with a kid you’re not going to get us stupid. Why create a culture where people say no - don’t offer to just offer. Also, invest time on kids that have some interest. You have limited time as a resource, so time you spend calling and visiting a kid who isn’t coming here takes away from time you spend with a kid who might. I remember kids I coached (division one recruits in hoops and football) who had absolutely no interest in a school and I never saw any of them change their mind because a coach spent more time with them. I also saw kids who waited on an offer from a school, including MN, because that is where they wanted to go. Spending time on a kid who isn’t interested is an absolute waste, and only satisfies fans who feel a need to see an offer.

 

[SoMpls]

Let's segment local HS talent (oversimplified):

1 - high-end players with blue-blood offers/possible one-and-dones (Suggs, Holmgren, the Joneses)
2 - players with P6 (successful) team interest
3 - players with P6 (lesser) team interest (I'm thinking of Butler, DePaul, and their ilk)
4 - players with mid-low major interest (Summit League or MVC type)

The last few cycles have not produced anyone in category 1. You might have a case for Garcia since he did end up at a blue-blood, but he was a transfer-in.

Category 2 is where you want to spend your time and resources. There's only a few of these, so you want to have a good hit rate. If I'm not mistaken, the only ones are Chatman and Winter this year. Then you've got Freitag, Robison, Asuma, and McAndrew next year. Unless something changes, that looks like a hit rate of one out of six (and btw, UW could go 4/6 on these).

I get that there's lots of reasons why you don't go after guys, but doesn't this concern you?

I'm not sure how many category 3 and 4 guys there are, but these days, you let them go, see if they develop and try to get them in the portal on the rebound. This is now really a minor league system.

Only true miss is Winter. Chapman wasn’t coming because of NIL money. McAndrews expressed that he’s not interested. Went all-in on Asuma which means you lose Freitag. Robinson is not a miss. If he’s at any other school other than Lakeville North he’d be lucky to go to St. Thomas.

 

[Gopher_In_NYC]

He’s still surprised??

Get over it Jackson

 

[VanillaThunder]

Mekonnen from Eastview is a better prospect than McAndrews. We have a realistic shot at him and Groves (even though I don't think he belongs in the Big Ten). We have Asuma already committed. I don't feel like this is a miss or a need. He was good in the state tourney but isn't a can't-miss prospect.

I am not familiar with Mekonnen. Size? Strengths? Any comps?

 

[Spaulding!No!]

I am not familiar with Mekonnen. Size? Strengths? Any comps?

Is he well spoken or does he look smart?

 

[gopherbadgerman]

Technically, he didn't "miss" because he really didn't swing.

Johnson has received commitments from 6 Minnesota kids (Battle, Sutherlin, Carrington, Payne, Ola-Joseph, and Asuma) in two years. I'd say that's good enough for now. You don't want to recruit all Minnesota kids. That's a questionable strategy from a talent standpoint and could possibly give the creeps to non-native recruits. Show me a school that recruits almost completely in-state and I'll show you a very low level program.

Well to be fair the gophers recruit from all over and are a very low level program.

 

[gopherbadgerman]

The local recruiting angle gets way overblown on here.

I’d agree. The kid is like 175th in the country. Probably higher rated that half the players on the roster, but not likely a good big ten player.

 

[WoodburyTim]

Why waste time on someone who doesn’t have interest in your program. I want people who want to be Gophers.

I could be a D1 recruiter with that philosophy.

“Hi, this is WoodburyTim, do you want to commit to the Gophers? No? Okay, we will take you off our mailing list.”