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BigGopherFan

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...Minnesota prepster Trent Lockett is turning into a stud freshman at Arizona State and the two players ranked ahead of him coming out of high school last season (Royce White and Rodney Williams) are either never going to play for the Gophers or struggling to keep up with real competition.
Makes you wonder why Tubby didn't go after Trent a little more aggressively. Lockett seems like a "Tubby player," meaning he's wiry, smart and excellent in the classroom.
Go Trent!
 

It was a no-brainer, Rodney was Top 40 and Royce Top 30. Hindsight might prove Tubby wrong, but you have to go with the blue-chips when they come out Minnesota. Obviously it's probably no better than 50/50 if Royce White ever suits up, and Rodney is raw. Lockett is close to being a finished product and would be nice to have on the roster, but Rodney Williams has already improved this year and could give us the type of explosive player we haven't had since Sam Jacobson if he keeps plugging away.
 

Lockett is a very good player, but he was already committed to Arizona State before Tubby got here. Trent Lockett may be more productive than Rodney for his team right now, but if I had a choice between the two players I would pick Rodney in a heart beat. Lockett isn't even in the same stratosphere as Rodney as far as potential goes and he fits Tubby's system perfectly. Great athlete with a ton of length and will likely end up being one of the best defenders in the Big Ten before he leaves. If Rodney continues to improve and developes a consistent mid-range pull up he could be practically unstoppable. As far as Royce goes, we absolutely had to take the risk. I would rather have taken a shot at him and failed(which unfortunately appears to be the case) then have not taken a shot and had him end up leading Michigan State to the national championship while we all wonder what if?
 

BigGopherFan said:
...Minnesota prepster Trent Lockett is turning into a stud freshman at Arizona State and the two players ranked ahead of him coming out of high school last season (Royce White and Rodney Williams) are either never going to play for the Gophers or struggling to keep up with real competition.
Makes you wonder why Tubby didn't go after Trent a little more aggressively. Lockett seems like a "Tubby player," meaning he's wiry, smart and excellent in the classroom.
Go Trent!
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seriously......who is this guy?! just about everything you post is some kind of trumped-up "doomsday" scenario that you have come up with in your mind. :rolleyes:
 

(Williams is) struggling to keep up with real competition.
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I'm not at all sure how you come to this conclusion. It strikes me as one more example of your unhappiness over Tubby's recruiting rather than based on any real facts -- perhaps you can elaborate?

BTW, what I found interesting was the buzz in the Barn -- and here -- at the last game when Williams didn't play.
 


Having seen all three play extensively last year, I am not at all surprised that Lockett is succeeding immediately down at Arizona State. When watching him play, what I saw was very much a complete ballplayer that, while not as talented as White or as electric as Rodney, was as much of a total package as either of them.

In fact, I think the fact that Lockett played with Hopkins may have masked his true talents. He was, at best, the third best player on that team (though again, maybe the most complete). Had he played with a team less-talented, and had been asked to be the "go-to" guy on a team, you may have seen a player with much gaudier statistics and more looks as a top player. As it is, he still ended up with a pretty nice deal down in Tempe, and is taking advantage of it.

No surprise he is making an immediate impact right now.
 

williams hasnt been playing due to his foot injury..he hopefully will be back for the thrashing of sdsu
 

BigGopherFan said:
...Minnesota prepster Trent Lockett is turning into a stud freshman at Arizona State and the two players ranked ahead of him coming out of high school last season (Royce White and Rodney Williams) are either never going to play for the Gophers or struggling to keep up with real competition.
Makes you wonder why Tubby didn't go after Trent a little more aggressively. Lockett seems like a "Tubby player," meaning he's wiry, smart and excellent in the classroom.
Go Trent!
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Who would sit for him? Hoffarber? (No - much better 3-pt FG shooter0 Westbrook? (No - ditto)

Williams and White are F. Lockett is a G. The Gophers have lots of G, not so many F.
 

GophersOnTheRise Lockett is a very good player, but he was already committed to Arizona State before Tubby got here


Actually tubby was coach and had been for awhile when Lockett committed. I was at the open gym at Hopkins where Herb Sendek showed up to watch Trent and that was in the fall and he ended up committing a couple weeks later. He never really gave MN or Wisc(who liked him as well) a chance to really recruit him. Recruiting Rodney and Royce was a no brainer, in the end it may turn out that Lockett or Bruisewitz or even Dower would have been the safer picks, but MN had a chance to be a special team with Royce and Trevor and had to take them.
 



It's too bad some of last year's HS seniors weren't actually juniors. Man that class was loaded with talent.
 

JohnnyGopher said:
GophersOnTheRise Lockett is a very good player, but he was already committed to Arizona State before Tubby got here


Actually tubby was coach and had been for awhile when Lockett committed. I was at the open gym at Hopkins where Herb Sendek showed up to watch Trent and that was in the fall and he ended up committing a couple weeks later. He never really gave MN or Wisc(who liked him as well) a chance to really recruit him. Recruiting Rodney and Royce was a no brainer, in the end it may turn out that Lockett or Bruisewitz or even Dower would have been the safer picks, but MN had a chance to be a special team with Royce and Trevor and had to take them.
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Yeah you're right, my bad. My point remains the same though. Tubby made the right decision at that time even if Trent would have wanted to be a Gopher.
 

IMO Tubby had to recruit Royce, but this time recruiting a talent with serious character issues in his past clearly did not pan out. Sometimes it works out with a happy ending. Not this time.

So that begs the question (this is hindsight, I know), would the Gophers be better off with Royce White or Trent Lockett on their current roster? I'd sure like to have the latter on my roster right now. Have seen enough of Lockett at ASU to convince me he could make a solid contribution for the Gophers.

Either way, let's focus on finishing in the top 5 of the Big 10 and making the NCAA Tournament with the guys we have, not the ones we don't have/never had. I still insist you can't miss something you never had. Royce never played a second for the Gophers, and neither will Lockett.
 

I agree, Tubby made the right decision by recruiting White. Players that talented rarely grow up in the U's back yard like that. In terms of Williams, he's looked great and awful this season. No one knows how good/bad Williams could become. I just get nervous every time he touches the ball. He simply looked lost at the tournament. I think it's going to take him awhile to get accustomed to the Big Ten. Expect him to struggle right away before coming into his own. I don't think Williams will be a major factor this season, but who knows?

I'm not totally convinced Trent was committed to Arizona State before Tubby came aboard. But I guess I could easily be wrong.
According to Rivals, Lockett committed to ASU on Oct. 18, 2007. When did Tubby officially take over?
I guess none of that really matters. All that counts is Trent is having a solid freshman season and we should be happy for him. I think Tubby expected Royce and Trevor to make an immediate impact, which would have left time to groom Rodney a little more.
We all know that changed really fast...
 



Rick Mons said:
I'm not at all sure how you come to this conclusion. It strikes me as one more example of your unhappiness over Tubby's recruiting rather than based on any real facts -- perhaps you can elaborate?
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Rick, I think what BGF meant was that RW essentially disappeared during the 4-game stretch against good competition (Anaheim Classic and Miami game). After hitting an opening 3 early in the Butler game, RW went scoreless for the rest of that game plus the next 3 games; during that time he also didn't manage a single rebound. Granted, his playing time was somewhat limited (44 minutes total for the 4 games) but that was probably dictated by his lack of production. To me he looked overmatched and lacked confidence - it almost appeared that he was avoiding the ball rather than looking to make a play.

Although RW has shown us flashes of brilliance against teams on our cupcake home schedule, there is still a question (based on the 4 game stretch) as to whether he'll be able to step up to become a factor in B10 play. At this point in his career, I don't think he's as far along as a few of the other highly touted freshman in the B10 and I think he's probably a year away.
 

BigGopherFan said:
I agree, Tubby made the right decision by recruiting White. Players that talented rarely grow up in the U's back yard like that. In terms of Williams, he's looked great and awful this season. No one knows how good/bad Williams could become. I just get nervous every time he touches the ball. He simply looked lost at the tournament. I think it's going to take him awhile to get accustomed to the Big Ten. Expect him to struggle right away before coming into his own. I don't think Williams will be a major factor this season, but who knows?

I'm not totally convinced Trent was committed to Arizona State before Tubby came aboard. But I guess I could easily be wrong.
According to Rivals, Lockett committed to ASU on Oct. 18, 2007. When did Tubby officially take over? I guess none of that really matters. All that counts is Trent is having a solid freshman season and we should be happy for him. I think Tubby expected Royce and Trevor to make an immediate impact, which would have left time to groom Rodney a little more.
We all know that changed really fast...
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I misspoke, I think Tubby was here maybe a couple of months before Lockett committed. I just remembered he committed a little earlier than I expected and didn't stop to think about exactly when it actually happened. Either way I don't think it really matters though because Tubby got the right guys at that time. I'm confident Rodney will be better and more productive all around than Lockett before it's all said and done.
 

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