Jalen Suggs recent interview

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goldengophers said:
This is why Pitino was fired and why Ben Johnson was specifically hired, the mental gymnastics of those ripping Suggs is pretty crazy. Those ripping Suggs should vehemently disagree with the Ben Johnson hire.
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Suggs wasn’t going to the U of M regardless. If Fleck was that great of a recruiter why none of the Minnehaha football kids committed to the U. He may have liked Fleck over Pitino but he wasn’t going to the U
 


builtbadgers said:
Suggs is not fooling anyone. Pitino recruited him to the end of the earth. Suggs and others thought he was a poor coach and were not impressed. Sugg's camp made no secret about that.
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Exactly. This is straight up crap from a group of kids (apparently led by Suggs) who are going out of their way to be punks. Lack of maturity is being polite.
 
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FWIW - Doogie was on Skor North and told this story - which he swears is true -

Supposedly Pitino and an assistant coach were doing an in-home visit with Suggs, and the assistant coach "dozed off." Doogie didn't give the name, but he claimed that a Gopher assistant coach fell asleep during an in-home visit.

Doogie said that other recruits and coaches had criticized Pitino and his staff for not being more visible - attending games, practices, etc.

Doogie also noted that Ben Johnson and one of his assistants were recently at some workout at Totino-Grace at 6:30 AM - just to be sure that Taison Chatman saw them there.

So take that for what it's worth.
 


I could have called this response from the GopherHole. It was known well before Jalen committed anywhere that Pitino wasn't recruiting him hard. People defended it as a "good, don't waste you time" type decision. It was all over everywhere that Pitino didn't recruit Garcia hard enough and got outworked by Marquette...well before any commitment took place and in that same Suggs/Garcia class you had several kids commit to Wisconsin without even taking an official to Minnesota. If you look back, the last 4 year recruit that committed to Minnesota to even take an official visit to another high major school was Isaiah Ihnen (to powerhouse TCU). It's not just the local kids, Pitino wasn't winning recruiting battles for anyone...so why is it that hard to believe Suggs here? Secondly if your logic is "Suggs was never coming here" Then you should have been screaming at the top of your lungs (like some of us) that Pitino should have been fired. If you have no chance for a local kid in what was his 7th year on the job, you have no business in that job. At the time, Suggs was the highest rated kid Gonzaga had ever received a commitment from..this wasn't a Duke or Kentucky situation.

From Jalen's perspective, what does he have to gain from saying he would have gone to Minnesota? As of today (pre Chet) he has the best chance to be the "guy" asscociated with the Gonzaga program in it's heyday (obviously Stockton all time but clearly a different type of program then). All those people who saw you hit the biggest shot in the history of the program hear you say that you would have went to Minnesota instead of their beloved Zags...what is the upside to that? It's pretty myopic to think that Jalen Suggs would go on Richard Jefferson's Road Trippin' podcast and think "let me try to get back in the good graces of Minnesota Gopher basketball fans". If he did this interview on KFAN? Sure. If he somehow was drafted by the Timberwolves? Sure. The kids most likely going to be in Orlando for the better part of the decade while being a Gonzaga legend. Minnesota Gopher Basketball is simply nowhere near important enough right now for this ulterior motive/"one of us" type conspiracy theory that Suggs is just saying this to get in to someone's good graces.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
FWIW - Doogie was on Skor North and told this story - which he swears is true -

Supposedly Pitino and an assistant coach were doing an in-home visit with Suggs, and the assistant coach "dozed off." Doogie didn't give the name, but he claimed that a Gopher assistant coach fell asleep during an in-home visit.
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I heard this too. Hope it wasn't Ben Johnson. :cool: . J/K I'm 99% sure he was gone before any visits would have occurred.
 

Cayman said:
I think Wright has said within the last few months that he wanted to go to Minnesota, and "had a bunch of other guys ready to come with me" or something like that. We only had two scholarships for fall recruiting for the class of 2017, so that might have included Theo John, who seems to have turned out to be a solid, not but not amazing big man.

Maybe Terry is making fun of him, idk. In the fall of 2018, Minnesota would have had Isaiah Washington coming off of a promising end to his freshman season, and Marcus Carr already committed as a transfer, so the 30+ minutes a game that Terry got at point guard at Stanford en route to being a one and done seems like it would have been less likely to happen at Minnesota.
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Gophers wanted Terry bad, he didn’t like Pitino at all. He was the start of some the Wright fallout, but Pitino just doesn’t work very hard on the recruiting end. It’s not his style. Some kids are fine with that, others want to know and hear a lot as they make their decision.
 




stocker08 said:
and
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stocker08 said:
First off....I call major BS on this. Second....one of my good friend's sister is engaged to I believe one of the assistant coaches for the women's team at Minnehaha, and has said that he was a whiny baby. Commonly wouldn't try. Everyone saw Gonzaga's opening game where Suggs went down with an injury and it looked really bad the way he was milking it. Believe he had to be lifted off the court. Sat with his head down and a towel over his head while a trainer looked at him,, then all of a sudden he was on the side flexing it, then walking around, then running, and then back in the game. What a warrior.

Yeah....he's just trying to get attention.
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And my nephew whose best friend went to the U has another buddy who heard from Suggs' relative who has a relationship with the athletic trainers with the Gophers said this isn't true. They said PItino didn't really care for people who would be one and done's.
 

Former Goofer said:
And my nephew whose best friend went to the U has another buddy who heard from Suggs' relative who has a relationship with the athletic trainers with the Gophers said this isn't true. They said PItino didn't really care for people who would be one and done's.
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Bad attempt at a joke. My friend has direct contact with a guy on the women's coaching staff at Minnehaha. Not really a telephone game situation.
 






EG#9 said:
I could have called this response from the GopherHole. It was known well before Jalen committed anywhere that Pitino wasn't recruiting him hard. People defended it as a "good, don't waste you time" type decision. It was all over everywhere that Pitino didn't recruit Garcia hard enough and got outworked by Marquette...well before any commitment took place and in that same Suggs/Garcia class you had several kids commit to Wisconsin without even taking an official to Minnesota. If you look back, the last 4 year recruit that committed to Minnesota to even take an official visit to another high major school was Isaiah Ihnen (to powerhouse TCU). It's not just the local kids, Pitino wasn't winning recruiting battles for anyone...so why is it that hard to believe Suggs here? Secondly if your logic is "Suggs was never coming here" Then you should have been screaming at the top of your lungs (like some of us) that Pitino should have been fired. If you have no chance for a local kid in what was his 7th year on the job, you have no business in that job. At the time, Suggs was the highest rated kid Gonzaga had ever received a commitment from..this wasn't a Duke or Kentucky situation.

From Jalen's perspective, what does he have to gain from saying he would have gone to Minnesota? As of today (pre Chet) he has the best chance to be the "guy" asscociated with the Gonzaga program in it's heyday (obviously Stockton all time but clearly a different type of program then). All those people who saw you hit the biggest shot in the history of the program hear you say that you would have went to Minnesota instead of their beloved Zags...what is the upside to that? It's pretty myopic to think that Jalen Suggs would go on Richard Jefferson's Road Trippin' podcast and think "let me try to get back in the good graces of Minnesota Gopher basketball fans". If he did this interview on KFAN? Sure. If he somehow was drafted by the Timberwolves? Sure. The kids most likely going to be in Orlando for the better part of the decade while being a Gonzaga legend. Minnesota Gopher Basketball is simply nowhere near important enough right now for this ulterior motive/"one of us" type conspiracy theory that Suggs is just saying this to get in to someone's good graces.
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I'm not seeing many, if anyone defending Pitino on here. I suppose you could say my statement is as close as you get to a defense, but your bolded statement is at the heart of what the program's problem was so deep into Pitino's tenure--the program should have been at a place where a local McD's All-American would consider staying at home, but the gap between that hope and realism was too far apart. The misses on the McKinley Wrights, Tyrell Terrys, Theo Johns of the world, those building blocks were where Pitino failed to lay a foundation to offer a Suggs or Matthew Hurt a legitimate consideration for staying home.

I still think this is a bad look for Suggs, and a significant aspect of it is how it reads to someone from the Gonzaga program/fanbase (as you mentioned). Imagine a Jordan Murphy or Nate Mason pining for the hometown team a year after departing the Gophers--I can't imagine we'd like that very well. And from the MN perspective? Again, it just reads as immature and an extension of a "slight" that should be well behind him. On the national scene, he's been a golden boy--point guard for the Zags, the friendship with Paige Bueckers which ESPN profiled, the half-court heave to take them to the championship game--continue riding that wave kid. Doubling back to complain about a lack of attention from your middling college program for a coach who's now in Albuquerque and the Mountain West conference? Why? What purpose does it serve? And how does it make him look good?
 



short ornery norwegian said:
Doogie also noted that Ben Johnson and one of his assistants were recently at some workout at Totino-Grace at 6:30 AM - just to be sure that Taison Chatman saw them there.

So take that for what it's worth.
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Man. I mean, yeah, I guess that's what it takes, unless the track record speaks for itself? And maybe not even then? Don't any elite kids - or someone advising them - understand that massive investment in knee pads doesn't translate directly to love or an ideal situation? Why are elite athletes so incredibly needy?
 


BleedGopher said:
Geno Crandall chimes in as well:


Go Gophers!!
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Wasn't the rumor that there was some agreement behind closed doors that if Minnesota freed up a scholarship, Crandall would take it as a grad transfer? And then that scholarship opened up and Crandall didn't take it? What did Pitino do wrong there?
 

Someone fill me in. I’m not hip with all the modern lingo. What’s cappin’?
 

EG#9 said:
The kids most likely going to be in Orlando for the better part of the decade while being a Gonzaga legend.
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Being a Gonzaga legend...? He was flavor of the month. He'll be forgotten when he's replaced by the next one-and-done'er. Well, maybe he'll be remembered for crying when they lost the Natty... it worked for Adam Morrison, I guess.
 


coolhandgopher said:
View attachment 14537

Not being a smart ass-I had to look it up yesterday. Although I must admit, when I saw Michael Hurt's tweet the mental image that flashed was Mark Madsen dancing at the celebration parade.
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thanks, you motivated me to see if iykyk means something and it does!



if you know, you know

A newer acronym, “IYKYK,” is currently sweeping the internet and terrifying the unfamiliar in its path. This aggressive abbreviation actually means “if you know, you know.” And quite frankly, it means what it says and, usually, you don't know.
 






SelectionSunday said:
Is Michael Hurt taking a dig at Pitino here, too?
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Seems so and it seems an idiotic way to burn some bridges-former captain taking shots at Coach who offered a scholarship and kept him in program for 4 years despite minimal on court production? Was anyone waiting for the Michael Hurt chime in? 🤣
 

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