Jalen Suggs recent interview

Donate To GopherHole
coolhandgopher said:
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? 🤣
Click to expand...
Yep, and “minimal” is being kind.

I’d argue Pitino played him more than he deserved. Great kid by all accounts, but I’m not sure he even would’ve been a high-end talent in the MIAC.
 

Not buying into Jalens story one bit. Easy for him to talk about it now when Pitino is out.
 

BarnBall said:
Not buying into Jalens story one bit. Easy for him to talk about it now when Pitino is out.
Click to expand...
I love the ripping former recruit who didn't attend the U fetish on the 'Hole. It's so strong that it persists with players who chose not to attend the U under a coach fired for Ben Johnson specifically because he was so bad at recruiting in state.
 

Not sure about the honesty about the comments, but I like that a bunch of past MN players are communicating that they wanted to come here while future recruits are possibly listening. Also, maybe Pitino isn’t here to defend himself, but Jalen answering a question on a podcast the way he did doesn’t mean his character is awful or he is immature, which I think some have suggested.
 

goldengophers said:
I love the ripping former recruit who didn't attend the U fetish on the 'Hole. It's so strong that it persists with players who chose not to attend the U under a coach fired for Ben Johnson specifically because he was so bad at recruiting in state.
Click to expand...
He was not fired for bad recruiting in state, he was fired because the program was going nowhere. If there was more winning he would not have been fired.
 




Gopher Teeth said:
So if Pitino went to the sweet sixteen three years in a row, he still would have been fired because he didn't recruit Minnesota well....right.
Click to expand...
You could possibly argue that on Pitino- better MN recruiting would have greatly helped the talent- but it's the sole reason Ben Johnson is HC.
 

GopherChaos said:
Not sure about the honesty about the comments, but I like that a bunch of past MN players are communicating that they wanted to come here while future recruits are possibly listening. Also, maybe Pitino isn’t here to defend himself, but Jalen answering a question on a podcast the way he did doesn’t mean his character is awful or he is immature, which I think some have suggested.
Click to expand...
goldengophers said:
You could possibly argue that on Pitino- better MN recruiting would have greatly helped the talent- but it's the sole reason Ben Johnson is HC.
Click to expand...
Stop. It Pitino was winning with outstate kids he’d be here. But you can’t lose local kinds AND build a losing program. Honestly if he would’ve won he would’ve left you Pitino apologists. You rip Suggs and praise Pitino. What a joke! Pitino had no business being the head coach and got rich for good measure. Same people won’t ever give Ben his credit for getting 3 locals out the gate and call him a diversity hire. He’s done more for the Gophers then Pitino ever has for less. Let’s call the hate what it really is…
 



Gopher Teeth said:
So if Pitino went to the sweet sixteen three years in a row, he still would have been fired because he didn't recruit Minnesota well....right.
Click to expand...
Pitino was bad and shoulda been fired but something tells me pitino got the full mn provincial treatment.
 

I would have loved to play for the U, but.... but.... but...

This all stinks of trying to have your cake and eat it too.

We all know that various reasons go into making the decision on where to play college ball. Sure, many kids grow up having some desire to play for the local team, but that doesn't mean that they will.

These kids implying that Pitino was the only reason they did not play for the U are really undermining the credibility of the decision they made. The cold hard fact is that playing for the local team was not important enough to these players to overcome the negatives of:
- coach not being at my 6:30 am practice...
- coach not texting me on my birthday...
- coach only let me attend a dozen home games for free...
- coach not blah, blah, blah...
- all my buddies and AAU coaches say the suck...

I think all of these comments that are coming out reenforces the idea that some of the AAU crowd looked down at the U and steered players away by having a negative attitude, peer pressure, grass is green under the bright lights, etc...

Players, there is an old saying, "put your money where your mouth is..."
 

alchemy2u said:
I would have loved to play for the U, but.... but.... but...

This all stinks of trying to have your cake and eat it too.

We all know that various reasons go into making the decision on where to play college ball. Sure, many kids grow up having some desire to play for the local team, but that doesn't mean that they will.

These kids implying that Pitino was the only reason they did not play for the U are really undermining the credibility of the decision they made. The cold hard fact is that playing for the local team was not important enough to these players to overcome the negatives of:
- coach not being at my 6:30 am practice...
- coach not texting me on my birthday...
- coach only let me attend a dozen home games for free...
- coach not blah, blah, blah...
- all my buddies and AAU coaches say the suck...

I think all of these comments that are coming out reenforces the idea that some of the AAU crowd looked down at the U and steered players away by having a negative attitude, peer pressure, grass is green under the bright lights, etc...

Players, there is an old saying, "put your money where your mouth is..."
Click to expand...
Your not discounting that many kids and parent are not impressed with Pitino as a coach or as a person are you ? I agree they should take the high road and say nothing after the fact. Especially Suggs who got to play for a big time program, got to the final 4 and could have come here whenever he wanted.
 
Last edited:

alchemy2u said:
I would have loved to play for the U, but.... but.... but...

This all stinks of trying to have your cake and eat it too.

We all know that various reasons go into making the decision on where to play college ball. Sure, many kids grow up having some desire to play for the local team, but that doesn't mean that they will.

These kids implying that Pitino was the only reason they did not play for the U are really undermining the credibility of the decision they made. The cold hard fact is that playing for the local team was not important enough to these players to overcome the negatives of:
- coach not being at my 6:30 am practice...
- coach not texting me on my birthday...
- coach only let me attend a dozen home games for free...
- coach not blah, blah, blah...
- all my buddies and AAU coaches say the suck...

I think all of these comments that are coming out reenforces the idea that some of the AAU crowd looked down at the U and steered players away by having a negative attitude, peer pressure, grass is green under the bright lights, etc...

Players, there is an old saying, "put your money where your mouth is..."
Click to expand...
Richard Pitino sucked, he was an awful in-state recruiter and possibly an even worse in game coach. Something was significantly off in recruiting and relationship building- which Jalen "Bright Lights of Spoakane" Suggs is calling out- and the reason Ben Johnson was specifically hired by Coyle.
 



goldengophers said:
Richard Pitino sucked, he was an awful in-state recruiter and possibly an even worse in game coach. Something was significantly off in recruiting and relationship building- which Jalen "Bright Lights of Spoakane" Suggs is calling out- and the reason Ben Johnson was specifically hired by Coyle.
Click to expand...
I agree with this. Something was outta whack here with pitino and mn people. These folks going after him when he is gone is telling one part of the story. Deserved or not he got iced out by mn people.
 

goldengophers said:
I love the ripping former recruit who didn't attend the U fetish on the 'Hole. It's so strong that it persists with players who chose not to attend the U under a coach fired for Ben Johnson specifically because he was so bad at recruiting in state.
Click to expand...

I believe he was fired because he had a 54-96 B1G record, the assumption is that he would have faired better had he been able to recruit the top Minnesota players.
 

alchemy2u said:
I tend to agree with what you are saying, but he expected more respect and attention out of Pitino. I think Pitino thought he was still recruiting at Louisville or Florida, where he learned to coach and where they didn’t have to put on the hard sell.
Click to expand...
My guess is more like he knew that the kid wasn't coming here so focused his efforts elsewhere. If the kid really wanted to be here, he would let Pitino know that early on and Richard would have been all over him.

This is just my opinion.
 

SoMpls said:
So we’re calling Suggs a liar? One of many knocks on Pitino is he doesn’t recruit. Puts the majority on his assistants. JG basically admitted on KFAN that Pitino bragged about his assistants doing the recruiting. When you’re a top recruit like Suggs, Chet, Jones’s you wanna talk to the head coach. Few and Coach K were always around. Shoot Minnehaha was on the way to and from his drive to work. Wouldn’t have hurt to stop by
Click to expand...
Not just when you are a top recruit. Every recruit wants to talk to the head coach. Hell, my daughter is being recruited to play D2/3 softball and if the head coach doesn't show much interest and it's only assistants, then you get the feel that they don't really want you and pursue something else.
 

GopherChaos said:
Not sure about the honesty about the comments, but I like that a bunch of past MN players are communicating that they wanted to come here while future recruits are possibly listening. Also, maybe Pitino isn’t here to defend himself, but Jalen answering a question on a podcast the way he did doesn’t mean his character is awful or he is immature, which I think some have suggested.
Click to expand...
It’s not multiple players. It’s one player saying it and a bunch of others mocking him because they know he’s full of shit.
 

McKinley just confirmed everything over the weekend was true at Wolves media day.
 






Suggs showed a huge lack of character by putting these silly lies out there. For a kid worth millions now, needing nothing from anyone ever again, he sure took the lowest road possible.

There was zero chance he was ever coming to Minnesota, at least in the last 18 months of the recruiting process and everyone who is honest knows it. He really comes across as an entitled, weasel here; attacking a guy that got fired and will never defend himself.

The MHA Golden Boy was flat out making it up as he went along and everyone knows it. This makes him look awful, and I have no idea what his motivation was.

My plan was to post nothing about this false story Suggs decided to put out there for some odd reason, but then I heard Trent Tucker talking about it on the In the Zone show with Dave S. on Sunday. Dave was not buying the story at all and asked Trent Tucker to weigh in and as is his nature Trent dodged, waffled, then took the Suggs position 100 percent.

Dave S. was correct, but he fixated on the absurdity that a one and done NBA top 5 pick would risk injury and play one season of football at Minnesota with Tanner Morgan clearly on the throne, which is correct, but he have him a pass on "Richard did not kiss my ass enough" BS story.

Classic Trent Tucker, never take a risk, never tell the real story, just lay in the weeds while taking the "company" line and protecting those you perceive as your allies, and make sure you offend no one. There is a reason this guy is a total wash out as a TV commentator.
 


JimmyJamesMD said:
Maybe if ben recruited a little harder he could have landed tre holloman.

Is that what holloman is going to say a few years from now if Johnson gets fired??
Click to expand...
Maybe? I don’t know. What does this have to do with the validity of what the recruits have been saying about their own recruitment by Pitino? Are you a better source for their experiences than they are?
 

Gopherbbdude said:
I call BS as well.... why would they all decide to not play at MN if they wanted to.
Click to expand...
Do you really not think it’s possible that players can want to stay home and play for their hometown school, but don’t want to play for that particular head coach? Have you never had mixed feelings about something before?
 

Keyser Söze said:
Do you really not think it’s possible that players can want to stay home and play for their hometown school, but don’t want to play for that particular head coach? Have you never had mixed feelings about something before?
Click to expand...
Apparently, if Mark Few was getting busted for drinking and driving here in Minnesota instead of out west Jalen would have stayed at home. Were there other coaches that would have been acceptable to you Jalen? Tubby? Monson? Krzyzewski might be a good option considering things were not working out at Duke...

Maybe if there is a "one-and-done" with big ego we can just ask him who he wants to be the coach for the year to avoid this kind if embarrassing situation.

(Not a shot at you Keyser - just think it is funny how this dude is inserting himself into the conversation)
 

Something is rotten in Denmark. Better hope that none of the current gopher staff have anything to do with this. Karma is a beeyotch.
 

You must log in or register to reply here.



Top Bottom