Kai Shinholster (Philadelphia, Pa.) and Jacob Ross (Bristow, Va.) Officially Sign with Gophers

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Per the U:
University of Minnesota men's basketball coach Ben Johnson has announced the addition of Kai Shinholster (Philadelphia, Pa.) and Jacob Ross (Bristow, Va.) to the 2025-26 roster. The duo is set to join the team in the summer of 2025.

Ross, a 6-foot, 6-inch guard, is playing his senior season at SoCal Academy after competing at Long Island Lutheran (N.Y.) as a junior. Along with his high school play, Ross has also played AAU basketball with Team Melo and Team Loaded Virginia. In 2023-24, Ross played in all 12 Nike EYBL conference games and shot a team-best 61 percent from the field. He also competed in five games with Team Loaded at the 2024 17U Shoe Circuit where he helped his team go 5-0 during that span. Last year, Ross was a part of LuHi's New York Class A State championship team. As a sophomore helped LuHI win its ninth conference championship. During his prep tenure, Ross was also the Saint James team most valuable player and a two-time Chipotle Nationals participant. Ross is listed as a four-star recruit from Rivals and three-star recruit from 247Sports. Ross comes from an athletic family with both parents being student-athletes at Rutgers and his brother, Jayden, is currently a sophomore on Connecticut's men's basketball team.

"We're really excited to add Jacob Ross to our program," Johnson said. "Jacob has great athleticism, size, length and versatility. Jacob has the ability to be one of the better defenders in our league. I love how he naturally competes and has always found ways to win. He brings a certain level of toughness out of high school and plays extremely hard. He fits in perfectly with our culture."

Shinholster, a 6-foot, 5-inch guard, plays at William Penn Charter School and K-Low Elite on the Adidas. Shinholster, a senior captain for William Penn Charter, is a three-time Inter-AC champion. Over the course of his high school career, Shinholster was a two-time Inter-Academic All-League selection his sophomore and junior seasons. Despite having an injury his junior year, Shinholster averaged 11.2 points to help his team to its first Inter-AC league title in 20 years. Shinholster was also named the most valuable player as Penn Charter were Tampa Bay tournament champions in 2022. With K-Low Elite this summer, he averaged nine points, 4.7 rebounds, 1.5 assists and 1.2 steals last season. Shinholster is listed as a three-star recruit by 247Sports and Rivals. Kai is the second in his family to play collegiate basketball as his dad, Rick, played at Jefferson University in Philadelphia.

"Kai has an elite skill level and can play both on and off the ball," head coach Ben Johnson said. "He has the ability to create offense for himself as well as others. Kai has a unique knack for scoring at all three levels. He's got a great first step, great speed and offensively is in a position to develop and grow as a player. He's won at every level he's played at and can bring that winning mentality here. We're thrilled to have him as a part of our program."

Go Gophers!!
 

Willwin40 said:
They signed today. I’m surprised nobody brought this up earlier.
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No local recruits to get your hopes up; NIL effect; and, though I don't like to criticize Gopher coaches, it's also an indication of how folks feel about Ben's future.
 


Mulligan said:
No local recruits to get your hopes up; NIL effect; and, though I don't like to criticize Gopher coaches, it's also an indication of how folks feel about Ben's future.
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Ben's future??

It's 2024. This is the future of the Gophers. A new coach won't make any difference. None whatsoever.

And no, I'm not nitpicking about 1 or 2 meaningless extra wins per year or something.
 



Willwin40 said:
They signed today. I’m surprised nobody brought this up earlier.
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What is the chance they ever play here? Unless CBJ pulls a rabbit out of his hat, he’s a dead man walking. These kids will be let out of their NLI, and they’ll move on to somewhere else. Not trying to be overly negative, but I’m not going to get to jazzed about any recruit this cycle.
 


forever a gopher said:
What is the chance they ever play here? Unless CBJ pulls a rabbit out of his hat, he’s a dead man walking. These kids will be let out of their NLI, and they’ll move on to somewhere else. Not trying to be overly negative, but I’m not going to get to jazzed about any recruit this cycle.
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This. Pointless to even pay attention to. The odds of them ever playing for the Gophers is like 10-20%.
 



Willwin40 said:
They signed today. I’m surprised nobody brought this up earlier.
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Good for the kids, they likely achieved their dream of signing a D1 offer. That said, we're firing our coach, I'd bet it's more likely neither of these 2 ever plays a game for the Gophers over the odds both do. Thus some of the muted responses. HS recruiting just really isn't all that important outside of a few kids.
 

Willwin40 said:
They signed today. I’m surprised nobody brought this up earlier.
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U don’t seem to understand the new landscape of college sports. Until the 2025 season is actually tipped off u have no clue who will be here for recruits or from this year’s team. No point in talking about anything other than current season.
 

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