Mitchell enters transfer portal

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Eh, good luck to him.
 



I wonder how much Pitino will try to get some of his old guys and how many would be willing to follow him to NM
 

When you see as little time as a freshman as Sam Freeman (30 minutes) and Martice Mitchell saw (23 minutes)...it's very unlikely you will ever contribute in the B10.

I did a deep dive study on the Gophers in the last 20 years: I arbitrarily picked <200 total minutes for freshmen to see who developed into a contributor later on in their career.

The only success stories I can find are:

Aaron Robinson: 134 minutes as a freshman, averaged 0.8 ppg and shot 20% from the field in 2001-2002. Stuck around and contributed as a solid PG his senior year, averaging 33 mpg, 8 ppg, 3 apg.
Jeff Hagen: played 194 minutes as a freshman, starter as a senior in 2004-2005 averaging 11 pts/6 rebs.
Mo Walker: conditioning was a major issue. Played 115 minutes as a freshman (198 as a soph), averaged 12/7 as a senior in 2014-2015.

Other guys who never were major contributors here after playing <200 min:
Wade Hokenson
Stan Gaines
Aliou Kane
Jonathan Williams
Miles Webb
Kerry Wooldridge
Brandon Smith
Engen Nurumbi
Bryant Allen (not fair because he was football and partial season basketball...and then transferred to Illinois State for basketball..but he met the criteria of the search)
Wally Ellenson
Charles Buggs
Josh Martin (transferred partway through freshman year)
Gaston Diedhiou
Michael Hurt
Ahmad Gilbert (honorable mention, saw 295 minutes as a freshman and only 75 as a sophomore)
Jarvis Omersa (206 minutes, close enough!)
Bryan Greenlee (had a solid year at Florida Atlantic...hard to know what he would do here)
David Mutaf

Most notable other players are Justin Cobbs (played 363 forgettable minutes, and was a good player for Cal after redshirting/transferring) and Jamir Harris (played 394 minutes, now averaged 20 ppg for American and is transferring again as a 5th year senior). Mo Hargrow also only played 394 minutes his freshman year but was a solid contributor the next 3 years. If you stretch my 20 year window a few years back you could also count Dusty Rychart, although he was a walk-on which IMO is a different story.

Long story short: let's not twist ourselves into pretzels over the fact these guys are transferring. For the most part, if you aren't competitive enough to break the rotation even a little bit as a freshman...your chances of ever contributing in the B10 are pretty slim. If I missed anybody, please let me know and I can update my list.
 

eker0016 said:
When you see as little time as a freshman as Sam Freeman (30 minutes) and Martice Mitchell saw (23 minutes)...it's very unlikely you will ever contribute in the B10.

I did a deep dive study on the Gophers in the last 20 years: I arbitrarily picked <200 total minutes for freshmen to see who developed into a contributor later on in their career.

The only success stories I can find are:

Aaron Robinson: 134 minutes as a freshman, averaged 0.8 ppg and shot 20% from the field in 2001-2002. Stuck around and contributed as a solid PG his senior year, averaging 33 mpg, 8 ppg, 3 apg.
Jeff Hagen: played 194 minutes as a freshman, starter as a senior in 2004-2005 averaging 11 pts/6 rebs.
Mo Walker: conditioning was a major issue. Played 115 minutes as a freshman (198 as a soph), averaged 12/7 as a senior in 2014-2015.

Other guys who never were major contributors here after playing <200 min:
Wade Hokenson
Stan Gaines
Aliou Kane
Jonathan Williams
Miles Webb
Kerry Wooldridge
Brandon Smith
Engen Nurumbi
Bryant Allen (not fair because he was football and partial season basketball...and then transferred to Illinois State for basketball..but he met the criteria of the search)
Wally Ellenson
Charles Buggs
Josh Martin (transferred partway through freshman year)
Gaston Diedhiou
Michael Hurt
Ahmad Gilbert (honorable mention, saw 295 minutes as a freshman and only 75 as a sophomore)
Jarvis Omersa (206 minutes, close enough!)
Bryan Greenlee (had a solid year at Florida Atlantic...hard to know what he would do here)
David Mutaf

Most notable other players are Justin Cobbs (played 363 forgettable minutes, and was a good player for Cal after redshirting/transferring) and Jamir Harris (played 394 minutes, now averaged 20 ppg for American and is transferring again as a 5th year senior). Mo Hargrow also only played 394 minutes his freshman year but was a solid contributor the next 3 years. If you stretch my 20 year window a few years back you could also count Dusty Rychart, although he was a walk-on which IMO is a different story.

Long story short: let's not twist ourselves into pretzels over the fact these guys are transferring. For the most part, if you aren't competitive enough to break the rotation even a little bit as a freshman...your chances of ever contributing in the B10 are pretty slim. If I missed anybody, please let me know and I can update my list.
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If I was getting a tattoo it would be this post. Thanks for the effort. Seriously great stuff.
 

Go Gophs said:
No loss here.

Look at his offers. No one any good besides Xavier wanted him. That means one thing, he's a mid major talent. Also, if he is 6-10 and won't play in the post AT ALL, then that is why he didn't see floor time.
When you aren't a top player you have to do whatever is asked of you to get minutes.

No worries here. If you aren't a stud, or willing to conform to a system, see ya.
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I saw Iowa, Maryland, and Oregon in his offers. Whatcha got for a Plan B argument?
 




Mitchell...Mitchell hmm🤔 I’ve heard the name but can’t place the face.
 





eker0016 said:
Long story short: let's not twist ourselves into pretzels over the fact these guys are transferring.
Click to expand...

Nice historical reporting and I appreciate that but I don't see much pretzel twisting over this announcement. Reaction seems pretty "ho-hum."
 

Great effort on the history. I'll take one exception. Jonathan Williams did end up being a key contributor on one of Tubby's early teams. Stats may not have been much but he was a big body who banged a bit.
 


cjbfbp said:
Nice historical reporting and I appreciate that but I don't see much pretzel twisting over this announcement. Reaction seems pretty "ho-hum."
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In the last couple weeks since Pitino left, I have seen a lot of people expressing their hope/desire that Mitchell stick around because they were excited about his potential. I was responding more to that than this specific thread. I wanted to be realistic that guys like him that basically redshirt usually don't pan out.
 

Holy Man said:
Great effort on the history. I'll take one exception. Jonathan Williams did end up being a key contributor on one of Tubby's early teams. Stats may not have been much but he was a big body who banged a bit.
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Haha I actually had originally included him on my list of "contributors" based on my memory...and then I looked at his stats and was underwhelmed (never averaged more than 3ppg or 4 reb in a season).

It looks like the season you are talking about was his 3rd, 2006-2007. Barely got off the bench for much of the season, but had a run in the early B10 schedule where he was heavily leaned on and saw a few starts when Spencer Tollackson broke his hand and missed a month. Best game was a win against PSU where he put up 13pts 14 rebounds and 12 blocks. I remember him as a banger too.
 

I played against Jonathan Williams (I believe after his freshman year in college) one on one after playing 5 on 5 against him and pissing him off and he called me out to play him. We played to 10 need to win by 2 and ended up losing to him 18 to 16. I would have beat him but at 6 foot 5 and 180 lbs he would just back me down and run me over. I wasn't very impressed.
 

I would say If the players are not excited about BJs vision, why should the fans? Happy Coyle is excited! That’s all that matters....he got his man!
 

we do not know what might have been said between Ben Johnson and the hold-over players on the Gopher roster.

Maybe he begged Mitchell to stay - or maybe he told Mitchell that he did not see a role for him going forward. and encouraged him to try the portal.

A lot depends on what type of system Johnson plans to use - and the type of players he needs to make that system work.

who knows - maybe Mitchell will become a productive player under the right coach with the right system? I just don't know who that coach is or what system would best suit Mitchell's abilities.
 

Brandon Smith had some skill but couldn’t put things together.
 


MNVCGUY said:
Pitino knew his job was on the line this year and yet he kept Mitchell on the bench. So clearly he wasn't seeing that NBA potential as something that could help his current struggling team as the season imploded.
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Right. I would say he was a last minute recruit and someone that was 3rd or 4th on his list. If we are going against mid majors for a recruit, it is a pretty good sign that they are mainly not going to impact right away.
Border Gopher said:
I saw Iowa, Maryland, and Oregon in his offers. Whatcha got for a Plan B argument?
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3 star mid level recruit. Couldn't get on the floor at all for a team that was yearning for any depth and finished 13 in the Big Ten. No loss...

But you are right, I didn't click the tab needed to see other offers, looks like he was on some other teams radars as well...

No big deal either way. I just don't care if we lose guys that were bench warmers.
 

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