Most Surprising Gopher BB Careers in History - Taking Nominations

Donate To GopherHole
brucekaupa

brucekaupa

**** Commander
Joined
Jun 9, 2009
Messages
2,069
Reaction score
29
Points
48
Who's Gopher BB careers wildly exceeded anyone's expectations?

I nominate:
- Blake - Has far and away exceeded any expectations I had.
- Dusty - I'll admit I couldn't believe it when he first showed up in a Gopher uniform. Was I wrong.
 


Definitely Dusty for me - but I can really only go back about 10 years
 

I think you've hit the nail on the head with those 2 but here are some more that at least had 1 surprising season since I got into Gopher Basketball in the late '90's.

Jeff Hagen
Brent Lawson
ARob
Vincent Grier
Zach Puchtel
Kyle Sanden

Perhaps in the other direction (not living up to expectations):
Shane Shilling
Stan Gaines
Aliou Kane
 

Obviously there are some great over-achievers listed already, but the name I'll throw out is Bobby Jackson. Obviously he came in highly regarded, but never in a million years did I expect he'd be THAT good on both sides of the ball, clutch, etc. The guy was incredible and IIRC, he was the first player in BT history to be the Defensive POY and BT MVP in the same season.

Go Gophers!!
 


Totally agree on Hagen, Lawson, Arob, and Puchtel, but I think the real answer has to be Dusty. The dude was a walk-on from the GR (where my grandparents lived), so he was my favorite player from day one. I was as shocked as anybody when he became one of the best Gophers of all time, though.
 

GopherGack said:
I think you've hit the nail on the head with those 2 but here are some more that at least had 1 surprising season since I got into Gopher Basketball in the late '90's.

Jeff Hagen
Brent Lawson
ARob
Vincent Grier
Zach Puchtel
Kyle Sanden

Perhaps in the other direction (not living up to expectations):
Shane Shilling
Stan Gaines
Aliou Kane
Click to expand...

Miles Tarver
 

T.O. #23

Townsend Orr is one of my all-time Gopher favorites. He had quite a few of those "No, no, don't do that" moments, but I loved his energy, his effort and the way he steadily improved. He was a nice Big Ten player by the time he was done.

Eric Harris' progression as a Big Ten PG has to rank up there as well. After his sophomore year I wasn't sure he was Big Ten caliber, but man did he develop into a player.
 

BleedGopher said:
Obviously there are some great over-achievers listed already, but the name I'll throw out is Bobby Jackson. Obviously he came in highly regarded, but never in a million years did I expect he'd be THAT good on both sides of the ball, clutch, etc. The guy was incredible and IIRC, he was the first player in BT history to be the Defensive POY and BT MVP in the same season.

Go Gophers!!
Click to expand...

That's exactly right Bleed. Jackson was on a very short leash his Jr year, Clem had him in and out quickly for errors of aggression. Late in the year he showed signs and then became amazing his seior year when Clem cut him loose.
 



Dusty #1 and it's not even close.

Kevin Lynch was a great MN HS player but who could look ahead and see what was in store for him and the Gophs? The recruiting landscape has changed from those days, but Hoff had a bigger rep (AAU, ESPY) than Lynch ever did.
 

Has to be Dusty.

10" vertical, knuckleball shot, ran the 40 in about 5.0. Still playing overseas, and once dropped 44 in a professional game. Crazy how effective you can be when you play hard and know the right spots to be on the court to get rebounds and garbage points.
 

josh087 said:
Has to be Dusty.

10" vertical, knuckleball shot, ran the 40 in about 5.0. Still playing overseas, and once dropped 44 in a professional game. Crazy how effective you can be when you play hard and know the right spots to be on the court to get rebounds and garbage points.
Click to expand...

Seriously, he was a poor man's Kevin Love. Except his ability to finish inside was incredible.
 

BleedGopher said:
Obviously there are some great over-achievers listed already, but the name I'll throw out is Bobby Jackson. Obviously he came in highly regarded, but never in a million years did I expect he'd be THAT good on both sides of the ball, clutch, etc. The guy was incredible and IIRC, he was the first player in BT history to be the Defensive POY and BT MVP in the same season.

Go Gophers!!
Click to expand...

Gotta agree with Bleed as well, definitely was a highly touted JUCO, but what a senior year. Exceeded all expectations.
 



Dusty for sure. However, Damian Johnson is another recent player that sticks out. Watching him as a freshman, nothing made me believe he would turn into a solid Big 10 player.
 

Eric Magdanz

He kind of came out of nowhere and all of the sudden averaged over 20 points a game if i remember correctly. But no one remembers him from the early sixties--unless you are of ripe age.
 



Mychal Thompson did pretty well for a guy who was recruited in the background of Mark Olberding and Mark Landsberger. I think there was even a 7 foot center from SoDak, Chad Nelson, who was a much more heralded recruit for that team than Thompson.
 

Hey, pretty good thread Mr. Kaupa. Most surprising....I'm going to go with Dave Winfield.
 

I'd say Dusty is a clear choice. Another worthy of mention is Kevin Burleson. Assumed to be basically a pawn to get Doug Wrenn, he finished with the second highest assist total in program history and top 5 in threes made and top 10 in steals. He certainly had limitations, but overall produced so much more than expected.
 

Who would have ever thought that Hibbing native, Kevin McHale, would shine in Maroon and Gold on his way to a fabulous NBA career. McHale has my vote.
 

Robb said:
I'd say Dusty is a clear choice. Another worthy of mention is Kevin Burleson. Assumed to be basically a pawn to get Doug Wrenn, he finished with the second highest assist total in program history and top 5 in threes made and top 10 in steals. He certainly had limitations, but overall produced so much more than expected.
Click to expand...

Except for the time he couldn't get the ball over half court.
 

Going back a bit to....

Kevin McHale. He was dominated by Steve Lingenfelter in the state title game, and didn't have any offers outside of Minnesota.
 

Doc1001 said:
He kind of came out of nowhere and all of the sudden averaged over 20 points a game if i remember correctly. But no one remembers him from the early sixties--unless you are of ripe age.
Click to expand...

I have a good friend who grew up with Eric Magdanz and he raves about how good he was. As an alum of Minneapolis South High School I am somewhat biased. Magdanz graduated from South in 1959.
 


Jamal deserves mention - perhaps as Dusty Lite.

He contributed a lot more than I ever thought he would.

He was no Dusty though.
 

John Thomas

Certainly not my number one choice, but he made a leap from being maybe one of the least talented players I have seen to playing in the NBA. I knew people who played against him in high school who were beyond shocked that he got any college offer, much less a d-1 offer.

I fondly remember a Bobby Knight quote, in response to being asked who the most important player was on the 1997 Gophers team. He said "John Thomas". A slightly taken back press row paused and asked him why Thomas? Paraphrasing a bit he said something to the effect of "because I know more about basketball than anybody in this room".
 


USAFChief.......you just beat me to it. Dave Winfield goes out for BB in his Junior year and was an absolute beast. His play was crucial to the team's success after the OSU brawl and the next year also. As a 6'5" G/F he was a monster on the court.
 

balds said:
Certainly not my number one choice, but he made a leap from being maybe one of the least talented players I have seen to playing in the NBA. I knew people who played against him in high school who were beyond shocked that he got any college offer, much less a d-1 offer.

I fondly remember a Bobby Knight quote, in response to being asked who the most important player was on the 1997 Gophers team. He said "John Thomas". A slightly taken back press row paused and asked him why Thomas? Paraphrasing a bit he said something to the effect of "because I know more about basketball than anybody in this room".
Click to expand...

Awesome quote! I played against Thomas in HS - he was huge but sucked. He really turned out to be a good player though.
 

You must log in or register to reply here.



Top Bottom