Name a Gopher you thought would be really good, but wasnt

I feel like Spencer Tollackson is worth mentioning. Highly ranked kid right from MN. Never really broke out into a big year or much more than average/slightly above. Hate to hate on the radio crew though.

I also thought Lawrence McKenzie was in for a huge senior year after averaging 15 his junior here. Dropped down to 12 his senior. Tubby had somethin' to do with that though. His first year Mckenzie's senior.
 


Adam Boone
Ralph Sampson
Colton Iverson (altho he blossomed at Colorado St)
Devoe Joseph (same story)
Shane Schilling
Mo Hargrow (altho he had his moments)


I don't think it's fair to list Rodney Williams here as a few of you have. Maybe he had a slightly disappointing career, but he was definitely an above average starter as both a junior and senior.
I don't think it's fair to say Ralph wasn't good. He rarely seemed interested or engaged enough to crank it up to 5th gear, and that was frustrating. But even in 4th gear he was pretty good.
 

Adam Boone
Ralph Sampson
Colton Iverson (altho he blossomed at Colorado St)
Devoe Joseph (same story)
Shane Schilling
Mo Hargrow (altho he had his moments)


I don't think it's fair to list Rodney Williams here as a few of you have. Maybe he had a slightly disappointing career, but he was definitely an above average starter as both a junior and senior.
We'll have to agree to disagree in this one. Really good to me means he was an above average player and close to being at an all conference level.

Stats -
Sr. Jr.
10.1 12.2. PPG
5.0. 5.6. RPG

He was below average outside shooter ( being charitable here -3 point % was arround 30% for both years. He also only averaged 3.5 FTA per game each year - didn't seek out
a lot of contact. Sad thing is if he would have developed an outside shot and/or put on a little bit of muscle and sought out contact, he would have been a really good/all conference type of player easily IMO.
 
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Rico Tucker, Nate Tubbs , Kolander solid had a skill set but never took the next step. Randy Carter was a real solid player and tough coming up from Memphis I expected more from a top recruit. Trevor Winter. Can’t remember if I expected him to be real good but kept hearing of his potential.
 

Rico Tucker, Nate Tubbs , Kolander solid had a skill set but never took the next step. Randy Carter was a real solid player and tough coming up from Memphis I expected more from a top recruit. Trevor Winter. Can’t remember if I expected him to be real good but kept hearing of his potential.
How highly regarded were nate tubbs and dana jackson?
 

This one will be controversial I think; to me he was better his first year than his second, then he left. I had really high hopes for him but was pretty disappointed with his Gopher career.

Rick Rickert
 






After freshman year, I thought Chad Kolander would progress nicely. He stagnated or regressed as he aged at the U.
He could've been something if it weren't for his annual ankle sprains.
 



Slidell Tullis. Never developed and was soon forgotten.
 


This made me think of all the recent guys who transferred from the Gophers in recent years:

Devonte Fitzgerald -> SF Austin
Ahmad Gilbert -> Rider (Never fully recovered from dislocating his pinky against Indiana in 2016. )
Isaiah Washington -> Iona ((( IW revenge game is imminent )))
Kevin Dorsey -> Never played a game after getting suspended for posting a sextape with Dupree McBrayer and Nate Mason on Twitter and Instagram. (Link is to an article, no video).
Jamir Harris -> American*

*Just looked up Jamir Harris' stats this season at American; the dude hit 55-59 free throws and 40% from 3... Damn. The one that got away...?
 

Oto Osenieks - Thought he was gonna rival Hoffarber with his 3 point shooting. Then he went and shot 23% during his time here. Ugh.
 

Steve Lingenfelter

I thought after he dominated McHale in the State Tourney (2 years in a row I think??) he'd be a force in college, but McHale really showed him who was the better player at the next level (and the next level...!).

Lingenfelter is probably before the time of most people on here, but I was very disappointed with his career in Maroon and Gold.
 

Lots of good ones here.. IW, Buggs, Bostick.

Sampson for sure, wish he would have transfered and Colt stayed and got some quality mins.

EE (Elliot) didn't think he was going to be a star but he was a disappointment. Same with Hurt, he just didn't bring much to the table, thought for sure with his height he was going to be good for a couple threes a game!

To some posts above; I liked Rico and Westy!
 
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Steve Lingenfelter

I thought after he dominated McHale in the State Tourney (2 years in a row I think??) he'd be a force in college, but McHale really showed him who was the better player at the next level (and the next level...!).

Lingenfelter is probably before the time of most people on here, but I was very disappointed with his career in Maroon and Gold.
He outplayed McHale only one year, his Senior year 1976.
 

He outplayed McHale only one year, his Senior year 1976.
I'm pretty sure they played each other in the consolation bracket their junior year as well... long time ago but it was a better battle their senior year.
 

Well this guy never played for the gophers, even though he tried like hell to do so.

Wesley washingron
Man, what a saga that was. Right up there with Doug Wrenn, El-Amin and Terrance Roberson for most messed up Gopher recruiting.
 


This was a fun thread in these horrible, claustrophobic days.

I will give Oto O. his due, as he retired from his back injury and brought the team back at the end the year.

Dana Jackson was a tough player that had a lot of upside and never got close to his ceiling.

Sampson always sucked, or at least underachieved relative to his talent as a player, I never liked a thing about his game or vibe- he looked like he hated playing basketball all the time.

Dutcher had a bunch high potential players(post 'white birch' 7 footer era) that never reached the top before it all crashed down:

-Alonzo Skanes - knew him from YMCA ball at Eagan 25 years later still a fiery player
-Roland Brooks
-name not to be mentioned- Champaign glass haircut guy,- not guilty verdict
-Kelvin Smith
-
 
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We never got to see Charles Thomas in a greater role here due to his back and whatever else had going on in his personal life. Would have been interesting to see him get starters minutes. Man could shoot, thats for sure

Charles Thomas was the real deal, that back injury was a tragedy.
 

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Adam Boone???
I remember Aaron Boone from the long lost 1992 era Minneapolis YMCA pickup games. A few younger Washburn guys (Russell the dunker, Andre? the cook- smooth guard)), that had some skill but no good college path played there.

That gym is being turned into apartments as we type, and it was a way better YMCA than the fancy pants, small one they replaced with it at Gavidea? on Nicollet.

I think Aaron was Adam's brother, but I could be wrong.
 
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Man, what a saga that was. Right up there with Doug Wrenn, El-Amin and Terrance Roberson for most messed up Gopher recruiting.

Ugh all those times which many included Sid's comments about how we hard it was to get recruits admitted.

Always wondered how accurate that was it if that was just part of Sid's schtick.
 




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