Neal: Ben Johnson stabilized the Gophers. Next step: Keeping his stars while finding more.

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BleedGopher

BleedGopher

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Per Neal:

Johnson's roster construction included two newcomers who have helped stabilize the program. Transfer point guard Elijah Hawkins got the most out of the offense. Freshman Cam Christie was second on the team in scoring average. While Hawkins is expected back next season, Christie could leave if there's a chance he can be drafted.

This is Johnson's next challenge: building on this season and keeping his roster intact. Winning 19 games, 10 more than last season, should help with recruiting — meaning recruiting prep stars, recruiting in the transfer portal and even re-recruiting his current players and keeping them out of that portal.

This was the season Johnson needed to stabilize the program while keeping his seat from getting warm. "A little more than warm," Rickert said with a chuckle.

Then he added: "You have to get that reputation back. And I think he's in the beginning stages of that. It takes time."

m.startribune.com

Star Tribune

Your source for Minnesota news today. Read articles, view photos or watch videos about news in Minneapolis, St. Paul, Duluth, St. Cloud, Rochester, and beyond.
m.startribune.com m.startribune.com

Go Gophers!!
 

BleedGopher said:
Per Neal:

Johnson's roster construction included two newcomers who have helped stabilize the program. Transfer point guard Elijah Hawkins got the most out of the offense. Freshman Cam Christie was second on the team in scoring average. While Hawkins is expected back next season, Christie could leave if there's a chance he can be drafted.

This is Johnson's next challenge: building on this season and keeping his roster intact. Winning 19 games, 10 more than last season, should help with recruiting — meaning recruiting prep stars, recruiting in the transfer portal and even re-recruiting his current players and keeping them out of that portal.

This was the season Johnson needed to stabilize the program while keeping his seat from getting warm. "A little more than warm," Rickert said with a chuckle.

Then he added: "You have to get that reputation back. And I think he's in the beginning stages of that. It takes time."

m.startribune.com

Star Tribune

Your source for Minnesota news today. Read articles, view photos or watch videos about news in Minneapolis, St. Paul, Duluth, St. Cloud, Rochester, and beyond.
m.startribune.com m.startribune.com

Go Gophers!!
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I liked him providing Rickert’s perspective as Ben’s former teammate and it was positive overall.

Still the article is a bit disingenuous when commenting about how out of the 25 (first, second team and honorable mention) metro players, none are coming to the U; a more correct analysis would be how many of them did we offer and not receive commitments from? We obviously didn’t offer them all and it’s lazy writing bereft of research.
 

Gopher_In_NYC said:
I liked him providing Rickert’s perspective as Ben’s former teammate and it was positive overall.

Still the article is a bit disingenuous when commenting about how out of the 25 (first, second team and honorable mention) metro players, none are coming to the U; a more correct analysis would be how many of them did we offer and not receive commitments from? We obviously didn’t offer them all and it’s lazy writing bereft of research.
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To be fair, of the 25 metro players none are committed to the Gophers. That’s a fact.

We also have no idea how many were offered. No one knows outside of Johnson, his staff and the players. Not every offer is tweeted and tracked.

If you’re expecting Lavelle to write something well researched then you’ll be disappointed forever.
 

UpAndUnder43 said:
To be fair, of the 25 metro players none are committed to the Gophers. That’s a fact.

We also have no idea how many were offered. No one knows outside of Johnson, his staff and the players. Not every offer is tweeted and tracked.

If you’re expecting Lavelle to write something well researched then you’ll be disappointed forever.
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The point was and is that we didn’t offer all 25, as common sense and a marginal amount of sports knowledge would dictate that not all 25 received D1 offers and hence won’t play D1 basketball. What about this is confusing you?

I never said that me, you or him could know every specific offer, but a modicum of effort at looking at the sites would provide the plurality of kids who were offered, as that’s why pay sites attract subscribers, for information you generally can’t find here. The article could have referenced that and therefore Ben (get it?), more accurate.

I’ve lived here for 25 years, so I look at it from my prism and the experience; I Asked my buddy a NYer by birth, who moved to MN as a Hazleton Alum, the biggest difference between the two geographies, and he said in MN mediocrity is acceptable, while it isn’t in NY - so that’s my East Star now.

Savvy?
 

Gopher_In_NYC said:
The point was and is that we didn’t offer all 25, as common sense and a marginal amount of sports knowledge would dictate that not all 25 received D1 offers and hence won’t play D1 basketball. What about this is confusing you?

I never said that me, you or him could know every specific offer, but a modicum of effort at looking at the sites would provide the plurality of kids who were offered, as that’s why pay sites attract subscribers, for information you generally can’t find here. The article could have referenced that and therefore Ben (get it?), more accurate.

I’ve lived here for 25 years, so I look at it from my prism and the experience; I Asked my buddy a NYer by birth, who moved to MN as a Hazleton Alum, the biggest difference between the two geographies, and he said in MN mediocrity is acceptable, while it isn’t in NY - so that’s my East Star now.

Savvy?
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tl;dr all that.

Lavelle is bad. Obviously not all 25 had gopher or even D1 offers. But he’s a lazy writer who makes a factual and useless point.

It is odd that a coach hired to keep local kids (ADs words, not mine) didn’t get a single metro kid when plenty have comparable or better commits. But he got two out state kids and Johnson can’t choose where the talent lives.
 


UpAndUnder43 said:
tl;dr all that.

Lavelle is bad. Obviously not all 25 had gopher or even D1 offers. But he’s a lazy writer who makes a factual and useless point.

It is odd that a coach hired to keep local kids (ADs words, not mine) didn’t get a single metro kid when plenty have comparable or better commits. But he got two out state kids and Johnson can’t choose where the talent lives.
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Maybe Ben feels there is less recruiting competition in the outstate area
 

UpAndUnder43 said:
tl;dr all that.

Lavelle is bad. Obviously not all 25 had gopher or even D1 offers. But he’s a lazy writer who makes a factual and useless point.

It is odd that a coach hired to keep local kids (ADs words, not mine) didn’t get a single metro kid when plenty have comparable or better commits. But he got two out state kids and Johnson can’t choose where the talent lives.
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You should hear him on the radio.
 


RockChalk said:
Maybe Ben feels there is less recruiting competition in the outstate area
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Is the Pony Express still operating?

Well, Cherry is unincorporated IIRC; so it might no even be on the 🗺️ map
 





RockChalk said:
See now your speaking about things you know nothing about. Be careful.
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What the Pony Express is still running?

I drive through Cherry every time I go to see my Mom who lives in Side Lake, which is outside of Hibbing, where my Mom was born.

Cherry, Minnesota - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org en.m.wikipedia.org

Cherry is an unincorporated community in Cherry Township, Saint Louis County, Minnesota, United States.
 

Gopher_In_NYC said:
What the Pony Express is still running?

I drive through Cherry every time I go to see my Mom who lives in Side Lake, which is outside of Hibbing, where my Mom was born.

Cherry, Minnesota - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org en.m.wikipedia.org

Cherry is an unincorporated community in Cherry Township, Saint Louis County, Minnesota, United States.
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I know all about Cherry, where it is, how big it is, that the school is located right off 37.
 



RockChalk said:
Certainly not packed full of blue bloods. I would expect our coach to win the majority of these epic recruiting battles when it comes to an in-state kid.

Isaac Asuma Recruit Interests

247sports.com 247sports.com
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Never said it was packed with Blue Bloods, did I? You can’t put words in people’s mouths, that’s just rude.

He was the second ranked player in the state, per the recruiting service you posted and the highest ranked PG - the onlyother 100 ranked player in the state, besides McAndrew - I’ll take him over the lowered ranked All Metro players.

Are you an out-state hater?? I thought you’d be more friendly following such a rural team as Kansas.
 
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RockChalk said:
I know all about Cherry, where it is, how big it is, that the school is located right off 37.
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What exactly, be specific, or don’t waste my valuable time, was I speaking about that i don’t know about.

Pony Express?

It sure the heck ain’t Da Range.

My debonair and suave countenance fooled yah 🥳. I dated more than one farm girl in my formative years
 

Gopher_In_NYC said:
Never said it was packed with Blue Bloods, did I? You can’t put words in people’s mouths, that’s just rude.

He was the second ranked player in the state, per the recruiting service you posted and the highest ranked PG - who was the other 100 ranked player in the state - I’ll take him over the lowered ranked All Metro players.

Are you an out-state hater?? I thought you’d be more friendly following such a rural team as Kansas.
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I prefer the out state. I prefer to work there and live there. Thankfully those options are all in my daily diary.
Cherry is not on the map you are correct. However smaller towns like Forbes, Zim and Leonidas are, hell even Kinney and Pengilly show up

As for his recruitment compared to Metro, my point was less competition. The Metro kids had bigger schools after them, i.e. the Badger, Creighton, Virginia, Baylor, etc. The last thing I want to do is to speak for someone else.
 

RockChalk said:
Maybe Ben feels there is less recruiting competition in the outstate area
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I think the issue with metro kids can (sometimes) be that they don’t want to stay where they grew up.

Cherry is not at all similar to the metro. Moving from wayzata/lakeville/etc to Dinkytown isn’t really moving to most kids. Sure—it’s 30 minutes away but that’s not always alluring.

I drove past SCSU every day to get to junior high and high school. Never considered attending. Wanted to leave my hometown. Feel like many metro kids have that same mentality—for better or worse.
 

RockChalk said:
I prefer the out state. I prefer to work there and live there. Thankfully those options are all in my daily diary.
Cherry is not on the map you are correct. However smaller towns like Forbes, Zim and Leonidas are, hell even Kinney and Pengilly show up

As for his recruitment compared to Metro, my point was less competition. The Metro kids had bigger schools after them, i.e. the Badger, Creighton, Virginia, Baylor, etc. The last thing I want to do is to speak for someone else.
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Where’s I grew up, we worshipped the Gophers and just having someone from your hometown who played there was a big deal; I like that sensibility and even though I’ve lived here 25 years, I wouldn’t trade growing up in Alex for anything; in fact the values I learned there, helped me standout because I was more genuine than the average business development guy.

I’m extremely proud that Grove is going to represent the Cards at the U.
 



Gopher_In_NYC said:
Never said it was packed with Blue Bloods, did I? You can’t put words in people’s mouths, that’s just rude.

He was the second ranked player in the state, per the recruiting service you posted and the highest ranked PG - the onlyother 100 ranked player in the state, besides McAndrew - I’ll take him over the lowered ranked All Metro players.

Are you an out-state hater?? I thought you’d be more friendly following such a rural team as Kansas.
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Putting words in people's mouths and slinging mud are the Ben-haters' favorite pastimes.
 


Dumb article.

Or course the comment about losing-out on 25 metro players.

But also setting up to blame Ben if we lose players to the pros. As if that's his fault.
 






EasyThere Pilgrim said:
You sound like you're over age 90 if you can't easily look up what 'mud-slinging' means.
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I know what it means. It’s an antiquated term. That’s ok though. I’m sure defending Ben keeps you in high snuff or bussin
 


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