Pulley recap

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JohnnyGopher

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I didn't go Sunday but heard the St Louis Eagles won in a tight game over Houston Hoops. Pulley lost in the semi's to the Eagles. Overall a very good tournament with the exception of the joke that is Mac Irvin and his program who had confirmed they we're coming in the middle of the week and then no showed without a single call all weekend. They also pulled this stunt at Chris Carr's tournament last summer.

Jacob Thomas earned his Minnesota scholarship the past two weekends and it should be coming this month.

Chad Calcaterra on the other hand is a longshot at best to come to minnesota for a couple reasons. Chad and his family are such nice people and Chad will be a very good college player in 3-4 years but I don't see it working out in Minnesota.

Alot of coaches in the hospitality room at the Hilton on friday, from Iowa St., UNI, NDSU, Iowa, MN and I lost the list but a bunch more. On Sunday, only Tubby, Saul, and Jirsa we're in the house.

Rodney, Royce, and Trevor watched MN Grassroots knock KC Pump N run out of the tournament saturday night. Grassroots was a little controversial since most of there team is made up of seniors plus they added Kevin Noreen and Carlos Emmory from Pump n Run. Noreen just visited Boston College and even though nobody seems to believe it, they offered him and it would not be suprising if he accepted. Emmory is such a huge question mark. He didn't play high school ball the past few years and went to a couple different schools and will head to juco but he is such a big time athlete, not quite Rodney but close. he's one of those players that some people love and some hate. I haven't seen him enough to make a solid judgement but MN is aware of him and will be watching him the next two years.

Still really hard for anyone to know right now where anybody stands with Harrison but the interest in Minnesota is legit and we do have a shot. Thats pretty much all you can ask for right now. Next step is to make the final five who will get visits. I think he is a kid who will not make a quick, emotional decision and will actually take all five visits. Didn't play as well as he can but still showed why he is so highly regarded. The #1 ranking may be a little high though. Will play with Pulley for the Memorial Day event.

The big man Kirk from New Mexico was impressive and is a guy Minnesota really likes. The word is he will be hard to get out of New Mexico, but we will be following him this summer. We also like a kid from Team Nebraska but I wasn't that impressed with him.

Ricky Kreklow is a pretty impressive player and while he didn't receive a Minnesota offer yet, they want to watch him play a little more, I think it's only a matter of time. With family in the area and a desire to get away from Missouri where his parents coach, the Gophers have a good shot. The kid can shoot the lights out and is a very good passer. He has good size and long arms and rebounded and defended better than I thought he would. Unlimited range. I recorded some video of him, now just have to figure out how to get it on the computer.

Unfortunately this weekend was pretty full so I only made it saturday afternoon and night and didn't really get a chance to watch some of the other players Minnesota was interested in.

Outstanding job done by the Pulley crew in putting together a top notch tournament(order more Jimmy Johns next time though), next up will be Pump n Run's turn for there first national tournament in June also to be played at Jefferson.
 

Great write up, JG. I always appreciate your insight and I'm sure many others do too. I do have a question though.

You said taht Thomas likely earned his MN offer which I'm perfectly fine with as he sounds like a great shooter with decent enough quickness and ball handling (similar to Devoe it sounds like). However you also mentioned that we'll be watching Kreklow this summer too. It seems to me like those 2 are very similar guys. Do you think we offer both or do we take the summer to see who we want more kind of like they did with Cobbs/Bledsoe and the Chicago PG last summer?
 

Player From Nebraska

May be 6-11 C Elliott Eliason of Chadron NE who was Gatorade POY in NE as HS junior.
 

As always, appreciate the insights Johnny. A couple questions:

* Who is Mac Irvin and where is he located? I recall an AAU team from Chicago a couple years ago who were pretty tardy for the Sabes tourney, is this the same organization?

* I was reading Myron's article on the tournament, and he speculated about problems with Jacob Thomas' grades/eligibility. Is this a legitimate concern, from what you know? It was the first I had heard of any concerns about Thomas' academics.

Thanks again Johnny.
 

Friend Of Tubby said:
May be 6-11 C Elliott Eliason of Chadron NE who was Gatorade POY in NE as HS junior.
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The prospect from Team Nebraska was not Eliason, it was a kid who was 6'8" or so, I think his first name was Kyle. He was pretty active in the game I saw, moved well and hustled up and down the court. He's a little thin for a true big, but he was willing to bang inside and blocked some shots, also knocked down an 18' foot jumper. Not sure he's a high major at this point, but probably a prospect worth watching.

Johnny, is the PNR event in July? I guess I figured they were trying to have an event that D1 coaches could attend, which I don't believe is possible until early July.
 


coolhandgopher said:
* Who is Mac Irvin and where is he located? I recall an AAU team from Chicago a couple years ago who were pretty tardy for the Sabes tourney, is this the same organization?

QUOTE]

I'm obviously not Johnny, but I can help with this one. Mac Irvin runs a Chicago-based AAU program called the Mac Irvin Fire. I believe Irvin had some connection to Larry Butler in the past, who runs what had been the dominant Chicago-area AAU program, the Illinois Warriors. Irvin left to start his own program and is now the primary Nike-sponsored AAU program in Chicago, taking that spot from the Warriors. There is apparently some animonsity between the Warriors and the Fire now, see the linked article below.

The Fire now has the most talent of any Chicago AAU team, which is why them playing this past weekend would have been such an attraction. However, the Warriors have more success, as it appears there is a bit more coaching going on in that program.

http://blogs.suntimes.com/hoopsreport/2009/04/warriors_love_playing_under_th.html
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Thanks JG....

If I had to pay for a subscription, it would be for your posts!!!!!:D
 


Ole is just as knowledgable if not more so he is perfectuly qualified to answer those questions. He pretty much said it all with his comments on Mac Irvin. Heard some interesting things from the Warrior coaches about that whole situation but no doubt he has alot of talent in his program and would of been a team, especially with all those Illinois commits, that alot of people wanted to see. It was just so pathetic the way they appear to go about there business. There are things you can criticize Pulley for but his organization has way to much class to ever pull a stunt like that.

Your right, The Pump N Run Tourny is July 13-15 with a one day all star camp on the 12th. It is NCAA Certified so all college coaches can attend. Haven't seen or heard of who might be coming but they will have the Pump N Run name and money behind them so a pretty strong field is expected.

I think Kreklow is big and long enough to play some three and since we are replacing Westbrook, Johnson, and Bostick, we are looking at multiple 2/3 type players. Jacob is a SG. Harrison Barnes might be the biggest obstacle in Kreklows offer. The problem is if you wait for harrison, who will be very difficult to land, you may lose Kreklow but how can you not wait on HB. It's also no secret that we want another big in this class. The kid from Team Nebraska was supposed to be 6'10 and more skilled than Ellison but he didn't look much more than 6'8 to me. As Ole said, he wasn't a bad player but I thought Creighton or drake when I watched him, not Big Ten.
 



JohnnyGopher said:
Ole is just as knowledgable if not more so he is perfectuly qualified to answer those questions. He pretty much said it all with his comments on Mac Irvin. Heard some interesting things from the Warrior coaches about that whole situation but no doubt he has alot of talent in his program and would of been a team, especially with all those Illinois commits, that alot of people wanted to see. It was just so pathetic the way they appear to go about there business. There are things you can criticize Pulley for but his organization has way to much class to ever pull a stunt like that.

Your right, The Pump N Run Tourny is July 13-15 with a one day all star camp on the 12th. It is NCAA Certified so all college coaches can attend. Haven't seen or heard of who might be coming but they will have the Pump N Run name and money behind them so a pretty strong field is expected.

I think Kreklow is big and long enough to play some three and since we are replacing Westbrook, Johnson, and Bostick, we are looking at multiple 2/3 type players. Jacob is a SG. Harrison Barnes might be the biggest obstacle in Kreklows offer. The problem is if you wait for harrison, who will be very difficult to land, you may lose Kreklow but how can you not wait on HB. It's also no secret that we want another big in this class. The kid from Team Nebraska was supposed to be 6'10 and more skilled than Ellison but he didn't look much more than 6'8 to me. As Ole said, he wasn't a bad player but I thought Creighton or drake when I watched him, not Big Ten.
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The extra (14th) scholarship can be created by putting Hoffarber on academic scholarship for his Sr year, so long as he keeps 3.3 GPA or better.
 

JohnnyGopher said:
I think Kreklow is big and long enough to play some three and since we are replacing Westbrook, Johnson, and Bostick, we are looking at multiple 2/3 type players. Jacob is a SG.QUOTE]

I actually thought Krecklow was more SF than SG, as I would guess he would struggle with more athletic, quick SGs on both ends of the floor. Assuming Thomas is one member of Tubby's 2010 class, Krecklow could fit next to him at the SF position. That would certainly be a good shooting combination.
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Thanks for the insights Ole and Johnny, it's good to know, always interesting to hear the stories behind the players/teams.
 

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