Season Updates on D1 Minnesotans (Wragge, Lumpkin, and more)

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Great post.

I'm not in the least bit surprised that Noreen hasn't done much in college. He seems like a great guy, but he played in a bizarre system against the lowest level of competition in the state. It was that odd Transitions HS and he was being guarded by 6'0" kids.

Bjorklund was a big miss.

It's nice to see so many kids doing a nice job. MN basketball is getting so much better.
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
Great post.

I'm not in the least bit surprised that Noreen hasn't done much in college. He seems like a great guy, but he played in a bizarre system against the lowest level of competition in the state. It was that odd Transitions HS and he was being guarded by 6'0" kids.

Bjorklund was a big miss.
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Your right about Noreen.
I actually liked his little brother Kevin more, Kevin is a PG at about 6'5" and can score, but Huggins thought Kyle was fit for a scholarship. I wonder if he stills feels good about that recruit?

Anyways,
out of all 48 D1 players who are your current top 5 players outta MN?

My current top 5-
1-Wragge
2-Siyani
3-Jordair Jett
4-Dyami Starks
5-Tie- Alec Brown/Bjorklund

I think Lofton, Reggie Lynch, and Marcus Marshall will have great careers in the MVC also.
but Lynch and Lofton are 1st year players and Marshall is out for the season in his 2nd year

I also think Zeirden will grow into a fine player at Crieghton and Rajon Kelly is looking good at Samfrord.
Anders Broman has a lot of potential as well, But all of my honorable mentions are 1st and 2nd year players.
 

HOOP DREAMS said:
There are more D-I college basketball players from Iowa and Wisconsin than Minnesota

There are currently 48 Minnesotans playing D-I men's hoops right now.

Wisconsin, with a comparable though slightly higher college-aged male population, has 73.

Iowa, with nearly 100,000 fewer college-aged males, has 53.
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This isn't making any excuses for MN prep talent, but I wonder if those numbers have a great deal to do with the fact that the U of M is the only D-1 show in the state, while there are four D-1 programs in both Wisconsin and Iowa. For the lower level D-1 schools, I would expect their rosters are stacked with local preps, due to a combination of limited recruiting budgets and it's much easier to get a D-1 tweener from Wausau than Cleveland if you are UWGB (as an example). It's just a thought, not any real analysis behind the theory.
 

coolhandgopher said:
This isn't making any excuses for MN prep talent, but I wonder if those numbers have a great deal to do with the fact that the U of M is the only D-1 show in the state, while there are four D-1 programs in both Wisconsin and Iowa. For the lower level D-1 schools, I would expect their rosters are stacked with local preps, due to a combination of limited recruiting budgets and it's much easier to get a D-1 tweener from Wausau than Cleveland if you are UWGB (as an example). It's just a thought, not any real analysis behind the theory.
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Hockey plays a big part of it too.
 


You think? I originally was going to put that in there, but it seems to me that if there wasn't hockey, a lot of those prep athletes would gravitate towards wrestling over basketball; again, no basis in any numbers, but the sports of hockey and basketball don't seem to have the same athletic skill set and the mentality of hockey and wrestling seem more closely aligned to me. Again, pure speculation.
 

Chris Monter said:
Bjorklund is having an outstanding season. The only knock you would have on him is his rebounding numbers 4.4 boards per game, which is fourth on the Bison. The Gophers had junior Trevor Mbakwe and sophomore Rodney Williams on the roster in 2010-11, which would have been Bjorklund's freshman year. Bjorklund would look gone in Maroon and Gold this season, but I don't think that he would have started the past three years. I think he made the right pick to go to NDSU, where he was able to get significant playing immediately.

Alec Brown is another big man who looks like a big whiff for the Gophers. However, at the time they had juniors Colton Iverson and Ralph Sampson III and incoming freshman Elliott Eliason and Mo Walker. Brown signed late with Green Bay.

The school that really blew with Brown was Colorado. Brown was to visit the then-Big 12 school school on a Saturday. However, Colorado called to cancel his trip when Arrowhead, Wisconsin big man Ben Mills decided to commit the day before. Mills played in just 136 minutes his first three years at Colorado and has played in just 55 minutes this season. He is averaging a career-high 1.7 points and is adding 1.2 rebounds per game. I'm sure the Buffaloes' coaching staff would love to have Brown now.

It is hard to look at that 2010-11 team and not wonder "What if." They started the season 13-1, but finished just 17-14 after Devoe Joseph transferred to Oregon at midseason and Al Nolen was injured. They also were without Royce White and Justin Cobbs, who had signed in 2009, but had left the program.

Here is the 201-11 roster.
13 Ahanmisi, Maverick G 6-2 175 Fr. Santa Clarita, Calif. (Stoneridge Prep)
23 Armelin, Chip G 6-3 186 Fr. Sulphur, La. (Sulphur)
4 Dawson, Dominique F 6-7 240 So. Minneapolis, Minn. (Minneapolis Southwest)
55 Eliason, Elliott C 6-11 242 Fr. Chadron, Neb. (Chadron)
22 Halvorsen, Chris F 6-8 190 So. St. Paul, Minn. (Henry Sibley)
24 Hoffarber, Blake G 6-4 200 Sr. Minnetonka, Minn. (Hopkins)
20 Hollins, Austin G 6-4 180 Fr. Germantown, Tenn. (Germantown)
45 Iverson, Colton F/C 6-10 258 Jr. Yankton, S.D. (Yankton)
32 Mbakwe, Trevor F 6-8 240 RJr. St. Paul, Minn. (Miami Dade College) (St. Bernard's )
0 Nolen, Al G 6-1 188 Sr. Minneapolis, Minn. (Minneapolis Henry)
10 Osenieks, Oto F 6-8 205 Fr. Riga, Latvia (Brehm Prep)
50 Sampson III, Ralph F/C 6-11 241 Jr. Duluth, Ga. (Northview)
15 Walker, Maurice F 6-10 289 Fr. Scarborough, Ontario (Brewster Academy)
33 Williams, Rodney F 6-7 200 So. Minneapolis, Minn. (Robbinsdale Cooper)

Chris Monter
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Paul Carter also left the program before that year when his mom got cancer
 

coolhandgopher said:
This isn't making any excuses for MN prep talent, but I wonder if those numbers have a great deal to do with the fact that the U of M is the only D-1 show in the state, while there are four D-1 programs in both Wisconsin and Iowa. For the lower level D-1 schools, I would expect their rosters are stacked with local preps, due to a combination of limited recruiting budgets and it's much easier to get a D-1 tweener from Wausau than Cleveland if you are UWGB (as an example). It's just a thought, not any real analysis behind the theory.
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Also Minnesota has some really good D2 and 3 programs which I am assuming are full of Minnesotans on their rosters. I am sure top to bottom our preps stack up just fine with sconnie and Iowa
 

coolhandgopher said:
This isn't making any excuses for MN prep talent, but I wonder if those numbers have a great deal to do with the fact that the U of M is the only D-1 show in the state, while there are four D-1 programs in both Wisconsin and Iowa. For the lower level D-1 schools, I would expect their rosters are stacked with local preps, due to a combination of limited recruiting budgets and it's much easier to get a D-1 tweener from Wausau than Cleveland if you are UWGB (as an example). It's just a thought, not any real analysis behind the theory.
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Anyone know if the numbers were for scholarship players only? Or does it it include everyone on a roster? If it includes walk-ons, then it is flawed because states with more D1 programs will almost always have more kids from in-state because walk-ons are usually local kids.

Just did a quick look at the rosters (walk ons and scholarship players):

Northern Iowa - 10
Drake - 2
Iowa St. - 3
Iowa - 8
So 23 of Iowa's 53 play in state.

UWGB - 4
UW-Milwaukee - 13
Marquette - 5
Wisconsin - 6
That's 28 of Wisconsin's 73

Minnesota - 1

43% of Iowa's D1 kids play in-state.
38% for Wisconsin
2% for MN
 



I think the fact that Minnesota is home to many schools from one of the best Division II conferences in the country plays a role too. If you aren't "good enough" for the U, many times its either the Dakota schools or Division II if you want to stay close to home. Guys like Cody Schilling have decided to play right away at a Division II instead of sitting on the bench at a Division I. There are also multiple players who have started out Division I, but transfer down to Division II to be closer to home or other reasons: Zack Monaghan, Chris Halvorsen, Anthony Tucker, etc.
 

it looks like if we recruited strictly in-state recruits we could still be competetive in the Big10.

It would be nice to have another D1 school or 2.

Also would be nice if we could have gotten 2 of the Big 4 (Vaughn, Jones, Travis, or Macura) to stay home.

I think Pitino will step up his in-state recruiting efforts.
 

The last few years before 2014 were pretty lean years. The team led by Wragge wouldn't be competitive in the Big Ten. Top 10 or even top 20 players do not stay "home" anymore. It is easy to cherry pick after the fact and pick which players blossumed as those we should recruit, it is much harder to give a scholarship to a bunch of 2 star in state guys and let your career ride on it.
 

Graham Woodward scored 11 points against OSU last night in their big win. He had the game tying assist to go into OT
 



also former Benilde Player from Edina Will Dunn is averaging 1 PPG and 4 Minutes per game at IPFW, he is a redshirt freshman
 



die hard gopher said:
yeah well i can't say a lot of other guys are you listed are that much more relevant then him...
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I made sure not to list anybody who averages less than 2 ppg and 2 rebounds per game. 1 ppg at IPFW is not making an impact. Not to say he won't in a few years, but he's not doing anything in collegiate games right now.
 

Jake Bodway from Bloomington Jefferson was just added to the South Florida team as a walk-on today. We'll see if he ever gets any minutes, but he's on the team. :D
 

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