BleedGopher
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per Shama:
Pitino has a career Big Ten regular season record of 46 wins and 76 losses in six-plus seasons. He has only one winning season in the Big Ten. Two of his last three teams have earned invites to the NCAA Tournament. He is 1-2 in the tournament including last year’s upset of higher seeded Louisville.
More talented Minnesotans on the roster would certainly have helped during the Pitino era. And it’s not always the most obvious prep talents who can turn out to be difference makers in college. Freddie Gillespie, a redshirt senior forward from East Ridge, is a starter and contributor for a Baylor team ranked No. 1 in the country. He transferred to Baylor from Division III Carleton of the MIAC. Minnesota native Jared Nuness, Al’s son and an assistant on the Baylor staff, helped bring the late developing Gillespie to Baylor who now has pro scouts looking at him.
Vinnie Shahid, who played at Hopkins, is a starting guard and impact player at North Dakota State. He has been leading the team this season in scoring after being named the Summit League Newcomer of the Year in 2018-2019. He was also the conference tournament MVP in 2019.
At Wofford sophomore guard Ryan Larson is a starter after playing with Oturu at Cretin-Derham Hall. In high school Larson was a “chemistry player,” making teammates better with both obvious and subtle contributions. Larson might be the type of prep player that could have been persuaded to walk-on with the Gophers with the possibility of eventually earning a scholarship.
Pitino’s teams, even his best ones, have lacked depth. There have to be a lot of Minnesota preps with so much passion for the home town Gophers that they would be willing to walk-on—even though their skills might not be quite worthy of Big Ten scholarship offers. Players who excel in perhaps just one or two skills like three-point shooting, or being tall and physical enough to come off the bench for limited minutes and push around opposing “bigs.” Players with such skills could provide specialization and depth without using up limited scholarship inventory.
Nuness was asked whether the Gophers, if they annually had more quality players from the state (not necessarily McDonald’s All-Americans), could contend for Big Ten titles. “I think they could do that. (But) not every year they would be able to,” he answered, and also emphasized scholarship inventory certainly restricts how many recruits the staff can take from Minnesota and elsewhere.
Go Gophers!!
Pitino has a career Big Ten regular season record of 46 wins and 76 losses in six-plus seasons. He has only one winning season in the Big Ten. Two of his last three teams have earned invites to the NCAA Tournament. He is 1-2 in the tournament including last year’s upset of higher seeded Louisville.
More talented Minnesotans on the roster would certainly have helped during the Pitino era. And it’s not always the most obvious prep talents who can turn out to be difference makers in college. Freddie Gillespie, a redshirt senior forward from East Ridge, is a starter and contributor for a Baylor team ranked No. 1 in the country. He transferred to Baylor from Division III Carleton of the MIAC. Minnesota native Jared Nuness, Al’s son and an assistant on the Baylor staff, helped bring the late developing Gillespie to Baylor who now has pro scouts looking at him.
Vinnie Shahid, who played at Hopkins, is a starting guard and impact player at North Dakota State. He has been leading the team this season in scoring after being named the Summit League Newcomer of the Year in 2018-2019. He was also the conference tournament MVP in 2019.
At Wofford sophomore guard Ryan Larson is a starter after playing with Oturu at Cretin-Derham Hall. In high school Larson was a “chemistry player,” making teammates better with both obvious and subtle contributions. Larson might be the type of prep player that could have been persuaded to walk-on with the Gophers with the possibility of eventually earning a scholarship.
Pitino’s teams, even his best ones, have lacked depth. There have to be a lot of Minnesota preps with so much passion for the home town Gophers that they would be willing to walk-on—even though their skills might not be quite worthy of Big Ten scholarship offers. Players who excel in perhaps just one or two skills like three-point shooting, or being tall and physical enough to come off the bench for limited minutes and push around opposing “bigs.” Players with such skills could provide specialization and depth without using up limited scholarship inventory.
Nuness was asked whether the Gophers, if they annually had more quality players from the state (not necessarily McDonald’s All-Americans), could contend for Big Ten titles. “I think they could do that. (But) not every year they would be able to,” he answered, and also emphasized scholarship inventory certainly restricts how many recruits the staff can take from Minnesota and elsewhere.
Go Gophers!!
