A lot of people seem to be accepting on blind faith that Flip could be a successful recruiter at the D1 level. I don't think his previous work at Golden Valley Lutheran will be much of an indicator. (side note - I was a student manager for the Augsburg College BB team when Flip was coaching at Golden Valley, and he used to bring his team over to scrimmage Augsburg, so I got to sit and BS with him a few times. Seemed like a nice guy.)
Back to the main point - for the average 16 or 17-year old HS phenom, Flip Saunders is some old guy they may or may not have heard of. If they have heard of him, they probably know that he got fired from the Wolves and the Pistons, and now he's coaching one of the worst teams in the NBA. I don't think that's going to excite kids. Sure, he can tell a few stories about how he coached Garnett or John Wall, but I don't see that as a major selling point for the U. As far as the argument that he knows the NBA, and can help kids get ready for the NBA - that's not supposed to be his job. If he's the Gopher coach, his job is to help the Gophers win games.
I think the Gophs need to go out and identify more of a young up-and-comer type - a head coach at a mid-major school, or a top assistant at a major school who is a proven recruiter - someone who has demonstrated an ability to land top talent. Some might say they tried that with Dan Munson. I'll remind you that Munson came in after the academic scandal, and was handcuffed by sanctions - and his record is still very comparable to what Tubby has accomplished with no sanctions.
I'm not knocking Flip as a person - I just don't think there's any certainty that he can be a D1 coach and recruiter - and if the U swings and misses with the next hire, it just pushes the program further into the dumper.
