Which Gophers did you miss on badly - you thought XYZ Gopher would be much better or much worse?

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atsgopher said:
Ihnen, he had a shot, and that Euro that he could do from the 3 pt line into a layup.

I kept thinking he just doesn’t know he’s good. The indecision in his play was almost palpable. To me that what did him in; a split second hesitation everty thing he did.

I’d have to say that a mental toughness training would have been worth a shot; the kind I’d do for a long baseball season grind may have helped the kid.
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Yes, I always thought he just needed confidence...seemingly no idea how good he could be or if he did think that....nobody to agree with him, puff him up and drag him through the tough times.
 


ekeg0002 said:
Rico Tucker

Remember him as super quick, only matched by his super out of control.
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Tremendous athlete. Bleed and I watched him in person as a senior in San Diego and he looked like a can't miss prospect. Turns out he was a much better athlete than a basketball player. He was also a stud running back in high school. I think his true calling would have been as a cornerback.
 


Leo Rautins I thought was going to be a star. What a class he came in with for Dutcher. I believe Tucker Michell and Hall same class with McHale already here. He was ok at best for us. Was better after he transfered to Syracuse. Also was a first round draft choice and played maybe 10 years as a pro. I believe he ended up coaching the 2008 Canadian Olympic team.
 
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Bobby Jackson anyone? Show me the person who knew he was gonna be an all American and I’ll show you a liar. Honorable mention to David Grim. He was no better than usable, but he was one of those afterthought recruits that I assumed would do 4 years of mop up time at best. Most of my underachievers have already been said, but I’ll throw out Shane Schilling.
 











Gopher Mac said:
Leo Rautins I thought was going to be a star. What a class he came in with for Dutcher. I believe Tucker Michell and Hall same class with McHale already here. He was ok at best for us. Was better after he transfered to Syracuse. Also was a first round draft choice and played maybe 10 years as a pro. I believe he ended up coaching the 2008 Canadian Olympic team.
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Rautins had an incredible first half at MSU against their Magic/Kelser eventual NCAA championship team. We led something like 42-29 at half time and the announcers were raving about him. That was his 15 (20) minutes of fame for Minnesota.
 


WCGopher said:
Devoe Joseph
I had high hopes. He wasn’t bad but not as good as advertised
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There were high hopes going into his junior season. But he got suspended, came back and then left the program early in the season. He had a great year at Oregon after he transferred.
 


Gopher Mac said:
Leo Rautins I thought was going to be a star. What a class he came in with for Dutcher. I believe Tucker Michell and Hall same class with McHale already here. He was ok at best for us. Was better after he transfered to Syracuse. Also was a first round draft choice and played maybe 10 years as a pro. I believe he ended up coaching the 2008 Canadian Olympic team.
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Rautins would've made a big difference if he stayed. I had to look it up: He averaged 8.3 points, four rebounds and four assists as a freshman. Compare that to Tucker as a freshman (9.9 points, 3.4 rebounds, 1 assist), Mitchell (7.8 points, 2.1 rebounds, 1.2 assists) and Mark Hall (8.5 points, 2.3 rebounds, 1.2 assists). Those guys, who won a conference championship three years later, were all okay at best for us as freshmen.
 


Hates Monikers said:
Rautins would've made a big difference if he stayed. I had to look it up: He averaged 8.3 points, four rebounds and four assists as a freshman. Compare that to Tucker as a freshman (9.9 points, 3.4 rebounds, 1 assist), Mitchell (7.8 points, 2.1 rebounds, 1.2 assists) and Mark Hall (8.5 points, 2.3 rebounds, 1.2 assists). Those guys, who won a conference championship three years later, were all okay at best for us as freshmen.
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it took them "awhile" to learn how to share the ball
 

2009-2010 Team, the parts were better than the team.
It had wing scorers Westbrook and Hoffarber and D joseph, center's Sampson and Colt, and Freshmen Rodney W., Cobbs, Nolen, and it had super defender Damian Johnson who became better than I expected. 10 solid players but the team was an enigma. Obviously, Sampson had a wing mentality in a 6-11 frame.

Better once these players left the gophers: Iverson had a bad rep with the reps in the big ten, became an all mtn west guy at CSU. Joseph also left and went all conf at Oregon, Cobbs all conf at Cal.

Certain other players had more potential:
Michael Bauer entered college with a good 3 pt shot and was a leaper and shot blocker. At howard pulley summer league he had much more game, put in on the floor. He ended his career as a good 3pt shooter and shot blocker.

Rodney Williams and Joe Coleman were perimeter athletes who just couldnt shoot.

Austin Hollins really improved in his time with the team.
DeAndre Mathieu proved an undersized but super quick player could really shake up the big ten. Nate Mason was solid from the start and improved every year.

Enigma players that showed wow potential once every few games, but could never provide consistency. Notice the body type:
Paul Carter, C Buggs, I Ihnen, Ola-Joseph, Henley.
 

A couple bigs come to Antoine Broxie and Alou Kane. Marlon Maxy as well although he had a decent career elsewhere I believe.
 

Ooo, another one. How about Rodney Williams? He started off his freshman year as the leading scorer, got injured and didn't seem to capture the same momentum after that.
GophersInIowa said:
He had a solid junior season but then had a pretty underwhelming senior year.
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Didn't he sit out from playing in the NIT his senior year, too?
 

60's Guy said:
I always thought if I got to coach Isaiah Ihnen that he could of been a star...I believe it was in there
even though...what three coaches? didn't disover the secret.

Same with a guy from Europe on one of Richard's last teams...left handed...scored whenever he got a minute which wasn't often...he didn't get to play. Guessing work ethic was the culprit. I thought he had undiscovered skills. Did it start with an M?

Nate Mason kept getting better and better. Surprised me that he kept ascending.
Jordan Murphy kept surprising me with his production too!
Oturu probably got better than I thought he could but one more year and I think he'd have been even better career wise.
I didn't expect Treyton Thompson to be all conference but I thought he could be effective but seemed lost mostly.
The length of Gabe's shooting slump surprised me. Don't think he really ever got his shot back even at Iowa St.
I said Michael Hurt couldn't play in the Big Ten when he accepted a scholarship. His brother would have been a big time Gopher.
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Kind of off topic, but the mention of Oturu got me thinking. I would imagine it's really hard not to be a little pissed off about the new NIL stuff for players like Oturu. He most likely would have walked out of college a millionaire and stayed in school with the new rules. That's gotta sting a little.
 

mplarson7 said:
Ooo, another one. How about Rodney Williams? He started off his freshman year as the leading scorer, got injured and didn't seem to capture the same momentum after that.

Didn't he sit out from playing in the NIT his senior year, too?
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Rodney averaged 4.3 ppg as a freshmen. He went 4.3, 6.8, 12.2, then 10.1.
I didnt see him in high school, and I don't know his recruiting ranking, but I would get sick of commentators falling over themselves about his dunks. He had plenty to work on to become a solid player (ball handling, outside shooting). He shot 25% from 3 for his career. He acutally played his best ball as an undersized 4, because he could jump so well.
 


march madness said:
Rodney averaged 4.3 ppg as a freshmen. He went 4.3, 6.8, 12.2, then 10.1.
I didnt see him in high school, and I don't know his recruiting ranking, but I would get sick of commentators falling over themselves about his dunks. He had plenty to work on to become a solid player (ball handling, outside shooting). He shot 25% from 3 for his career. He acutally played his best ball as an undersized 4, because he could jump so well.
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Oops! I typed all that about Rodney and then changed my mind and deleted it....apparent Gopherhole saves text until later!

The "sitting out" component was referring to Sampson.
 

Gopherbbdude said:
Ralph Sampson III(or what ever number he was) I thought he was gonna be good....wrong
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Most vivid memory of Sampson is on a missed free throw. The damn ball came off the rim and bounced on the floor about two feet in front of him. To be charitable, I guess he might have somehow been tied up with whoever he was boxing; but it sure looked like he couldn't bother to make the effort to get it off the rim. Tubby must have thought so too because he pulled him immediately.
 

Great thread Bleed, here's my go at it. . .

Royce White. If he possessed even a 25 cent head, the whole Tubby Smith era could have taken a much different path and the abyss the program has been for the better part of the post-Haskins era might have been tempered.

Ernest Nzigamasabo. I blame Sid for my overblown expectations--I recall reading in his jottings about the spectacular 6'9" arrival to Mounds View (?) with a silky handle and deep range jumper. Never came to be.

Jayson Walton. A top flight recruit from Dallas who, if memory serves, was plagued by bad knees that limited his considerable potential in the post-Burton, pre-FF Gopher era. Came in with Voshon, David Grim, and Chad Kolander, when Ariel McDonald, Townsend Orr and Randy Carter were sophomores (had to look it up). What a team that could have been if Walton wasn't limited.

Moe Hargrow. NIL movement before NIL existed.

On the other side. . .
The entire 2004-05 Gopher squad-Jeff Hagen, Aaron Robinson, Brent Lawson, J'son Stamper, and Vincent Grier. The shining light of the Monson era, when much more heralded recruits and transfers back to MN lead to disappointment, this collection of unknowns and bench warmers in the early years of their career blossomed into an NCAA tournament squad.

Traverus Bennett. A lightly regarded JUCO in the Rickert/Holman/Bauer/Burleson years, when such promise slipped from the fingertips he was steady on both sides of the ball, which couldn't be said often about his teammates.

Walter Bond and Kevin Lynch. Minnesota wasn't exactly a hotbed of D-1 level recruits when Lynch came onto the scene and Bond looked chubby and undersized, but both balled out and supplemented the Burton/Newburn/Coffey/Shik quartet to almost push us into the Final 4 so quickly after the near decimation of the program.
 

mplarson7 said:
Ooo, another one. How about Rodney Williams? He started off his freshman year as the leading scorer, got injured and didn't seem to capture the same momentum after that.

Didn't he sit out from playing in the NIT his senior year, too?
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It appears so
 

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