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.
walterbond.com
