Wise Me Up About Royce White

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figi

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At the risk of enraging everyone, I have to ask this question. Why should I think Royce White will make an immediate impact on this team next year? I haven't seen him play and I don't know a lot about him. I read the papers and I see him getting 6 points, 7 points, 8 points a game. I see dozens of kids I've never heard of before getting 20 or more points for other teams. Tuesday he got 11 points. He was outscored by 5 of his team mates and 4 of the members of the opposition. I thought he was soppose to be a great scorer. Is Hopkins so good that he is riding the bench a lot or having to share the ball most of the time' or what?

I know he has national recognition and he is an exceptional talent. So what's going on?
 

figi said:
At the risk of enraging everyone, I have to ask this question. Why should I think Royce White will make an immediate impact on this team next year? I haven't seen him play and I don't know a lot about him. I read the papers and I see him getting 6 points, 7 points, 8 points a game. I see dozens of kids I've never heard of before getting 20 or more points for other teams. Tuesday he got 11 points. He was outscored by 5 of his team mates and 4 of the members of the opposition. I thought he was soppose to be a great scorer. Is Hopkins so good that he is riding the bench a lot or having to share the ball most of the time' or what?

I know he has national recognition and he is an exceptional talent. So what's going on?
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Hopkins has lots of talent. Even the best players have Off Nights. White will be a factor on 2010 Gophers.
 

Keep in mind Hopkins has 7 D1 players on a team that is ranked one of the top 15 high school teams in the country, top 10 in a few polls. Literally, 7 players have either signed D1, have D1 offers, or will be receiving them within the year, like the sophomore Singleton (and not to Cal-Poly, we're talking Notre Dame, Arizona State, etc.). There is only 1 ball to go around when they're on offense :)

Royce will be a factor next year, but I don't know if he'll be as big of a factor as everyone thinks. His game still needs a lot of work for him to be a major contributor next year.
 

At least half of the games have been blow out victories too. I think he's averaging 12 a game and Crowles is leading the team. Broghammer (Notre Dame) and Lockett (Arizona State) are in the 9-11 range as well.

I don't think Hopkins was a good choice for White. I don't see them as a lock to win it in March. Not enough shots for everyone and things could erode over a long season. It would be fun to see Sibley or someone else knocked them off in the Target Center. I wonder if Hopkins took (maybe recruited) him to keep him from going to Cooper, Minnetonka, or Osseo. He would have been really tough at Tarten with Sonnen.
 

akgopher said:
I wonder if Hopkins took (maybe recruited) him to keep him from going to Cooper, Minnetonka, or Osseo. He would have been really tough at Tarten with Sonnen.
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Someone else brought this up earlier this season, and the word I heard from 3 different Hopkins folks in separate situations were that they were wishing he went ANYWHERE but Hopkins. They were already the odds-on favorite to win the title, and with Royce comes a whole host of issues, both on the court and off, especially for a team that doesn't need to deal with any more drama regarding transfers. Word has it that his mother moved into an apartment in Hopkins so he could be in the district before he even talked to Novak once about playing for him.

I think the kid wanted to stay in the spotlight and play with top competition after what went down at De La Salle and not lose his scholarship offers. Plus, he played with a number of those guys in AAU and in the off-season so it probably made the most sense for him.
 


I'm not sure transfers are as much an issue anymore. I think kids have come to expect it at higher profile schools.....Up here, Duluth East is made up of almost all transfer players (7 of top 8), and no one really says anything about it.......Recruiting is virtually impossible to prove at the high school level. Is there an actual definition of "recruiting" when it comes to high school kids. There are so many influences, what could be considered "recruiting" has become very muddled.
 

Who knows...

Everyone said Carter and Bostick would be immediate impact players yet both are buried on the bench next to Payton. Travis Busch brings more to the table than Carter and Bostick combined. We've all heard the rumors that RW is a selfish head case so let's not make him the next Sam Jacobson local Gopher legend quite yet...
 

BTW, where is BostickBrother these days?? What's up with your boy??? I thought he won all of this hardware last year as the JUCO POY?!?!
 

Johnny and UWOle have probably seen Royce play the most. Maybe they should pipe up on this one. (Is Royce ok with being "one of the guys" at Hopkins this year?)

I've seen him twice, and with the exception of Seantrel Henderson, Royce was the only person on the court that had a Big Ten body. He never looked out of place and he could do everything EXTREMELY well. He passed, he could score off the dribble, he scored in transition, he blocked shots, he had the best jump shot on the court, etc. A guy doesn't get ranked in the top 15 (overall) of his class for no reason.

Will he be a bust? Maybe. I think that everyone at the Big Ten level used to be "THE MAN" back at the High School level. Each and every player (with the exception of Kris Humphries) has to adjust their expectations and submit their goals to the greater good of the team. If Royce can do that, he will be "THE MAN" in my opinion. If not, he'll likely transfer to a place that will allow him to exert his will without limitation.

Like so many have said before, I too trust Tubby's track record. And from what I saw, Royce was special. I look forward to seeing Royce run the floor next year in a Gopher uniform. Most of life is an experiment anyway. Why not experiment with the best possible players?
 



I definately agree.

Royce's body is BT ready for sure right now.

Royce has dominated against the elite players in his class. I think he truly gets bored and can dominate at the high school level any time he chooses to. Also, as it has already been mentioned, he doesn't really need to take over at Hopkins with so many D1 players.

He is a a very good player with no glaring weaknesses. He can pass, rebound, shoot the mid-range J and can knock down the three. He could work a little bit more on his ball handling. Royce is also a very good athlete.

The player comparison that I have heard many use and that I like the most is Carlos Boozer.

I believe Tubby will mold him into a VERY great player.
 

Go watch Hopkins play and you will answer your own question. Royce would of been a huge addition in the game against Michigan State, he's that good and would of matched up well against the Spartans.

I have been hard on Royce for his on court behavior, but I will say that so far this year he has been very good everytime I have seen him. Unfortunately most of Hopkins games this year have been 25-30 point blowouts and Novak clears his bench pretty early in these games. I saw them play once this past week and Royce had more assists in that half than I saw him get all summer, very suprised and impressed. He still gives the refs too much attention but was alwasy under control and wasn't close to getting into trouble. Alot of the worried Hopkins people, and that includes coaches, who worried about Royce fitting in so far from what I heard have had nothing but positive things to say. He could easily be averaging 25+ at another school, as could Lockett, Cowels, and Broghammer.

Aslo keep an eye out for Hopkins sophomore Joe Coleman(yes, Dan's brother). He doesn't have Dan's size but he is really skilled and unlike his brother, loves to take it hard to the basket. If he grows another couple inches, look out.

Jacob Thomas hit 9 threes yesterday and scored 40.
 

akgopher said:
At least half of the games have been blow out victories too. I think he's averaging 12 a game and Crowles is leading the team. Broghammer (Notre Dame) and Lockett (Arizona State) are in the 9-11 range as well.

I don't think Hopkins was a good choice for White. I don't see them as a lock to win it in March. Not enough shots for everyone and things could erode over a long season. It would be fun to see Sibley or someone else knocked them off in the Target Center. I wonder if Hopkins took (maybe recruited) him to keep him from going to Cooper, Minnetonka, or Osseo. He would have been really tough at Tarten with Sonnen.
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I disagree 100%. Maybe for games there are not enough balls to go around, but I imagine there is not a better place to go to practice 5 days a week.
 

When is Thomas going to get a offer? Is Tubby waiting to see if the Cosby kid commits first?
 



Thomas has a long way.....

to go in my book. I didn't sse the 7th place game in the Hastings tournament, but I saw the other 2 and he was not very good. Chucked up 3 air balls in the first game vs. a very pedestrian Hastings squad and didn't hustle on defense. Finshed with 13 points on 4 for about 100 from the field.

I don't think he could play at Augsburg from what I saw, but I'm willing to give him another look.
 

Everyone said Carter and Bostick would ...

Art Vandelay said:
Who knows...

Everyone said Carter and Bostick would be immediate impact players yet both are buried on the bench next to Payton. Travis Busch brings more to the table than Carter and Bostick combined. We've all heard the rumors that RW is a selfish head case so let's not make him the next Sam Jacobson local Gopher legend quite yet...
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I remember someone asking if a JUCO Player-Of-The-Year (Bostick) would be comparable to a top-10 high school recruit. My response was that it would be closer to top-50. Maybe I should have said top-60, which Joseph and Sampson were.

Generally recruiting services do an outstanding job pegging the top players. Most guys ranked in the top 20-25 (White & Williams) coming out of high school have a history of preforming at a high level in college.
 

Don't give up on Bostick just yet. They still may find that they need someone like him who has a combo ability to go down and post up and board while having the ability to score outside as well.
In his brief second half appearance they posted him up once, he missed the shot but I think that's something they could do with him.
 

bga1 said:
Don't give up on Bostick just yet. They still may find that they need someone like him who has a combo ability to go down and post up and board while having the ability to score outside as well.
In his brief second half appearance they posted him up once, he missed the shot but I think that's something they could do with him.
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We are going to lose some games that we shouldn't if we don't start attacking the hoop.

We cannot live and die by the three. We need to get to the basket and do one of three things; score, dish, or get fouled.
 

Watching Royce this summer

He looked physically ready for BT then. Like Sampson and Iverson, he'll be ready to play right away. Hopefully he'll have to work to earn playing time, meaning the players we have now will continue to develop.
 

Hopefully he can play which I think he will be able to. We need a big time star to put this team over the top which I think Royce can be. Our offense just isn't good enough yet to compete with the big boys consistently.
 

Hopkins plays Sibley on the 9th. (next friday at 7:30). It should be a great game with all of the D1 players.
Hopkins
White, Broghammer, Cowles, Williams, Coleman, Lockett, others?
Sibley
Brueswitz and Halvorson, others?
 

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