Remember how exciting last year was recruiting wise, what with the Gophers making so many top 10 lists and top 5 lists only to pretty much not ever sign anybody? Yeah, I was wondering how every's doing so far this year. Keep in mind it's awfully early in most of these guys' careers. All rankings from 247sports.
PG Tyus Jones (Apple Valley, MN)
247 Rank: #8 overall, #2 PG
Commit: Duke
Close?: Not really
Bummer?: Not really, it was known
Season Stats: 11.3 points and 5.3 assists in 31.5 minutes.
Outlook: He's basically been everything everyone said he would be. Maybe the only point guard the Gophers looked at last year who has a clearly brighter future than Nate Mason. He should die.
PG Ja'Quan Newton (Philadelphia, PA)
247 Rank: #42 overall, #7 PG
Commit: Miami (FL)
Close?: Maybe?
Bummer: He jumped on a Miami offer so quickly it was hard to get too excited. Still, kind of a bummer.
Season Stats: 3.5 points and 1.3 assists in 12 minutes.
Outlook: Typical freshman point guard line so far, and his shooting has been pretty bad (not rare for a freshman). Having Angel Rodriguez there (transfer from Kansas State) has really cut his potential minutes down.
PG Lourawls Nairn (Wichita, KS)
247 Rank: #85 overall, #17 PG
Commit: Michigan State
Close?: Yes, until Izzo got involved.
Bummer?: Yes. After a whole bunch of misses he looked like he might be the big time recruit Pitino would finally sign. Then Tom Izzo called.
Season Stats: 2.0 points and 2.5 assists in 16.7 minutes.
Outlook: I was surprised his minutes are this high because I rarely notice him when I watch the Spartans, but that's probably pretty much what Izzo wants on a team with Travis Trice, Denzel Valentine, and Branden Dawson. His 2.5-to-0.9 assist to turnover ratio is nice for a freshman. Interested to see if he can add any offense next year, since he pretty much never shoots.
SG Riley LaChance (Brookfield, WI)
247 Rank: #133 overall, #34 PG
Commit: Vanderbilt
Close?: At least somewhat.
Bummer?: Not really. Just as his buzz was starting to build he suddenly committed to Vandy.
Season Stats: 12.8 points, 3.2 rebounds, and 2.6 assists in 33.3 minutes.
Outlook: Basically a starter from day 1 and looking like a pretty big recruiting steal for Vandy. He's the team's second leading scorer, has hit double figures in 17 of 23 games this year, gashed Purdue for 26 points, and is hitting 40% of his threes. Maybe wasn't a bummer to lose out on at the time, but he sure is now.
SG Rashad Vaughn (Henderson, NV)
247 Rank: #13 overall, #5 SG
Commit: UNLV
Close?: Not really
Bummer?: Yeah, but we knew it was coming, particularly after the move to Nevada.
Season Stats: 17.8 points and 4.8 rebounds in 32.2 minutes.
Outlook: Dude loves to shoot. He takes 33% of the Rebs shots when he's on the floor and hits a respectable enough 44%. The one and done looks like it's not going to happen (hopefully for the kid) since NBADraft.net ranks him 65th and DraftExpress ranks him 37th (14th among freshman), but he's definitely a talented kid. Another year in college should help polish his game and can only help.
SG Isaiah Whitehead (Brooklyn, NY)
247 Rank: #10 overall, #3 SG
Commit: Seton Hall
Close?: Painfully close. Close enough I watched his press conference hopefully until twitter broke the news.
Bummer?: Extreme bummer. Would have made a huge national splash, and it seemed like they were so close until the Pirates offered his high school coach an assistant coaching gig. Sucked.
Season Stats: 11.9 points, 4.2 rebounds, and 3.1 assists in 25.3 minutes
Outlook: Good bet he's the Big East freshman of the year. He's extremely polished, as advertised, and though he's shooting just 37% this year it's a good bet he's going to challenge for BE player of the year before his career his over. Yeah, this one hurts.
SG J.P. Macura (Lakeville, MN)
247 Rank: #136 overall, #36 SG
Commit: Xavier
Close?: Tough to say, it was never really clear what the interest level was from either side.
Bummer?: Moreso now than then. Pitino had a lot of fires going and J.P. was lower priority, so he decided Xavier was more for him. After the whiffs on higher profile targets (so many whiffs) maybe making him a higher priority would have been the way to go. Hindsight, and all that.
Season Stats: 6 points and 1.5 rebounds in 13.9 minutes.
Outlook: His shooting has been pretty bad which isn't good when it's your #1 skill, but again, not unusual for a freshman. He's been coming on lately with 21 and 25 minutes played in X's last two games, and is starting to look like a quality four year player. I understand why Pitino didn't go hard after him early in the signing period, but man, it'd be nice to have a second young building block beyond Nate Mason right now.
SF Terry Larrier (Malvern, PA)
247 Rank: #23 overall, #4 SF
Commit: VCU
Close?: Not really
Bummer?: Not really. It was actually pretty exciting knowing a top 25 recruit from the east coast was considering the Gophers. Signaled a whole new recruiting world. Of pain. So far.
Season Stats: 7.0 points and 2.0 rebounds in 17.4 minutes
Outlook: Pretty good freshman numbers though, stop me if you've heard this before, his shooting kind of stinks at under 40%. Still, coming into a system like VCU's and grasping it as a freshman well enough to play 17 minutes per game speaks well of his future. No big whoop, since I don't think he was really ever close to signing with the Gophers.
PF Reid Travis (Minneapolis, MN)
247 Rank: #49 overall, #10 PF
Commit: Stanford
Close?: Agonizingly close.
Bummer?: Hurt so bad. Came right down to the wire and all reports the night before his press conference were that it was looking like the Gophers. Something changed. Still hurts, especially because I don't even think Stanford fans cared.
Season Stats: 6.7 points and 6.0 rebounds in 23.6 minutes
Outlook: Ugh. Look at those rebounds. His season got derailed a bit with a foot injury where he missed about a month and he's just now starting to get back into the swing of things, but leading a major conference team in rebounding as a freshman (pre-injury he as at 6.9 and the team leader)? Playing those kind of minutes on a team with a pretty solid frontcourt already? Gross. I kind of wish I hadn't done this now, or at least skipped this one.
SF Djuan Piper (Seattle, WA)
247 Rank: #153 overall, #36 SF
Commit: North Idaho College
Close?: Uh. Yeah. He was basically all ready to commit and then stupid academics got in the way.
Bummer?: Yeah. It was pretty late in the recruiting game at this point and the Gophers were hopefully about to get a decent player late.
Season Stats: I can't find anything, but he's often mentioned in game recaps and there are pictures of him playing and stuff.
Outlook: Tough to say when I can't find tangible stats. The impression I got from looking for nearly five minutes is that, at a minimum, he's a rotation player, and Idaho is, believe or not, a pretty good JuCo hoops area so that's good. I also found a reference to him being suspended for at least one game, so that's bad. Stay tuned.
PF Abdoulaye Gueye (Birmingham, AL)
247 Rank: #301 overall, #77 PF
Commit: Georgia Tech
Close?: I think this was a case of Gueye willing to commit, but the Gophers holding him off and then he went elsewhere.
Bummer?: No. He was always more of a back-up plan, or at least that's the vibe I got.
Season Stats: 0.3 points and 0.7 rebounds in 3 minutes per game.
Outlook: He's only played 6 games this year and has only a total of 18 minutes played (what, no redshirts at G-Tech?). It doesn't bode well that he couldn't get more PT than that at Georgia Tech, but who knows what the future holds?
C Anas Mahmoud (Orlando, FL)
247 Rank: #87 overall, #9 C
Commit: Louisville
Close?: Maybe? They were at least in the mix.
Bummer?: Kind of. Everything happened so fast there was no real build up time to the heartbreak, plus losing out on him to Louisville is kind of like supposed to happen once they're involved.
Season Stats: 1.2 points and 1.9 rebounds in 9.7 minutes
Outlook: Had a brief burst of consistent playing time in the non-conference, but he's seen that trail off to spot duty and he hasn't broken the 10 minute mark in playing time since Louisville's first ACC game in early January. Clearly, Rick Pitino doesn't know how to properly use him and he should look to transfer somewhere he already felt comfortable when he visited and has a desperate need for post players. (TRANSFER TRANSFER TRANSFER! FREE ANAS!)
And then there's a handful of players who were once Gophers (on some level) who left:
SG Alvin Ellis
Who?: Gophers signee of Tubby, transferred after the coaching change, although rumor was he would have stayed if anybody had bothered to talk to him.
Where?: Michigan State
Class?: Sophomore
Season Stats: 1.5 points and 0.6 assists in 9.4 minutes
Summary: His stats are actually worse than his freshman year, mainly due to his inability to make a basket (6-30 shooting this year). I haven't noticed him when I've taken in a Spartan game so I don't know if he's overmatched, but his 2-year results don't look good.
PF Alex Foster
Who?: Gophers signee of Tubby, transferred after the coaching change. Seemingly made his college choice based on playing for Tubby.
Where?: Texas Tech
Class?: Sophomore
Season Stats: 1.1 points and 0.9 rebounds in 6.3 minutes
Summary: He's basically completely failed to crack the rotation in two seasons in Lubbock, and this for teams that have gone 14-18 and 12-13. Tubby's playing a deep bench this year with 10 guys averaging at least 10 minutes per game, and Foster not being one of them is not a real good sign for the future.
SF Joe Coleman
Who?: You remember him. Played two decent, if uneven, seasons for the Gophers before bolting when Richard Pitino got hired, even though Pitino's system probably would have been really good for him.
Where?: St. Mary's
Class?: Junior
Season Stats: 3.0 points and 1.0 rebounds in 14 minutes
Summary: Played in one game for the Gaels before a leg injury caused him to shut it down. I seriously can't find any more information on him than "leg injury." Hopefully it's not too serious and he'll get two more years as a Gael to show the world what he can do.
SG Chip Armelin
Who?: The hyper athletic, somewhat wild but deserved more of a chance shooting guard who played for Tubby for two years before transferring to get more playing time. Yes he's still around.
Where?: Southern Miss
Class?: Senior
Season Stats: 15.3 points and 4.0 rebounds in 34.3 minutes
Summary: He's having a fantastic senior season, leading the Golden Eagles in scoring. Southern Miss had a pretty solid year for them last year before being bested by the Gophers in the NIT quarters, and with their five top players graduating there was going to be a scoring void, which Armelin stepped into admirably. Of course, Southern Miss is 6-16 and 1-10 in a terrible C-USA and recently self-imposed a postseason ban (lol) because of questions around former coach Donnie Tyndall's recruiting practices. Nice to see him have some personal success though. I always liked him.
Also Better Call Saul has been awesome so far.
Showing posts with label Isaiah Whitehead. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Isaiah Whitehead. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 11, 2015
Thursday, September 19, 2013
Isaiah Whitehead will make his choice today [UPDATE: Seton Hall]
UPDATE: It's Seton Hall. They're also hiring his high school/AAU coach as an assistant, which I thought was illegal. The whole thing got awfully stinky there towards the end between St. Johns and Seton Hall. On to the weekend, and a big one it is.
At 1:30 central time, future superstar and one of the best scorers in the entire class of 2014, possible one-and-done talent Isaiah Whitehead will make his choice of which college to attend. He has narrowed it down to St. Johns, Seton Hall, Indiana, Pitt, or Minnesota. All the recruiting experts are saying signs point to St. Johns. I think Indiana is a pretty good bet since Whitehead had originally said he would decide some time in November but then pushed the date up dramatically to today which just so happens to be the day before another highly regarded Indiana recruit, Robert Johnson, said he would announce and Johnson and Whitehead play the same position. Finally, he tweeted this earlier today:
Sometimes You Just Gotta Shock The World Who Agrees ? 😏🙌
— Isaiah Whitehead (@Isaiah_W15) September 19, 2013
Which makes idiots like me think the Gophers still have a shot, despite Whitehead never visiting the campus (which does happen, remember Ja'Quan Newton?), mainly because I would really, really like for this kid to become a Gopher.
I'd say:
St. Johns 45%
Indiana 30%
Seton Hall 15%
Minnesota 10%
So you're saying there's a chance.
Friday, September 13, 2013
Same story?
Let me tell you a story. There was once a point guard out of Massachusetts named Naadir Tharpe. Now young Naadir was a really good point guard. In fact, ESPN ranked him as the 17th best PG in his class and the 86th overall player in the class of 2011. Naadir at one point had narrowed his list to Minnesota and Rutgers. Then Rutgers signed a different point guard (Myles Mack, maybe) and Tharpe canceled his official visit to see the Scarlet Knights. He took an official to Minnesota and it was reported that he enjoyed his time in Minneapolis and really liked Tubby and everything seemed great and Gopher fans were counting the days until he signed on. And yet there was no commitment.
Some time passed, and suddenly Mr. Tharpe was a little more in demand. There was an offer from NC State. There was an offer from Oklahoma. But we weren't worried. His only official visit to any school was still Minnesota and confidence was still high. Then Josiah Turner committed to Arizona and Anthony Wroten signed on with Washington and it turned out that those were the two PG targets of a little school I like to call Kansas. The Jayhawks were suddenly late in the signing period without a PG on their radar and they needed one. So they called Tharpe.
He schedule a visit to Lawrence, but it turned out he really didn't need to see anything because after Bill Self called with an official offer to become a Jayhawk it took Tharpe less than 48 hours to accept and like that, he was gone. He redshirted and then was a back up last year, averaging 20 minutes per game and scoring 5.5 pts and tallying 3.1 assists, and to Self's credit he hasn't recruited over him and now Tharpe is in line to run the offense for one of the best college basketball programs in the country.
Here is what I wrote back then:
The Spartans were after 3 point guards: Tyus Jones, Tyler Ullis, and Quentin Snider (all but Ullis were/are also Gopher targets). Snider committed to Illinois today (F that guy) and it sounds like Izzo is conceding Jones to Duke and Ullis to Kentucky, so he needed somebody since Keith Appling is gone after this season and their only other PG is that shitbox Travis Trice. So enter Sparty into the Tum Tum sweepstakes and they have told him he'll be the guy at PG from Day 1, which I think was the Gophers #1 pitch.
This is another reminder of how important your brand is in college basketball, and the Gophers just can't compete with Kansas or Michigan State. I'm not saying it's a lock that Tum Tum is heading to East Lansing, but the parallels between this situation and the Tharpe thing are too similar to be ignored. And it just sucks because Izzo is a whiny little leprecaun man who reminds me of the Lucky Charms guy on cocaine.
There is some good news in that a bunch of recruiting analysts much smarter than me have switched their projections on Isaiah Whitehead to the Gophers, but I just don't know. It seems like once one guy makes a prediction everybody suddenly switches to the same prediction and Whitehead isn't really giving any clues. I'd feel a lot better if Robert Johnson, another highly regarding wing, would just commit to Indiana already and I think I read he's going to make his decision soon so just hurry up already dick. It just sucks. I just checked the predictions thing and 50% of the analysts at 247sports.com have him going to Michigan State and they just fucking contacted him. Ugh. I quit.
A couple quick comments while I finish my last few beers while sitting on my balcony looking out over Hollywood because I'm awesome:
- We went to this Mexican/Sushi joint right on Venice Beach for dinner tonight and it was pretty hilarious (to me) because there were a few people there who just would not eat sushi. I'm not even a sushi fan really, and especially not in Minnesota (and seriously what's with you people who get a sushi tray out of the deli, I mean really) but why would you not get it from a place that is right on the ocean when that's their specialty? I mean there were just trays and trays of sushi coming out (final bill was over $1,500) so these few people were just sitting there watching everybody eat and then they finally ordered and got either ribs or a burger. Ribs or a burger. At a sushi joint right on the Pacific. Like I said I'm not really a big sushi guy but I'm not some weirdo who is grossed out by it and won't try it I just never have found anything I loved (I do love a nice ceviche). Then the yellowtail sashimi came around and my life was changed. I ate as much of the appetizer as I could and then ordered it for a meal. I may have to try some back in Minnesota. Unless they have ribs.
- Speaking of seafood, I'm a huge fan of calamari. Love it. Made sure we always had at least two orders for an appetizer at each dinner this week just so I could get enough. Also a huge fan of buffalo sauce. Yet, somehow I had never had them together. At our dinner Wednesday night the calamari came with buffalo sauce. So. Freaking. Good. It's the perfect combination. I mean calamari is usually served with a spicy sauce so why not buffalo? I wish I had some right now. I would eat it.
- Man I really wish I could just pee off this balcony. Turns out that's frowned upon.
- I'm pretty sure I passed a porn star on the street today. I was walking to the market to get some beer when we had a break from meetings and there was this blondie with super short shorts and a top that was both revealing on the top and bottom and she was with some dude and when I passed he was saying, and I shit you not, "Yeah it can be rough, even if you don't feel like having sex you have to perform" so I guess that's something.
- I had a chance to try both Fatburger and The Stand out here, as far as regional burger joints. I still think In-and-Out is the best, but I'd put The Stand second, mostly because their pickles are outstanding (and readily available - seriously they have a place to just go and fill up a cup with pickle slices and they're so good). Fatburger is basically the same as Whataburger that I had in Texas, just a big ass burger freshly cooked with any toppings you want. Both are definitely better than Sonic. I've had Five Guys and I'd put it above Fatburger/Whataburger right now, but I need to have it again to double check. I still think Dairy Queen has an underrated burger, by the way. Not as good as most of these but way better than any other fast food and I'd even put it against Sonic. I remember when they put a Sonic right by my house and I was like man we gotta try that but the line was crazy for a like a month and finally we had it and it was like lol what. I almost had Umami Burger one day out of a food truck but the line was really long and I was hungover so I just went back to the hotel and ordered a really terrible steak from room service instead.
- We went to the California Science Museum, which is really terrible, and they had Endeavour which is a space shuttle. This paragraph is now over.
- I mentioned last time how this hotel was crazy expensive and the beers, like a Coors Light, are $9 at the bar. We ended up at this bar two of the nights I was here and I just ended up going back to the room and grabbing my beer out of the fridge and carrying them down in my pockets and drinking them at the bar. Classy, right? Yes, my company will pay for a $1,500 dinner but not a $9 Bud Light. Say la Vee.
Some time passed, and suddenly Mr. Tharpe was a little more in demand. There was an offer from NC State. There was an offer from Oklahoma. But we weren't worried. His only official visit to any school was still Minnesota and confidence was still high. Then Josiah Turner committed to Arizona and Anthony Wroten signed on with Washington and it turned out that those were the two PG targets of a little school I like to call Kansas. The Jayhawks were suddenly late in the signing period without a PG on their radar and they needed one. So they called Tharpe.
He schedule a visit to Lawrence, but it turned out he really didn't need to see anything because after Bill Self called with an official offer to become a Jayhawk it took Tharpe less than 48 hours to accept and like that, he was gone. He redshirted and then was a back up last year, averaging 20 minutes per game and scoring 5.5 pts and tallying 3.1 assists, and to Self's credit he hasn't recruited over him and now Tharpe is in line to run the offense for one of the best college basketball programs in the country.
Here is what I wrote back then:
So basically the Gophers are the nice, safe, mildy attractive chick while Kansas is the super hot chick with the killer rack who puts out. I'd like to make some kind of pro-Gopher joke here, but I can't. Why wouldn't you pick the hot chick with the sweet ass? The only thing the dumpy girl has to offer is you know she won't upgrade to a better guy in a year.Why is the relevant now? Because do you remember way back on Tuesday when I wrote about how Lourawls "Tum Tum" Nairn was the most important recruit for the Gophers after J.P. Macura turned traitor? Well, Mr. Nairn just got a call from Michigan State and you'll never guess what happened. Despite having trimmed his list to Minnesota, Oklahoma, and Indiana and saying those were his only 3 official visits he has now already scheduled a visit to East Lansing.
The Spartans were after 3 point guards: Tyus Jones, Tyler Ullis, and Quentin Snider (all but Ullis were/are also Gopher targets). Snider committed to Illinois today (F that guy) and it sounds like Izzo is conceding Jones to Duke and Ullis to Kentucky, so he needed somebody since Keith Appling is gone after this season and their only other PG is that shitbox Travis Trice. So enter Sparty into the Tum Tum sweepstakes and they have told him he'll be the guy at PG from Day 1, which I think was the Gophers #1 pitch.
This is another reminder of how important your brand is in college basketball, and the Gophers just can't compete with Kansas or Michigan State. I'm not saying it's a lock that Tum Tum is heading to East Lansing, but the parallels between this situation and the Tharpe thing are too similar to be ignored. And it just sucks because Izzo is a whiny little leprecaun man who reminds me of the Lucky Charms guy on cocaine.
There is some good news in that a bunch of recruiting analysts much smarter than me have switched their projections on Isaiah Whitehead to the Gophers, but I just don't know. It seems like once one guy makes a prediction everybody suddenly switches to the same prediction and Whitehead isn't really giving any clues. I'd feel a lot better if Robert Johnson, another highly regarding wing, would just commit to Indiana already and I think I read he's going to make his decision soon so just hurry up already dick. It just sucks. I just checked the predictions thing and 50% of the analysts at 247sports.com have him going to Michigan State and they just fucking contacted him. Ugh. I quit.
A couple quick comments while I finish my last few beers while sitting on my balcony looking out over Hollywood because I'm awesome:
- We went to this Mexican/Sushi joint right on Venice Beach for dinner tonight and it was pretty hilarious (to me) because there were a few people there who just would not eat sushi. I'm not even a sushi fan really, and especially not in Minnesota (and seriously what's with you people who get a sushi tray out of the deli, I mean really) but why would you not get it from a place that is right on the ocean when that's their specialty? I mean there were just trays and trays of sushi coming out (final bill was over $1,500) so these few people were just sitting there watching everybody eat and then they finally ordered and got either ribs or a burger. Ribs or a burger. At a sushi joint right on the Pacific. Like I said I'm not really a big sushi guy but I'm not some weirdo who is grossed out by it and won't try it I just never have found anything I loved (I do love a nice ceviche). Then the yellowtail sashimi came around and my life was changed. I ate as much of the appetizer as I could and then ordered it for a meal. I may have to try some back in Minnesota. Unless they have ribs.
- Speaking of seafood, I'm a huge fan of calamari. Love it. Made sure we always had at least two orders for an appetizer at each dinner this week just so I could get enough. Also a huge fan of buffalo sauce. Yet, somehow I had never had them together. At our dinner Wednesday night the calamari came with buffalo sauce. So. Freaking. Good. It's the perfect combination. I mean calamari is usually served with a spicy sauce so why not buffalo? I wish I had some right now. I would eat it.
- Man I really wish I could just pee off this balcony. Turns out that's frowned upon.
- I'm pretty sure I passed a porn star on the street today. I was walking to the market to get some beer when we had a break from meetings and there was this blondie with super short shorts and a top that was both revealing on the top and bottom and she was with some dude and when I passed he was saying, and I shit you not, "Yeah it can be rough, even if you don't feel like having sex you have to perform" so I guess that's something.
- I had a chance to try both Fatburger and The Stand out here, as far as regional burger joints. I still think In-and-Out is the best, but I'd put The Stand second, mostly because their pickles are outstanding (and readily available - seriously they have a place to just go and fill up a cup with pickle slices and they're so good). Fatburger is basically the same as Whataburger that I had in Texas, just a big ass burger freshly cooked with any toppings you want. Both are definitely better than Sonic. I've had Five Guys and I'd put it above Fatburger/Whataburger right now, but I need to have it again to double check. I still think Dairy Queen has an underrated burger, by the way. Not as good as most of these but way better than any other fast food and I'd even put it against Sonic. I remember when they put a Sonic right by my house and I was like man we gotta try that but the line was crazy for a like a month and finally we had it and it was like lol what. I almost had Umami Burger one day out of a food truck but the line was really long and I was hungover so I just went back to the hotel and ordered a really terrible steak from room service instead.
- We went to the California Science Museum, which is really terrible, and they had Endeavour which is a space shuttle. This paragraph is now over.
- I mentioned last time how this hotel was crazy expensive and the beers, like a Coors Light, are $9 at the bar. We ended up at this bar two of the nights I was here and I just ended up going back to the room and grabbing my beer out of the fridge and carrying them down in my pockets and drinking them at the bar. Classy, right? Yes, my company will pay for a $1,500 dinner but not a $9 Bud Light. Say la Vee.
Tuesday, September 10, 2013
Greetings from the City of Angels
That would be Los Angeles, just so you know. I know back in the day when I used to travel all the time I would just fill up the hotel room sink with a bunch of beer and ice, drink it all, and just blog like crazy. I would like you to know that I've grown up from those days - the beer is in the fridge.
- I was at the Dodger game tonight (more on that later) and I opened up Twitter on my phone to tell everyone how cool I am for being at Dodger Stadium and what do I see? J.P. Macura committed to Xavier. Shit. Everything Pitino has been doing with recruiting has been impressive so far with getting on so many top 5 and top 3 lists for a whole bunch of really good prospects, but none of that matters if nobody actually, you know, signs on to become a Gopher. Right or wrong (actually obviously wrong) Macura was the one everybody just kind of assumed would be a Gopher.
He was a Minnesota kid, and although he was highly regarded (#104 according to Rivals) he wasn't so highly regarded that the big time programs would be after like with Rashad Vaughn, Tyus Jones, and Reid Travis (recently offered by Duke by the way - FML) and so the Gophers would have an edge despite the late start for Pitino in chasing him. There was also the perception, for some reason, that the other two schools in the hunt (Xavier and Creighton) were lesser programs and that also gave the Gophers a real good shot. Well, oops.
The new Big East is a pretty damn good hoops conference (Xavier, Creighton, DePaul, Georgetown, Marquette, Providence, St Johns, Seton Hall, Butler, and Villanova) with some pretty good history among those individual programs, not to mention between each other in the old Big East, so you can certainly see why Macura would be interested. Minnesota's enrollment is north of 50,000, while Xavier is just shy of 5,000, so if the kid wants smaller class sizes and student body (I have no idea if this was a factor) there's a dramatic difference. And it's not like J.P. didn't do his due dilligence, he unoffically visited the U like 5 times, but Xavier showed up to visit with him today and left with his verbal, so good on them.
There's no doubt that this sucks. Even though Macura wasn't the highest rated player Pitino has worked to have a shot with, he was the most likely to become a Gopher, or so we thought. Those who are talking themselves into the fact that Macura didn't commit to Minnesota because he's worried Pitino will recruit over him with a higher rated wing (hi gopherhole) are just chasing unicorns (along with those thinking oh well he wasn't a program changer anyway or Pitino is after bigger fish anyway). Although I remain confident, there is nothing really to be confident about and that's the honest truth.
Some fans are panicking. Some are almost absurdly confident. The truth, as usual, is somewhere in the middle. There's no doubt Pitino has made some serious recruiting inroads, and the Gophers remain very much in the game for some very good players. The most important right now is probably Lourawls Nairn, ranked #61 by Rivals who has narrowed his list to the Gophers, Oklahoma, and Indiana. If Pitino can ink him we can all throw a party with sombreros and pie and move on with confidence. There are still a handful of others who could make us all feel warm and happy (Isaiah Whitehead, Paul White, Josh Martin) as well as the remaining three Minnesota kids, but recruits are committing all over the place right now and I would feel much, much better if the Gophers could sign one of them. Any one.
- We went to the Dodger game tonight which was cool. It was supposed to be the whole group of 20 or so who are out here for this work thing, but everything fell apart and it was just me and one co-worker. We cabbed it out there (nearly an hour, stupid LA traffic) and as we're getting out of the cab I say, "You brought your ticket right?" because I had purchased them (corporate card, of course) and printed his out and gave it to him before we left Minnesota. He says, "oh shit no, it's in my laptop bag." I chuckled because of course I assume he's kidding. He wasn't, and he's like, what do we do now?
Luckily I'm like Jason Bourne and quick on my feet, so I'm like "boom smartphone" and pull up the ticket and we should be good to go. Well the 100-year old man at the gate is like, "no, you have to have a printed ticket" and I ask if there's anywhere to print them here assuming he'll say no and we're shit out of luck. Fortunately, however, he says we can go to Lot G where they actually have Stubhub ticket booths to print tickets. Nice. We walk halfway around the stadium and get the ticket printed and we're good to go.
Then we get in and I look where we are and we are walking in by section 52. Our tickets are section 53. This is working out well. We look around, however, and can't find 53. So we ask the usher dude who kind of chuckles and says, "you're on the wrong side of the stadium guys." Turns out the even sections are on one side of the stadium and the odd are on the other. We walked in by the right field foul pole and our seats are by the left field foul pole only we can't get there going through the outfield sections and have to pretty much walk all the way around the stadium. So at least we got to see pretty much all of it, which was nice.
- Dodger Stadium was really nice, and you'd never know it was built in 1962 and is the third oldest major league ballpark still in use behind Fenway, which is a dump, and Wrigley, which I'm ashamed to admit I still haven't been to. It's got that thing all the newer ballparks have where you can see the game from the concourse no matter where you are (which came in handy tonight) and was just a real nice, pleasant field. We had seats right by the Dodger bullpen in the third row in left field and I never had a ball hit anywhere near me. Still have never caught a ball at a major league game which seems ridiculous considering how many games I've been to in my life. Stupid probability.
- Juan Uribe hit 3 home runs which was pretty cool because I can't recall ever being at a game where somebody hit 3 home runs. You know how many homers he hit last season? Two. The year before that? Four. So this was the rarest of rare occurrences and I think it makes me pretty awesome.
- There were way more non-white people there than at Target Field. Like way more.
- Carlos Marmol throws really, really hard. That's not breaking news, but we were right next to the Dodger bullpen and a bunch of guys warmed up and you could hear the catcher's mitt pop but when Marmol got up it was a whole different sound - like when he first aired it out everyone in the section's head just jerked in that direction to see what was going on. Of course, he has no idea where he's throwing it, but he has no idea where he's throwing it pretty fast.
- Dodger Stadium is pretty spendy. I got what they're famous for - a Dodger Dog (good as advertised) and garlic fries (not nearly as good as I expected) plus a domestic light beer and the total was $24. I guess it's pretty stupid to continue to get surprised by stadium/airport/movie theater/hotel prices, but I've never said I'm not stupid.
- Speaking of that, this hotel I'm at might be the fanciest I've ever stayed in, and I've stayed at the Cornhusker Inn in Lincoln, NE. And a water costs $4. I'm not talking some fancy water from the mini-bar either, just regular old bottled water. The mini-bar water is $7.50, as is a bag of chips that would normally cost 99 cents. Snickers? $5. I know, I know, I sound like a cranky old man. I kind of want to kick my own ass right now. Let's just move on.
- This cars.com commercial with James van der Beek is easily the greatest commercial ever. In case you haven't seen it:
Awesome.
- I finally started watching Breaking Bad, and let me tell you that the hype is totally valid. It's so awesome. I think I've been watching for two weeks and I'm already up to Season 5, Episode 6. I can't describe it, it's seriously amazing. Every time you think you know where they're going, they go somewhere else and every episode is good. My favorite shows have been the first 3 seasons of Lost and Game of Thrones, and I think Breaking Bad might be better than either. We'll see how they wrap it up here in a couple of weeks, but if you can get to it, start watching it. DO IT.
- That's all I guess. See you tomorrow.
- I was at the Dodger game tonight (more on that later) and I opened up Twitter on my phone to tell everyone how cool I am for being at Dodger Stadium and what do I see? J.P. Macura committed to Xavier. Shit. Everything Pitino has been doing with recruiting has been impressive so far with getting on so many top 5 and top 3 lists for a whole bunch of really good prospects, but none of that matters if nobody actually, you know, signs on to become a Gopher. Right or wrong (actually obviously wrong) Macura was the one everybody just kind of assumed would be a Gopher.
He was a Minnesota kid, and although he was highly regarded (#104 according to Rivals) he wasn't so highly regarded that the big time programs would be after like with Rashad Vaughn, Tyus Jones, and Reid Travis (recently offered by Duke by the way - FML) and so the Gophers would have an edge despite the late start for Pitino in chasing him. There was also the perception, for some reason, that the other two schools in the hunt (Xavier and Creighton) were lesser programs and that also gave the Gophers a real good shot. Well, oops.
The new Big East is a pretty damn good hoops conference (Xavier, Creighton, DePaul, Georgetown, Marquette, Providence, St Johns, Seton Hall, Butler, and Villanova) with some pretty good history among those individual programs, not to mention between each other in the old Big East, so you can certainly see why Macura would be interested. Minnesota's enrollment is north of 50,000, while Xavier is just shy of 5,000, so if the kid wants smaller class sizes and student body (I have no idea if this was a factor) there's a dramatic difference. And it's not like J.P. didn't do his due dilligence, he unoffically visited the U like 5 times, but Xavier showed up to visit with him today and left with his verbal, so good on them.
There's no doubt that this sucks. Even though Macura wasn't the highest rated player Pitino has worked to have a shot with, he was the most likely to become a Gopher, or so we thought. Those who are talking themselves into the fact that Macura didn't commit to Minnesota because he's worried Pitino will recruit over him with a higher rated wing (hi gopherhole) are just chasing unicorns (along with those thinking oh well he wasn't a program changer anyway or Pitino is after bigger fish anyway). Although I remain confident, there is nothing really to be confident about and that's the honest truth.
Some fans are panicking. Some are almost absurdly confident. The truth, as usual, is somewhere in the middle. There's no doubt Pitino has made some serious recruiting inroads, and the Gophers remain very much in the game for some very good players. The most important right now is probably Lourawls Nairn, ranked #61 by Rivals who has narrowed his list to the Gophers, Oklahoma, and Indiana. If Pitino can ink him we can all throw a party with sombreros and pie and move on with confidence. There are still a handful of others who could make us all feel warm and happy (Isaiah Whitehead, Paul White, Josh Martin) as well as the remaining three Minnesota kids, but recruits are committing all over the place right now and I would feel much, much better if the Gophers could sign one of them. Any one.
- We went to the Dodger game tonight which was cool. It was supposed to be the whole group of 20 or so who are out here for this work thing, but everything fell apart and it was just me and one co-worker. We cabbed it out there (nearly an hour, stupid LA traffic) and as we're getting out of the cab I say, "You brought your ticket right?" because I had purchased them (corporate card, of course) and printed his out and gave it to him before we left Minnesota. He says, "oh shit no, it's in my laptop bag." I chuckled because of course I assume he's kidding. He wasn't, and he's like, what do we do now?
Luckily I'm like Jason Bourne and quick on my feet, so I'm like "boom smartphone" and pull up the ticket and we should be good to go. Well the 100-year old man at the gate is like, "no, you have to have a printed ticket" and I ask if there's anywhere to print them here assuming he'll say no and we're shit out of luck. Fortunately, however, he says we can go to Lot G where they actually have Stubhub ticket booths to print tickets. Nice. We walk halfway around the stadium and get the ticket printed and we're good to go.
Then we get in and I look where we are and we are walking in by section 52. Our tickets are section 53. This is working out well. We look around, however, and can't find 53. So we ask the usher dude who kind of chuckles and says, "you're on the wrong side of the stadium guys." Turns out the even sections are on one side of the stadium and the odd are on the other. We walked in by the right field foul pole and our seats are by the left field foul pole only we can't get there going through the outfield sections and have to pretty much walk all the way around the stadium. So at least we got to see pretty much all of it, which was nice.
- Dodger Stadium was really nice, and you'd never know it was built in 1962 and is the third oldest major league ballpark still in use behind Fenway, which is a dump, and Wrigley, which I'm ashamed to admit I still haven't been to. It's got that thing all the newer ballparks have where you can see the game from the concourse no matter where you are (which came in handy tonight) and was just a real nice, pleasant field. We had seats right by the Dodger bullpen in the third row in left field and I never had a ball hit anywhere near me. Still have never caught a ball at a major league game which seems ridiculous considering how many games I've been to in my life. Stupid probability.
- Juan Uribe hit 3 home runs which was pretty cool because I can't recall ever being at a game where somebody hit 3 home runs. You know how many homers he hit last season? Two. The year before that? Four. So this was the rarest of rare occurrences and I think it makes me pretty awesome.
- There were way more non-white people there than at Target Field. Like way more.
- Carlos Marmol throws really, really hard. That's not breaking news, but we were right next to the Dodger bullpen and a bunch of guys warmed up and you could hear the catcher's mitt pop but when Marmol got up it was a whole different sound - like when he first aired it out everyone in the section's head just jerked in that direction to see what was going on. Of course, he has no idea where he's throwing it, but he has no idea where he's throwing it pretty fast.
- Dodger Stadium is pretty spendy. I got what they're famous for - a Dodger Dog (good as advertised) and garlic fries (not nearly as good as I expected) plus a domestic light beer and the total was $24. I guess it's pretty stupid to continue to get surprised by stadium/airport/movie theater/hotel prices, but I've never said I'm not stupid.
- Speaking of that, this hotel I'm at might be the fanciest I've ever stayed in, and I've stayed at the Cornhusker Inn in Lincoln, NE. And a water costs $4. I'm not talking some fancy water from the mini-bar either, just regular old bottled water. The mini-bar water is $7.50, as is a bag of chips that would normally cost 99 cents. Snickers? $5. I know, I know, I sound like a cranky old man. I kind of want to kick my own ass right now. Let's just move on.
- This cars.com commercial with James van der Beek is easily the greatest commercial ever. In case you haven't seen it:
Awesome.
- I finally started watching Breaking Bad, and let me tell you that the hype is totally valid. It's so awesome. I think I've been watching for two weeks and I'm already up to Season 5, Episode 6. I can't describe it, it's seriously amazing. Every time you think you know where they're going, they go somewhere else and every episode is good. My favorite shows have been the first 3 seasons of Lost and Game of Thrones, and I think Breaking Bad might be better than either. We'll see how they wrap it up here in a couple of weeks, but if you can get to it, start watching it. DO IT.
- That's all I guess. See you tomorrow.
Wednesday, July 24, 2013
Richard Pitino is Making me Tired
No matter what you thought of the Tubby for Pitino swap, there's no denying that the new coach has had an electrifying effect on recruiting for the Gophers. He's been working his ass off, as you can see from this post at From the Barn. Not only does he have more offers out to top players than Tubby ever did, recruiting experts and AAU coaches on Twitter continually bring up Minnesota with one even mentioning, "Minnesota has suddenly become one of the "it" places among recruits." Pitino has yet to land a commitment, and it's still more than possible that he whiffs on all these top players, but just for kicks lets take a look at who is in the crosshairs. Rankings are ESPN first, then Rivals.
PG Tyus Jones, Apple Valley, MN (#3/#2): I'm fairly certain you've heard of him. There is a lot of speculation that he's simply keeping the Gophers on his list because they're the home town team and I think that's probably the case, but you never know. He and Jahlil Okafor (#1 for 2014) continue to talk about playing together and Okafor isn't interested in the Gophers. I'd be pretty stunned if Jones ends up anywhere besides Duke or Kentucky.
SG Rashad Vaughn, Golden Valley, MN (#11/#7): Of the Big 3 Minnesota kids in this class I continue to believe Vaughn is the most likely to wear the maroon and gold, simply because he seems to do things his own way. He also recently gave an interview where he acknowledged that if he stays home for college he "knows [he] will be a superstar and the city would love [me]." That's certainly true, but the heat will be on him big time from other programs as well as coaches/scouts have been drooling over his ability to Byron Buxton levels in this evaluation period. Rumors about that he wants to play with Josh Perkins (PG, #24 in the class, see below) and if they do stick together it's probably going to be Minnesota, UCLA, or Kansas. Vaughn is the #1 guy I hope the Gophers end up with. He recently transferred to Findlay Prep in Vegas for his final high school season, and although some claim that's good for the Gophers and some claim that's bad, I will admit that it could go either way. Hopefully he gets really home sick.
C Goodluck Okonoboh, Boston, MA (#19/#32): Haven't heard much on this kid since the initial offer went out and it sounds like Indiana is holding pretty strongly in front for his services. He's a great defensive center which would fit perfectly with the Gophers, but it's not looking likely.
PG Josh Perkins, Denver, CO (#24/#28): I would love to have this kid because although I think I remembered reading about some issues off the court (and I could be remembering wrong) he's described everywhere as a true pass-first point guard and I would love another Arriel McDonald back in my life. If Pitino's (and staff) recruiting efforts truly pay off with a lot of talent coming here, a pass first point guard would be a great addition to an uptempo offense. I think I heard Arizona was the leader at one point, but they just signed a different highly ranked point guard so that may open Perkins back up and hopefully Rashad Vaughn can push him towards the Gophers.
SG Isaiah Whitehead, Brooklyn, NY (#35/#17): This is the guy who has everybody, myself included, really excited for many reasons, beyond simply that he's an elite scorer. First, he's a guard from New York, and the fact that the Gophers were able to get him to seriously consider coming to the midwest is huge considering Minnesota hasn't had a NY guard since Eric Harris I believe. Pitino's assistant, Kimani Young, was touted as a great hire for the program because of his deep ties in the Northeast and specifically New York, and it looks like it's already making waves. Secondly, he and Ja'Quan Newton (Philly PG, #67 in the class, see below) seem to be very strongly leaning towards playing together next year (they sound more committed to it than Perkins/Vaughn) and Whitehead seems to love Pitino/Young, getting him could result in top guards committing. Lastly, combining all these factors instantly makes Minnesota more relevant in the recruiting game than even getting Vaughn would (because of the home town factor). That's why even though Vaughn is probably my #1 in terms of ability for the Gophers to sign, Whitehead is probably more important to the long term health of the program.
PF Reid Travis, Minneapolis, MN (#40/#40): The third of the Big 3 and the toughest to get a read on for me because he has so much else going for him besides basketball. He's a stud on the court, but he's also a pretty good football player with an offer to play QB for Boston College (and a hoops offer there as well) and I haven't heard if he plans to try to play both in college definitively one way or the other. Additionally he's a great student and holds a hoops offer from Harvard and people have done stranger things than choose athletics over academics before. Stanford is apparently sniffing around as well but hasn't offered yet, so it will be interesting to see what happens there. If you're serious about both academics and athletics it's tough to beat Stanford, although luckily Minnesota ranks pretty highly in those academic things as well, although they aren't elite. Travis holds some additional importance because Pitino and company seem to be hammering guards as their top priority, so locking down a big man would be helpful.
PG Kaleb Joseph, Nashua, NH (#51/#56): Joseph has a really weird profile because although he has offers from Syracuse and Georgetown he also has offers from Fordham and Delaware, and despite the high ranking his scouting report talks about how he has to "turn potential into production" so I'm wondering if he's the rare PG project. In any case, getting an east coast PG to take a strong look at the Gophers, considering they're the westernmost school to have offered, only bodes well for the future. I'd put Joseph as the #3 PG on the wish list behind Perkins and Newton (#4 I suppose if you want to keep dreaming about Tyus).
PF Paul White, Chicago, IL (#57/51): ESPN doesn't have this guy as having a Gopher offer, but Rivals does and I'm pretty sure I remember reading that the Gophers offered him so we're going to run with it. Of course this guy has offers from every non-Kentucky/Duke/Kansas school out there pretty much, so there's a lot of competition. He's another guy that will likely move up the recruiting rankings when they are revised, so hopefully the Gophers got in on him early enough to make a big impression since it sounds like he's a pretty complete player already and is described as a "crafty low post scorer" which I really like. Pretty boring name though.
SF Terry Larrier, Bronx, NY (#59/#38): Another east coast guy giving a long look at the Gophers, Larrier is similar to Joseph in that he holds an offer from nearly every northeastern school no matter how big or how small, but he stands out a bit thanks to offers from Florida, Florida State, Arizona, and VCU as well and just picked up a couple more from NC State and Texas. He's described as a "classic jump and run athlete" who "wants the ball and isn't afraid to make plays in the open floor" so you can understand why Pitino (and VCU) would be drooling over him. He's visited the campus, along with a few other schools, and says he's going to trim his list this month and then make a decision in November or December. I'd like him here, but he's just exploding nationally so it's going to get tougher and tougher.
PG Ja'Quan Newton, Philadelphia, PA (#67/#41): I'm finding myself falling for Newton because he seems to be a guy who is being mentioned in every recruiting story as a guy who is playing well to the point where I'd be surprised if he's not significantly higher in the next set of rankings that come out if they update them which I am guessing they will after this evaluation period. That, the east coast thing, and his connection with Whitehead make Newton a top priority get, but after being more of a scoring guard and successfully adding more point guard-ish stuff to his resume he's blowing up. Pitino has been on him since minute one and hopefully has made a nice impression, because Newton is going to be getting a lot more attention in the coming months. I WANT this guy. I used all caps to make that point clear.
SG Sandy Cohen, Green Bay, WI (#70/#93): Usually when I mention Sandy Cohen people ask how he could let Trey move in with him since he clearly was a very different case than Ryan, but this time I'm talking about the guard from Wisconsin. He's another riser with the majority of his offers being regional and/or mid-majors, but Memphis has jump on board and it's only a matter of time before he starts hearing from some more premiere programs. At this point he seems to be pretty much in love with Marquette and they've made an offer, so it's curious as to why this marriage hasn't been made official yet. Some have speculated that perhaps Cohen is a back-up plan for Marquette, much like Taylor was for Ryan after Marissa's death, and that could lead to Cohen going somewhere else. Somewhere fabulous. Like Minnesota.
PG Alex Robinson, Arlington, TX (#89/#71): Robinson is cool because he's a fairly recent offeree and when he was asked who was recruiting him the hardest he said "Minnesota" which is nice of him. I don't really know much about him, but his scouting report makes him sound like a pretty complete point guard who needs to get stronger and is a bit of a streaky shooter, which pretty much sounds like almost all incoming freshmen point guards. One other point in his favor, other than how he is obviously totally in love with the Gophers, is that he's a lefty, which means that even if he's streaky with his jumper it's going to look so, so pretty.
SF Josh Cunningham, Chicago, IL (NR/#69): One of the weirdest cases on the list, simply because one site has him as a top 70 player while the other doesn't have him in the top 100 and while that would probably be a common thing if these lists came about truly independently but since I'm pretty sure these guys mostly just crib off each other it's kind of strange. He's also kind of strange because his best offer outside of the Gophers is either Oklahoma or DePaul, depending on your opinion of the two programs (note: I'd go Oklahoma - have you ever been to DePaul's arena?). Check out some of these words/phrases used to describe him in his scouting report though - "warrior", "tenacity", "nose for the ball", "makes winning plays", "prototypical high mid-major prospect", "undersized", and "blue collar attitude." Doesn't that sound like a scouting report for Nick Punto, outside of the mid-major thing because that wouldn't make any sense? Pass.
PG Wade Baldwin, Hillsborough, NJ (NR/#117): If Pitino misses out on all the other northeast point guards Baldwin isn't a bad consolation prize if that's who ends up at the U. He's a bigger point guard (6-2) for a college kid and augments his height by being big and strong for a upcoming freshman. The knock on him is that he doesn't have much of an outside shot, but not only is that a skill that can be learned at a later date (see: Harris, Eric) but if Pitino is successful in instituting an up-tempo system it's more important to have a point guard who can get to the rim than it is one that can shoot the 3 (see: Siva, Peyton) as long as you have shooters around him. Which I assume is the plan.
C Chinanu Onuaku, Upper Marlboro, MD (NR/#120): Hey a center. That's weird. Knowing Pitino he must be a really athletic dude who maybe isn't all that skilled, right? Check. A "long and strong" (tee hee) shot blocker who has a major strength in his ability to run the floor for his size. With not very much of an offensive game. Totally makes sense. You know what Gorgui Dieng's profile said coming out of high school? Pretty much the exact same thing. Except the Dieng already had a 15-foot jumper whereas near as I can tell Onuaku has a 3 foot jumper. Also Dieng spoke five languages, and there's no mention of multilingualism in Onuaku's profile. For shame.
SG J.P. Macura, Lakeville, MN (NR/#126): This is the guy I expect to be the first signee in the 2014 class, although more and more schools are starting to get in the mix. From the sounds of things Macura had been waiting for an offer from the Gophers and was ecstatic when he received it. Prior to that I think the leader was Butler so who knows where that stands now with the Brad Stevens to the Celtics weirdness. I've watched a couple highlight videos and he can flat out score. He's got great range, a quick release, and an ability to score in the paint that's impressive and some might even call crafty. I don't know how much he will be able to contribute in his first year wherever he ends up going because I think his defense looks like it's a bit suspect. I don't really know what I'm talking about though.
SF Marial Shayok, Ottawa, Ontario (NR/NR): This is confusing because ESPN says this guy is from Canada but Rivals says he's from New Jersey. Man this reporting stuff is confusing and difficult. This guy doesn't have the immediate impact potential of most of the rest of the guys on this list, reflected by his lack of a ranking at either site, but his scouting report makes it sound like he's the type who just hasn't tapped his potential yet. Unfortunately I can't be bothered to wait for all the winning so begone with you. He does hold offers from West Virginia, LaSalle, and Marquette so it's not like he's a terrible get or anything, I'm just unreasonable with my expectations.
PF Tory Miller, Lee's Summit, MO (NR/NR): Well he's from Missouri yet doesn't hold an offer from Missouri, so that's pretty much a big red flag right there, but he's also got potential. He's a big dude with a real power game, and once again Marquette is in the mix for his services so I'm pretty sure they're just following Pitino around and offering all the same dudes. Or maybe Pitino is following Buzz around. Either way, it doesn't seem like the ideal way to recruit.
PG Jalyn Patterson, Alpharetta, GA (NR/NR): He's from Georgia and he does have an offer from both Georgia and Georgia Tech so huzzah! Also Georgia Southern and Georgia State! Wow, Georgia officially loves this kid. I would say more but they didn't even give this dude a scouting report. Uh, he also has an offer from Auburn and he's 6-1.
That is a lot of offers. Hopefully this works. He's also already hitting the trail for 2015 with some of the top kids both nationally and locally, and also just offered 2016 Minnesota kid Amir Coffey (yes, Richard's son). I've upgraded from cautiously optimistic to less cautious, more optimistic. Once we get that first signing down I'm going to throw a party. With a keg and everything.
PG Tyus Jones, Apple Valley, MN (#3/#2): I'm fairly certain you've heard of him. There is a lot of speculation that he's simply keeping the Gophers on his list because they're the home town team and I think that's probably the case, but you never know. He and Jahlil Okafor (#1 for 2014) continue to talk about playing together and Okafor isn't interested in the Gophers. I'd be pretty stunned if Jones ends up anywhere besides Duke or Kentucky.
SG Rashad Vaughn, Golden Valley, MN (#11/#7): Of the Big 3 Minnesota kids in this class I continue to believe Vaughn is the most likely to wear the maroon and gold, simply because he seems to do things his own way. He also recently gave an interview where he acknowledged that if he stays home for college he "knows [he] will be a superstar and the city would love [me]." That's certainly true, but the heat will be on him big time from other programs as well as coaches/scouts have been drooling over his ability to Byron Buxton levels in this evaluation period. Rumors about that he wants to play with Josh Perkins (PG, #24 in the class, see below) and if they do stick together it's probably going to be Minnesota, UCLA, or Kansas. Vaughn is the #1 guy I hope the Gophers end up with. He recently transferred to Findlay Prep in Vegas for his final high school season, and although some claim that's good for the Gophers and some claim that's bad, I will admit that it could go either way. Hopefully he gets really home sick.
C Goodluck Okonoboh, Boston, MA (#19/#32): Haven't heard much on this kid since the initial offer went out and it sounds like Indiana is holding pretty strongly in front for his services. He's a great defensive center which would fit perfectly with the Gophers, but it's not looking likely.
PG Josh Perkins, Denver, CO (#24/#28): I would love to have this kid because although I think I remembered reading about some issues off the court (and I could be remembering wrong) he's described everywhere as a true pass-first point guard and I would love another Arriel McDonald back in my life. If Pitino's (and staff) recruiting efforts truly pay off with a lot of talent coming here, a pass first point guard would be a great addition to an uptempo offense. I think I heard Arizona was the leader at one point, but they just signed a different highly ranked point guard so that may open Perkins back up and hopefully Rashad Vaughn can push him towards the Gophers.
SG Isaiah Whitehead, Brooklyn, NY (#35/#17): This is the guy who has everybody, myself included, really excited for many reasons, beyond simply that he's an elite scorer. First, he's a guard from New York, and the fact that the Gophers were able to get him to seriously consider coming to the midwest is huge considering Minnesota hasn't had a NY guard since Eric Harris I believe. Pitino's assistant, Kimani Young, was touted as a great hire for the program because of his deep ties in the Northeast and specifically New York, and it looks like it's already making waves. Secondly, he and Ja'Quan Newton (Philly PG, #67 in the class, see below) seem to be very strongly leaning towards playing together next year (they sound more committed to it than Perkins/Vaughn) and Whitehead seems to love Pitino/Young, getting him could result in top guards committing. Lastly, combining all these factors instantly makes Minnesota more relevant in the recruiting game than even getting Vaughn would (because of the home town factor). That's why even though Vaughn is probably my #1 in terms of ability for the Gophers to sign, Whitehead is probably more important to the long term health of the program.
PF Reid Travis, Minneapolis, MN (#40/#40): The third of the Big 3 and the toughest to get a read on for me because he has so much else going for him besides basketball. He's a stud on the court, but he's also a pretty good football player with an offer to play QB for Boston College (and a hoops offer there as well) and I haven't heard if he plans to try to play both in college definitively one way or the other. Additionally he's a great student and holds a hoops offer from Harvard and people have done stranger things than choose athletics over academics before. Stanford is apparently sniffing around as well but hasn't offered yet, so it will be interesting to see what happens there. If you're serious about both academics and athletics it's tough to beat Stanford, although luckily Minnesota ranks pretty highly in those academic things as well, although they aren't elite. Travis holds some additional importance because Pitino and company seem to be hammering guards as their top priority, so locking down a big man would be helpful.
PG Kaleb Joseph, Nashua, NH (#51/#56): Joseph has a really weird profile because although he has offers from Syracuse and Georgetown he also has offers from Fordham and Delaware, and despite the high ranking his scouting report talks about how he has to "turn potential into production" so I'm wondering if he's the rare PG project. In any case, getting an east coast PG to take a strong look at the Gophers, considering they're the westernmost school to have offered, only bodes well for the future. I'd put Joseph as the #3 PG on the wish list behind Perkins and Newton (#4 I suppose if you want to keep dreaming about Tyus).
PF Paul White, Chicago, IL (#57/51): ESPN doesn't have this guy as having a Gopher offer, but Rivals does and I'm pretty sure I remember reading that the Gophers offered him so we're going to run with it. Of course this guy has offers from every non-Kentucky/Duke/Kansas school out there pretty much, so there's a lot of competition. He's another guy that will likely move up the recruiting rankings when they are revised, so hopefully the Gophers got in on him early enough to make a big impression since it sounds like he's a pretty complete player already and is described as a "crafty low post scorer" which I really like. Pretty boring name though.
SF Terry Larrier, Bronx, NY (#59/#38): Another east coast guy giving a long look at the Gophers, Larrier is similar to Joseph in that he holds an offer from nearly every northeastern school no matter how big or how small, but he stands out a bit thanks to offers from Florida, Florida State, Arizona, and VCU as well and just picked up a couple more from NC State and Texas. He's described as a "classic jump and run athlete" who "wants the ball and isn't afraid to make plays in the open floor" so you can understand why Pitino (and VCU) would be drooling over him. He's visited the campus, along with a few other schools, and says he's going to trim his list this month and then make a decision in November or December. I'd like him here, but he's just exploding nationally so it's going to get tougher and tougher.
PG Ja'Quan Newton, Philadelphia, PA (#67/#41): I'm finding myself falling for Newton because he seems to be a guy who is being mentioned in every recruiting story as a guy who is playing well to the point where I'd be surprised if he's not significantly higher in the next set of rankings that come out if they update them which I am guessing they will after this evaluation period. That, the east coast thing, and his connection with Whitehead make Newton a top priority get, but after being more of a scoring guard and successfully adding more point guard-ish stuff to his resume he's blowing up. Pitino has been on him since minute one and hopefully has made a nice impression, because Newton is going to be getting a lot more attention in the coming months. I WANT this guy. I used all caps to make that point clear.
SG Sandy Cohen, Green Bay, WI (#70/#93): Usually when I mention Sandy Cohen people ask how he could let Trey move in with him since he clearly was a very different case than Ryan, but this time I'm talking about the guard from Wisconsin. He's another riser with the majority of his offers being regional and/or mid-majors, but Memphis has jump on board and it's only a matter of time before he starts hearing from some more premiere programs. At this point he seems to be pretty much in love with Marquette and they've made an offer, so it's curious as to why this marriage hasn't been made official yet. Some have speculated that perhaps Cohen is a back-up plan for Marquette, much like Taylor was for Ryan after Marissa's death, and that could lead to Cohen going somewhere else. Somewhere fabulous. Like Minnesota.
PG Alex Robinson, Arlington, TX (#89/#71): Robinson is cool because he's a fairly recent offeree and when he was asked who was recruiting him the hardest he said "Minnesota" which is nice of him. I don't really know much about him, but his scouting report makes him sound like a pretty complete point guard who needs to get stronger and is a bit of a streaky shooter, which pretty much sounds like almost all incoming freshmen point guards. One other point in his favor, other than how he is obviously totally in love with the Gophers, is that he's a lefty, which means that even if he's streaky with his jumper it's going to look so, so pretty.
SF Josh Cunningham, Chicago, IL (NR/#69): One of the weirdest cases on the list, simply because one site has him as a top 70 player while the other doesn't have him in the top 100 and while that would probably be a common thing if these lists came about truly independently but since I'm pretty sure these guys mostly just crib off each other it's kind of strange. He's also kind of strange because his best offer outside of the Gophers is either Oklahoma or DePaul, depending on your opinion of the two programs (note: I'd go Oklahoma - have you ever been to DePaul's arena?). Check out some of these words/phrases used to describe him in his scouting report though - "warrior", "tenacity", "nose for the ball", "makes winning plays", "prototypical high mid-major prospect", "undersized", and "blue collar attitude." Doesn't that sound like a scouting report for Nick Punto, outside of the mid-major thing because that wouldn't make any sense? Pass.
PG Wade Baldwin, Hillsborough, NJ (NR/#117): If Pitino misses out on all the other northeast point guards Baldwin isn't a bad consolation prize if that's who ends up at the U. He's a bigger point guard (6-2) for a college kid and augments his height by being big and strong for a upcoming freshman. The knock on him is that he doesn't have much of an outside shot, but not only is that a skill that can be learned at a later date (see: Harris, Eric) but if Pitino is successful in instituting an up-tempo system it's more important to have a point guard who can get to the rim than it is one that can shoot the 3 (see: Siva, Peyton) as long as you have shooters around him. Which I assume is the plan.
C Chinanu Onuaku, Upper Marlboro, MD (NR/#120): Hey a center. That's weird. Knowing Pitino he must be a really athletic dude who maybe isn't all that skilled, right? Check. A "long and strong" (tee hee) shot blocker who has a major strength in his ability to run the floor for his size. With not very much of an offensive game. Totally makes sense. You know what Gorgui Dieng's profile said coming out of high school? Pretty much the exact same thing. Except the Dieng already had a 15-foot jumper whereas near as I can tell Onuaku has a 3 foot jumper. Also Dieng spoke five languages, and there's no mention of multilingualism in Onuaku's profile. For shame.
SG J.P. Macura, Lakeville, MN (NR/#126): This is the guy I expect to be the first signee in the 2014 class, although more and more schools are starting to get in the mix. From the sounds of things Macura had been waiting for an offer from the Gophers and was ecstatic when he received it. Prior to that I think the leader was Butler so who knows where that stands now with the Brad Stevens to the Celtics weirdness. I've watched a couple highlight videos and he can flat out score. He's got great range, a quick release, and an ability to score in the paint that's impressive and some might even call crafty. I don't know how much he will be able to contribute in his first year wherever he ends up going because I think his defense looks like it's a bit suspect. I don't really know what I'm talking about though.
SF Marial Shayok, Ottawa, Ontario (NR/NR): This is confusing because ESPN says this guy is from Canada but Rivals says he's from New Jersey. Man this reporting stuff is confusing and difficult. This guy doesn't have the immediate impact potential of most of the rest of the guys on this list, reflected by his lack of a ranking at either site, but his scouting report makes it sound like he's the type who just hasn't tapped his potential yet. Unfortunately I can't be bothered to wait for all the winning so begone with you. He does hold offers from West Virginia, LaSalle, and Marquette so it's not like he's a terrible get or anything, I'm just unreasonable with my expectations.
PF Tory Miller, Lee's Summit, MO (NR/NR): Well he's from Missouri yet doesn't hold an offer from Missouri, so that's pretty much a big red flag right there, but he's also got potential. He's a big dude with a real power game, and once again Marquette is in the mix for his services so I'm pretty sure they're just following Pitino around and offering all the same dudes. Or maybe Pitino is following Buzz around. Either way, it doesn't seem like the ideal way to recruit.
PG Jalyn Patterson, Alpharetta, GA (NR/NR): He's from Georgia and he does have an offer from both Georgia and Georgia Tech so huzzah! Also Georgia Southern and Georgia State! Wow, Georgia officially loves this kid. I would say more but they didn't even give this dude a scouting report. Uh, he also has an offer from Auburn and he's 6-1.
That is a lot of offers. Hopefully this works. He's also already hitting the trail for 2015 with some of the top kids both nationally and locally, and also just offered 2016 Minnesota kid Amir Coffey (yes, Richard's son). I've upgraded from cautiously optimistic to less cautious, more optimistic. Once we get that first signing down I'm going to throw a party. With a keg and everything.
Monday, July 1, 2013
Twins/Gophers/Wolves Pre-July 4th Round-Up
Before the Super-long holiday weekend when everyone disappears for five days, I figured I should do a quick round-up of the three Minnesota sports teams I know about and touch on the biggest story right now. See, I know (and love) both Gopher Hoops and the Twins, and I'm pretty knowledgeable about the Wolves and the NBA. I watch the Vikings every Sunday and play fantasy football, but I don't really cover them because I don't consider myself an expert unlike the others I mentioned. See, unlike some local folks who actually get paid around here, I stick to what I know so I don't end up saying things like whenever Paul Allen and Paul Charchian get together to talk baseball. Actually that'd be a pretty sweet live blog each week. I might quit my job and do just that. Soon I'll be richer than astronauts.
- Most importantly, and keep in mind we're still very early in the rumor stage here, but Rich Pitino may already have the wheels turning in a big way on some very good recruits for 2014. First, there was this:
For those who don't know, the Tweeter is Isaiah Whitehead, a 6-4 shooting guard out of Brooklyn who ranks as the #10 SG and #35 overall player by ESPN. He has offers from Minnesota, Arizona, Kansas, Louisville, Maryland, St. John's, Syracuse, and UCLA. The re-Tweeter is Ja'Quan Newton, a 6-2 point guard from Philly who ranks as the #13 PG and #67 overall. He holds offers from Georgetown, Miami, Minnesota, Oregon State, Rutgers, St. Joe's, Syracuse, Temple, Xavier, and Villanova.
If you notice, the only two schools to have offered both are Minnesota and Syracuse. That would probably be enough to spazz everybody out (myself included), but next came this tweet:
From recruiting expert Jerry Meyer who has gotten 13 of 14 commits for 2014 correct, and if you click on the link you'd see he had updated his predictions page to forecast Whitehead and Newton heading to Minnesota.
To add a little more fuel to the fire, Newton and Gopher target Reid Travis were on the Celtics together at the NBPA Top 100 Camp (no, I have no idea what this is) this year, and Newton then sent Travis this tweet
Does this mean the Gophers should be expected a trio of big-time commits soon? Yes of course.
- In the most anticipated arrival of a Twins' pitcher since Les Straker, Kyle Gibson made his debut on Saturday and was inevitably called Gibby by Gardenhire. He was also pretty solid, going 6 innings and allowing 8 hits, no walks, 2 runs, and striking out 5 while picking up the win which we all know is the real key to evaluating a pitcher so way to go Gibby. It's super exciting for all us Twins fans because we've been hearing about Gibson forever, he truly has #1-#2 stuff which looks even more better when your team is full of #4 guys, and he struck out five which is actually more than any other Twin on the staff averages in nine innings so yeah and stuff.
Just remember, one start does not a career make. Using Game Score, Gibson's debut was on par with Liam Hendriks and Pat Mahomes when they made their first starts, and we know how that turned out (ok Hendriks isn't done yet, probably, but the train isn't currently pointed towards Cooperstown or even Decentville. Actually the best debut by a Twins pitcher since 1970 belongs to Anthony Swarzak in 2009 when he went seven innings and allowed just 5 hits and zero runs. Do I think Gibson will go the way of Hendriks or Mahomes or Swarzak? No, not at all. He put up a good game and has the pedigree and scouting reports behind him that none of those other guys did. Then again, so did Rick Ankiel, Ben McDonald, and a whole mess of Met's prospects. This year alone Cardinals stud prospect Michael Wacha pitched a gem his first time out, then got bombed the next time and is back in the minors. Dan Straily had an awesome debut for the A's last season, but has jumped back and forth from the rotation and AAA since.
Ok, now I'm just depressing myself and realizing I'm preparing myself for disappointment because being a fan of Minnesota sports means being disappointed. Let's just agree to stop now.
- When the T-Wolves chose Shabazz Muhammad I wrote on the Twitter, "Yes! Shabazz!" and I was immediately and almost completely savaged (JB of Late Night Hoops was one of the few who agreed with me). Frankly I was stunned people would hate the pick. Who else are you going to take at 14? The afro dude? There wasn't a single other player available who was remotely interesting. And looking at the draft there were only a handful of guys with the potential to be all-stars some day: Bennett, Oladipo, Porter, McLemore, Caldwell-Pope, Carter-Williams (if he learns to shoot), Shabazz (with the right coach), and maybe Shane Larkin. Once Pope went at 8 the entire draft was in shambles already, trading back and getting a possible future star in Muhammad and an immediate defensive presence in Dieng was a great move. Seriously, who would you have taken at 14? If it's anybody other than Shabazz you're really dumb, FYI.
Oh, I get it, you wanted them to keep Burke. I get it, I really do. I mean he's so smooth out there. He looks like he's moving at half speed but is just as fast as everybody else, and he's just got such a good head for the game he's mentally a step ahead. I know there are some questions about his athleticism and his jump shot, but he's battle tested in the best conference in the land, I'm sure he'll be fine in the NBA. That's what you're telling yourself, right? That's what you think? Well guess what? Guess who else that describes?
EVAN TURNER!
Hello exactly. You could have written the exact same thing about Turner before he was drafted #2 overall by the Sixers three years ago and he's been bust city. He's been so bad Philly tried to trade him to Phoenix before the draft for the Suns late 1st rounder AND THEY WERE DENIED even though the Suns wing players right now are Jared Dudley, Wes Johnson, P.J. Tucker, and Shannon Brown. Oh my! Burke is such a sure thing that a team in desperate need of a PG, the Pistons whose current PGs are Jose Calderon and Brandon Knight and Knight is so bad they're moving him to the 2 next year, who also had a significant home town angle with him chose a shooting guard over him instead.
I'm sorry, but when Caldwell-Pope was taken (over Burke) by the Pistons the Wolves' draft was all fucked up. Literally the only acceptable answer to the question, "what could have better than what the Wolves did" was "draft C.J. McCollum." I don't like him as an NBAer and Flip has come out and said that he and the team viewed McCollum as a point guard so they weren't all that interested but I can see where somebody would think he could be a Steph Curry type with less gay. That's your only answer. If you have a different one feel free to leave it in the comments but just know that chances are you're a pretty big moron.
- Lastly, Joe Coleman announced he's transferring to St. Mary's. Other than the Gaels total reliance on the three and commitment to defense it's a perfect marriage.
- Most importantly, and keep in mind we're still very early in the rumor stage here, but Rich Pitino may already have the wheels turning in a big way on some very good recruits for 2014. First, there was this:
Me & My Bro @J_Newton20 Thinking Of A Master Plan All Imma Say Is #StayTuned 👌😎
— Isaiah Whitehead (@Isaiah_W15) June 28, 2013
For those who don't know, the Tweeter is Isaiah Whitehead, a 6-4 shooting guard out of Brooklyn who ranks as the #10 SG and #35 overall player by ESPN. He has offers from Minnesota, Arizona, Kansas, Louisville, Maryland, St. John's, Syracuse, and UCLA. The re-Tweeter is Ja'Quan Newton, a 6-2 point guard from Philly who ranks as the #13 PG and #67 overall. He holds offers from Georgetown, Miami, Minnesota, Oregon State, Rutgers, St. Joe's, Syracuse, Temple, Xavier, and Villanova.
If you notice, the only two schools to have offered both are Minnesota and Syracuse. That would probably be enough to spazz everybody out (myself included), but next came this tweet:
Based on a tweet, a hunch and a little more, changed Crystal Ball picks for JaQuan Newton & Isaiah Whitehead. http://t.co/9AYj29zATo
— Jerry Meyer (@jerrymeyer247) June 28, 2013
From recruiting expert Jerry Meyer who has gotten 13 of 14 commits for 2014 correct, and if you click on the link you'd see he had updated his predictions page to forecast Whitehead and Newton heading to Minnesota.
To add a little more fuel to the fire, Newton and Gopher target Reid Travis were on the Celtics together at the NBPA Top 100 Camp (no, I have no idea what this is) this year, and Newton then sent Travis this tweet
@Reid_Travis_22 follow back Bro
— Ja'Quan Newton (@J_Newton20) June 29, 2013
Does this mean the Gophers should be expected a trio of big-time commits soon? Yes of course.
- In the most anticipated arrival of a Twins' pitcher since Les Straker, Kyle Gibson made his debut on Saturday and was inevitably called Gibby by Gardenhire. He was also pretty solid, going 6 innings and allowing 8 hits, no walks, 2 runs, and striking out 5 while picking up the win which we all know is the real key to evaluating a pitcher so way to go Gibby. It's super exciting for all us Twins fans because we've been hearing about Gibson forever, he truly has #1-#2 stuff which looks even more better when your team is full of #4 guys, and he struck out five which is actually more than any other Twin on the staff averages in nine innings so yeah and stuff.
Just remember, one start does not a career make. Using Game Score, Gibson's debut was on par with Liam Hendriks and Pat Mahomes when they made their first starts, and we know how that turned out (ok Hendriks isn't done yet, probably, but the train isn't currently pointed towards Cooperstown or even Decentville. Actually the best debut by a Twins pitcher since 1970 belongs to Anthony Swarzak in 2009 when he went seven innings and allowed just 5 hits and zero runs. Do I think Gibson will go the way of Hendriks or Mahomes or Swarzak? No, not at all. He put up a good game and has the pedigree and scouting reports behind him that none of those other guys did. Then again, so did Rick Ankiel, Ben McDonald, and a whole mess of Met's prospects. This year alone Cardinals stud prospect Michael Wacha pitched a gem his first time out, then got bombed the next time and is back in the minors. Dan Straily had an awesome debut for the A's last season, but has jumped back and forth from the rotation and AAA since.
Ok, now I'm just depressing myself and realizing I'm preparing myself for disappointment because being a fan of Minnesota sports means being disappointed. Let's just agree to stop now.
- When the T-Wolves chose Shabazz Muhammad I wrote on the Twitter, "Yes! Shabazz!" and I was immediately and almost completely savaged (JB of Late Night Hoops was one of the few who agreed with me). Frankly I was stunned people would hate the pick. Who else are you going to take at 14? The afro dude? There wasn't a single other player available who was remotely interesting. And looking at the draft there were only a handful of guys with the potential to be all-stars some day: Bennett, Oladipo, Porter, McLemore, Caldwell-Pope, Carter-Williams (if he learns to shoot), Shabazz (with the right coach), and maybe Shane Larkin. Once Pope went at 8 the entire draft was in shambles already, trading back and getting a possible future star in Muhammad and an immediate defensive presence in Dieng was a great move. Seriously, who would you have taken at 14? If it's anybody other than Shabazz you're really dumb, FYI.
Oh, I get it, you wanted them to keep Burke. I get it, I really do. I mean he's so smooth out there. He looks like he's moving at half speed but is just as fast as everybody else, and he's just got such a good head for the game he's mentally a step ahead. I know there are some questions about his athleticism and his jump shot, but he's battle tested in the best conference in the land, I'm sure he'll be fine in the NBA. That's what you're telling yourself, right? That's what you think? Well guess what? Guess who else that describes?
EVAN TURNER!
Hello exactly. You could have written the exact same thing about Turner before he was drafted #2 overall by the Sixers three years ago and he's been bust city. He's been so bad Philly tried to trade him to Phoenix before the draft for the Suns late 1st rounder AND THEY WERE DENIED even though the Suns wing players right now are Jared Dudley, Wes Johnson, P.J. Tucker, and Shannon Brown. Oh my! Burke is such a sure thing that a team in desperate need of a PG, the Pistons whose current PGs are Jose Calderon and Brandon Knight and Knight is so bad they're moving him to the 2 next year, who also had a significant home town angle with him chose a shooting guard over him instead.
I'm sorry, but when Caldwell-Pope was taken (over Burke) by the Pistons the Wolves' draft was all fucked up. Literally the only acceptable answer to the question, "what could have better than what the Wolves did" was "draft C.J. McCollum." I don't like him as an NBAer and Flip has come out and said that he and the team viewed McCollum as a point guard so they weren't all that interested but I can see where somebody would think he could be a Steph Curry type with less gay. That's your only answer. If you have a different one feel free to leave it in the comments but just know that chances are you're a pretty big moron.
- Lastly, Joe Coleman announced he's transferring to St. Mary's. Other than the Gaels total reliance on the three and commitment to defense it's a perfect marriage.
Wednesday, May 1, 2013
Richard Pitino is a Busy Beaver
Never let it be said that Richard Pitino is not ambitious. There are so many reports about him visiting recruits and making offers it's gotten a little tough to keep up. There's an offer out to SG Isaiah Whitehead who is #46 overall according to ESPN. He's got a ton of really good schools after him (Arizona, Kansas, Louisville, Syracuse, UCLA) so it's going to be tough, but I won't rule the Gophers out yet because of the Kimani Young/NYC (Whitehead is from Brooklyn) deep connection. It's hard to know just how much pull he has in New York since we haven't had a chance to see him in action yet, but if the Gophers can get Whitehead I'd say that's some pretty compelling evidence that it's not overblown.
Obviously Tyus Jones is the point guard to want for 2014, but it's not as if Pitino is putting all his chickens in that particular basket, offering 2014 PG Kaleb Joseph out of New England who ranks 54th in the class according to ESPN, as well as an offer to #41, Josh Perkins out of Colorado. The Perkins offer was originally made by Tubby Smith and at one point Perkins had narrowed his list to 9 schools that included Minnesota. I can't find any information if the offer still stands and/or the interest is still there on Perkins part, but with offers out now to 3 top 60 point guards just hitting on one of them would be outstanding. Pitino also recently offered Wisconsin PG Sandy Cohen, who is apparently not in ESPN's database but according to Ryan James also received offers from Memphis and Marquette. If he's anywhere near as good a basketball player as he is a father to Ryan and Seth on the O.C. he's going to be a star. Jalyn Patterson out of Georgia is yet another point guard Pitino recently offered, which leads me to believe it's possible that Pitino understands how important point guards are. I find this development a positive one.
On the wing, Brandone Francis is someone I know very little about but he's a guard from the Dominican Republic who is said to have interest in Minnesota and considering he has an offer on the table from Indiana that's probably a good thing. There's more information about Terry Larrier (a SF and another NYC kid), a SF Pitino had offered when he was at FIU who he must have really liked to offer now that he's at Minnesota. The kid's offer sheet doesn't look at that great (best offer is probably Dayton) but the scouting report on him is he's an incredible athlete and would fit well in the system Pitino is trying to implement.
The last offer for 2014 that's been handed out recently by the Gophers went to 6-8 PF Abdul-Malik Abu from Boston who ESPN ranks as the 53rd overall in the class. He's got a lot of offers from good schools so this is another highly competitive situation that the Gophers find themselves in. Abu is another guy who may not be the most skilled but scouts rave about his athleticism and once again that is the type of big man who would fit what Pitino is trying to build.
It's an exciting time, man. Between all the activity to fill the roster for 2013 (Pitino's name has also been mentioned with regards to a top 100 guard who just decommitted from UCLA and a couple of JuCo players along with being in the mix for Tarik Black among others) and an aggressive 2014 plan already it's tough just to keep up. ESPN just came out and said they believe the Gophers are now in the lead for Rashad Vaughn's services in 2014 which, even if it doesn't come to fruition, is simply awesome. There are rumors that Vaughn may be transferring to a prep school in Virginia or West Virginia or something for his senior year, and some think that helps the Gophers while others think it hurts them so who the hell knows. All I know is this has already been a really fun offseason, and if Pitino gets this program as entertaining on the court as they've already been off it I can't wait. And, perhaps most exciting of all, there's this tweet:
Oh my.
Obviously Tyus Jones is the point guard to want for 2014, but it's not as if Pitino is putting all his chickens in that particular basket, offering 2014 PG Kaleb Joseph out of New England who ranks 54th in the class according to ESPN, as well as an offer to #41, Josh Perkins out of Colorado. The Perkins offer was originally made by Tubby Smith and at one point Perkins had narrowed his list to 9 schools that included Minnesota. I can't find any information if the offer still stands and/or the interest is still there on Perkins part, but with offers out now to 3 top 60 point guards just hitting on one of them would be outstanding. Pitino also recently offered Wisconsin PG Sandy Cohen, who is apparently not in ESPN's database but according to Ryan James also received offers from Memphis and Marquette. If he's anywhere near as good a basketball player as he is a father to Ryan and Seth on the O.C. he's going to be a star. Jalyn Patterson out of Georgia is yet another point guard Pitino recently offered, which leads me to believe it's possible that Pitino understands how important point guards are. I find this development a positive one.
On the wing, Brandone Francis is someone I know very little about but he's a guard from the Dominican Republic who is said to have interest in Minnesota and considering he has an offer on the table from Indiana that's probably a good thing. There's more information about Terry Larrier (a SF and another NYC kid), a SF Pitino had offered when he was at FIU who he must have really liked to offer now that he's at Minnesota. The kid's offer sheet doesn't look at that great (best offer is probably Dayton) but the scouting report on him is he's an incredible athlete and would fit well in the system Pitino is trying to implement.
The last offer for 2014 that's been handed out recently by the Gophers went to 6-8 PF Abdul-Malik Abu from Boston who ESPN ranks as the 53rd overall in the class. He's got a lot of offers from good schools so this is another highly competitive situation that the Gophers find themselves in. Abu is another guy who may not be the most skilled but scouts rave about his athleticism and once again that is the type of big man who would fit what Pitino is trying to build.
It's an exciting time, man. Between all the activity to fill the roster for 2013 (Pitino's name has also been mentioned with regards to a top 100 guard who just decommitted from UCLA and a couple of JuCo players along with being in the mix for Tarik Black among others) and an aggressive 2014 plan already it's tough just to keep up. ESPN just came out and said they believe the Gophers are now in the lead for Rashad Vaughn's services in 2014 which, even if it doesn't come to fruition, is simply awesome. There are rumors that Vaughn may be transferring to a prep school in Virginia or West Virginia or something for his senior year, and some think that helps the Gophers while others think it hurts them so who the hell knows. All I know is this has already been a really fun offseason, and if Pitino gets this program as entertaining on the court as they've already been off it I can't wait. And, perhaps most exciting of all, there's this tweet:
A long time Minnesota AAU coach told us today that "5 weeks ago the #Gophers had no shot at the Big 3, now any combination is possible."
— GopherHole.com (@GopherHole) May 1, 2013
Oh my.
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