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 J.P. Macura. Show all posts
Showing posts with label J.P. Macura. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 11, 2015
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.
Tuesday, September 3, 2013
Morneau, Gopher Football, Hoops recruiting, and stuff
Plenty of stuff happening out there. Crazy world.
1. Justin Morneau traded to Pittsburgh. I know trading Justin Morneau makes your heart hurt and I get it. He's been a Twin forever and for you people with human emotions it makes you sad that he's gone. Just look around at all the Twins' blogs and newspapers and there are nothing but heartfelt good-byes, and with good reason. But objectively, trading him was the correct move because he won't be around to be part of the team when they're good again, he's not that good anymore (although a hot August is probably what got him traded), and it made sense to try to get something for him rather than nothing when he walks at the end of the year.
What they got was actually better than I had expected, but isn't a team builder kind of a trade which just tells you how much Morneau has slipped since that damn concussion. The Pirates sent the Twins back of Alex Presley, a definite major leaguer but more of a depth/4th outfielder type, and rp Duke Welker, who is a fireballer with little idea where it's going after it leaves his hand, making him an intriguing lottery ticket.
Presley is 28 and still doing the bounce around from AAA to the majors thing for the Pirates, but he should slot in nicely for the Twins since he can play all three outfield positions and has a little bit of speed and a little bit of power. He's not much of a walker (which you know the Twins love) and so far this year he has 19 strikeouts against just one walk which is not real good but he's an ok player even with limited upside.
More upside comes from Welker, who is 6-7 and throws in the mid-90s and strikes out about a batter per inning but also walks more than 4 batters per 9 (that's really shitty for a reliever). His other numbers look pretty good - 2.29 ERA, 1.24 WHIP - and he already hit the show for a bit with the Pirates (4 batters faced, 4 outs, 1 K) so he could be ready by next year (or even this year). The Twins pride themselves on getting their pitchers to throw strikes, right or wrong, and if they can help Welker out with his command without hurting his stuff or going with the "pitch to contact" nonsense he could be a nice middle reliever.
Yes, it sucks that the Morneau era ended and how it ended. He went from one of the best hitters in all of baseball to a below average first baseman, hitting .286/.358/.511 prior to that stupid concussion and .256/.317/.412 after, essentially become a league average hitter which becomes well below average when you're playing at a premium offensive position. It's hard to believe a concussion could have that kind of impact on someone's ability, but it's not like it's unprecedented and the Twins' training staff has proven itself to be pretty much incompetent over the years so, you know. I was already going to be rooting for the Pirates, but this gives me a little more incentive.
Also, if you have found yourself saying, "Well he's a free agent after the season the Twins' could just resign him" please go ahead and hit yourself in the nuts with a pitch fork.
2. Gopher football is undefeated. Even if the win was only over UNLV a win is a win and Gopher football needs to take whatever they can get (especially since I bet on the OVER 5.5 season wins). It wasn't exactly an impressive win, and Philip Nelson's QB style seems to be making one read and either forcing it to that read whether he's open or not or just pulling the ball down and running. Luckily, UNLV's quarterback seemed to come from the same QB school. The Gopher gameplan was also less than imaginative and looked like something out of Tecmo Bowl (not Super Tecmo Bowl, just regular Tecmo Bowl) but the Rebel's offense looked more like they were drawing the plays up in the dirt while in the huddle so the Gophers had the advantage there too.
I'm no football expert, but it looked to me like the Gophers have a really crappy offense, a decent defense, and ended up blowing UNLV out thanks to three big plays (kick return TD, Interception TD, and blocked kick TD) that are non-repeatable in any meaningful way. That's a clear indicator of an overstated spread (they're favored by 17 pts) in their next game against New Mexico State, so go ahead and join me in betting against the Gophers because there's no way they should be favored by 17 on the road no matter who they're playing.
3. A whole lot is happening recruiting-wise, and we're still waiting to hear any good news. Kyle Kuzma committed to Utah. Wade Baldwin signed up with Vanderbilt. Quentin Snider dropped the Gophers out of consideration. J.P. Macura, who was supposed to be a sure thing, keeps doing things like visiting Purdue and Xavier. Rakeem Buckles didn't get his waiver to play immediately and will remain at FIU. And Lourawls Nairn visited this past weekend and left without committing to Pitino, even though he's explicitly stated multiple times he was going to take all 3 of his planned official visits (Oklahoma, Indiana) before making a choice we're all panicking anyway.
There remain enough intriguing options and realistic possibilities that there's really no reason to panic, but the raging optimism from a month or so ago has certainly flagged. Along with Nairn and Macura there's still some optimism around Isaiah Whitehead, even if he hasn't yet set an official visit here, there's a realistic shot at two of the local kids (Travis and Vaughn), and Paul White, Josh Martin, and Marial Shayok are taking officials to the U. I'm not worried at this point, but I would like it a whole lot if somebody, anybody, would just make a verbal to the Gophers. Just so I know it's possible.
4. I discovered Breaking Bad. You know how when everybody is saying something is awesome it almost always sucks like Rudy or Glee or Jennifer Lopez? Well this is the opposite of that. Everyone who watches the show says it's pretty much the best show ever, and they're right. If you're not watching it yet, start. If you are, you know what I'm talking about. You just never know what's going to happen next and it's never boring. It's been like a week since I started watching and I'm on Season 3, Episode 5 already. Sure, I'm ignoring my family and haven't gone to work in a week, but at least I'm catching up on my pop culture and will be able to act all snooty to people who haven't watched this show yet. "I mean really, Audrey, you can't talk about great TV if you've never watched Breaking Bad." *rollseyes *sipsbrandy
5. Josmil Pinto made his major league debut, going 2-4 with a double. This is significant to me because with Morneau now on the Pirates and Chris Parmelee proving to be terrible the door is wide open for Joe Mauer to move to first base full-time, and after this concussion mess it seems more likely than ever the Twins will go in that direction. The question then becomes who is the catcher of the future, and it's probably either Josmil Pinto or Chris Herrmann.
They're both considered around the same prospect level (Gleeman has Herrmann at #20 and Pinto at #37, John Sickels has them both in his OTHERS TO CONSIDER which means just outside the top 20). Herrmann's been up since July, and although he hasn't been great he hasn't been terrible either, showing a pretty good batting eye and some decent pop in his bat while being a halfway decent defensive catcher and outfielder, although Pinto's minor league numbers were much better this year than Herrmann, hitting .309/.400/.482 between New Britain and Rochester.
Neither Herrmann nor Pinto is likely to become a big-time impact player, but both are likely to become useful players and either (or both) has a chance to evolve into a full-time starting catcher and hold down the job for a while. Pinto probably has the better bat, but Herrmann is much better defensively and offers the additional benefit of being able to play the outfield competently while Pinto is either a catcher or DH. While the Twins have tons of questions and not many answers with the squad right now, catcher is one where they can probably feel good - Mauer or no Mauer in the mix. Seems weird.
6. Johnny Manziel can play some football. I know everybody likes to jump on Johnny Football and tear him apart for doing things like going to a casino and watching a basketball game because everyone is jealous and people generally suck, but let's not forget that this dude can play some fucking football. After he served his weirdo 1st half suspension, he came in for the second half and went 6-8 for 94 yards and 3 TDs as the Aggies beat Rice 52-31. Watching the highlights made it clear Manziel is one of the best Qbs in the country, as if winning the Heisman last year didn't prove that already. 80% of college QBs can make one read and then it's time to run (like P. Nelson), and another 15% can go all the way to a second read and that's it. There's only like 5% who can play QB like a real, actual QB, and that's why it's so much fun to watch guys like Manziel and Andrew Luck back when he was in college.
7. Not how I'd get fired up for the NFL season, but over at the blog Pat is Crazy long-time friend of the blog Joe U. (that's his quote up on the banner) decided to re-watch the 1998 (or 1999 depending on how you want to define it) NFC Championship game, also known as the game that destroyed the ability to actually enjoy sports for many, many Minnesota sports fans. And he blogged it, live blog style. Don't make his pain meaningless, go read it.
1. Justin Morneau traded to Pittsburgh. I know trading Justin Morneau makes your heart hurt and I get it. He's been a Twin forever and for you people with human emotions it makes you sad that he's gone. Just look around at all the Twins' blogs and newspapers and there are nothing but heartfelt good-byes, and with good reason. But objectively, trading him was the correct move because he won't be around to be part of the team when they're good again, he's not that good anymore (although a hot August is probably what got him traded), and it made sense to try to get something for him rather than nothing when he walks at the end of the year.
What they got was actually better than I had expected, but isn't a team builder kind of a trade which just tells you how much Morneau has slipped since that damn concussion. The Pirates sent the Twins back of Alex Presley, a definite major leaguer but more of a depth/4th outfielder type, and rp Duke Welker, who is a fireballer with little idea where it's going after it leaves his hand, making him an intriguing lottery ticket.
Presley is 28 and still doing the bounce around from AAA to the majors thing for the Pirates, but he should slot in nicely for the Twins since he can play all three outfield positions and has a little bit of speed and a little bit of power. He's not much of a walker (which you know the Twins love) and so far this year he has 19 strikeouts against just one walk which is not real good but he's an ok player even with limited upside.
More upside comes from Welker, who is 6-7 and throws in the mid-90s and strikes out about a batter per inning but also walks more than 4 batters per 9 (that's really shitty for a reliever). His other numbers look pretty good - 2.29 ERA, 1.24 WHIP - and he already hit the show for a bit with the Pirates (4 batters faced, 4 outs, 1 K) so he could be ready by next year (or even this year). The Twins pride themselves on getting their pitchers to throw strikes, right or wrong, and if they can help Welker out with his command without hurting his stuff or going with the "pitch to contact" nonsense he could be a nice middle reliever.
Yes, it sucks that the Morneau era ended and how it ended. He went from one of the best hitters in all of baseball to a below average first baseman, hitting .286/.358/.511 prior to that stupid concussion and .256/.317/.412 after, essentially become a league average hitter which becomes well below average when you're playing at a premium offensive position. It's hard to believe a concussion could have that kind of impact on someone's ability, but it's not like it's unprecedented and the Twins' training staff has proven itself to be pretty much incompetent over the years so, you know. I was already going to be rooting for the Pirates, but this gives me a little more incentive.
Also, if you have found yourself saying, "Well he's a free agent after the season the Twins' could just resign him" please go ahead and hit yourself in the nuts with a pitch fork.
2. Gopher football is undefeated. Even if the win was only over UNLV a win is a win and Gopher football needs to take whatever they can get (especially since I bet on the OVER 5.5 season wins). It wasn't exactly an impressive win, and Philip Nelson's QB style seems to be making one read and either forcing it to that read whether he's open or not or just pulling the ball down and running. Luckily, UNLV's quarterback seemed to come from the same QB school. The Gopher gameplan was also less than imaginative and looked like something out of Tecmo Bowl (not Super Tecmo Bowl, just regular Tecmo Bowl) but the Rebel's offense looked more like they were drawing the plays up in the dirt while in the huddle so the Gophers had the advantage there too.
I'm no football expert, but it looked to me like the Gophers have a really crappy offense, a decent defense, and ended up blowing UNLV out thanks to three big plays (kick return TD, Interception TD, and blocked kick TD) that are non-repeatable in any meaningful way. That's a clear indicator of an overstated spread (they're favored by 17 pts) in their next game against New Mexico State, so go ahead and join me in betting against the Gophers because there's no way they should be favored by 17 on the road no matter who they're playing.
3. A whole lot is happening recruiting-wise, and we're still waiting to hear any good news. Kyle Kuzma committed to Utah. Wade Baldwin signed up with Vanderbilt. Quentin Snider dropped the Gophers out of consideration. J.P. Macura, who was supposed to be a sure thing, keeps doing things like visiting Purdue and Xavier. Rakeem Buckles didn't get his waiver to play immediately and will remain at FIU. And Lourawls Nairn visited this past weekend and left without committing to Pitino, even though he's explicitly stated multiple times he was going to take all 3 of his planned official visits (Oklahoma, Indiana) before making a choice we're all panicking anyway.
There remain enough intriguing options and realistic possibilities that there's really no reason to panic, but the raging optimism from a month or so ago has certainly flagged. Along with Nairn and Macura there's still some optimism around Isaiah Whitehead, even if he hasn't yet set an official visit here, there's a realistic shot at two of the local kids (Travis and Vaughn), and Paul White, Josh Martin, and Marial Shayok are taking officials to the U. I'm not worried at this point, but I would like it a whole lot if somebody, anybody, would just make a verbal to the Gophers. Just so I know it's possible.
4. I discovered Breaking Bad. You know how when everybody is saying something is awesome it almost always sucks like Rudy or Glee or Jennifer Lopez? Well this is the opposite of that. Everyone who watches the show says it's pretty much the best show ever, and they're right. If you're not watching it yet, start. If you are, you know what I'm talking about. You just never know what's going to happen next and it's never boring. It's been like a week since I started watching and I'm on Season 3, Episode 5 already. Sure, I'm ignoring my family and haven't gone to work in a week, but at least I'm catching up on my pop culture and will be able to act all snooty to people who haven't watched this show yet. "I mean really, Audrey, you can't talk about great TV if you've never watched Breaking Bad." *rollseyes *sipsbrandy
5. Josmil Pinto made his major league debut, going 2-4 with a double. This is significant to me because with Morneau now on the Pirates and Chris Parmelee proving to be terrible the door is wide open for Joe Mauer to move to first base full-time, and after this concussion mess it seems more likely than ever the Twins will go in that direction. The question then becomes who is the catcher of the future, and it's probably either Josmil Pinto or Chris Herrmann.
They're both considered around the same prospect level (Gleeman has Herrmann at #20 and Pinto at #37, John Sickels has them both in his OTHERS TO CONSIDER which means just outside the top 20). Herrmann's been up since July, and although he hasn't been great he hasn't been terrible either, showing a pretty good batting eye and some decent pop in his bat while being a halfway decent defensive catcher and outfielder, although Pinto's minor league numbers were much better this year than Herrmann, hitting .309/.400/.482 between New Britain and Rochester.
Neither Herrmann nor Pinto is likely to become a big-time impact player, but both are likely to become useful players and either (or both) has a chance to evolve into a full-time starting catcher and hold down the job for a while. Pinto probably has the better bat, but Herrmann is much better defensively and offers the additional benefit of being able to play the outfield competently while Pinto is either a catcher or DH. While the Twins have tons of questions and not many answers with the squad right now, catcher is one where they can probably feel good - Mauer or no Mauer in the mix. Seems weird.
6. Johnny Manziel can play some football. I know everybody likes to jump on Johnny Football and tear him apart for doing things like going to a casino and watching a basketball game because everyone is jealous and people generally suck, but let's not forget that this dude can play some fucking football. After he served his weirdo 1st half suspension, he came in for the second half and went 6-8 for 94 yards and 3 TDs as the Aggies beat Rice 52-31. Watching the highlights made it clear Manziel is one of the best Qbs in the country, as if winning the Heisman last year didn't prove that already. 80% of college QBs can make one read and then it's time to run (like P. Nelson), and another 15% can go all the way to a second read and that's it. There's only like 5% who can play QB like a real, actual QB, and that's why it's so much fun to watch guys like Manziel and Andrew Luck back when he was in college.
7. Not how I'd get fired up for the NFL season, but over at the blog Pat is Crazy long-time friend of the blog Joe U. (that's his quote up on the banner) decided to re-watch the 1998 (or 1999 depending on how you want to define it) NFC Championship game, also known as the game that destroyed the ability to actually enjoy sports for many, many Minnesota sports fans. And he blogged it, live blog style. Don't make his pain meaningless, go read it.
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.
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