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 Rashad Vaughn. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rashad Vaughn. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 11, 2015
Thursday, November 20, 2014
B10 Chucker Power Rankings, Week 1
Big Ten Chucker Power Rankings after (roughly) Week 1. This was tough, because a lot of the high volume shooters are also very efficient so far because most of these teams are playing cupcakes right now, and a lot of the guys I tabbed in my preseason preview as ones to watch are either not shooting as much as they should or are making too many shots. This list looks very different than the preseason list, and I suspect a lot different than the final list as well. That being said, we need a starting point so here we go. Preseason Rank in parenthesis.
1. Tre Demps, Northwestern (1). No change at the top, as Demps has put up an 0-7 shooting night and a 4-13 shooting night, putting him at a robust 23% eFG% while taking 27% of his team's shots when he's on the floor. The man is a machine. Just think if he turned the ball over too. Alas, he takes care of it with just one TO so far this year and one of the best turnover rates in the country. I guess you can't have everything.
2. Bryn Forbes, Michigan State (NR). Skyrocketing in from nowhere is Forbes, who I totally missed in my preview because I forgot about him transferring in from Cleveland State. He was known as a shooter but his accuracy seems to have deserted him. He opened in grand style by shooting 1-8 (1-6 from three) vs. Navy and then followed that up with a 3-9 (3-8 from three) against Duke, managing to avoid picking up a single assist in the process. Forbes is tied for 7th in the conference in missed field goals despite coming off the bench. You just can't teach that.
3. Bryson Scott, Purdue (4). It wouldn't hurt him to shoot more often with just 9 shot attempts through two games, but at the same time that's 27% of his team's shots while he's on the floor so I guess you can't ask for too much more. No complaints whatsoever about his inefficiency though, as he's made just 3 of those shot attempts while turning the ball over five times versus just one assist. Stellar. I put Forbes ahead of him because of the volume shooting which is the #1 characteristic of chucking, but Scott has real potential if he'd just get more aggressive.
4. Carlos Morris, Minnesota (NR). Probably should have seen this coming since he's a JuCo who was going to be handed a starting role and a bunch of minutes. He's taking 26.5% of the shots when he's on the court and is shooting just 6-19, chipping in with 3 assists versus 2 turnovers. Plus, and you can't quantify this unfortunately, but watching him play both games this year (plus the exhibition) and seeing him get lost defensively over and over again is just bonus points.
5. John Johnson, Penn State (2). He's not shooting as much as I'd like with just 11 attempts through two games and a sub 20% shot percentage, but on the bright side he still can't hit the broad side of a barn if he fell out of a boat. He's made just 3 of those 11 attempts for a 27% shooting percentage, and you just can't argue with brickability like that. He needs to get himself over that 20% of shots barrier, or he's going to have to start dropping.
6. Melo Trimble, Maryland (NR). I'm always impressed by chucking point guards who turn it over as much as they assist their teammates (3 to 4 for him), not to mention averaging just 2.0 assists per game in 25 minutes when you're a point guard. Add in taking 26% of your team's shots while you're on the floor despite going just 6-17 this year and you've got yourself a nice little chucker. Could settle down since he's a freshman and all, but that's an impressive debut.
7. Terran Petteway, Nebraska (10). Even though Pettaway has been effective, averaging 24 points per game on 47% shooting, he simply has to be here for volume reasons. Petteway is taking 43% of Nebraska's shots when he's on the floor, a number that is simply unheard of. It puts him seventh on the leaderboard this season and he's one of only four players from a major conference (1 of 2 if you don't consider the American or Mountain West major) to be north of 40% shot percentage. That 43% would be an all-time record (dating back 2004, kenpom.com) for anyone in any conference. His 1.0 assist per game average vs. 2.0 turnovers doesn't hurt, either. I mean, his chucker score per game ins a full 50% higher than the #2 guy. That means something.
8. Mike Williams, Rutgers (NR). I don't know who this guy is but I stumbled across him and he's taken a staggering 30.2% of his team's shots when he's on the floor (if you remember from the preview it's rare to cross 30% in a major conference) and has hit just five out of fifteen attempts. I'm also very encouraged by his 1-7 game against Fairleigh Dickinson. Could be a real sleeper.
9. Bryant McIntosh, Northwestern (NR). Say you're some nerd freshman, what do you do when the basketball season first starts up? If you're McIntosh you just say bombs away and fire that ball in the direction of the hoop. He shot 5-11 in first game (pretty good) but put up a 2-10 in game 2, and through two games leads the Wildcats, a team with Tre Demps, in shot attempts. He's only taken five of his 21 attempts from three so far, so he's either a long two machine or a reckless driver - either way I like it. He's down the list because he has a really good assist to turnover ratio (to good to be a real chucker) so I suspect he'll fall of this list soon, but I wanted to give some recognition because that's some impressive work.
10. Denzel Valentine and Travis Trice, MSU (8). I treated them as one in the preview because I wasn't sure which would emerge as the chucker (if any) and I'm still not sure because they're both showing half the chucker traits, but neither is all the way there. Trice is shooting a ton, 30% shot percentage, but he's also making most of them and has a great assist to turnover ratio. Valentine can't shoot at all this year so far, but he needs to shoot a bit more to take over this spot as his own. Odds are this spot become's Valentine's on his own sooner rather than later, but I don't want to dismiss Trice just yet simply because he's jacking up so many shots.
Other notable feats of chucking around the nation:
1. Zay Jackson, SE Louisiana. The six-foot junior guard set a high bar in the first game of the year, scoring 16 points on 6-24 shooting (3-13 from three) with 4 assists and 8 (8!) turnovers. According to my highly proprietary formula (no, I'm not only basing these lists on that formula) Jackson's score of 102.5 is the highest of the season by a wide margin. If anybody can beat this, well, wow. Jackson followed that up with a 2-8 with 9 (9?) turnover performance so he's really one to keep an eye on.
2. Rashad Vaughn, UNLV. There were plenty of more egregious games than what Vaughn did his first week, but hey, if I took all the worst games it would pretty much just be guys nobody has heard of and that's no fun. Neither game is all that horrendous by itself, but back-to-backs of 8-18 and 7-19 shooting with two turnovers versus three total assists is setting a nice baseline. He also ranks 8th in the nation at percentage of his teams shots taken when he's on the floor at 43%. At some point this year he's going to put up an epic stinker. It's coming.
3. Joseph Young, Oregon. Read this conference preview. Or just scroll down to the Most Frustrating Player part. Or just trust me when I tell you that a near perfect chucking storm has been created around Young, with a guy who averaged 13 shots per game last season suddenly finding himself in a situation where the team has been completely gutted by graduations, transfers, and dudes kicked off the team and he has no choice but to shoot constantly, and he's going to love it. He's basically the Kobe Bryant of the Pacific Northwest and it showed on Monday when he shot 7-23 including 1-12 from three (1-12!) with five turnovers (and 4 assists). We'll probably see his name here a few times this year.
4. Wesley Person, Jr, Troy. Oh my god it makes me so happy there's a Wes Person Junior, and even better he made this list. He probably shouldn't quite make the list considering his most chuckery game this year (of 2) was a 5-14 shooting performance where he also made 10 free throws and scored 25 points, but hey, it's Wes Person's kid, he needs to be on here. Also he's shooting a cool 32% on the year, 21 of his 28 attempts this year are from three, and his last game he had 0 rebounds, 0 assists, 0 steals, and 0 blocks in 37 minutes. I'd say he qualifies.
5. Wayne Sparrow, UMBC. This one's great because it's who the Gophers play Saturday night, so maybe we're in for a chucker treat. He put up a fantastic line in their game against Loyola Maryland on Wednesday: 4-19 shooting (2-10 from 3) with 4 turnovers vs. 1 assist. That's quality work. He only took 8 shots in their opener and only averaged 4 shots per game last season so this one was quite an aberration. Fluke game, or birth of a brand new all-star chucker? Hopefully we find out Saturday, and hopefully it's the latter.
1. Tre Demps, Northwestern (1). No change at the top, as Demps has put up an 0-7 shooting night and a 4-13 shooting night, putting him at a robust 23% eFG% while taking 27% of his team's shots when he's on the floor. The man is a machine. Just think if he turned the ball over too. Alas, he takes care of it with just one TO so far this year and one of the best turnover rates in the country. I guess you can't have everything.
2. Bryn Forbes, Michigan State (NR). Skyrocketing in from nowhere is Forbes, who I totally missed in my preview because I forgot about him transferring in from Cleveland State. He was known as a shooter but his accuracy seems to have deserted him. He opened in grand style by shooting 1-8 (1-6 from three) vs. Navy and then followed that up with a 3-9 (3-8 from three) against Duke, managing to avoid picking up a single assist in the process. Forbes is tied for 7th in the conference in missed field goals despite coming off the bench. You just can't teach that.
3. Bryson Scott, Purdue (4). It wouldn't hurt him to shoot more often with just 9 shot attempts through two games, but at the same time that's 27% of his team's shots while he's on the floor so I guess you can't ask for too much more. No complaints whatsoever about his inefficiency though, as he's made just 3 of those shot attempts while turning the ball over five times versus just one assist. Stellar. I put Forbes ahead of him because of the volume shooting which is the #1 characteristic of chucking, but Scott has real potential if he'd just get more aggressive.
4. Carlos Morris, Minnesota (NR). Probably should have seen this coming since he's a JuCo who was going to be handed a starting role and a bunch of minutes. He's taking 26.5% of the shots when he's on the court and is shooting just 6-19, chipping in with 3 assists versus 2 turnovers. Plus, and you can't quantify this unfortunately, but watching him play both games this year (plus the exhibition) and seeing him get lost defensively over and over again is just bonus points.
5. John Johnson, Penn State (2). He's not shooting as much as I'd like with just 11 attempts through two games and a sub 20% shot percentage, but on the bright side he still can't hit the broad side of a barn if he fell out of a boat. He's made just 3 of those 11 attempts for a 27% shooting percentage, and you just can't argue with brickability like that. He needs to get himself over that 20% of shots barrier, or he's going to have to start dropping.
6. Melo Trimble, Maryland (NR). I'm always impressed by chucking point guards who turn it over as much as they assist their teammates (3 to 4 for him), not to mention averaging just 2.0 assists per game in 25 minutes when you're a point guard. Add in taking 26% of your team's shots while you're on the floor despite going just 6-17 this year and you've got yourself a nice little chucker. Could settle down since he's a freshman and all, but that's an impressive debut.
7. Terran Petteway, Nebraska (10). Even though Pettaway has been effective, averaging 24 points per game on 47% shooting, he simply has to be here for volume reasons. Petteway is taking 43% of Nebraska's shots when he's on the floor, a number that is simply unheard of. It puts him seventh on the leaderboard this season and he's one of only four players from a major conference (1 of 2 if you don't consider the American or Mountain West major) to be north of 40% shot percentage. That 43% would be an all-time record (dating back 2004, kenpom.com) for anyone in any conference. His 1.0 assist per game average vs. 2.0 turnovers doesn't hurt, either. I mean, his chucker score per game ins a full 50% higher than the #2 guy. That means something.
8. Mike Williams, Rutgers (NR). I don't know who this guy is but I stumbled across him and he's taken a staggering 30.2% of his team's shots when he's on the floor (if you remember from the preview it's rare to cross 30% in a major conference) and has hit just five out of fifteen attempts. I'm also very encouraged by his 1-7 game against Fairleigh Dickinson. Could be a real sleeper.
9. Bryant McIntosh, Northwestern (NR). Say you're some nerd freshman, what do you do when the basketball season first starts up? If you're McIntosh you just say bombs away and fire that ball in the direction of the hoop. He shot 5-11 in first game (pretty good) but put up a 2-10 in game 2, and through two games leads the Wildcats, a team with Tre Demps, in shot attempts. He's only taken five of his 21 attempts from three so far, so he's either a long two machine or a reckless driver - either way I like it. He's down the list because he has a really good assist to turnover ratio (to good to be a real chucker) so I suspect he'll fall of this list soon, but I wanted to give some recognition because that's some impressive work.
10. Denzel Valentine and Travis Trice, MSU (8). I treated them as one in the preview because I wasn't sure which would emerge as the chucker (if any) and I'm still not sure because they're both showing half the chucker traits, but neither is all the way there. Trice is shooting a ton, 30% shot percentage, but he's also making most of them and has a great assist to turnover ratio. Valentine can't shoot at all this year so far, but he needs to shoot a bit more to take over this spot as his own. Odds are this spot become's Valentine's on his own sooner rather than later, but I don't want to dismiss Trice just yet simply because he's jacking up so many shots.
Other notable feats of chucking around the nation:
1. Zay Jackson, SE Louisiana. The six-foot junior guard set a high bar in the first game of the year, scoring 16 points on 6-24 shooting (3-13 from three) with 4 assists and 8 (8!) turnovers. According to my highly proprietary formula (no, I'm not only basing these lists on that formula) Jackson's score of 102.5 is the highest of the season by a wide margin. If anybody can beat this, well, wow. Jackson followed that up with a 2-8 with 9 (9?) turnover performance so he's really one to keep an eye on.
2. Rashad Vaughn, UNLV. There were plenty of more egregious games than what Vaughn did his first week, but hey, if I took all the worst games it would pretty much just be guys nobody has heard of and that's no fun. Neither game is all that horrendous by itself, but back-to-backs of 8-18 and 7-19 shooting with two turnovers versus three total assists is setting a nice baseline. He also ranks 8th in the nation at percentage of his teams shots taken when he's on the floor at 43%. At some point this year he's going to put up an epic stinker. It's coming.
3. Joseph Young, Oregon. Read this conference preview. Or just scroll down to the Most Frustrating Player part. Or just trust me when I tell you that a near perfect chucking storm has been created around Young, with a guy who averaged 13 shots per game last season suddenly finding himself in a situation where the team has been completely gutted by graduations, transfers, and dudes kicked off the team and he has no choice but to shoot constantly, and he's going to love it. He's basically the Kobe Bryant of the Pacific Northwest and it showed on Monday when he shot 7-23 including 1-12 from three (1-12!) with five turnovers (and 4 assists). We'll probably see his name here a few times this year.
4. Wesley Person, Jr, Troy. Oh my god it makes me so happy there's a Wes Person Junior, and even better he made this list. He probably shouldn't quite make the list considering his most chuckery game this year (of 2) was a 5-14 shooting performance where he also made 10 free throws and scored 25 points, but hey, it's Wes Person's kid, he needs to be on here. Also he's shooting a cool 32% on the year, 21 of his 28 attempts this year are from three, and his last game he had 0 rebounds, 0 assists, 0 steals, and 0 blocks in 37 minutes. I'd say he qualifies.
5. Wayne Sparrow, UMBC. This one's great because it's who the Gophers play Saturday night, so maybe we're in for a chucker treat. He put up a fantastic line in their game against Loyola Maryland on Wednesday: 4-19 shooting (2-10 from 3) with 4 turnovers vs. 1 assist. That's quality work. He only took 8 shots in their opener and only averaged 4 shots per game last season so this one was quite an aberration. Fluke game, or birth of a brand new all-star chucker? Hopefully we find out Saturday, and hopefully it's the latter.
Tuesday, December 17, 2013
Tuesday Talkers
I hate this time of year. Not because of Christmas because I love Christmas because hey, no work, but because there's so little going on. College basketball is just so slow. There might be an interesting game or two, but in general it's pretty boring. And next week is even worse with Christmas and stuff. I have no idea why college kids can't play basketball over Christmas week. I doubt they like their families anyway. So since I have nothing else to write about and I just did a movie blog, here's just some stuff.
- Things should be a bit more entertaining when Rutgers joins the Big 10 than previously hoped. Not because they're any good, because they're still pretty terrible at 5-7 this year (with a loss to William & Mary!) but because former Hoya Greg Whittington has committed to play for the Scarlet Knights after getting kicked off the team at Georgetown. Whittington is a solid player who averaged 12 points and 7 rebounds per game for Georgetown last season before being ruled ineligible. Of course I suppose it's a a question of if he ever actually arrives there considering that being ruled ineligible and then getting kicked off the team, not to mention he's dealing with ACL tear right now. And I don't know when he'd be eligible to play or how many years he'll have left since his circumstances are a bit weird. Hooray for information!
- North Carolina is a fascinating team this year, and I don't just mean because they've beaten Louisville, Michigan State, and Kentucky while losing to Belmont and UAB, although that's pretty crazy in and of itself. I mean because they're playing a completely different style than anyone else in basketball. The average basketball team takes 32.5% of their field goal attempts from behind the 3-point arc, and scores 26% of it's total points on three-pointers. The Tar Heels take just 15.9% of their shots from three, and that shot makes up just 10.7% of their points - both of those are dead last in the NCAA. The team in front of them in % of attempts (Lamar) takes 19.8% of their shots from three, and the team in front of them for % of points from three (Bowling Green) gets 14.3% of their points from deep. So North Carolina ignores the three point shot to at extent that nobody else can even touch, and it's intentional because almost every year under Roy Williams they've ranked in the 330s in those metrics (I had no idea). It's probably a good thing since they shoot under 30% and Marcus Paige is their only halfway reliable shooter, but isn't that weird. I think it's weird. And I'm sharing it with you because you deserve to know weird things that are weird.
- If you're wondering about the Gophers, and I'm sure you are since this is allegedly a Gopher blog, they take 39.6% of their shots from three (48th) and get 32.1% of their points from there (54th), shooting an above average 35.7% (vs. 33.9% national average). These numbers are all up considerably from last season when the Gophers were ranked in the 270s, which makes sense both given the change in roster make up and Pitino's emphasis on the 3-ball. Plus, it's way more fun.
- Semi-Gopher related, but if Rashad Vaughn ends up at Iowa State (I said if!!) he's in for a monster year. Hoiberg gives his guards so much freedom offensively and such little responsibility defensively that he'll end up averaging like 25 a game. I don't know that it's the best thing for his development, but it's not like a bad defensive year will suddenly drop him out of the first round of the draft. I really hope he's a Gopher next season, but I can see the Iowa State appeal no doubt.
- Apparently Miramax is going to be producing a sequel to Rounders and will be turning Good Will Hunting into a television series. These both sound like horrible ideas. Rounders 2 could be good depending on where they take the characters, but for some reason I'm picturing a version of the Hangover with more gambling, and I suppose that could be entertaining even if it isn't necessarily "good" if you know what I mean. The Good Will Hunting series is baffling. I have no idea what they'd even do with it. Hopefully someone smarter than me has that one figured out already.
- Tons of stuff going down in baseball with the winter meetings and everything, way too much to comment on in depth even for me, but I'll tackle a couple things:
- Finally got all subscribed up with Netflix and we started watching Orange is the New Black. Really good show. In a world where I'm having more and more trouble finding new good shows and even some of my old favorites seem to be heading off the rails, it was refreshing to find a show that is both well made and entertaining since there are like 3 of those left. Check it out. It's not Breaking Bad, but what is? Nothing. Nothing is. God such a good show I miss it so much. Magnets, bitch!
- Plus, it brings Amazonian hot Laura Prepon back in my life, which is a solid plus.
- Semi-Gopher related, but it seems Syracuse fans have little to no interest in traveling to Houston for the Texas Bowl against the Gophers. Instead, the fantastic Syracuse blog Troy Nunes is an Absolute Magician is organizing a donation drive among readers/fans to send under privileged Houston area kids to the game for free, with a goal of getting tickets for 200 kids (plus a hotdog, soda, and a freaking Cuse shirt). I don't know if it's the Christmas season or getting older or having my own kids or what, but I thought this was really, really cool. Or maybe it's just the Gopher connection. Let's go with that.
- I love Jay Cutler.
- If you don't know the story behind this, it's here.
- I know the last thing anybody really wants to hear about is someone else's fantasy woes (Jay Cutler would weight in on this one) but indulge me for a moment. Due to Andrew Luck falling off a cliff post Reggie Wayne injury and Alex Smith suddenly lighting the world on fire I benched Luck for Smith two weekends ago in our quarterfinal. Ended up losing by 2 points on Brandon Marshall's last catch Monday night, and would have won easily if I had kept Luck in there. Then I would have won easily this week, so I should be in the championship, but I'm not instead at sitting around like a loser. Fantasy football is really stupid. And so are you.
- I took this quiz and got 198/200 (missed Tony Allen and Brian Scalabrine). I feel both proud and slightly embarrassed.
- Good news for the Gophers, Florida State absolutely crushed Charlotte tonight. The same Charlotte squad who beat Michigan earlier this year, and, with a certainly possible good year in a weak Conference USA, could end up a top 100 RPI team. Thus, since Florida State beats them and the Gophers beat Florida State through osmosis that helps the Gophers' RPI. Or something. I don't know. I'm not that bright.
- I was gonna right more but first I got distracted by Orange is the New Black and then I realized I really hate you.
- Things should be a bit more entertaining when Rutgers joins the Big 10 than previously hoped. Not because they're any good, because they're still pretty terrible at 5-7 this year (with a loss to William & Mary!) but because former Hoya Greg Whittington has committed to play for the Scarlet Knights after getting kicked off the team at Georgetown. Whittington is a solid player who averaged 12 points and 7 rebounds per game for Georgetown last season before being ruled ineligible. Of course I suppose it's a a question of if he ever actually arrives there considering that being ruled ineligible and then getting kicked off the team, not to mention he's dealing with ACL tear right now. And I don't know when he'd be eligible to play or how many years he'll have left since his circumstances are a bit weird. Hooray for information!
- North Carolina is a fascinating team this year, and I don't just mean because they've beaten Louisville, Michigan State, and Kentucky while losing to Belmont and UAB, although that's pretty crazy in and of itself. I mean because they're playing a completely different style than anyone else in basketball. The average basketball team takes 32.5% of their field goal attempts from behind the 3-point arc, and scores 26% of it's total points on three-pointers. The Tar Heels take just 15.9% of their shots from three, and that shot makes up just 10.7% of their points - both of those are dead last in the NCAA. The team in front of them in % of attempts (Lamar) takes 19.8% of their shots from three, and the team in front of them for % of points from three (Bowling Green) gets 14.3% of their points from deep. So North Carolina ignores the three point shot to at extent that nobody else can even touch, and it's intentional because almost every year under Roy Williams they've ranked in the 330s in those metrics (I had no idea). It's probably a good thing since they shoot under 30% and Marcus Paige is their only halfway reliable shooter, but isn't that weird. I think it's weird. And I'm sharing it with you because you deserve to know weird things that are weird.
- If you're wondering about the Gophers, and I'm sure you are since this is allegedly a Gopher blog, they take 39.6% of their shots from three (48th) and get 32.1% of their points from there (54th), shooting an above average 35.7% (vs. 33.9% national average). These numbers are all up considerably from last season when the Gophers were ranked in the 270s, which makes sense both given the change in roster make up and Pitino's emphasis on the 3-ball. Plus, it's way more fun.
- Semi-Gopher related, but if Rashad Vaughn ends up at Iowa State (I said if!!) he's in for a monster year. Hoiberg gives his guards so much freedom offensively and such little responsibility defensively that he'll end up averaging like 25 a game. I don't know that it's the best thing for his development, but it's not like a bad defensive year will suddenly drop him out of the first round of the draft. I really hope he's a Gopher next season, but I can see the Iowa State appeal no doubt.
- Apparently Miramax is going to be producing a sequel to Rounders and will be turning Good Will Hunting into a television series. These both sound like horrible ideas. Rounders 2 could be good depending on where they take the characters, but for some reason I'm picturing a version of the Hangover with more gambling, and I suppose that could be entertaining even if it isn't necessarily "good" if you know what I mean. The Good Will Hunting series is baffling. I have no idea what they'd even do with it. Hopefully someone smarter than me has that one figured out already.
- Tons of stuff going down in baseball with the winter meetings and everything, way too much to comment on in depth even for me, but I'll tackle a couple things:
- The Twins signed Phil Hughes, Ricky Nolasco, and Mike Pelfrey and are still chasing Bronson Arroyo. I read one comment along the lines of, "I've never seen a team retool by chasing so much mediocrity" and that may be true, but mediocrity is a huge upgrade for this team. Twins' starters had an ERA of 5.26 last season, worst in the majors by nearly half a run (0.45 to be precise). They were the second worst in 2012 with an ERA of 5.40, better than only the Rockies. 2011? Fifth worst at 4.64. From 2011-2013 Twins' starters' ERA was 5.08, worst in the majors. So yeah, Hughes, Nolasco, Pelfrey, and Arroyo might be mediocre, but they almost can't be worse than what they've been trotting out there. Right? RIGHT?
- Jason Kubel is back with the Twins, and that's cool because he was always one of my favorites and I even had a Kubel shirt which I have since gotten rid of (waa waa). He signed a minor league contract with an invite to spring training, and it surprised me they got him so cheap. Yes he was brutal last year, but in 2012 he hit 30 homers and OPS+ed 120. He's become even more useless against lefties, but he should be a solid platoon player against right handed pitchers. Considering Doumit hits lefties pretty well that could be a pretty good DH combo. Of course there's no chance of that actually happening because Gardy.
- Speaking of the AL Central, I am really not liking what the White Sox are doing. Everyone has ranked them for years as having the worst farm system, so the thought was they'd be terrible for like a decade and that made me smile because fuck the White Sox, right? Well now all of a sudden they've acquired a young promising outfielder in Avisail Garica, a young promising outfielder in Adam Eaton, a young promising third baseman in Matt Davidson, and the latest big swinging Cuban in 1B/DH guy Jose Abreu. The pitching is still a huge question mark behind Chris Sale, but I liked it better when Kenny Williams was burning the team down by trading away all youth and trying to fix problems by throwing money at them. I can't remember this new guys name but he's been making a lot of mostly under the radar, smart moves and I don't like it one bit. Now, with the two new guys, Alejandro de Aza is suddenly available, and this stupid guy will probably do something smart with him. Sucks.
- By the way, Eaton is 5-8 and describes himself as "gritty dirt bag" kind of player. So that should be a blast. Hawk will probably have an orgasm on the air at some point.
- Finally got all subscribed up with Netflix and we started watching Orange is the New Black. Really good show. In a world where I'm having more and more trouble finding new good shows and even some of my old favorites seem to be heading off the rails, it was refreshing to find a show that is both well made and entertaining since there are like 3 of those left. Check it out. It's not Breaking Bad, but what is? Nothing. Nothing is. God such a good show I miss it so much. Magnets, bitch!
- Plus, it brings Amazonian hot Laura Prepon back in my life, which is a solid plus.
- Semi-Gopher related, but it seems Syracuse fans have little to no interest in traveling to Houston for the Texas Bowl against the Gophers. Instead, the fantastic Syracuse blog Troy Nunes is an Absolute Magician is organizing a donation drive among readers/fans to send under privileged Houston area kids to the game for free, with a goal of getting tickets for 200 kids (plus a hotdog, soda, and a freaking Cuse shirt). I don't know if it's the Christmas season or getting older or having my own kids or what, but I thought this was really, really cool. Or maybe it's just the Gopher connection. Let's go with that.
- I love Jay Cutler.
- If you don't know the story behind this, it's here.
- I know the last thing anybody really wants to hear about is someone else's fantasy woes (Jay Cutler would weight in on this one) but indulge me for a moment. Due to Andrew Luck falling off a cliff post Reggie Wayne injury and Alex Smith suddenly lighting the world on fire I benched Luck for Smith two weekends ago in our quarterfinal. Ended up losing by 2 points on Brandon Marshall's last catch Monday night, and would have won easily if I had kept Luck in there. Then I would have won easily this week, so I should be in the championship, but I'm not instead at sitting around like a loser. Fantasy football is really stupid. And so are you.
- I took this quiz and got 198/200 (missed Tony Allen and Brian Scalabrine). I feel both proud and slightly embarrassed.
- Good news for the Gophers, Florida State absolutely crushed Charlotte tonight. The same Charlotte squad who beat Michigan earlier this year, and, with a certainly possible good year in a weak Conference USA, could end up a top 100 RPI team. Thus, since Florida State beats them and the Gophers beat Florida State through osmosis that helps the Gophers' RPI. Or something. I don't know. I'm not that bright.
- I was gonna right more but first I got distracted by Orange is the New Black and then I realized I really hate you.
Friday, October 25, 2013
Welcome Aboard, Nate Mason
I'm officially committed to a University of Minnesota! Go Golphers!!!!!! #blessed
— Nate Mason (@NateMason_2) October 25, 2013
And Boom. Nate Mason Jr., a point guard out from Georgia and Maryland, committed to the Gophers Friday night, and it's a huge get for Pitino considering his burning need to secure a point guard of the future. After many painful near misses, he still ended up getting a good one.
Mason ranks as the #126 recruit according to 247sports and the #26 point guard and should be the guy to run the offense for four years. Mason chose the Gophers over Kansas State and Virginia and he also held offers from Marquette and Clemson among many others.
By all accounts Mason is lightning quick and although he plays more of a combo guard now everyone seems to believe he has the ball skills to transition to more of a pure point without a problem in college. Plus with that combo guard experience he's already learned to score and is a good jump shooter so that's always a plus. If you watch the highlight video below you'll see a kid who can already score in a whole bunch of ways and reminds me of Dre Hollins in a lot of ways. I think I'm going to like this guy a lot. Plus his nickname is "The Assassin" which is pretty sweet.
This gives the Gophers and Pitino two members of the 2014 class with Mason joining Josh Martin. The class now has a big, which was sorely needed, and a point guard, which was badly coveted, and both are highly athletic, something that's clearly a priority for Pitino. With two scholarships left to play out it will be interesting to see how the recruitment of Carlos Morris, visiting UAB this weekend, plays out. The Gophers still have a shot at both Rashad Vaughn and Reid Travis (visiting this weekend by the way), or at least so it seems, so ideally they'd fill out the final two scholarships. They're both taking their time, however, with Vaughn not planning on making a decision until Spring, so you wonder if they'd be ballsy enough to hold out that long, especially if Travis does the same.
Morris, the Juco swingman from Florida ranked as the #5 JuCo player in the country, would be a quality edition to the Gophers for 2014 and given that his twitter profile pic at one point showed him wearing a Gopher hat and that 247sports predictions have him at 100% Minnesota you have to think the Gophers have a pretty good shot at him. Would they hold him off until the figure out what's happening with Travis and especially Vaughn and risk losing him to UAB? Go ahead and sign Morris now and figure they'll deal with whatever happens down the line? Either way I'm pretty sure if Morris, Vaughn, and Travis all end up wanting to go to the U they'll find a way to fit them all in.
Right now the Gopher class is ranked 68th in the country by 247sports. It's tough to know what to make of that since it's still early enough that classes are still coming together, but since the Gophers have two more spots anyway they'll definitely rise by the time everything shakes out. And I know this - 68th may not sound that great, but it's a whole lot better than it was before tonight.
Here is THE ASSASSIN:
Monday, August 26, 2013
Monday Musings
A lot has happened recently. I am writing about some of it.
- Josh Perkins, #25 player in the class of 2014 and one of the top point guards committed to Gonzaga on Saturday. This is meaningful because his final 3 were Gonzaga, UCLA, and the Gophers, even if the Gophers were a long shot given that he hadn't visited Minnesota in over a year. Although the Gophers still remain in the running for many top 100 type recruits and others and are on a few Top 5 type lists, with each player that commits elsewhere you can feel Gopher fans' collective butthole pucker just a little bit tighter.
See, that's the thing about taking a gamble such as hiring a 31-year-old head coach with only 1 year of head coaching experience at a mid-major, it only ends up being a good gamble if it works out. As much as it has been awesome seeing the Gophers pop up in a bunch of conversations with stud recruits, it's all for naught if the team ends up with nothing but a bunch of plan C fallback types it's going to add a lot of fuel to the fire that this was a bad hire for a Big Ten school, even if I don't believe that to be the case and I'm pretty sure all those people are either really old or really dumb (Dawger hi!) or big fat assholes.
I also don't think losing out on Josh Perkins is any reason to panic either, because the Gophers were pretty unlikely to get him anyway. At this point a class of J.P. Macura, Lourawls Nairn, Wade Baldwin, Isaiah Whitehead or Rashad Vaughn, and Reid Travis, Paul White, or Josh Martin is both realistic and one of the best classes in Gopher history. There are plenty of back-up options still out there that I'd be happy with as well. Really, we're nowhere near time to panic. Although as a lifelong Gopher fan I completely understand the impulse. Really, I do. I'm actually typing this while hiding under my bed.
- Speaking of Nairn, he's going to be on campus this weekend for an official visit, one of only three he's planning on taking (the other two are to Oklahoma and Indiana). He'll be attending the big Gopher/UNLV football game along with two other recruits, 2014's J.P. Macura and 2015's Alex Illikainen so needless to say, it's a pretty big football game for Gopher hoops. Not to mention that with Rashad Vaughn transferring to Findlay Prep in Nevada for his senior year UNLV has wormed their way into his Top 11 so there's a very real possibility that the winner of this game will vault to the lead for Vaughn's services. Is it likely? No. It's a near certainty.
- In other commitment news class of 2014 point guard Emmanuel Mudiay committed to Southern Methodist over the weekend. This is significant for many reasons, but the main one is that the #2 PG and #5 overall player in the class (according to ESPN) will be attending SMU which is not Kansas or Duke or Kentucky. SMU is his home school in Dallas, and no doubt that had a ton to do with it, as did the fact that the coach is Hall of Famer Larry Brown, but this is absolutely huge. Not only is SMU about to have the best player in their history (I assume) but with Mudiay on board this early he can start working on other big-time recruits and sell them on Brown, SMU, and Dallas. Now, no matter how fast the program rises Brown will get bored and bail in no more than 3 years because that's what he always does, but the next few years just got pretty interesting. Tyus could do the same thing for the Gophers, but unfortunately I'm fairly certain that ship has sailed to Duketown.
- I took WonderbabyTM, who is five years old now by the way, to see the movie Turbo over the weekend and I was pleasantly surprised. Any time you can work in House of Pain's Jump Around, We are the Champions, Snoop Dogg, Eye of the Tiger, and an homage to Bad News Bears in Breaking Training you're generally looking at a winner. Even if it was kind of stupid. Because snails can't talk, you see.
- Remember all that excitement about seeing some young Twins' prospects hit the major league level? Ok maybe not excitement but it something more than boredom. Interest, maybe? Anyway, how horribly has that worked out? Aaron Hicks - demoted twice, hitting .176 at Rochester and now on the DL. Kyle Gibson - good debut, horrible since, no command whatsoever, and now back at AAA. Only Oswaldo Arcia could be considered a success among the rookies mainly due to his young age (22) and his bat (6th in the AL among rookies in batting WAR), although his fielding has been such a disaster he's technically actually been worse than replacement level. Chris Parmelee probably proved he's a AAAA guy once and for all, Vance Worley and Scott Diamond were disasters, Liam Hendriks was Liam Hendriks, and Cole De Vries disappeared. You could get a little bit excited about Sam Deduno if you want, but really only because there's nothing else to grab onto here. It's 2am at the bar, nobody better panned out, and suddenly taking Sam Deduno home is starting to look attractive. I guess what I'm trying to say is that the Twins are drunk.
- It seems with E.J. Manuel hurt and Kevin Kolb's career possibly over there is the very real possibility that the Buffalo Bills will start undrafted free agent QB Jeff Tuel in Week 1 vs. New England (over Matt Leinart, which is in and of itself hilarious). Tuel went to Washington State where he must not have been too shitty. The real issue is for those in survivor leagues. I have always made it a hard and fast rule to never take a road team in those, but with no real clear cut home team to pick the Patriots on the road against Tuel is really tempting. Sometimes breaking the rules is exciting.
- I just started watching Breaking Bad (I know, I know). It's really freaking good. Turns out sometimes the masses are actually correct. I'm only 4 episodes in, but it's good to see Walt see the error of his ways and give up the drug trade. I'm interested to see where the show goes from here with the drug angle eliminated. Must be something pretty awesome, considering how much everybody loves the show.
- Yesterday was my 13th Anniversary with Mrs. W (yes, we got married pretty young). She's still hot, and she's still awesome. Pretty cool.
- I'm weirdly excited about college football, more than I ever have been before despite knowing almost nothing about it, to a shameful level. All I really know is that the games are fun to gamble on, the player props are super fun to gamble on, the games are fun to watch before college basketball starts, and I'm rooting my ass off for Florida this year. Why Florida you ask? Good question.
Last year, probably February sometime, I was perusing one of the gambling sites I used and saw Florida at 20/1 to win the National Championship. This was when the Gators were rolling and ranked in the top 5 and I was like whoa, 20/1 those are great odds! Let me throw $50 down on that and we're goin' Sizzla! A week or so later I go to look at what all bets I have pending and I notice that I accidentally bet on the Gators to win the FOOTBALL National Championship. I don't even know if they're good, but they're in the SEC so as long as they can lose only once or less they should be in ok shape. Also yes I was drinking that night.
- Finally, this:
Also, this Skylar broad is kind of a buzzkill.
- Josh Perkins, #25 player in the class of 2014 and one of the top point guards committed to Gonzaga on Saturday. This is meaningful because his final 3 were Gonzaga, UCLA, and the Gophers, even if the Gophers were a long shot given that he hadn't visited Minnesota in over a year. Although the Gophers still remain in the running for many top 100 type recruits and others and are on a few Top 5 type lists, with each player that commits elsewhere you can feel Gopher fans' collective butthole pucker just a little bit tighter.
See, that's the thing about taking a gamble such as hiring a 31-year-old head coach with only 1 year of head coaching experience at a mid-major, it only ends up being a good gamble if it works out. As much as it has been awesome seeing the Gophers pop up in a bunch of conversations with stud recruits, it's all for naught if the team ends up with nothing but a bunch of plan C fallback types it's going to add a lot of fuel to the fire that this was a bad hire for a Big Ten school, even if I don't believe that to be the case and I'm pretty sure all those people are either really old or really dumb (Dawger hi!) or big fat assholes.
I also don't think losing out on Josh Perkins is any reason to panic either, because the Gophers were pretty unlikely to get him anyway. At this point a class of J.P. Macura, Lourawls Nairn, Wade Baldwin, Isaiah Whitehead or Rashad Vaughn, and Reid Travis, Paul White, or Josh Martin is both realistic and one of the best classes in Gopher history. There are plenty of back-up options still out there that I'd be happy with as well. Really, we're nowhere near time to panic. Although as a lifelong Gopher fan I completely understand the impulse. Really, I do. I'm actually typing this while hiding under my bed.
- Speaking of Nairn, he's going to be on campus this weekend for an official visit, one of only three he's planning on taking (the other two are to Oklahoma and Indiana). He'll be attending the big Gopher/UNLV football game along with two other recruits, 2014's J.P. Macura and 2015's Alex Illikainen so needless to say, it's a pretty big football game for Gopher hoops. Not to mention that with Rashad Vaughn transferring to Findlay Prep in Nevada for his senior year UNLV has wormed their way into his Top 11 so there's a very real possibility that the winner of this game will vault to the lead for Vaughn's services. Is it likely? No. It's a near certainty.
- In other commitment news class of 2014 point guard Emmanuel Mudiay committed to Southern Methodist over the weekend. This is significant for many reasons, but the main one is that the #2 PG and #5 overall player in the class (according to ESPN) will be attending SMU which is not Kansas or Duke or Kentucky. SMU is his home school in Dallas, and no doubt that had a ton to do with it, as did the fact that the coach is Hall of Famer Larry Brown, but this is absolutely huge. Not only is SMU about to have the best player in their history (I assume) but with Mudiay on board this early he can start working on other big-time recruits and sell them on Brown, SMU, and Dallas. Now, no matter how fast the program rises Brown will get bored and bail in no more than 3 years because that's what he always does, but the next few years just got pretty interesting. Tyus could do the same thing for the Gophers, but unfortunately I'm fairly certain that ship has sailed to Duketown.
- I took WonderbabyTM, who is five years old now by the way, to see the movie Turbo over the weekend and I was pleasantly surprised. Any time you can work in House of Pain's Jump Around, We are the Champions, Snoop Dogg, Eye of the Tiger, and an homage to Bad News Bears in Breaking Training you're generally looking at a winner. Even if it was kind of stupid. Because snails can't talk, you see.
- Remember all that excitement about seeing some young Twins' prospects hit the major league level? Ok maybe not excitement but it something more than boredom. Interest, maybe? Anyway, how horribly has that worked out? Aaron Hicks - demoted twice, hitting .176 at Rochester and now on the DL. Kyle Gibson - good debut, horrible since, no command whatsoever, and now back at AAA. Only Oswaldo Arcia could be considered a success among the rookies mainly due to his young age (22) and his bat (6th in the AL among rookies in batting WAR), although his fielding has been such a disaster he's technically actually been worse than replacement level. Chris Parmelee probably proved he's a AAAA guy once and for all, Vance Worley and Scott Diamond were disasters, Liam Hendriks was Liam Hendriks, and Cole De Vries disappeared. You could get a little bit excited about Sam Deduno if you want, but really only because there's nothing else to grab onto here. It's 2am at the bar, nobody better panned out, and suddenly taking Sam Deduno home is starting to look attractive. I guess what I'm trying to say is that the Twins are drunk.
- It seems with E.J. Manuel hurt and Kevin Kolb's career possibly over there is the very real possibility that the Buffalo Bills will start undrafted free agent QB Jeff Tuel in Week 1 vs. New England (over Matt Leinart, which is in and of itself hilarious). Tuel went to Washington State where he must not have been too shitty. The real issue is for those in survivor leagues. I have always made it a hard and fast rule to never take a road team in those, but with no real clear cut home team to pick the Patriots on the road against Tuel is really tempting. Sometimes breaking the rules is exciting.
- I just started watching Breaking Bad (I know, I know). It's really freaking good. Turns out sometimes the masses are actually correct. I'm only 4 episodes in, but it's good to see Walt see the error of his ways and give up the drug trade. I'm interested to see where the show goes from here with the drug angle eliminated. Must be something pretty awesome, considering how much everybody loves the show.
- Yesterday was my 13th Anniversary with Mrs. W (yes, we got married pretty young). She's still hot, and she's still awesome. Pretty cool.
- I'm weirdly excited about college football, more than I ever have been before despite knowing almost nothing about it, to a shameful level. All I really know is that the games are fun to gamble on, the player props are super fun to gamble on, the games are fun to watch before college basketball starts, and I'm rooting my ass off for Florida this year. Why Florida you ask? Good question.
Last year, probably February sometime, I was perusing one of the gambling sites I used and saw Florida at 20/1 to win the National Championship. This was when the Gators were rolling and ranked in the top 5 and I was like whoa, 20/1 those are great odds! Let me throw $50 down on that and we're goin' Sizzla! A week or so later I go to look at what all bets I have pending and I notice that I accidentally bet on the Gators to win the FOOTBALL National Championship. I don't even know if they're good, but they're in the SEC so as long as they can lose only once or less they should be in ok shape. Also yes I was drinking that night.
- Finally, this:
Also, this Skylar broad is kind of a buzzkill.
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.
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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