Recruiting Updates

If you've been reading The Daily Gopher, and why wouldn't you, you'd know there has been a flurry of recruiting activity of note to Gopher fans lately. Of note:

- Minnesota boy Sam Dower heading to Gonzaga. Dower, a center from Osseo, is a late bloomer who recently shot up the ranks after averaging 22 points per game for in AAU ball this summer after putting up just 13 per game in high school. Gonzaga was after him early, and had the inside track. After visiting the campus, Dower made his choice. The Gophers got in the game late, and I was never optimistic Dower would sign here. Dower is currently ranked #119 on the Rivals Top 150.

- Torin Walker to Oklahoma State. Walker is another center Tubby wanted, and I'm quite a bit bummed he didn't get him, mostly because Torin Walker just sounds like a good name for a player. Walker was supposed to take a visit to the Minnesota campus, but after visiting OSU he canceled all other visits. I'm guessing he was set up with some very nice female "superfans" of the program. Take note for the upcoming Rodney Williams visit to the U please.

- Trevor Williams to Colorado State. Yet another center to spurn an offer from Tubby Smith, although for the life of me I can't figure out a single reason why anybody would want to go to Colo State. This was another case of a player having a visit scheduled to Minnesota, but opting to sign with another school following a visit there. There was a lot of chatter about Williams, and the Gophers were involved in his recruiting early so this one does sting a bit.

Not a Minnesota target, but of interest nonetheless is Hopkins' Mike Broghammer committing to Notre Dame. I'm not entirely certain why Tubby never chose to get involved in recruiting Broghammer, but I'm guessing it is because he is related to Christian Laettner, who once stomped on a Kentucky player and all the hearts of Kentucky fans. And Tubby still loves Kentucky.

Also of interest is Eden Praire's Ethan Wragge committing to Creighton last night. Wragge was never in Tubby's sights, but the a three-star instate player is still worth mentioning.

Does this all mean that Tubby is losing his touch? After the miracle class of 2008, are we sunk for 2009? No, not really. Calm down, spaz. Plenty of quality players still on the radar, particularly if Williams signs here. Other possibilities:

- PG/SG Darius Smith, #113 on Rivals. According to Scout, Smith considers the Gophers the Gophers his favorite school, and had a visit scheduled for last weekend at the U. He hasn't signed following that, which makes me nervous. I haven't heard a single peep about how the visit went, which also makes me nervous. I don't know if it actually happened or what. Expect Smith to sign with Bradley.

- PG Eric Bledsoe, #67 on Rivals. I've mentioned him before, and he is absolutely, without question my number 1 guy I want for this team for 2009, above even Rodney Williams. Everything I read about this kid gives me a boner. The problem is it's going to take a major coup to steal him away from Mike Davis and UAB. He's from Alabama, they've been recruiting him forever, he likes Davis, and he loves their running style. Odds on landing Bledsoe are around 10% or so, but if anybody can do it, Tubby can. Please.

- PG Johnnie Lacy, #110 on Rivals is also still a possibility, and has been written about here plenty. If Bledsoe doesn't work out, I'd be more than happy to get Johnnie, assuming he's eligible.

- Lastly, two Power Forwards from Georgia I've never heard of apparently have received offers from the Gophers according to Scout: Terrence Shannon and Kadeem Batts. Shannon is the superior player, coming in at #125 on Rivals while Batts is unranked. Batts is mostly being pursued by middle tier major conference teams, while Shannon has Florida State and Memphis as his leaders, with the Gophers listed as a longshot.


Grabbing any one of those guys along with Rodney to fill out the two remaining scholarships for 2009 would be an excellent, excellent class following up the #25 class of 2008 according to ESPN.

Once again, I want to say I'm absolutely convinced right now that the Gophers must get a verbal from Rodney on his official visit in a week and a half. The week after that, he is heading out to Santa Clara for a visit with his friend and Bronco commit Raymond Cowels. The fact that he narrowed his list to just two, and Santa Clara is on there instead of Kansas or UCONN tells me he's very serious about the possibility. Can't you see it? The two guys, visiting a beautiful campus in California right near the ocean. All around them are beautiful women in bikinis, the weather is nice after leaving the shitty fall weather of Minnesota. The rest of the Santa Clara team telling him how it's beautiful there all winter with no snow. Cowels talking to him about how the two of them can join together to help raise the Santa Clara program to national prominence once again.

Think about it, this is probably the most important recruit visit to that program since forever. They will pull out all the stops and roll out the red carpet to kiss his ass in a huge way. I'm telling you right now, if he doesn't sign with the Gophers during his visit and actually makes his way out to Santa Clara for that visit, he's going to sign there. I guarantee it.

More Gopher Recruiting News

Seems we are in a hotbed of recruiting activity this time of year, which is news to me but whatever. A few quick notes on some goings-on:

The dude I'm most excited to see next year, Devoe Joseph, is seemingly having a wee bit o' trouble getting eligible for next season. According to Scout.com, he's still awaiting word from the NCAA Clearinghouse for next season, and being from Canada sometimes makes the process a bit more difficult - which may be why his brother transferred to a prep school in Nevada for his final two high school seasons.

No clue just how serious this is, and his coach Ro Russell, thinks he will be cleared in a day or two, so that's good. Of course, I've heard coaches describe players like JR Rider as "misunderstood" so you can't really trust anything coaches say. Iowa signed a couple of Canadian a few years ago but neither was able to qualify.

Probably nothing, but still worth keeping an eye on. To cheer you up, here's a video of Devoe hitting a jump shot at the buzzer to win a game for his high school. It's old, from March, but I haven't seen it yet and if you haven't seen it it's new to you:

[REMOVED DUE TO BITCHING]

In 2009 news, offeree Sam Dower took an unofficial visit to Minnesota yesterday for about three and a half hours. According to his head coach at Osseo, he really enjoyed his visit and had a nice conversation with the coaches - pretty much what every recruit says about every visit ever. He also said that it being his hometown school definitely gives the Gophers an advantage.

I have to say I'm a bit skeptical about Dower. A commenter a few posts below here has watched him and has no come away impressed. I know it's weird to trust a random anonymous commenter over people who scout for a living, but I guess that's how often scouts have been wrong. I'm pretty sure they're idiots. And some of the facts back our commenter up. His scholarship offers haven't exactly come from high end schools here: Iowa, California, Penn State, St. Louis, Northern Iowa, Wisconsin-Green Bay, Gonzaga, Wisconsin-Milwaukee, George Mason, Montana, Marquette, Illinois State, Santa Clara and Drake. The Gophers, with the exception of Gonzaga, are probably the highest profile school in that mix. Makes me nervous. Very Monson-y.

On the other hand, he's left-handed. So we'll have to see.

[EDIT: Looks like the GopherHole snagged an interview with Sam after his visit. Nothing too earth shattering here, but if you're interested take a look.]

Finally, looking to 2010 the Gophers made an offer to Kentucky shooting guard Aaron "hey hey hey" Cosby. Cosby had originally committed to UMass, but re-opened his recruitment when coach Travis Ford moved on to Oklahoma State. He's one of the top recruits in Kentucky for 2010, but currently only has offers from the Gophers, Western Kentucky, Miami (OH), and Oklahoma State, but with teams like Louisville and Purdue sniffing around, things are sure to heat up in a hurry.

Gopher Recruiting News

Since I initially started this site with the sole intent of writing about Gopher basketball before tangenting off into several hundred different directions, I figured once in a while I should take a peak at Gopher recruiting. Now seems about right, since there is a lot to discuss.

Darius Smith: I wrote earlier this week about the Gophers offering Smith, a 6-2 point guard from Illinois, and there is a little more information available. He was called "the best defensive player in the state and one of the best leaders" at the Nike Peach Jam and is known as a very solid rebounder, ballhandler, defender, and penetrator who lacks only an outside shot to complete his game. Bradley is after him hard, as well as Marquette and DePaul. The Gophers are late to the party, but their name recognition as well as high profile head coach have got to help, but of course, the Gophers lost that one big goofy guy to DePaul already, so who knows what kind of decisions some of these geniuses are capable of making. Smith sounds a lot like an Al Nolen clone, right down to the academic issues (current gpa of 2.4, ACT score of 16), and as long as he's eligible I'll be very happy with that.

Sam Dower: Big man from Osseo who picked up an offer from Tubby early last week, Dower is a 6-9, 215 PF/C who averaged 13 points and 7 boards as a junior at Osseo last season and will be expected to take more of a scoring role with several good players graduating after last year. He currently ranks #130 on the Rivals Top 150. Obviously at 215 he needs to put on some weight and gain strength, but he has that big wingspan that allows him to block a lot of shots, and he has a very good game in the paint and from the high post. He recently narrowed his list to five schools: Gonzaga, George Mason, Minnesota, Marquette, and Cal. He's already visited GMU, and is expected to visit Minnesota and Marquette in August and Gonzaga in September. I'm not real excited here, but I suppose he's better than nothing. I think the Gophers have two schollys left for '09, and I'd rather they be used on one of the PGs and Rod Will, but it's nice to see that a consolation prize under Tubby would have been the keystone recruit under Monson. No, I'm not ready to let the Monson hate go just yet.

Johnnie Lacy: Lacy, the 5-10 PG and Rivals #97 player from Wisconsin who recently reported that the Gophers were in the lead for his services has transferred to Notre Dame Prep School, reportedly with the hopes that it will help him get eligible for his freshman season in 2009. Notre Dame Prep is in Fitchburg, MA and is kind of a basketball powerhouse. They have three players on the Rivals150 for 2008: Terrence Jennings (#19), Kim English (#112), and Melquan Boldin (#147) but for 2009 Lacy will be the only one on the list there. He should get some high quality coaching as well as being assured they will do whatever they have to in order to get him eligible. The Gophers may have cooled on Lacy a bit lately, with the offer going out to Darius Smith as well as some sudden interest in another guard I'll mention next, Eric Bledsoe.

Eric Bledsoe: No relation to Drew, I'm assuming because he's black, Bledsoe is a four-star, 6 foot PG out of Alabama who ranks #73 overall on Rivals list. His scouting reports from all around give me kind of a semi, because he's basically a true pass-first point guard which I love unless it's that homo Jacque Vaughn. Scout says he lacks a perimeter shot, but ESPN says he can shoot it from deep, so who the hell knows, but they both say he has the instincts for the position and is a lightning quick creator and that is all that matters. Speaking of Creators, there is also a christian rock singer named Erik Bledsoe, and I really hope they don't recruit him instead. But again, that was probably more of a concern with Monson in charge. Bledsoe says the hometown UAB Blazers are leading for his services, and the only school to have offered a scholarship so far, but Alabama, South Carolina, Indiana, and the Gophers are also in the mix, as well as the Lord Jesus Christ.

Cory Joseph: Another PG the Gophers are looking at, this time for 2010, is the younger brother of future Gopher Devoe Joseph and could give them a Joseph to Joseph combo at the guard position, although some services describe him as more of an off guard who could play point in a pinch, much like big brother. ESPN describes him as having one of the best pure jumpshots in the class of 2010, and says he will end up being better than Devoe. If that's the case, let's go ahead and get him signed early. He ranks 75th on the Rivals 150 and will probably be moving up as his career progresses, now in the States after transferring to a Nevada Prep School, basketball factory Findlay, for his final two high school seasons. It's still early, but Joseph is getting chased by pretty much everybody, including Kansas, Texas, and Memphis.

Angelo Johnson: Interestingly, Tubby has declined to pursue the former Minnesota high school player after he announced he was transferring from USC after his freshman season due to playing time concerns. Angelo has said he will end up at either Baylor, Southern Miss, Seton Hall, or Cincinnati. Although he could certainly help out the Gophers and their point guard vacancy for 2009, Tubby remains firm that he isn't interested. A big ole difference from Dan Monson, whose bread and butter was to chase recruits he missed out on after they changed their minds and promise them if they would come to the U they could take every single shot they ever wanted ever.

Glen Rice, Jr: There was some interest in the 3-star guard out of Georgia on the Gophers part, but, like with Mfon Udofia, the Yellow Jackets of Georgia Tech signed him instead. It will be interesting to keep an eye on the Jackets in the coming years to see how these two clowns develop. Tech has a nice recruiting class going for 2009.

- Rodney Williams continues to dominate and continues to not sign here yet.