[luther]

Royce White, 6-7 F, previously of DeLaSalle (Minn.) high school and now enrolled and expected to play next year for Hopkins (Minn.) high school, verbally committed to play for Tubby Smith's Gophers. White is generally ranked around the 30-35 range in the class of 2009.

[TM]

bball, did you see that Echenique may possibly be enrolling a Rutgers this fall if he can get some classes done this summer? It was in a Sporting News article by DeCourcy.

[luther]

Rodney Williams, a 6-6 athletic wing from Robbinsdale (Minn.) Cooper High School (68th on the class of 2009 list in this thread), told the Minneapolis Star tribune that he's narrowed his list down to Minnesota, Kansas (which has yet to offer!) and some unnamed third school. He'd be a nice prospect for the Gophers--a wing who can really run and leap. But his final three was pretty strange: an unnamed school and a national power that hasn't even offered him yet? Weird...

[bball2223]

Originally Posted by TM

bball, did you see that Echenique may possibly be enrolling a Rutgers this fall if he can get some classes done this summer? It was in a Sporting News article by DeCourcy.

I caught that today, he could help Rutgers out right away but I don't know how big of an impact he would make if he made the jump this year.

[bball2223]

Originally Posted by luther

Royce White, 6-7 F, previously of DeLaSalle (Minn.) high school and now enrolled and expected to play next year for Hopkins (Minn.) high school, verbally committed to play for Tubby Smith's Gophers. White is generally ranked around the 30-35 range in the class of 2009.

LOL at UK fans saying Tubby can't recruit. He is turning that program around.

[bball2223]

John Wall is atop the new Rivals 150. They say he is a Derrick Rose clone but I just don't see it. He is a slightly lesser version of Rose. Favors IMO should have been #1.

[luther]

Originally Posted by bball2223

LOL at UK fans saying Tubby can't recruit. He is turning that program around.

He brought in plenty of highly touted players there, too--probably a dozen McDonald's All-Americans in his time there. Those fans are just unrealistic. So fine, let them pretend that's how life works and continually be disappointed. Me, I'll take Tubby Smith and a team that hopefully regains the stature it had under Clem Haskins, making the NCAAs most years and occasionally going far. That's fine by me.

[bball2223]

Originally Posted by luther

He brought in plenty of highly touted players there, too--probably a dozen McDonald's All-Americans in his time there. Those fans are just unrealistic. So fine, let them pretend that's how life works and continually be disappointed. Me, I'll take Tubby Smith and a team that hopefully regains the stature it had under Clem Haskins, making the NCAAs most years and occasionally going far. That's fine by me.

Minnesota will be very well off in short order thats for sure. There is usually some pretty good D1 talent for basketball up there correct? If he keeps landing that, then he should be good.

[luther]

Originally Posted by bball2223

Minnesota will be very well off in short order thats for sure. There is usually some pretty good D1 talent for basketball up there correct? If he keeps landing that, then he should be good.

Because we're a small state, population-wise, we don't have sufficient talent to totally stock the program. It was also late to develop, because AAU wasn't legal in Minnesota until ... early 90s? I forget exactly. But it took a while. However, since the mid-90s, I'd say we've been very good for our size, having had more McDonald's All-Americans and other Top 100 recruits than similar sized states. We've had high-level DI players such as John Thomas, Sam Jacobson, Khalid El-Amin, Joel Przybilla, Mike Bauer, Rick Rickert, Alan Anderson, Jake Sullivan, Maurice Hargrow, Adam Boone, Dusty Rychart, Ben Johnson, Nick Horvath, Jerry Holman, Kris Humphries, Lawrence McKenzie, Cole Aldrich, Al Nolen, Blake Hoffarber, Isaiah Dahlman, and on and on. In an average year, we've got 1-3 Top 100 players and probably 12-15 legitimate Division I players. If Tubby just cherry picks the ones from here he wants, as well as a few deep bench/walk-on types to keep the state's high school programs happy (why import your deep bench?), then fills a few key roles with outstate recruits, he'll be fine.

[luther]

Since there were just questions about Minnesota's high school scene, here's a nice, optimistic update, reported in the Star Tribune by Sid Hartman: Rivals.com has Royce White, the Gophers recruit and former DeLaSalle standout now at Hopkins, as the 18th-best player in the country in the class of 2009. Cooper's Rodney Williams is ranked 28th.