The Gopher basketball staff took full advantage of this primetime ESPN game against a top opponent with several visitors. They had the two official visitors and five unofficial. Quick run through of all the players, and then a few tidbits.
Eric Curry. Rivals 150 PF from Arkansas who is newly into the Rivals rankings.
Amir Coffey. Rivals top 60 talent who is likely higher than that but has been injured for a year so analysts evaluated others around him and not him. He is the local talent that would be a monster, monster get.
Gary Trent. Top 5-10 talent in the nation in the 2017 class. Many feel he is the best SG in his class. From Apple Valley and while it may not seem like it because he doesn't get the press that Tyus did, he may become the highest rated player ever from Apple Valley High School (depending on what service you look at).
Goanar Mar. Goanar has 4 high major offers, he is a 2017 local talent from DeLaSalle. Minnesota has not offered him yet but Xavier, Iowa State, Nebraska, and DePaul have. Consistent top 100 ranked player.
Tre Jones. Brother of Tyus Jones, top ranked player prospect in Minnesota's 2018 class, the 15 year old was the starting PG on team USA 16U, when rankings come out for this class he will be pretty high.
Michael Hurt. Ranked most of his career by most services, committed to Minnesota. Want to throw in that he wasn't in recent Rivals rankings and that is the Rivals opinion. Do need to add for you Minnesota fans, Marquette commit Sam Hauser from Wisconsin is ranked and when he faced Michael this summer, Oh Lord, it was about as one sided of a destruction as I've seen. And Michael was by far the victor. So you have to look past rankings sometimes, I like results better.
Matthew Hurt. Matthew is considered one of the elite 2019s in the nation. Will be a top 15, 20, whatever kid. He is fantastic and has multiple high major offers already. Michael's brother. Matthew does some things skill wise, shot blocking wise, and playmaking wise against players 2-3 years older that are hard to fathom.
Notes:
I'm told that Amir and Eric Curry (who are both still on their visits as I type this) have got a long very well which of course always helps. I'm told that the visits are going very well and the trip has impressed. Will a commitment happen soon? No indication of that and you really can't know until after most of the time, but told things have gone quite well.
Tre Jones came to the game with his mother, brother, nephew, uncle, and aunt. His mother sat with the Gopher staff at the game.
Michael, Matthew, and their father were at the game and with the recruits so Michael was able to sell to Curry and Coffey his decision and of course like all committed kids, you know he's trying to help bring them here.
Gary Trent Jr was at the game with Tre and teammate Jordan Bolton. This week there has been a lot of rumors of Gary going to prep school but that has quickly been put down as a social media prank amongst friends and everything is as expected with the AV line-up this year.
Assistant Ben Johnson I believe is the lead guy on Curry and Coffey, plus you of course know as the local connected coach he is the one talking to all the local talent. Ben, assistant Nate Pomeday, and assistant Kimani Young were at the game with the families and players. Of course the recruits spent a lot of time in the student section with the players. They were also on the field before the game.
The coaches sat with Amir's mother and father at the game who were front row and it sounds like all went well.
Eric Curry. Rivals 150 PF from Arkansas who is newly into the Rivals rankings.
Amir Coffey. Rivals top 60 talent who is likely higher than that but has been injured for a year so analysts evaluated others around him and not him. He is the local talent that would be a monster, monster get.
Gary Trent. Top 5-10 talent in the nation in the 2017 class. Many feel he is the best SG in his class. From Apple Valley and while it may not seem like it because he doesn't get the press that Tyus did, he may become the highest rated player ever from Apple Valley High School (depending on what service you look at).
Goanar Mar. Goanar has 4 high major offers, he is a 2017 local talent from DeLaSalle. Minnesota has not offered him yet but Xavier, Iowa State, Nebraska, and DePaul have. Consistent top 100 ranked player.
Tre Jones. Brother of Tyus Jones, top ranked player prospect in Minnesota's 2018 class, the 15 year old was the starting PG on team USA 16U, when rankings come out for this class he will be pretty high.
Michael Hurt. Ranked most of his career by most services, committed to Minnesota. Want to throw in that he wasn't in recent Rivals rankings and that is the Rivals opinion. Do need to add for you Minnesota fans, Marquette commit Sam Hauser from Wisconsin is ranked and when he faced Michael this summer, Oh Lord, it was about as one sided of a destruction as I've seen. And Michael was by far the victor. So you have to look past rankings sometimes, I like results better.
Matthew Hurt. Matthew is considered one of the elite 2019s in the nation. Will be a top 15, 20, whatever kid. He is fantastic and has multiple high major offers already. Michael's brother. Matthew does some things skill wise, shot blocking wise, and playmaking wise against players 2-3 years older that are hard to fathom.
Notes:
I'm told that Amir and Eric Curry (who are both still on their visits as I type this) have got a long very well which of course always helps. I'm told that the visits are going very well and the trip has impressed. Will a commitment happen soon? No indication of that and you really can't know until after most of the time, but told things have gone quite well.
Tre Jones came to the game with his mother, brother, nephew, uncle, and aunt. His mother sat with the Gopher staff at the game.
Michael, Matthew, and their father were at the game and with the recruits so Michael was able to sell to Curry and Coffey his decision and of course like all committed kids, you know he's trying to help bring them here.
Gary Trent Jr was at the game with Tre and teammate Jordan Bolton. This week there has been a lot of rumors of Gary going to prep school but that has quickly been put down as a social media prank amongst friends and everything is as expected with the AV line-up this year.
Assistant Ben Johnson I believe is the lead guy on Curry and Coffey, plus you of course know as the local connected coach he is the one talking to all the local talent. Ben, assistant Nate Pomeday, and assistant Kimani Young were at the game with the families and players. Of course the recruits spent a lot of time in the student section with the players. They were also on the field before the game.
The coaches sat with Amir's mother and father at the game who were front row and it sounds like all went well.
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