The Gophers coach, two years removed from going 0-for-7 on Minnesotans, has stepped up his pursuit of in-state talent, recruiting players earlier and more aggressively. Eight Gophers offers now are out to Minnesota high school sophomores and juniors — four in each class.
“When you’re the only Division I basketball program [in the state], it’s going to be very important to those kids,” Pitino said this week. “Recruiting the state will always be important to us.”
Six D1 Minnesota AAU players have offers from the Gophers: Hurt, Nnaji, Tyrell Terry, Tyler Wahl, Dawson Garcia and Ben Carlson.
Gophers fans can get a closer look at those prospects when D1 Minnesota opens play in the Battle at the Lakes on Saturday morning at Wayzata High School.
“[A Minnesota offer] means everything because you grow up watching the Gophers on TV,” said Nnaji, who was offered by Pitino in November. “You aspire to be them. When you finally get the offer, it’s like ‘wow,’ I’m starting to get there. It was really humbling knowing that. It’s still motivation to work harder to prove I deserve it.”
Hurt, Nnaji, Terry and Wahl all play for D1 Minnesota’s 17-and-under team, arguably one of the top five teams in the Adidas gantlet league’s top level. Garcia and Dawson are teammates on the 16s squad.
After not signing any of the top seven Minnesotans in the 2017 class, Pitino landed three of the four Minnesotans he offered in 2018. They all played for Howard Pulley’s AAU team last year. Apple Valley’s Tre Jones got away, following older brother Tyus to Duke, but Cretin-Derham Hall’s Daniel Oturu, DeLaSalle’s Gabe Kalscheur and Orono’s Jarvis Omersa will fill some Williams Arena seats next season. Five scholarship Gophers will be from Minnesota next season, including juniors Amir Coffey and Michael Hurt...
http://www.startribune.com/make-you...671/?ref=nl&om_rid=1635722697&om_mid=87114185
“When you’re the only Division I basketball program [in the state], it’s going to be very important to those kids,” Pitino said this week. “Recruiting the state will always be important to us.”
Six D1 Minnesota AAU players have offers from the Gophers: Hurt, Nnaji, Tyrell Terry, Tyler Wahl, Dawson Garcia and Ben Carlson.
Gophers fans can get a closer look at those prospects when D1 Minnesota opens play in the Battle at the Lakes on Saturday morning at Wayzata High School.
“[A Minnesota offer] means everything because you grow up watching the Gophers on TV,” said Nnaji, who was offered by Pitino in November. “You aspire to be them. When you finally get the offer, it’s like ‘wow,’ I’m starting to get there. It was really humbling knowing that. It’s still motivation to work harder to prove I deserve it.”
Hurt, Nnaji, Terry and Wahl all play for D1 Minnesota’s 17-and-under team, arguably one of the top five teams in the Adidas gantlet league’s top level. Garcia and Dawson are teammates on the 16s squad.
After not signing any of the top seven Minnesotans in the 2017 class, Pitino landed three of the four Minnesotans he offered in 2018. They all played for Howard Pulley’s AAU team last year. Apple Valley’s Tre Jones got away, following older brother Tyus to Duke, but Cretin-Derham Hall’s Daniel Oturu, DeLaSalle’s Gabe Kalscheur and Orono’s Jarvis Omersa will fill some Williams Arena seats next season. Five scholarship Gophers will be from Minnesota next season, including juniors Amir Coffey and Michael Hurt...
http://www.startribune.com/make-you...671/?ref=nl&om_rid=1635722697&om_mid=87114185
