I'll be the first one to admit it. I am horrible with names. But remembering the most recent player to get a Minnesota offer is.a piece of cake.
On Tuesday, the Gophers offered 6-foot-2 point guard, Kobe Elvis, out of Brampton, Ontario. Besides his name, he is also gaining a memorable offer sheet. Up until very recently that list contained all mid-major programs. Before the middle of July, it consisted of Weber State, Loyola (MD), Mount St. Mary's, Wyoming, NJIT, Drake, Eastern Michigan, Robert Morris, Morehead State, and Richmond.
Then just after the Under Armour Finals in Georgia were completed, he picked up his first Power Five invite from TCU. Since then, Buffalo and Ball State have joined the club. But his most two recent offers have come from Iowa State and Minnesota.
College coaches were able to see Elvis for four days just outside of Atlanta in what is called the Under Armour Rise circuit. This is a grouping that the Northern Kings out of Canada won. If this program sounds familiar, it is the same one that current Gopher point guard, Marcus Carr, played for. Vidal Massiah may also be a familiar name to our readers. Richard Pitino and his staff are no strangers to the Kings, and we have spoken with Coach Massiah each time one of his players have received an offer.
On Wednesday afternoon, he was once again nice enough to speak with The Gopher Report about Elvis.
Q: Tell us a little bit about Kobe.
Massiah: "In terms of his person and character, he's a great kid. He's soft-spoken, mostly quiet, mild mannered. He's fun to be around. I think that everyone seems to like him. They appreciate his time. First and foremost, I think it is important to say that he is a good person. He's not one of those kids that feels entitled or it's all about them. He's a great teammate and a pleasure to coach. We ran into some issues at times that you do with kids when you are trying to coach them and show them another way. I don't take that into a whole lot in terms of stretching who they are. So in that respect, great kid and I love having him in our program. He will leave a lasting impression for sure. All of the other kids are coming behind him and he is someone they are definitely looking up to.
In terms of his basketball, he is a pretty unique talent with the ball. He was asked to score a whole lot. In high school, he led the prep league up here in scoring and he was also the MVP. So he had quite the junior season. He kind of broke out on the national scene up here. He really kind of carried that momentum over into the summer. He showed he can do a lot more than score. He can pass, he can distribute, he can be a coach on the floor, and when needed he can take over the game and get you a bucket. So I think that is what a lot of coaches start to notice about him. He's got the confidence and ability. He's got the understanding of when and where which is tough to teach. He's got a great feel.
It's been great to see that all of this hard work and his trust in our program, he did leave another program, a Nike sponsored program to join us. That was a risk. We are less of a high profile program than they are, but I thought it was a great fit for him with us. We had a true team and guys in positions. We had a big guy to set tons of ball-screens which he excelled in. It worked. He got out and played hard, led our team vocally, physically, emotionally at times, and he carried us to a championship. Anybody that followed him in April and through the course of the summer saw him in different situations: up ten, down twenty, semi-final game on the line, or a final comeback victory. So if you watched him through the recruiting period, you saw him in so many real live situations. Not only did he lead our team to victory but the coaches were watching and that said a lot about is character, so it's been fun to watch all of that come together and have some success in terms of attracting some of the schools at the level he was hoping to attract."
Q: And that leads us to the next question. It looks like his recruitment has gone to a high major level. Iowa State and Minnesota were the last two schools to offer. How has that evolved?
Massiah: "Coaches are all looking for guys that are dynamic, especially point guards. At the high major level is you have good talent around your point guard that point guard kind of becomes the key position. So I think as people have evaluated him see his ability to make reads out of the pick and roll the high major wings, the high major bigs, the high major athletes, you get the high major point guard to quarterback that then you've got a winning team.
I think that is what is happening. In high major situations where he's got the pick and roll where he's got to read it, and then figure out who is open and when do I keep it to myself. He's a pro at that. His reads are high level. That is probably the biggest draw when coaches see that. We've got great talent, but coaches got to see him down at the camp in Houston. The talent was OK. It wasn't great, but again if they are going to factor him into their situations on their teams, they are evaluating if he makes that pass to our big guy that's a dunk. If he makes that look to our shooter, he's shooting forty percent. When you start factoring in and equating what he looks like in higher situations with better players that is when he kind of jumps off the page."
Q: Who are the schools that haven't offered yet that are in on him pretty heavily?
Massiah: "I think Texas has an offer coming any day now. They've been taking their time getting to know him and making sure of his character and his personality is a good fit. I think they're the only one that hasn't offered yet. I know there are a lot of scouts pushing his name to some of the bigger schools like the Kentucky's, the Duke's. There are some people really, really high on him now that think he can play at that level. It's going to be an interesting fall to see how things evolve and see where he ends up."
Q: How did Minnesota get involved and how did the offer come along?
Massiah: "They have been following our program for a couple of years now. Marcus Carr is a big-time alumni of our program. I coached him for five years. They got to know him pretty well through that relationship. With them following our teams and doing their due diligence with programs they have gotten players from in the past is always a good place to start. It kind of evolved from there. Who should we look at this year? Here are a few names coach. Come and check us out. They come and check us out and love what they see, and they start the process from there. We've been great with those guys, and they've been great to us. We've got a good dynamic, a pretty strong relationship. Marcus is thriving there. It may be a good landing spot for some of our guys so we will see how it evolves. There are visits yet to come, but when Kobe gets into that I'm sure he will like what he sees from them."
Q: What have the Minnesota coaches said to you and him?
Massiah: "It's just the style of play. They want to play through their point guards. They want to play fast. They want to play up-tempo. They love the way Marcus plays in terms of handling it and his dynamic ability to score and pass. Kobe is right along those same lines. That's kind of been the gist of it, just style of play, the role, how the coach uses the point guard, and how important that relationship is to not only the team but the relationship of the team. So just along those lines at this point."
Q: So there may be some Marcus Carr comparisons with Kobe?
Massiah: "Yes, I would say so. Both are very similar in terms of being high level guys in the pick and roll. Marcus is probably pretty anxious to get things started after having to sit out last year, but that's probably the one skill set that they both have that is at a very high level; being able to read the defense of the pick and roll, and for a lot of coaches late shot clock or early shot clock."
Q: Has he taken any unofficial or official visits and is he setting up anything?
Massiah: "Not yet, he's not really tried at this point to figure out what his next step is. He's probably going to prep school in the U.S. So he's visiting prep schools right now. Once he figures that out and settles, I think at that point we will sit down and have a meeting, figure out what's on the table, and move forward."
On Tuesday, the Gophers offered 6-foot-2 point guard, Kobe Elvis, out of Brampton, Ontario. Besides his name, he is also gaining a memorable offer sheet. Up until very recently that list contained all mid-major programs. Before the middle of July, it consisted of Weber State, Loyola (MD), Mount St. Mary's, Wyoming, NJIT, Drake, Eastern Michigan, Robert Morris, Morehead State, and Richmond.
Then just after the Under Armour Finals in Georgia were completed, he picked up his first Power Five invite from TCU. Since then, Buffalo and Ball State have joined the club. But his most two recent offers have come from Iowa State and Minnesota.
College coaches were able to see Elvis for four days just outside of Atlanta in what is called the Under Armour Rise circuit. This is a grouping that the Northern Kings out of Canada won. If this program sounds familiar, it is the same one that current Gopher point guard, Marcus Carr, played for. Vidal Massiah may also be a familiar name to our readers. Richard Pitino and his staff are no strangers to the Kings, and we have spoken with Coach Massiah each time one of his players have received an offer.
On Wednesday afternoon, he was once again nice enough to speak with The Gopher Report about Elvis.
Q: Tell us a little bit about Kobe.
Massiah: "In terms of his person and character, he's a great kid. He's soft-spoken, mostly quiet, mild mannered. He's fun to be around. I think that everyone seems to like him. They appreciate his time. First and foremost, I think it is important to say that he is a good person. He's not one of those kids that feels entitled or it's all about them. He's a great teammate and a pleasure to coach. We ran into some issues at times that you do with kids when you are trying to coach them and show them another way. I don't take that into a whole lot in terms of stretching who they are. So in that respect, great kid and I love having him in our program. He will leave a lasting impression for sure. All of the other kids are coming behind him and he is someone they are definitely looking up to.
In terms of his basketball, he is a pretty unique talent with the ball. He was asked to score a whole lot. In high school, he led the prep league up here in scoring and he was also the MVP. So he had quite the junior season. He kind of broke out on the national scene up here. He really kind of carried that momentum over into the summer. He showed he can do a lot more than score. He can pass, he can distribute, he can be a coach on the floor, and when needed he can take over the game and get you a bucket. So I think that is what a lot of coaches start to notice about him. He's got the confidence and ability. He's got the understanding of when and where which is tough to teach. He's got a great feel.
It's been great to see that all of this hard work and his trust in our program, he did leave another program, a Nike sponsored program to join us. That was a risk. We are less of a high profile program than they are, but I thought it was a great fit for him with us. We had a true team and guys in positions. We had a big guy to set tons of ball-screens which he excelled in. It worked. He got out and played hard, led our team vocally, physically, emotionally at times, and he carried us to a championship. Anybody that followed him in April and through the course of the summer saw him in different situations: up ten, down twenty, semi-final game on the line, or a final comeback victory. So if you watched him through the recruiting period, you saw him in so many real live situations. Not only did he lead our team to victory but the coaches were watching and that said a lot about is character, so it's been fun to watch all of that come together and have some success in terms of attracting some of the schools at the level he was hoping to attract."
Q: And that leads us to the next question. It looks like his recruitment has gone to a high major level. Iowa State and Minnesota were the last two schools to offer. How has that evolved?
Massiah: "Coaches are all looking for guys that are dynamic, especially point guards. At the high major level is you have good talent around your point guard that point guard kind of becomes the key position. So I think as people have evaluated him see his ability to make reads out of the pick and roll the high major wings, the high major bigs, the high major athletes, you get the high major point guard to quarterback that then you've got a winning team.
I think that is what is happening. In high major situations where he's got the pick and roll where he's got to read it, and then figure out who is open and when do I keep it to myself. He's a pro at that. His reads are high level. That is probably the biggest draw when coaches see that. We've got great talent, but coaches got to see him down at the camp in Houston. The talent was OK. It wasn't great, but again if they are going to factor him into their situations on their teams, they are evaluating if he makes that pass to our big guy that's a dunk. If he makes that look to our shooter, he's shooting forty percent. When you start factoring in and equating what he looks like in higher situations with better players that is when he kind of jumps off the page."
Q: Who are the schools that haven't offered yet that are in on him pretty heavily?
Massiah: "I think Texas has an offer coming any day now. They've been taking their time getting to know him and making sure of his character and his personality is a good fit. I think they're the only one that hasn't offered yet. I know there are a lot of scouts pushing his name to some of the bigger schools like the Kentucky's, the Duke's. There are some people really, really high on him now that think he can play at that level. It's going to be an interesting fall to see how things evolve and see where he ends up."
Q: How did Minnesota get involved and how did the offer come along?
Massiah: "They have been following our program for a couple of years now. Marcus Carr is a big-time alumni of our program. I coached him for five years. They got to know him pretty well through that relationship. With them following our teams and doing their due diligence with programs they have gotten players from in the past is always a good place to start. It kind of evolved from there. Who should we look at this year? Here are a few names coach. Come and check us out. They come and check us out and love what they see, and they start the process from there. We've been great with those guys, and they've been great to us. We've got a good dynamic, a pretty strong relationship. Marcus is thriving there. It may be a good landing spot for some of our guys so we will see how it evolves. There are visits yet to come, but when Kobe gets into that I'm sure he will like what he sees from them."
Q: What have the Minnesota coaches said to you and him?
Massiah: "It's just the style of play. They want to play through their point guards. They want to play fast. They want to play up-tempo. They love the way Marcus plays in terms of handling it and his dynamic ability to score and pass. Kobe is right along those same lines. That's kind of been the gist of it, just style of play, the role, how the coach uses the point guard, and how important that relationship is to not only the team but the relationship of the team. So just along those lines at this point."
Q: So there may be some Marcus Carr comparisons with Kobe?
Massiah: "Yes, I would say so. Both are very similar in terms of being high level guys in the pick and roll. Marcus is probably pretty anxious to get things started after having to sit out last year, but that's probably the one skill set that they both have that is at a very high level; being able to read the defense of the pick and roll, and for a lot of coaches late shot clock or early shot clock."
Q: Has he taken any unofficial or official visits and is he setting up anything?
Massiah: "Not yet, he's not really tried at this point to figure out what his next step is. He's probably going to prep school in the U.S. So he's visiting prep schools right now. Once he figures that out and settles, I think at that point we will sit down and have a meeting, figure out what's on the table, and move forward."
