Gopher Recruiting 2008

Here is a list of 2008 Gopher basketball recruits. I'm pretty confident that this is a solid and accurate list based on the info I have available to me. After the small 2007 recruiting class and the several seniors graduating, Tubby has 5 scholarships that he can offer for the 2008 class.

COMMITTED

• PG Nathen Garth (6'3") - Discussed HERE. 18 pts, 8 ast and 3 steals as a junior. Garth seems to be a solid recruit who will be called upon to be the on floor coach. Hard worker and possibly still growing into a 6'4" PG. Expect Saul Smith to groom Garth. Received offers from UTEP, Ole Miss, Santa Clara and unconfirmed offer from Cal.
  
• PF Andrew Brommer (6'8") - in state PF who has been discussed VERY LITTLE here (or anywhere for that matter). Brommer plays for Rosemount High School and Cris Carr's AAU program 43 Hoops. Brommer was a Monson recruit that Tubby is currently still giving a scholarship to. But I would guess that if some of the bigger names below want to sign with the U, then Tubby might convince Brommer that he'll be better off somewhere else. As I said before I know very little about Brommer so I can't accurately comment on whether or not he is a Big Ten PF or not. He did receive interest from Wisconsin, Illinois, Virginia and N.Iowa.

OFFERED

• SG Iman Shumpert (6'4") - #41 overall, Rivals 4-star from Oak Park,Ill. Shumpert is a newer name on my radar but Rivals states that he may be the 4-star recruit playing the best basketball right now. Offers from Clem, GTech, Tenn, Wis and handful of Mid-Majors. Interest from schools like Duke, Ill, Notre Dame, Cal, AZ St, Marq and Mich.
  
• PF Draymond Green (6'7") - #79 overall, Rivals 4-star recruit from the state of Michigan. Green appears to be the most likely 4-star recruit to end up at Minnesota in this class. He is a former Kentucky commit who has since backed down from that verbal (not sure who's decision that was though). Green is supposed to be an outstanding rebounder with an offensive game that needs improving. Indiana, Dayton and Xavier have offered as well. Michigan and Michigan State have both shown interest.
  
• SG Devoe Joseph (6'2") - #101 overall, Rivals 3-star from Ontario, Canada. Nearly a top 100 kid, but Joseph is not receiving many offers from major conference schools with the excpetion of Minnesota and Washington State. Duquesne, Santa Clara, Loyola and Fairfield are the other schools currently offering to Joseph.

VERY INTERESTED - not yet offered

• PF/C Stan Simpson (6'9") - #83 overall, Rivals 4-star from Chicago. Simpson is an AAU teammate of Shumpert so maybe we can get these guys as a package. Rivals analysis of Simpson is that he is best in the paint on offense and has shot blocking ability on the other end. He lists his top 5 schools as Illinois, UConn, Minnesota, Ohio State and Virginia. He has offers from Indiana and Virginia.
  
• C Ralph Sampson III (6'10") - Scout.com has as #22 among Centers, Rivals 3-star who has taken an unofficial visit to campus. RSIII is an intriguing prospect. He seems to be a very hard working kid who has improved over the last year. I would expect that you'll see him move up recruiting lists in the near future. He currently has interest from Alabama, Cal, Indiana, NC State and his AAU coach tells Rivals that Georgia has offered. I would personally like to see Tubby land Sampson.
  

With our 3 remaining scholarships my top 3 to land would be Shumpert, Green and Sampson. I think that would give us a solid class to start building the program. I would view it as a talented SG (Shumpert) and PF (Green), hard working and improving PG (Garth) and C (RSIII), and a red shirt project at PF (Brommer). Then land the 2 Minnesota big names from the 09 class and I think you have a competitive team in just a couple years.

PG - Garth
SG - Shumpert / Rodney Williams
SF - Royce White
PF - Green / Brommer
C - Sampson

Really, who knows how good these guys can be but it is a very interesting recruiting season to say the least. Get some of these guys, improve then start landing top 40 guys on a regular basis and make this program a perennial Big Ten power!

Recruiting News

Football - ESPN Recruiting Insider does not have their official top 150 list up yet, BUT they have at least identified the players who are in the running for the top 150. Minnesota is currently listed as in the running for 13 of these players. 2006-07 we landed 1 top 150 player and that was of course Clint Brewster. Maybe I'm still stuck in the quagmire of low standards but imagine landing even just 3 or 4 of these kids? Here are the 13 that we are zeroing in on (in order of Minnesota's consideration priority)...

• Mike Floyd, WR - 1. Minnesota 2. NotreDame 3. Ohio State - have to get Floyd

• Willie Mobley, DE - 1. Minnesota 2. Ohio State 3. Iowa
• Jewhan Edwards, DT - 1. Syracuse 2. Minnesota 3. PennSt
• Joe Adams, Ath - 1. TexTech 2. OK 3. Minnesota
• Brandon Green, WR - 1. Ill 2. Wis 3. Minnesota
• Quinten Williams, TE - 1. WVirginia 2. Wis 3. Minnesota
• Ryan Bass, RB - 1. AZ 2. Miss 3. Lou'ville 4. Minnesota
• Kapron Lewis-Moore, DE - 1. Tex A&M 2. OK 3. NotreDame 4. Minnesota
• Cordale Scott, WR - 1. Ohio State 2. Wis 3. Ill 4. Minnesota
• Keanon Cooper, OLB - 1. TexTech 2. Miss 3. Wis 4. Purd 5. Minnesota
• Jonas Gray, RB - 1. Flor 2. MichSt 3. Col 4. Mich 5. Minnesota
• Dion Jordan, TE - 1. AZ 2. AZ St 3. UCLA 4. Oregon 5. Minnesota
• Scott Vallone, DE - 1. Rutgers 2. Maryland 3. Syracuse 4. BC 5. Minnesota

Mobley and Floyd are the only 2 prospects from the state of Minnesota that are on the ESPN 150 Watch List.

Basketball - There really isn't any new news on the basketball recruiting front. Tubby was unable to lure a last min recruit to the U for this fall, but he is already working on future classes. Here is a solid article in the Star Trib about 2 of Minnesota's outstanding high school sophomores (soon to be juniors) Royce White of DeLeSalle and Rodney Williams of Robbinsdale Cooper. Both are playing very well for their Howard Pulley 17 under AAU team and 2 local kids that Tubby has to prove he can keep in state.

Here is what I can gather on the 2007-08 recruiting class...

• Tyler Zeller, PF (6'10", 185) Washington, IN - Scout.com has Tyler as #25 overall in the 2008 class. Like I said above for football it is nice to have Minnesota even on the list at this point but that will be meaningless if he eventually signs elsewhere. Current list includes AZ, AZ St, GTech, Ill, Indiana, Kentucky, Notre Dame, NCarolina, Tennessee and Kansas just to name a few. This is an uphill battle but one worth keeping an eye on.
• Draymond Green, PF (6'6", 220) Saginaw, MI - #59 on Scout.com's list. I have read other places that we are a serious contender for Green. There was even rumors that Tubby was planning to hire Green's high school basketball coach which clearly would have helped a ton in recruiting him. The list of contending schools for Green includes Kentucky, Mich State, Clemson, BC, Indiana, Mich, Tennessee and Wake Forest.
• Devoe Joseph, SG (6'3", 170) Ajax, Ontario - #82 for Scout.com overall and 19th best SG. I know very little about Joseph other than he is from Canada (eh). His list is smaller but still full of good schools GTech, Kentucky, Pitt and Wash State.
• Lewis Jackson, PG (5'8" 165) Decatur, GA - smallish PG that ESPN has ranked as the 18th best at his position. Minnesota is listed as #3 on his list behind Purdue and Indiana. Seems like he'd be a solid recruit and with this talent level (especially after this class graduates) we need anybody we can get our hands on.
• Carrington Tankson, SF (6'5") Osseo, MN - local kid with a sweet name. This is the first I've heard his name but MN ranks 4th on his list behind Iowa State, Wisconsin and Marquette.

Ohio State basketball - Thad Motta is WAY ahead of the rest of the Big Ten. His 07 class is set and one of the best, I'm sure his '08 class is great too and '09 too for that matter. They must be because he has started signing high school freshmen (read freshMAN). Thad has signed Jared Sullinger a PF from Columbus. This really wasn't even fair cause Jared is from Columbus and his brother played at OSU, but it never hurts to land one of the best in his class and now you have the next 4 years to recruit other kids and not worry about 1 scholarship.

Recruiting News

Basketball - Good news keeps coming for the 2008 recruiting class, good news is very indirect for the 2007 class.

• Jai Lucas - no direct information, but the decision by Billy Donovan to stay in Florida is likely helpful. Speculation was that if Donovan were to become the UK coach then Nick Calathes would have jumped from Florida to Kentucky, Patrick Patterson would commit to UK and Lucas would then be inclined to join them at UK. That would have had the Wildcat fan's heads spinning. BUT Billy is staying at Florida and Kentucky will likely not land any of these recruits. Enter MN? I hope so.
• 2008 Recruit LIST - this list is starting to add a couple significant names as kids considering Tubby Smith and the University of Minnesota
• Draymond Green - PF, Saginaw, MI - Green was an early commit to UK and has now backed out of that committment and is considering the U accoring to Rivals.com.
• Lewis Jackson - PG, Decature, GA - considering Purdue, Indiana, Minnesota
• Angelo Johnson - PG, Encino, CA - considering Michigan, Cincinatti, Wisconsin, Georgetown and Minnesota
• Jordan Taylor - SG, Benilde St. Margarets - committed to Wisconsin but don't be surprised if he reconsiders.
• Jared Berggren - C, Princeton, MN - also committed to Wis but may reconsider
  

Football - Tim Brewster seems to be making an impact rather quickly on in state and out of state players. Brewster is living up to his committment to keeping MN players in state. He has received early committments from 5 MN kids already and seems to be on the right track with Michael Floyd and Willie Mobley at this point.

• Sam Maresh - ILB, Champlin Park - Maresh is considered to be the best defensive recruit and one of the 3 big names in this year's Jr. class. Maresh had received offers from Michigan, Miami, Wisconsin and Iowa. He visited MN during spring practice, was driving home, had his dad turn the car around and informed Coach Brewster that he wanted to be a Gopher. And as icing on the cake he wants to make it his mission to convince the other top in state recruites (WR-Michael Floyd and DE-Willie Mobley) to join him in returning the U to competitivness.
• Ryan Grant - QB, Eden Prairie - This is most notable because Ryan is the son of Mike Grant and grandson of Bud. He is the QB for Eden Prairie but likely will move to defense at the U. Name recognition within the state and if his experience is positive that can only help in attaining future recruits from Eden Prairie.
• Kevan Walker - WR, Arcadia, CA - This is the first out of state recruit that Brewster and staff have landed. I know very little about Walker, but Rivals.com is making this signing out to be a big deal. Walker is a talented WR and the U needs talented WRs to compliment their new spread offense.