since Minnesota isn’t really an area we have had any success recruiting, I guess that’s a long ways down on the list of things that are wrong.
I mean even Fred couldn’t get anyone from there in the 5 years he was here
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since Minnesota isn’t really an area we have had any success recruiting, I guess that’s a long ways down on the list of things that are wrong.
I mean even Fred couldn’t get anyone from there in the 5 years he was here
he signed with us out of high school? Did he even consider us out of high school?
I know what he meant, and the meaning behind it. he was definitely Fred’s biggest win right out of the gate
Quite literally the last hurrah before everything shutdown.
Also seems like the perfect encapsulation of the Prohm era. A flash of brilliance immediately followed by a “WTF just happened?” moment
Wasn't that to take Wigginton? Think I'm correctly recalling that. Not a bad pickup there and much-more highly rated. Though, you could certainly look back now and wonder. Not sure about the effect on MSP recruiting, as we've not done much there for years - maybe you have specific intel that supports that the staff has been screwed in MSP since?
Can you imagine the narrative that Iowa State didn’t take a top 40 recruit in order to sign a 3 star?
He’s a really good player, has had a great career at Colorado. But wiggington was a win for this staff
McKinley Wright was/is Monte 2.0. They passed into to pursue LW; a higher rated recruit whose natural position was off guard.
The pass on Wright after an offer had been scorched earth our chances in MSP with future recruits; at least with our current staff.
Hindsight is 20:20 but Wright should have been a take for us. I think if Steve had one do-over in recruiting this would be the one he would point to.
Also it destroys the narrative of CSP being unlucky with Wiggington leaving early. They knew he was a 1-2 year talent who was going to leave early. Which would cause them to have to reset after he left. Or you get the Top 150 kid from MSP who is a 4 year starter and open the pipeline into an area (Minneapolis) which could sustain a program like Iowa State.
Do you think CSP would be getting fired right now if he had taken a 4 year McKinley Wright versus Wiggington?
It also perfectly captured Terrence Lewis' entire ISU career inside of a 10 second snapshot. Flashes of excellence offensively followed by a fatal gaff defensively. I remember watching the play and feeling the emotions of it all play out.
As he broke for the rim and prepared for the earth shattering dunk I thought "This is great Terrence, no way can Steve possibly keep benching you after you dunked us to victory" to "Terrence, you idiot, don't flex, get back on defense. **** we just lost and I bet you never play another minute in an ISU uniform."
Whether its TJ or Tom Izzo IMO any head coaches success is largely contingent on the assistant coaches he hires.
Obviously, it is critical for the head coach to develop a culture, provide leadership and vision. Guys like Matt Campbell, Fred Hoiberg and Johnny Orr had that in aces. But when it comes to recruiting and technical aspects the assistants will be the difference between a great program and what we have seen develop over the last 4 years.
What really pisses me off about the Wigginton vs Wright debate is the notion that it had to be one or the other. The guys don't play the same position. Maybe they had some beef with each other. It doesn't matter either way, just pisses me off that it's debated which one was the right choice when I struggle to understand why we couldn't have both.
Even great recruiters are only right about 50% of the time. So to name a couple misses as evidence of TJ being a mediocre recruiter is naive.
Heck look at Duke & Coach K. They recruit ONLY McDonald's AA players and basically go with a 7-8 player rotation. They have 3-4 elite HS players who sit at the end of the bench barely sniffing PT. Same goes for Self, Williams, Calipari, Boeheim, Izzo, McCaffrey, etc.
First, who said he was unlucky for Lindell leaving after two years? No one thought he’d he here for 4.
and again what did they lose in Minnesota recruiting? The last high school player from Minnesota was Godfrey, Fred’s Rolodex didn’t get him any Minnesota recruits either.
Again, there are lots of real things to be critical of, this is silly
I definitely agree that looking in hindsight, Wright would have been the better take, esp. when combining with any potential benefits to MSP recruiting. However, I don't recall many (any?) complaining at the time when we got Wiggins - kudos to you if you did.
Ultimately, that's something a staff has to assess when they're recruiting, and I expect the "risk management" aspect enters the picture more than we realize. Hard to really assess what we've lost out on re: potential MSP recruiting, as we've never had much success up here. It surely didn't help, whatever those chances have been. I'd say the bigger issue has been Prohm's overall inability to run a successful program on multiple fronts, whether players from MSP or otherwise.
Maybe. Depends on what Prohm promised Wigginton when he signed. Wigginton played off guard at Oak Hill and Coleman (Texas) was the PG. It wouldn't surprise me a big part of Prohm's pitch to Wigginton was he would get Steve's expertise to be his next NBA PG after Payne, Morris.
Wigginton was very open he wanted to be the first NBA player from Novia Scotia and that was only going to happen by playing PG at ISU.