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University of Minnesota freshman guard Cam Christie has submitted paperwork for early entry into the 2024 NBA Draft while maintaining his college eligibility. Christie made his announcement on his social media channels.
Mitchell noticed then the Gophers were also a big basketball draw in town in the 1990s. "When I was playing with the Timberwolves, every kid wanted to play at the University of Minnesota," Mitchell said. "That was their dream. I think it's an unbelievable recruiting base. You can lock down the state of Minnesota if you let these kids know we're going to build a national power."
Across all those NBA trips he had taken as a young man with his father, Flip, all those years as a University of Minnesota player, a professional assistant and, now, coach of the Minnesota Timberwolves, Ryan Saunders never considered the stresses attached to a grown man leaving his hotel for a run through a different city. After George Floyd died in police custody this week in Minneapolis, Saunders listened to one of his African American colleagues describe how he must consider the possibility that fastening a cellphone to his side could give someone justification to believe he's reaching for a gun.
Minnesota center Daniel Oturu to enter draft
University of Minnesota sophomore center Daniel Oturu plans to enter the 2020 NBA draft, he told ESPN on Monday. Oturu is considered a frontcourt prospect with the potential to be selected in the first round of the draft.
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Some of his former players -- Cleveland star Kevin Love , former NBA players Sam Cassell, Chauncey Billups and Mark Madsen -- and longtime confidant Tom Izzo remembered him as well. Conspicuous in their absence was former University of Minnesota teammate and longtime Wolves management partner Kevin McHale as well as Wolves star Kevin Garnett, who was too overcome with emotion to record a message. He alternately looked up at the arena scoreboard and down at the floor during the pregame ceremony, rocking from one foot to the other all the time. Garnett was asked Monday morning about another emotional night forthcoming. “I think it’s going to be an emotional year, if not an emotional lifetime,” he said.
For The Win spoke to William Roberts, a professor at the department of family medicine and community health at the University of Minnesota as fans breathlessly wait for the team’s announcement about the star guard’s treatment and chances of suiting up this season. Q: What’s the risk in him playing? William Roberts: The [team’s experts have to decide if the] immediate games are worth the risk because it might cause problems for the next year or the year after. It’s hard to make the decision when you don’t have the patient or X-rays in front of you, but I think they’ll look at a risk-benefit ratio: What’s the risk to him in the long-term and his playing career and what’s the benefit of him playing in the next few games if he gets a splint that would make that doable?
Danny Ainge said he believes Olynyk, who will wear No. 41, will play more power forward than center in the NBA. “We think he can be a 260-pound, 7-foot guy and be a great, well-conditioned player that can play some center as well, especially as small as the league has gotten, Ainge said, “and to have a guy that can play the (power forward) and (center) and step outside and shoot the 3-ball and make passes from the perimeter and a great complimentary player. “I don’t see Kelly as a go-to guy in the NBA, but a guy that compliments the rest of the guys on the team and makes them all better.” Iverson, who will wear No. 37, is a 7-foot, 255-pound center who transferred to play at Colorado State last season. He sat out 2011-12 after leaving the University of Minnesota after three seasons. Iverson, who is 24, averaged 14.2 points and 9.8 rebounds last season.
The University of Minnesota's search for a men's basketball coach became officially embarrassing when it was learned Saturday, March 30, that Flip Saunders had turned down the job. Saunders is believed to be at least the fourth coach to say no thanks to Gophers athletic administrators Norwood Teague and Mike Ellis since they fired Tubby Smith on Monday. Saunders, the popular former Gophers point guard and 16-year NBA coach who resides in Medina, wasn't saying anything publicly other than he'll always "bleed maroon and gold."
Flip Saunders wouldn't directly address the accuracy of Twin Cities reports now listing him as the leading Gophers basketball coaching candidate. Instead, the former University of Minnesota player and ex-Timberwolves coach described himself as an "NBA analyst" and an "ex-coach." "I guess the positive thing right now is that I have not been in Minneapolis," Saunders said Friday, March 28, on his weekly radio show with host Dan Barreiro on KFXN-FM 100.3. "I'm doing everything that I have planned to do. I haven't changed anything." Twitter and broadcast reports by WCCO-AM 830 and KFXN earlier Friday listed Saunders as the No. 1 candidate to replace Tubby Smith, who was fired Monday.
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Saunders played at the University of Minnesota and was an assistant there. His long coaching career included a decade directing the Wolves. So when is Saunders, 58, leaving the periphery and returning to the game he's loved since he was a boy? "I'm keeping my options open," he said. "If the right situation comes along? I'll evaluate that. I want to be able to build something, want to go to a place where something can be accomplished.''
NBA executives want to know what's going on inside White's head, an answer he's still figuring out. He's mature and well-spoken, and former coaches rave about his work ethic. But off the court? That's what scares them. White was kicked out of one high school. He transferred colleges before playing a single minute for his hometown University of Minnesota. And before departing, he pleaded guilty to theft and disorderly conduct three years ago, and authorities originally fingered him as a suspect in another case of stolen property. But on the court, White is powerful and agile, with the sort of size that allows him to bruise opponents inside and out. One of his biggest defenders is the man who eventually coached him at Iowa State, Fred Hoiberg, better known as "The Mayor" in his NBA heyday when he played alongside Reggie Miller and Kevin Garnett. "His ability to play-make and deliver the on-time, on-target pass is awesome," Hoiberg says. "That's what the league is about — play-making and spacing the floor properly — and Royce, more often than not, can beat his guy and make the right play."
Rodney Williams isn't distracted anymore when he hears his name mentioned in connection with the NBA draft. That's because the University of Minnesota junior forward decided along with his family a couple of weeks ago he would return to school next season. Williams isn't feeling pressure to impress pro scouts who will attend today's Big Ten tournament quarterfinal game between the Gophers (19-13) and Michigan (23-8) at Bankers Life Center. He's focusing on finishing the season strong. He's hoping to build confidence and have a standout senior season.
A group that calls itself the El Chiriacco Group claims that it is in the final stages of a e-book on college sports recruiting titled, “Kim Kardashian and the Art of Rebounding”. The book will focus on the recruiting of New Jersey Nets power forward, Kris Humphries in 2004, when he was a student- athlete at the University of Minnesota. The group has noted that the book also will highlight basketball agent Marc Cornstein of Pinnacle Management Corp., and the group says that parts of the book will be devoted to Cornstein's ethics and character throughout Humphries' marriage with Kardashian. However, the group has made it clear that Kim Kardashian and her family are not subjects of the book, but associated only by her relationship to Kris Humphries.
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