Richard Pitino’s first recruiting class includes pair of three-star preps
MINNEAPOLIS -- First-year Gophers coach Richard Pitino
signed three players Wednesday to his 2014-15 recruiting class.
Minnesota announced that forward Josh Martin and guards Nate
Mason and Carlos Morris all signed their National Letters of Intent to play for
the Gophers next season. Martin and Mason are both three-star recruits,
according to Scout.com, while Morris is a junior-college transfer.
“All three I think fill specific needs that we wanted to
address when losing guys like Mav (Ahanmisi), Austin (Hollins) and Malik
(Smith),” Pitino said Wednesday. “I think all three bring different things to
the table, so we’re excited about them.”
Martin is a 6-foot-7, 220-pound power forward from Bothell
(Wash.) High School. He also had offers from Florida State, Pittsburgh and
Oklahoma State, but chose the Gophers. As a junior last year, Martin averaged
11.8 points and 8.2 rebounds per game.
Pitino said Martin eventually wants to play the small
forward position, but will begin at Minnesota as a power forward.
“I told him, I said, ‘Josh, by all means, if you want to
become a four who can shoot the basketball and dribble the basketball with your
athleticism and how hard you play, we both benefit from it,’” Pitino said.
“We’re going to try to continue to try to develop him into that type of player.
He’s got an unbelievable motor on the court, and it never stops. It starts at
warm-ups and it doesn’t end until the final buzzer sounds.”
Mason comes to Minnesota from Jacksonville, Fla., where he
is currently a senior at Arlington Country Day School. A native of Decatur,
Ga., the 6-foot-1, 165-pound Mason was rated by Scout.com as the No. 30 point
guard in the 2014 class. His other offers included Kansas State, Virginia and
Murray State.
While listed as a point guard, Pitino and the Gophers feel
Mason could also play shooting guard.
“We feel like he was a steal,” Pitino said. “We liked him
early. He had a lot of good schools on him. We tried to jump in there late and
made up some ground. We’re excited about him. He’s got an ability to shoot the
basketball, which we like. He’s got great speed.”
Morris is entering his sophomore season at Chipola College
in Florida. As a high schooler, he was a four-star recruit, according to
Scout.com. Morris averaged 13.3 points and 4.0 rebounds per game last year for
Chipola.
When Pitino was an assistant at the University of Florida,
Morris signed to play at South Carolina. While Morris committed to play for the
Gamecocks, he never played at South Carolina and instead joined the junior
college ranks.
When that happened, Morris -- who has the nickname
“Squirrel” -- was once again on Pitino’s radar.
“We really liked his ability to score the basketball and do
different things defensively as well as offensively,” Pitino said. “With a guy
like Squirrel, we believed, ‘OK, he’s definitely good enough basketball wise.’
Now as a person, he’s as good as it gets. His mom’s a great lady. We’re excited
about him.
“I’ll never call him Carlos. He’s Squirrel to me.”
This class technically marks Pitino’s first full recruiting
class since taking the job in April, although he said Wednesday that it’s his
second class. When Pitino arrived at Minnesota, the Gophers’ 2013 class was
empty after several players left following former coach Tubby Smith’s firing.
Pitino was able to bring in guards DeAndre Mathieu, Daquein McNeil and Malik
Smith and forward Joey King into the fold during the late signing period.
“I think the biggest thing when you’re recruiting is nobody
really knows you. Nobody really knows your brand. Nobody knows your style,”
Pitino said of getting a late start in recruiting. “It’s just a lot of unknown.
… It takes a little time. To get the first class when you haven’t played a game
is difficult because you can’t really reference back to a lot.”
Of course, none of the three Gophers’ recruits were from the
state of Minnesota. The “Big Three” in-state recruits -- Tyus Jones, Reid
Travis and Rashad Vaughn -- make up the most talented recruiting class in
Minnesota basketball in ages, but the Gophers are a long shot to land any of
them. Travis already committed to Stanford, while Jones is expected to pick a
top-tier program such as Duke or Kansas.
Pitino didn’t have much time to build relationships with any
of the three, all of whom were recruited heavily by former Gophers coach Tubby
Smith. While fans may be disappointed at the fact that Minnesota didn’t land
any of the Big Three, Pitino notes that he and his staff aren’t done
recruiting.
“When we sign players, we’re not worried about the perception
of the fans,” Pitino said. “We know that this is a special university to the
entire state. We understand that. We recruit to that. But we just try to worry
about the big picture.”
