The “Land of 10,000 Lakes” had three highly touted in-state recruits that committed to other schools early in Richard Pitino’s tenure as men’s basketball coach at the University of Minnesota, which is a failure that can be traced back to former coach Tubby Smith. On Monday Pitino got a huge commitment for the 2016 recruiting class, and kept a significant in-state prospect from going elsewhere, with Amir Coffey’s announcement that will be a Gopher.
Coffey is a four-star recruit out of Hopkins, and the top senior in Minnesota, with scholarship offers elsewhere in the Big Ten from Michigan, Michigan State, Indiana and Wisconsin.