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Did Doc pass on Gesell?

hhcmatt

By hhcmatt
in The Haymarket Hardwood

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hhcmatt

hhcmatt

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Sorry to bring up something so water on the bridge so please indulge me here..

 

Listening to a lot of sports radio today and heard on 93.7 with Sipple and Sorenson mentioning that Doc passed on Gesell back in the day which is completely different from how I remember it.

 

About the 8:30 mark if you want to listen there

http://www.theticketfm.com/podpress_trac/web/38254/0/2016_08_24_02.mp3

 

 

I asked Sipple about it and he confirmed that he thought that Doc passed/half heartedly recruited Gesell.

 

 

Maybe I'm remembering incorrectly because at that point I didn't have a window into what was really going on behind the scenes. Anyone else have any insight from back then? 

 

 

 

Red Don

Red Don

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I'm the 'Noob' here so please bear with.  Whether Doc got Gesell or not may not be the right question as it probably wouldn't have made much difference either way.  It just seems recruiting was not Doc's forte!  :ph34r:

hhcmatt

hhcmatt

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I'm the 'Noob' here so please bear with.  Whether Doc got Gesell or not may not be the right question as it probably wouldn't have made much difference either way.  It just seems recruiting was not Doc's forte!  :ph34r:

 

I get that but semantically it makes a difference to me.  I see Mike Gesell in a different light if I think he wasn't a priority for Doc vs Doc simply being outrecruited.

kldm64

kldm64

Posted
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If we could have gotten Gesell, we very well might have gotten Adam Woodbury also and things might have looked entirely different but wouldn't have saved Doc's job long term.  His coaching style doesn't put butts in the seats.

HuskerFever

HuskerFever

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Posted

 

I'm the 'Noob' here so please bear with.  Whether Doc got Gesell or not may not be the right question as it probably wouldn't have made much difference either way.  It just seems recruiting was not Doc's forte!  :ph34r:

 

I get that but semantically it makes a difference to me.  I see Mike Gesell in a different light if I think he wasn't a priority for Doc vs Doc simply being outrecruited.

 

 

Valid point. I suppose I hadn't thought of it in this respect.

Huskerpapa

Huskerpapa

Posted
Posted

I believe Doc thought Gesell was considered a tweener.  Gesell wanted to play PG and Iowa provided him that promise and opportunity.  Doc would not commit to him playing PG and wouldn't make that promise.  That is the way I understood the situation.  So it certainly would/could be construed that Doc sort of passed on Gesell.  It could also mean that Iowa wanted him much more than Nebraska and Gesell knew that. 

HuskerBB

HuskerBB

Posted
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We offered and were recruiting Gesell.   Maybe not as hard and certainly not as well as Iowa - but he definitely had a committable offer from us.  I did have a conversation with one of the assistants at the time who told me that we did have the Des Moines kid in the same class (Kale Samuelson ? or something like that) higher on our board than Gesell.  Did not get him either - he went to Northwestern and I think ended up transferring back to Drake - not nearly the player Gesell turned out to be obviously.   Not sure how it impacts the Doc story - frankly I think he was poor at both evaluating talent and at recruiting the talent that he identified and went after.

hhcmatt

hhcmatt

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I believe Doc thought Gesell was considered a tweener.  Gesell wanted to play PG and Iowa provided him that promise and opportunity.  Doc would not commit to him playing PG and wouldn't make that promise.  That is the way I understood the situation.  So it certainly would/could be construed that Doc sort of passed on Gesell.  It could also mean that Iowa wanted him much more than Nebraska and Gesell knew that. 

 

http://www.espn.com/college-sports/recruiting/basketball/mens/story/_/id/6844014/mike-gesell-commits-iowa

 

You're absolutely right on that account. It's funny that looking at it now given his fairly superior ball handling skills and his so-so shooting how obvious it was that his position was PG.

Miles ahead of the rest

Miles ahead of the rest

Posted
Posted

I believe Doc thought Gesell was considered a tweener.  Gesell wanted to play PG and Iowa provided him that promise and opportunity.  Doc would not commit to him playing PG and wouldn't make that promise.  That is the way I understood the situation.  So it certainly would/could be construed that Doc sort of passed on Gesell.  It could also mean that Iowa wanted him much more than Nebraska and Gesell knew that. 

This is completely accurate, and still frustrates the hell out of me.  At the time, Mike was the #9 rated ESPN PG in that class.  (I know some people don't care about rankings, but that's still an important fact to mention).  He made it very clear to Doc that he wanted to strictly be a PG, and Doc wanted him to play more SG.  Mccaffrey straight up told him he could play PG so he chose Iowa.  It was as simple as that.

HB

HB

Posted
Posted

 

I believe Doc thought Gesell was considered a tweener.  Gesell wanted to play PG and Iowa provided him that promise and opportunity.  Doc would not commit to him playing PG and wouldn't make that promise.  That is the way I understood the situation.  So it certainly would/could be construed that Doc sort of passed on Gesell.  It could also mean that Iowa wanted him much more than Nebraska and Gesell knew that. 

This is completely accurate, and still frustrates the hell out of me.  At the time, Mike was the #9 rated ESPN PG in that class.  (I know some people don't care about rankings, but that's still an important fact to mention).  He made it very clear to Doc that he wanted to strictly be a PG, and Doc wanted him to play more SG.  Mccaffrey straight up told him he could play PG so he chose Iowa.  It was as simple as that.

 

 

Yeah, if Gesell was anything, he was a point.  Shot it adequately, at best,  as a point but no way was he a 2 guard.  Not sure what 'Ol Doc was thinking there.  

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