Gophers land recruit Josh Martin, miss on Riley LaChance

A week after visiting the University of Minnesota on an official visit, Seattle power forward and recruit Josh Martin decided the Golden Gophers will be his second home away from the northwest.

After all, isn’t the weather in Seattle comparable to Minneapolis? Maybe that’s a stretch, but not so much for Martin, who will become the first commit of the Gophers’ Class of 2014.

A three-star recruit hailing from Bothell, Wash., Martin had only good things to say about his visit to Minneapolis.

“It was hard to evaluate and whatnot, but when I was down there, everything just clicked,” Martin said to the Star Tribune.

Martin is the first commit of the Richard Pitino era but he hopes to be the first “big recruit” for Pitino.

In addition to the Gophers, Martin had considered Florida State and Pittsburgh. He visited both campuses in the past month on officials.
While Minnesota landed their first recruit on Monday, Vanderbilt University received their third commitment in Riley LaChance.

The three-star point guard from Brookfield, Wisc. made an official visit to the University of Minnesota during the same weekend as Martin, but obviously the Gopher charm did not work as well on the Sconnie as it did with Martin.

LaChance is the second recruit Vanderbilt has snagged from Minnesota this off-season. The Commodores also received a commitment from New Jersey point guard Wade Baldwin earlier in September.

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