Gophers Basketball: Reid Travis to make official visit by month’s end

Twin Cities hoops star Reid Travis has announced that he will make an official visit to the University of Minnesota. The DeLaSalle basketball standout will make his official visit the weekend of Oct. 25, a week before the regular season opens for the Maroon and Gold.

Head coach Richard Pitino was given a tough situation to recruit the “Big Three” of local Twin Cities recruits when he took over the basketball program at Minnesota from Tubby Smith. Travis, joins local stars Tyus Jones and Rashad Vaughn as highly sought after prospects from this market.

The family of Travis told Jason Gonzalez of the Minneapolis Star Tribune of his intention to make an official visit to the hometown Gophers. It was also announced that his decision will come via ESPN — adding to the mystery of Minnesota high school basketball and the level of recruits being produced in the area.

Landing a local recruit to the caliber of Travis would be a huge move from the Pitino coaching staff. The first year coach has only signed one recruit to his 2014 class with Seattle power forward Josh Martin.

Martin and Travis play a similar position and it’s been suggested that landing both players is out of the question, but the promise of landing the Islanders hoopster is too good to pass up.

In Other News…

• Minnesota volleyball star Tori Dixon was named the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week for the the third time this season. Dixon was also honored as the conference overall player of the week to begin the year. The Minnesota senior middle blocker leads the Gophers into a Top 10 battle against Michigan State on Thursday night at the Sports Pavilion. The match will air on ESPN2 at 7:00 p.m. CT as the No. 5 Spartans take on the No. 10 Golden Gophers in front of a national TV audience.
• Hockey is back on campus and the men’s hockey team moved up to No. 3 in the USCHO.com rankings from the fifth position after their weekend sweep in the Ice Breaker Hockey Tournament. The Gophers will travel on the road to former Western Collegiate Hockey Conference opponent Bemidji State for a weekend series at the Sanford Center on Friday and Saturday,

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