Rashad Vaughn: Gophers dropped from consideration
Five star shooting guard Rashad Vaughn announced his list of his five remaining schools on Friday and did not include the Gophers.
Blessed to say my final 5: Kansas, UNLV, Kentucky, Iowa St, North Carolina #NoOrder
— Rashad Vaughn (@ShowtimeMr1) December 27, 2013
Vaughn is included in the Big Three along with Tyus Jones and Reid Travis, and with his removal of the Gophers from consideration means that Richard Pitino has missed on all three of them.
Vaughn is one of the highest ranked players in the country, ranked seventh overall by Rivals, and is believed by many to be a “one-and-done” type player due to his size and skill.
On his future intentions, Vaughn said, “My dream has always been to go to the league. The quicker I can do it is how I want to do it. Going one-and-done, that’s really what I want to do. But it’s really the time you put into it.”
With Pitino as a new head coach at the Big Ten level, there would be more risk involved for Vaughn to commit to the U. If he wants to go to the NBA, he’s going to choose a school that has a track record of setting their players up to be high first round picks.
All five of the schools on Vaughn’s list have a history of setting up players to be drafted. I believe that this was the factor that weighed most on Vaughn’s decision and the main reason the Gophers were left disappointed.
Along with that, Pitino didn’t have the luxury of recruiting Vaughn from the start. All the other coaches had the advantage of developing a relationship with Vaughn far earlier than Pitino did.
It’s not fair to blame Pitino for not landing any member of the Big Three due to his restriction on time and the weak condition the program was when he took the reigns. In order to land recruits, you have to have something to show them. We’re a couple winning seasons and a practice facility away from landing the Rashad Vaughn’s of the world.
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