On Tuesday morning, GI released its “official visit weekend preview,” highlighting the group of recruits Niko Medved will be hosting on campus over the next three days. That sparked the question: Is this the most talented group of out-of-state visitors Minnesota has welcomed in decades?
This weekend, Medved will have Lucas Morillo, Quinn Costello, and Chadrack Mpoyi on official visits. Local commit Nolen Anderson will also stop by Thursday. All three out-of-state prospects rank inside the national top 150, and in some services, Costello sits as high as No. 28 while Morillo checks in at No. 32—numbers that have Gopher fans buzzing.
So how does this stack up historically? Three years ago, Ben Johnson hosted Milan Momcilovic (Wisconsin), Cameron Christie (Illinois), and Dennis Evans, although not all at the same time. Back in 2007, Tubby Smith had Colton Iverson (South Dakota), Devoe Joseph (Toronto), and Ralph Sampson III (Georgia), all ranked in the 60–110 range. More recently, Amari Allen (Wisconsin) and Tommy Ahneman (North Dakota) could even be added to the discussion if you count Ahneman as out-of-state prior to his commitment.
But the true comparison point takes us all the way back to the fall of 1996, when Clem Haskins brought in Marcus Fizer (ranked No. 23 nationally) and Charlie Bell (No. 44) for the same weekend visit. Both eventually chose other programs, but that moment set a high bar.
Nearly 30 seasons later, Medved’s current group rivals that benchmark. By all measures, this is the most talented set of out-of-state visitors Minnesota basketball has hosted in almost three decades.
Source: 247Sports
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