Minnesota among Martice Mitchell's favorites

When Rivals released its newest Class of 2020 rankings on Wednesday, it gave us another opportunity to look at a wide scale of prospects that are considering Minnesota. As normal in almost any situation, we have had more access to certain players in the group than others.

One we have not had a ton on information on is Martice Mitchell. What we did know is that the 6-foot-10 big man out of Chicago is now ranked in the Top 150 at No. 127. We also knew that he has an impressive array of offers, and a recruitment that has blown up as of late.

He had four mid-major ones in 2018. Had added three more through the middle of May, but there were no so-called Power Five type offers. Rutgers changed that on May 22. Several more ensued through June and there were some attention getters such as UMASS, South Florida, New Mexico, and VCU. But a strong July with his Young and Reckless AAU team on the Adidas Gauntlet put his recruitment on a different level. Minnesota, Maryland, Iowa, Oregon, Ole Miss, and Xavier came calling.

Eric Bossi was on hand to watch him during the month as well as many college coaching staffs. Bossi knows Mitchell still has work to do, but couldn't help but notice what the finished product could look like on down the road.

"The payoff for a guy like Mitchell isn't likely to come right away. You have to be thinking the long game when it comes to him. At about 6-foot-10, MItchell is pencil thin and prefers to roam the perimeter, but his jumper is a potential weapon and he will block some shots. What happens when he gets stronger and a coach figures out the best way to utilize his talents? The results could be pretty impressive."

The Gopher Report caught up with the Young and Reckless Head Coach, Stanley Boating, on Thursday night, and he got us updated with the Martice Mitchell news that we have been craving.

Q: Tell about your experiences with Martice as a player.

Baoteng: "Martice characteristic wise leans toward an introvert. He keeps to himself which has been a great asset for him because he's always in the gym. He's always working out. He's always thinking. He's watching players on YouTube that are similar to him like Marvin Bagley, Kevin Durant, even Bol Bol. He's always studying so at first he's a quiet kid, but once you get to know him he's a really great kid. He's a smart kid and has a high IQ in basketball. Our relationship kept getting better and better as I coached him. We had a great understanding. We followed that medium of what I want him to to and what I don't want him to do. What he needs to work on to get to that pro level and what he doesn't, he needs to get out of his system. So we both started to build a great relationship with that.

His mentor is a big point with that. His name is Aubery DeNard. He is one of the guys that steers his recruitment and he is playing a big, big part. He's a very important piece in Martice's recruiting process. He's a very coachable kid. He wants to win so much. He wants to get better. He knows that after going to a workout in Los Angleles with Rico Hines. Kevon Looney works out with Hines in LA. He worked out with some pros and he performed. A lot of coaches were impressed. The next day he still did good, but the pros were more ready to go against him. So he got a good learning tool from that and an understanding of what he needs to do to get to that level. He has all of the pieces to become and NBA pro. It's all on him to work which I know he will."

Q: As a coach, describe him on the floor and how you see him on the next level.

Boateng: "What he can do on the floor is pretty much what he is going to be able to do on the next level as well. We like to call him a unicorn because he can do so many things. He has a sweet looking jump shot. He can do it off the catch and off the bounce. He can dribble. So one thing we did on the Adidas Gauntlet is he can rebound and he will be the one leading the break. He'll get a couple of assists like that or he'll just get an open look down the lane. He can pass the ball from the transition, even in half court sets. The guy can post up. When he was younger he wanted to play on the wing. By his sophomore year he kind of flipped it and everybody began to pay attention to how he could bang and be more physical. He can bang into a lot of post moves. He can do stuff in the post and in the high post. He can do so much because he's so long. He moves and runs like he is a guard. One thing that he has is a high motor. He's always competing on the defensive end and the offensive end. To me that is another skill factor because these days everybody doesn't play with a high motor. He is an efficient player. He's trying to take the best looks. With his ability to take his defender off the bounce some times he is going to be quicker that the guy who is guarding him, or he can be more guard oriented than the four's and five's he's playing against."

Q: Is he a four/five combo or more of a stretch guy?

Baoteng: "He's definitely going to be a stretch guy, but he will bang and post up. He's a stretch four. Just because of his ability to bring the ball down and be able to make moves in the half court set and be able to make plays. He's a playmaker. When we played in the Gauntlet, we had him in, out. spacing out, making plays off the wing.. He's definitely a stretch four. On defense he's always blocking shots and altering shots. He's very long and he has good timing. It will become great in college because he understands about keeping his hands up high even more. At the college level they are going to get him right with that. He's going to become a high level shot blocker as well."

Q: What does his recruitment look like right now?

Boateng: "It's going pretty good. It's wide open kind of, but he has a lot of favorites. There's a couple of favorites that come up when I ask him. It's definitely Minnesota, Xavier, Oregon, Rutgers, New Mexico, Maryland, and Notre Dame. Those are the ones I keep hearing from him. He's going to have a lot of guests next week when division one's are allowed to come out. He likes the feel that he has and he is going to hear people out, and he's going to find the right fit. He wants to find the right three or four and then go from there. He's wide open and he wants to find the best situation for him that is going to help him play as many minutes as he can right away, develop him even more, and a school that is going to be able to utilize him in all areas because he is such a unicorn. You don't want to go into a situation where he is only going to be able to do a catch and shoot. He wants to catch and shoot, bring the ball up. play in the high-low, post, all that kind of stuff. Those are the areas he's going to be looking at in his search for a school."

Q: Has he set up visits yet?

Boateng: "He has not but there are two schools he has been talking to about setting up a visit. He's been in good contact with Xavier about a visit. He's been in good contact with visiting Rutgers again, and he mentioned visiting Minnesota. He has mentioned those three, and he's going to do an unofficial visit with Notre Dame."

Q: Since he's trying to put it together, do you think he'll do it by Early Signing Period or do you think he might wait a little bit later?

Boateng: "He's going to go about it in his own time. So it could be early. If he finds the right fit in October or super early, early November, he's going to go. But if it's December, January, he's going to do that. He wants it to be the right fit. There's not really a timetable on that. I can't give you a hard date or anything like that. He's looking for that right fit. Wherever he takes his visits will be one of those options for the right fit."

Q: How did the Minnesota interest come about and how have they been recruiting him?

Boateng: "Rob Jeter has some Chicago ties so he called me and we had some prior history because he was at UNLV, and he was looking at our point guard, Tavion Clark. Even before that actually I knew him a little bit at Milwaukee. Martice has been collecting a lot of national attention, so from what I understand he asked one of the writers in Illinois and the writer got him connected with me. He reached out and said he was going to be at the Adidas Gauntlet in Birmingham in July to see him play. He showed out again. At the NCAA Camp, Martice went crazy. He played out of his mind that weekend. He was having like sixty or seventy coaches in one gym watching him. I think after that point was when they offered. They've been on him. Richard Pitino called me. We talked. He's been stressing that they really wants him. That's a piece that they want. He's probably only one of two or three kids that can do that consistently."

Q: What has their pitch been?

Boarteng: "The thing that he likes is being able to utilize him all over the court; being able to show that he can shoot, dribble, pass, all of that kind of stuff. Even though the Big Ten is seen as a bang bang league, he's going to post up some but they're not going to solo put him down low. Richard Pitino has stressed about his development over the years due to all of the processes that he has had even when he was an assistant. Obviously his dad played a good piece in him having that history and that kind of knowledge as well. They feel like with their system and how they play fast, up and down, let their bigs play athletically. They feel that he should perfectly fit and squeeze right in and be able to be a factor in the Big Ten like his second year. His freshman year he would be able to make some noise. But they feel like his second year is where he is going to take off."