Every new Gopher coach begins their tenure with a focus on landing the top local recruits.
This is going to be a point of emphasis from a PR perspective for every coach hired at Minnesota, but it is especially true for basketball. A number of very high-profile basketball players have left the state to play for other programs and had great success. Is it realistic that the Gophers are going to land every high-profile athlete? No, but the percentage needs to be improved.
But there is 1 interesting trend when it comes to Gopher coaches and landing a big name from the local scene.