10 years ago, the Gophers got a a young man out of Hopkins High School named Kris Humphries to join their basketball program.
Humphries was rated as the second-best power forward in the nation by Rivals, and 15th-best recruit in the nation.
The 18-year-old behemoth wasted no time making his mark on the college basketball world, putting up nearly 22 points per game and 10 rebounds a contest in his freshman season with Minnesota.
Humphries left Minneapolis to enter the NBA draft where he was selected by Utah with the 14th pick. Since then, he has played for five teams, made tens-of-millions-of-dollars, married Kim Kardashian, and the rest is history.
Regardless of Humphries’ life after college, he was the best recruit in recent memory. It doesn’t get much better than 15th in the nation.
Since that time, Minnesota has gotten some nice players, but no one at the level of Humphries.
Here are the Rivals Top 150 guys that Minnesota has secured since the Hopkins standout in 2003.
Dan Coleman ranked 123rd nationally and 15th positionally.
Spencer Tollackson ranked 118th nationally, 29th positionally.
Lawrence Mckenzie ranked 85th nationally, 22nd positionally.
Lawrence Westbrook ranked 115th nationally, 29th positionally.
Devoe Joseph ranked 61st nationally, 10th positionally.
Ralph Sampson III ranked 59th nationally, 12th positionally.
Colton Iverson ranked 137th nationally, 35th positionally.
Rodney Williams ranked 100th nationally, 21st positionally.
Maurice Walker ranked 123rd nationally, 13th positionally.
Andre Hollins ranked 110th nationally, 31st positionally.
Joe Coleman ranked 121st nationally, 35th positionally.
Trevor Mbakwe was ranked 70th by ESPN when he came out of high school in 2007, but didn’t get to Minnesota until the 2009-10 season.
Sorry, we won’t be counting Royce White, since he was more concerned with his record label than playing basketball.
Let’s not pretend like the U of M doesn’t get recruits, those are some nice rankings for the group of players that have come in and out of the Williams Arena doors.
The top ranked national recruit since Humphries, as you can see, was Ralph Sampson III at 59, one half of the trainwreck that was the duo billed the “Twin Towers,” the other half being Colton Iverson.
Devoe Joseph had a nice career…at Oregon. We could go on, but we won’t.
No matter how they fared, Reid Travis is better than them all, ranking 40th nationally according to Rivals.
Not only is he the best since Humphries, he closely resembles the former Gopher big man in size and style.
When Humphries came to Minnesota he was 6’8″, 226 pounds. Reid is 6’7″, 235.
Humphries played down low as a true power forward, while Travis likes to do the same, and may even have a slightly better mid-range game than Humphries did.
Travis has been courted by Duke, Humphries committed there before coming to Minnesota.
There are stunning similarities, with one huge one to speak of. Travis, as Humphries did, has a chance to be a special player, and the centerpiece, of the Gopher basketball program.
If he will or not, we’ll know at 3:30 tomorrow.
