Recruiting Report: McKinley Wright (2017)
Minnesota’s first official visitor of the fall was McKinley Wright over the past 48 hours and NHR talked with Wright this evening to discus his trip to campus. “I enjoyed the visit a lot, I have to say it was…
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Continue ReadingMinnesota’s first official visitor of the fall was McKinley Wright over the past 48 hours and NHR talked with Wright this evening to discus his trip to campus.
“I enjoyed the visit a lot, I have to say it was ten of ten stars,” Wright said.
McKinley’s trip started with the football game against Oregon State. Assistant coaches Ben Johnson, Kimani Young, and Ryan Livingston guided McKinley and a large group of his D1 Minnesota teammates before the game, during, and after.
Wright enjoyed the game with teammates Matthew Hurt (5 star 2019 forward) and Race Thompson (4 star 2018 forward) who were also on unofficial visits plus their guests were more AAU teammates Anthony Davis, Isaiah Walden, and Calvin Wishart.
It was a reunion of sorts for the groups that won 36 of 40 games (17U kids) and 47 of 54 games (16U team). Wright sat between Matthew Hurt and Race Thompson for part of the game, sat with his girlfriend as well, and sat with Coach Johnson too.
The trip to the football game was only the start of the official trip. Wright was on campus as a guest for the rest of Thursday night, spent all day Friday there, and was also on the Twin Cities campus until Saturday afternoon.
What did McKinley like the most? Just being with the team.
“The best part of the visit was definitely the time with the guys,” said Wright with excitement. “I enjoyed that a lot. We played several games and had some really good runs.
“Another great thing was my family and I got a better understanding of where I’d fit for the next, however many years if I were to pick Minnesota. The coaches detailed things for my mom and grandma very well. After this visit Minnesota remains high on the list!”
Wright’s 48 hours on campus included many different tours and events as most official trips do.
“As far as scheduled things on the visit, we had tons of meetings with administrators, the athletic director, coaches, and advisors on campus,” said Wright. “The athletic director (Mark Croyle) talked a lot about how I could help the team immediately.
“I ate breakfast, lunch, and dinner there, I took a tour of the entire campus and dorms, and other than that I was with the team a lot.”
What everybody always wants to know in Minnesota is, “where did the recruits eat?” With McKinley, he kept it simple.
“I had my choice of where to eat and I picked bdubbs,” Wright said with a laugh.
The biggest part of the visit though was his team with the players. Wright spent the majority of his trip getting to know the players on the team even better (Wright has been on campus numerous times already).
“Amir Coffey was my host,” sad Wright. “I spent most of the time with him, Eric Curry, Michael Hurt, and Brady Rudrud. I got to know Eric Curry a lot better.”
Those four players are of course all of the freshman on the Gopher roster. McKinley knows Michael Hurt well as he’s spent a lot of time with Michael’s brother Matthew who is a good friend from the D1 Minnesota team.
“I also spent a good amount of time with Jarvis Johnson and Nate Mason,” Wright said. “They’re all good guys and want to win big and I think they can do that.”
McKinley talked in depth with the staff about his role with the squad if he were to join and that included a chance to play along with Nate Mason next year and then being the starting point guard for three seasons at the least.
The last thing Wright did before leaving was enjoy breakfast with Coach Richard Pitino and his staff where Wright’s family and the coaches had their final discussion before the 48 hour visit was done.
Wright and his family will take another official visit next weekend and that will be at Dayton where McKinley unofficially visited in June.