Dan Monson seems like a decent guy, but a lousy judge of local talent.  That is obvious when we look at how well Minnesota high school products have done at other schools (including redshirt freshmen guards Ben Woodside and Matt Cadwell, who already have several 20 point games between them.)  I don't know if Monson's problem is regional bias, racial bias (the PC kind that thinks white kids can't play, although he has an equally bad record of landing black kids from Minneapolis, a Gopher tradition), or just bad judgment (Brandon Smith? Miles Webb? Luke Anderson?)  But whatever the reasons, he sure doesn't do as well recruiting the home grown talent as he should (or as Alford apparently does at Iowa.)  

Skipping the class of 99 (due to his late start after Clem got caught, I can't blame Monson for Troy Bell) here are the Minnesota high school products since Monson became coach that I think have established that they were Big Ten caliber players.

2005

Jamal Abu-Shamala (Shakopee) Minnesota (as a walk-on)

Monson did sign Brandon Smith of Minneapolis Patrick Henry, but is he a better prospect than Ray Brown (Richfield to Bradley), Travis Brown (Richfield to Northern Iowa), Travis Busch (Mounds View to Cal Poly) or Darren Kent (Eastview to Kansas State)? 

And even a walk-on (Kevin Gullickson of Stillwater) chose to go somewhere else (Wisconsin) as did Brielmaier the year before.  Considering that most of the best home grown Gophers in the Monson era started out as walk-ons, this is not a good sign!

2004    

Ryan Amoroso (Burnsville) Marquette

Bret Brielmaier (Mankato Loyola) Arizona

Matt Cadwell (Cretin-Derham Hall) South Dakota State

Longar Longar (Rochester John Marshall) Oklahoma

Patrick O’Bryant (Blaine) Bradley

Ben Woodside (Albert Lea) North Dakota State

Mitch Henke (Hopkins) is starting at Santa Clara, as is Brett Winkelman (Morris Area) at North Dakota State.

Monson did sign Spencer Tollackson of Chaska.  He also signed the immortal Miles Webb of Park Center.

2003    

Dan Coleman (Hopkins) Minnesota (after first signing with Boston College)

Eric Coleman (Tartan) Northern Iowa

Dan Fitzgerald (St. Thomas Academy) Marquette (previously Tulane)

Kris Humphries (Hopkins) Minnesota (after first signing with Duke)

Jamil Lott (St. Paul Como Park) Marquette (previously junior college)

Lawrence McKenzie (Minneapolis Patrick Henry) Oklahoma (now a redshirt after transferring to Minnesota)

Kammron Taylor (Minneapolis North) Wisconsin

Eric Webb (Grand Rapids) Furman

Monson did sign the yet-to-show-if-he-can-play Jonathan Williams (St. Cloud Apollo) after he first signed with St. John's.

2002

Jeff Halbert (White Bear Lake) Ohio

Terry Pettis (Minneapolis Patrick Henry) Fresno State

Bruce Price (Minneapolis South) Tennessee State

Glen Mason signed Matt Spaeth of St. Michael-Albertville.

Just as well Monson did not sign Pettis.

2001

Alan Anderson (De La Salle) Michigan State

Erik Crawford (Tartan) Northern Iowa

Rick Rickert (Duluth East) Minnesota (after first signing with Arizona)

Steve Sir (Cretin-Derham Hall) Northern Arizona (formerly San Diego State)

Jamel Staten (Minneapolis North) Mankato State (formerly Northern Illinois)

Terry Ryan signed Joe Mauer.

Monson did sign Maurice Hargrow of St. Paul Highland Park, a good decision.

2000

Jay Anderson (Faribault) Oregon

Adam Boone (Minnetonka) North Carolina (now Minnesota)

Steve Esselink (Hills-Beaver Creek) Augustana (later a Sunshine walk-on at Minnesota)

Johnnie Gilbert (Minneapolis Patrick Henry) Oklahoma

Jeff Hagen (Hopkins) Minnesota (as a walk-on)

Brent Lawson (Maple Grove) St. Francis (later a walk-on at Minnesota)

Jake Sullivan (Tartan) Iowa State

Instead, Monson signed Luke Anderson of Eagan, before both of them decided better about it. 

Signing local kids who can play makes the fans happy, builds tradition, establishes the easiest talent pipeline to maintain, and helps your team win.  Monson may just be carrying on the sorry tradition of every Gopher coach since Kundla started recruiting nationally, who have all seriously misjudged the state's talent pool on a depressingly regular basis.  But at least as a recruiter, the fact is that he has utterly failed at the first job of any college coach.