4:22Less than a half-hour after Amir Coffey made public his decision to play basketball for the Gophers on Monday, the skilled guard already was casting the attention elsewhere.
Looking straight into the mass of media swarmed around him at Hopkins High School, Coffey grinned.
"I'm hoping Eric Curry joins the Gopher family," the senior said.
Coffey, and the rest of the intrigued basketball community, won't have to wait long to find out.
Curry, a 6-7 forward from Arkansas who happens to be a good friend of Coffey's, is planning to announce his college decision Wednesday. The three-star prospect will be choosing from Minnesota, Iowa State, Arkansas and others, but Coffey is more than a little biased.
The two prep stars met over a year ago, when they stayed next to each other at the Nike Elite 100 camp in St. Louis.
"We just always saw each other that whole week and just became good friends," Coffey said. "Since then, we've been texting every week."
The Gophers — long pursuing Coffey — also began recruiting Curry last summer. Curry, the kind of athletic stretch power forward suited to Gophers coach Richard Pitino's system, has a long wing span, scoring ability and a knack for rebounding — the latter a major Gophers weakness. His skill set meshes well with Coffey's.
