Minnesota Basketball Recruiting: Daniel Oturu commits to Gophers!

Recruiting over the last 3 weeks has been a whirlwind of activity....and that’s just the football team. But Richard Pitino picked up a great in-state commitment today from Cretin-Derham Hall’s Daniel Oturo. A 4-star and consensus top 100 recruit is staying in Minnesota, picking the Gophers over Kansas

Height: 6’9”
Weight: 215
Wingspan: massive
High School: Cretin-Derham Hall
Other Offers: Kansas, Baylor, Georgia Tech, Creighton, Memphis and others

A raw, explosive and improving big man. Oturu has steadily been improving and moving up the recruiting rankings after a very strong sophomore season followed by a big summer on the AAU circuit. Ryan James of GopherIllustrated had this to say about Oturu’s early commitment to the Gophers.

Daniel Oturu is ranked 66th overall by Scout.com and is having another outstanding season for the Raiders. Daniel is averaging 17.2 points, 18.3 rebounds, and five blocks a game this year as he’s one of the most active bigs you will see.

“Daniel is a big time talent who led the state in rebounding and blocked shots as a sophomore,” Cretin-Derham Hall Coach Jerry Kline Jr said. “He’s a highly recruited player with offers from some of the best schools.”

He is long, lean and plays with a ton of energy. This is a kid that Gopher fans are going to love. He’ll be explosive on the floor and will be one of the hardest guys in the Big Ten to box out. Expect his early career to be a lot of put backs, rebounds and blocked shots while his offensive game continues to evolve.

The Gopher staff currently has 5 scholarships to work with for this 2018 Class and landing Oturu is a big deal. The 2018 class of Minnesota kids is deep and very talented. Oturu is the second highest rated player in the class behind Apple Valley’s Tre Jones. How does this impact recruiting? It really doesn’t. We need help in the interior with this class and will need more than just Oturu. He’s the first to commit and if there is any impact I suspect it will be positive in that he’ll hopefully help persuade others local kids to join him.

This is a great early pickup for the Gopher staff. Landing a 4-star, top 100 kid is fantastic.

Video of Oturu

Other MN Kids to watch

• PG - Tre Jones - Apple Valley
• F - Race Thompson - Robbinsdale Armstrong
• SG - Gabe Kalscheur - De La Salle
• C - Adam Trapp - Esko