When practice opened for the season last week, Daniel Oturu was cleared by the Gophers for limited contact drills for the first time. The talented 6-foot-10 freshman had not scrimmaged against his teammates at that point after having reconstructive shoulder surgery in April.
As you can imagine, Oturu had to be eased into things, but there is no limit to what he can do now.
A source confirmed to the Star Tribune the news Friday that Pitino told CBSSports' Jon Rothstein about Oturu being fully cleared for all basketball related activities.
Earlier this week, Pitino said Oturu was progressing doing full contact after being held out of that during his recovery this summer. The elite shot blocker from Cretin-Derham Hall is expected to compete for the starting center spot with redshirt sophomore Eric Curry.
"It's not the same when you're not doing full contact," Pitino said. "So it's very important physically and mentally to get live reps, but also for us being patient. He's a freshman, so they're all going to make mistakes. It's important to learn where he can be offensively and defensively to where he can get to the point where he can play freely and not think so much."
Oturu and 7-foot senior Matz Stockman both played with the starters during a scrimmage last Tuesday. Curry was sidelined with a calf strain, but Pitino said he was doing non-contact work this week.
With a 7-foot-2 wingspan, Oturu should be an immediate rim protector for the Gophers, who clearly lacked an inside defensive presence after senior Reggie Lynch's suspension last season. They dropped from a Big Ten-leading 6.79 blocks per game in 2016-17 to ranking 10th in conference games with just 3.4 per game.
In the spring, Oturu expressed confidence he could bring a defensive mentality to the Gophers as a freshman, but he wanted to show them he could provide a lot more than the U centers in the past.
