When Richard Pitino and his Gophers men's basketball staff long ago put together an in-state target list for the class of 2018, they had a handful of names.
Three names near the top of that list are now becoming Gophers.
On Wednesday, the Gophers officially signed Cretin-Derham Hall center Daniel Oturu and Orono forward Jarvis Thomas Omersa on the first day of the early signing period. DeLaSalle guard Gabe Kalscheur will sign his letter of intent Friday afternoon at his high school.
"It means a lot," Oturu said after his signing day ceremony. "It just shows that we have home-state pride. Before [Gophers sophomore guard] Amir Coffey, I felt like there were a lot of gap years. Not a lot of in-state recruits stayed. For us three to stay here and show that you can stay and be successful, it's a great goal that we have."
Pitino's 2018 recruiting class is the first to be ranked in the top 25 nationally since Tubby Smith had back-to-back highly-rated classes in 2009 and 2010. The 247Sports ranking Wednesday had Minnesota No. 22 in the country.
To have a nationally ranked class is one big step. The other is to keep the best in-state prospects from leaving. After failing to sign even one Minnesota player in a loaded in-state 2017 class a year ago, Pitino made a splash by landing three players who all had high-major offers to play elsewhere.
Apple Valley point guard Tre Jones, the state's top senior, signed with Duke. Oturu, Omersa and Kalscheur understood why he decided to go in a different direction. They did all they could to convince him to help them bring a Big Ten title and Final Four back to the U. Now they will look to accomplish that feat without him.
"I hope that other in-state guys stay," Omersa said. "We got a lot of really good in-state players. It was a sad thing when we lost Tre, but it's fine. He's doing what he thought is best for him. You can't get them all. But it's definitely becoming part of the movement. When you're playing for your home, it's a lot more than just playing for the school."
