Peach Jam: Oturu the Consistent Big
Playing basketball at the 17u level is not always easy for a big. Few players of size have the ability to consistently contribute at this level of competition. That's not true for CDH PF/C Daniel Oturu.
At 18/11, 16/12, and 14/8 in his first three 2017 Peach Jam games (that's points and rebounds) Daniel Oturu is doing something rare: giving the Howard Pulley Panthers double-double consistency at the highest level of 17u play. What's even more impressive is that he's done this against five star Jontay Porter, top 200 big Joel Mensah, and LaQuil Hardnett in the past two days.
The number one thing that Oturu does is out-work other bigs. When Porter's stamina went away, Oturu went at the offensive glass producing four putbacks in the MoKan win. Team Melo had a second half lead on Pulley but three second half putbacks from Daniel helped pull the Panthers to the W. And when opposing bigs tired, Oturu battled deeper in the post to power up a score or stay on balance to use his short one hand soft touch.
What's scary is this is just the tip of the ice berg. Oturu is very talented in many ways but he's still a thin big. When he gets to college and adds 15-20 pounds of core strength to his frame bigger posts will no longer be able to bump Oturu into bad spots on the post turn. A stronger Oturu will be an always balanced Oturu and when that joins his activity, skill, and agility the Minnesota Gophers should have one of college basketball's best bigs in their frontcourt. The future is bright. But Daniel is only thinking about tomorrow.
For the time being the Panthers need Daniel to keep posting doubled-double numbers so they can make the Peach Jam playoffs Saturday and maybe Sunday. Howard Pulley dropped a game to New York Lightning tonight making their road to the title much tougher. Every Peach Jam pool has six teams but only two teams advance. A second loss for the Panthers would almost certainly result in going home before the weekend and even a 4-1 pool play record isn't a certainty.
All the Panthers can do is win their last two games and hope for the best. With Oturu getting double-doubles, Tre Jones being Tre Jones, Gabe Kalscheur hitting jumpers, Jarvis Thomas continuing his active role, David Roddy hitting shots, and Ryan Larson supplying energy the Panthers can made a run. But they need all those pieces to fall in place on Friday.
The consistency of Daniel Oturu will be a nice thing for the Panthers to lean on.
