Busting Brackets
Fansided

Big Ten Basketball: Best bets outside of Cassius Winston to win 2020 POY

By Adam Childs

MADISON, WISCONSIN - FEBRUARY 12: Cassius Winston #5 of the Michigan State Spartans reacts in the first half against the Wisconsin Badgers at the Kohl Center on February 12, 2019 in Madison, Wisconsin. (Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images)
MADISON, WISCONSIN - FEBRUARY 12: Cassius Winston #5 of the Michigan State Spartans reacts in the first half against the Wisconsin Badgers at the Kohl Center on February 12, 2019 in Madison, Wisconsin. (Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
8 of 15
Next
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS – MARCH 15: Gabe Kalscheur #22 and Daniel Oturu #25 of the Minnesota Golden Gophers celebrate after beating the Purdue Boilermakers 75-73 during the quarterfinals of the Big Ten Basketball Tournament at the United Center on March 15, 2019 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images)
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS – MARCH 15: Gabe Kalscheur #22 and Daniel Oturu #25 of the Minnesota Golden Gophers celebrate after beating the Purdue Boilermakers 75-73 during the quarterfinals of the Big Ten Basketball Tournament at the United Center on March 15, 2019 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images) /

Minnesota – Daniel Oturu

Chances of winning POY – Slim to none

Oturu returns for his sophomore season with the Golden Gophers as the team’s leading returning scorer. Minnesota was led by Amir Coffey and Jordan Murphy. They were the leaders of the team but Oturu was right there with them.

He averaged 10.8 points per game last year and shot 50% from the outside. He will need to take the next step up if the Gophers will be able to compete this year.

Minnesota is in a similar situation as Indiana. They have some young talented players and may upset some teams, but on the whole, they are probably going to struggle. Because of this it makes it next to impossible for anyone on their team to compete for top honors in the conference.

Oturu has shown signs of being a star, but Minnesota just doesn’t look like it is going to win enough to help him be up near the top of the discussion.

He did show the ability to have good games against top competition as he scored 18 against Michigan and 19 against Purdue. The problem is he disappeared at times last year as in the rematch with the Boilermakers he scored just two points.

He will need to find more consistency this year as the Gophers look to make it back to the tournament, but that seems like a tall task. If he can lead the Gophers back, he may get looks like a second-team All-Big Ten type of player but that may be the ceiling for him this year.

Home/Big Ten