National Top-30 Big Man Commits to Gophers MBB

By Eric Strack |

Updated: Oct 17, 2022

The Minnesota Gophers men’s basketball team has had some recruiting wins over the last decade. Most notably, Amir Coffey (2016) and Daniel Oturu (2018), two local 4-star kids who stuck around and played for Richard Pitino.

But it’s been since 2009 that Gopher MBB has received a commitment from a higher-ranked recruit than 7-1 (4-star), Dennis Evans (Riverside, CA), who just committed to Ben Johnson’s Gophers on Monday night. 247Sports’ own ratings system has him as the 27th best college recruit in the 2023 class. Their composite ratings (which includes ratings from ESPN and Rivals) ranks him 31st in the country.

Evans is the 3rd-best high school basketball recruit of the internet era to commit to Minnesota MBB. Only Kris Humphries (2003) and Royce White (2009) had a higher composite rating than Evans does. He can play down low, he’ll block a ton of shots and he can shoot it from deep. In other words, Dennis does it all.

“This is me. This is where I will be” . 7’1 Dennis Evans has committed to the University of Minnesota @GopherMBB
Sincerely, Dennis Evans III pic.twitter.com/GOKqzpEpna
— Swish Cultures (@swishcultures_) October 17, 2022

Gophers beat out TCU, others

Dennis Evans chose the Minnesota Golden Gophers over TCU and Kansas, among others. Even after Kansas reportedly fell out of the race last week, the Gophers were seen as trailing the Horned Frogs. But that tune started changing as last week turned into the weekend.

By Monday, optimism was running dangerously high. But, all is good. Because this time, if only once, that national top-50 recruit didn’t just have the maroon and gold ‘M’ hat on the table. He had it on his head.

What a signature moment for Ben Johnson’s program.