As frustrating as it was for the Gophers to lose another road game in Saturday's 83-77 loss at Penn State, Richard Pitino couldn't help but to praise center Daniel Oturu's career-best performance.
Oturu did just about everything he could to give Minnesota a chance to win after trailing by 19 points in the second half Saturday.
The 6-foot-10 sophomore racked up 32 points on 12-for-23 shooting from the field and 8-for-9 shooting from the foul line, to go with 16 rebounds and three blocks in 36 minutes.
"He's a big-time player," Penn State coach Pat Chambers said. "Long arms, he's athletic, and he's got great touch from 15 feet. He's a big time player."
It was Oturu's second 30-point performance in Big Ten play, which included his previous career-best 30 points in a Jan. 12 win against Michigan. He was just the third major conference player to have at least 30 points and 15 rebounds in a game this season, joining Purdue's Trevion Williams and Georgetown's Omer Yurtseven.
"The student section was on him early," Pitino said after Saturday's loss. "I didn't know how he would respond. I think he was a little bit embarrassed from the first game (squabble with Lamar Stevens). They certainly were good, and everybody competed their [tail] off. You just never know how mentally somebody is going to be throughout the course of game. Daniel was terrific."
In the Gophers' 75-69 win Jan. 15 against Penn State at home, Oturu finished with 26 points and 14 rebounds, but he was caught on video having a heated verbal exchange with Nittany Lions senior Stevens in the postgame handshake line.
Stevens clearly was fired up in the rematch vs. Oturu. He finished with a career-high 33 points to lead his team to a sixth straight win and first against Minnesota since 2017. Penn State jumped to No. 13 in the Associated Press Poll this week.
