5-star Dennis Evans wants out of commitment to Minnesota Gophers
The Minnesota Golden Gophers men's basketball program took a huge blow Friday when 7-footer Dennis Evans reportedly backed out of his commitment to play for head coach Ben Johnson and the Gophers next fall.
Evans, who is rated among the best high school seniors in the country, asked to be released from his signed letter of intent to the University of Minnesota, according to the Star Tribune's Marcus Fuller.
"People close to Evans told the Star Tribune that he and his family had been thinking for a while that the Gophers might not be the right fit after watching this season," Fuller wrote, noting that Gophers are expected to grant Evans' request and release him from the letter of intent to become a Gopher that he signed in November.
Fuller's report has been corroborated by others.
The Gophers have lost 11 games in a row and are 7-19 overall and 1-14 in the Big Ten.
Evans is a 7-foot-1 center from Riverside, California who is ranked 11th in the country by Rivals and 18th by 247 Sports. He was the highest-rated recruit to commit to Minnesota since Kris Humphries, who was Rivals' No. 13 player in the Class of 2003.
Evans originally chose the Gophers over Texas Christian University.
In an interview last fall with the Daily Bulletin, Evans explained that Minnesota's winters are part of the reason he decided to choose the Gophers.
“I like how the program is about getting down to work because there’s not too much to do outside during the winter,” Evans told the publication. “That’s what I worked for and that’s what I wanted.”
Title: Bring Me The Sports co-owner, editor Email: joe@bringmethenews.com Twitter: @JoeBMTN Education: Southwest Minnesota State University Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota Expertise: All things Minnesota sports Nelson has covered Minnesota sports for two decades, starting his media career in sports radio. He worked at small market Minnesota stations in Marshall and St. Cloud before joining one of the nation's highest-rated sports stations, KFAN-FM 100.3 in the Twin Cities. There, he was the producer of the top-rated mid-morning sports show with Minnesota Vikings announcer Paul Allen. His radio experience helped blossom a career as a sports writer, joining Minneapolis-based Bring Me The News in 2011. Nelson and Adam Uren became co-owners of Bring Me The News in 2018 and have since more than tripled the site's traffic and launched Bring Me The Sports in cooperation with the Sports Illustrated/FanNation umbrella. Nelson has covered the Super Bowl and numerous training camps, NFL combines, the MLB All-Star Game and Minnesota playoff games, in addition to the day-to-day happenings on and off the field of play. Nelson also has extensive knowledge of non-sports subjects, including news and weather. He works closely with Bring Me The News meteorologist Sven Sundgaard to produce a bevy of weather and climate information for Minnesota readers. Nelson helped launch and manage the Bring Me The News Radio Network, which provided more than 50 radio stations around Minnesota with daily news, sports and weather reports from 2011-17.