Isaac Asuma, the No. 2 player in Minnesota, commits to Gophers
The second-ranked player in Minnesota's Class of 2024 has committed to play basketball for the Golden Gophers. Isaac Asuma, a 6-foot-3 guard from Cherry High School in northern Minnesota, announced his intentions after his high school game Thursday night.
Asuma had a triple-double with 22 points, 16 rebounds and 10 assists in Cherry's 87-55 win over Rock Ridge, then unzipped a hoodie to reveal a Gophers shirt as he announced his commitment in front of the home crowd that stuck around to witness the moment.
"I can't thank my mom and dad enough for sacrificing all they have to bring me to AAU practice all over the country and just taking time off work when they needed," Asuma said, then thanking coaches, teammates and the local community. "With that being said, I'll be committing to the Minnesota Gophers."
The only player in Minnesota rated higher than Asuma in the Class of 2024 is Bloomington Jefferson's Daniel Freitag, who is also being recruited by the Gophers in basketball and football.
Minnesota's 2023 recruiting class took a hit recently when 5-star center Dennis Evans asked to be released from his signed commitment, but head coach Ben Johnson's recruiting class still features four-star guard Cameron Christie, who is one of the top seniors in Illinois.
Cherry is ranked fifth in Class A and owns a 21-5 record. They are among the favorites, along with Deer River and Northland, to reach the state tournament out of Section 7A.
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.