Top Minnesota hoops recruit Taison Chatman commits to Ohio State
Taison Chatman, the top-ranked player in Minnesota's graduating class of 2023, announced his commitment to the Ohio State Buckeyes on Tuesday night.
The 6-foot-4 combo guard from Totino-Grace is considered one of the top recruits in the country. He's a 4-star recruit at 247Sports where he's ranked No. 31 recruit in the country. He's ranked 47th by On3, 39th at ESPN and 67th at Rivals.
His home state Gophers were among his final five, along Ohio State, Kansas, Xavier and Virginia.
"It was real difficult. It as a lot of long talks with my family about the right fit, where I think I can grow as a person and a player," Chatman told 247Sports. "I feel like I made the right decision."
With Chatman off the table, Minnesota's attention is now on the No. 2 player in the state, Nolan Winter. the son of ex-Gophers big man Trevor Winter. Nolan is a 6-foot-10 forward from Lakeville North. He's reportedly narrowed his choice to the Gophers or Wisconsin Badgers, with a decision possible in the coming weeks.
Gophers head coach Ben Johnson also recently traveled to California to watch 5-star recruit Dennis Evans, who is one of the highest-rated players in the country. We wrote about Evans earlier this summer.
Minnesota's 2022 class, many of whom might play as true freshmen, features Park Center's Braeden Carrington, Park of Cottage Grove's Pharrel Payne and three out-of-state players in Jaden Henley, Kadyn Betts and Josh Ola-Joseph.
The Gophers open the 2022-23 season Nov. 7 at home against Western Michigan.
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.