Gophers announce Oto to be honored on Senior Day

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per the U:

Oto Osenieks to be Honored on Senior Day Sunday

University of Minnesota forward Oto Osenieks, who has missed the last two games due to knee injury, will be recognized during the Golden Gophers’ senior day ceremony prior to Sunday’s game against Penn State. Osenieks is completing his fourth year at the University and has one year of athletic eligibility remaining.

“Oto has been a joy to work with and be around,” said Minnesota head men’s basketball coach Richard Pitino. “Unfortunately, this injury will limit his ability to continue playing beyond this season. We look forward to having Oto assisting and supporting our team in day-to-day operations. Oto wants to pursue a career in coaching and he will be a great help to our team next year.”

The University will seek a medical non-counter waiver on Osenieks’s behalf.

The Riga, Latvia native is majoring in business management with a minor in sports management, and is on track to receive his bachelor’s degree in May.

Go Gophers!!
 

Probably good for the Gophs. Buggs will get a chance to shine next year.
 

Can I ask a favor of the board? In this thread please keep the wisecracks about Oto to yourself. Let's not ruin it by taking potshots at him. Let's thank him for busting his a*s for his 4 years in the Gopher program.

Good night, and have a pleasant tomorrow.

(note, this was being composed prior to any posts other than Bleed's)
 

Oto was a good soldier and I always liked him. Hopefully this is a good resolution for all. Oto helps out and Gophers get an additional scholarship.
 

Sad for Oto but hopeful that it'll be the start of a coaching career if that's what he ends up wanting to do with his life. He seems to be a good team chemistry guy.
 


SelectionSunday said:
Can I ask a favor of the board? In this thread please keep the wisecracks about Oto to yourself. Let's not ruin it by taking potshots at him. Let's thank him for busting his a*s for his 4 years in the Gopher program. Good night, and have a pleasant tomorrow. (note, this was being composed prior to any posts other than Bleed's)
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Agreed. Another player who was a class act on and off the court for Minnesota.

Will also never forget his "Meet Me Halfway" lip synching video that has sadly disappeared from YouTube forever.
 

After hearing about his injury I didn't really expect him to be playing next year. I'm glad he'll get a proper send off on Sunday for putting in 4 years of hard work for the program.
 

SelectionSunday said:
Can I ask a favor of the board? In this thread please keep the wisecracks about Oto to yourself. Let's not ruin it by taking potshots at him. Let's thank him for busting his a*s for his 4 years in the Gopher program.

Good night, and have a pleasant tomorrow.

(note, this was being composed prior to any posts other than Bleed's)
Click to expand...

I had plenty of criticisms of Oto the player, but none whatsoever of Oto the person. I certainly hope he sticks around and is able to make a career of of coaching. His effort, his desire, and his character are things I've never had any reason to question.
 

It wasn't Oto's fault he was brought into a conference that he simply wasn't good enough to play in. But i always admired his work ethic, and his positive attitude he would display during games. I thank him for his contributions to the University of Minnesota, and i wish him all the best. I hope he gets a nice round of applause on Sunday.
 



Hopefully he can start and play a little bit on Senior Day
 


Oto's Gopher Basketball career may not have gone exactly as he planned it, but he always worked hard, had a smile on his face, and no one can say he walked away empty handed with a degree and this:

3b14de4d5b82ec77938c69035ae963fc.jpeg
 

JimmyJamesMD said:
Hopefully he can start and play a little bit on Senior Day
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His career is over, we won't see him starting on Sunday. From the release:

The university will seek a medical non-counter waiver on Osenieks's behalf, according to the release.

We can't announce this news, play him Sunday and then ask for a medical non-counter waiver.

Go Gophers!!
 



BleedGopher said:
His career is over, we won't see him starting on Sunday. From the release:

The university will seek a medical non-counter waiver on Osenieks's behalf, according to the release.

We can't announce this news, play him Sunday and then ask for a medical non-counter waiver.

Go Gophers!!
Click to expand...

Bummer.
 

I don't think there is any higher compliment than that one gave it his or her best. I think Oto always gave it his best, and I think he showed a great deal of improvement this year. Thanks Oto for all of your hard work and for representing the program the way it should be. May you enjoy great success in all of your endeavors.
 

Had a feeling something like this was going to happen. Another scholarship has opened up. Happy to see Oto return next year in some sort of a coaching capacity.

So next year we are looking at something like this:

PG: Mathieu/Mason/Shell-WO
SG: Dre/McNeil
SF: Morris/Buggs
PF: Martin/King
C: EE/Mo

And 3 scholarship openings. Hopefully a couple of wings and a PF/C. I think we may see at least one transfer that plays right away (low APR/grad transfer).
 

Whoa... Sorry to hijack the thread. I was out of pocket for the last three games. Did he suffer a career-ender?
 

BarnBoy said:
Whoa... Sorry to hijack the thread. I was out of pocket for the last three games. Did he suffer a career-ender?
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Not really. He's had a worsening knee injury. He isn't sure when it started, but it has to do with the cartilage around his knee.
 

I have yelled at Oto through the TV many times. But he is a great person and conducted himself with class at all times.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 


Good for Oto Glad to see they plan to help him get started on his coaching career.
 


I wish Oto the best, and am really hoping there are some great things to still happen to this team this year. If there is any group of seniors that deserve something positive to happen to them in the final stretch of their college careers, this is one of those bunches They have been some to the harder working, upstanding young men that the U of MN should be very proud of.
 

A rare tweet post from Amelia. Figured I'd throw her a bone:

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>As Strib colleague Jeff Day just pointed out to me, next year the <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23Gophers&src=hash">#Gophers</a> will have only 4 holdovers from Tubby recruiting era remaining.</p>— Amelia Rayno (@AmeliaRayno) <a href="https://twitter.com/AmeliaRayno/statuses/441320023853117440">March 5, 2014</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 

The strib today has the Penn state game starting at 3:15pm CT. Pretty sure this is wrong and its 4:15. Has there been a change?
 

Oto has always worked hard over his 4 years here and made a positive contribution to the Gopher program. I hope everything works out so he can still be around the team and helping next year. As another poster pointed out Oto sure won't leave empty handed as he met his wife here and she is definitely a reason for him to always have a smile on his face.
 

The irony of this is...Wally Ellenson might have picked up some playing time... :rolleyes:
 

good luck on the recovery and life after basketball. he definitely showed improvement this year so its a shame his college playing days are over. i still remember when he was recruited and a youtube video was posted of him singing. seemed like a good kid.

PS: tried to find that Oto singing video to post, but sadly it looks like it is no longer available for viewing lol.
 

Best of luck to Oto. Hope his knee doesn't effect his mobility ongoing, the guy's too young to be hampered by a bum knee the rest of his life. From a selfish standpoint, the weakest position on our team just lost it's best player. Not good news.
 

One wonders how long this has affected him. He was a pretty good player for the first 10-15 games or so.
 

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