Recruiting Report: Bennett Otto (2019)
Six-foot-4 wing Bennett Otto of Champlin Park scored 16.5 points with 3.4 rebounds and 3.4 assists a night and now it’s time for the 17u season with Howard Pulley.
“For Champlin Park this season, I think we surprised a lot of people going on the win streak we did and some of the teams we beat,” Otto said. “With us graduating 11 seniors people thought our program wasn’t going to do as well as the past years.
“So overall I thought our season was fantastic even thought we didn’t accomplish our main goal.”
The Rebels no doubt surprised Minnesota. The talent is still in the program but to lose the amount of contributors Champlin Park did and still go 22-6 was truly a big accomplishment.
And Otto’s consistent play stepping up and handling a scoring role in strong numbers next to Josiah Strong was a big reason the Rebels continued on with success. Otto has greatly matured as a basketball player.
“One thing that I saw this year in myself different than other years was my ability to play make and get others open. I also thought I’ve improved on my ball handling better than past years by being able to take care of it better and bring up the ball more often.”
Otto is now a week into playing with the Howard Pulley Panthers and weekend one resulted in a 4-1 record in Iowa with a second place finish in the first tournament.
“I’m playing for Howard Pulley 17u this year,” Bennett said. “There is some guys returning and also some new guys.
“We have a lot of guys on the roster this year so all of us are going to have competed for minutes and supporting each other on the court.”
Otto is an excellent football and basketball player that could play either in college. On the basketball side three schools are contacting Bennett the most.
“There are some colleges such as North Dakota, Winona State, and Sioux Falls that have contacted me. Hopefully this summer things will pick up.”
Chances are things will as Bennett has been one of Minnesota’s more dangerous shooters.