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Turkish star Omer Yurtseven, a 7-footer projected as the No. 10 pick in the 2017 NBA Draft by DraftExpress.com, is interested in joining an American college team for the 2016-17 season, according to a report from Scout.com.
“Fenerbahçe is a really good club and they play at a high level,” he told Scout’s Evan Daniels at the Basketball Without Borders camp in Toronto this past weekend. “I haven’t been playing that much, so I need to go some place that I can to play more and to improve. That’s why I want to go to college.”
Yurtseven told Scout he’s considering Arizona, Arizona State, Baylor, California, Duke, Miami, Texas and UC-Irvine, but hasn’t visted any of those schools. Sources close to several of those programs confirmed they were involved or trying to be for Yurtseven.
Daniels also told Ben Roberts of NextCats.com that Kentucky, which needs an additional big for next season, might get involved.
“It wouldn’t surprise me if (UK) reached out to him and started that communication,” Daniels said. “I think it’s pretty clear that they’d like to add another post player to their class, and this kid is a high-level talent.”
“I got to see the school if I think I’m going to go to college,” Yurtseven told Scout. “To make the right choice I need to visit the school I’m going to go to.”
“We have a season going on now with Fenerbahçe, once the season finishes we will start visits.”
Meantime, Yurtseven’s coach at Fenerbahçe, Zeljko Obradovic, did not seem at all pleased that Yurtseven left the team to compete in Toronto.
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“Let me tell you something about Yurtseven,” Obradovic said in this video, which was transcribed by Sportando. “He doesn’t care about this team, he only cares about himself. He went to Toronto and didn’t consult the team. We have some injured players but he never asked to me if it was ok for him to leave.”
Obradovic added that his club offered Yurtseven a five-year contract that he declined but said the player has already taken money from the team.
“We offered him a five-year contract, a very big contract,” Obradovic said. “He said that he needed to think about it. He thought for two months and then said to us that he wasn’t going to sign. We gave him a lot of trust, because we thought he was our future. Do you know any other 17yrs old kid that play so much minutes? Only Doncic with Real. I don’t know what he’s thinking about, does he wants to play in NCAA? He took the money in the last three years and now he wants to leave. That’s him.”
Depending upon how much money, if any, he received, Yurtseven’s eligibility could be an issue going forward.
Still, he is considered a high-level prospect and obviously American colleges are pursuing him.
Here is DraftExpress’ scouting report on him:
“>”A near 7-footer with a promising frame, a polished skill-set and impressive fluidity, the young big man averaged 6 points and pulled down 6 rebounds over 13 minutes per game in NBA preseason games against the Brooklyn Nets and Oklahoma City Thunder, looking like a potential future lottery pick in the process. Putting up huge numbers in the 2015 Adidas Next Generation Tournament and averaging 9.8 rebounds per game and 8.7 rebounds per game playing a year up at the U18 European Championship, Yurtseven is considered one of the more intriguing young big men in all of Europe. He lacks great length and has shown inconsistent intensity and toughness at times, but he’s widely considered one of the top-1998 born prospects in the world.”
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