Minnesota landed its first verbal commitment in the 2013 class on Sunday as 6-4 shooting guard Alvin Ellis verbally pledged to attend the Big Ten school.
Ellis, who plays at De La Salle Institute in Chicago, chose the Gophers over Kansas State, Northwestern and Butler according to the St. Paul Pioneer Press.
Minnesota has three seniors (Rodney Williams, Julian Welch and Andre Ingram) and a graduate student (power forward Trevor Mbakwe) on this year’s team, so there is some work to do for Tubby Smith and his staff in regards to the 2013 season.
Just like Iowa verbal commit Peter Jok, Ellis made his decision on the heels of an official visit to Minnesota this weekend.
Ellis was also a member of the Meanstreets AAU program this summer, playing alongside Illinois commit Kendrick Nunn.
In the 16 games Ellis played leading up to the EYBL Finals at the Nike Peach Jam he shot 50% from beyond the arc and averaged 7.1 points and 2.2 rebounds per game.
In his junior season at De La Salle, Ellis averaged 16 points per game and will likely be even more of a focal point as the Meteors lost three key contributors from last year’s team.
6-8 forward Alex Foster, who was also on a visit to Minnesota this weekend, transferred to Seton Academy while Gavin Schilling is now at Findlay Prep.
And according to De La Salle head coach Tom White, Smith making a trip to the school last week to let Ellis know that he respected him showing loyalty to De La Salle.
While Foster remains uncommitted following the visit, landing the versatile Ellis is a nice starting point in 2013 for the Golden Gophers.
Raphielle is also the assistant editor at CollegeHoops.net and can be followed on Twitter at @raphiellej.