While the basketball world has been waiting on pins and needles for Roselle Catholic big man Cliff Omoruyi to make his college decision, “Big Cliff” has known for a “couple of weeks.”
Ranked No. 41 by 247Sports.com in the Class of 2020 and No. 49 by ESPN.com, Omoruyi narrowed his list to a final three of Auburn, Arizona State and Rutgers. He previously eliminated Kentucky and UConn from a list of five.
Introducing Rutgers Sports Insider: Sign up for exclusive news, behind-the-scenes observations and the ability to text message directly with beat writers
Now it’s time for the 6-foot-11, 237-pound Omoruyi to unveil where he will be taking his talents beginning in the 2020-21 season.
“To Rutgers, to Rutgers University,” he told NJ Advance Media by phone. “I’m familiar with the coaches, the staff, as well as the players and they’ve been there since my freshman year.”
He added: “Mostly I’m doing it for what is best for me basketball- and education-wise. The fans love me, I’m familiar with the players and the coaches, too.”
Omoruyi, who informed Rutgers head coach Steve Pikiell on Saturday, becomes the most significant recruit of Pikiell’s tenure and the most important at Rutgers since Mike Rosario committed as a McDonald’s All-American out of St. Anthony’s in 2007. A dominant defensive presence in the paint and an emerging offensive force, he averaged 14.6 points, 11.1 points and 5.6 blocks this past season while shooting 57 percent from the field en route to being named the Gatorade New Jersey Player of the Year. Omoruyi also maintains a 3.48 PGA.
"I’m so happy for Cliff and his family that he’s going to be at Rutgers,” said RC coach Dave Boff, who has won three New Jersey Tournament of Champions titles. “They are a close family and I know he’s excited that they will be able to be there to support him. I think Rutgers is a great spot for Cliff. He will have a chance to play right away in a great league and Rutgers and Coach Pikiell do a nice job with big guys.
“This is huge for Rutgers and New Jersey basketball to have a player like Cliff choose to stay home. It shows how the program has grown over the last few years."
HOW CORONAVIRUS PLAYED AN ASSIST
Pikiell and assistant Brandin Knight worked hard to keep Omoruyi at home and they may have gotten an assist from the coronavirus pandemic.
Omoruyi, who was born in Nigeria, said the coronavirus helped him make the decision to stay close to home to Roselle Catholic, where has played for three years, as opposed to going halfway or all the way across the country.
“The coronavirus helped me with my decision because it made me realize I don’t want to go too far away and be away from the people that care about me,” he said.
Omoruyi plans to study engineering at Rutgers. He toured the Engineering school during his official visit late last month with Rutgers big man Myles Johnson.
“I’m going to go into engineering,” he said. “The staff and everybody affect my decision.”
“That’s the most important thing for his family, is to watch him get that Engineering degree,” said one of his guardians, Muhammad Oliver, who was born in Newark and grew up in Union.
ARIZONA STATE WAS THE PERCEIVED FAVORITE
Many people assumed Omoruyi would select Arizona State after head coach Bobby Hurley hired Rasheen Davis, an old friend of Omoruyi’s guardians, Muhammad and Felyce Oliver.
“I don’t think it was best for me and my family,” Omoruyi said.
Said Muhammad Oliver: “That situation helped [Arizona State] get to this point. But Rutgers did such a great job, that it didn’t matter. Cliff was going to commit earlier, but when Rasheen got to Arizona State, that kind of shook things up so that’s what the delay was. The delay was he had to get to know Bobby and [assistant] Rashon [Burno] and all the other players. Our relationship with Rasheen isn’t going to change, but for him to go all the way to Arizona State, it had to be bigger than Rasheen.”
Omoruyi joins a recruiting class that includes small forwards Oskar Palmquist and Mawot Mag and power forward Dean Reiber.
After Rutgers was expected to make its first NCAA Tournament since 1991, the tournament was canceled due to the coronavirus.
Now Omoruyi will join with a returning core that includes juniors Geo Baker and Jacob Young, sophomores Johnson, Ron Harper Jr., Montez Mathis, Mamadou Doucoure and Caleb McConnell and freshman Paul Mulcahy to form a core that should contend for the Big Dance in 2021. Harper hosted Omoruyi on his official visit late last month.
“It will be one of my goals to help them, to do all that I can,” Omoruyi said.
Said Muhammad Oliver: “They have most of the kids coming back, and they’re coming back for two years.”
Omoruyi said it knew Rutgers would have played hard in this year’s NCAA Tournament “because they were already doing it in the season.”
FEELING LOVE FROM THE FANS
Omoruyi attended several Rutgers games this season, sitting behind the bench, and hearing the love from the fans. During the Indiana game in January, fans serenaded him with chants of, “We want Cliff.”
That same day, Rutgers head football coach Greg Schiano walked over and shook his hand after arriving to the RAC at halftime.
“He shook my hand and said to stay home because the fan loves me,” Omoruyi told NJ Advance Media then.
On Feb. 29, Pikiell, his staff, Baker and Harper turned out during Omoruyi’s official visit to support him when Roselle Catholic faced The Patrick School in the Union County championship game at Kean University. A contingent of Rutgers fans was on hand, too.
Omoruyi managed only 3 points and 11 rebounds in a 56-42 loss.
On March 6, Omoruyi collected 15 points, 10 rebounds and 10 blocks in North Jersey Non-Public B semifinal win over The Patrick School, helping the Lions snap a three-game losing skid against the Celtics.
He said he wants to develop his “ball handling” and his “shooting” while at Rutgers.
‘THE CLIMATE IN NEW JERSEY NOW IS TOTALLY DIFFERENT’
Muhammad Oliver said that three years ago, when Rutgers first offered Omoruyi, everyone in the state told him not to send him there.
“I’m from New Jersey,” said Muhammad. “The climate in New Jersey three years ago to now is totally different.
“When Rutgers first offered Cliff, everybody and their mother told me, ‘Don’t send him there.’ That would be the worst move I could ever make.’ And the same people who told me that three years ago, this year let me know that, ‘Send him to Rutgers, they’re doing something special in Piscataway.’
“That’s what I think helped him make his decision, because everybody told him not to and individually through this year, everybody that told him not told him that it would be a great move to stay home.”
How long he stays home remains unclear as Omoruyi’s ultimate goal is to make the NBA — whether it takes one years, two, three or four.
“Yes,” he said, “that is everybody’s dream who plays basketball.”
Check out highlights of Omoruyi below, courtesy Fresh Focus Sports (@freshfocussports):
Get Rutgers Sports Insider text messages from reporters: Cut through the clutter of social media and communicate directly with the Rutgers beat writers. Plus, exclusive news and analysis every day. Sign up now.
Adam Zagoria is a freelance reporter who covers Seton Hall and NJ college basketball for NJ Advance Media.