Eugene Omoruyi (born February 14, 1997) is a Nigerian-Canadian professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

player for the

Detroit Pistons The Detroit Pistons are an American professional basketball team based in Detroit. The Pistons compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Central Division and play their home games at Li ...

of the

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United S ...

(NBA). He played

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

for the

Rutgers Scarlet Knights The Rutgers Scarlet Knights are the athletic teams that represent Rutgers University's New Brunswick campus. In sports, Rutgers is famously known for being the "Birthplace of College Football", hosting the first ever intercollegiate football ...

and the

Oregon Ducks The Oregon Ducks are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Oregon, located in Eugene. The Ducks compete at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level as a member of the Pac-12 Conferenc ...

Early life and high school career

Omoruyi was born in

Benin City Benin City is the capital and largest city of Edo State, Edo State, Nigeria. It is the fourth-largest city in Nigeria according to the 2006 census, after Lagos, Kano (city), Kano, and Ibadan, with a population estimate of about 3,500,000 as of ...

, Nigeria and immigrated to Canada with his family as a one-year-old. He grew up playing

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

and began playing basketball during his second year of high school at Monsignor Percy Johnson. Omoruyi attended

Orangeville Prep The Athlete Institute is an athletic centre located in Mono, Ontario. It is made up of two facilities, the training centre and the fieldhouse. The institute is home to The Orangeville Prep Basketball Academy, who compete in the Ontario Scholastic ...

Orangeville, Ontario Orangeville (Canada 2016 Census 28,900) is a town in south-central Ontario, Canada, and the seat of Dufferin County. History The first patent of land was issued to Ezekiel Benson, a land surveyor, on August 7, 1820. That was followed by land ...

, averaging 16.9 points and 9.6 rebounds per game and earning Ontario Scholastic Basketball Association First Team All-Star honors in his final season. He played alongside

Jamal Murray Jamal Murray (born February 23, 1997) is a Canadian professional basketball player for the Denver Nuggets of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He also represents the Canadian national team. He played one season of college basketball for ...

and

Thon Maker Thon Marial Maker (born 25 February 1997) is a South Sudanese-Australian professional basketball player for the Fujian Sturgeons of the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA). He attended high school at Orangeville District Secondary School and p ...

. He competed for Advantage Titans on the

Amateur Athletic Union The Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) is an amateur sports organization based in the United States. A multi-sport organization, the AAU is dedicated exclusively to the promotion and development of amateur sports and physical fitness programs. It has ...

circuit. Omoruyi committed to playing college basketball for

Rutgers Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College, and was a ...

over an offer from Loyola (Illinois).

College career

As a freshman at Rutgers, Omoruyi averaged 2.4 points and 2.2 rebounds per game. On November 28, 2017, he scored a sophomore season-high 22 points in a 78–73 loss to

Florida State Florida State University (FSU) is a public university, public research university in Tallahassee, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida. Founded in 1851, it is located on the oldest continuous site of higher e ...

. As a sophomore, Omoruyi averaged 7.9 points and five rebounds per game. For his junior season, he was named a team co-captain. During the offseason, he improved his shooting by taking 1,000 shots for six mornings per week. On November 11, 2018, he recorded a junior season-high 24 points and 10 rebounds in a 95–66 win over Drexel. On November 23, Omoruyi posted 20 points and 17 rebounds in a 54–44 win over

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with its original campu ...

. He averaged 13.8 points, 7.2 rebounds and 2.4 assists per game as a junior. He was an All-

Big Ten The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...

Honorable Mention and Second Team All-Met selection. For his senior season, Omoruyi transferred to

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

and sat out for his next season due to

National Collegiate Athletic Association The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

transfer rules. His decision to transfer from Rutgers was described by the media as unexpected. On December 2, 2020, he made his debut for Oregon and recorded a career-high 31 points and 11 rebounds in an 83–75 loss to

Missouri Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...

. As a senior, he averaged 17.1 points, 5.4 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 1.5 steals per game, earning First Team All-

Pac-12 The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference, that operates in the Western United States, participating in 24 sports at the NCAA Division I level. Its College football, football teams compete in the NCAA D ...

honors. Following the season, Omoruyi declared for the

2021 NBA draft The 2021 NBA draft, the 75th edition of the National Basketball Association's annual draft, was held on July 29, 2021, at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. With the first overall pick, the Detroit Pistons selected Cade Cunningham. The NBA us ...

Professional career

Dallas Mavericks (2021)

After going undrafted in the

, Omoruyi signed a

two-way contract A two-way contract is a professional sports contract that stipulates that an athlete's salary is dependent upon the league in which the athlete is assigned to play. This is opposed to a one-way contract that would pay the same salary regardless of ...

with the

Dallas Mavericks The Dallas Mavericks (often referred to as the Mavs) are an American professional basketball team based in Dallas. The Mavericks compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Western Conference (NBA), Western Conferenc ...

on August 13, 2021, splitting time with their G League affiliate, the

Texas Legends The Texas Legends are an American professional basketball team in the NBA G League based in Frisco, Texas, and are affiliated with the Dallas Mavericks. The Legends play their home games at the Comerica Center. The team began as the Colorado 14 ...

. On December 15, he suffered a season-ending injury while playing with the Legends, and on December 26, he was waived by the Mavericks.

Oklahoma City Thunder (2022–2023)

On July 2, 2022, Omoruyi signed a

with the

Oklahoma City Thunder The Oklahoma City Thunder are an American professional basketball team based in Oklahoma City. The Thunder compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Conference Northwest Division. The team plays i ...

. His contract was converted to a multi-year deal on February 10, 2023. On February 26, Omoruyi was waived by the Thunder.

Detroit Pistons (2023–present)

On March 3, 2023, Omoruyi signed a 10-day contract with the

. On March 13, he signed a second 10-day contract with the Pistons. On March 23, Omoruyi signed a rest-of-season contract with the Pistons.

Career statistics

NBA

Regular season

, - , style="text-align:left;", , style="text-align:left;",

Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...

, 4 , , 0 , , 4.5 , , .400 , , .500 , , .500 , , 1.8 , , .5 , , .0 , , .0 , , 1.8 , - , style="text-align:left;", , style="text-align:left;",

Oklahoma City Oklahoma City (), officially the City of Oklahoma City, and often shortened to OKC, is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The county seat of Oklahoma County, it ranks 20th among United States cities in population, a ...

, 23 , , 2 , , 11.8 , , .468 , , .258 , , .607 , , 2.3 , , .5 , , .6 , , .0 , , 4.9 , - , style="text-align:left;", , style="text-align:left;",

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

, 17 , , 4 , , 21.9 , , .425 , , .293 , , .723 , , 3.5 , , 1.0 , , .8 , , .2 , , 9.7 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", Career , 44 , , 6 , , 15.1 , , .442 , , .286 , , .671 , , 2.7 , , .7 , , .6 , , .1 , , 6.5

College

, - , style="text-align:left;", 2016–17 , style="text-align:left;",

, 33 , , 11 , , 12.0 , , .349 , , .000 , , .625 , , 2.2 , , 1.0 , , .5 , , .3 , , 2.4 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2017–18 , style="text-align:left;",

, 32 , , 7 , , 21.7 , , .473 , , .000 , , .541 , , 5.0 , , 1.0 , , .9 , , .8 , , 7.9 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2018–19 , style="text-align:left;",

, 28 , , 26 , , 29.2 , , .445 , , .311 , , .714 , , 7.2 , , 2.4 , , .7 , , .3 , , 13.8 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2019–20 , style="text-align:left;",

, style="text-align:center;" colspan="11",

Redshirt , - , style="text-align:left;",

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

, style="text-align:left;",

, 28 , , 28 , , 30.6 , , .473 , , .376 , , .765 , , 5.4 , , 2.3 , , 1.5 , , .6 , , 17.1 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", Career , 121 , , 72 , , 22.8 , , .453 , , .324 , , .674 , , 4.8 , , 1.6 , , .9 , , .5 , , 9.9

References

External links

Oregon Ducks bioRutgers Scarlet Knights bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Omoruyi, Eugene 1997 births Living people Basketball people from Ontario Black Canadian basketball players Canadian expatriate basketball people in the United States Canadian men's basketball players Canadian sportspeople of Nigerian descent Dallas Mavericks players Detroit Pistons players National Basketball Association players from Canada Nigerian emigrants to Canada Nigerian men's basketball players Oklahoma City Blue players Oklahoma City Thunder players Oregon Ducks men's basketball players Rutgers Scarlet Knights men's basketball players Small forwards Sportspeople from Benin City Texas Legends players Undrafted National Basketball Association players