2024-25 ITH Season Preview: Minnesota Golden Gophers

  • Sep 9, 2024 8:49 am in

With the start of college basketball season in early November, we’ll examine the conference as a whole and Indiana’s roster over the coming weeks.

Today, our team previews continue with Minnesota.

Previously: Penn State, Washington

The 2023-24 season was one of progress for Minnesota. The Gophers finished with a winning record for the first time since the 2018-19 season. In his third season at the helm of his alma mater, Ben Johnson won 19 games and guided the program to the second round of the NIT.

Minnesota rose from 216th in the final KenPom rankings during the 2022-23 season to 78th after last season. As the season ended for the Gophers with a second-round NIT loss at Indiana State, there was optimism for even more success ahead in Johnson’s fourth season.

The offseason, however, was full of turbulence. Cam Christie, one of the league’s best freshmen last season, declared for the NBA draft and was picked in the second round. Two starters, point guard Elijah Hawkins and center Pharrel Payne, hit the transfer portal.

With meager NIL resources, Minnesota had to recruit from the mid and low-major ranks to fill out its roster for Johnson’s fourth season.

Fortunately for Johnson, he was able to retain two starters from last season’s 19-win team. Dawson Garcia, one of the best frontcourt players in the conference, is back for his final season of eligibility. Mike Mitchell, a 6-foot-2 guard, also returns for his final season after transferring from Pepperdine before last season.

The 6-foot-11 Garcia averaged 17.6 points, 6.7 rebounds and a block in 31 games last season. Garcia is an excellent free throw shooter (80.2 percent) and can also step out to the perimeter. With his talent and size, Garcia has All-Big Ten potential.

Mitchell was one of the league’s best 3-point shooters last season. He made over two 3-pointers per game as a junior and shot 39.9 percent from distance. Like Garcia, Mitchell is an excellent free throw shooter at 80.6 percent. After playing more off the ball last season due to Hawkins handling point guard duties, it’s possible Mitchell could be asked to distribute the ball more this winter.

The only other returnees for the Gophers are Parker Fox, a 6-foot-8 redshirt senior who averaged 5.1 points last season, and Kadyn Betts, a 6-foot-8 redshirt sophomore who has played in just eight games in his career.

The rest of the rotation will consist of transfer portal additions with no shortage of experience. A 6-foot-8 forward, Frank Mitchell, will join Garcia in the starting frontcourt. Mitchell earned All-MAAC second-team accolades last season and was the only player in that league to average a double-double last season. Mitchell had 15 double-doubles and averaged 12.1 points and 11.6 rebounds. His free throw shooting was problematic as he shot just 43 percent from the stripe.

Trey Edmonds, a 6-foot-10 transfer from UTSA, will provide depth behind Garcia and Mitchell after averaging seven points and 5.8 rebounds last season for the Roadrunners.

Femi Odukale, a 6-foot-6 transfer from New Mexico State, should get plenty of minutes on the wing. The Brooklyn native was an All-CUSA third-team selection and averaged 10.7 points and 6.4 rebounds last season. Minnesota is his fourth school as he played at Pittsburgh and Seton Hall before New Mexico State.

The guard rotation next to Mitchell will comprise Toledo transfer Tyler Cochran, Oregon transfer Brennan Rigsby, Charlotte transfer Lu’Cye Patterson and Caleb Williams, who arrives from Division III Macalester.

Cochran is a 6-foot-2 redshirt senior from Bolingbrook, Illinois, who earned second-team All-MAC honors and a share of the league’s defensive player of the year award last season. Cochran averaged 14.4 points and 6.4 rebounds and led the MAC with 1.9 steals per game. He could get the first look at starting alongside Mitchell in the Gopher backcourt.

Patterson is a 6-foot-2 native of Minneapolis who was named second-team All-AAC last season while averaging a team-best 14.6 points for the 49ers. He was the only Charlotte player to start every game. Patterson also grabbed 3.4 rebounds per game, dished out 2.5 assists and shot 35 percent on 3s.

A 6-foot-3 senior, Rigsby is the only transfer addition from the high-major level. A capable floor spacer, Rigsby made 35.3 percent of his 3s last season and averaged 6.1 points for the Ducks, who advanced to the second round of the NCAA tournament.

Williams is jumping up two levels from the Division III ranks, where he averaged 20 points, four rebounds, 2.8 assists and 1.2 steals at Macalester. Williams can also make 3s and shot just over 34 percent last season. In November 2023, Williams scored 41 in an exhibition against Minnesota at the Barn.

The other newcomers to the roster are freshman guard Isaac Asuma and freshman big man Grayson Grove. With all of the experience ahead of them and pressure for Johnson to win this season, it could be challenging for both to crack the rotation.

Expectations are low for Minnesota entering Johnson’s fourth season. The current Torvik rankings have the Gophers 71st in the Big Ten, the third-lowest ranking of any Big Ten team.

Bottom line: Minnesota had a solid season last winter, but losing Christie to the NBA was an unexpected setback, as were the departures of Hawkins and Payne. With near-bottom of the Big Ten NIL resources, the Gophers will have to do more with less talent than the majority of the league to avoid the league cellar this winter. Minnesota will take plenty of 3s, but it has to be a better free-throw shooting team (69 percent) than a season ago. With a favorable non-conference schedule, Minnesota can get off to another strong start – it began last season 12-3 – and build some momentum before Big Ten play.

Quotable: “We’ve progressively gotten better as far as our program and where we want it to get to. Those are all really good steps. Now I want our guys to view themselves as winners.” – Johnson in late August at the Minnesota State Fair.

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