Hey, guess what?
It’s time to start talking basketball. Well, it’s never NOT been time to talk about basketball, because that time is all the time for me. But we are getting closer to the basketball season, and I’ve already started prepping for the SEC Conference Previews. That means it’s also time to look at the non-conference schedule.
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The Full Non-Conference Schedule:
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October 24th — vs. Kansas State (exhibition)
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November 3rd — at Howard Bison | Preview
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November 7th — vs. Southeast Missouri | Preview
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November 12th — vs Minnesota
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November 17th — vs Prairie View A&M
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November 20th — vs South Dakota
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November 25th — vs South Carolina State
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November 28th — vs Cleveland State
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December 2nd — at Notre Dame
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December 7th — vs Kansas (in Kansas City, MO)
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December 11th — vs Alabama State
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December 14th — vs Bethune-Cookman
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December 22nd — vs Illinois (in St. Louis, MO)
These previews aren’t here to re-hash the argument over whether Dennis Gates put together a good schedule or not. It’s simply to talk about the opponents, and what can be expected. We’re also not going to use these to preview Kansas State since it’s an exhibition. We’ll do a quick K-State preview before the game, but for now we’re going to focus on the games that matter.
Let’s Meet: Minnesota Golden Gophers
The University of Minnesota was established in 1851, a full 12 years after the real U of M in Missouri, which is the only conversation about a U of M that matters here.
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Based in Minneapolis, which in of itself is pretty cool to be a state university based in a major city, the Gophers have been playing basketball since 1896 which is two years after my house was built. Take THAT ya dumb Gophers. Things were going really well for a while, Minnesota established themselves as a powerhouse in the Western Conference from 1899 to 1917, then they won the new Big 10 in 1919 and were feeling themselves a bit. But it would be another 18 years before their next championship, then another 35 years. Then another 10 years, and another 15 years. But it’s been since 1997, a championship the NCAA vacated, that Minnesota won their league.
Minnesota has had periods of success but they haven’t seen the NCAA Tournament since 2019, and haven’t been a protected seed since 1997. The Gophers are one of many programs who have struggled to find consistency in the changing landscape of college basketball. Just 14 NCAA appearances which is ahead of only Rutgers, Nebraska, Penn State, and Northwestern in the Big 10. There are 8 teams in the league with more conference championships than Minny has appearances.
So it’s a bit of an issue. The Gophers have had spells of competitiveness, but Clem Haskins run from ‘86 to ‘99 is about as good as it’s gotten. And that ended in an academic scandal. Since then (1999) there have been only 6 NCAA trips and zero seasons finished ranked inside the top 25.
Head Coach | Niko Medved | 1st Season 0-0
This hire has been in the making for a while it seems.
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Medved was born in Minneapolis, and is an alumnus, graduating from Minnesota in 1997, where he was a basketball manager. His path is an interesting one. Like a lot of coaches, Medved moved around quite a bit, but he picked the same spots. After graduating from Minnesota, he took an associate head coaching job at Macalester College, a small private school in St. Paul. From there he became an assistant at Furman, in Greenville, SC. Then back to Minnesota as an assistant, then to Colorado State as an assistant. Then back to Furman as a head coach. Then to Drake as a head coach for just one year before he took the head coaching job at Colorado State, where he’s been since 2018. Then home came calling this past spring. So yes Minnesota -> Furman -> Minnesota -> Colorado State -> Furman -> Drake (??) -> Colorado State -> Minnesota. It’s almost a fun circle were it not for Drake, there goes Drake… always being a drag on the fun.
We looked at Medved a few years back with our coaching search bracket, and I even pegged him as the one name I would go after hardest. Medved had a history as a program builder, doing so at Furman, giving Drake a big bump, and then making Colorado State formidable. He took them to the NCAA Tournament in three of his last four seasons, last year finishing 42nd in KenPom, 16-4 in the sturdy Mountain West Conference, and were a Derrick Queen travel call away from a Sweet 16 appearance.
The timing wasn’t right for Medved when Missouri was looking for a coach, obviously we’ve been more than happy with the results from Dennis Gates, so there are no hard feelings. But make no mistake, Medved is a good basketball coach, who did seem like he was waiting for the right time to move back home. Medved also hired Gates brother Armon to round out his staff. Another smart move.
Series History | Minnesota leads 2-1
We all remember the one win here right?
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Missouri played Minnesota twice ages ago, in 1959 and 1960.
The two years ago they went to Minneapolis for an early season game and prompty got blown out… until they didn’t. With a little over 11 minutes to play Mizzou trailed by 20 points. Nick Honor went on a short little run to get things interesting and cut the lead to 12. But it was the Tigers depth which wore down the Gophers. They turned the ball over 16 times,
The Tigers erased that 20 point lead, finally taking the lead for good on a Sean East basket and a plus one at the free throw line, they would win the game 70-68. The win moved the Tigers to 3-1, they’d only win 5 more the rest of the way. The Gophers ended up not being that bad, they went 9-11 in the Big 10 and finished 78th in KenPom. Ben Johnson was given another season, he produced about the same results, and was fired after the year.
What about the team now?
There are no returning players for Minnesota from that game two years ago. There are two Missouri players, however. Both Anthony Robinson and Trent Pierce saw action in the game as freshmen.
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Medved pretty much cleared house, which is to be expected these days with a new coach. It’s rare that players stick around. But he did keep two players who saw action last year. Isaac Asuma, a 6’3 guard from Cherry, MN played in all 32 games and averaged 24.7 minutes and 5.6 points. Also returning is Erick Reader, who played just one minute in one game, safe to assume there’s some kind of walk-on situation there.
So clearly the repopulation of the roster was going to come via the transfer portal, and Medved went deep adding 9 new players from the portal. He also signed Kai Shinholster, a 3-star freshman as well.
If you go by EvanMiya.com’s transfer portal rankings, Minnesota added the #124th ranked player in Bobby Durkin, a 6-7 combo forward who averaged 13.5 ppg at Davidson. They also added the #285th ranked player in Chansey Willis, a PG from Western Michigan who averaged 16.8 ppg after transferring in from Junior College. There’s also #290 ranked Robert Vaihola, a 6’8 forward who chipped in 7.5 ppg in 27 minutes per game at San Jose State last year. And Langston Reynolds, #318 from Northern Colorado, a wing who scored 16.0 points per game.
The biggest name is probably Cade Tyson, who flopped at North Carolina after averaging 16.2 ppg at Belmont the season before. Tyson was ranked #404th in Miya’s rankings. Medved also brought Jaylen Crocker-Johnson with him. Ranked #149th in Miyas rankings, Crocker-Johnson averaged 9.0 ppg at Colorado State a season ago and is a 6’8 forward.
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Expectations are modest in Medveds first year. The Gophers are slated 83rd in BartTorvik.com’s early season rankings. That’s good for 16th in the 18 team Big 10 conference.
