Howdy, y’all! We are back again with another summer basketball preview, and today we’re taking a look at the Minnesota Golden Gophers. Minnesota finished last season at 15-18 with an 8-12 conference record, good for 11th in the Big Ten in head coach Niko Medved’s first year.
They’ll be going into the season without two of their top scorers from last year, Cade Tyson (19.6 points, 5.4 rebounds per game) and Langston Reynolds (11.6 points, 4.3 rebounds, 4.5 assists per game), as both players have run out of eligibility.
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They will, however, still be retaining the services of their 2nd and 4th leading scorers, Jaylen Crocker-Johnson (13.4 points, 6.8 rebounds) and Isaac Asuma (10.9 points, 4 rebounds per game), so that’s something to build on.
Some key names to watch for, joining JCJ and Asuma are Nolen Anderson, Winters Grady, and Kyan Evans. Anderson is an athletic, 6’7” sharp-shooting 4-star recruit, from Plymouth, MN, who should see minutes early in his college career.
Grady is a 6’6” former top 100 prospect, who just spent his freshman season with reigning National Champion Michigan, seeing action in just 9 games. He’s a dying breed in modern basketball: a mid-range assassin who lives in the 15-18 foot range. He also played his first two seasons of high school ball at Lake Oswego.
Evans is coming in after a less than successful stint as primarily a backup guard at North Carolina. In 33 games (around 18 minutes a game) Evans averaged just 4 points on an abysmal 32.8% from the floor. I think he still has the potential to be a bounce back candidate for Minnesota this season.
The Ducks will be heading to Minnesota this coming season, but at time of writing, we do not know when.
As always, ‘Sco Ducks
