Gopher basketball sets challenging non-conference schedule
· Yahoo Sports
The non-conference portion of the Gopher Men’s team is reportedly set. Ryan James of Gopher Gazette was the first to report it and it has now been released. Last season, Minnesota played two teams from power conferences in their non-conference portion of the schedule (Stanford and Missouri) and their non-conference strength of schedule ranked 355th out of 365 teams.
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I have some good news and some bad news.
The good news is that the Gophers are playing a much more challenging non-conference schedule.
The bad news is that the Gophers are playing a much more challenging non-conference schedule.
The opinion here is that Nike Medved has intentionally chosen to amp up his non-conference schedule because he believes he has a more talented team that has a chance to make the NCAA Tournament. There are likely five Power Five teams on this schedule and the resume should be strong for the Gophers…if they can win the games.
11/2 – North Dakota
KenPom: 279
Record: 18-17
The first official game of the year is hosting the Fighting Hawks out of the Summit. Last season the Hawks finished 3rd in the Summit and were runner-ups to North Dakota State in the conference tournament. I saw UND play when they came to play St. Thomas and had a dramatic win in the final seconds. They were led by Greyson Uelmen and Eli King…both are gone. Uelmen has transferred to Northern Iowa and King has graduated. A couple of promising younger players also hit the portal in Anthony Smith and George Natsvlishvili.
There are three guys who Minnesota should be most concerned with. Zach Kraft, a junior guard who is likely to be their primary scorer. Josh Jones, a 6’9” center/forward. And transfer Tyler Wagner, a sophomore coming from Austin Peay and a former Champlin Park Rebel.
The losses of Uelmen, King and Smith are significant and it doesn’t appear that Paul Sather is bringing in the necessary pieces to make them competitive this year.
Prediction: Gophers start the season 1-0
11/6 – St. Thomas
KenPom: 115
Record: 24-10
The only benefit to the Gophers in this matchup is if the Tommies can find their way to 75th in the NET rankings and this becomes a Quad 2 win for Minnesota. The problem is that the Tommies are losing five of their top six leading scorers. Nolan Minessale was one of the top mid-major players in the country last year, averaging 19.8 points per game and he is headed to Marquette. Nick Janowski (16.1 ppg) is transferring to Davidson. Isaiah Johnson-Arigu (10.5) is heading to Northern Iowa. Ben Oosterbaan (7.6) wants to be a Don in San Francisco. And Waseca’s Ryan Dufaul (5.7) no longer has any eligibility.
The top returners will be Carter Bjerke, a 6’9” senior from Wayzata who averaged 9.4 ppg last season. And Austin Herro, brother to Tyler Herro. Herro originally began his career at South Carolina before transferring to the Tommies, where he started 24 games last year as a sophomore.
A couple of transfers are expected to make an impact. Jeremy Lorenz is a forward transferring down from DePaul. And Brogan Madson is a high-scoring guard, transferring up from D2 Sioux Falls. And it is always important to note that Johnny Tauer always has a team that executes and can do more with less.
I have strong opinions on scheduling this game, but too late to change anybody’s mind about this season. The Tommy fans will fill the barn; they’ll be very proud of themselves and Roll Tom back home with a loss.
Prediction: A Gopher win, but it’ll be too close for comfort.
11/9 – Cincinnati
KenPom: 43
Record: 18-15
Side Note: Utah State has not had the same coach for more than three seasons since 2015. Craig Smith was there for three years and left for Utah. Ryan Odom was there for two years before leaving for VCU and now Virginia. He was succeeded by Danny Sprinkle for 1 year before he left for Washington. His successor was Jerrod Calhoun for two years and he now leads the Cincinnati Bearcats. Whoever the Utah State coach is…I want him to make my next basketball hire.
This is the first season for Calhoun with Cincy and he has a fully rebuilt roster. Every major contributor from last season is gone. But what makes this team interesting is that Calhoun has four players from Utah State coming with him. Most notably, MJ Collins led the Aggies with 17.5 points per game and will likely be a key player for Calhoun and the Bearcats. And transfer Tylen Riley averaged 15 points for Tulsa last year and he will likely pair with Wake Forest transfer Myles Colvin on the perimeter, and Riley Allenspach is a 6’11” center from George Mason who could pose a problem inside.
It is a roster rebuild, but there are some nice pieces that Calhoun has added, along with four former Aggies to help implement his system and culture.
Prediction: If this were at the Barn, I’d be tempted to take the Gophers. But I think Cincy wins this one at home.
11/12 – Southern
KenPom: 277
Record: 17-17
After a decently challenging first three games, Minnesota gives themselves a couple of games to get right. The Jaguars finished 2nd in the SWAC last season, but they are losing several seniors. I would not expect their 2026-27 KenPom rank to be as high 277 this year.
Prediction: A comfortable Gopher win.
11/16 – Western Illinois
KenPom: 364
Record: 5-26
This is one of the toughest jobs in D1 basketball and the Leathernecks bottomed out last year as the 2nd worst team in basketball, according to KenPom. They somehow managed to beat North Dakota last season and they earned one conference win. But their three other wins were against a D3 school and two NAIA teams.
Another team that is losing a bevy of seniors, and this team was terrible last year.
Prediction: Don’t play with your food. Put this one away early and
11/20 – Charleston Classic – Dayton/VaTech/Utah/Ok State
11/22 – Charleston Classic – Dayton/VaTech/Utah/Ok State
Three more teams are yet to be added and then there will be two 4-team brackets played over those two days. We don’t really know who we will be playing, but here is a quick blurb about the four potential teams we know.
Dayton – Anthony Grant’s Flyers are looking to replace a couple of scoring guards to pair with their 7’1” big man from France, Amaël L’Etang. Travis Perry is a former Kentucky recruit who is coming to Dayton after a year at Ole Miss. He looks like their potential starting point guard.
Virginia Tech – Weirdly, a team that is returning its top two scorers from last year. Amani Hansberry and Ben Hammond combined for 27.5 ppg last year and will be back for the Hokies. They have added a few younger forwards to the team and this team should be pretty good.
Utah – After four seasons, Craig Smith was let go at Utah and Alex Jensen takes over. With a typical roster makeover, Jensen has added a couple of dangerous transfer guards in Taison Chatman from Ohio State and Jackson Holcombe, a 6’7” wing from Utah Valley.
Oklahoma State – The Cowboys have a monster recruiting class coming in, with four 4-star kids, two of them ranked in the top 35 in the nation. And in the transfer portal, they added a starter from UNC, a seven-footer who started 28 games at Georgetown, a scoring wing from UCF, and a 6’11” kid who started 27 games for Arizona State. This team is going to have some talent.
11/28 – Cal @ Sioux Falls – Sat
KenPom: 75
Record: 22-12
Mark Madsen’s Cal Bears are traveling to Sioux Falls to face the Gophers at the Sanford Pentagon. Last season, they finished in the middle of the ACC pack and ended up going 1-1 in the NIT to finish their season. Their top two leading scorers both decided to transfer and their next two leading scorers have no more eligibility.
So they hit the portal, like everybody else. Michael Cooper was Wright State’s leading scorer and he should be a significant contributor. Jordan Ross started 25 games for Georgia last season, he also is a likely starter for Madsen. Maden’s top returner is 6’10”, Lee Dort who I expect to be a handful for the Gophers.
It is easy to overvalue the transfers coming into the Gopher program without knowing much about the Cal incoming transfer or how they will fit. But this game feels fairly winable for Minnesota, especially with three returning starters and adding a transfer like Kyan Evans.
Prediction: Gophers with a win and potentially a Quad 1 win (though more likely a Quad 2).
12/12 – SMU – neutral site in Texas
KenPom: 48
Record: 20-14
Moving on to another program where most of the team’s returning starters and leading scorers need to be replaced. Andy Enfield loses his top four returning scorers to graduation and Samet Yigitoglu, who started all 34 games for the Ponies, is transferring to Indiana.
Enfield’s top two returning players, forward Jermaine O’Neil Jr and big man Jaden Toombs, will both be sophomores, and yes, his father was THAT Jermaine O’Neil. And he has a couple of guards who are transferring in, looking for the opportunity to make an impact in the ACC. Guards Rowan Brumbaugh averaged 19.2 ppg for Tulane last year and David Terrel Jr averaged 13.5 for North Texas last year.
Prediction: This is a tough one to predict. SMU was pretty good last year. On paper, the Mustangs lost more than the Gophers did and it will all come down to who incorporates the transfer. But I’ll go with SMU for this one.
12/16 – Texas Southern
KenPom: 314
Record: 12-18
Last year’s roster for the Tigers was senior-laden and they leveraged that experience to finish 10-8 in the SWAC. Following the season, their head coach, Johnny Jones, took an assistant coach role at LSU, his alma mater, and Shyrone Chatman took the interim title for this season.
Prediction: This will be a win for the Gophers.
12/20 – Alcorn State
KenPom: 346
Record: 9-23
Up next is another SWAC opponent. The Braves finished 7-11 and 11th in the league in coach Jake Morton’s first season. But to be fair, 10 teams finished between 11-7 and 7-11, so it was a highly competitive league.
Unlike Texas Southern, Alcorn could have returned a number of their top players. But they all decided to transfer, so they are also tasked with rebuilding their roster.
Prediction: This will be a win for the Gophers.
12/29 – UT-San Antonio
KenPom: 338
Record: 5-25
It was a rough season for the Road Runners last year as they finished 1-17 in the American and just five winsj (one of those being over something called Biblical Studies). And of course, they had six players transfer out and six players transfer in.
I am not expecting a 5-25 team to bounce back and beat a Big Ten team on the road.
Prediction: This will be a win for the Gophers.