Gophers look to bounce back from injury-plagued season
MINNEAPOLIS — The breakthrough that Minnesota enjoyed two years ago became an afterthought last season, as injuries mounted and losses piled up.
Finishing 15-17 was a rough follow-up for the Gophers to their only NCAA Tournament berth under coach Richard Pitino.
"I'm a lot better when we have a healthy roster as a coach," Pitino said. "I think that at the end of the day when you're building a program, to get stability it takes some time. I thought we were there last year."
This season, Pitino's sixth at Minnesota, will provide yet another opportunity for a reset.
After ominously losing forward Eric Curry to a torn ACL in a summer workout, seeing forward Amir Coffey sidelined by shoulder trouble after 18 games and watching shooting guard Dupree McBrayer hobble through leg injuries down the stretch, the Gophers are healthy again with some talented newcomers in the mix.
"We can't allow last year to derail that momentum," Pitino said.
Success will start with senior forward Jordan Murphy, who led the nation as a junior with 24 double-doubles. He averaged 16.8 points and a Big Ten-leading 11.3 rebounds per game in 2017-18. Pitino has advised Murphy to work even harder on his rebounding, for the sake of team and career.
"I know he wants to play in the NBA," Pitino said. "I told him, 'You've got the numbers. You have shown that you can produce at our level, at a very high level. Now it comes down to, can you show them how hard you play every single possession?'"
Minnesota opens the season Nov. 6 at home game against Omaha.
THE POINT OF IT
The Gophers will miss point guard Nate Mason, who closed his college career last season by averaging 16.7 points per game and leading the team in assists, free-throw shooting and minutes. His understudy was Isaiah Washington, whose first year had more downs than ups in his adjustment from flashy New York City high school star to struggling Big Ten rookie.
"He's grown a lot on the court. With all freshmen, it's habits. For him, as difficult as all the injuries were, it thrusted him into meaningful minutes," Pitino said. "Now it's just a matter of terminology, understanding offensively, defensively, never taking a play off."
MILWAUKEE PIPELINE
Akeem Springs was a key contributor in 2016-17, his lone season with the Gophers. This year, another shooting guard from Milwaukee has arrived as a graduate transfer, Brock Stull. He was the second-leading scorer for the Panthers last season with an average of 13.4 points per game.
One attraction for Stull was the presence of former Milwaukee head coach Rob Jeter, who joined Pitino's staff after two years as an assistant at UNLV. Jeter took the Panthers to the NCAA Tournament twice and won 20-plus games five times in 11 seasons. Prior to that, he was an assistant at Wisconsin under head coach Bo Ryan.
"He knows how to win in this league. He knows how to recruit the area. He's a really good person," Pitino said. "He's been a terrific addition."
FRESHENING UP
Stull was one of three offseason transfers, though the only one eligible for now. Matz Stockman, a 7-foot native of Norway who sat out last year after three seasons at Louisville, could give the Gophers an intriguing option underneath.
The top big man off the bench will be Daniel Oturu, one of three incoming freshmen from the Twin Cities area along with forward Jarvis Omersa and shooting guard Gabe Kalscheur. The 6-foot-10 Oturu was a consensus four-star recruit who helped lead Cretin-Derham Hall High School to the Class 4A state championship with a dunk off a lob pass at the buzzer.
TOUGHER COMPETITION
The Gophers have five opponents on their schedule from the other five major conferences, the most since Pitino arrived to better meet NCAA Tournament selection criteria.
The Gophers host Utah on Nov. 12, followed by a trip to Canada to face Texas A&M and Washington over a three-game set in the Vancouver Showcase. They play at Boston College as part of the ACC/Big Ten Challenge on Nov. 26 and take on Oklahoma State on Nov. 30 at U.S. Bank Stadium to give the site of the season's NCAA Final Four a test run as a basketball venue.
MORE OF IT
The Gophers visit Ohio State on Dec. 2 and host Nebraska on Dec. 5, before diving full-time into the new 20-game Big Ten schedule on Jan. 3 at Wisconsin. The six teams they only face once are Ohio State, Northwestern and Michigan State on the road and Iowa, Penn State and Indiana at home.
MINNESOTA
Last season: 15-17, lost to Rutgers in first round of Big Ten Tournament.
Nickname: Golden Gophers.
Coach: Richard Pitino.
Conference: Big Ten.
Who's gone: Point guard Nate Mason (graduated), center Reggie Lynch (overseas), backup shooting guard Jamir Harris (transferred), backup forward Davonte Fitzgerald (transferred), backup forward Bakary Konate (graduated), backup forward Gaston Diedhiou (graduated).
Who's back: Forward Jordan Murphy, who was named to the 20-player preseason All-Big Ten team, is the senior standout coming off career-best averages of 16.8 points and 11.3 rebounds per game. ... Starting forwards Amir Coffey (shoulder) and Eric Curry (knee) are healthy and primed for breakout years, after Coffey was limited to 18 games and Curry was out for the whole season. ... Point guard Isaiah Washington had a rocky freshman year, shooting just 24.1 percent from 3-point range. ... Shooting guard Dupree McBrayer gritted out an injury-influenced junior season, averaging 9.4 points per game. ... Forward Michael Hurt returns in a reserve role.
Who's new: Shooting guard Brock Stull is a fifth-year graduate transfer from Milwaukee who was the second-leading scorer for the Panthers last season. ... The three incoming freshmen are all from Minnesota, shooting guard Gabe Kalscheur, forward Jarvis Omersa and center Daniel Oturu. The 6-foot-10 Oturu was a consensus four-star recruit who helped lead Cretin-Derham Hall High School to the Class 4A state championship. ... Center Matz Stockman, a 7-foot native of Norway who sat out last season after transferring from Louisville, played three years for the Cardinals. ... Point guard Marcus Carr is another transfer who played one year at Pittsburgh but the NCAA has yet to rule on whether he'll be able to play immediately or have to redshirt this season.
The Skinny: Pitino's sixth year with the Gophers begins with a fresh start after the injury-ruined 2017-18 season that also included a midseason suspension of Lynch for alleged sexual assault. Mason's leadership and scoring touch at both the rim and from 3-point range will be dearly missed, with the erratic-but-exciting Washington in line to take over as the primary ball-handler. Curry and Oturu ought to help take some of the burden off Murphy around the basket. The Gophers could be one of the conference's surprises like two seasons ago when they reached their only NCAA Tournament under Pitino.
Expectations: Oddsmakers have Minnesota as a 200-1 long shot to win the NCAA Tournament. The Final Four is at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, less than 2 miles from campus. The Gophers were picked to finish ninth out of 14 teams in a preseason Big Ten media poll.