Gophers coach Ben Johnson isn't afraid to send messages to his young basketball team with playing time this season.
In Sunday's 69-51 loss to Mississippi State, freshman Jaden Henley was replaced by graduate transfer Taurus Samuels in the backcourt, which was the fourth different starting lineup this season. Henley played two minutes, but Samuels had 32 minutes in the game.
The starting lineup change didn't result in a better outcome with the Gophers suffering their fifth straight loss. But Johnson said Henley understood the move was made to give them more experience. It wasn't necessarily about what his talented young guard did wrong.
"There's no issue there or problem there," Johnson said. "His attitude is fine, but I've also told him sometimes because of our circumstances with guys out [Parker Fox and Isaiah Ihnen done for the season] that's going to afford minutes to more people. It's also a fine line with expectations with 'I'm just going to get minutes.'"
Johnson said no player on the team should feel entitled to start or playing extended minutes because of a lack of depth with injuries. Not that anyone told him they deserved to start or be in the rotation.
"I did that with Pharrel [Payne] at Purdue," said Johnson, who played the gifted freshman big man limited minutes in the second half of the Big Ten opening loss. "You're too good of a player to have lapses. And I did want him to kind of be mad about it."
The Gophers started Ta'Lon Cooper and Dawson Garcia in all 10 games, but the other spots have changed. Henley has nine starts, followed by Treyton Thompson (7), Jamison Battle (6), Will Ramberg (4) and Joshua Ola-Joseph (3).
Battle has started every game since he returned from a foot injury. Thompson and Ramberg are now seemingly out of the Gophers' main rotation. Ola-Joseph's emerged as a surprise starter the last few games. And Samuels picked up his first start Sunday.
