Reusse: Gophers’ Niko Medved hopes to find order amid college basketball chaos

Ben Johnson had been forced into a large roster rebuild with the Gophers men’s basketball team for the 2024-25 season. That was the third time in four seasons that he had been put into that difficult situation.

Dawson Garcia, the 6-foot-11 scorer, had taken a discount price on the NIL market to remain in Minnesota. Even with Garcia, the Gophers were undertalented, yet they had a few strangely successful moments last winter:

There was a three-game winning streak vs. Michigan, at Iowa and vs. Oregon in mid-January. And a month later, the Gophers went to Los Angeles and swept the Big Ten newbies, UCLA and Southern California.

Somewhere, John Wooden had to be rolling over in his grave, as a smallish crowd in Pauley Pavilion watched the Bruins lose to Johnson’s nomads.

A couple of injuries and thin talent did the Gophers in after that. They finished 2-8 in Big Ten games at Williams Arena, concluding on March 8 with a late loss to Wisconsin.

As the Badgers fans who filled the Barn celebrated in the final minute, the look on Johnson’s face as he stood on the raised floor came with this quote bubble:

“Well, that was it. I’m gone.”

There were few discussions among Gophers followers (including the media) on Johnson’s future that did not include speculation that the next coach would be Niko Medved, a Minnesota native, a former Gophers student manager and assistant coach, a head coach at Furman and Drake and having a good run at Colorado State.

Back in 2021, when Coyle decided to fire Richard Pitino, there was administrative pressure to hire Johnson, a former Gophers player and Pitino assistant, then an assistant at Xavier.

Coyle wanted to get Brian Dutcher to come in from San Diego State for an interview to win over his bosses, but loyal guy that he was, Dutcher chose to accompany his Aztecs back to San Diego after an NCAA tournament loss.

Johnson was hired — with no roster remaining and a minimal budget. And then he was fired, and Medved has arrived, and there’s a bit more money to reward players, but when his first regular season officially opens Monday night in Williams Arena vs. Gardner-Webb … yes, roster chaos continues.

“Gardner-Webb has had a good program,” Medved said Saturday. “Those years I spent at Furman, Chris Holtmann was coaching Gardner-Webb, and we played against those guys for years. But the schools in those conferences … they’re having a rehaul of their rosters every year because of players transferring up.

Medved paused, laughed slightly and said: “We have one returning player who played for the Gophers last season — Isaac Asuma. We played pretty well in the exhibitions, we like our transfers, but who knows what the teams we’re playing are going to look like? No sense to looking at tapes of last season. Most of those teams are totally different, too.”

Medved’s starters Monday night figure to be this:

Guard: Asuma, the 6-foot-3 sophomore from the hinterlands of Cherry, Minn. Said Medved: “Isaac was dealing with a back issue for a time, but he’s going to be OK. Excellent athlete, excellent competitor. He’s ready to turn it loose a little more.”

Guard: Chansey Willis Jr., 6-2 senior transfer from Western Michigan. “Chansey can shoot it. He can get in the lane and pass, too. He was one of the better scorers in the MAC. He’s a tough, hard-nosed kid, and at the same time, a sweetheart of a young man. His sister was murdered in Detroit a few years ago, and he still thinks about her every day.”

Forward: Jaylen Crocker-Johnson, 6-8 junior from Colorado State. “Jaylen’s the only player here that I had last season at Colorado State. A rebounder, a good defender, he’s a guy that helped us win a title. He’s that type of worker, consistent player … someone every good team needs.”

“But our fans that were at the exhibitions against North Dakota State and North Dakota … they started getting excited when Cade was shooting threes.”

Center: Robert Vaihola, 6-8 redshirt senior from San Jose State. “Robert played for Tim Miles at San Jose. … Part of that good team Tim had there. He’s not extra tall, but he’s tough. He had 14 rebounds in the exhibition against North Dakota State.”

First off the bench will be three more transfers:

Bobby Durkin, junior from Davidson, 6-7 and a three-point shooter; Langston Reynolds, a senior from Northern Colorado, a muscular guard who makes threes; and B.J. Omot, 6-8, a Mankato East grad, played at North Dakota, injured last season at California, a rebounder if healthy.