Experience in starting lineup helped Pharrel Payne make strides for Gophers

Forward is 'taking pride' defensively and has been a big piece of Minnesota's success.

When Gophers men’s basketball coach Ben Johnson was scouting Pharrel Payne, he knew after two trips up and down the court that he wanted Payne on his team.

Payne’s motor stood out right away, and Johnson offered him almost immediately — in June of 2021 — less than three months after he had been named the next head coach at the U.

“I remember that first call from (Johnson), he’s like, ‘I believe you can be someone that is our guy,’” Payne said. “And I feel like he’s believed in me since Day 1.”

Payne, a four-star recruit out of Park High School in Cottage Grove, Minn., committed to the Gophers just two months later and became Minnesota’s highest-rated recruit in its 2022 class. Fast forward a few years, and Payne is beginning to develop into the Gophers’ guy Johnson had talked about.

There was a particular sequence during Friday's 80-62 win over Maine where Payne showed exactly what he can do for the Gophers. After the Black Bears had cut the Gophers' lead down to five after trailing by double digits earlier, Payne went on his own 6-0 run and had a huge block on the defensive end to help Minnesota pull away. 

For the season, Payne is averaging 9.7 points, 5.2 rebounds and 1.2 blocks per game for Minnesota and was thrust into the starting lineup when the Gophers were without leading scorer Dawson Garcia — who suffered an ankle injury during a Dec. 6 home win over Nebraska — for three games.

Johnson said getting those extra minutes and experience during Garcia’s absence is valuable for Payne, who hasn't regularly been a No. 1-type option for Minnesota. 

“I don’t want (Payne) to have to feel like he’s gotta shoulder the load all the time. One day he needs to be a Batman, and I think he will, but I think he’s a pretty good Robin,” Johnson said Thursday. “… He’s very capable of being a No. 1 or a play-through-type of big, but you can also do that without having that spotlight on you, which to me is like best-case scenario.”

Payne has upped his per-game averages slightly over the Gophers’ last five games, all wins, averaging 10.0 points, 6.0 rebounds, 1.2 blocks, 1.0 assists and 0.6 steals over that stretch. He's started three of those five games. Payne has also consistently been taking high-quality shots, hitting on 66% of his field goals in that time.

“Pharrel definitely grew with him being in the starting lineup and (Garcia) being out because we had to rely on him more as a post presence, shot blocker, so I feel like that was good for him,” Josh Ola-Joseph said.

It’s on the defensive side of the ball where Johnson has seen Payne take the biggest leap. His presence at the rim and in the paint has made life difficult on opponents. Payne has four steals this season, three of which have come in the last five games. And he’s had at least one block in four of last five games, and had multiple blocks in two of those contests.

“Now a year and a half in the system, he's able to use his athleticism and speed to just go play because he knows the system. And for us, that’s a huge separator because now you got a big body that can really move, that can (be) mobile, that can protect the rim, that can defend the pick-and-roll — that part is huge,” Johnson said. “So, the defensive piece I think he’s really made a big stride and he’s taking pride in it.”

Johnson says the next step for Payne is to continue to step up as a leader on the team. “He’s such a good kid, he’s so nice where you want him to have more alpha to him, which I think he’s starting to develop,” Johnson said.

That’s looked like becoming more of a vocal presence in the locker room, which Johnson and Payne’s Gophers teammates — like Ola-Joseph and Elijah Hawkins — have already noticed. It also looks like testing that big motor Johnson noticed scouting him years ago and pushing himself. And it's continuing to develop that toughness that Payne's shown throughout the early stretch of the season. 

Payne's skillset and the development he has shown this season are going to be important for the Gophers as they approach the restart of Big Ten play. They'll need his motor, his physicality and defensive presence as they face more physical conference teams, starting with Michigan on Thursday at 8 p.m. in Ann Arbor, Mich. 

“The physicality in the Big Ten is definitely different,” Payne said. “… I noticed that everyone’s bigger, faster, stronger like I usually say, but I feel like we got the group of guys to be able to attack it head on.”