Mark Coyle: Gophers men's basketball will be 'a preseason top-25 team'

"If everybody comes back we'll be a top-25 team preseason next year."

The Gophers men's basketball team will open up the 2024-25 season as a ranked top-25 team, according to Gophers athletics director Mark Coyle.

"If everybody comes back we'll be a top-25 team preseason next year," Coyle said on the Golden Gophers Podcast. "I have no issues saying that at all. We'll be a top-25 preseason team and that means teams aren't going to want to play you."

The team has shown significant improvement this season after two lackluster season to begin Ben Johnson's tenure as head coach of the Gophers. Minnesota is 17-11 overall this season, sporting an 8-9 record in the Big Ten with just three games left in the regular season. In his first two seasons in charge, Johnson won six Big Ten games combined.

"I feel like Ben's made great progress this year," Coyle continued. "We're showing improvement. I look forward to continuing to build this program with him. Our goal is to get to the NCAA tournament. Once you get there, anything can happen. But that's our goal is to get to the NCAA tournament."

Courtesy of University of Minnesota

Unless a miracle run in the Big Ten tournament happens it looks likely the Gophers will miss out on March Madness for the fifth consecutive season.

On if he feels there's a foundation being built by Johnson, Coyle said "I do."

"He brought in some older kids in year one," said Coyle. "We got younger last year. And now this is year three of his program. We've got a good recruiting class coming in next year. So, Ben has done what he said he was going to do. We've been patient but again we've seen progress. We're much better, we're much more competitive in games." 

"It's a good vibe with that team," Coyle continued. "I give Ben a lot of credit because he's kept that team close together. We don't know what will happen with NIL, what will happen with the transfer portal but right now I feel like we've got those kids coming back and they're committed to Ben. So, I feel like we're going in the right direction."