Gophers hope deep backcourt, older roster yields winning season

Are the Gophers guards good enough to compete in the Big Ten?

Feb 3, 2024; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Minnesota Golden Gophers guard Mike Mitchell Jr. (2) works around Northwestern Wildcats guard Ryan Langborg (5) during the first half at Williams Arena. Mandatory Credit: Matt Krohn-USA TODAY Sports / Matt Krohn-USA TODAY Sports

The Gophers' backcourt outlook for 2024-25 took a major hit when starting point guard Elijah Hawkins transferred to Texas Tech in the spring. Mike Mitchell Jr. is the only returning scholarship guard on the roster, but has Minnesota done enough in the portal to have a competitive backcourt in the Big Ten next season?

Last offseason, Mitchell Jr. transferred to Minnesota from Pepperdine. After playing predominately as a point guard in Malibu, his role changed with the Gophers as he found himself playing more off the ball, leaning on Hawkins as the floor general.

Mitchell averaged 4.95 assists per game in two seasons with the Waves, but last season he averaged only 2.6. With the ball in his hands less, he averaged a career-low 1.8 turnovers per game. He was overall a very efficient player who averaged 10.2 points on 42/39.9/80.6 shooting splits, proving to be the best shooter on the team.

When the 6-foot-2 guard opted to return to the program for his final year of college basketball there weren't many pieces around him, but Ben Johnson and the Gophers are grateful they could get a player like Mitchell Jr. to remain in Minneapolis.

"They obviously knew we were going to find a way in the portal, one way or another to find teammates around them. Everybody now has options... but I like the early stages of where we're at," Johnson said.

The departures of Hawkins, Braeden Carrington and Cam Christie forced Minnesota's hand to be very active in the transfer portal. They added Lu'Cye Patterson from Charlotte, Brennan Rigsby from Oregon, Femi Odukale from New Mexico State and Caleb Williams from local Division III Macalester. The biggest theme with the new backcourt portal additions is experience, as all four players have played a lot of college basketball and 2024-25 will be the final season of eligibility for all of them.

"There is a reason we went with a lot of older guys. If you're going to have a turnaround, you better have unlimited NIL, where you can get whoever or you got to have a strategy about it," Johnson said. "I look a lot about year one, where we just had experience. It goes without saying, you got to have the talent, but experience also wins and we were able to find that in the portal."

Johnson made it known that they're still really early in summer practice and there are still a lot of moving parts for how each player will fit into the system. The only thing that is known is that Mitchell Jr. will likely find himself in the starting lineup. As for the other starting guard spot and the starting small forward, there are plenty of questions to be answered.

"We're a really deep backcourt with a lot of shooting," Mitchell Jr. said. "We can all pass, shoot and dribble, so I think we're going to be really good. We can all play off each other."

Playing his high school basketball at local Minnesota Prep Academy, Patterson is likely the favorite to start at the other guard spot, but he's never averaged more than three assists per game in his four-year college career. As for the other options, Williams has never averaged more than three per game, Rigsby has never totaled more than two per contest and Odukale, at 6-foot-6, might need to be used more at the three position in the role Christie played last season.

Johnson and his staff will need to lean on the versatility that each player has. If Odukale does slot into the starting three role, the four veteran guards on the roster are all 6-foot-3 or shorter and all of them have looked more comfortable playing off of the ball in their college careers.

"They all want to win. That's probably the underlying factor that when we recruited these guys, they all talked about taking the next step, individually and then as a team. So you want to have a locker room full of guys that expect to win and want to win," Johnson said.

If the transfers are not able to make the transition into the Big Ten, the Gophers also have incoming freshman Isaac Asuma. He has the most pure point guard traits of anyone on the roster. But, the transfer portal and extra years of eligibility have made the sport older than it has ever been, so leaning on a teenager to make a big contribution might be something Johnson tries to avoid.

With All-America-level talent Dawson Garcia deciding to return alongside veteran Parker Fox, the Gophers have much more proven talents in the frontcourt. Johnson and his staff are going to need to figure out how this backcourt is going to fit together because it will likely determine the ceiling of the team in 2024-25.