Minnesota Basketball: Breakdown of newcomers for 2020-21 season
By Ben Dickson
Though Minnesota Basketball has lost star big man Daniel Oturu to the NBA, they hope their incoming freshmen and transfers can help put them back in NCAA Tournament contention.
Minnesota Basketball fans could not have been happy with how the 2019-2020 season went for them. Finishing under .500 in both conference play and overall is nothing to be happy about, and their fans cannot be satisfied with how the season went.
Despite their lowly record, the Golden Gophers were, unbelievably, still in tournament contention for the majority of the season. The metrics that the NCAA Tournament committee used loved Minnesota. The Gophers remarkably finished 27th in KenPom, 42nd in the NET, and 32nd in the ESPN BPI. Like it or not, Minnesota was a bubble team.
According to KenPom’s strength of schedule rating, the Golden Gophers played the 3rd toughest schedule in the country, so it makes sense that they ended with a poor record. In addition to playing in the toughest conference in college basketball, Minnesota also played non-conference games against Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Clemson, Butler, DePaul, and Utah.
It will be another uphill battle for Minnesota in the 2020-21 season. Daniel Oturu, one of the best centers in the country last season, is a major loss for the Golden Gophers. After averaging over 20 points and 11 rebounds per game, Oturu is off to the NBA Draft, where I expect him to be either a late first or early second round pick.
The Gophers also lost guard Payton Willis, who averaged 8.6 points, 3.5 rebounds, and nearly two assists per game. Willis is transferring to his third school, the College of Charleston, for his senior season. Freshman guard Bryan Greenlee is also transferring from the Gophers after only seeing action in 19 games.
Rising junior guard Marcus Carr was an absolute stud for Minnesota last season, averaging 15.4 points, 5.3 rebounds, and 6.5 assists per game. Carr is currently testing the NBA Draft waters and would be a massive loss if he left. I do expect him to be back at school, though, as the NBA Draft advisory board told him he could potentially go undrafted, per KSTP Sports.
With all that said, let’s take a look at the new pieces for the Golden Gophers, as they look to go back to the NCAA Tournament for the third time in five seasons.