Minnesota Basketball: 4 takeaways from 1st month of 2023-24 regular season

After two of the worst seasons in program history to open up the Ben Johnson era in the Twin Cities, Minnesota Basketball’s 2023-24 goals could be summed up in one word: progress. Nobody around the program truly believes this team is going to be competing for an NCAA Tournament berth this year, but the hope is that Johnson and company can show they are moving forward after just two Big Ten victories last winter.

Roughly one month and six games into the regular season, the results have been … mixed. The Gophers are 4-2 and have beaten up on the low-major foes they should have little issue with, but they’ve come up short in their two most important games of the year, Missouri and San Francisco.

Both defeats signaled that there is still significant work that needs to be done around the program, but were painful for different reasons. The Missouri loss was not only a horrific choke, it came against Dennis Gates, who many considered to be a leading candidate for the Minnesota job last time it opened, before they eventually settled on Johnson. As for San Francisco, the Gophers didn’t even look competitive against a team that finished below .500 in the WCC a season ago.

With Big Ten play right around the corner – a two-game preview against Ohio State and Nebraska before the meat of the league schedule begins in January –  every minute of basketball is of utmost importance to Johnson and this program. There have been positives to take away from the first month, but will it be enough for this team to climb out of the conference cellar?