Minnesota Golden Gophers men's basketball

This roster is current for the 2021–22 men's basketball season.[13]

L. J. Cooke was the Gophers coach from 1897 to 1924.

The precise founding of the Gophers men's basketball program at the University of Minnesota is somewhat nebulous. Unlike many other universities with later foundations, the team did not form as a conscious act of the campus administration. The university's student newspaper at the time, the Ariel, reported on basketball throughout 1895 as the sport was introduced to the campus from a rival school, Minnesota A&M in St. Paul, later incorporated into the larger University of Minnesota Twin Cities.[14] In 1896, a team from the school began to participate in a league with the Agriculture school, YMCA teams, and other local associations. The establishment of the Armory on-campus gave the team a new place to play. In February 1897, L. J. Cooke, a director of the Minneapolis YMCA, was hired on a part-time basis to coach the basketball program, and became the full-time coach and director of physical education by the fall of that year.[15] Cooke was one of the first full-time professional coaches in all of college basketball and would remain at the program for 28 seasons.

Cooke began to improve the team significantly and was responsible for shifts in the Gophers' scheduling that foreshadowed other changes to come. The team never played a YMCA team after the 1903–04 season, and beginning in 1900, began to schedule large neighboring universities that would join Minnesota in Big Ten competition.[15] This shift to playing similar competition helped the Gophers to become one of the premier programs in the nation. From the 1899–1900 to 1903–04 seasons, the Gophers had a 59–6 record. The 1901–02 squad has been retroactively named the national champions by both the Helms Foundation and the Premo-Porretta Power Poll; the Premo-Porretta poll also names the 1902–03 Gophers as national champions.[16] When the Big Ten established basketball in 1905, the Gophers won the first two conference titles.[17]

After 1907, Cooke's dominance of the national basketball scene was greatly reduced. He led the team to two more conference titles (1916–17, 1918–19), and one consensus retroactive national championship for the 1918–19 season, but the team was never the consistent winner that it was in the first decade under Cooke. He retired after the 1923–1924 season. His successor, Harold Taylor, was Cooke's assistant coach in his final season and had previously a successful high school coach; however, he had little success with the Gophers and was fired after never finishing higher than sixth in the conference in three forgettable seasons.[18]

Following the firing of Harold Taylor as coach, the program underwent a national search for a successor. Many of the candidates for the job were high-profile coaches of other conference foes.[19] The team opted, however, to hire Dave MacMillan, who had been coaching the University of Idaho for the previous seven seasons and had previously played for the Original Celtics during the 1910s.[20] MacMillan would dominate the program for the next 30 years, coaching the team from 1927 to 1942 and again from 1945 to 1948.

MacMillan's teams in 1928 began to play in the University of Minnesota Field House, a new on-campus arena. Basketball had been off-campus for several seasons when the team moved downtown. MacMillan's teams had middling success. His 1930–31 and 1931–32 teams competed near the top of the Big Ten, but his teams dropped off again until 1936. John Kundla joined the team for the 1936–1937 season and helped the team to the Big Ten Championship, which was ended up being its last until 1972. MacMillan's squad also competed in a tournament in 1936 to represent the United States in the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin; the team advanced several rounds before being ousted by DePaul.[21] Many Gophers players in this era were recruited from Minneapolis public high schools, and in some seasons this even constituted a majority of the roster.[22] McMillan resigned in 1942, but returned in 1945 after three poor seasons for the Gophers in the interim. When he resigned for the second time in 1948, he was replaced by O. B. Cowles.

Cowles was known for playing slower tempo basketball like was most common in the 1920s and 1930s and was known as a defensive-minded coach, especially early in his career.[23] His squads were led by two-time All-American Jim McIntyre and three-time NBA Champion Whitey Skoog for the early years of his career and Big Ten MVP Chuck Mencel for the middle ones. Another notable Gophers star from the era was Pro Football Hall of Fame coach Bud Grant.[24] Cowles had a .612 winning percentage at the school. The Gophers were unable to win a Big Ten title, however, despite a solid nucleus in Cowles's early seasons. The team finished fourth or better in the conference seven times in Cowles's 11 seasons as Gopher head coach.

The Golden Gophers have played home games in Williams Arena since 1928.

In 1959, John Kundla stayed behind in Minneapolis as the Lakers prepared to leave town and succeeded O. B. Cowles as head coach of the Golden Gophers. Kundla remained head coach until 1968. In 1963, he broke the color barrier in the Minnesota program and recruited three African-American players to come to the school. One of these first three players was Lou Hudson, who played in the NBA and was the first Gopher to have his number retired by the school.[25] The other two players recruited by Kundla, Archie Clark and Don Yates, also were both drafted by NBA teams. That trio helped the Gophers to a third place Big Ten finish in 1963–64 and a second-place finish in 1964–65, but those were the high points for Kundla's collegiate career. Kundla's personal assessment of his Gophers career was that his personal weaknesses in recruiting were marring the team by the end of his tenure.[26]

Kundla was succeeded by Bowling Green head coach Bill Fitch. Fitch remained with the Gophers for two seasons before being hired by the Cleveland Cavaliers as their first head coach in 1970 to make the leap to the NBA, where he later won an NBA title as coach of the Boston Celtics.[27] Fitch did recruit Jim Brewer before he left, laying the first seed for the 1972 Big Ten title.[27] George Hanson, a longtime assistant coach at the school, was hired as his replacement, but resigned after only one season.[28]

The Gophers under Athletics Director Marsh Ryman hired Cal Luther away from Murray State to coach the team in 1971, but he changed his mind and turned the team down after accepting the position.[29] Instead, Bill Musselman took over the program. Musselman was a defensive minded coach and designed his team around Brewer, recruiting several junior college players. University of Minnesota baseball star Dave Winfield also joined the team in 1971.[30] The starters on the 1971–72 squad after the Ohio State game became known as the "Iron Five." Musselman's strategy succeeded, and the team took the Big Ten title, the first since 1937. The other Big Ten coaches did not approve of Musselman's recruiting posture as they all had gathered and agreed not to recruit Ron Behagen into the Big Ten because he was known as a troublemaker. Musselman had not been named Head Coach of Minnesota at that time and therefore was unaware of the internal agreement and therefore recruited what he thought were the best players available.

In 1973, former player Greg Olson accused Musselman of having attempted to strike him in a practice.[31] It was also revealed that Olson had sold complimentary season tickets to a booster named Harvey Mackay, which prompted NCAA investigations.[31] Musselman's coaching style also brought about significant transfers away from the Minnesota program to other schools.[31][32] In 1975, Musselman resigned and was named the head coach of the San Diego Sails of the ABA. After his resignation, Musselman admitted to giving money to players for rent and transportation.[32] These charges, coupled with the earlier ticket selling scandal and other transgressions regarding payments and aid revolving around Harvey Mackay, resulted in a list from the NCAA of more than 100 rule violations in Musselman's four seasons at the school.[32] The extent of the consequences would not be known until early in Jim Dutcher's eleven season tenure as Gophers head coach.

Dutcher took over the Gophers program in 1975 following the departure of Bill Musselman. The highlight of his time at Minnesota was 1982, a season in which he led the Gophers to the Big Ten Championship — to date, the last "official" conference title for the Gophers — and a Sweet 16 appearance. He was named the Big Ten Coach of the Year in 1982.

Prominent players coached by Dutcher at Minnesota included Ray Williams, who later played for the New York Knicks; Mychal Thompson, who played for the Portland Trail Blazers and Los Angeles Lakers; Kevin McHale, who played for the Boston Celtics; Trent Tucker, who played for the New York Knicks and Chicago Bulls; Randy Breuer, who played for the Milwaukee Bucks, Minnesota Timberwolves, Atlanta Hawks and Sacramento Kings; Flip Saunders, who became an NBA coach for the Minnesota Timberwolves, Detroit Pistons, and Washington Wizards; Osborne Lockhart, who played for the Harlem Globetrotters; Jim Petersen, who played for the Houston Rockets; Darrell Mitchell, who was named first-team All-Big Ten, and Tommy Davis, also a first-team All-Big Ten player.

On January 25, 1986, three Gopher players were arrested on rape charges in Madison, Wisconsin. A Madison woman claimed the players raped her at their team hotel hours after the Gophers played the Wisconsin Badgers. After the arrests, U of M officials canceled the Gophers' next scheduled game, against Northwestern, citing the arrests and a series of less serious incidents prior to the arrests. Not agreeing with the university's decision to forfeit the game, Dutcher resigned as head coach, Jimmy Williams served as the interim coach the rest of the season. All three players were ultimately acquitted of all charges.

The court of Williams Arena

Clem Haskins was hired as the Gopher basketball coach in 1986, expected to clean up and rebuild the Gopher program which had been torn apart by the Madison sexual assault allegations (of which the players were later acquitted) during the final year of coach Jim Dutcher.[33] Though wins did not come easily in the first couple years of Haskins regime, by the 1988–89 season he had the Gophers in the 1989 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament as a #11 seed, and directed a Cinderella run into the Sweet 16. In the 1989–90 season Haskins led the Gophers on another cinderella run in the 1990 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament. This time as a No. 6 seed, the Gophers went all the way to the Elite Eight, and came within a basket of reaching their first ever Final Four. Though Haskins led the Gophers to post-season success in his first three seasons, the 1990 Elite Eight appearance would be the last time under Haskins the Gophers would "officially" appear in the NCAA tournament, due to their future tournament results being vacated as a result of NCAA violations.[34]

Prominent players coached by Haskins at Minnesota included Minnesota native Sam Jacobson, who went on to play for the Los Angeles Lakers, Golden State Warriors, and hometown Minnesota Timberwolves, Sharp-shooter Voshon Lenard, who spent 5 seasons with the Miami Heat and won the 2004 Three-Point Contest, Quincy Lewis, who was a 3rd Team All American and played for the Utah Jazz and Minnesota Timberwolves, and Bobby Jackson who under Haskins was a Consensus All American and Big Ten Player Of The Year, before going on to play 12 seasons in the NBA, most prominently for the Sacramento Kings, where he won the 2003 Sixth Man of the Year Award, and now serves as an assistant coach. Big men John Thomas, Joel Przybilla, and Trevor Winter (the latter two both Minnesota natives), also flourished under Haskins and went on to have careers in the NBA.

On March 10, 1999, the day before the #7 seed Gophers were to open the NCAA tournament against #10 Gonzaga, the St. Paul Pioneer Press ran a story detailing allegations of massive academic fraud in the men's basketball program.[35] Former basketball office manager Jan Gangelhoff had gone to the newspaper claiming she had written over 400 papers for at least 20 Gopher men's basketball players over a period of several years, ending in 1998. When the Gophers played Gonzaga on March 11, the university suspended players Antoine Broxsie, Kevin Clark, Jason Stanford, and Miles Tarver since they allegedly had papers written for them by Ganglehoff in previous seasons.[36] With their roster depleted, the Gophers lost to Gonzaga, the season came to an end, and an internal investigation at the university began.

By June 1999 and in the midst of their investigation, the university had negotiated a buyout of the remainder of Haskins' contract, worth $1.5 million over three years. It also withdrew from postseason consideration in the 1999–2000 season and docked itself 11 scholarships over four years.[37] In the summer of 2000, Haskins came forward and admitted that he had paid Gangelhoff $3,000 for her services; this revelation came to light after Haskins turned his financial records over to the NCAA.[38] In addition, more details were emerging in which Haskins was also accused of mail fraud in an incident regarding a recruit's transcript, giving players cash, dismissing sexual harassment concerns against his players, as well as his staff trying to persuade professors to give his players inflated grades they had not earned.[39][40][41]

After the details of Haskins' ever-growing involvement became more clear, the university initiated legal action to recover the buyout money.[42][43] A judge ultimately ruled that Haskins must return just over half of the original $1.5 million buyout.[44]

During this time an NCAA investigation was also underway. Ultimately, it revealed that Minnesota was guilty of massive violations under Haskins' watch. The NCAA stripped the Gophers of all postseason awards, titles, personal records, and statistics dating back to the 1993–94 season citing a "lack of institutional control." Haskins was also slapped with a seven-year "show-cause" order, which effectively banned him from coaching at any level in the NCAA until 2007. Besides lying about the $3,000 payment, he had also told several of his players to lie to the NCAA.[45] Later, the Big Ten forced the Gophers to vacate their 1997 conference title, as well as all regular season games dating to 1993–94. As a result, Minnesota's official record from 1993–94 to 1998–99 is 0–0. If not for the vacated games, Haskins would be the second-winningest coach in school history.

In addition, the NCAA docked the Gophers an additional five scholarships over the following three seasons, and also imposed recruiting limitations and department-wide probation lasting four years.[46]

In addition to Haskins, Athletic Director Mark Dienhart, Vice President for Athletics, Student Development McKinley Boston, Associate Athletics Director Jeff Schemmel and academic counselor Alonzo Newby also resigned.[47] The university also agreed to return 90% (approximately $350,000) of the profits earned by the basketball program during their appearances in the NCAA tournament, including the 1997 Final Four run.[42]

Following Haskins' departure, the university hired Gonzaga's Dan Monson to be their next head coach, who coincidentally had just beaten the Gophers in the NCAA Tournament the previous March.[48] Monson was the coach for part of eight seasons. However, during his tenure the scholarship reductions took their full effect, making it difficult for him to recruit on the same level as the rest of the Big Ten. His Gopher teams only made the NCAA tournament once, in 2004–05.[49] Monson almost left the Minnesota program for the University of Washington following the 2001–02 season, but was thought of highly by the athletics department under Tom Moe and was persuaded to stay despite limited success.[50] These trends did not reverse after he remained at the program.

Former Gophers coach Tubby Smith

During his final full season the Gophers were 5–11 in Big Ten play, and after a 2–5 start to open the 2006–07 season, Monson and Athletics Director Joel Maturi announced Monson's resignation on November 30, 2006.[51] Despite Monson's inability to field a consistent winner, he was lauded by University officials for bringing integrity and cleanliness back to the program.[52] Assistant coach Jim Molinari was named head coach on an interim basis and, after a 3–13 Big Ten record to finish the season, was not retained as head coach. Maturi began an extensive search for a new permanent head coach at season's end.

On March 23, 2007, Maturi made a move that surprised many when he hired Tubby Smith after he resigned from the University of Kentucky to be the next head Gopher basketball coach.[53] Smith's name recognition and winning reputation gave the program a new optimism, something it badly needed to counter its dwindling fan interest.[54]

Smith's coaching had an immediate impact on the previously unsuccessful Gophers squad. The team went from 8–22 in 2006–07 to 20–13 in 2007–08. Smith also led the Golden Gophers to the Big Ten tournament semi-finals after defeating 2nd seeded Indiana. Coach Smith also signed a top 25 recruiting class, the best in years for the program.[55][56] Smith returned Minnesota to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2005 in the 2008–09 season. Smith's team struggled throughout the 2009–10 season with off-court issues, but advanced to the championship game in the Big Ten tournament for the first time in school history (losing to regular season co-champion Ohio State) and made the NCAA tournament for the second consecutive season.[57]

On March 25, 2013, Smith was relieved of his coaching duties at Minnesota.[58]

On April 3, 2013, Richard Pitino, son of Louisville coach Rick Pitino, verbally agreed to coach the Golden Gophers. On April 3, after missing out on the NCAA tournament, the Gophers responded by winning the 2014 NIT championship trophy by defeating SMU. Austin Hollins was named the NIT MVP. As a result, Pitino claimed his first championship with the team.[59] Following the success of an NIT championship, the Gophers hoped to qualify for the NCAA tournament the following year. However, the team struggled and finished with only six wins in the conference and did not qualify for any major tournament.

The 2016 season was a disaster for the Gophers as they only managed to win two conference games. The lone bright spot came during a late season upset against ranked Maryland to give the Gophers their first conference win on the season.[60] Despite the lack of success on the court, the Gophers were able to get Amir Coffey, a highly ranked player from Hopkins to commit to the men's basketball program.[61] Coffey, along with other recruits Eric Curry and Michael Hurt,[62] were able to help lift the Gophers to a 23-8 regular season record in the 2016–2017 season, and a birth to the 2017 NCAA tournament, where they attained a 5 seed[63] and lost to 12-seed Middle Tennessee State to finish with a 24–10 record.[64] Expectations were high coming into the 2017–2018 season, as they only lost one rotational player, Akeem Springs, from the year before. This was evident as Minnesota received its highest preseason ranking in the AP poll since 1993, coming in at 15th.[65] Before the season, things started to unravel for Pitino's team. Sophomore Eric Curry tore his ACL and MCL in late August, forcing him to miss the entirety of the 2017–2018 season.[66] During the beginning of the season, sexual assault allegations came out against senior center Reggie Lynch, which resulted in Lynch's suspension and eventual expulsion from the University of Minnesota.[67] Later in the season, sophomore Amir Coffey suffered a shoulder injury and ended up missing the last 12 games of the season.[68] The Gophers ended the season 15–17, with a 4–14 record in conference play and a first round loss to Rutgers in the 2018 Big Ten tournament.[69] The 2018–2019 season went much better for the Gophers. They finished with a record of 22–13, although they only went 9–11 in conference play. Still, after strong wins over No. 20 Wisconsin, and No. 11 Purdue twice, the Gophers finished 4th in the 2019 Big Ten tournament and returned to post-season play as a 10 seed in the East Region of the 2019 NCAA tournament.[70] In the tournament, the Gophers beat the 7 seed Louisville Cardinals in the first round 86–76.[71] In the Round of 32, the Gophers lost to the Michigan State Spartans 70–50,[72] who would end up the champions of the East Region.

A Golden Gophers player (right) defending a Maryland player in 2021

Payton Willis (left) in maroon Minnesota jersey, on defense in December 2021.

On March 22, 2021, the University of Minnesota welcomed a former player and former assistant coach Ben Johnson to helm the Men's Basketball program for its next era. Johnson, at 40 years of age, is the 18th head coach in program history. His tenure as a player began after a standout career at DeLaSalle High School in Minneapolis, where he led the private Catholic school to two state championships. He was named twice as a first-team all-state athlete for both basketball and football, and for his senior year was named a Street & Street All-American. His collegiate career took him to Northwestern University for two years, returning to the Twin Cities and the Gophers for his two remaining seasons. There, he finished with 533 points in 59 games for Minnesota (1,202 career collegiate points). He began his coaching career at the University of Dayton, with stops at the University of Texas–Pan American then four years as assistant coach at Northern Iowa in a pivotal program that won at least 20 games in all four years. He was an assistant coach at the University of Nebraska for a year, then worked for the Gopher program as an assistant coach and recruiter from 2013 to 2018. He is credited with recruitment and development of local standouts Daniel Oturu, Amir Coffey, and Jordan Murphy. In 2018 he made the move to Xavier, where he similarly excelled at recruitment (consecutive top-30 recruiting classes for 2019 and 2020), while posting a three-season record of 51–37. Now named to helm the Gophers for the 2021–22 season, Johnson is a seasoned leader and recruiter who brings a depth of local relationships and proven abilities to the role.[73]

Big Ten MVP[74]

• Chuck Mencel – 1955
• Jim Brewer – 1972
• Mychal Thompson – 1978
• Bobby Jackson – 1997 (later revoked due to the academic fraud scandal)

Big Ten Coach of the Year[74]

• Jim Dutcher – 1982
• Clem Haskins – 1997 (later revoked due to the academic fraud scandal)
• Richard Pitino – 2017

Henry Iba Award (National Coach of the Year)

• Clem Haskins – 1997

Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year[74]

• Bobby Jackson – 1997 (later revoked due to the academic fraud scandal)
• Travarus Bennett – 2002
• Reggie Lynch – 2017

Big Ten Freshman of the Year[74]

• Rick Rickert – 2002
• Kris Humphries – 2004[75]

Consensus All-Americans[74]

• Jim McIntyre – 1948
• Dick Garmaker – 1955
• Mychal Thompson – 1978

Academic All-American[76]

• Blake Hoffarber – 2011 (2nd Team)

The Gophers enjoyed fairly regular post season appearances under former coach Clem Haskins, making the post season in 10 of his 13 seasons as coach (6 NCAA tournament, 4 NIT), including all of his last 8 seasons. The team advanced to one Final 4, one Elite 8, one Sweet 16, one second round appearance, and suffered two first round losses. However, after the academic fraud scandal in 1999, the last 6 years of post season records were wiped out. So officially, the Gophers made 2 NCAA Tournament and 2 NIT appearances in the 13 years Haskins was coach. They advanced to the Elite 8 in 1990, the Sweet 16 in 1989, and were NIT champions in 1993.

The Gophers saw some moderate success in the early 1980s, appearing in the 1980, 1981, and 1983 NITs and the 1982 NCAA tournament, where they advanced to the Sweet 16.[77]

Multiple problems plagued the Gophers during the 1976–1977 season, Jim Dutcher's 2nd as head coach. Heading into the season the team knew they would not be eligible for the post season because of sanctions from the Bill Musselman era. Even so, this turned out to be one of the best teams in Gopher history, with the team finishing at 24–3. But if not being post-season eligible was not punishment enough, it was later found out that Mychal Thompson had sold two complimentary tickets to Gopher home games.[78] When it was discovered, the profits were donated to University of Minnesota scholarship funds.[78] The school and several prominent supporters, including Senator Wendell Anderson attempted to back Thompson and the team.[79] Nevertheless, when the NCAA discovered Thompson's act, Minnesota's record for the season was forfeited and the accomplishments of that season are considered unofficial and not included in NCAA records.[79]

The Golden Gophers have appeared in the NCAA tournament 14 times. Their combined record is 15–13. However, their tournament appearances from 1972, 1994, 1995 & 1997 have been vacated making their official record 9–10.

* Vacated by the NCAA

The Golden Gophers have appeared in the National Invitation Tournament (NIT) 15 times. Their combined record is 33–13. They were NIT Champions in 1993, 1998 and 2014. However, their tournament appearances in 1996 and 1998 have been vacated, including their 1998 title, making their official record 27–12.

* Vacated by the NCAA