Gophers men's basketball working to catch up after falling behind in NIL era

When former Gophers men's basketball coach Richard Pitino had Marcus Carr, Liam Robbins, Both Gach and Brandon Johnson on the roster three years ago, he had four starters who had been top players in the transfer portal at one time.

But that was a lifetime ago for college basketball. Those players came to Minnesota because of relationships with the coaching staff and how they would fit in Pitino's system.

The Gophers would not have had the same success in the transfer portal the way the recruiting landscape is today. Nowadays, it's not relationships and fit. It's often more about name, image and likeness (NIL) — and the money that comes with it.

One huge challenge facing the current coach, Ben Johnson, is that Gophers athletes aren't making as much NIL money as their counterparts at other high-major programs.

"There is a gap we have to make up," Johnson said.

The NCAA tournament showed just how important navigating the transfer portal is. All four Final Four teams — Connecticut, San Diego State, Miami (Fla.) and Florida Atlantic — had at least three transfers in their rotation. And three of the four teams had two transfers as starters.

Miami has a reported NIL pool for men's basketball of more than $2 million. Few teams in the sport can compete with that, but having a comprehensive plan to help athletes collect NIL money is a must to build a competitive roster.

"It's a tough balance," Johnson said. "Compared to last year, [NIL] has probably been more heightened as far as the conversations amongst kids that we're recruiting."

The Gophers finished 9-22 in Johnson's second season, and he recognizes that any chance his program has to experience a major turnaround requires adding more talent. Better NIL opportunities can significantly help that process.

"When you're trying to really move the needle and make a jump, [NIL] is a big factor," Johnson added. "... There are things that I know we're doing and we're working hard to do to try to get caught up and be competitive. Because that is kind of the new wave of recruiting."

The old-school recruiting that helped Johnson in the Gophers' 2023 high school class might be hard to duplicate again. He landed four-star Illinois guard Cameron Christie and five-star 7-foot California center Dennis Evans. But Evans eventually asked out of his letter of intent and committed to Louisville with a reported lucrative NIL deal in the works.

There was a plan for Evans to potentially earn a sizeable NIL deal at Minnesota — just not compared with other high-major programs.

When the season ended last month, Gophers starters Jamison Battle, Ta'Lon Cooper and Jaden Henley entered the portal. Cooper and Henley are going to South Carolina and DePaul, respectively. Battle is reportedly strongly considering Indiana, which is heavily supported with NIL.

The Gophers, meanwhile, are still building from the ground up.

"Minnesota's in a good position right now, but we're not going to be in the game of inducing," said Derek Burns, co-founder of NIL collective Dinkytown Athletes. "We're not going to be in the game of outbidding somebody else."

Dinkytown Athletes is a local platform that helps Gophers athletes with NIL. Burns says the goal for next season is for an NIL package deal to be in place for most men's and women's basketball players, which would be a big step in the right direction.

The Gophers also have a group of basketball-specific donors who are involved with finding members who are interested in long-term investment into the program's NIL.

"Our goal for basketball is to get as many of the student-athletes for men's and women's basketball on basically a package or bundle deal," Burns said.

Burns said each participating athlete would sign a 12-month contract with Dinkytown Athletes that would give them access to various NIL deals set up through the program.

Burns said that depending on how much NIL money is raised through donations, Dinkytown Athletes will try to get those opportunities for as many incoming Gophers as possible.

"If they go out and land transfers and those players show up in June on campus, we'll put as many of them on contract as we can," Burns said.

Former Pepperdine point guard Mike Mitchell Jr., who signed with the Gophers on Tuesday, didn't pick Minnesota because of NIL. He and his parents were impressed on a recent visit with the U staff, facilities and overall opportunities at a Big Ten school.

"There's some NIL opportunities," Mitchell said of the Gophers. "But it's more so just me feeling comfortable with the program."

The Gophers showed how serious they are about NIL last month, when they expanded the role of longtime compliance director Jeremiah Carter to oversee these financial opportunities. His new title is senior associate AD for NIL/policy and risk management.

"We're ahead of where we were last year," Johnson said. "But it's like anything, we've got to keep going with it. We've got to keep improving."