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Feeling Blue (Blood) or at Home in Maroon and Gold: Where Minnesota’s Top Boys’ Basketball Prospects Have Gone to College

By Roger Johnson

With the Transfer Portal overflowing with players looking for a new school and the AAU season in full swing, college coaches are in a sprint to fill out their rosters for the coming year, including the University of Minnesota’s new head coach, Niko Medved. Medved is off to a promising start, landing several outstanding players via the portal and recently receiving a commitment from East Ridge standout Cedric Tomes, one of the top Minnesota prospects in the class of 2026. To his credit, he also made last ditch efforts to recruit Nolan Groves, Minnesota’s Gatorade Player of the Year,  who signed with Texas Tech as well as Wayzata’s Christian Wiggins,  who recently committed to Iowa State.

Many, maybe even most, Minnesota basketball fans, will expect Medved to “close the borders” and convince all the great local talent to stay home. They have grown frustrated with previous coaches that were unable to sign high profile players like Jalen Suggs, Chet Holmgren, Tyus and Tre Jones, and Khalid El-Amin or watching the neighboring Badgers consistently fill their roster with Minnesota talent. But is this “homer” viewpoint a fair or even realistic expectation for Medved? Sorry Gopher fans but the answer is NO. While Medved should aggressively pursue the top prospects in Minnesota (which, to be honest, hasn’t always been the case with prior coaches) he also needs to establish a national recruiting base because it is simply not feasible to land all the best Minnesota talent.  The Gophers are literally competing with more than 300 other Division 1 schools, including Blue Blood programs with a history of success and unparalleled resources.

There are a lot of factors that go into a player’s college choice – relationship with coaching staff, potential for personal and team success, quality of facilities, school community, prospects for playing professionally, and increasingly in the new NIL era – how much will they be paid. Editor’s Note: It’s pretty sad that one of the criteria that should be extremely important in selecting a college is rarely, if ever, mentioned in today’s environment –  academics.

The bottom line for the University of Minnesota is that in order to compete at the upper levels of the Big Ten Conference it must recruit high quality players regardless of where they are from. Have never heard a Gopher fan complain about Lou Hudson, Mychal Thompson, Ray Williams, Vincent Grier, Voshon Lenard, Jordan Murphy or Bobby Jackson. And I’m sure their home state fans don’t have the same consternation about them leaving as the Gopher faithful would.

Contrary to popular opinion, historically, the Gophers have done pretty well in landing the top local talent. While certainly not an exhaustive list of the state’s top prospects, I identified more than 80 individuals who were recognized with one or more of the following awards: Mr. Basketball, Gatorade Player of the Year, Metro Player of the Year, Parade All American, and McDonald’s All American – perhaps the most prestigious award for a high school player. Nearly 1/3 of these individuals played for the Gophers (including bounce backs). 17% committed to Blue Bloods, 20% to other high major schools, 24% to low/mid majors, and 8% to D2 schools/other. Let’s take a closer look at each group.

 

Minnesota Gophers

Of the 26 players that have played for the Gophers the most notable are:

  • Dawson Garcia
  • Amir Coffey
  • Blake Hoffarber
  • Kris Humphries
  • Royce White
  • Rick Rickert
  • Joel Przybilla
  • Sam Jacobson
  • Kevin Lynch
  • Jim Petersen
  • Randy Breuer
  • Kevin McHale
  • Mark Olberding

McDonald’s All Americans – Garcia, Humphries, Rickert, Przybilla, and Petersen

College – Seven players scored more than 1,200 points in their Gopher careers – Breuer, Jacobson, McHale, Lynch, Hoffarber, Coffey, and Garcia. Breuer and Humphries earned Honorable Mention All American honors. While nobody won an NCAA title, Jacobson did play in the 1997 Final Four (enough with the NCAA erasing this team from the record book, time for Medved to hang the banner in Williams Arena) and McHale was part of a 24-3 Gopher team that was ineligible for post season play (thanks to the NCAA, of course) but certainly good enough to win a national title, as evidenced by the fact that they had a road victory over Marquette, the eventual champion.

NBA – Ten went on to play in the NBA – Coffey, White, Humphries, Przybilla, Jacobson, Lynch, Petersen, Breuer, McHale and Olberding. Olberding earned All-Rookie team honors and McHale is a Naismith Hall of Famer, 7x All Star, 3x Champion, 6x All Defense, 2x 6th Man of the Year and a member of the NBA’s 75th Anniversary Team.

 

Blue Bloods

Here are the Minnesota natives that left to play for one of the Blue Blood programs. These are schools that have won a national championship or are consistently a top ranked team in the country – Duke, Michigan State, UConn, Arizona, Kansas, Baylor and Gonzaga – yes, the Zags are a Blue Blood and no longer the Cinderella mid-major.

  • Chet Holmgren (Gonzaga)
  • Jalen Suggs (Gonzaga)
  • Matthew Hurt (Duke)
  • Tre Jones (Duke)
  • Tyus Jones (Duke)
  • Isaiah Dahlman (Michigan State)
  • Nick Horvath (Duke)
  • Khalid El-Amin (UConn)
  • Tre Holloman (Michigan State)
  • Zeke Nnaji (Arizona)
  • Cole Aldrich (Kansas)
  • Alan Anderson (Michigan State)
  • Kendall Brown (Baylor)
  • Gary Trent Jr. (Duke)

McDonald’s All Americans – 9 of the 14 were McDonald’s All Americans, all but Dahlman, Horvath, Holloman, Nnaji and Anderson.

College – 6 earned All American honors – Holmgren, Suggs, Tre Jones, Tyus Jones, El-Amin, and Aldrich. 4 played on NCAA championship teams – Tyus Jones, Horvath, El-Amin, and Aldrich.

NBA – 11 went on to play in the NBA, all but Dahlman, Horvath, and Holloman (who is still in college). Holmgren earned All-Rookie honors and Suggs was named to the All-Defensive team last season. Nnaji was a member of the 2023 Denver Nuggets championship team.

Without question, this is an impressive group and I’m sure “losing” these players has caused the most angst among Gopher fans. Clearly, it’s a tough sell competing against the Blue Bloods and the Gophers aren’t the only program that has seen home grown talent head to the greener or should I say bluer pastures.  That being said, it is still critically important to recruit the elite players in your home state. Rick Rickert and Kris Humphries are perfect examples. Rickert originally committed to Arizona before flipping to the Gophers and Humphries had committed to Duke before ending up at Minnesota.

 

Other Major Colleges

Players of note in this group include:

  • Chase Thompson (Clemson)
  • Nolan Groves (Texas Tech)
  • Jackson McAndrew (Creighton)
  • Nolan Winter (Wisconsin)
  • McKinley Wright (Colorado)
  • Jordan Taylor (Wisconsin)
  • Tom Copa (Marquette)
  • Reid Travis (Stanford)
  • Rashad Vaughn (UNLV)
  • Anthony Tucker (Iowa)
  • Darius Lane (Seton Hall)
  • Bob Zender (Kansas State)

McDonald’s All Americans – Travis and Vaughn

College – Wright and Taylor earned All American honors

NBA – 3 played in the NBA – Wright, Copa, and Vaughn, who was a 1st round pick

 

Low to Mid Major/D2/Other

The players of note here include:

  • Quinton Hooker (UND)
  • Brett McNeal (Western Kentucky)
  • Nate Holmstadt (Montana State)
  • Mike VandeGarde (Illinois State)
  • Siyani Chambers (Harvard)
  • Rob Mestas (Miami of Ohio)
  • Jared Nuness (Valparaiso)

College – Hooker, McNeal, Holmstadt, VandeGarde and Chambers had outstanding careers, earning multiple All-Conference honors. Mestas and Nuness were part of some special March Madness magic – Mestas was part of Wally’s World – led by former Timberwolf, Wally Sczerbiak and Nuness was a first-hand witness to Bryce Drew’s miracle buzzer beater against Ole Miss.

 

Who have the Gophers missed on?

It is evident that the Gophers have done well in retaining the top local talent. Nearly 1/3 stayed home, including 5 of the state’s 16 McDonald’s All Americans, and only 2 of those went to non-Blue Blood schools. Nearly 40% of those who became Gophers went on to the NBA, compared to just 24% for those who went to school elsewhere. Perhaps not at the “Close the Borders” level some fans might want but impressive none the less.

So who did the Gophers miss out on, players that they should have had a reasonable chance of signing but didn’t. It’s tough to argue that they should have landed any of the players that went to the Blue Blood schools, so the focus is on the next tiers – other major colleges and low/mid-major schools. Here is my take on the biggest misses for the maroon and gold:

  • Jordan Taylor (Wisconsin)
  • McKinley Wright (Colorado)
  • Anthony Tucker (Iowa)
  • Jackson McAndrew (Creighton)
  • Quentin Hooker (UND)
  • Brett McNeal (Western Kentucky)
  • Nate Holmstadt (Montana State)
  • Reid Travis (Stanford)
  • Rashad Vaughn (UNLV)
  • Nolan Winter (Wisconsin)
  • Tom Copa (Marquette)
  • Darius Lane (Seton Hall)

But of course, the universe of talented players in Minnesota is not limited to the award winners I’ve included in my analysis – this is where the Gophers should have the advantage. Everyone will be pursuing the 4 and 5 star prospects, the Gophers need to identify and pursue the 3 star prospects and the other under the radar guys that can develop into outstanding college players, and potentially even pros – think of names like Nate Wolters (South Dakota State), Devean George (Augsburg ), JP Macura (Xavier ), Jon Leuer (Wisconsin ) Mike Muscala (Bucknell) and David Roddy (Colorado State). Roddy is particularly noteworthy in that he was recruited and coached by none other than Niko Medved. He developed into an All American at Colorado State and eventually became a 1st round draft choice of the Philadelphia 76ers. Hopefully, this is a harbinger of things to come as we begin the Medved era of Gopher hoops.

 

Special thanks to avid Blog reader and fellow Crookston Pirate, Don Beiswenger, for suggesting the topic for this article.

 

About the Author

As Hoop Habits’ media contributor, Roger Johnson brings decades of basketball expertise to his articles. Having served as a marketing executive at Wells Fargo & Company and a content writer for Ultimate Hoops, Roger’s true passion has always been basketball. With experience as a collegiate player at Moorhead State University, coach, and parent of successful players, Roger offers unique insights into the game. His dedication shows through his Minnesota Timberwolves season tickets, University of Minnesota basketball support, and attendance at over 3,000 basketball games throughout his lifetime.