Report: Gopher Basketball Catching Up Fast in NIL Race
For the first time in at least a few years, there were signs of life out of the Minnesota Gophers men’s basketball program in 2025-26, under new head coach Niko Medved. They finished below .500, at 15-18, but went 8-12 in the conference and beat three teams ranked in the top 25.
In the end, a bevy of injuries to key players doomed a 2025-26 Golden Gopher squad that was too light on talent to begin with, making their eight conference wins (tied for the third-most Big Ten victories in the last seven seasons) that much more impressive.
Gopher basketball trying to add talent through transfer portal
Thus, Medved is on a mission this offseason to bulk up Minnesota’s roster. According to Ryan James (247Sports), there is a “very, very, very strong chance” the Gophers land UNC’s Kyan Evans, who played for Niko at Colorado State from 2023-2025.
Then on Wednesday, another local sports insider, David Shama, is reporting at ShamaSportsHeadliners.com that Long Lake, MN native — Texas Tech transfer Nolan Groves — is also on Medved’s radar.
Medved is trying to do now is fill out the roster around guard Isaac Asuma, and forwards Bobby Durkin, Grayson Grove and Jaylen Crocker-Johnson. It could be that transfers will include former Orono High guard Nolan Groves (Texas Tech) and guard Kyan Evans, who played for Medved at Colorado State prior to joining North Carolina.
David Shama – ShamaSportsHeadliners.com
So… assuming the Gophers sign Evans, Groves and a couple more contributors in the portal, or a similar combination, it’s worth wondering how Niko Medved is going to afford all of this talent, from an NIL standpoint.
Niko Medved trying to buy talent this offseason?
Well according to Shama, Minnesota’s Name, Image and Likeness budget is growing exponentially, under its new head coach, reporting that Medved is now working with approximately $7 million in total NIL funding to pay his players.
That total, per Sports Headliners, is made up of half what they’ve raised through the Gophers’ official Dinkytown Athletes collective ($3.5M), and half through their cut in the $30 million that Minnesota has agreed to pay its student athletes in yearly revenue sharing ($3.5M).
There’s a buzz, including with potential recruits, around Niko Medved’s University of Minnesota basketball program. Don’t be surprised at the program’s success during the transfer portal period that started yesterday and ends April 21.
It’s believed Medved will have a program high of over $7 million to pay players for next season. This is a combined pot of athletic department revenue share money and dollars from donors for Name, Image and Likeness.
David Shama – ShamaSportsHeadliners.com
Beyond their incoming freshman — four-star wing Nolan Anderson (Wayzata), high three-star big, Chadrack Mpoyi (Irvine, CA) and three-star Cedrick Tomes (East Ridge), Minnesota’s also secured NIL contracts from many of its current key players.
Minnesota Gophers trying to pay everyone…
Last week, new deals were announced for guard Isaac Asuma, along with forwards Bobby Durkin, Jaylen Crocker-Johnson and Grayson Grove. Now, all attention has turned to the transfer portal, where Medved is trying to lock in both Evans and Groves, among others.
Does he stand a chance against other teams in the Big Ten? Well, this recent influx of NIL dollars doesn’t have the Gophers enjoying a larger budget than others around them. However, it has pushed them up to the middle of the conference, after years of sitting near the bottom.
Bottom line is Medved will have more money to work with than his first season and word is his budgets from the two sources put Minnesota in the middle range among the Big Ten’s 18 men’s basketball programs.
David Shama – ShamaSportsHeadliners.com
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