Gophers MBB Searching for Another High Caliber Opponent

The Minnesota Gophers men’s basketball team is in the beginning stages of their new season together. Hopefully, they are starting to move beyond the ice-breaker stage, but it’s tough to say given they have a new head coach, in Niko Medved, and over 10 new players on roster for the upcoming 2025-26 season.

But unlike what we saw from his predecessor Ben Johnson, during his four failed years leading the Minnesota Golden Gophers, Medved doesn’t want to shy away from better non-conference competition.

As of now, however, their 2025-26 slate is looking a little light on just that. Out of the six non-conference games unofficially scheduled for the Gophers next season, not including their Thanksgiving tournament in Palm Desert (CA), only Missouri is a power five school.

The other five — Alcorn State (Nov. 8), Wisconsin-Green Bay (Nov. 15), Chicago State (Nov), Campbell (Dec. 21) and Fairleigh Dickinson (Dec. 29) — are lower-tiered programs that will most likely qualify as quad four opponents, when the dust settles on the 2025-26 regular season and dancing partners are being selected for March.

Niko Medved, Minnesota Gophers searching for another high-caliber non-conference opponent

That’s why, according to Niko Medved today on the CBS Sports college basketball YouTube channel with CBB insider Jon Rothstein, the Minnesota Gophers are in search for another big time power five opponent for their non-conference schedule next season, preferably on a neutral court.

It sure is nice having a Gophers men's basketball coach who understands NET ratings and how crucial playing meaningful games early in the season is to playing meaningful games in March.

📽️: @JonRothstein @CBSSportsCBB pic.twitter.com/S5ZWFXd2R9

— Minnesota Sports Fan (@realmnsportsfan) June 16, 2025

“We’re really working hard to try and find another neutral game that we can play against a great opponent. We really need to do that. It’s difficult, this late in the game, with dates and everything. But we are trying to find one more neutral game against a really really good opponent that’s gonna be great for us. So we still have a little bit of work to do in the non-conference schedule but hopefully moving forward, we’re gonna be able to find that right mix of challenging games…”

Niko Medved: CBS Sports CBB – YouTube

We all know how difficult teams get challenged in the Big Ten. That’s what happens when you play in one of the best basketball conferences in the country. But just because your conference schedule helps build up your NET Rating opportunities, scheduling a crap non-conference schedule makes the margins to thin during conference play.

Related: Minnesota Basketball Star Worked Out by Timberwolves

If you can pull an upset against a ranked team early on in the season, you might be able to afford losing on conference game later on, that you wouldn’t have been able to lose, had your win earlier in the season come against a quad four team, instead of quad one.

Ben Johnson did not understand that, and it’s one of many reasons why he never made the dance, in his four seasons as head coach. Already, before coaching a game, Medved has proven he understands both NIL and non-conference scheduling better than the Gophers previous head coach. In other words, we are off to a good start.