It was a Darn Good Weekend for Niko Medved, Gophers Men’s Basketball

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Niko Medved - Minnesota Gophers men's basketball head coach
Credit: Photo courtesy of Minnesota Gophers athletics

The Minnesota Gophers men’s basketball roster has been completely turned over, since four-year head coach Ben Johnson was fired, in favor of another Minneapolis raised former Gopher, Niko Medved, fresh off of an incredible seven-year run at Colorado State that included NCAA Tournament appearances is three of his final four years.

Medved came into the weekend with seven transfers already committed for next season — a group highlighted by PG Chansey Willis Jr (W. Michigan) and Bobby Durkin (Davidson). Minnesota also added one 2025 high school commit — 6’5″ three-star shooting guard Kai Shinholster, out of Philadelphia.

But of course, Niko has all sorts of work still to do, both for next season and beyond. That’s the life of a freshly hired college basketball coach in the transfer portal + NIL era. And this weekend, he added depth to this year’s team, while taking a major step forward for Minnesota’s roster of the future.

Minnesota Gophers land East Ridge guard, Cedric Tomes

Niko Medved and his new staff had their greatest success this weekend on the local high school recruiting trail. One day after reeling in Chance Stephens out of the portal (more on him momentarily), the Minnesota Gophers received a commitment from East Ridge (MN) High School point guard, Cedric Tomes.

The 6’0″ 3-star point guard out of St. Paul (85 overall rating by 247Sports.com) is the first verbal commit of the Golden Gophers’ 2026 class (seniors next year). He’s also Niko Medved’s first high school commit from the state of Minnesota, where the head coach was also born and raised, before he too attended the U of M.

Cedric Tomes — who averaged over 27.3 points per game and shot 40% from beyond the arc — is a high-volume shooter point guard, who he sees the floor well. He will kill you from deep all day if you let him. But make the mistake of getting too close, and he has no problems taking you to the hole.

Tomes is smooth with the ball in his hands and finds open teammates when the defense collapses down on him. He reminds me of… former Golden Gophers PG Marcus Carr, who carried Minnesota for two seasons under Richard Pitino, before moving on and making a couple of NCAA tournament runs at Texas.

Cedric Tomes owns (single-game) school records at East Ridge for FG made (17), FG attempts (29), points (41), 3PT made (9), 3PT attempts (15) and single-season records for points (735) FG attempts (587), 3PT attempts (253) and free throws made (186).

Related: Multiple Fights Break Out at Over-Crowded MN Prep Hoops Event in Eden Prairie

How was Tomes involved in that prep hoops fight over the weekend in Eden Prairie?

Cedric currently plays for D1 Minnesota, in the Prep Hoops AAU Circuit, where he is a featured starter on their team. Over the weekend, he showed off some of his elite talent in front of an over-packed crowd at Eden Prairie high school, where he hit a buzzer-beating three pointer that put D1 Minnesota on top at halftime.

The game never finished, after multiple fights broke out in the crowd during the second half, a situation that quickly escalated into mass chaos that needed over 100 police officers and a helicopter to get control of. The Battle of the Lakes Prop Hoops tournament, which was scheduled into Sunday, was cancelled.

Tomes attends the same high school (East Ridge) that Ben Carlson went to and set records at, before the 2020 HS grad played four years of division one basketball for Wisconsin (2 yrs) and Utah (2 yrs).

Tomes chose his home state Gophers over early offers from Iowa State and UNI. Without a doubt, Nike will have to work to fight off bigger schools for the next year, before National Letters of Intent are signed.

Niko Medved, Gophers add Maryland transfer Chance Stephens

On Friday, the Minnesota Gophers got their eighth transfer portal commitment of Medved’s 3-month Gophers head coaching tenure, former Maryland guard, Chance Stephens. The 6’3″ shooting guard spent two years at Maryland, after transferring from LMU in between his true freshman and sophomore seasons.

When Chance Stephens — who was a two star recruit out of high school — left Loyola Marymount after the 2022-23 season, he was graded as a three-star (87 overall) transfer portal prospect. Two years later, he has yet to receive his portal ranking, but I can’t imagine it will be that high anymore.

Related: Homegrown Former Gopher Commits to… Wisconsin

Stephens logged four to eight minutes in Maryland’s first three games of the 2024-25 season, topping out at 11 minutes against Florida A&M on November 11. He got limited playing time in three more games between November 27 and December 4… then never touched the floor again all season.

What are the Minnesota Gophers getting in Stephens?

As a freshman at Loyola Marymount, Stephens played 17.3 minutes per game, averaging 6 points, 1 rebound and 0.5 assists, in 28 games, shooting 37% from deep. Unfortunately, the Riverside, CA native tore his a patellar tendon just a couple weeks into 2023-24 Terps camp, which forced him to miss that entire season.

Unfortunately, by the time he returned from the injury that cost him the entire season prior, Chance wasn’t who the Terps were hoping he’d be. But now, he’ll come to Minnesota with one final opportunity to prove he is a power four talent. We’ll see if he can make the most of it.

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