Colorado State Forward Commits to MN Gophers

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New Minnesota Gophers forward Jaylen Crocker-Johnson playing for Colorado State in 2024-25
Credit: Stephen Brashear-Imagn Images

Entering Tuesday, the Minnesota Gophers men’s basketball team and its new head coach Niko Medved had two scholarship players on roster. Both were freshman in 2024, and one never played. That’s not unexpected, nor does it reflect at all on how the 2025-26 roster will eventually look.

Being it is only April 1, we are still very early in the early offseason transfer portal cycle. At this point, it would be impossible for Medved to have any idea how much total NIL and revenue sharing money they’ll have for a roster they are trying to build now. In other words, there are a lot of moving parts.

In the end, Niko has already proven he knows what he is doing, and he had less resources to work with at Colorado State. I have little doubt that next year’s Golden Gophers men’s basketball team will be more talented and finish with a higher ranking in the Big Ten than the 15-win squad Ben Johnson put on the floor for his grand finale season.

Minnesota Gophers receive commitment from Colorado State stretch big

New Minnesota Gophers forward Jaylen Crocker-Johnson playing for Colorado State in 2024-25
Credit: Steven Bisig-Imagn Images

On Tuesday afternoon, Niko Medved’s roster building began with his first-ever reported transfer portal commitment as head coach of his alma mater, the University of Minnesota. And fittingly, according to Travis Branham (247Sports), it’s Colorado State power forward, Jaylen Crocker-Johnson.

Last season was Crocker-Johnson’s first as a Ram. He spent his freshman year at Little Rock, where he won Ohio Valley Freshman of the Year in 2023-24. He has two years of college eligibility remaining, for what that is worth.

As many pontificated when news broke earlier Tuesday that he was transferring, Crocker-Johnson set his status to “Do Not Contact”, when he entered the portal because he had a clear plan to follow Medved to Dinkytown. Clearly, the 6’8″ 230 lb stretch big out of San Antonio, TX enjoyed his short time with the new Gophers head coach last season, to follow him up to Minnesota for 2025-26.

What does Jaylen Crocker-Johnson bring to Medved’s Gophers?

In 2024-25 with Colorado State, Jaylen Crocker-Johnson scored 9.0 points on 49% from the field and 35% from deep (21.5 MPG). He also added 4.4 rebounds and nearly 1 block per game. After coming off the bench for seven of the Rams first 13 games last season, the sophomore transfer was inserted into the starting lineup for good.

A quick look at his game logs from last season tell you that, while Crocker-Johnson can disappear in and out of the scoring column, depending on the night, he is always contributing in the rebound column, and on defense. This is a very good start for Medved’s build.

Now, the focus shifts to the next addition for the Minnesota Gophers 2025-26 men’s basketball team, which now has three players on it, if we include Jaylen Crocker-Johnson. There have been rumors surrounding other 2024-25 Colorado State players, though.

The headliner of that group is dynamic sophomore guard Kyan Evans, who started all 36 Rams games last season and averaged 10.6 points per game and 44% from deep. Of course, there’s a ton of talent out there with Minnesota ties, and the University of Minnesota has expressed a much greater desire to build up men’s basketball than anytime in the recent past.

Related: Medved, Gophers Offer Top High School Recruit in Minnesota

So with that as a backdrop, we’ll see what the new head coach can put together over the next 3-5 months. But undoubtedly, we will see more talent added much sooner than that.

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