Minnesota forward Joshua Ola-Joseph plans to enter the transfer portal, he tells @On3sports.

The 6-7 sophomore averaged 7.5 PPG in only 15.7 minutes per game this season. https://t.co/2sx2pxDPdI pic.twitter.com/9EX65lu4Ik

— Joe Tipton (@TiptonEdits) March 27, 2024

Ola-Joseph’s decision to transfer was widely anticipated, especially given his limited playing time in the latter months of the past season, the reasons for which remain unclear. Despite this, Ola-Joseph showed considerable potential and had a promising freshman campaign with the Gophers, starting 24 games and appearing in all 31.

Minnesota Gophers Josh Ola-Joseph enters transfer portal

Josh started 42 consecutive games from last season through the start of this season. During his freshman season, he posted averages of 7.4 points and 2.7 rebounds per game, while logging 22.1 minutes per game and tallying a total of 228 points.

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His minutes dropped significantly (15.7 MPG) as a sophomore but his totals stayed relatively consistent. His future is bright if he finds the right school. Wherever he decides to transfer, they will be acquiring a highly skilled and athletic scorer with significant potential still ahead.

He almost flew. 😳@show_time_josh x @GopherMBB pic.twitter.com/54lnZOWldA

— Big Ten Men's Basketball (@B1GMBBall) January 28, 2024

The Osseo, MN native played his high school basketball at his local (Osseo) High School before transferring to Compass Prep (Ariz.) for his senior season. During his junior year, while still at Ossio, Ola-Joseph averaged 16.7 points, 6.7 rebounds, 2.0 assists, and 3.0 blocks per game while shooting 56% from the field.

Related: Elijah Hawkins Tweets “lol” Over No-Call that Cost Gophers vs Badgers

On Friday, Ben Johnson met with reporters and told them that he and his team remained optimistic about where their season was heading, that they were so close to being a good team, “it’s scary”. Well, their play at the end of the first half Saturday vs the Nittany Lions was legitimately terrifying too, which is why the Gophers entered the 2nd half down 14 points.

Minnesota Golden Gophers shine in 2nd half @ Penn State

A different team came out of the Bryce Jordan Arena locker room following the halftime intermission, though. And whatever “secret stuff” Ben Johnson had them drink kicked in immediately. Penn State scored the first two points out of the break, temporarily pushing their lead to 16.

Then, the Gophers rattled off 10 points in two minutes and cut the lead to six, before the home team needed a timeout. Cam Christie, Dawson Garcia, Mike Mitchell and Elijah Hawkins took the game over and never gave it back.

He almost flew. 😳@show_time_josh x @GopherMBB pic.twitter.com/54lnZOWldA

— Big Ten Men's Basketball (@B1GMBBall) January 28, 2024

It was like they suddenly realized in the locker room, ‘hey, we three are better than just about everyone on their roster minus maybe one dude (Kanye Clark)’, who didn’t have a very good game. Once that happened, the Nittany Lions never really stood a chance.

Minnesota outscored Penn State by a whopping 23 points and struggled to even keep it close, late. In the end, the whistle blew with Ben Johnson’s squad up a rather comfortable nine points, 83-74. Reminder: the Gophers were down 16 points with slightly over 19 minutes remaining in this contest.

This dunk by Parker Fox broke hearts in Happy Valley.

Huge turning point in the game. pic.twitter.com/KJAsOi9fm0

— GopherHole.com (@GopherHole) January 28, 2024

When the dust settled, Dawson Garcia led the way with 20 points and 4 rebounds; Cam Christie ended two rebounds away from a double-double with 19 points, 8 rebounds, and 5 assists to boot.