Gophers frontcourt depth after adding Trey Edmonds

UTSA transfer Trey Edmonds gives Minnesota depth up front.

Nov 10, 2023; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Minnesota Golden Gophers forward Parker Fox (23) fouls / Matt Krohn-USA TODAY Sports

UTSA transfer Trey Edmonds committed to the Gophers Monday, giving the team four rotational big men.

BREAKING: UTSA transfer big man Trey Edmonds (@Edmonds_III) has officially committed to the #Gophers.

Listed at 6-foot-9, he chose UMN over Ole Miss and Cincinnati. Provides front-court depth and will have one year of eligibility. https://t.co/w8tmc3wyPQ pic.twitter.com/4FJn5e4XVK

— Tony Liebert (@TonyLiebert) May 6, 2024

Listed at 6-foot-10, 255 pounds, Edmonds started all 32 games for the Roadrunners last season at the five position. He averaged 7.0 points and 5.8 rebounds while shooting 55.9% from the field.

On the Gophers' roster, he now joins Dawson Garcia, Parker Fox and Canisius transfer Frank Mitchell as frontcourt players who will all be heavily involved in the rotation next season. The question is, how will it look?

Potential Rotation

Last season, Dawson Garcia averaged 31.9 minutes per game. In 2024-25, I expect that number to look similar if not go up by a little bit.

Pharrel Payne averaged 23.3 minutes per game, starting 19/32 contests. Transfer Frank Mitchell averaged 28.9 minutes per game last season at Canisius, so I would expect Mitchell's outlook to look a lot like Payne's playing time a year ago.

As for the reserves, Parker Fox (14.1), Joshua Ola-Joseph (15.7) and Isaiah Ihnen (11.4) combined to play 41.2 minutes per game. So that chunk would likely be divvied up between Fox, Trey Edmonds and Kadyn Betts next season.

I could see Fox's workload going up closer to 20 minutes per game, as he averaged 22.5 in March last season. So if he is near something like that, I could see Edmonds near the 12 range and Betts filling in the Ihnen role around 10.

Prediction

Dawson Garcia (33 MPG)

Frank Mitchell (24 MPG)

Parker Fox (22 MPG)

Trey Edmonds (12 MPG)

Kadyn Betts (10 MPG)

Adding Edmonds to the fold gives Ben Johnson and his staff a lot of flexibility in the frontcourt and depth if anyone were to go down. Mitchell is the only player with elgibility after this season, but the Gophers have the bodies to compete with a frontcourt in the Big Ten next season.