Gophers 2025-26 roster outlook: Transfer expectations, positional needs and more

What could Minnesota's roster look like next season?

Feb 22, 2025; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Minnesota Golden Gophers guard Isaac Asuma (1) drives towards the basket as Penn State Nittany Lions guard Ace Baldwin Jr. (1) defends during the first half at Williams Arena. Mandatory Credit: Matt Krohn-Imagn Images | Matt Krohn-Imagn Images

The Gophers currently have five scholarship players on their 2025-26 roster. It's still far too soon to analyze their rotation, but we can project what it might look like.

With the transfer portal additions of B.J. Omot and Jaylen Crocker-Johnson, Minnesota has three starting-caliber players in the Big Ten, the third being returning point guard Isaac Asuma. Grayson Grove has the potential to join the rotation next season as a redshirt freshman, while incoming recruit Kai Shinholster likely projects as a redshirt candidate. Walk-on Erick Reader has yet to publicly state his plans for next season.

Current 2025-26 roster

Position	Starter	Reserve	Walk-on/redshirt
G	Isaac Asuma
G			Kai Shinholster
G/F	B.J. Omot
F	Jaylen Crocker-Johnson	Grayson Grove	*Erick Reader
F/C

Depending on Reader's decision, Minnesota could have up to 10 roster spots available for next season's team. With the moving parts of potential revenue sharing and Name, Image, Likeness (NIL) rumors, the transfer portal is crazier than ever and the Gophers could be a player with their reported $5-$6 million in roster budget.

Colorado State's Kyan Evans, D2 All-American Wes Ennis, and Purdue transfer Cam Heide are the three most likely targets for Minnesota in the portal, but even landing all three would leave seven more roster spots available.

For this exercise, I put on my general manager hat to see who Minnesota could realistically fill out the rest of the roster with. Heide and Evans are likely big-money players, so if they go in that direction, they might need to go a little off the board for the rest of the roster.

Florida Southern (D2) transfer Alex Steen, St. Thomas transfer Kendall Blue, and Arizona State's Shawn Phillips Jr. could all be realistic targets, while another possible option is Jojo McIver, who committed to Colorado State before Medved got the Minnesota job.

Another name to monitor is guard Keshawn Williams, who was a very productive player at Northern Illinois before playing for Medved last season at Colorado State.

If the Gophers landed ALL of those names, it would leave one open roster spot for next season.

Realistic potential roster

Position	Starter	Reserve	Reserve	Walk-on/redshirt
G	Isaac Asuma	Wes Enis (transfer)		Jojo McIver (flip)
G	Kyan Evans (transfer)	Kendall Blue (transfer)	Keshawn Williams (transfer)	Kai Shinholster
F	Camden Heide (transfer)	B.J. Omot
F	Jaylen Crocker-Johnson	Grayson Grove		*Erick Reader
F/C	Alex Steen (transfer)	Shawn Phillips Jr. (transfer)

There seems to be more players, news and intel about the transfer portal every day. By the time you're reading this, Minnesota could've added a commitment from another transfer. The portal is still open for more than two weeks, so we have likely just seen the beginning of the chaos.

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