Transfer portal: Could new Gophers asst. coach help land Oklahoma guard?

Duke Miles spent last season with the Sooners, where Armon Gates was an assistant coach.

Feb 22, 2025; Norman, Oklahoma, USA; Oklahoma Sooners guard Duke Miles (15) runs down the court on a play against the Mississippi State Bulldogs during the second half at Lloyd Noble Center. | Alonzo Adams-Imagn Images

The Gophers are one of many teams who have reached out to Oklahoma transfer guard Duke Miles, according to The Athletic's Tobias Bass.

It's a long list of schools — 19 of them, to be specific — and Minnesota isn't one of the teams that Miles currently has a visit scheduled with, so the odds he ends up in Maroon and Gold are probably slim. The interesting angle here is that new Gophers assistant coach Armon Gates spent the last two seasons on Porter Moser's staff at Oklahoma. In theory, the connection between Gates and Miles could be a selling point, although money will always speak loudest in the transfer portal.

Miles will be a sixth-year senior in the 2025-26 season, his final year of eligibility. After being lightly recruited out of Alabama in 2020, the 6'2" guard spent the first three years of his career at Troy, where he averaged 14 points in 2022-23 before suffering a season-ending injury early in the campaign. He then transferred to High Point and was a star in the Big South, averaging 17.5 points and 3.6 assists per game in 2023-24.

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Last season, in his first year playing on a power conference team, Miles started all 34 games for Oklahoma and put up 9.4 points and 1.4 steals per game. On relatively low volume, he shot a very efficient 51 percent from the floor, 43 percent from three, and 83 percent from the free throw line. The Sooners made the NCAA Tournament as a No. 9 seed and lost to UConn in the first round.

Gates is a new member of Niko Medved's inaugural Gophers coaching staff, along with returning assistant Dave Thorson and former Colorado State assistant Brian Cooley, who followed Medved to Minneapolis. Gates has 16 seasons of assistant coaching experiences at eight different programs.

Rising sophomore Isaac Asuma and incoming freshman Kai Shinholster are the two guards currently on Minnesota's roster. CSU's Kyan Evans remains a big name to monitor.