It's all about winning for Jamison Battle and the Gophers
The first year for Minnesota Gophers men's basketball head coach Ben Johnson wasn't something you would expect. After seeing 11 players transfer before he even coached a game, Johnson scrambled to put together a team for the 2021-22 season.
One of the gems of Johnson's impromptu recruiting class was Jamison Battle. After a successful COVID year at George Washington, the Robbinsdale native transferred to Minnesota and became one of the Gophers' top offensive weapons.
Now entering his sophomore season, Battle is a preseason All-Big Ten selection and looks to lead the Gophers to another level after starting 10-1 a year ago but winning just three of their final 19 games.
"I think it's just about winning games," Battle told reporters at Big Ten Media Day on Wednesday. "You can talk about last season [and] we had a great start but we kind of faded off in the second half of the season. I think about collectively, as a team, it's just about winning games. That's all we're really focused on."
If the Gophers are going to achieve that goal, Battle is going to be a huge part of it. The 6'7" forward led Minnesota with 17.5 points and 6.3 rebounds per game last season and impressed Johnson with his ability to plug into the starting lineup from the season-opener for a team-high 29 games.
"You're talking about a guy that transfers in from a mid-major and had really good numbers," Johnson said. "Very rarely do those numbers match up when you make that jump to a high major and your role is the same."
Johnson said Battle got his numbers "the right way" and within the confines of the Gopher system. Entering his second year in Minnesota, Johnson has seen Battle take an increased leadership role on a team that will once again be filled with new faces.
The Gophers are bringing in a talented recruiting class that will be loaded with homegrown players. Park of Cottage Grove's Pharrel Payne and Park Center's Braeden Carrington headline the class while three-star Arizona forward Josh Ola-Joseph, Colorado forward Kadyn Betts and California forward Jaden Henley should also contribute.
With Johnson placing sophomore center Treyton Thompson into this group, he believes that he has a versatile nucleus that should get an opportunity after season-ending injuries to Parker Fox and Isaiah Ihnen.
"It gives guys an opportunity that [they] maybe wouldn't have had to step up and really help our program advance in Year 2," Johnson said. "Most of the beneficiaries will be our young freshmen, who I couldn't be more excited about [and] are eager workers [and] eager learners."
That doesn't mean the Gophers will be strictly relying on young players this season. Minnesota landed another wave of veteran talent via the transfer portal including guards Taurus Samuels (Duquesne) and Ta'Lon Cooper (Morehead State) and Prior Lake native and North Carolina transfer Dawson Garcia.
"The tone he set with just his work ethic and how he is every single day, I think that's been the biggest thing we've taken as a team, with Dawson, Jamison Taurus and Ta'Lon teaching these young guys how to compete every single day and setting that tone," Johnson said. "Because when you have young talent, that's a good thing, but now it's like can you combine that with that work ethic of what it takes to be competitive in the Big Ten?"
For that to happen, the Gophers want Battle to lead the way. Johnson said Battle has lost 17 pounds and is down to 9% body fat as he looks to not only build off what he accomplished last year but set an example for a young team looking to build a foundation.
"I think you've got guys like Dawson [Garcia], guys like Ta'Lon – the people in this room, we have more than enough," Battle said. "I really emphasize the idea of competing but I think that's something we do when we go out here every day...I think last year we laid the foundation down and now it's about building it up."
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