Fox Sports: Gophers basketball set to move forward after disastrous season

[BleedGopher]

per Nate Gotlieb:

Things appear to be looking up for the Minnesota Gophers following one of the worst seasons in program history.

Three highly-regarded recruits will join the program next season, including Amir Coffey, the top-ranked senior in the state. Transfers Davonte Fitzgerald and Reggie Lynch will be eligible to play as well, giving the Gophers some frontcourt depth.

Starting guard Nate Mason and reserve guards Dupree McBrayer and Kevin Dorsey will return to the team after they were suspended when a sexually explicit video posted to Dorsey's social media accounts surfaced.

Mason was the team's top scorer and Dorsey and McBrayer, both freshmen, provided depth in the backcourt.

In total, Minnesota returns 78.6 percent of its scoring from its 8-23 season, though it loses third- and fourth-leading scorers in Joey King and Carlos Morris (who was kicked off the team before the season's end). Notably, the team returns All-Big Ten freshman team member Jordan Murphy.

http://www.foxsports.com/north/stor...-nate-mason-jordan-murphy-reggie-lynch-033016

Go Gophers!!

 

[Biggsohnasty]

Certainly a lot of reason for optimism.

Whether it needed to or not, leading up to this year, the team "bottomed out", and now we'll see what Pitino and co can do in building it back up.

Before those suspensions, the team was certainly trending in the right direction and it wouldn't have been surprising to see them pick up two or three more wins down the stretch with those guys in the lineup.

The difference between 8-23 and maybe 11-21 isn't much, but in terms of taste in the proverbial mouth, the season would've ended with a lot of positivity.

It will be interesting to see how much all these young guys can grow over the offseason in terms of adding to their games, because the foundation is there for what could be a promising season next year.