Dawson Garcia, top scorer for the Gophers men’s basketball team, recovering from foot surgery

Gophers men’s basketball leading scorer Dawson Garcia has had surgery on a left foot injury.

The 6-11 senior forward suffered the injury in practice this month. He’s expected to resume basketball activities in September, according to the Gophers.

A former Prior Lake star, Garcia is the top returning scorer in the Big Ten and one of two starters back from a 19-win NIT team last season that made a turnaround in coach Ben Johnson’s third year.

Garcia led the Gophers in scoring (17.6) and rebounding (6.7). He had 11 games with at least 20 points scored, including three 30-point games, last season.

“I’ve got All-American aspirations, Big Ten player of the year aspirations,” Garcia said when summer practice started in June. “I’m not coming back to just play around. I’m excited about pushing the ball up the floor and becoming more of a playmaker. [Rebounding] more aggressively. That’s what I want to do.”

In 2022-23, Garcia missed several games because of a bone bruise in his right foot. Last season, he missed games while dealing with an ankle injury, but he returned to have the best season of his career and win All-Big Ten honors.

Johnson lost three starters from last season, including big man Pharrel Payne (Texas A&M), Elijah Hawkins (Texas Tech) and Cam Christie (NBA). But senior guard Mike Mitchell Jr. returns, along with senior Parker Fox and sophomore Kadyn Betts.

In the frontcourt to help Garcia, the Gophers added junior forward Frank Mitchell, senior forward/center Trey Edmonds and freshman forward Grayson Grove.