How NIL distracted last year’s Gophers men’s basketball team and what lessons were learned

December was a blessing and a curse for the talented Gophers men’s basketball team that coach Ben Johnson assembled last season.

The Gophers began what became a seven-game winning streak and a 3-1 start in Big Ten play.

But there was a price that came with winning, literally.

Johnson’s best players with eligibility left were becoming a hot commodity to possibly transfer.

“I felt it,” said Johnson, who saw seven players enter the transfer portal after the season, including five rotation guys. “I knew it as a coach.”

Minnesota’s starters and even some top reserves had people in their ear about possibly chasing better name, image and likeness opportunities after the season. Representatives from other programs even reached out.

“The [NCAA] tournament was the goal,” said ex-Gophers guard Cam Christie, now a rookie on the Los Angeles Clippers. “Everyone tried to play to the best of their ability to make that happen. But there were some people who looked ahead to the future instead of staying in the moment.”

Entering Wednesday night’s opener against Oral Roberts, Gophers players and Johnson believe the focus will be different this season because of the greater sense of urgency to win now. That’s all this mostly veteran crew has left.

A senior-laden group is led by Dawson Garcia, Mike Mitchell Jr. and Parker Fox, who all turned down heftier NIL offers to come back and finish what they started with the program.

“One of the differences this year is it’s all of our last year,” Mitchell said. “We won’t have too much outside noise. We’re all about March Madness and winning as many games as possible.”

Johnson now has his most mature team yet with 10 seniors and three underclassmen. The Gophers aren’t just the most experienced team in the Big Ten but all of Division I, according to Bart Torvik’s advanced stats.

“In the portal, you have to decide: Do you have the NIL money to go buy the talent to win or do you try to get as old as you can?” Johnson said. “We tried to replace some of those guys with older players who know how to play and have one year. So, I don’t have to worry about tampering [from other schools].”

Hall of Famer Tom Izzo knows major talent when he sees it. The Gophers were near the top.

Michigan State beat them in the Big Ten tournament quarterfinals last season, but Izzo still said the Gophers “could be the No. 1 team in the league next year.” That was if Johnson had everyone back.

The Spartans lost at Williams Arena earlier in the season when they had a tough time stopping Christie, who was on his way to becoming an NBA second-round draft pick.

Elijah Hawkins, now at Texas Tech, led the Big Ten and nearly the nation in assists. Pharrel Payne, now at Texas A&M, was one of the league’s best young posts and created a dynamic frontcourt alongside Garcia.

After the Gophers’ Big Ten tourney loss at Target Center, Hawkins and Payne talked publicly about how good the Gophers could be this season. So did Joshua Ola-Joseph and Braeden Carrington, two key reserves.

Less than a week after Minnesota’s NIT loss at Indiana State, Payne, Ola-Joseph and Carrington left the Gophers and jumped into the portal. Hawkins twice said he would return but changed his mind by late April.

Johnson, who had meetings with those players about sticking around, was surprised by a few of those departures. He really thought that core could make the Gophers Big Ten title contenders.

“We built it in a way where this year we’d be really kicking the door in,” Johnson said. “Do I still think we can have a good year, though? No question.”

Garcia didn’t think the distraction cost the Gophers wins, but he said talk about big NIL money elsewhere got louder at the end of the season, especially when their realistic NCAA tournament hopes were fading.

“When things weren’t possible anymore, guys started thinking about — I could transfer here and get this or that,” Garcia said. “But I don’t think it consumed anyone.”

Although he entered the portal, Christie thought strongly about playing for the Gophers again if he stayed in college. He didn’t focus on the NBA draft until after the season, but he understood why some teammates got distracted by NIL.

“You have to be really mentally locked in to stay focused on the season,” Christie said. “There were a lot of people trying to do that but had other people in their ear trying to tell them to do one thing or sway them another way.”

The Gophers were hit hard by portal losses in early spring, but the biggest decision of all was what Garcia would do. Transfer? Turn pro? Everyone was on pins and needles — fan base and coaches.

The 6-11 former McDonald’s All-American at Prior Lake had been the face of the program since transferring home from North Carolina two years ago. Garcia is the Big Ten’s returning scoring leader.

Johnson heard of other programs offering Garcia close to $1 million, so the coach was bracing to possibly lose a hometown hero. There are indications that Dinkytown Athletes, the Gophers’ collective, has signed deals with Gophers men’s basketball players well into six figures, but not in the millions.

Still, in early April, Garcia showed up to the practice facility to tell his coach he was staying put.

“Gave him a big hug,” Johnson said then. “He left a lot of money on the table. That’s a credit to him. There are things he weighed, and his family weighed. I hope our fans really can appreciate that.”

At the end of last season, Garcia made it pretty clear how much he cared about the state. He also didn’t hide that he was considering other options. Nothing could compare to solidifying his Gophers legacy.

“I take a lot of pride wearing ‘Minnesota’ across my chest,” Garcia said. “Waking up every single morning, it gives me a lot of purpose to try to accomplish something that’s very meaningful.”

Fox, who has overcome two season-ending knee injuries, is older than his Gophers teammates and bought a house with girlfriend, Taylor Heise, an ex-Gophers hockey star who won a PWHL championship last year for Minnesota.

The Mahtomedi native appreciates his lifestyle and endorsement opportunities in his home state, but he was blunt when saying he wouldn’t return for another year if it was about NIL.

“There’s other places where you can get a whole lot more money,” Fox said. “Cementing yourself as a Gopher for life is important. Hopefully, we’re the building blocks for Coach Johnson and what his staff does in the future.”