Mara Braun and her Gophers women’s basketball teammates are back in one place and in one piece

They’re juniors now. Veterans. Upperclassmen. Mara Braun joked Tuesday about how she didn’t even want to think about stuff like that.

The core of the Gophers women’s basketball team is experienced, intact.

Present.

That’s important. Certainly for Braun. She’s the returning leading scorer for the Gophers, someone who has had to field a lot of NIL calls and ideas and proposals.

“I think I have good people around me that keep me grounded,” Braun said. “For me, there are bigger things than that. Just the loyalty, being able to stay home in front of the people I love. I love Minnesota. We love Minnesota. So there are opportunities. But, for me, it’s just not as important.”

The Gophers were a likely NCAA tournament team when Braun landed on an opponent’s foot after making a fourth-quarter three-pointer at Illinois. They were 14-5 at the time, 4-4 in the Big Ten Conference with victories over future NCAA tournament teams Michigan, Michigan State and Nebraska. But now she’s back, healthy. And she’s not alone.

The 2022 recruiting class of Braun, Amaya Battle, Nia Holloway and Mallory Heyer is still together, with the players about to start their junior year. The Gophers are an interesting mix of experience and new faces. Minnesota returns its entire top five in scoring, rebounding and minutes per game, including center Sophie Hart and sophomore Grace Grocholski. Top reserves like Holloway and Maggie Czinano return.

“We expect there to be a major jump [with the top five returners],” Coach Dawn Plitzuweit said. “Now that they’ve not only been in the system, but they’ve played in games. They are physically, mentally stronger from doing that.”

But there are some interesting new players as well. Guards McKenna Johnson, Tori McKinney and Kennedy Klick — whose knee injury kept her out last season — are freshmen. Brynn Senden is a sophomore.

Plitzuweit has added some key players through the transfer portal, including native Minnesotans Taylor Woodson (from Michigan) and Annika Stewart (from Nebraska) as well as graduate guard Alexsia Rose and post Jordan Brooks.

“We are a better team today than we were a year ago at this time,” Plitzuweit said Wednesday, with the Gophers in summer practice mode. “The returning players have more understanding of the game, have more confidence, skill. The new players brought us some size, athleticism, speed.”

There is not a new coach with a new system to learn. The Gophers’ roster appears deeper and more balanced.

With Braun’s foot mended — she returned for much of the Gophers’ run to the WNIT final before re-injuring the foot — and so much experience back, both Braun and Battle were clear about their goal of reaching the NCAA tournament this year.

The fact that the core group of the team remains intact both makes that possible and makes a statement about what’s important to these players in the age of NIL.

“We’re loyal to the maroon and gold,” Battle said. “There’s nowhere else we’d rather be. And no money could really change that.”

Summer is being used to push the players forward, sometimes out of their comfort zone. For example: Plitzuweit talked about Heyer working on ball handling, Braun and Grocholski getting to the rim more, Battle making better decisions once she gets there.

Plitzuweit is expecting a big jump for her core group in the coming year.

It will begin with 11 members of the 15-player Gophers roster being from Minnesota, including a couple in Woodson and Stewart who have come back home.

“It’s exactly what we wanted and kind of what we planned for,” Braun said. “It’s kind of a full-circle moment where, we came in here and wanted this to be where the best Minnesota players end up. To have these people coming back and realizing that maybe they shouldn’t have left in the first place, it’s kind of fun for us.”