Against a vastly overmatched opponent, the Gophers men’s basketball team showed Monday night what could be.
Cade Tyson scored 30 points, Jaylen Crocker-Johnson dominated inside with 13 points and 14 rebounds, and Minnesota rolled Gardner-Webb 87-60 in its season opener at Williams Arena.
Langston Reynolds had 14 points and nine rebounds off the bench for aggressive, athletic Minnesota.
The Gophers led 20-1 less than six minutes into the game, 37-10 just over 10 minutes later, and 53-20 at the half. Minnesota’s largest lead was 35 twice in the second half.
Minnesota shot 54.5%, including 62.5% in the first half, had a 46-24 advantage on points in the paint, and 45-31 in rebounds. The cutting-heavy, ball-moving and unselfish offense finished with 25 assists on 30 baskets.
It was the first regular-season game for coach Niko Medved, the Roseville native and former Gophers assistant hired March 24 after seven seasons at Colorado State, including NCAA tournament berths in three of the past four seasons.
Tyson, who had 28 and 26 points in exhibition wins over North Dakota State and North Dakota, could very well be one of the fan favorites this season with a combination of outside shooting (4-8 from deep Monday and 14-23 in three games) and getting to the hoop (10-12 on free throws Monday).
The 6-foot-7 senior starred for two years at Belmont before transferring to North Carolina last season. But he averaged just eight minutes per game with the perennial power.
He had eight straight points for a 10-0 Minnesota lead: a driving layup after Chansey Willis Jr. dove near midcourt to grab a loose ball and feed Tyson, a layup from Isaac Asuma and free throw for a 3-point play, then a triple off an Asuma feed.
Missing its first 10 shots, Gardner-Webb was just 6 for 26 in the opening 20 minutes, including coming up empty on all seven 3-point tries. Its first assist came with 31 seconds left in the half.
Julius Clark led the Runnin’ Bulldogs with 13 points. Minus their top six scorers from last year’s 11-20 team, Gardner-Webb was picked to finish eighth in the 2025-26 Big South preseason poll.
Gophers forward B.J. Omot missed the game with a leg injury. The redshirt junior from Mankato, and top scorer for North Dakota in 2022-23 and 2023-24, missed all but four games at California last season with a wrist injury.
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