The Gophers take their 2-0 start on the road Monday night, heading to Cincinnati for a 6 p.m. CT matchup that doubles as the Bearcats’ annual Twyman-Stokes Classic. It’s a meeting that brings together two unbeaten teams, two head coaches who are alums of their programs, and a Minnesota squad stepping into its first true test away from home.
Minnesota has opened the season with convincing wins over North Dakota and St. Thomas, while Cincinnati has done the same against American and Green Bay. The Bearcats’ new era under Jerrod Calhoun has started cleanly, and Minnesota coach Niko Medved will be facing Cincinnati for the first time.
For the Gophers, this is the first of three games against Big 12 opponents this season. They’ll also see Oklahoma State and Utah at the Charleston Classic from Nov.
20-22. Minnesota’s most recent game against a current Big 12 team came in the College Basketball Crown, when Baylor beat the Gophers 67-48 to close the 2025-26 campaign.
Overall, Minnesota is 56-39 against current Big 12 members.
Monday also marks Minnesota’s first P4 nonconference game of the year. The Gophers are set to face three Big 12 teams, plus Cal and SMU from the ACC, giving them their most P4 nonconference opponents since 2019.
Isaac Asuma has been the early scoring leader for Minnesota, averaging 16.5 points per game after a career-high 20-point night. He posted 13 points, six rebounds and six assists against North Dakota, then followed with 20 against St.
Thomas, with 14 of those coming in the first half. Jaylen Crocker-Johnson added 16 points and 10 rebounds Friday, with 11 points and seven boards after halftime to finish with a double-double.
That St. Thomas win also brought a few other milestones.
Minnesota improved to 7-1 all-time against the Tommies and 1-0 since they became Division 1, with the schools meeting for the first time since Dec. 11, 1934.
The announced crowd was 10,604. Nolan Groves and Grayson Grove both reached double figures, with Groves putting together a career night in points, field goals made and attempted, three-pointers made and attempted, and free throws made and attempted.
Grove also set a career high with nine rebounds. Cedric Tomes scored his first collegiate points on a layup in the first half.
Crocker-Johnson is also closing in on a major personal mark. The senior forward enters Monday with 987 career points, leaving him 13 shy of 1,000. He scored 309 points as a freshman at Arkansas Little Rock, 325 at Colorado State, and now has 322 as a Gopher, including 31 this season.
The Cincinnati series has been tight over the years, and it’s been a while since these teams last crossed paths. Minnesota and Cincinnati have met five times in school history, excluding vacated games, with the Gophers holding a 2-3 record.
The last matchup came on March 21, 2006, a 76-62 Cincinnati win. Minnesota is 1-2 all-time in Cincinnati, and Monday will be the fourth time the Gophers have played there.
The two schools are also set for a home-and-home over the next two years, with Cincinnati visiting the Barn in the 2027-28 season.
The Bearcats have been busy building their roster around newcomers. Cincinnati has 14 new players and is one of just seven teams nationally to return zero points from last season.
Fifth-year Grant Darbyshire is the lone returner. MJ Collins Jr. is one of the veterans in the mix, averaging 12 points, and he brings 134 career games of experience, including time with Calhoun at Utah State, where he earned All-Mountain West Second Team honors.
He’s one of four players who followed Calhoun from Utah State to Cincinnati, along with Elijah Perryman, Adlan Elamin and David Iweze.
Cincinnati’s top scoring threat so far has been Myles Colvin, who put up 31 points against Green Bay and is averaging a team-best 17 points and 7 rebounds. Akai Fleming is adding 9 points and six rebounds per game.
Through two games, the Bearcats are scoring 80 points a night and allowing 58.5, while shooting 44.9 percent overall and 31 percent from deep. They’re also averaging 39 rebounds and 24 steals.
Minnesota’s ball movement has been a calling card early. The Gophers had 29 assists on 34 made baskets against North Dakota and 18 assists on 23 makes against St.
Thomas. That continues a trend from last season, when Minnesota led the nation in assist percentage at 71 percent.
Nine of the 11 players who saw the floor in the opener recorded an assist, and eight of the nine who played Friday did the same. Kyan Evans led the way against St.
Thomas with four assists, while Grayson Grove, Bobby Durkin and Crocker-Johnson each had three. Asuma’s assist total has also climbed from 67 as a freshman to 123 last season as a sophomore.
The three-point shooting has been there, too. Minnesota set a school record with 278 threes last season, breaking the previous mark of 272 from 2013-14.
The Gophers have opened this year with 10 made threes against North Dakota and 11 against St. Thomas.
Bobby Durkin started his senior year by going 4-for-5 from deep in the opener, after making 80 threes last season, the fourth-most in a single season in school history. Asuma hit four threes against St.
Thomas, Nolan Groves added three, and five of the seven Gophers who attempted a three Friday knocked one down.
Minnesota returns home Thursday, Nov. 12, to host Southern at 7 p.m. on B1G+. Mike Grimm and Al Nolen will have the radio call on KTLK 103.5 FM.
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The Gophers have looked promising enough to inspire some optimism, especially with their depth and the expectation that one of their guards will deliver a strong night. Still, the margin for error figures to be slim, and Minnesotas best path runs through cleaner possession management and a better answer for Cincinnatis work on the glass. If the Gophers can handle those parts of the game, they should give themselves a real chance to make an early statement. [Read more 🡒]