The Big Ten has laid out Minnesota’s 2026-27 men’s basketball road map, and the Gophers will spend plenty of time in the league grind before the calendar even gets comfortable.
Minnesota is set to host 10 conference opponents at The Barn by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota, while the full slate of game times and television assignments will come later.
The Big Ten opener comes Dec. 2 at Michigan State in East Lansing, Mich., and the first home league date lands six days later against Illinois on Dec. 8.
From there, the Gophers head back into conference play after the nonconference stretch with a Jan. 3 trip to Northwestern, then return home for Penn State on Jan. 6.
January quickly turns into a demanding stretch. Minnesota visits Wisconsin on Jan. 9 and Michigan on Jan. 12, then comes back for home games against Purdue on Jan. 17 and Indiana on Jan.
- Rutgers waits in Piscataway, N.J., on Jan. 23, and the month wraps with a pair at The Barn against Washington on Jan. 26 and Wisconsin on Jan.
February sends Minnesota west for games at USC on Feb. 6 and UCLA on Feb. 9, but the schedule softens at home immediately after that trip. The Gophers will play three straight in Minneapolis: Oregon on Feb.
13, Michigan on Feb. 16 and Northwestern on Feb. 21.
They finish the month on the road at Maryland on Feb. 24 and Iowa on Feb. 27.
The regular season ends with Ohio State coming to Minneapolis on March 4, before Minnesota closes at Nebraska on March 7. The Big Ten Tournament is set for March 10-14 in Indianapolis at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.
Season tickets are already on sale. Single-game tickets go first to season ticket holders on Monday, Sept. 21, then to Gopher Score members on Tuesday, Sept. 22, and to the general public on Thursday, Sept.
- All three on-sales begin at 9 a.m.
CT.
In Other News...
Former Gophers Are Already Making Minnesotas Transfer Losses Look Different
After a busy 2024 offseason that sent 20 players out of the Gopher football program, the immediate question was how much those departures would actually sting once the new season arrived. The early answer is not as simple as a blanket loss, because the ex-Gophers have scattered into very different situations, from clear-cut starters to players still fighting for snaps, and that makes Minnesotas transfer picture look a lot more complicated than a simple count of exits.
Some of those former Gophers are already showing up in meaningful roles at their new schools, while others are active but not yet starting, or still working their way onto the field at all. A few have not even surfaced on rosters in a way that suggests an immediate impact, which is why the value of the departures cannot be judged all at once. For Minnesota, the real story is not just who left, but how quickly those players are either validating the change or fading into the background. [Read more 🡒]
Gophers Suddenly Have A Bigger Problem Than One Bad Loss
P.J. Fleck did not spend much time sugarcoating Minnesotas 38-13 loss to Mississippi State, and for good reason. The Gophers were flagged too often, missed too many tackles and never found enough rhythm on offense, even as Fleck said he liked the game plan overall. The bigger concern may be that the problems were spread across the operation, from the offensive line to the defensive line rotations, leaving Minnesota with a lot more to clean up than just one ugly result.
Anthony Smith is part of that broader conversation, too, after moving around positionally and still making only a limited statistical impact through two games. Flecks comments suggested the staff is still searching for the right combinations and the right answers, which is not what any team wants to be doing in early September. The loss itself stung, but the unfinished business around personnel and execution may be the more telling issue for a Gophers team trying to steady itself quickly. [Read more 🡒]
Minnesota Just Reached A Crucial Moment In The Malik Olajuwon Race
Minnesota has already added one piece to its 2027 class with Isaiah Santos' verbal commitment, and the Gophers are still pressing for more perimeter help as they chase four-star shooting guard Malik Olajuwon out of Texas. Olajuwon turned heads over the summer, climbing in the recruiting rankings and picking up MVP honors at a tournament, the kind of run that tends to sharpen interest from high-major programs looking for scoring and shot-making on the wing.
Now comes the part that matters for Minnesota. Olajuwon is set to transfer to IMG Academy for his senior year, and he has adjusted his official visit schedule, a sign that the recruitment is moving into a more serious phase. For a Gophers staff trying to build momentum in the class, the timing is important, and the next move in this one could tell a lot about where Minnesota really stands. [Read more 🡒]