The Gophers men’s basketball team shrugged off another bad-luck injury to add the latest chapter to its feel-good story on Saturday.
Gophers forward Grayson Grove dunks the ball during Minnesota’s win over Rutgers at Williams Arena on Saturday, Feb. 21, 2026. (Ceci De Young / Gophers Athletics)
A day after starting forward Jaylen Crocker-Johnson was ruled out indefinitely with a foot injury — Minnesota’s third starter to go down this season — the U blew out Rutgers 80-61 at Williams Arena.
“I don’t know if people really understand what the (players) are going through right now,” Gophers coach Niko Medved said. “I’ve never seen anything like this in my life with the injuries. They are all about what I believe in in coaching, and the kind of spirit and people that you have.”
The Gophers (13-14, 6-10 Big Ten) rode their five starters for at least 35 minutes each while counting on only one key player off the bench.
White-hot shooting led to Minnesota’s second straight victory and stopped the modest two-game win streak of Rutgers (11-16, 4-12) . The Gophers shot 60% from the field and 58% from 3-point range. It was the first time the U shot that percentage from the field since February 2024, and its 15 made threes Saturday were the most in a Big Ten game this season.
When Medved was hired last March, he put out a mandate to add outside shooting and checked that box with transfer portal additions Cade Tyson and Bobby Durkin. They are both shooting better than 37% from deep on the season.
On Saturday, Tyson scored a game-high 27 points on 7 of 9 from deep. Durkin added 12 on 4-of-7 shooting from behind the arc. When Durkin made three treys in a row in the second half Saturday, fans at The Barn chanted “Bob-by!”
Langston Reynolds added 19 points and nine assists for Minnesota.
“We got aggressive players on our team, Langston being one of them,” Tyson said. “He made so many plays for us (Saturday), getting downhill and having the paint poise, shot stop, play off a pivot, kick it out for one more — stuff like that. And that is definitely how we want to play as a team.”
Reynolds and the U’s zone defense limited Scarlet Knights leading scorer Tariq Francis to six points below his scoring average. He had 10 points on 4-of-12 shooting and was mostly kept out of the lane.
On Friday, Medved said Crocker-Johnson will likely miss the rest of the season after pain in his injured foot became too accute for him to play through. The U’s leading rebounder and second-leading scorer had missed the two previous games, a 69-57 loss to Washington last weekend and a 61-44 win over Oregon on Tuesday.
“We just kind of wanted to rally for him,” Reynolds said.
The latest injury has led to Grayson Grove moving into the starting lineup as the only true remaining healthy post player on the roster and has pushed Tyson to play center for the first time in his life. The lack of depth has forced Minnesota to be even more cognizant of defending without fouling, and the U had only seven fouls Saturday.
Saturday’s 11 a.m. tipoff led to a groggy start for both teams; Minnesota missed its opening five shots, while Rutgers began 2 for 9 from the field.
Coming out of the under-16-minute timeout, Minnesota put together a 9-0 run over next three minutes to take an 11-6 lead.
Minnesota surged late in the half, taking a 36-23 lead at the break. Tyson and Isaac Asuma each hit 3-pointers in the last minute of the half, and the treys would keep falling in the second half.
