On Monday, the Minnesota Golden Gophers landed their third transfer portal commitment from Davidson forward Bobby Durkin. The Darien, Illinois native will have two years of eligibility to play with the Gophers after spending two years at Davidson.

In 2024-25, Durkin played in 33 games for the Wildcats, starting 32 games while averaging 30 minutes per contest. In the process, he averaged 13.5 points and 5.9 rebounds per game.

Notably, Durkin is now the third forward to commit to the Gophers this transfer portal window, joining Colorado State's Jaylen Crocker-Johnson and Cal's BJ Omot. His transfer to Minnesota brings the Gophers' total roster number for the 2025-26 season to six players, leaving nine scholarships available for Niko Medved to fulfill.

Here's what you need to know about Bobby Durkin as he begins his career as a Golden Gopher.

"Bobby is a phenomenal shooter with great size and length,” Medved said in a press release. “He’s a versatile player who can create space and has good floor vision. In addition, his defensive play and rebounding ability really stands out. We’re excited to have Bobby as a Golden Gopher.”

It wasn't a length offer sheet for Durkin when he was coming out of IMG Academy as part of the 2023 recruiting class. He had a handful of offers, including Army, Davidson, Eastern Illinois, Western Illinois. His best offer was an offer from Georgia Tech.

Durkin, this past season, was one of the top-scoring forwards in the Atlantic 10 conference. While his 13.5 points ranked 24th overall in the conference, it was the fifth-best average mark for a forward this past season behind teammate Reed Bailey, whose now at Indiana, Saint Joseph's Rasheer Fleming, Dayton's Nate Santos,and George Washington's Rafael Castro.

Durkin was the A-10's best forward this season when it came to three-point shooting and the fifth best shooter from beyond the arc, regardless of position. Durkin shot 35.5% from three-point range this past season and almost averaged 8.0 three-point attempts per game this season for Davidson, averaging just under three makes per contest.

His 35.5 shooting percentage would've been third on the Gophers this season behind Dawson Gracia and Isaac Asuma. Though, notably, neither averaged close to Durkin's 7.8 three-point attempts per game.

The Darien, Illinois native was not afraid to shoot threes at volume either, as he had seven games in which he had 10+ three-point attempts including a performance gainst La Salle in which he had six makes on 15 attempts.

Anyone who has watched Minnesota Golden Gophers' men's basketball closely over the last few years would tell you that one of the biggest program's achilles heels has been their free throw shooting. Durkin should help solve that problem. For his career, the 6-foot-8 forward is an 85.3% shooter from the free-throw line. The Gophers haven't had a regular shoot above 85.0% from the line since Gabe Kalscheur did so in the 2021-22 season, making 86.0% of his shots.

While Durkin is going to make his biggest impacts on the offensive side of the court, he's not too shabby on the defensive side of the court, either. He was seventh this season in the A-10 when it came to defensive rebounds with 17,4 and his 5.9 rebounds per game ranked 14th within the conference.

Durkin had a nice step up in his rebounding effort from his freshman season as he saw his total rebound percentage tick up six-tenths of a percentage, which included his defensive rebounding percentage increasing from 15.0% to 18.3%. As a heavy three-point shooter, Durkin isn't too active when it comes to offensive rebounds, totaling just 22 this past season and posting an offensive rebound percentage of 2.4%.

Defensively, the rising junior holds his own but won't be a game-changer on that end of the court with a career defensive rating of 105.8. Despite his 6-foot-8 statute, he won't block too many shots, with just seven in his career, but he does do a good job of getting his hands on the ball with 75 total steals in 65 career games played. This past season, he had at least one steal in 28 of 33 games.

Finally, while he does a quality job of creating turnovers, Durkin also does a good job of limiting his turnovers. For his career, Durkin has averaged less than one turnover per game, totaling just 49 in 65 games. This past season, his turnover percentage of 5.8% ranked first in the A-10 and 18th in all of college basketball. Additionally, his career turnover percentage of 6.9% at Davidson is the fourth-best in the A-10 since 2007-08.

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