The Minnesota Golden Gophers added another forward to their 2025–26 roster on Wednesday afternoon when San Jose State transfer Robert Vaihola made his decision to continue his collegiate career with the Gophers.

A native of San Mateo, California, Vaihola will enter his redshirt senior season with the Gophers with 88 career games of experience, including 31 starts (all coming in 2024–25), while posting career averages of 6.0 points and 5.7 rebounds per game.

Here's what to know about the Gophers' newest forward:

“Rob was one of the best rebounders in the Mountain West last season, and we saw firsthand what he could do,” Medved said. “He has a great physical presence in the paint, a gritty competitor, and just a force around the rim. Off the court, he’s just an amazing person to have on our team and we’re excited that he’s a Gopher.”

Let's jump right into Niko Medved's first point about Vaihola—his rebounding abilities. This past season, Vaihola was strong on the boards, averaging 7.5 rebounds per game. Across 31 games played, Vaihola totaled 233 rebounds this past season, including 77 offensive rebounds. Both his 233 total rebounds and 77 offensive rebounds would rank No. 1 for the Gophers this past season.

That being said, Vaihola was even better as an offensive rebounder two years ago before missing the 2023–24 season. During the 2022–23 season, the California native totaled 106 offensive rebounds, one of the best marks in the nation.

At 6-foot-8 and almost 250 pounds, Vaihola has the size and strength that should allow him to be successful on the boards in the Big Ten.

While the Gophers picked up a 6-foot-8 forward in Bobby Durkin, who loves to shoot from three-point range, Vaihola's offensive game comes mostly at the rim. Almost 75% of his total shot attempts came at the rim, while the other 25% came in the form of mid-range attempts. This season, Vaihola shot 55.4% at the rim, while all other two-point attempts equated to a 39.0% shooting percentage. Notably, despite his size, Vaihola is not much of a dunker, with just one dunk this season.

It will be interesting to see if Vaihola's numbers improve offensively this upcoming season. He was a stronger shooter during the 2022–23 season, in which he shot 73.1% at the rim and 52.2% on all other two-point attempts.

As previously mentioned, Vaihola missed the 2023–24 season due to injury. The 6-foot-8 forward suffered a foot injury prior to the beginning of the Spartans' season and would end up using his redshirt that year.

To build off our point when it came to his offensive numbers, it will be intriguing to see if Vaihola—now with a year under his belt following the foot injury—can potentially return to the form he showed during the 2022–23 season.

Prior to his injury, he had the second-highest player efficiency rating in the Mountain West Conference for the 2022–23 season at 24.9.

Vaihola has been a quality defender throughout his collegiate career. Like his rebounding and offensive numbers, his defense did take a small step back in the 2024–25 season, but overall, he was still a tough defender for San Jose State.

For the season, Vaihola posted a defensive rating of 105.6, which ranked third-best on San Jose State. Notably, the Spartans as a whole were not a strong defensive team in 2024–25, allowing 73.4 points per game. Additionally, he averaged 1.4 blocks per game and half a steal per contest. His ability to get blocks took a step forward following his injury, jumping from 0.6 in 2022–23 to 1.4 in 2024–25.

Overall, his 2024–25 season was his best season defensively, posting a defensive win share of 1.2 and a defensive box plus-minus of 1.7, which would've ranked fourth for the Gophers this past season behind Femi Odukale (3.9), Parker Fox (3.6), and Isaac Asuma (2.1).

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