On Wednesday, Minnesota saw a pair of forwards, Kadyn Betts and Frank Mitchell, enter the transfer portal, becoming the second and third players to do so since the end of the Golden Gophers' season last week.

Previously, guard Tyler Cochran, who missed the entire season due to injury, entered the portal after one season with the program.

With the trio of transfer portal departures, Minnesota will now say goodbye to 10 of their 13 scholarship players from the 2024-25 roster.

Notably, Parker Fox, Lu'Cye Patterson, Femi Odukale, Caleb Williams, Trey Edmonds, Dawson Garcia, and Mike Mitchell Jr. all exhausted their eligibility this past season.

As of Thursday, March 20, the only three members of Minnesota's 2024-25 roster that could return for the 2025-26 season are senior guard Brennan Rigsby, guard Isaac Asuma, and forward Grayson Grove.

Of course, it's worth noting that in today's college athletics, nobody should be considered guaranteed to be on a roster until the beginning of the next season.

When looking at the potential returnees for the 2025-26 season, Brennan Rigsby is an interesting case. The De Beque, Colorado, native just finished up his senior season of basketball with the Gophers. However, since he began his collegiate career at Northwest Florida State College, a junior college program, Rigsby could choose to return for another season thanks to an NCAA waiver.

Here is an excerpt from an announcement from the National Junior College Athletic Association in December following the NCAA's ruling:

"The NJCAA became aware today of the NCAA Division I Board of Directors granting a waiver to permit student-athletes who attended and competed at a non-NCAA school for one or more years to remain eligible and compete in 2025-26 if those student-athletes would have otherwise used their final season of competition during the 2024-25 academic year."

This past season for the Gophers, Rigsby played in 29 games, making 10 starts while averaging 5.4 points and 1.9 rebounds per game. While Rigsby was, for the most part, quiet throughout the season, he did have two major performances at the tail end of the season, scoring 20 points against Nebraska and 18 points against Wisconsin. He previously had strong performances against Yale, Cleveland State, Wake Forest, and Penn State earlier in the season as well.

Rigsby's decision to use that extra year of eligibility (and if he chooses to play his final year with the Gophers) will be something to watch closely in the coming weeks and months.

The Gophers' top recruit in the 2024 recruiting cycle, Asuma played in 32 games as a true freshman and averaged a quality of 24.7 minutes per contest. In those 32 games, the Cherry, Minnesota, native averaged 5.6 points and 2.9 rebounds per game while shooting 43.7% from the field. He had quality success from three-point range, notably making 25-of-70 attempts this season, a 35.7% shooting percentage.

Asuma should be in for an even bigger role next season for the Gophers if he chooses to remain with the program, and a big step will be expected from the in-state talent.

The Alexandria, Minnesota, native did not appear in any games for the Gophers this season. It's hard to gauge what type of role Grove could have with the program going forward with a new coaching staff coming in.

One piece of notable info to pass along about Grove, however, is that if the potential hiring of Niko Medved gets across the finish line, Medved and his staff at Colorado State recruited Grove. That previous relationship could be enough to keep the Alexandria native around for the 2025-26 season and potentially beyond.

We will have to wait and see what happens with the incoming true freshmen. With the coaching change, all three can request their release from the program (though the NCAA did last year eliminate the letter of intent). Once they're granted their release, they could reopen their recruitment and look to find a new program.

That being said, the most likely scenario for all three prospects is that they will await the coaching hire, and once the hire is made and discussions are had with the new coaching staff, they'll make their decisions on their future from there. Though that is just speculation at this moment in time.

If all six players do remain on the roster for the Golden Gophers next season, the program's next coaching staff will have nine scholarships to work with, as the scholarship limit for the 2025-26 season will increase from 13 to 15.

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