Ben Johnson fought an urge Thursday to fully jump onto a soap box and rant about the current state of the NCAA transfer portal.

Alas, he didn’t grab a bullhorn, but the Gophers men’s basketball coach did more than just pump-fake on his unvarnished views of the roster destroying/building database, er, marketplace when factoring in name, image and likeness (NIL) compensation. He shared some of his truth.

The Gophers had six players exit via the portal after last season and one head to the NBA; and the U added seven via the portal for this year’s team, which started practice Wednesday.

Johnson said the goal was to replace outgoing key producers with experienced players entering their final year of eligibility. Six of the seven portal additions are seniors.

Johnson, who is entering his fourth season coaching at his alma mater, said he didn’t want to replace the outgoing transfers — primarily Elijah Hawkins, Pharrel Payne and Braeden Carrington — with freshmen or sophomores.

“When you got to think about, all right, how do you do that, where you can still win if, financially, you can’t afford, necessarily, the best of the best?” Johnson said. “You can’t just go pluck another NBA-type talent, then you got to think, all right, the next best thing that wins outside of talent in college basketball now is experience and age and being older.

“And so we combined that. And then my thought was, all right, if we’re going to be old, then let’s have old with urgency. Well, who has urgency? Guys who have one last year, right?”

The six incoming seniors are guards Lu’Cye Patterson (Charlotte), Tyler Cochran (Toledo), Brennan Rigsby (Oregon), Femi Odukale (New Mexico State) and Caleb Williams (Macalester), and forward Trey Edmonds (Texas-San Antonio). Frank Mitchell (Canisius) is a junior apiece.

Three of them — Patterson, Odukale and Cochran — have played more than 100 Division I games apiece.

“Now, as a coach, selfishly you don’t have to worry about ‘they ain’t coming back.’ You don’t have to worry about them going to the portal,” Johnson said. “They are done.”

The senior-heavy squad also includes two returning starters in Dawson Garcia and Mike Mitchell, plus sixth man Parker Fox.

“There’s urgency now, and they’re going to be all-in and invested,” Johnson said. “It’s a good environment to have a Dawson, a really good player that you can put pieces around, but you’ve got an older, urgent group. They know in seven, eight months, this thing’s done. So when I tell them every day matters, and every day is one less day, that’s real life. And so you’re hoping that somehow translates to on-the-court productivity.”

Johnson said the U’s older roster, which starts preseason fully healthy, has allowed him to advance in the level of coaching.

“We’re not doing nearly as much teaching as we were last year,” the coach said. “Not even close. That’s why we have been able to be ahead on both sides of the ball so much more.”

Mr. Meister

Johnson had a striking amount of praise Thursday for walk-on senior transfer center Lincoln Meister, a Rochester, Minn., native who played four years at Minnesota Duluth.

“He’s played well and pushed guys (in practice),” Johnson said. “We were sitting there at first, ‘How did this guy not play (much at UMD)? He was at a disadvantage (at 6-foot-9) in Division II because everyone is small, so he’s got no matchup. … He comes here and it’s a much better fit because he’s a true five. He’s been a delight in practice. He’s made guys better because he’s long, he’s crafty, he’s a better athlete than you think. He’s pretty skilled.”

Now, it’s still a big jump from raising the floor in practice to contributing in regular-season games, but Meister has been a bright spot in the early stages of preseason.

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