UCLA men’s basketball coach Mick Cronin has gone viral for some bombastic behavior this season, but he avoided creating another viral moment after his team’s 78-73 loss to the Gophers last Saturday, giving praise to the U while still showing a sliver of the unvarnished nature that has brought him attention.
“We have (defensive) deficiencies, and they exposed them,” Cronin said at Williams Arena. “Give them all the credit.”
Gophers men’s basketball coach Niko Medved draws up a play for his team during a timeout late Tuesday in Eugene, Ore. Minnesota beat the Ducks, 61-44, at Matthew Knight Arena. (Ceci De Young/Gophers Athletics)
Minnesota has its own issues, particularly in personnel. Last weekend at The Barn, the Gophers won with five players on the court for extensive minutes, and only four of them scored points.
Over his 30-year coaching career, Niko Medved has polished a preferred offensive playing style, fine-tuning it his dozen years as a head coach. But this season, he has shown an ability to adjust, sometimes radically.
Those tweaks have the extremely shorthanded Gophers at seven conference wins and 11th in the 18-team Big Ten in his first back in his native Minnesota. After the conference tournament next week, Minnesota will be in contention to play in a postseason tournament, perhaps the NIT or the College Basketball Crown.
Minnesota (14-15, 7-11 Big Ten) will play its penultimate league game on Wednesday at Indiana (17-12, 8-10). Tipoff at Assembly Hall is set for 5:30 p.m. CST.
On defense, Medved has been using more zone concepts than he ever. Against UCLA, he used a 2-3 zone and man-to-man on the same possession. They went “zone to man late in the (shot) clock,” Cronin said Saturday. “We struggled to follow instruction and go to man offense when they did it.”
Gophers assistant coach Brian Cooley, who joined Medved’s staff at Colorado State in 2021, said their standard is to play fast on offense, particularly after opponent misses and turnovers.
“Aesthetically, we want a fun style to watch,” he told the Pioneer Press.
But that plan was foiled this season. Starting point guard Chansey Willis and top center Robert Viahola were lost to season-ending injuries in November. In February, starting power forward Jaylen Crocker-Johnson was ruled out indefinitely with his own injury, and reserves BJ Omot and Chance Stephens have been sidelined all season.
So, Minnesota has decided to grind down the pace. They rank 362 out of 365 in the nation in adjusted tempo, according to analytics site KenPom.com, with 62.3 possessions per 40 minutes.
“That is the biggest thing: We are playing slower than we’ve ever played and really kind of picking our spots,” Medved said. “The good news is we explained to the guys that it’s kind of what we have to do, and they are bought in.”
One of Medved’s offensive influences is former Michigan coach Jon Beilein’s style of play that has Princeton roots. That jumps off the court with its spacing, passing and trademark backdoor cuts. In Medved’s parlance, where everything has a new name, those are termed “burn-cuts” leading to “naked,” or uncontested, layups.
But U point guard Langston Reynolds, who has stepped up in the absence of Willis, is not a good 3-point shooter. Neither is backup big Grayson Grove. So, defenses sag off them along the perimeter in order to take away those bread-and-butter cuts.
“That has been a real challenge at times,” Medved said. “That has been a thing in clogging up the lane. But I think those guys have really started to do a great job; they have become really good screeners, really good at finding other guys. When time goes by, and you are guarded so many different ways, you just kind of figure it out.”
Even if backdoor cuts have been fewer, the Gophers continue to move without the ball.
“Cutting is so important to us,” Cooley said. “We always say ‘cutting is character.’ It sounds kind of cliché, but it’s true. It’s unselfish play. You might not get open, but maybe somebody else gets a wide-open shot. We really value that.”
Northwestern coach Chris Collins called Medved “one of the more underrated coaches in the country” before Minnesota’s 84-78 win in Evanston, Ill., on Jan. 3.
“When you watch them, and I’m sure it’s going to be even better in person, (you see) how well they run their offense,” Collins told Big Ten Network. “Man, their spacing is great. They cut with precision, they share the ball. … They put a lot of pressure on you to guard them.”
Medved also has adjusted to incorporating more screening off the ball to get shooters open, primarily Cade Tyson and Bobby Durkin. Against UCLA, Durkin ws 7 for 11 from 3-point range, while Tyson was 3 for 5.
“We’ve done that before, but are probably doing even more of that” this season, Medved said.
Throughout this year, the Gophers have been the nation’s leader in assist percentage, currently at 72%. It reflects how much the Gophers share the ball.
“This is one of, if not the best passing team we’ve had since I’ve been with (Medved),” Cooley said.
But that assist percentage stat also indicates how the U doesn’t have a clear go-to scorer, someone who can get his own bucket without the help of an assist. Minnesota must play together to generate good offense, and that includes not taking poor shots.
“If you do take a bad shot, you kind of stick out like a turnip in a punch bowl,” Cooley said. “ … There’s none of that going on.”
Cooley said Medved seeks high-IQ players for his offensive system.
“We have concepts,” he said. “He wants to teach them more how to think and not just: ‘You have to do this.’ Just playing off each other, using more instincts. So, it’s a good offense to play in.”
Tyson, who transferred from North Carolina, said he was struck by Medved’s exacting nature during summer and early season workouts.
“I do think that coach’s attention detail is as good as it gets, and I don’t think everybody else does that,” Cooley said. “Sometimes in the fall it’s like, ‘Golly, the screen angle (isn’t good enough) and we’re stopping them (in practice). We’re not hammering them, but we’re stopping them. Then we can we can kind of coach them on it and then it just become second nature.”
Minnesota forward Grayson Grove, right, looks to shoot while guarded by UCLA’s Skyy Clark during the Gophers’ 78-73 victory over the Bruins last Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026, at Williams Arena. (Brad Rempel / Gophers Athletics)
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