The 2016–17 Minnesota Golden Gophers men's basketball team represented the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota Twin Cities (historically known as University of Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint ...

in the

2016–17 NCAA Division I men's basketball season The 2016–17 NCAA Division I men's basketball season began on November 11, 2016. The first early-season tournaments were the 2K Sports Classic, Charleston Classic, and Puerto Rico Tip-Off. The season ended with the 2017 NCAA Division I men' ...

. The Gophers, led by fourth-year head coach

Richard Pitino Richard William Pitino (born September 16, 1982) is an American college basketball coach who is the head men's basketball coach at Xavier University. He was previously head coach at Minnesota from 2013 to 2021, and New Mexico from 2021 to 2025. ...

, were members of the

Big Ten Conference The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference, among others) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Fa ...

and played their home games at

Williams Arena Williams Arena is an indoor arena located in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is the home arena for the University of Minnesota's men's and women's basketball teams. It also housed the men's hockey team until 1993, when it moved into its own building ...

Minneapolis, Minnesota Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the state's List of cities in Minnesota, most populous city. Locat ...

. They finished the season 24–10, 11–7 in Big Ten play to finish in fourth place. In the

Big Ten tournament Big Ten Tournament can refer to any Big Ten Conference sport that has a tournament or championship game: * Big Ten Football Championship Game * Big Ten men's basketball tournament * Big Ten women's basketball tournament * Big Ten baseball tournamen ...

, they beat

Michigan State Michigan State University (Michigan State or MSU) is a public land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan, United States. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the first of its kind in the ...

in the quarterfinals before losing to

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

in the semifinals. They received an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament as a No. 5 seed. The bid marked their first trip to the Tournament since

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

. In the First Round, they lost to No. 12-seeded

Middle Tennessee Middle Tennessee is one of the three Grand Divisions of Tennessee that composes roughly the central portion of the state. It is delineated according to state law as 41 of the state's 95 counties. Middle Tennessee contains the state's capital an ...

. Head coach Richard Pitino was named Big Ten Coach of the Year. Reggie Lynch was named defensive player of the year. Nate Mason was named to the All-Big Ten First Team.

Previous season

The Golden Gophers finished the 2015–16 season with a record of 8–23, 2–16 in Big Ten play to finish in 13th place in conference. They lost in the first round of the

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

. The season was marred by the suspensions of three players, Kevin Dorsey, Nate Mason and Dupree McBrayer, on March 1, 2016 for allegedly posting a sex video online. The players were suspended for the rest of the season.

Offseason

In May, 2016, Illinois State transfer, Reggie Lynch, was arrested by University police on suspicion of rape. In August, it was determined that charges would not be filed against Lynch. Lynch was reinstated to the team in September.

Departures

Incoming transfers

2016 recruiting class

2017 recruiting class

2018 recruiting class

Roster

Schedule and results

, - ! colspan=9 style=, Exhibition , - ! colspan="9" style=, Non-conference regular season , - ! colspan="9" style=, Big Ten regular season , - ! colspan="9" style=, Big Ten tournament , - ! colspan="9" style=, NCAA tournament

Rankings

*AP does not release post-NCAA tournament rankings

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Minnesota Golden Gophers men's basketball team, 2016-17 2016-17 team 2016–17 Big Ten Conference men's basketball season 2016 in sports in Minnesota 2017 in sports in Minnesota 2017 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament participants