The 2020–21 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

2020–21 NCAA Division I men's basketball season The 2020–21 NCAA Division I men's basketball season began on November 25, 2020, and concluded on March 14, 2021. The 2021 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament culminated the season and began on March 18 and concluded on April 5. Season ...

. The Gophers were led by eighth-year head coach Richard Pitino 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 ...

as 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 ...

. The Gophers finished the season 14–15, 6–14 in Big Ten play to finish in 13th place. They defeated Northwestern in the first round of the Big Ten tournament before losing to

Ohio State The Ohio State University (Ohio State or OSU) is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio, United States. A member of the University System of Ohio, it was founded in 1870. It is one of the largest universities by enrollme ...

in the second round. Following the season, the school fired Richard Pitino after eight years at the school. On March 23, 2021, the school named Minnesota alum and former Minnesota assistant coach Ben Johnson the new head coach.

Previous season

The

Gophers Pocket gophers, commonly referred to simply as gophers, are burrowing rodents of the family Geomyidae. The roughly 41 speciesSearch results for "Geomyidae" on thASM Mammal Diversity Database are all endemic to North and Central America. They are ...

finished the 2019–20 season 15–16, 8–12 in Big Ten play to finish in 12th place. The Gophers defeated Northwestern in the first round of the Big Ten tournament before the tournament was canceled due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. All other postseason tournaments including the NCAA tournament were later canceled effectively ending the season.

Offseason

Departures

Incoming transfers

Recruiting classes

2020 recruiting class

2021 recruiting class

Roster

Schedule and results

, - ! colspan=9 style=, Regular season , - ! colspan="9" style=, Big Ten tournament

Rankings

*AP does not release post-NCAA Tournament rankings
^Coaches did not release a Week 1 poll.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Minnesota Golden Gophers men's basketball team, 2020-21 2020-21 2020–21 Big Ten Conference men's basketball season 2020 in sports in Minnesota 2021 in sports in Minnesota