My New Favorite Player

[MadBird]

Story in today's Minneapolis paper about Dawson Garcia, Twin Cities kid for the Gophers who elected to come back to Gophers for senior season next year. Started at Marquette, spent a year at North Carolina before heading back to Minnesota. Coach says he left money on the table to play for the old home town school. BRAVO!!

The Gophers’ NIL collective, Dinkytown Athletes, has been working sleepless nights to retain players. But Johnson said Garcia likely turned down bigger NIL offers to stay home. “Everybody talks about what’s maybe broken with college basketball,” Johnson said. “Dawson’s all about what’s right about college basketball ... He left a lot of money on the table. That’s a credit to him. There are things he weighed, and his family weighed. I hope our fans really can appreciate that in this day and age. "

After the Gophers lost to Michigan State at Target Center in the Big Ten tournament last month, Garcia said he hadn’t made a decision yet about returning but loved the program and his team. “I definitely think we’re continuing to go in the right direction,” Garcia said after the game. “We’ve got guys in the locker room, a whole coaching staff, a whole university that’s behind us that’s willing and committed.”

Garcia led the team in scoring (17.6) and rebounding (6.7) for the second straight year. He had 11games with 20-plus points, including three 30-point performances.

 

[BirdGrad2011]

K

 

[CaliRdBrd]

Kinda hard to lay heavy praise on a kid who’s been with three schools in three years.

 

[Manchester Matt]

Yeah, sorry, not gonna applaud a kid who decided to stay “home” at this third stop. I’m sure he’s doing just fine with his NIL deal at Minnesota.