Gophers land rebounding forward Frank Mitchell from the portal

Rebounding machine, Frank Mitchell, is transferring to the Gophers

With the loss of Pharrel Payne, the Gophers needed one (likely two) big men in this transfer portal season. This week, Ben Johnson got a commitment from Frank Mitchell from Canisius.

As you can see in the tweet from Ryan James, Mitchell was the nation’s 4th leading rebounder last season.

Frank Mitchell

Pos: F
Ht: 6’8”
Wt: 240

Mitchell is a Canadian-born athlete who spent 1 year playing for a Canadian college before transferring to Canisius. He sat out his first season there, due to those old NCAA transfer rules and played last year for the Golden Griffins. During his only season playing in the MAAC he averaged 12 points and 11.6 rebounds per game, earning himself 2nd team All-MAAC honors.

Moving up or across levels of basketball, not every skill set translates. But rebounding typically does. The Gophers were a decent rebounding team, finishing roughly in the top third of college basketball. They are losing Pharrel Payne to the transfer portal who averaged 10 points and just over 6 rebounds per game.

I would bet that Mitchell will not average double figures in scoring, but his ability to rebound should absolutely translate and this area may be a real strength of next year’s Gopher team.

What is next?

What the Gophers need is still very much dependent on what Cam Christie chooses to do with his future. He is exploring his draft options and should he choose to remain in the NBA Draft, then we have an extreme need for a scoring perimeter player. This would be priority #1. Should he return to the Gophers for another season, then the primary needs are depth.

If Christie returns, we have 2 scholarships. If he leaves, we have 3. Here is how they need to be used.

1 – scoring guard/wing – only if Christie leaves, but if he does, this is a massive hole for the Gopher roster.

2 – backcourt depth – basically they need a replacement for Braeden Carrington. A guard off the bench who can specialize in something. Maybe defense, maybe shooting, but they need depth off the bench. Elijah Hawkins and Mike Mitchell Jr will be your starting guards with freshman Isaac Asuma coming off the bench as your backup point. But another guard is needed.

3 – frontcourt depth – particularly at center. Dawson Garcia and Parker Fox are returning, with Mitchell joining them in the frontcourt. None of these three are a traditional center. An offense can be orchestrated that takes advantage of their abilities, but another big man off the bench would be great.

But Mitchell should be a welcome addition to the team and expect that he’ll see significant minutes, likely off the bench. He will always be hunting double-doubles, likely averaging around 7-8 points and 10+ rebounds per game.