Gopher basketball student managers earn trip to play at Final Four
Their games are played in an underground world that exists in the shadows cast by the bright lights of college basketball.
Often when two college basketball teams gather to play, their student managers try to balance their responsibilities and find time to play a game against each other.
Played in practice gyms or darkened arenas the night before or morning of the “main team” games, these friendly-but-competitive “Manager Games” resemble pick-up games but final scores and nationwide standings are kept.
At the end of the season the top 64 teams in the nation enter into a social media contest, which eventually sends the top eight to play for the ‘Manager Games National Championship’ at the NCAA Final Four.
This year, the University of Minnesota student managers qualified for their first-ever trip the Final Four.
Click the video box on this page to watch KSTP Sports’ story on the Gopher Basketball Student Managers as they prepared to head to San Antonio to play for a Manager Games National Championship at the Final Four
It’s been a good run for Gophers student managers lately. One of the current group’s predecessors – Niko Medved – was just named the Gophers head coach.
Medved was a student manager during his time at the “U”, and wished the team luck as they prepared to make the trip.
As soon as they won their vote, the Gopher managers quickly searched for a rental house in San Antonio and secured the use of one of their parents’ Sprinter van to make the drive.
Despite a flat tire somewhere in the middle of Oklahoma, they made the 1,250-mile drive on Thursday, then hit the flow at the Final Four FanFest on Friday.
— Minnesota MBB Managers (@GopherManagers) April 3, 2025
Travel Update (Pt1)
After coming from behind to beat Florida in the quarterfinals, the Gophers saw a would-be buzzer-beater rattle out in a one-point semifinal loss to eventual champion Louisville.