Dawson Garcia’s loyalty to the suddenly surging Gophers finally has yielded some success

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MINNEAPOLIS — Dawson Garcia held up the phone that was handed to him in the happy chaos on Minnesota’s homecourt to record a brief shoutout to the fans, as dozens of them squeezed behind him into the shot in the aftermath of an upset of another Top 25 team.

“We’re building something!” Garcia yelled above the din of the Williams Arena crowd.

Evidence of progress for the Gophers finally has become public, and their loyal star Garcia has had his fingerprints all over it. He’s third in the Big Ten in scoring at 19.7 points per game, 11th in rebounds and 13th in blocks.

“The dude makes every single play, and it’s not just in the game, it’s every single day in practice,” teammate Parker Fox said. “His energy is never off. His vibe is never off, and he’s never negative when he could be in situations. He’s never thinking about what’s next. He’s thinking about right now.”

The 6-foot-11, 230-pound Garcia could have gone pro somewhere or picked a different program for a bigger NIL payout, but he returned to his beloved home state program for a fifth season of college basketball for moments like that win against then-15th-ranked Oregon in which he had 31 points.

And the victory over then-20th-ranked Michigan on Jan. 16 secured in overtime with his buzzer-beating swish from near half court.

And the first road win against rival Iowa in 10 years tucked in between.

“He’s the reason why I came back too,” said Fox, a Minnesota native himself who’s in his fourth year with the Gophers and eighth overall after starting his career at the NCAA Division II level at Northern State in South Dakota. “That means a lot to me when we’re able to share those moments, put my arm around him and just kind of look at the crowd when people were storming the court. That’s the most special thing in the world.”

Coach Ben Johnson and his staff essentially have started over in each of his four seasons at his alma mater, with the Gophers being annually gutted by the transfer…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/dawson-garcia-loyalty-suddenly-surging-214738292.html

Author : NBC Sports

Publish date : 2025-01-27 21:47:00

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