Dawson Garcia is eligible to play for the Gophers against Maine on Friday.
Following an ankle injury sustained during a home victory over Nebraska on December 6, Garcia has missed the opening nine games of the season. His absence has caused the Gophers to win all three of their non-conference games, but the U has lost its last three games.
“For (Garcia) to have really five days off of it and then come back, looks really good,” Johnson commented. “His conditioning looks really good, so he’ll be ready to roll for sure (Friday).”
It’s encouraging news for a team approaching Big Ten play that the Gophers have not lost while he hasn’t played. Gophers kickoff is at 6 p.m. The penultimate nonconference game is this Friday versus Maine. Minnesota’s first Big Ten game is on January 4 in Ann Arbor, Michigan, against Michigan.
“You don’t want to put him in a tough spot where his first game back is all of a sudden now on the road in the Big Ten,” Johnson explained. Gaining experience in a game helped him regain his rhythm, timing, and defensive body movement, which I believe was crucial. Therefore, if we could go earlier, that was kind of the objective; it would just need to make sense.”This season, Garcia leads the Gophers in both scoring and rebounding averages with 18.2 points and 7.2 rebounds.