Wayzata’s Nolen Anderson commits to Gopher hoops

Niko Medved gets his second commit for the 2026 class

Niko Medved has landed his second commit for the 2026 class. Wayzata’s Nolen Anderson, a 3-star foward, has committed to Minnesota.

Nolen Anderson

Pos: F
Ht: 6’6”
Wt: 180

Anderson will be coming to the Gophers from Wayzata, the defending state champs. He and Iowa State commit, Christian Wiggins led the Trojans to a state title last season and will be back to defend it.

He is the type of recruit who does a lot of this little things VERY well. For one, he is a good shooter, which is important. But what is going to make Anderson a great college basketball player is that he is elite at playing away from the ball. You will find that Anderson is not going to be the guy creating on offense by attacking the rim, blowing past defenders or creating his own shot. But what he will excel at is making cuts to the basket, moving the ball, setting screens and playing with a high basketall IQ that actually makes the offense work better for everyone.

Anderson had a recent offer from Virginia Tech to go along with handful of mid-majors.

What is next?

There are two big takeaways from this commitment.

First, Medved is getting the local kids. It is only one recruiting cycle, and every coach before him had at least one recruiting cycle when they kept key local kids home. But landing Cedric Tomes and Anderson are excellent gets, who fit very well with what Medved wants to do.

Which leads me to the second key takeaway…Medved is recruiting the right kind of kids who fit what he wants to do on both ends of the floor. And what impressed me about Anderson is that he sees it too.

“I’d say that I fit really well because I am more of an off the ball guy and they work well with guys off the ball, they had one of the highest assist rates in all of the NCAA last year. That is good because I am good at moving off the ball and I am good at cutting and running off of screens. They are not more dribble dominant as a team, and I think I fit in more this way on the team. I think I can fit right in because they need guys that can stretch the floor and shoot it pretty well for their team and those are things that I do pretty well and can help with.”

The self-awareness of Anderson is not common and making this decision based on how he’s going to fit into what they already run is very mature. But it also speaks to how he was recruited by Medved and his staff.

That gives the program two incoming freshmen for 2026. I would not at all be surprised to see them work on bringning in another guard and ideally a big man to develop.