As the Big Ten Conference men’s basketball postseason tournament gets underway in Chicago this week—running from Tuesday, March 10, through Sunday, the 15th—as a prelude to March Madness, the University of Minnesota men’s basketball team faces a daunting task. Hovering in the bottom third of the 18-team conference, the squad will have to win at least three, maybe four games to qualify for further play in one of the national championship tournaments. But that prospect is compounded by the paucity of players on the team as it takes the court for its first game this Wednesday.
This year’s team has been playing with what is known as the “Iron 6,” a rotation of only six scholarship players. The roster was devastated by injuries to two of its key players for most of the season and a bench comprised of a half-dozen uniformed players whom Coach Niko Medved feels are incapable or not ready to play at this level.
The sextet that comprises the “Iron 6” includes Cade Tyson, the team’s best player and only senior; a pair of Minnesotans, center Grayson Grove of Alexandria and guard Isaac Asuma of Cherry; three-point shooting specialist Bobby Durkin; and fifth starter Langston Reynolds; with the team’s only freshman, Kai Shinholser, coming off the bench sparingly.
This is not the first time the Gopher men’s club has operated at such a deficiency. In fact, it is the third time in memory—once 55 years ago and then 15 years later—that the team has played with a shorthand five- or six-man unit, just barely enough to put a team on the court while competing against teams with much greater depth. The start of postseason play this week provides an opportune occasion to look back at those other two overachievers with undermanned squads that are embedded in Gopher men’s basketball history.
Five Strive
This year’s “Iron 6” was one-upped (or downed) by the team 40 years ago, the 1985–86 squad that became renowned as the “Iron 5.” The team was relegated to a five-man unit after three of its key players were suspended following an alleged sexual assault incident in Madison a few hours after the Gophers had eked out a narrow 67–65 buzzer-beater victory over the Badgers. The players were ultimately acquitted at trial, but by the time that occurred, coach Jim Dutcher had resigned, the team had forfeited a game, and the squad was down to five active players, as recounted here in “Scandals and Suits Have Plagued Gopher Basketball for Decades” (January 29, 2026).
Striving to continue the season, the five-man Minnesota squad played its next game at the venerable Williams Arena under acting coach Jimmy Williams, Dutcher’s assistant, against a quality Ohio State team. In a game that captured the nation’s attention, the U of M managed to pull off a startling 65–60 victory. A few weeks later, they came within two points of defeating Indiana on the Hoosiers’ home court shortly before that Indiana team, coached by the legendary Bob Knight, went on to win the national championship.
But all was not rosy for the Gopher five-man squad during the balance of that season. That “Iron” quintet, supplemented by a few intramural walk-ons to enable the team to practice and occupy the bench, ended up with a 5–13 conference record to finish eighth in the then-10-team league. They finished with a 15–16 overall record, winning only one of their final nine games.
The “Iron” men who comprised that squad consisted of native Minnesotan Tim Hanson, the former state high school Mr. Basketball from Prior Lake; center John Shasky; Marc Wilson, a flashy guard; and role players Kevin Smith and Ray Gaffney. That fivesome comprised the core of the team the following year under new coach Clem Haskins. Haskins eventually managed to right the ship and turn the Gophers into a fully manned, competitive team over the next decade before he was felled by an academic fraud scandal that cost the team its records in the 1996–97 season—the year they reached the Final Four for the first and only time in history.
Musselman’s Men
The foibles of that 1985–86 “Iron 5” contrasted with the success of a predecessor “Iron” quintet that won the Big Ten championship under first-year coach Bill Musselman in the 1971–72 season. Finishing with an 11–3 conference record and an 18–7 overall record, they attained an 11th-place ranking in the polls and made it to the national regional semifinals before losing to Florida State, 70–56.
That Gopher team basically played six players nearly all the time under Musselman’s defensive-oriented, frenetic coaching. The “Iron” sextet was led by Jim Brewer, who went on to become Big Ten Player of the Year, an All-American, and a member of the 1972 Olympic team. Brewer was joined by Ron Behagen, Clyde Turner, Kelvin Young, point guard Bobby Nix, and Dave Winfield. Winfield, the St. Paul native, was famously drafted by three professional leagues (NFL, NBA, and MLB) and chose baseball, becoming a Hall of Famer and joining the 3,000-hit club as a Minnesota Twin.
Musselman’s “Iron” men also had a renowned game with Ohio State that season, which ended in a notorious bench-clearing brawl at Williams Arena. Despite the imbroglio, the Gophers won the conference championship and were favored to do so again the following year, though they eventually fell short. Musselman eventually bolted for the pros before returning to Minnesota as the Timberwolves’ first coach in 1989.
These two prior “Iron” squads provide the backdrop for this year’s “Six.” Coach Medved has the “luxury” of having one more player available off the bench than his starting five, but it is unlikely this year’s team will make much of a mark in the tournament this week. Regardless of what occurs, the “Iron 6” will join their predecessors in the unique annals of University of Minnesota basketball history.
