team played in the NBA: Bobby Jackson, Sam Jacobson, Quincy Lewis, John Thomas, and Trevor Winter. Currently Amir Coffey (LA Clippers) and Daniel Oturu (2020 draft pick), former Gophers, play in the NBA. Jamal Abu-Shamala, a Palestinian-American, played internationally for the Jordan national basketball team in 2008 and the Palestine national basketball team since 2011. Current roster This roster is current for the 2021–22 men's basketball season. Retired numbers History Program establishment (1895–1927) The precise founding of the Gophers men's basketball program at the University of Minnesota is somewhat nebulous. Unlike many other universities with later foundations, the team did not form as a conscious act of the campus administration. The university's student newspaper at the time, the Ariel, reported on basketball throughout 1895 as the sport was introduced to the campus from a rival school, Minnesota A&M in St. Paul, later incorporated into the larger University of Minnesota Twin Cities. In 1896, a team from the school began to participate in a league with the Agriculture school, YMCA teams, and other local associations. The establishment of the Armory on-campus gave the team a new place to play. In February 1897, L. J. Cooke, a director of the Minneapolis YMCA, was hired on a part-time basis to coach the basketball program, and became the full-time coach and director of physical education by the fall of that year. Cooke was one of the first full-time professional coaches in all of college basketball and would remain at the program for 28 seasons. Cooke began to improve the team significantly and was responsible for shifts in the Gophers' scheduling that foreshadowed other changes to come. The team never played a YMCA team after the 1903–04 season, and beginning in 1900, began to schedule large neighboring universities that would join Minnesota in Big Ten competition. This shift to playing similar competition helped the Gophers to become one of the premier programs in the nation. From the 1899–00 to 1903–04 seasons, the Gophers had a 59–6 record. The 1901–02 squad has been retroactively named the national champions by both the Helms Foundation and the Premo-Porretta Power Poll; the Premo-Porretta poll also names the 1902–03 Gophers as national champions. When the Big Ten established basketball in 1905, the Gophers won the first two conference titles. After 1907, Cooke's dominance of the national basketball scene was greatly reduced. He led the team to two more conference titles