Get to Know a Gopher: Alihan Demir

Who?

Alihan Demir is your graduate transfer for the 2019-20 season. With several open scholarships in this past recruiting class, Richard Pitino and staff wisely used one of them to get a more experienced player. The graduation of Jordan Murphy leaves a monster hole in the Gopher frontcourt and Demir is going to be the one tasked with filling those shoes...at least partially.

He is a 6’9”, shooting power forward. As a junior at Drexel he averaged 14.8 points and 6.4 rebounds per game while shooting 27% from three. His three point shooting took a bit of a dip after hitting 36% as a sophomore and it is really going to be a key piece of what he brings to Minnesota this year.

Fun Fact

Demir adds to the international flavor of this Gopher roster as he is a native of Turkey. He currently has his degree in marketing from Drexel and is pursuing a masters in youth development leadership.

What can we expect?

Demir is going to be plugged into the starting lineup at power forward, but how this year’s team utilizes the PF is going be very different than it was in the past couple years. You will not see nearly as much high/low action with a PF like Jordan Murphy getting 1:1 in the paint.

Demir is going to be a stretch forward who will find some craft baskets around the rim, but he won’t make a living in the paint. The real question is going to how well he rebounds. If he can match the 6+ rebounds he averaged per game last year, I think that will be great. If he’s below 5, rebounding is going to be a pretty significant problem for the Gophers.

But expect to see Demir on the floor for 26-30 minutes and hopefully being a shooter that teams have to defend, opening up the paint for Daniel Oturu and penetration lanes for the backcourt.