Minnesota Basketball Player Previews: Sean Sutherlin

With the Minnesota Golden Gopher men’s basketball season kicking off on November 9th, we will be previewing all members of the roster. Sutherlin, a combo transfer from New Hampshire, is another Minnesota native on the roster who hails from New Brighton.

Year

Senior

Position

Guard

Measurables

Height: 6’ 5”

Weight: 200 lbs

Experience

Sutherlin played two years of junior college ball at Sheridan College in Wyoming before moving on to the University of New Hampshire, members of the America East Conference. In his sole season of Division I play, the Irondale product nearly averaged a double-double with 12.8 points and 9.3 rebounds. He started all 28 games for the Wildcats during the 2019-2020 season, including playing 34 minutes per game. Sutherlin missed last season due to injury.

Brief Breakdown

Sean has a little more size than the other guards previously mentioned which manifested itself in a higher rebound rate. Based on his 56.5% career free throw rate, it would appear that Sutherlin isn’t quite the shooter as some of the other guards on the roster and may be more adept at flexing to the three-spot on occasion in smaller lineups. He averaged nearly four turnovers a game in his season at New Hampshire so I wouldn’t expect him to be much of a ball-handler among the other available options on the roster.

Projected Role

Sutherlin appears to be headed towards being more of a two or undersized three based on the other members of the roster. Nothing in his statistics or tape seem to indicate that he will be a major contributor to the outside shooting that the Minnesota faithful so desperately crave after last year’s brick-laying exhibition. However, there is something to be said in Big Ten play by being able to rebound from the guard position and Sean has shown an ability to do that with great aplomb. In what appears to be a recurring theme in these breakdowns, he seems poised to play a decent amount of minutes just because no one projects to take so many minutes that there wouldn’t be any available for the home state senior.