The Minnesota Gophers women’s basketball team just delivered a gut-wrenching announcement: junior guard Tori McKinney, a verified force on the court, suffered a knee injury in practice last weekend and will miss the entire 2026-27 season. This isn’t just tough news, it is a massive blow to Minnesota’s chances at getting back to the NCAA Sweet 16 for the second year in a row.
A Certified Star Sidelined When It Mattered Most
McKinney was absolutely pivotal in the Gophers’ postseason run last season, and everyone expected her to elevate her game even further this year. She was coming off an incredible summer, seeing action with the US U23 3×3 team that went on to win the World Cup in Wuhan, China, in September. Not only did they win, but McKinney was named the MVP of that tournament, carving out a reputation as a star for the US squad on both ends of the floor.
Last season, she was the engine of the Gophers’ offense, averaging a team-high 12.7 points per game and racking up 369 points, which was the third-highest total on the team. She even set Minnesota’s single-season assist/turnover ratio record at an impressive 2.20, dishing out 75 assists against only 34 turnovers. Her efforts earned her spots on both the All-Big Ten Second Team and the All-Big Ten Defensive Team. Losing a player of that caliber, with that kind of momentum, has to sting the Gophers something fierce.
The Next Woman Up: A Familiar, Hard Lesson
McKinney’s absence immediately opens up a spot in the Gophers’ starting lineup and kicks off a whole new level of competition for those crucial depth roles. The Gophers were already looking at a pair of freshmen, Tori Oehrliein and Natalie Kussow, to step into large roles this season. Now, the opportunity just got even bigger for one of them, or for one of the returning depth players like junior Makena Christian or Kennedy Klick, to seize a breakout moment.
It is a tough, familiar situation for the Gophers program, which has had to deal with key players getting hurt and needing others to step up earlier than expected. Just two seasons ago, in 2024-25, when Mara Braun missed most of the season with a foot injury, it was a freshman McKinney who had to jump into a much larger role. McKinney herself talked about how Braun handled that exact situation on the Go Gopher Podcast with Mike Grimm from Big Ten Media Days just a couple of weeks ago. She said, “How she celebrates others and her leadership with that. I saw it from my freshman year when she did get hurt and she was the first person that was talking to me when I had to step in and start starting,and I was super stressed out, and I was like, Oh Wait, Mara’s here, I’m going to be fine. And she was genuinely supporting all of us even through she was probably struggling the most out of us because she wasn’t able to play. And she’s now translated that to the court now that she’s back and you can still see that leadership and support she shows to everyone.” It is a brutal twist of fate that McKinney now faces the same recovery and ‘coach on the bench’ role, especially since this will be Mara Braun’s final year of eligibility.
McKinney will miss her last chance to play alongside Braun, but she will still have two years of eligibility left when she returns for the 2027-28 season. The team is set to release more details on this injury and how they will adjust in their season preview, which drops before their November 2nd season opener against Harvard at The Barn. It is going to be a challenging season, no doubt, but one that will show us who truly steps up when the chips are down.
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by Yahoo Sports.
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