There are approximately 100 African American and other student-athletes of color this school year at the University of Minnesota. In an occasional series throughout the 2025-26 academic and sports year, the MSR will highlight many of these players.

This week: Gopher WBB Sophomore Tori McKinney

Tori McKinney Credit: Charles Hallman

Can Tori McKinney pick up where she left off last spring? MSR was the only local media to watch in person McKinney’s WBIT MVP performance in leading Minnesota to a championship game win over Belmont with a career-high 26 points, including 19 first-half points.

“It’s team and personal, but we would love to play in the Big Dance this year, and that’s a goal,” the 6’1” guard recently told us when asked about her goals for 2025-26. 

The Minnetonka native had a phenomenal first year as a college player. McKinney twice was named Freshman of the Week (USBWA, Big Ten), finished third on the team in scoring, co-leader with Niamya Holloway with 12 blocks, and was one of three conference freshmen to average 10.6 points, 1.3 steals and 2.5 assists per game. She also concluded last season with the best freshman free-throw percentage of any Gopher (.887).

“I would say it was a faster adjustment, but also an adjustment I would say I was willing to make and implement,” recalled McKinney, “because I knew Minnesota is who I wanted to play for. Minnesota is the place where I want to spend my next four years. Obviously I got thrown in there kind of quick.”

McKinney currently leads the Gophers in scoring with nearly 14 points a contest, and the team leader in steals. Off the court, she is now studying accounting as her major but says she might look to change her academic focus.

“Hopefully by the end of the year I’ll decide my major,” stressed the sophomore. “I think I’m going to accounting, but we’ll see. Academically, it’s going well.” 

Being close to home enables McKinney’s folks and friends to see her play. “It’s like the best thing in the world,” she said. “The fan base is definitely something special here.”

Banham tries some 3-on-3

Former Gopher WBB great Rachel Banham is set for her first season playing in the second-year Unrivaled 3×3 league when it begins on Jan. 5. “It’s really exciting times,” she told me before leaving for training camp. “They had their first season and it was really fun.

“3-on-3 — I’ve never done that [before]. But it’s a really fun league to play in — shoot a lot of 3’s and spacing. So, I decided to do it.” 

Banham, a fourth-round pick in the 2016 WNBA Draft, just completed her second season in Chicago. She will be reunited as teammates with Lynx’s Napheesa Collier on Lunar Owls BC this season — they played together in Minnesota for three seasons.

As a result, Banham, who was a one-season Minnesota Gopher assistant coach (2023-24), has again put a possible post-playing career on hold: “Absolutely. I’ll coach after I’m done. It can wait,” stressed the veteran pro guard.

Fowles joins Fire

Speaking of putting a post-playing career on hold, two-time Hall of Famer Sylvia Fowles reportedly will join the WNBA Portland Fire expansion team as an assistant coach in 2026. She hopes one day to be a mortician.

Clem and Yevette Haskins Credit: Charles Hallman

In remembrance

Yevette Haskins, the wife of former Minnesota coach Clem Haskins, died last week. During her husband’s tenure, Mrs. Haskins was clearly the first lady of Gopher hoops and a mother to all the players. The Haskins were high school sweethearts and the parents of four children.

We last wrote about the two in a March 7, 2020 column after the couple attended Willie Burton’s Gopher jersey retirement ceremony at Williams Arena in January 2020.

Our condolences to the Haskins family at this difficult time.

Charles Hallman welcomes reader comments to challman@spokesman-recorder.com.

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