When Ben Johnson took over as head coach of the Minnesota Gophers men's basketball team, he had one thing on his side. He was born and raised in Minneapolis, played at De LaSalle High School, built connections that gave Johnson an "in" on the local high school recruiting circuit.
And with the Gopher MBB class of 2022 , we saw that seed bear fruit when top in-state prospect, 4-star big man out of Park Center (Cottage Grove) Pharrel Payne, along with fellow Twin Cities native, Braeden Carrington and Osseo high school's Josh Ola-Joseph.
While all three played a lot of minutes early on during their short careers at the University of Minnesota, it was Payne who stood out as special among the three. Pharrel arrived on campus as a Freshman standing 6'9″, weighing 230 lbs and he used that unique size in a way you see few freshman do.
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A nifty little move from @GopherMBB 's Pharrel Payne. 🌀 pic.twitter.com/BhzZlXSrY5
— Minnesota on BTN (@MinnesotaOnBTN) December 22, 2023
Related: Minnesota Big Man Pharrel Payne is in the Portal and EVERYBODY Wants Him
In two seasons with his hometown Gopher basketball team, Pharrel Payne played 62 games (23 starts) and averaged 9.1 points, 5.6 rebounds and 1.2 assists per game, in 22.7 minutes per night. Even as a youngster, Payne showed all the signs of a dominant power four big man.
Now a couple of years later, as a senior at Maryland under Buzz Williams (who also coached him for a year at Texas A&M after he transferred out of MN ), the shy quiet kid out of Cottage Grove has grown up into one of the best players in the Big Ten.
Through three games this season as a Terrapin, entering their matchup Saturday against Marquette, Payne was averaging 20 points, 8 rebounds and 1.3 assists per game.
But then, with just over 12 minutes to play in the second half Saturday in Milwaukee , disaster struck after what appeared to be yet another rim-rattling dunk from the ex-Minnesota Gopher, which accounted for Payne's 11th and 12th points on the day.
Unfortunately, the homegrown big man let go of the rim a split second too soon. So when he did come down, Payne landed on Marquette defender Joshua Clark's foot. As Clark pulled away, Payne's foot went with him, in a way that human legs are not supposed to move.
Here is a look at how Maryland's star center Pharrel Payne was injured.
Brutal. pic.twitter.com/GU3tNuZGXw— College Basketball Content (@CBBcontent) November 15, 2025
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Pharrel Payne stayed on the floor for quite a while after the injury occured, and eventually had to be taken off the court in a stretcher. Maryland went on to beat Marquette 89-82 , to move to 3-1 on their season.
When the game was over, Payne — who tweeted out "how bout them Terps" was in better spirits than his head coach. A distraught Williams met with media after the game and admitted that he did not know much about the injury, but noted that losing their best player would certainly hurt the team.
Buzz Williams says Pharrel Payne is in the hospital
"We don't know anything"
"He's our best player, that's well received within our program. I've never seen him hurt. The angle that I saw it did not appear good."
Adds the players told Buzz, "you've gotta pray for him" pic.twitter.com/Li2un6YzgP— Inside the Black & Gold (@Insideblackgold) November 15, 2025
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