Minnesota
Lu'Cye Patterson looks to lead Gophers men's basketball the way he led at Minnesota Prep Academy
On a spring afternoon in northeast Minneapolis, Lu’Cye Patterson sat in a weight room surrounded wall-to-wall with pictures of himself and fellow Minnesota Prep Academy alums now at the Division I level.
His father co-founded the Minneapolis prep school. Patterson helped put it on the basketball map.
The 6-2, 210-pound fifth-year senior was never recruited by the Gophers out of high school, but after stops at Missouri State and Charlotte, he transferred home for his final college season.
“It was kind of like a no-brainer for me to spend my last year here,” Patterson said. “And help get Minnesota back to where it’s supposed to be.”
The Gophers brought more excitement to their raised floor with last season’s 19-win NIT team, but a roster exodus put the responsibility on newcomers like Patterson and a few returners to keep the momentum going.
Patterson talked to the U’s leading scorer — Dawson Garcia, a fellow Minnesotan — about building the home state Big Ten program into a contender. Patterson also felt a strong connection to fourth-year Gophers coach Ben Johnson, a family friend going way back.
“He’s been a friend for 35-plus years,” Patterson’s father, Lucas, said of growing up with Johnson in Minneapolis. “We had been together for a long time playing on the same [youth] teams and all of that.”
Even before the Gophers coach saw a familiar name in the transfer portal, Johnson witnessed the young Patterson’s journey and growth from grade school to through four years of college.
“He’s a kid who I’ve known almost his entire life having grown up with his dad,” Johnson said. “I just really love his skill and IQ. Being a coach’s kid, to get a guy with his feel and skill level coming off a good year is only going to help our program and what we’re trying to do.”
Career full circle
After he visited the Gophers in April, Patterson’s phone kept buzzing with messages from other programs. Getting to play at Williams Arena, though, meant his career would come full circle. It was an easy decision.
“I definitely had a lot of schools texting from the highest level,” Patterson said. “But I knew the reason I hit the portal. It was to come home and play in front of my family.”
They watched him take off on the Minnesota basketball scene in 2018, leading Brooklyn Center as a sophomore to the school’s first state tournament in 35 years. From there, he transferred to Minnesota Prep Academy to play a tougher national prep schedule for his last two years of high school.
Patterson’s father and Donnell Bratton, a pastor in St. Paul, co-founded Minnesota Prep six years ago out of Jerry Gamble Boys and Girls club in north Minneapolis. The online-based school has 13 students now — just enough for one basketball team — and shares facilities at Mill City Church in northeast Minneapolis.
More than a dozen former players from Minnesota Prep will be at Division I schools, including Antonio Chol (Rutgers), Tavion Banks (Drake), D.J. Jefferson (Tennessee/Longwood) and Brenden Moss (Kent State).
Many college-preparatory schools field teams that exist outside the traditional high school system. The competition level can be much tougher. So is the lifestyle. Rarely is time not spent studying, training and traveling to out-of-state tournaments. Patterson’s brother, Jalyn, is a senior now at Minnesota Prep.
“It already had me ready for college,” Lu’Cye Patterson said. “The traveling, the going to school online, the competition. Some of these guys I played are even in the NBA now.”
Point guard needs
The 19-win Gophers caught Patterson’s eye when they needed another point guard to replace Big Ten assist leader Elijah Hawkins, who transferred to Texas Tech this spring.
Joining returning starter Mike Mitchell Jr., Patterson opens summer practice this month as one of four newcomers for the Gophers in the backcourt. That also includes transfers Brennan Rigsby (Oregon), Caleb Williams (Macalester) and Femi Odukale (New Mexico State) and top high school recruit Isaac Asuma.
“I like the way Ben Johnson lets his guards play,” Patterson said. “I feel like he gives his guards a lot of freedom to make mistakes, play their game and contribute to the team to help them win.”
Patterson is more of a score-first floor leader. He developed that confidence offensively after 82 career starts, including 56 games at Charlotte the past two seasons in the American Athletic Conference.
Earning all-league second-team honors last season, Patterson had eight games of 20 points or more, highlighted by a 27-point effort in a regular season-ending win over East Carolina. He also had 16 points in an upset of nationally ranked Florida Atlantic and 14 points against Duke last season.
Patterson’s scoring average improved each year in college from 2.5 points his first season at Missouri State to a team-best 14.6 points per game in 31 games last season for Charlotte. He shot just 12.5% from three-point range as a freshman but then 37% combined the past two seasons.
“He’s just a player who has just grinded from the start,” Johnson said. “Players who have a passion for it, who have great work ethic and talent find a way [to succeed] over time.”
Despite dealing with a bad ankle, Patterson put up career numbers last season and feels healthier than ever after losing 20 pounds. After focusing more on his body, he’s ready to take another step with his game.
“A lot of kids get recruited off their physical gifts, but they haven’t been through the gantlet of developing,” Lucas Patterson said. “Lu’Cye has been training and been able to sharpen his sword. He’s ready to contribute here right out of the gate.”
After some light morning snow, temperatures will gradually fall Saturday in the Twin Cities amid powerful wind gusts.
Expect daytime highs in the upper teens to low 20s, with gusts of up to 40 mph.
The metro could see another small round of snow Sunday night into Monday.
Next week’s highs will be in the 30s, with temps pushing into the 40s on Christmas Day Thursday.
DULUTH — Finland was a force this summer at the University of Minnesota’s Ridder Arena in Minneapolis during the
World Junior Summer Showcase,
beating the United States, Canada and Sweden by a combined score of 15-7.
The Finnish national junior team continued its domination at the University of Minnesota Duluth’s Amsoil Arena on Friday night, beating Germany 7-3 in a 2026 World Junior Championship pre-tournament game played before a modest crowd of 650.
Finland also won the bonus 3-on-3 simulated overtime period after the game, scoring with 46.4 seconds left in the five-minute period.
The seven Finnish goals in regulation came from seven different players, with winger Max Westergard, a 2025 fifth-round NHL draft pick of the Philadelphia Flyers, getting the 3-on-3 goal after scoring an unassisted goal in the third period.
Clint Austin / Duluth Media Group
Centers Heikki Ruohonen, Oliver Suvanto and Jasper Kuhta, wingers Joona Saarelainen and Matias Vanhanen and seventh defenseman Lasse Boelius were among the other goalscorers for Finland.
Lenny Boos, Dustin Willhoft and Elias Schneider scored for Germany, which was outshot 29-17. The Germans had just one power play, in the third, compared to Finland’s four.
German goaltender Linus Vieillard made 22 saves while Finland goalie Kim Saarinen, a 2024 third-round pick of the Seattle Kraken, stopped 14 shots.
Clint Austin / Duluth Media Group
Finland’s lineup Friday featured 12 NHL draft picks — Germany had three — including Dallas Stars 2024 first-rounder Emil Hemming, Minnesota Wild 2024 fourth-rounder Aron Kiviharju and Montreal Canadiens 2024 third-rounder Aatos Koivu — the son of former NHLer Saku Koivu. Mikko Koivu, the former Wild captain, is Aatos’ uncle.
Ruohonen, a 2024 fourth-rounder of the Flyers, is the lone player on Finland’s roster from the NCAA. He’s a freshman at Harvard.
Finland will play one more pre-tournament game in Duluth at 6 p.m. Tuesday against the United States at Amsoil Arena. The Americans host Germany at 4 p.m. Sunday at Amsoil Arena.
Clint Austin / Duluth Media Group
Clint Austin / Duluth Media Group
Clint Austin / Duluth Media Group
Click on image to read comprehensive coverage of the 2026 World Junior Championship tournament.
Clint Austin / Duluth Media Group
Clint Austin / Duluth Media Group
Clint Austin / Duluth Media Group
Clint Austin / Duluth Media Group
Clint Austin / Duluth Media Group
Clint Austin / Duluth Media Group
Clint Austin / Duluth Media Group
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BREWSTER, Minn. — Lots of hugs were shared, tears were shed and utter shock was witnessed as a rural Minnesota family was surprised with the Best Christmas Ever early Sunday afternoon, Dec. 14.
More than two dozen people caravaned behind a Brewster Fire Truck to deliver gifts to Austin and Stephanie VandeKamp and their 6-year-old daughter, Callee, in Brewster, Minnesota, in Nobles County.
Julie Buntjer / The Globe
“We just came to bring some joy to your life,” said Sue Hagen, one of the local coordinators for the nationwide nonprofit
Best Christmas Ever organization,
which surprises families who have experienced hard times. “Last year, with the loss of Jaelee, none of these gifts we’re bringing to you will ever replace her, but we just thought that your family deserved a little joy this Christmas.”
The Vande Kamps gave birth to their daughter, Jaelee, on Feb. 4, 2024. Shortly thereafter, Jaelee was diagnosed with a congenital heart defect, TAPVR (Total Anomalous Pulmonary Venous Return). She spent her first eight months in the cardiovascular intensive care unit at Children’s Minnesota in Minneapolis, where she had 10 surgeries and ultimately required continuous dialysis.
Stephanie didn’t get to hold Jaelee until she was 50 days old, and stayed with Jaelee for much of her hospitalization. When she did come home, Austin would go to the hospital to stay with their youngest daughter.
They were finally able to bring Jaelee home on Sept. 23, 2024. Because she was dependent on respiratory support, someone had to be awake with her 24/7, so Stephanie got very little sleep, family friend Ashley Prins detailed in the nomination letter she sent to Best Christmas Ever.
Julie Buntjer / The Globe
Jaelee died unexpectedly on Dec. 9, 2024, while attending regular follow-up appointments in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Jaelee’s death compounded the loss the family was still feeling from the sudden death of Stephanie’s dad from a heart attack on Easter morning 2022.
“The community just rallies around a family and they don’t even know who it will be,” Hagen said, noting that Bedford Industries, Sanford Worthington and District 518 were among employers who stepped up alongside community members to “help uplift a family.”
Locally, the Best Christmas Ever program is sponsored by the Astrup Family Foundation, owner of Sterling Pharmacy stores, which provides $5,000 toward a life-changing gift for a local family who has fallen on hard times through no fault of their own. Business partners included Worthington Federal Savings Bank and Runnings who, along with Sterling Pharmacy, had giving trees set up at their businesses in recent weeks to accept gifts and monetary donations for the recipients.
The VandeKamps were nominated for the Best Christmas Ever program by family friend Ashley Prins.
“I would love to make this year a joyous season again for them in regards to holidays and I would love to see the three of them be able to get away on a vacation and enjoy their time together as they missed out on so much of that during this life struggle,” Prins wrote in her letter.
Julie Buntjer / The Globe
In addition to a mound of neatly wrapped gifts — most of which were for Callee — the family was presented with a monetary gift of $7,403.07. The local Best Christmas Ever committee will work with the family on how the gift may be used.
“I don’t know what to say,” Austin said after accepting the money.
“Merry Christmas,” replied Chad Nixon, representing Worthington Federal Savings Bank.
Callee opened her largest box, which contained a child-sized recliner just for her, as well as two stuffed animals to match the chair. Stephanie and Austin received Minnesota Twins jerseys reflecting their favorite current Twins players.
Among the people on hand Sunday were last year’s recipients, the Adrian and Melissa Gonzalez family, of Worthington. The Gonzalezes lost their son, Emmitt, to cancer in September 2023.
Hagen also presented the family with over $1,000 in gift cards to local businesses, and noted that donations are still coming in. The Best Christmas Ever committee will meet again with the Vande Kamps after Christmas, she said.
The VandeKamps were completely surprised by the gesture — after admitting a bit of fear as to why a fire truck with lights on and siren blaring pulled into their rural Brewster farmyard.
“I thought right away my barn was on fire, my lambs were running everywhere, then I saw a big wad of cars and I thought, ‘what’?” Austin said.
Julie Buntjer became editor of The Globe in July 2021, after working as a beat reporter at the Worthington newspaper since December 2003. She has a bachelor’s degree in agriculture journalism from South Dakota State University.
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