MEGAN DAVIS: Hello Gopher fans. It’s Megan Davis.

SAMANTHA ROERING: Samantha Roering.

DAVIS: With the Minnesota Daily, and you’re listening to the Gold Standard, a podcast dedicated to University of Minnesota sports. Though we talked a lot about the Winter Olympics last podcast episode, I feel like while we’re kind of waiting for quarter or what’s a quarterfinals happen. 

ROERING: For women’s hockey, semi-finals happened.

DAVIS: Okay.

ROERING: So today the U.S. absolute beat down of Sweden. Canada barely got past Switzerland. The final score was 2-1. So gold medal game is on Thursday. The U.S. has not had a game where they’ve scored less than five goals this entire tournament.

DAVIS: Okay.

ROERING: And they have only allowed one goal the entire tournament.

DAVIS: If I was a betting woman, I think I’d, I think I’d know where to put my money down. Seems like, you know, we could wrap it up.

ROERING: Yeah. But then meanwhile on the men’s side.

DAVIS: Oh God.

ROERING: Like the seeding for the tournament like Sweden is gonna have to play the U.S. for the quarterfinals. And so like those are teams that you were looking at as like your top four or five, and they’re already having to face each other. Everyone makes it to the quarterfinals for the men’s prelim.

DAVIS: Yeah.

ROERING: Like they all just play these prelim games and they’re like, nope, we’re not gonna cut anyone after that.

DAVIS: Yeah, no, I saw that and I was like, so what’s even the point of having preliminary games? It seems like it’s just an excuse to make him play more hockey games and sell more tickets. Team USA kind of looks a little bit messy, but they’re still like, they’re still a strong contender. If I was a betting woman, again, I would not put any money down on them because I, it seems like it could go either way.

ROERING: I would agree. I would tend to lean more to Canada just for their men’s team, because I think, I think the talent they have there, when you look at their lines of like, you can put Celebrini and Crosby and McDavid together.

I mean they’re power plays crazy where I feel like the U.S. identity is like, oh yeah, we’re just gonna throw out the Tkachuk Brothers and oh, also Auston Matthews and.

DAVIS: Yeah.

ROERING: Quinn Hughes is still seeing ghosts, so.

DAVIS: I, I was so hilarious. Someone was like, I think the ghosts are a little bit stronger in Italy. He’s gone on that bench. I was also, someone else was on Twitter being like, the U.S. team is trying to do, they’re trying to recreate the miracle team. 

And it’s like, it doesn’t work. You can’t do that. It’s like you can’t just throw a bunch of places together and think it’s, we’re gonna get somewhere. Yeah. So that’s just a small little, small little update on Olympic hockey. 

The last pod we talked about Ilia Malinin a little bit. And he did fall in two of his quad jumps, which was, you know, disappointing for fans of his. I do find it hilarious how he skates though. Someone called it aggressively masculine, and I can’t help but agree because it just, it feels so like the antithesis of everyone else competing. 

It does feel so like masculine and like yeah, he could do these like crazy jumps and everything, but it was just. It does kinda look like they just like let someone on the ice. Which I find hilarious, but it adds, adds some more drama.

ROERING: I think the funniest part was like, obviously you feel bad for him watching as he’s like, falling on all these jumps. 

DAVIS: Yeah.

ROERING: And they popped some of his other jumps that were supposed to be quads and the like, singles and like doubles. And so you’re sitting there like, oh, this, this is like terrible for him.

DAVIS: Yeah.

ROERING: And then he still does the back flip anyways. I had to giggle a little bit because it’s like he is having the worst skate of his life and he’s still gonna.

DAVIS: And he’s like, I’m gonna throw it. I’m gonna throw it. What? What do I got to lose?

ROERING: Yeah.

DAVIS: Out of Olympics, still on hockey. The men’s team split their series against Notre Dame. They won in a shootout. Though it says like they tied, but they took the shootout win. And then they dropped the second game to Notre Dame and they kind of like fell apart in the last 10 minutes.

The big thing from Motzco was, they couldn’t keep up their intensity. They were playing really hard, and then it just kind of whoosh fell off. This has been a recurring theme all season. They have been splitting seriously crazy. There’s like that second half drop off where it’s just like, they just can’t keep energy up.

I remember in the beginning of the season, Motzco was saying all sorts of stuff like, “Oh, like, we’ve had a lot of good players leave and so these guys, you know, are still adjusting to these high ice time periods,” but they have two more series left to play and this is the exact same issue that they were dealing with at the beginning.

So what does that say about this team? Yeah, kind of a lot. We were talking about a little bit before, Motzco’s a little bit, working himself toward the hot seat of, possibly, you know, maybe soon ending his career as a Gopher’s coach because this season has just been so disappointing. And I know a lot of fans were like, okay, it’s not, we don’t have high hopes, but it’s like you should be able to and maintain a little bit more consistency.

And this season has really kind of not been consistent except for the fact that they love to split series. So, yeah, and of course they travel to Michigan, they have a bye week and so they’ll take their rest, but then they have to go to Ann Arbor and play number two, Michigan, I think number two still. I know they kind of teetered between one and two for a little bit. 

And to just go in that arena and have to face that it is just like, I’m sure they’re all really excited. And then after that they will come home and they will finish up against Michigan State, which will also be so easy for them. It’s gonna be a great way to end the season, and I can’t wait to see it and see them really get those pucks in the back of the net. 

ROERING: Yeah, I mean, I think that the troubling thing is most of the time during the season, like the beginning, you have those rough patches, but then you kind of grow and develop through the course of the season. And I’m not seeing a ton of growth and development. 

Like it just feels like the same cycle over and over again. And you typically wanna leave off your season on a good note. Build momentum for the next year. For those younger players, that doesn’t feel like that’s the direction it’s heading right now.

DAVIS: Yeah. I feel like it’s just been, it’s pretty consistent of like, okay, the players that were good last year have continued to be good this year. But all those players that were a little bit younger or like Luca Di Pasquo who got brought in and stuff, haven’t kind of taken the next step or what I think a lot of people expected them to like grow into.

And since that, Luca kind of had a less shaky than he was at the beginning of the season. I know they were kind of rotating a ton and Motzko was like, “We kind of don’t know who our starting goalie was gonna be a hundred percent of the time.” That was kind of the notion going into winter break.

And so I, I think we’ve locked it down, but I don’t think that this looks like a solid option for next season. This is, it’s not been the performances that a lot of fans have wanted to see.

ROERING: For sure. And I don’t know a hundred percent what their recruiting class looks like for this next year, but I think they’re gonna have to get lucky and try to find people in the transfer portal. But again, players aren’t gonna wanna come here if they’re taking a look at the season they just had.

DAVIS: Yeah. But on the opposite side of that, if we want to transition into a little bit more positive of women’s hockey. I know we were talking before about how this is going to be one hectic kind of final weekend before the playoffs.

ROERING: Yeah. So for Minnesota, they’re seeding for the WCHA Conference Tournament kind of got locked in over the weekend. They’re at number three. They got swept by Ohio State over the weekend and that was who they had the best chance to overtake. But yeah, Ohio kind of pulled ahead. So then the number one seed in the conference is still up for grabs between Wisconsin and Ohio.

But Wisconsin has a two point lead, and more likely than not, they will probably sweep St. Cloud, where Ohio will probably also sweep Bemidji. I don’t see Wisconsin dropping two of those six points and letting Ohio overtake them. I think they’re both gonna win this weekend, but just because of how it’s already unraveled, I think Wisco will take number one.

Then it gets messier from there, because Minnesota’s locked into the number three seed, and UMD is locked into the number four seed, they have no clue who they’re gonna play. Because between St. Cloud, St. Thomas and Minnesota State, they are separated by four points. And this weekend there’s six points on the line, and two of those teams, Minnesota State and St. Thomas are playing each other. 

So it’ll be interesting what happens there. Currently, St. Cloud is the team that has the most points. They’re at 27, but they’re the team playing Wisconsin, so I anticipate them staying at 27. Maybe they can steal a point, get to 28. But most likely it’s gonna come down to the St. Thomas and Minnesota State game. 

If they split the series and each take three points, then Minnesota State would move into a tie with St. Cloud. I have no clue how the tiebreaker works, so it could be very interesting. And if you’re, if you’re Minnesota, I don’t think there’s any one of those three teams that you specifically wanna play.

DAVIS: Yeah. 

ROERING: Because St. Cloud is a team that they’ve played the best this year. However, St. Cloud has the better goal tending, so I would be hesitant to face off against the better goal tending.

Then I don’t think they wanna play Minnesota State because Minnesota State was the team that swept them earlier the year. And the last two years they’ve matched up against Minnesota State, and Minnesota State has always managed to take one of the three games where all the other top conference teams, they’re sweeping. So Minnesota hasn’t been able to sweep because Minnesota State consistently.

DAVIS: Oh, okay.

ROERING: They’ve been able to take one.

DAVIS: Yeah.

ROERING: So I think if you’re in Minnesota, you don’t want that matchup. 

DAVIS: Mm-hmm. 

ROERING: Because that team has historically played you well.

DAVIS: Yeah.

ROERING: But then you look at it, and they just played St. Thomas a few weeks ago, and they had to win in a shootout. So I don’t think there’s any one matchup where you’re like, that’s gonna be a cakewalk.

DAVIS: So with kind of that happening. How does, because obviously playoff hockey is always gonna be more intense, assuming whatever one of those three teams Minnesota’s able to play and they’re able to take the win, since their top competitor in the entire tournament depending how far they make it will be Ohio State, Wisconsin.

I don’t know when they would face them, but since the games were kind of like both of those teams were able to take games from Minnesota pretty, you know, like they were in competitive, but it was like they did come out with the win. How high do you think Minnesota’s chances are of like being able to take it all? 

ROERING: Yeah, so for the conference tournament and also the national tournament, they essentially are gonna have to probably get through both Ohio and Wisconsin. 

DAVIS: Okay. 

ROERING: For the conference tournament, basically there’s the first round, which is, it’s the team that has the higher seed they play a best of three at their home rink. After that, it moves to the Frozen Four, which is St. Thomas this year, and that is where the last four teams play each other.

And so likely, assuming there’s no upsets, and Wisconsin finishes one, Ohio finishes two, Minnesota’s three and UMD’s four, the two and three seeds would have to play each other. 

DAVIS: Okay. 

ROERING: Meaning Minnesota would have to play Ohio.

DAVIS: Yeah.

ROERING: And then they would have to play Wisconsin if they wanna win at all. 

DAVIS: Yeah. 

ROERING: And so I don’t think their chances of winning at all are super high. I’d like to be optimistic, but you have to get through both of those teams. 

DAVIS: Mm-hmm. 

ROERING: Where Wisconsin, if they’re the number one seed, has an easier route. And that’s kind of why the conference title race has been such a big deal is because when you look at the national title too, if you only have to play one of Wisconsin or Ohio or Minnesota. You are gonna have a, a much easier road to the title than if you have to play both of them.

DAVIS: Makes complete sense. And obviously like when you do have to play both of them, the chances of injury go up, the chances that your players are just physically exhausted because you’re giving your all in all these games you know, just exponentially increase. So I’ll be excited to see kind of how the season ends for women’s hockey.

Speaking about season endings, women’s basketball. They had a great game against Wisconsin. They have three more games to close out the season. One will be played against number 10, Ohio State, which will be their most difficult game, but they do get to play them here at Williams Arena.

For the first time this season, they were ranked at number 23 in the AP poll. Big accomplishment and super important to kind of build that momentum towards the end of the season. I know everyone’s excited about it and I know it’s important to finish up your season on a win because when you have to go and play the Big Ten Tournament and then March Madness you know, you need that momentum.

You need to know that all your players in a good spot, and everyone has progressed throughout the season. The last time I checked, they were seated ninth in March Madness in their respective division. So I think even if they drop all three, they should be good to still make it just maybe as like a 16th seed.

But they look to be pretty consistent. And I think if they take the win against Illinois, even if they drop both the Ohio State and the Michigan State games. We should see the women’s basketball team in March Madness, which I can’t remember the last time they were there, but I know it’s been a while.

ROERING: I think it’s been since like 2017. I’m not sure exactly. Last I checked.

DAVIS: But yeah. That sounds like the right, yeah. So that’s, that’s super exciting because who doesn’t wanna see them in March Madness. I will say the only thing that you know is a little bit concerning is as we get closer to that Big Ten tournament.

Six other Big Ten teams were also ranked in the top 25 AP poll. So like I said, we have the number 10 Buckeyes, and then of course number two UCLA it’s incredibly competitive. So I’m actually really curious to see kind of what the Big Ten tournament ends up like shaking out to be, if it’s just gonna be like a straight.

Well, obviously the rank team, like the higher rank team wins it all. I would put money down that UCLA does take the Big Ten title, but like to see those earlier matchups and see if we have any upsets. Because Minnesota will need to remain consistent through that if they want to perform well in March Madness. 

Yes, I think they’ll be fine if they lose to a team ranked higher than them, but you gotta perform to perform later on. You know, I think like to get kicked out in the first round of the Big Ten championships will completely wreck any momentum they have kind of going into March Madness.

But that’s coming up and they will be in Indianapolis for that. I think it’s the fourth through the ninth, and then speaking of postseason, men’s basketball season’s coming to a close. This main storyline of them is all about roster construction.

It’s all about who’s on the court, who’s playing. Against Michigan State, Jaylen Crocker-Johnson sustained a foot injury. He thought he could tough it out against Maryland, he was out against Washington. It was a little bit of a slug fest. 

I will not say it was their best performance and it was a game that they could’ve won, but Jaylen Crocker-Johnson has been such an important piece of this Gopher’s roster. He was consistent with the double doubles for a while. Just kind of an all around player. And he was our second guy. I think like right under Cade Tyson is Jaylen Crocker-Johnson. 

And to lose him that means Grayson Grove is going in and you just, you just can’t, with the roster that’s currently built, Grayson Grove is not a good substitute for Jaylen Crocker-Johnson. so obviously they’re not going anywhere playoff, you know. Everyone is invited to the Big Ten tournament this season, but I don’t expect anything from them. 

I think it will be great, we get more men’s basketball games, but Medved’s just trying to finish out the season strong so we can go into the off season and they could build from there. My priority and the thing I’ve been thinking about is, one, everyone recovered from injury. 

Because it’s clear that Medved has got this team kind of consistent but we don’t have a true center and I think it’s time. That was like a storyline leading into the season, and I think when after fans kind of saw how the team was able to perform even without them, everything was good. It was chill. No one was like, it wasn’t on the radar of everyone. But I think now we’ve returned to being like, no, I think it’s, I think we need a center.

I think this is a, you know, we want this team to progress next year. Gotta get a center. It’s been an impressive season, but it’s just been up, down, up, down. We got really high highs. Some disappointing lows.

ROERING: Yeah. And I think it’s unlike the men’s hockey team where like you are seeing development. 

DAVIS: Mm-hmm. 

ROERING: And I think that’s because like the injuries have kind of forced these players into new roles. And so definitely trying to get people recovered for next season is a priority. 

DAVIS: Yeah. 

ROERING: And, and seeing where you can go from there, because it hasn’t been a complete waste of a season. It just feels like, there, there’s obviously something missing and I, I do agree with you. I think a center would definitely be something that they might wanna look into.

DAVIS: Yeah.

ROERING: Because it would really help their case to have one.

DAVIS: My goal for Medved is just find another player like Cade Tyson who got severely overlooked by his former school. And get him some minutes on the, on the court and hopefully he’s a center.

ROERING: That’d be ideal.

DAVIS: Baseball and softball season start. The baseball team had their first sweep of their opening weekend since 2014, which is impressive because I had no idea where this baseball team was gonna end up. They had a disappointing last season. Baseball’s always been like the fourth thought at this school. Not a lot of noise from baseball ever.

So a good start. And for softball, Sydney Schwartz earned her first weekly conference award for the Big Ten this week. Minnesota native, she had a 1.31 ERA for the weekend. Very impressive. And since so both baseball and softball have been, will be traveling pretty much the entire first half of the season just because we live in Minnesota, you can’t play outside.

So unfortunately, like if you’re a fan, it’s been difficult to go see them. But softball will be here this weekend playing at U.S. Bank Stadium and so it’s the first opportunity to come see these girls in action. I think they’ll be playing Long Island University. 

This episode is by Megan Davis. 

ROERING: Samantha Roering. 

DAVIS: And produced by Ceci Heinen. As always, we appreciate you listening in, and feel free to send a message to our email inbox at [email protected] with any questions, comments or concerns. 

I’m Megan Davis.

ROERING: Samantha Roering.

DAVIS: And this has been The Gold Standard.