ATTICUS MARSE: Hello Gopher fans. It’s Atticus Marse.
SAMANTHA ROERING: Samantha Roering.
MARSE: With the Minnesota Daily and you’re listening to The Gold Standard, a podcast dedicated to the University of Minnesota sports. And today Samantha is making her first ever appearance on The Gold Standard. Are you excited to be on The Gold Standard?
ROERING: Yes, I’m happy to be here.
MARSE: We’ll start with the Axe game. Were you at the Axe game?
ROERING: Yes and it was really cold but it was fun.
MARSE: Yeah. What did you think of the, I mean, I was a big fan of the snowy atmosphere.
ROERING: It was definitely a really cool environment but I wish I was a little more weather prepared. I’m super sensitive to the cold.
MARSE: It was not the highest scoring game here, 17-7. On the last episode of the podcast I predicted it would actually be 10-3. They scored a couple more points than that, but just tell me what you thought about that game.
ROERING: I mean, I thought it was a pretty strong defensive outing from both teams. I know the Gopher’s defense has kind of struggled at times this season, but I mean John Nestor had a big weekend for them obviously.
MARSE: Two picks. I thought he was going to house the one, but he was too slow.
ROERING: Yeah, I was, I was impressed.
MARSE: Run heavy as expected. Lots of short passes when the ball was thrown. Drake Lindsey, 18-24, only 90 yards but completed the passes he needed to make. Can’t fault that even looks bad in the score sheet. Darius Taylor had that big breakout 40 plus yard touchdown run. He ended with a hundred yards. That’s his first big game coming off that hamstring injury in a while.
ROERING: I didn’t know what I was in for watching Gopher football this year. I went to St. Cloud State for the first two years and there’s no football program there. So I was like, “Oh, I have to watch football now.” And I was a little nervous. I had to watch The Vikings this year too, and I had a good time.
MARSE: And Gopher fans, students watching, had a pretty good experience because, undefeated at home 7-0 at home for the first time since the 1960s.
But away 0-5, it was a, I’d say an average season for the Gophers but I don’t think anything other than people would’ve expected. 7-5, seventh place in the Big Ten, right in the middle, expected season. What are your thoughts on the overall Gopher football season?
ROERING: There were ups. There were downs. I mean, it was consistent in the sense that it wasn’t very consistent at all. They had obviously at home some pretty good games, but the road games were kind of ugly.
MARSE: Gopher football, big win. The Axe stays in Minnesota, and with that win the Gophers have taken the all time lead over the Badgers in wins in the Axe game which just shows how tight that rivalry has been over the long history of that game.
And it’s always a fun game, the snow, a great game. And another team that picked up a big win that same day was the Golden Gophers ice hockey team against Denver.
ROERING: Yes. 6-5 O.T. winner.
MARSE: Javon Moore with a near post finish in overtime, three on three to secure the Gopher victory. And that was a very entertaining game.
What were your thoughts about it?
ROERING: I was very happy for the Gophers to be able to pull one off against Denver because I was honestly a little worried for them heading into that because Denver’s ranked four at that point, and they’re a good team. And so I mean, the fact that they were able to score as many goals as they did and they led, like they never were trailing the entire game.
So that was something that I was like, “OK, that’s good to see.” At times they’re puck possession was still a little questionable, and they need to work on not turning it over as much. But it was definitely huge for them to get a win against Denver.
Denver definitely has a little bit more of a round the net style of a game. It tends to be like that in NCHC hockey too. Just overall they get dirty goals. They’ll go into the net, where I feel like Minnesota, a lot of theirs come off of breakaways and they’re quick.
MARSE: Women’s hockey.
ROERING: They play St. Thomas and it’ll be, it’s gonna be a big weekend for them because they did get swept by Minnesota State two weeks ago. So they have to rebound from that because it was a bad weekend.
MARSE: Yeah. Is St. Thomas ranked in women’s hockey?
ROERING: They were ranked, but then when Minnesota State swept Minnesota, St. Thomas fell off the rankings and Minnesota took their spot. So St. Thomas is a fringe ranked team.
They were ranked around 13 through 15 for the first half of the season. I mean, they took Wisconsin to O.T. a couple weeks ago, so they’re a good team.
MARSE: It’s gonna be tight then. You got a score prediction for this game?
ROERING: I’m gonna say 3-2 the first game, the second game we’ll go 4-1. Their first time playing in that new arena. I was really hoping to make it out for that one, but I work so I won’t be able to go check it out yet. But I’ve heard really great things about it.
Abbey Murphy, obviously she’s been having a really good season. She started off at an insane pace. So she’s due for one. Bouveng is currently on a 15 game point streak I believe. So she’s had a point in every game except the first of the season.
So I would bet she’s gonna factor in in some way. Might not be a goal, but she’ll be good. And then I’d also say Bella Fanale, she’s really good. She’s a freshman. Most of the season she was centering the top line.
MARSE: Gopher volleyball they play against Fairfield. If they manage to win that game, they will play either number five Iowa State or St. Thomas.
ROERING: It’s their first NCAA appearance since moving to D-1 so that’ll be pretty big for them.
MARSE: Yeah that’s awesome. Gopher volleyball has been a surprise with all the injuries they’ve been having. Leaning on a bunch of freshmen similar to what a lot of Gopher sports have actually been going through this season with really heavy injuries at key positions. But kind of fighting through adversity to still have solid seasons and knowing that there’s still something to play for. So that’s great to see.
Number seven, Minnesota lost their wrestling due to number 18 South Dakota State. It was a tough slate of matches. Jore Volke lost to 21 Brady Roark by a 6-4 decision that was a tight match. Chris Cannon ended up getting a big win for the Gophers and then Vance Vombaur was also upset at 141.
I mean it ended up coming down to the last match, going all the way through, and Koy Hopke lost at the last second on a last minute reversal against Luke Rasmussen. Which is unfortunate for the Gophers but they will have their next dual against Little Rock on December 4 at 7:00 p.m. and they should be able to get a good bounce back, win there and get morale up for the team.
ROERING: So women’s basketball, they had two games. They were in this tournament in the Bahamas. The first game they beat South Florida and then they dropped a pretty close one in the second game to Alabama. It was 63-58. It was still a pretty big milestone weekend though. Head coach got her 50th win, so that’s the third fastest to 50 in program history.
Watching them a little, it feels like this is a season where things are finally starting to click. The past few years they had some pretty bad injuries and I feel like watching them because they have such a complete team. I feel like their scoring, Amaya Battle has been crazy for them. So she has a thousand points and then 500 assists and there’s only five other players that are part of that club.
And it’s a big deal. They’ve been doing a lot of things right. And while the scoring is struggling at times it feels like you look at every game and there’s a different player at the top of the box score in points.
MARSE: Gopher women’s basketball doing great and they tip off at the time of this recording at 7:00 p.m. against Samford. Men’s basketball has not been going too great. After a decent start to the year, three losses in a row to San Francisco, Stanford and Santa Clara who they lost to by 11.
And Wednesday, December 3, they’re playing Indiana and coming off those three losses, it’s kind of hard to be optimistic about this Gophers team. And they’re also giving away free student section tickets. Not the best start to the year for the Gophers.
Hopefully they can turn this season around. Medved just inherited this program and there’s of course a long way to go and a lot of bumps that he’s gonna run into along the way. So just getting started. He’s got time to build the program. Season’s young, plenty of time for things to change. So see what happens.
ROERING: Yeah, rough week for them but I mean you hope they can turn it around at some point. I know they’ve also had some injuries. I know they’re missing a forward and a guard. So I mean, depth wise, when you’re already struggling in games, losing players makes it a little more difficult.
MARSE: And now it’s time for my favorite location. The pro sports corner. Pro sports corner, got to kick it off with the Minnesota Vikings. I will try to keep this quick and rip off the band-aid as fast as I can. Max Brosmer might not be the truth. I don’t wanna be that guy. That was one of the worst quarterbacking performances that I have seen.
Like I understand some of the throws he was making because when you’re a guy like that, an undrafted guy, you got to prove yourself. You gotta prove something. Make big plays. He was forcing throws into tight areas, missing throws.
ROERING: Those interceptions were bad. I mean, like I didn’t have high expectations for him, but I was kind of still disappointed.
MARSE: I wanted, I wanted to see like a touchdown and two picks. That would’ve been fine, but a zero, an egg on the scoreboard. Like the one pick that he threw, underhanded. It’s gonna be played on repeat because of how bad it was.
ROERING: Yeah, it was. It was not a pretty outing for him. Some of those interceptions you watch it and it’s like he’s throwing it right to the other team. Like what are you doing there, buddy? They’ve gotta figure out the quarterback situation. I mean, J.J. McCarthy, I actually got into a little argument over Thanksgiving.
MARSE: Oh?
ROERING: I am a little bit of a J.J. McCarthy defender. Because I’m like, you know what? He’s been bad, but give him some more time. It’s still early.
MARSE: But for the rest of the Vikings season, they’ve got the Commanders, next week, and then Cowboys, Giants, Lions and Packers. So not an easy schedule to close out the year. We’ll see what happens.
Another team, a professional team that’s been doing pretty good lately for the most part is the Minnesota Wild. They’re up to third in the central division. They’re 14-7 and they are coming off a 3-2 loss to the Sabres two days ago. But before that they were on a three game win streak, beating the Avalanche, the Blackhawks and the Jets.
ROERING: Kaprizov and Boldy so far this season they’ve been so good to watch. I mean there was a lot of buzz around Kaprizov signing him to the highest paid contract in NHL history and for the first couple weeks he was not living up to expectations.
But since then, the last week, I feel like it’s been the him and Boldy show. It’s the two of them. They’re scoring goals and they’re pulling away some gritty wins too. I mean, taking the Av’s and winning in a shootout, that’s, that’s a pretty big deal. And goal tending for them. I mean, they’ve got one of the hottest goaltending duos right now.
Jesper Wollstadt, Gustavsson, two Swedish goalies who are doing really good. I mean it’s so good for Jesper because for him last season, they had hoped for him to kind of be their third string goaltender but because of cap space they had to send him back down to the AHL, and he was terrible in the AHL.
And like he has basically he said that like it was a really big low for him. And for him to rebound and now be in the NHL and be fighting for that number one spot is. It’s a big story and it’s good for him and good for the team to have such a strong presence in net either way.
MARSE: Timberwolves are 12-8 and up to sixth in the Western Conference having a pretty solid year. They beat the Celtics two days ago and then lost to the Thunder by eight. Lost to the Kings by five and lost to the Suns by one. So they got a little bit of a skid there, but picked it back up against the Celtics and then the Spurs yesterday and they play against the Pelicans and hopefully they can continue this pretty solid season.
ROERING: It’d be nice to see. I mean of the major Minnesota sports teams, I feel like I’ve heard that they have the best odds of winning a championship in the next few years.
MARSE: That is very true. Taylor Heisse.
ROERING: She’s my goat. Rivalry series. She had that really great kind of no look drop pass that was all over social media, so she’s such a good playmaker and I’ve kind of been waiting for her to have like a breakthrough season with the Frost because she’s been good, but she’s had a lot of injury issues. So maybe this year.
MARSE: Yeah, they’ve played, they’ve only played two games. But they’re one in one. So the season’s just getting started. Three peat three peat incoming.
And Minnesota United’s playoff run came to an end against San Diego. It was a really tight game the whole time. Minnesota had the better chances. They out shot San Diego, had them beat on XG (expected goals), but the game’s played on grass and not on a spreadsheet unfortunately. And that’s gonna be an end to what was an overall great season for the Loons.
They’re gonna be looking to bounce back next season. And deal with some changes in the schedule, having to play some colder games. But overall, it was a really productive season for the loons and they have a really bright future ahead of them with a lot of talented players.
This episode is by Atticus Marse.
ROERING: Samantha Roering.
MARSE: And produced by Atticus Marse and 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 Atticus Marse.
ROERING: Samantha Roering.
MARSE: And this has been the Gold Standard.
