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 the University of Minnesota sports. It is our final episode of the semester. I love podcasting. I am so happy. Oh, it feels, I’m just, I’m ready for summer. I’m ready for the end of the semester.

I love Gopher sports but, things have winded down, things. It’s not, you know, we’ve had a few track meets. Softball and baseball are still playing, but even their seasons are winding down. No more softball games here at Jane Cowles for the rest of the season. I think baseball has one more series, though I’m not a hundred percent sure.

And track they already had their home series here, so they only got a little bit left. It’s almost summer time. I’m, my brain is so loopy today.

ROERING: Same, I mean, just all the finals in the last few weeks and I feel like I’m still recovering from just like all of the sports things that were happening in like March and everything there. It was just like an overwhelm for me. 

DAVIS: Oh yeah.

ROERING: And now I’m like.

DAVIS: No, we had, we had hockey, basketball. And then like the beginning of softball and baseball, like there’s just so much going on in March and now that it’s slowing down, my brain has completely slowed down with it. 

Yeah, but, track and field has been doing well. Nabwe, the thrower almost broke the collegiate record with her hammer throw and that was like, she’s always been a very impressive thrower. Last year we did stories on her a lot just ’cause she always stood out. Though she came up short at the championship level, like when she did the NCAA. 

So I’m wondering for the outdoor season, not the indoor one. I’m curious to see how she does this. Because obviously she, she’s gonna qualify. So last time I think maybe the pressure got to her or something, but hopefully maybe she could rewrite it, take home a, a trophy.

ROERING: Yeah, that’d be pretty cool. They also announced today she was the Big Ten field athlete of the week, so. 

DAVIS: Mm-hmm. 

ROERING: Things are obviously going good for her. It’s just if she can keep that up.

DAVIS: Yeah.

ROERING: In those competitions where it tends to matter more.

DAVIS: The Gophers just have a great throwing team. I wouldn’t be surprised, I think. I think they’ve been consistent enough and a lot of the throwers have been consistently throwing better as the season progresses that I think they’ll be okay until they reach the finals.

Not a lot to report in track and field. It’s such an individual sport that you really have to choose an athlete. And kind of follow their progression. The Gophers unlike some of these SEC teams have never, or like Oregon, have never had the most complete team where they have strength in every single category.

It’s usually only been one or two events where they have some really talented athletes. And so when it comes to like Big Ten championships and stuff, it’s good to get team points, but I think a lot of the athletes on the track and field team aren’t expecting to take first at like the NCAA final tournament or Big Ten final tournament. Especially now that we’re in league with UCLA, USC, Oregon, Washington.

There’s just so much more competition for the team sport. So if you are gonna get into track and field, I remember I suggest picking a division of it, sport of it, and picking an athlete and following their progression because they’ve been getting better, but it’s not enough to do the, to win the title title. 

But other sports are trying to win titles by adjusting their rosters. We have some news for women’s basketball. They’ve added some roster additions. I don’t know if you want to talk about that a little bit.

ROERING: I think the biggest thing it was just trying to replace Amaya Battle and Sophie Hart, and obviously those are big presences that you have to replace. But it’s not like you’re having to basically regroup your entire starters, like other, other schools, other teams.

DAVIS: There’s no rebuilding. It’s just like a, a few readjustments, I’ll say why we’re on the subject of Amaya Battle. She did get that Lynx contract, but then they waived her. So unfortunately you’ll not see her on the Lynx. It’s sad, but it’s, it’s not, you know, the most surprising thing in the world. You know, she’s a fantastic collegiate athlete and she’s, she’s a great athlete.

But to play at the WNBA level is incredibly difficult and especially ’cause it’s still a relatively small league. There’s not a lot of room for players like that.

ROERING: Yeah, I mean it’s obviously, it had to be a really cool moment for her though, to be invited to that training camp in the first place. Because it’s her hometown team. I mean, she got to wear the Lynx jersey and some of those, those preseason games.

DAVIS: Oh, there was a, there was a story that came out and I can’t remember what Lynx player it was where one of them was her babysitter.

ROERING: Yeah, Nia Coffey.

DAVIS: Yes. One of ’em was her babysitter taking her to practice at Hopkins High School for a little while. Which, crazy.

ROERING: But in terms of Gophers transfers. 

DAVIS: Yes. 

ROERING: I think, um, probably the biggest addition is Gracie Merkle. Obviously that’s probably who you’re gonna wanna look at as being your Sophie Hart replacement. And she’s, honestly, she’s a true center, like looking at her points, averages and such. And she has the height, she’s six foot six, like that’s like barely shorter than Lauren Betts. So basically, 

DAVIS: Oh yeah. 

ROERING: We have Lauren Betts at home now.

DAVIS: No, I’m super excited. I mean, obviously Sophie Hart was the center for a while, but I always felt like the Gophers could have used, she’s a great player, but I feel like we could have used an upgrade at center or maybe an alternate center or something. 

And so I’m glad they finally found a new player to really command the center position, especially as women’s basketball just gets taller and taller and the girls get more talented and more talented. You need someone who’s tall to block shots and protect the rim, and hopefully she’s a good defensive prospect as well.

ROERING: Yeah, it’ll definitely be exciting. And then they added two others, one of ’em was Leah Harmon. She seems like she’ll be good. Then the other one, Tayla Thomas from Northwestern, but I’m looking at her as probably more of a depth piece where Harmon could potentially be a starter.

Just kind of depends on how chemistry is between everyone and just obviously like some of the underclassmen if they take steps up and it’ll be interesting.

DAVIS: Yeah. Gophers men’s basketball also has done some roster shifting, mainly because we’ve got a lot of players in and out. A lot of players entered the transfer portal and there’s just, there’s a lot of people to replace.

And so they grabbed two sophomores out of Michigan, I believe. You know, Michigan coming off that championship run. The rotation has changed. Lots of signees coming out of men’s basketball. 

We have Kyan Evans, Nolan Groves, Winters Grady. Really just fantastic names all around. And a new assistant coach, Lexus Williams, once again, great names, hopefully great names mean something. It’s kind of what the Gophers have always been doing where it’s, you know, they can’t afford the star, star players. 

They don’t have the NIL wanted to get them. So they find, you know, former three star, four star recruits. Guys who just kind of couldn’t fill up to the potential at their first school and give ’em a second chance.

So that looks like kind of what Medved is leaning towards this upcoming season. You also have the loss of Cade Tyson ’cause he ran out of eligibility. Because Cade Tyson was the tallest at I believe, 6’ 9”. From what I can see, the roster’s gonna get a little bit smaller and be more guard heavy.

I’m assuming that’s what Medved is gonna lead to is a more smaller roster, more mobile roster. But, it’ll be interesting to see kind of how this progresses. Medved did a great job last semester with just a bunch of completely random guys, and now he has some guys sticking around that he could build with a little bit more and some new guys to maybe put a little bit more pressure on the ones who have gotten comfortable in their roster spot.

But we also did see the departure of, I believe Chansey Willis and Robert Vaihola are the two big ones, but they got injured pretty early in the season. It looked like a lot of the guys in the transfer portal were guys who just didn’t see as much playing time because they experienced injuries, and so they decided to move on kind of journeymen in this time of NIL looking for more play time.

Yeah, but some, some roster shifts there. We also have men and women’s hockey shifting some more. From my knowledge, no major names coming into the program. Minnesota, just the NIL money is just kind of, it’s always been a problem.

ROERING: Yeah, it’s definitely, it’s tough to watch other schools land the, the big names and it’s like. Well, if only you had the NIL money. I mean, there were a couple names for women’s hockey in the portal. I had been watching like, oh, these would be great fits. 

And then they ended up signing with Ohio and I was like, this is terrible. Come on. But for women’s hockey, they’ve added three people so far, a defender, and then more recently they added two forwards. They seem like they should be solid, but just looking at everything, they’re losing this off season. 

It’s kind of tricky to tell what level they’re gonna be at, because obviously you now have the absence of Abbey Murphy, so you’re losing 40 goals a season right there. As well as Laitinen defensively who’s been a huge part of that roster for a while. So it’s, as much as they, coaching staff and stuff has said, oh, we’re not rebuilding it very much feels like they are rebuilding because. Just everything they’re losing

DAVIS: Based on like, just kind of the news and like the way we’ve been talking the past two semesters, Minnesota in contention for becoming a basketball school. I know where Minnesota’s a state of hockey, but everything seems to be going up in basketball and really down in hockey on both sides. 

So I don’t know. I wonder kind of what opinions are gonna look like. I don’t think any Minnesotan wants to tolerate a bad hockey team after so many years of good ones. So I’m curious to see kind of what the reactions are looking like. 

Because even though new head coaches, new players and staff, I think both the coaches are working in a very tough spot of, obviously Mark Coyle, the athletic director, wants you to turn around this program quickly, but do you have the resources to turn around the program?

And it’s looking like they don’t, ’cause there’s, there’s just so much more competition, especially as more schools decide to focus on their hockey program a little bit more. It’s time to, for Minnesota to kind of reestablish dominance, especially as like, I always consider Wisconsin and Minnesota similar schools. Wisconsin has been able to adjust. 

Yes, their football team has declined, but still, why can’t Minnesota make similar adjustments? I’m wondering what the kind of disconnect is. If I was to poll every single student at the University of Minnesota, what they would choose to be a fantastic hockey school or to have a good football team?

ROERING: That’s tricky. I think like football is such a big part of the student life, but it’s also Minnesota. Hockey culture’s a big part of Minnesota, so that’s definitely tough. But I think it kind of just depends if they’re looking for more of that football scene or if they’re more attached to just kind of the state of hockey.

DAVIS: But I think that’s about it for Gopher sports. Gabby, one of the sports reporters, published a piece on softball and they’re still in contention to make the Big Ten Tournament, so we’ll have news on that soon. 

That’s the first kind of summer sports thing that I think The Daily, since we will be going on our break starting May 8, I think that’ll be the first probably story of the summer, summer Daily, and then track and field will have their Big Ten tournament and as well as their NCAA a tournament. 

I expect to see some Gophers in the NCAA tournament, and then obviously, I believe the Gophers will make the Big Ten tournament. But those are kind of the two big events like in Gopher sports this summer.

ROERING: The Wild, they’re winning. The Timberwolves are winning. Yay.

DAVIS: Yay. Every one of the Timberwolves is hurt.

ROERING: Yeah.

DAVIS: But they’re, so, the Nuggets could come back, and the Nuggets have a reputation for being able to come back from a 3-1 deficit in the playoffs, which is a little concerning, especially because they played the last game without Aaron Gordon. And a lot of people were like, Aaron Gordon is so important to this team, which he is, he’s very important to the Nuggets team, but they’re able to win without him. 

So if they could win that game without him, what else can they do? Even if they beat the Nuggets? Who are they gonna play? Would it be San Antonio? I think it’d be San Antonio. Wembanyama’s on concussion protocol, but still I think, I think the Timberwolves are just so beat up that I don’t. 

When you ever eventually have to play OKC, ’cause they will eventually have to play OKC, I don’t think they could do it. And I would rather have a healthier team besides the Timberwolves take on OKC because I want them to lose, I want, I want them gone. I’m not a fan of them. I do not want them to repeat. That’s NBA news, fun stuff. Would you like to talk about Wild hockey?

ROERING: Yeah. I mean, we’re in the midst of a classic Dallas Stars, Minnesota Wild.

DAVIS: It is crazy how both Minnesota teams have established quite the rivalry.

ROERING: Yeah, I mean, I think especially just with the history of the Dallas Stars and the fact that like they stole our team. Yeah, like Minnesotans love this. They hate Dallas. So it’s such a, a fun rivalry and I mean, the series has been super fun to watch so far.

I mean the Wild game one got their 6-1 win and that was like, oh great, they’re gonna like just, I was sitting there, I’m like, okay, perfect. We’re gonna sweep this thing.

DAVIS: Yeah. That was me, wrap it up.

ROERING: And then they dropped a, a couple games and then we’re able to pick it back up a little and I think they’re in a pretty good spot, heading into tomorrow, Thursday’s game, we’ll have home ice the opportunity to clinch and move on to the next round. The one concern I’ll say, I mean. You move on to the next round, you have to play the Avs, which.

DAVIS: I was gonna say, that’s not gonna be.

ROERING: It’s not gonna be fun. And also Kaprizov, he’s kind of a question mark because for as much money as he makes, I feel like he should be performing a little better. And his line mate, Zuccarello got hurt. And the whole thing with Kaprizov and Zuccarello is like Kaprizov loves playing with Zuccarello. 

DAVIS: Mm-hmm. 

ROERING: Favorite person to play with. That’s his linemate. And sometimes it feels like he only knows how to play hockey when he is on a line with Zuccarello. And so, uh, Zuccarello was out for two games. Kaprizov was like pretty invisible, but then they got Zuccarello back and he learned how to score again.

So, I mean, it’s, it’s definitely one of those things. Do you want your franchise player to like, have a codependent attachment to like this 36-37-year-old who’s like a couple years from retirement? Probably not.

DAVIS: No. Has it been done before? Yes. 

ROERING: Yes. 

DAVIS: So, and at least it’s a cheap player.

ROERING: Yeah.

DAVIS: You know, they’re not gonna be paying a lot of money for him, but probably should, you know, figure that out soon.

ROERING: For sure. And, I mean, Matt Boldy’s been really good for the Wild. That’s been really great to see him step up this year and I think definitely prove why he was chosen to be on the Olympic team. Because there’s the whole Jason Robertson aspect. 

DAVIS: Yes. 

ROERING: Where people are like Jason Robertson should have been on the team. Guerin just picked Boldy because that’s his player. But you were looking at the two top players in the series so far and has been Robertson and Boldy. So that’s really cool to kind of just see the two of them kind of fight it out. 

And Brock Faber’s been good. They did get an injury yesterday though. Jonas Brodin, one of their best defensive defenders, he left the game on crutches. He blocked a shot off the foot, probably tweaked something there. They refuse to like, say if he’s ruled out or not. Like it’s probably like gonna be like a broken toe too. Like it was like the front of the skate. 

DAVIS: Oh. 

ROERING: So a, a few years ago, Joel Ericksson tried to play on a broken leg, so.

DAVIS: I was gonna say there’s always been, there’s always someone who wants to really test their luck.

ROERING: Yeah. 

DAVIS: And, and do it.

ROERING: If something’s broken, don’t, don’t play.

DAVIS: Just go take a nap.

ROERING: Minnesota Frost, they’re looking to start playoffs. Try to go for the three-peat.

DAVIS: How short is their season?

ROERING: It’s ’cause it’s hockey, it starts, it’s pretty short though, honestly, it starts in like November and then it goes to like mid May. They only have two rounds of the playoffs. And they do this thing with their, their standings where the like team who finishes with the like highest ranking,

DAVIS: Mm-hmm. 

ROERING: They get to pick their playoff opponent.

DAVIS: Oh.

ROERING: And so Montreal, the first two years teams just picked the lowest seed.

DAVIS: Yeah.

ROERING: This year Montreal picked Minnesota the third seed.

DAVIS: Wow.

ROERING: Because there’s four teams. Yeah. So they picked Minnesota. So like, kind of got a.

DAVIS: The drama is if like when you pick someone and then you lose and then it’s like it would be so good.

ROERING: Yeah. And I mean there’s also like the expansion news around the PWHL.

DAVIS: Mm-hmm. 

ROERING: There’s been a lot of buzz in the last few weeks of like, are they gonna expand again after this season? And the rumor going around right now is up to four teams.

DAVIS: Oh wow.

ROERING: Which is kind of insane, but it’ll get him to that I think 12 team mark and they consider that for a while, and it’ll be interesting what markets end up getting picked, and then with the draft, so the PWHL also has the rules of the gold plan, so.

DAVIS: Mm-hmm.

ROERING: Basically, once a team is eliminated from the playoffs, they start ranking up points to get the number one pick. And so whatever team has the most points after being eliminated, gets the first overall pick. Everyone kind of thought it was gonna be Seattle.

DAVIS: Yeah.

ROERING: And Seattle needed that number one pick because number one pick right now looking like Caroline Harvey. And if you can add Caroline Harvey to your team, like that’s great. But then Vancouver came and won more.

And so the first number, the first overall pick is going to Vancouver, which means most likely Caroline Harvey is going to be a Vancouver Golden Eye. And so maybe Abbey Murphy will be the one that goes to Seattle or New York. And then there’s the whole drama of like last year expansion teams, they picked later on. 

DAVIS: Yeah.

ROERING: In the draft there’s like some buzz going around that they’re gonna give like the expansion teams like super high picks, so.

DAVIS: I wouldn’t be surprised ’cause I mean, I think it worked out well, you know, but so much of the stress when you do an expansion team is that if the, the expansion team starts off and they spend the next five years sucking because they can’t get a good draft pick or they can’t get a star player. I could, I could see why they might implement something like that. It would piss off a lot of people.

ROERING: Oh, for sure. I think with, there’s so many teams, like, and markets have kind of been rumored to be like the potential expansion teams. Chicago has been one that I’ve heard a lot and if they would give Chicago like the second overall pick, you know, Murphy gets to go back home.

DAVIS: Yeah. 

ROERING: Like I, I could see like for the narrative.

DAVIS: Oh yeah. I mean,

ROERING: Things like that happening.

DAVIS: I think people have been rigging drafts for a very long time. If you gotta build a narrative, you gotta build a narrative. This is my last official podcast as sports editor.

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. Goodbye, Gopher fans.

ROERING: Slay-U-Mah.