MARSE: Hello Gopher fans. It’s Atticus Marse.

DAVIS: Megan Davis. 

CUNNIFFE: Sarah Cunniffe.

GURGUIS: And Regan Gurguis.

MARSE: With the Minnesota Daily. And you’re listening to The Gold Standard, a podcast dedicated to the University of Minnesota sports. And today we’re just gonna be doing a recap of the past week of Gopher sports and maybe a little bowl preview for the Gophers game coming up. 

Did you guys watch the women’s basketball game versus Maryland at all?

CUNNIFFE: Yes, I did. I was there. It was awesome.

MARSE: What did you think about that ending though, it was a little disappointing at the end.

CUNNIFFE: Oh my gosh. Ok yes so, like everyone in the crowd was really getting into it and it was just an awesome atmosphere. And the other thing was the coach now who is the head coach of Maryland, she used to coach here. So then that kind of added to it.

So yeah, they were number seven and they were neck and neck the whole game. They went into double overtime and then there was two fouls at the end. Everyone from Minnesota was obviously disappointed. 

DAVIS: In double overtime they inbounded the ball and Maryland had a really good press and she didn’t call a time out to, you know, move the ball further up the court. And twice Maryland was able to steal a ball and go in for two very easy layups. Those two turnovers were like a huge part of why they lost.

MARSE: They were up nine points with 54 seconds left with the ball. 

The Minnesota Golden Gophers are playing in the Rate Bowl. Friday, December 26 against New Mexico. The Gophers were going to play Iowa State, but Iowa State pulled out of bowl contention.

DAVIS: I know that New Mexico was quite upset that they didn’t get to play in the Mountain West Championship. Their coach was very excited to play in this bowl because it’s kind of like their redemption you know. They’ve had a very strong comeback season.

New Mexico, obviously not a program that’s known for their football success and they ended the season 9-3 and he’s kind of really flipped the program around so just to kind of finish the season that strong, I think it’ll be really exciting for Minnesota to play an opponent they’ve never seen before.

MARSE: And Megan, do you know if there’s any specific Gopher players who sort of opted out? I know you did the story on it.

DAVIS: I know that Fleck when he did the conference said like, yeah, we might see a few. But he didn’t give names. So unless there’s a more recent update, I’m pretty sure all everyone’s favorite Gophers players will be there.

GURGUIS: John Nestor transferred from Iowa, had an incredible game during the Axe game. Really just showed kind of his fit with the Gophers and with P.J..

DAVIS: I think that a player to watch, which I kind of wrote about a little bit, will be Anthony Smith because Jack Lane, the quarterback for New Mexico got sacked 28 times over the course of the season.

I know we’ve talked a lot about the Gopher’s offensive line. The New Mexico one is a little bit shakier, so I wouldn’t be surprised if he adds his sack totals on the season. And yeah, I think it’ll be a fun, like, competitive game.

GURGUIS: I think it’s cool to kind of see a team, you know, like you were saying, Megan. This underdog come up and have a 9-3 season. And obviously something that the Gophers have really struggled with this year is away games.

And the bowl will be played in Arizona, so it’s not like it’s gonna be either teams stadium or anything. But Arizona is a hell of a lot closer to New Mexico than it is to Minnesota. It’ll be interesting to see if it’s a trend that continues during the Rate Bowl.

DAVIS: Last time that they were at the Rate Bowl in 2021, when they played West Virginia, though the team looked different they got 4,000 fans to Chase Field. So I’ll be really curious to see kind of what fans make the commute or the travel time.

MARSE: That game’s also the day after Christmas. 

CUNNIFFE: I was gonna say. Yeah. 

MARSE: Which could be very testing for travel purposes.

The other big news out of Gopher sports is a big upset for basketball against number 22 Indiana. And a court storming right after the field storming. Two storms in less than a week’s time. They gave out free student tickets as well.

DAVIS: Yeah, I think it was a nice team effort. I mean, it’s hard with these random ranked wins after that trio of losses that was really bad and embarrassing. Which is a nice way to like come back. And it’s fantastic for fans and it’s fantastic for the morale of a team, but beyond that, I don’t know what to say because it’s like, it’s not like they’ve shown a lot of consistency.

GURGUIS: I think with the new team, with pretty much all transfers and a completely new coach, consistency is something that you hope to see but it’s not something that’s always gonna be a guarantee. And I think that it is enjoyable to see them come back from that three game loss streak too. 

What would’ve been, I mean, especially with their performance in the past games and then going into this one with the ranked team, odds were against them. The majority of Gopher fans are hoping that it wasn’t a one-off thing. It’s gonna be hard to see that consistency early on. 

DAVIS: They’re still kind of figuring out their identity. While they do rack up the fouls sometimes, they’re also great at getting fouls from other teams. I know I’ve talked about it before, like Cade Tyson, not so much this game, but he was on a streak of like, shooting like ten free throws a night.

You know, coaches like to stress all the time, oh you know, play every game like it’s your most competitive. And take all opponents the same. But psychologically if you see a team like Minnesota who just dropped to Santa Clara University. I can see very easily how the Indiana team wouldn’t take them seriously.

CUNNIFFE: That’s a really good point. I think that like going into a game, knowing the ranking of an opponent definitely does go into their mindset while playing. I think to tie this back to the women’s basketball game versus Maryland, we saw that with them. 

Like they were definitely really putting it all out there. And so was the men’s team playing Indiana. I really thought that like they tightened up, their defensive play a lot more of that game. I don’t think they were expecting Minnesota to play like they did. And Indiana obviously did not play as well as I was expecting them to play.

MARSE: They play Purdue, this Wednesday, so that’ll be the real test.

GURGUIS: If we wanna talk about teams that should be consistent but aren’t consistent, let’s talk about men’s hockey. They’re young, it’s pretty new for them. I do think that there has been a better click on the ice recently. 

I think some of the things that as fans and as watchers of the sport. We see is, you know, a lack of puck control, I think is the big one. Among other things. One might even say a lack of consistency, I think L.J. Mooney has really, really found himself on this team.

Javon Moore played really well against Ohio State, even though, especially even in the game that they lost. And, you know, when you have freshman players, and even sophomore players who are really just like developing their skills and finding their place on this team.

And obviously there’s a lot of season left, so it would be ignorant to say that they should start thinking about next year. What I’m hoping for is that this break will be good for the team. They have time to reflect. And also their schedule this year has been pretty unforgiving.

DAVIS: But that’s just Big Ten hockey.

GURGUIS: Yeah, I mean, Big Ten hockey is pretty unforgiving, but their schedule this year has been a lot of back to back home games. A lot of like, you know, and then traveling and this and that, and that’s just what sports are. But, you know, I’m hoping that this break allows them to have a little bit of time to reflect.

DAVIS: Women’s hockey, they are fantastic. They beat St. Thomas to start their winter break. Great way to end it. Nice little, Twin-Cities battle. Yeah, I feel like they’re exactly where they need to be.

I don’t think that Mankato loss will define them the rest of the season. And if anything, it gives them, it shows them that like, you know, you can’t, you can’t go into every game thinking that you’re gonna win. You’re gonna have to fight for every, every win. And they did that against St. Thomas.

GURGUIS: November slash the beginning of December is a really hard, hard stretch because of finals and the weather gets cold and everything and you know, and these guys are doing a lot. And I think that that’s always important to remember and to, to have a little bit of grace for that because they’re trying their hardest. Volleyball is doing great too. So shout out volleyball.

MARSE: Welcome all to the pro sports corner. The Minnesota Vikings beat the 3-10 Washington Commanders 31 to nothing. J.J. McCarthy 16-23 with 163 yards and three touchdowns to bring the Vikings to 5-8.

CUNNIFFE: I felt bad for J.J. McCarthy. I know people are like, “Oh, he is a football player. Like he’s fine.” But I just felt bad for him and he seems like a sweet guy. I think putting Max in maybe gave him a warning sign. And so that kind of prompted him to play better.

GURGUIS: I do think that the fact that Brosmer was even able to play as someone who went undrafted is impressive. To have someone walk onto a team, not be drafted and then get to start a game. Obviously he did pretty terribly.

CUNNIFFE: Everyone was kind of having these high hopes that he was gonna come in and save the Vikings.

GURGUIS: He wasn’t a drafted quarterback. Right? Like, this is not like someone who is like a first round pick, second round pick.

MARSE: The Minnesota Wild, unfortunately slowed down a little bit on their big hot streak, picking up losses to the Canucks and the Flames. Jesper Wallstedt lost his big streak of putting in absolutely great performances in net conceding four goals against the Canucks. 

So a bit of a slide for a Wild. But they’re still third in the central division and they play the Kraken on the night of this recording on the eighth at 9:00 p.m. So hopefully they can pick that back up.

Timberwolves are currently playing the Phoenix Suns as we speak, and they are up to sixth in the Western conference, 15-8, and are doing pretty good. But this Western conference is just so strong this year. The Thunder 23-1, that’s an all time level of production and these are the teams they have to come up against just in the Western conference. It’s always gonna be tough, but hopefully they can keep going and earn a playoff spot.

And then the Minnesota Frost didn’t get off to the hottest start. Only 2-2. Losing to Boston and Toronto to start the year, but they also picked up two wins against Seattle and Ottawa. So hopefully they can bring home a title, a third title in a row, back to Minnesota, and keep everything they’re doing going.

This episode is by Atticus Marse.

DAVIS: Megan Davis.

CUNNIFFE: Sarah Cunniffe.

GURGUIS: Regan Gurguis.

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.

CUNNIFFE: I’m Sarah Cunniffe. 

GURGUIS: I’m Regan Gurguis.

MARSE: And this has been The Gold Standard.