MEGAN DAVIS: Hello Gopher fans. It’s Megan Davis.
SARAH CUNNIFFE: Sarah Cunniffe.
DAVIS: With the Minnesota Daily, and you’re listening to the Gold Standard, a podcast dedicated to the University of Minnesota sports. So, happy spring semester.
CUNNIFFE: Yes.
DAVIS: It’s been a lovely cold week so far. I am obviously incredibly excited that we get to experience the negative nines and all that fun stuff.
CUNNIFFE: Yes we’ve been looking forward to it.
DAVIS: So we missed a lot of winter sports because obviously we were on break and I feel like I’m gonna dive straight into football. Because I feel like though, I mean obviously this season’s over, we had a lot of news.
Me and other sports reporter, Regan Guirguis, made a trip out to the Rate Bowl, which the Gophers played against New Mexico University. I drove us there, got to the game, got to watch a fantastic game, honestly. I know people don’t think a lot about the Mountain West Conference, but the Lobos had a great season and it was a super competitive game.
CUNNIFFE: Oh really?
DAVIS: Yeah, so super close game. Jalen Smith came down with a touchdown at an overtime and that sealed the win for the team. We have two pieces up on that one just kind of going over the game. And then another about Anthony Smith’s comeback as he’s gonna be playing his next year with us, I believe it, his fifth year.
And he won defensive MVP, that game because he had two really important block passes. He had a couple good tackles. Just like a really solid, like complete performance. And then Jalen Smith won offensive MVP and he’s a red shirt sophomore, but this was his first like, full year with the Gophers.
He wasn’t really on my radar. But he came down with two touchdowns and they were really impressive catches. So obviously super well deserved and I am really excited to see kind of what he does next season, especially because to end your season that way, I feel like it just, you know, coaching staff, all that your players, like, they all kind of believe in you a little bit more. And so I think it’s a good, good way to start, like going into 2026.
CUNNIFFE: Yeah, for sure. Anthony Smith has also been a standout player like this entire season. And yeah, he’s made a lot of really, really great defensive plays and I’m excited to see him play again next season. And obviously this was Koi Perich’s last game, playing for the Golden Gophers.
DAVIS: I was gonna get to that. Before we switch over into that situation, I do wanna say I was so, Anthony Smith has been consistently great all season, no doubt about that. But Maverick Baranowski had a fantastic game and he had 17 solo tackles and like, when me and Regan were watching a game, it was like, and tackled by Baranowski, like over and over and over again.
And we were so sure that like there’s no way he wasn’t gonna win it. And then he didn’t, which honestly, probably for the best because that’s when Anthony Smith announced that he was coming back next season. So happy ending. But we were, we were shocked. We were not expecting that. Okay. Yeah. So, Koi Perich.
CUNNIFFE: Yes. I heard the news, I was staying with my cousins and I got an alert from my phone. And, it was just like Koi Perich entered the transfer portal.
DAVIS: Yeah.
CUNNIFFE: And so I was like, OK, well that might just mean like that he’s looking around and it might not be like he’s actually going anywhere. And it was funny because we were also talking about like last podcast, we were saying like, we need more Koi Perichs’ like Minnesota grown players.
And then now he’s transferring to Oregon and it was obviously like a devastating thing to hear just as a fan because it’s like you wanna root for the people that are like from Minnesota and then they’re, you know, growing up playing for the state’s school.
DAVIS: Yeah.
CUNNIFFE: And he did that and then he had like such a standout freshman year and then sophomore year. I was talking about this before, he kind of like plateaued a little bit, I think, in my opinion. And yeah, so I don’t know. We’ll see where he goes, when he goes to Oregon. But yeah, like it was pretty shocking. I actually was not expecting that at all.
DAVIS: I, I saw the notification because I probably scrolling on Twitter or something, just like typical stuff and it said like. Oh, at the bottom, like, OK, he’s in the transfer portal, but like, he hasn’t ruled out like that he would be back in Minnesota.
CUNNIFFE: Right.
DAVIS: But I think like, unless you don’t declare for the transfer portal unless you’re gonna leave. So like it wasn’t optimistic that like, oh, he was gonna stay. But I think like I, I knew that like, it was just, it was so shocking because I believe Regan has talked to him once or twice.
I mean, he’s at the press conferences and stuff, but a lot of the stuff was like, I love Minnesota, I have no plans on leaving Minnesota. Like I wanna just, I wanna stick with one team. I’m not in it for the NIL money. I’m not in it for like the college fame. I want the NFL fame.
CUNNIFFE: Yeah.
DAVIS: And so like that was kind of the perception that I had of Perich like, during his time here. Is that like, OK. Minnesota, yeah, it’s great if, if Minnesota does well, but he’s in it for the draft.
CUNNIFFE: You’re right.
DAVIS: And then he left. Yeah. Which honestly, Oregon kind of makes complete sense. Because Oregon players have had really great draft success. They’re under coach Dan Lanning who has had, I mean, he hasn’t won the college football championship, but you know. So many guys come outta that program and go to the NFL.
CUNNIFFE: Yeah.
DAVIS: Like they have a great just development.
CUNNIFFE: Right.
DAVIS: And so it, I, and they’re also like really great at recruiting. So I’m not super surprised.
CUNNIFFE: I wonder what the conversation was like with P.J. Fleck and like how he reacted to it.
DAVIS: To be a fly on that wall in that locker room.
CUNNIFFE: I know, I know.
DAVIS: I am so curious.
CUNNIFFE: I wonder if there were like hints of it earlier in the season.
DAVIS: Yeah.
CUNNIFFE: Like if he was kind of not wanting to play here anymore. If Fleck knew about that.
DAVIS: I wonder what the teammates think.
CUNNIFFE: Yeah, for sure.
DAVIS: Because you know, like when sometimes players transfer and then all of their teammates like wish them well on their stories and stuff like that. Good luck at your next stop. I don’t remember seeing any of that.
CUNNIFFE: Yeah. No, I was also just gonna say like what you were talking about, I wonder like what it would be like to see what the dynamics are, you know, upfront instead of just like from a media standpoint. And I just mean like what you were saying, like he probably is making a lot of NIL money.
DAVIS: Yeah.
CUNNIFFE: And I would argue at that point, you know, he was one of the players making the most NIL money.
DAVIS: Yeah.
CUNNIFFE: And I think, like I wonder if that would’ve affected some team dynamics and then he also got so much attention. And yeah, I don’t know. Like, I don’t know how they’re feeling, but yeah, I would love to, I would love to get some gossip from that.
DAVIS: It would be amazing. And that’s the other thing about going to Oregon, so, obviously NIL is in place and each team has the exact same set amount, but from the history of college football, we know that money does get thrown under the table.
And like they’ve tried to regulate that, but it’s become very clear in these past like year and a half, that once they ruled back not being able to pay your players like the NCAA kind of fell apart and like, is having a hard time like actually enforcing these rules.
CUNNIFFE: Yeah, for sure. They’re not really regulating it. And I think also if you look at schools like Oregon or Alabama is a good one, but especially Oregon, just like with how much Nike is involved. You know, they have a lot of big donors, so they’re able to provide more money through boosters rather than just through like NIL. So he definitely could be making a lot more money there.
DAVIS: That’s why, I am also curious about like, Oregon has so many players to pay. That’s what happens when you try to curate NFL rosters in college. I’m wondering, what is his, there’s no way he’s getting more NIL money there.
CUNNIFFE: Yeah.
DAVIS: Like he has to be getting substantially less.
CUNNIFFE: I don’t know. It’d be interesting to look at.
DAVIS: Is it like, it must, I, my conclusion is that it’s all for the draft. It’s, I’m gonna make myself look good for the draft and that’s it. Do we wanna move to men’s basketball or do we wanna do dance?
CUNNIFFE: Ooh. I think, can we start with men’s basketball?
DAVIS: Yes.
CUNNIFFE: So I can talk like a little bit about the Iowa game. So, Minnesota beat number 19, Iowa in a 70-67 win. Langston Reynolds scored 22 points. Cade Tyson scored 16 points. Iowa’s Bennett Stirtz scored 21 points, and this was all in the second half.
DAVIS: Oh, wow.
CUNNIFFE: And then Iowa rallied for, from a 14 point second half deficit to take the lead in the final two minutes, but then Minnesota still came through with the 70 to 67 win.
DAVIS: Nice. I am, I like, I love seeing these ranked wins, the one against Indiana seemed impressive when it happened. But honestly, I think that was the beginning of Indiana’s downfall. They have not had a very shiny record since. But once again, to come back with the win against number 19 Iowa, impressive.
I think it’s obviously great for team morale and just kind of showing what Medved has and what he could do together with only like seven guys to work with because Chansey Willis Jr. and Robert Viola, I believe, are ruled out for the season. So, you got a small bench.
And, no one had any expectations coming into the season. You know, it was like, OK, this is our retool year. We’re gonna go into it positively. But no one, you know, March Madness was a thing to look forward in the future.
But I like, I like these ranked wins are obviously fantastic and they show that like they’re not gonna crack under pressure, especially coming back in the last, like, you know, you slack off a little bit, but like to prove you can still finish a game. Always impressive. And just great. I know they have since then lost to Wisconsin, Illinois and Ohio.
CUNNIFFE: Yeah. Also the USC too.
DAVIS: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
CUNNIFFE: But yeah, in the USC game, Cade Tyson did have 20 points and eight rebounds and four assists. Which was good. And so again, it’s like the same players standing out for each game. So like Langston Reynolds and Isaac Asuma, he again, like was a standout player in this.
But yeah, I think that, how do we, I’m trying to look at like the ways that they could look at these games and then the loss to Ohio State and improve from that. And I, unfortunately, to be completely honest, I don’t think they’re realistically like, I don’t think they’re going to beat Nebraska because they’re ranked number seven and Nebraska has won every game this season, I’m pretty sure.
DAVIS: Oh wow. Okay.
CUNNIFFE: Yeah. And so I don’t it’ll be interesting to see like coming back from those losses. I think hopefully they’ll want it more to win against Nebraska.
DAVIS: Yeah.
CUNNIFFE: I don’t know how close they’re gonna be, but we’ll see you on Saturday.
DAVIS: Yeah, I think, you know, having ranked wins, it just gets Gopher fans excited and back to The Barn. And I know that’s one thing that they talked about during the Big Ten media day is like they wanna show out for the fans. They love when this stadium is packed.
And, you know, inspire some hope and it’s great. You know, especially after nobody knew where this program was going a year ago. And to kind of already be on the right track for a rebound is. Inspiring and fun. And yeah, that’s all I have for men’s basketball. Do we wanna do dance?
CUNNIFFE: Yeah, I can talk about dance. So the dance team traveled to Florida where they competed in the UDA National Championships. So first of all, Matthew Greco, it is his last UDA National Championship and he has, you know, made a name for himself in the dance community and around the world, like on TikTok, on social media, on all these different platforms.
And he, I think, is someone that’s kind of led the way for future male dancers because it is a female dominated sport. So I think it’s really cool to see, you know, his, where he’s gone throughout the past four years and it is sad as a fan to like see him go, but I think he’s done an amazing job. He did have a fall in the last round of the finals for pom, but they still pulled away with the win.
DAVIS: I was gonna say. Yeah, I know. I think jazz was the one where they placed third.
CUNNIFFE: Yes. Yeah.
DAVIS: And I know. And I remember seeing stuff where it was like they were predicted to like come out on top. I know they took pom and didn’t they, they, Goldy got second.
CUNNIFFE: Yeah, I think. Yeah. And then the, also the, cheer team. So the cheer team won D1A small co-ed game day cheer.
DAVIS: Oh, OK.
CUNNIFFE: And so the cheer team plays first, which is cool because if you didn’t know the University of Minnesota invented cheer.
DAVIS: Wait, really?
CUNNIFFE: Yes. I learned that on a tour when I was joining this school. Yeah, so this is where cheering originated fun fact.
DAVIS: Sick.
CUNNIFFE: Um, so it was cool to see that happen. And yeah, I think the, for the jazz, um, they did place third, they were behind Ohio State, they won first. Speaking of women’s sports, I also just wanna quickly shout out the women’s hockey team.
DAVIS: Oh yeah.
CUNNIFFE: Because they’re doing so well. Oh, I think they’re ranked number three. I could be wrong.
DAVIS: Yes. They’ve been ranked number three for a little bit. Sam, our women’s hockey reporter and women’s basketball reporter will be on next week. And I definitely wanna delve into that a lot with her because. She’s currently writing a piece on which women’s hockey players that are current Gophers or Gophers alumni will be competing in the Winter Olympics coming up soon.
And so she’s talking to them, getting all that fun inside scoop. So you know exactly who to root for when the Winter Olympics comes. Because if you’re in Minnesota and you’re not watching Winter Olympics hockey, what are you doing?
CUNNIFFE: Freezing.
DAVIS: Yeah. This episode is by Megan Davis.
CUNNIFFE: Sarah Cunniffe.
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.
DAVIS: I’m Megan Davis.
CUNNIFFE: I’m Sarah Cunniffe
DAVIS: And this has been the Gold Standard. We will see you all shortly and please don’t freeze. We need those listens.
