BRINGING BACK THRILLS — The start of college basketball season is bringing back cautious optimism to Williams Arena as the Gophers men’s and women’s basketball teams opened with lopsided victories. Even though the opponents (Gardner-Webb for the men and North Dakota for the women) were overmatched, the way things were done created excitement for what could be ahead. The revamped men’s roster didn’t play like a team of transfers that needed to be thrown together hurriedly by coach Niko Medved after he replaced fired Ben Johnson; the women had star Mara Braun on the court after two injury-hampered seasons and debuted a freshman guard poached from small-town Wisconsin, Makena Christian, who scored 23 points in 21 minutes. Both openers should make fans want to see more. It’s buzzy week ahead in sports. Let’s go! — Howard Sinker
SIX TO SEE THIS WEEKEND: Friday: Edina vs. Eden Prairie at Osseo in 6A football quarterfinals (6 p.m., NSPN). Saturday: Minneapolis North vs. Pine island in 3A football quarterfinals at Totino-Grace (Noon). No. 22 Gophers volleyball vs. No. 1 Nebraska at Maturi Pavilion (2 p.m., Peacock). Minnesota United vs. Seattle at Allianz Field in deciding Game 3 of quarterfinals. (3 p.m., MLS League Pass, Apple TV). State girls’ volleyball finals in four classes at Grand Casino Arena. (2:30, 3, 6:30, 7 p.m., NSPN). Sunday: Vikings vs. Baltimore at U.S. Bank Stadium (Noon, Fox)
LOVE, FROM WISCONSIN: Via Taylor Valentine at Bucky’s 5th Quarter. The Gophers women’s hockey team went to Madison over the weekend and ended the Badgers’ 37-game unbeaten streak with a 5-1 victory in the series opener. It also ended the U’s 10-game losing steak against Wisconsin that dated back to 2023. Despite Minnesota losing 7-2 on Saturday, it was a solid enough showing to move the Gophers past Ohio State and into the No. 2 spot behind Wisconsin in both major polls. VERBATIM: “While I think Wisconsin is the most talented team in the country and still my pick to win it all, it’s not crazy to say Minnesota has played like the best team in the country through one month of the season. They now hold wins over both Ohio State and Wisconsin, and Abbey Murphy is easily the early favorite for the Patty Kazmaier Award. Their 10-game Border Battle losing streak made it easy to forget just how dangerous this Minnesota team is.” MORE: https://fluence-media.co/uwomen1106
SEE THEM YOURSELF: Wisconsin travels to St. Cloud State for games at 6 p.m. Friday and 2 p.m. Saturday. (BIG+). The Gophers are off this weekend and play at Ridder Arena against Bemidji State at noon next Friday and 2 p.m. Saturday (BIG+). PRO TIP: The Gophers game on Friday is “Field Trip Day.” Bring earplugs. TICKETS: Gophers-Beavers | Badgers-Huskies
RED PANDA RETURNS! When St. Thomas makes its men’s basketball debut at the school’s new arena on Saturday night vs. Army, bowl-flipping unicyclist Red Panda will be the halftime entertainment. Red Panda’s act — an NBA and WNBA favorite — returned late last month after she fell off her 10-foot-tall unicycle near the start of her routine during the Lynx-Indiana game at Target Center on July 1. Coach Johnny Tauer called her St. Thomas appearance a “pinch-me moment.” (More on Saturday’s game and the new arena below.)
RED PANDA VIDEO: Mishap at Target Center | Performing in Chicago on Tuesday.
J.J. KEEPS HOPE ALIVE: J.J. McCarthy’s return to quarterbacking the Vikings featured what may be the best 143-yard passing performance in Vikings history. Seriously, flashy statistics can be overrated compared to doing the things that needed to be done, which McCarthy did in the 27-24 upset at Detroit. The Vikings looked pretty much like the team that was hyped at season’s start — veterans doing their jobs to bring the best out of their young quarterback. I was left wondering two things. (1) Will McCarthy show improvement every week? (2) How would things be right now if McCarthy’s ankle sprain hadn’t sidelined him for five weeks?
HOW DID IT FEEL? Via Matthew Coller at Purple Insider. VERBATIM: “When McCarthy was asked what it meant for him to have his teammates greet him with a big celebration at the door of the locker room, he needed a second to gather himself. ‘It was awesome,” he said, barely getting the words out. “When you’re hurt, being on IR last year and being out for five weeks, it absolutely kills me not being out there with those guys because I love every single one of them. And, you know, I know they got my back and I got there the rest of the way.’ “ MORE: https://fluence-media.co/jj1106
McCARTHY ON McCARTHY: Via Dane Mizutani at Pioneer Press. VERBATIM: “The most encouraging part of McCarthy’s performance while leading the Vikings to the upset? The fact that he wasn’t satisfied in the immediate aftermath. ‘I’m not proud,’ McCarthy said. ‘I feel like I could’ve played a lot better.’ It’s a promising sign that McCarthy already understands that he won’t be able to get by simply on vibes alone. A sense of swagger only goes so far at the highest level. The ability to string completions together is the key to having sustained success. That’s still a work in progress. . . . He wasn’t accurate enough while completing 14 of 25 passes for 143 yards, a pair of touchdowns and an interception. He also held on to the ball for too long and took a handful of sacks as a result. ‘There’s a lot of meat left on the bone,” McCarthy said. “We have to go back to work and make sure we correct all the little things.’ “ MORE: https://fluence-media.co/critique1106
ON NOTICE: Via Tyler Sullivan at CBS Sports. VERBATIM: ”J.J. McCarthy’s day wasn’t perfect, as he tossed an interception and fumbled (recovered), but that’s sort of what should put the rest of the division on notice. The Vikings can get slightly above-average play at quarterback and go into hostile, divisional road environments and win.” MORE: https://fluence-media.co/team1106
VIKINGS (4-4) VS. RAVENS (3-5): Noon Sunday kickoff on FOX and the Vikings Audio Network. Vikings depth chart | Real-time betting info, match-ups | Ravens web site.
GOPHERS ON FLIPPING SPREE: Via Randy Johnson at Star Tribune. 6-foot-7, 300-pound offensive lineman Aaron Thomas decommitted from Ohio State on Monday and on Wednesday said he’s coming to the U. Minnesota was one of 20 Power Four schools who offered scholarships to Thomas, whose father was an offensive lineman at Florida State. VERBATIM: “On Monday, coach P.J. Fleck received verbal commitments from wide receiver Braiden Stevens of Platte City, Mo., who decommitted from South Dakota State and had recent interest from Nebraska and West Virginia; offensive tackle Beckett Schreiber from Madison (Wis.) Memorial, who decommitted from Washington State and recently visited Indiana; and running back Jett Walker of Georgetown, Texas, who decommitted from West Virginia. With Thomas’ commitment, the Gophers have 28 players in their 2026 recruiting class.” MORE: https://fluence-media.co/flip1106
ETHICS: Via William Calhoun at 2aDays: I went looking for a story about the ethics of flipping college commitments. Instead, I found this advice to high school stars: “Three tips for decommitting from a university.” READ: https://fluence-media.co/decommit1106
BOWL PROJECTIONS! The Gophers have a weekend off before moving into the home stretch of the season: at Oregon, vs. Northwestern at Wrigley Field and vs. Wisconsin at home on the day after Thanksgiving. Beating Michigan State in overtime made the Gophers bowl eligible. Where will they go? Here are some current projections. The Athletic: Rate Bowl vs. Iowa State in Phoenix on December 26. ESPN: Pinstripe Bowl vs. Pitt or SMU on Dec. 27. CBS Sports: GameAbove Sports Bowl vs. Ohio on Dec. 26 in Detroit. ON3 Sports: Rate Bowl vs. Baylor. Sports Illustrated: Music Bowl vs. Missouri on Dec. 30 in Nashville. College Football News: Music City Bowl vs. Florida. (Links go to full playoff and bowl projections.).
THESE GOPHERS GONE BAD: Via Jess Myers at Pioneer Press. It’s hard to think of a team in a more unexpected position than the Gophers men’s hockey team — a 2-7-1 record through its first 10 games. The U takes a four-game losing streak into a Friday/Saturday series vs. Notre Dame at Mariucci Arena (7 p.m., FOX9+ both nights). VERBATIM: “For the first time since before the 2020 pandemic, the weekly national college hockey rankings did not include the Gophers this week. The numbers paint a clear picture of what hasn’t worked in the season’s first five weeks. Minnesota is last in the Big Ten offensively, scoring just 2.2 goals per game, and is last defensively, allowing 3.5 goals per game. Similarly, their power-play and penalty-kill stats sit in the cellar among the seven teams in their conference. And they are short four players due to injury.” MORE: https://fluence-media.co/umen1106
QUESTION: Did coach Bob Motzko do the Gophers a disservice by not pursuing the higher-level Canadian junior players that are eligible to play college hockey this year for the first time while other schools went after them hard? The subject was discussed in Sports Take a few weeks back.
KEEPING THE GOALKEEPER? Via Jon Marthaler at Star Tribune. Loons goalkeeper Dayne St. Clair was properly rewarded for his play by being named MLS Goalkeeper of the Year this week. VERBATIM: “St. Clair posted the best numbers of his career this season, setting career highs for clean sheets and saves, and his advanced shot-stopping numbers were also excellent. Stats website American Soccer Analysis said St. Clair had saved nearly 10 goals more than expected, the fourth-best season in its database, which goes back to 2013. ‘I know I’ve had those big moments in the past and of course I’m able to make those big saves, but I think for me I really wanted to hone in on the consistency. I think I’ve made a lot of saves either early on, or in the middle of games, at the right times to allow the team to then go and get results.”
MORE: But will St. Clair, 28, stay in Minnesota? He’s an unrestricted free agent after the season and should be in high demand. However far Minnesota United advances this season — starting with Saturday’s Game 3 vs. Seattle — will be largely because of his prowess. VERBATIM: “I’m kind of focused on this playoff stretch right now, and doing the best I can for the team, and I think I’ll take care of that and see where all the cards lie and deal with that after. I want to be able to put my full focus into what we’ve got going on.” FULL REPORT: https://fluence-media.co/dayne1106
TWINS CREATE MORE QUESTIONS: Derek Shelton met the media Tuesday for the first time as Twins manager, and his cheerful demeanor couldn’t mask his lack of clarity about what’s ahead. The ironic part was all that Shelton talked how “transparency” played a big part in his enthusiasm about taking the job . . . but that transparency did not extend to helping fans figure out what’s ahead. While acknowledging there were discussions about payroll and personnel questions in the interview process — hardly a surprise — Shelton ended a vague answer about those talks by admitting: “The answer is a lot clearer than the one I just gave you.”
CALLED OUT: Via La Velle E. Neal at Star Tribune. VERBATIM: “We now know that Derek Shelton is the next manager of the Twins. What bugs me is what we still don’t know. We don’t know whether the Pohlad family is done slashing payroll. We don’t know in whose starting rotation Joe Ryan or Pablo Lopez will be next season. And we don’t know the identities of these two mysterious limited-partner groups that the Pohlad family is bringing in to help pay down roughly $500 million in debt. Or when this long-awaited announcement will take place.”
MORE VIA LaVELLE: “Joe Pohlad, the Twins executive chair, stood in the back of the room, and when the news conference ended, I attempted to get more clarity from him. “What, setting a payroll?” Pohlad said. “It’s a long offseason. But, yeah, we have talked about it.” FULL COLUMN: https://fluence-media.co/twins1106
MY TAKE: There was a lot of talk during the press conference and afterward about youth and the need to develop young players whose games aren’t fully formed when they reach the majors. My reading is that the Twins will hit the free-agent market for modestly-priced relief pitchers to rebuild the bullpen they decimated in the July trading purge. Otherwise, the they’ll roll with developing an inexperienced roster. The question I can’t answer is whether that means another shot for players who have fallen out of favor (Edouard Julien and Jose Miranda, for example) or go heavy on a promoting their top minor-leaguers (outfielders Walker Jenkins and Emmanual Rodriguez, among others) for on-the-job training at Target Field. In some cases — like Jenkins — it makes perfect sense. In others, it will be a dice roll based on economics.
WINNING BACK FANS: Via Pat Borzi at MinnPost. In his wise thoughts for rebuilding trust between the Twins and their fans, Borzi built on suggestions made in Sports Take last month by veteran Twin Cities media relations expert Jon Austin. VERBATIM: “There’s a distance and aloofness to this franchise that wasn’t the case when I moved to Minnesota in 2002. That 2002 team — with tons of personality, the Get-to-Know-Em marketing campaign and a regular-guy manager in Ron Gardenhire — connected with and energized fans who avoided the Metrodome for most of the post-1991 losing. The 2002 club even won a playoff series, before settling into a long string of postseason losses to the Yankees that drained much of the hope and nurtured much of the frustration from longtime fans. In the last decade or so, mainly since the departures of Gardenhire and former GM Terry Ryan, the Twins lost that connection to their fans. Now it’s all transactional, and that’s not good.” Borzi’s suggestions range from who not to trade, to who should run the organization to who should be working with Cory Provus on Twins telecasts. (One of his suggestions would be a whole lot of fun.) THE PLAN: https://fluence-media.co/borzi1106
TWINS WIN SOMETHING. Via news release. Twins TV has been awarded an Upper Midwest Emmy for in the “Live Sporting Event/Game/Season” category. VERBATIM: “We launched Twins.TV to give Twins fans everywhere the best possible on-air product, accessibility and experience,” said Andrew Halverson, the Twins’ executive director, broadcast and content. “We are fortunate to have an extremely talented group, both on-screen and in the truck, who are also true Twins fans – their passion shines through in each broadcast.”
NEW ARENA: I went on a walk-through of the Lee and Penny Anderson Arena on Wednesday. It’s impressive without being over the top — the kind of facility you would expect to see at a mid-level Division I school. In addition to the main arena, there’s a second hockey rink that seats 800 people and separate practice courts for men’s and women’s basketball. The arena seats 4,000 for hockey and 5,300 for basketball. The final price tag: $183 million. VERBATIM: “What really matters is how our donors and people who are invested in St. Thomas love the school,” said sophomore guard Nolan Minessale, who was named preseason Player of the Year in the Summit League. The arena debuted for hockey two weeks ago. The basketball debuts are Saturday at 2 p.m. for the women and 7 p.m. for the men. TICKETS
FROST STARTS TRAINING: Via Minnesota Frost. The two-time defending PWHL champion Minnesota Frost open training camp Friday at Tria Rink with a 28-player roster, although several won’t be there until Monday because they’re participating in the first two games of the U.S. vs. Canada Rivalry Series. VERBATIM: “The camp roster of 28 players consists of 16 forwards, nine defenders and three goaltenders. It includes 19 players who are already signed for the upcoming season and a total of 16 Frost returnees. Of the nine unsigned players, three are members of the team’s 2025 draft class plus six additional invites.” ROSTER | SCHEDULE | TICKETS
RIVALRY SERIES: Via Melissa Burgess at The Ice Garden. The USA vs. Canada Rivalry Series, which starts tonight in Cleveland, is the most riveting event in women’s hockey aside from the Olympics. This year’s series starts tonight in Cleveland (6 p.m. NHL Network). VERBATIM: “There’s more at stake this year, with the 2026 Winter Olympics right around the corner. . . . For bubble players who have attended an Olympic camp and are hopeful to make the Milan roster, these games offer an opportunity to show their respective brass what they’ve got.” PREVIEW AND SCHEDULE: https://fluence-media.co/rivalry1106
MINNESOTA CONNECTIONS: Six Frost players are on the USA roster. They are defender Lee Stecklein and forwards Kelly Pannek, Grace Zumwinkle, Britta Curl-Salemme, Kendall Coyle Schofield and Taylor Heise. Others with state ties are defender Rory Guilday, who played at Minnetonka and was Ottawa’s first-round draft pick; Emma Peschel of Ohio State, who played at Benilde-St. Margaret’s, and Gabbie Hughes, who starred at Centennial and UMD and plays for Ottawa. The Canada roster includes forward Caitlin Kraemer of UMD and defender Chloe Primerano of the Gophers. ROSTERS: USA | Canada
MARATHON SUCCESS: Via Bob Timmons at Star Tribune. In June, Joel Reichow of St. Paul became the first American to win Grandma’s Marathon in Duluth since 2009. On Sunday, his sixth-place finish in the New York City marathon in 2 hours, 9 minutes, 56 seconds was the best by a runner from the United States. VERBATIM: “When leaders began to slow and fade Sunday, Reichow attacked. ‘All of the sudden [my thought was], ‘I am taking over this race,’ said Reichow, who also ran the marathon last year and finished in the top 20. “I tried to put pressure on and get to the finish line.” ANONYMOUS CHAMP: “Minnesota Distance Elite head coach Chris Lundstrom was happy for his athletes but not surprised. He said that while Reichow’s victory at Grandma’s won him a lot of local recognition, he remained little known nationally. Without a sponsor or an agent, ‘Joel is like the best runner that no one has ever heard of,’ his coach said.” MORE: https://fluence-media.co/marathon1106
OTHERS: Joe Klecker of Minnetonka finished 10th in 2:10:37. Anna Frisbie of Edina was the second fastest U.S. women and finished fifth overall in 2:24:12 and Elena Hayday of Minneapolis was 12th among women in 2:31:22.
THE BEST: Via Marcus Fuller at Strib Varsity. It’s All-State team time, and here’s one list of the state’s 25 best players. Twelve have committed to Division I programs — two going to the Gophers and one to St. Thomas — and six more are planning to go to D-II schools in Minnesota and North Dakota. LIST: https://fluence-media.co/volleyball1106
AND FINALLY: If you’re part of sports at any level — player, coach, fan, parent — you’ve experienced the pain of a tough defeat. With seasons ending and starting up, it’s the right time to share an essay by Greg Berge, boys’ basketball coach and principal at Lake City High School. This one resonated with me because I watched his team play in the 2024 Class 2A tournament, where they were one possession away from what would have been a stunning upset of Breck School in the title game. What drove Lake City to its near championship, Berge writes, was how they’d ended the previous season. VERBATIM: “We lost the section championship on a last-second, Hail Mary shot. One of those plays that lives in your head for a long time; the kind that replays in slow motion, whether you want it to or not. That night, the first bus ride to the game was filled with focus and confidence. We were a team good enough to win the state championship. The ride home was different. Nobody spoke. Heads were down. Seniors were quiet. Coaches staring straight ahead. The sting was real. But that second bus ride became fuel. For returning players, it became a mission for the offseason. Every rep, every summer workout . . . that moment was sitting in the back of their minds.” READ THE REST: https://fluence-media.co/busride1106
THANKS FOR READING: I appreciate your thoughts and suggestions. Your compliments and criticisms, too. Keep ‘em coming.
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