THE OPENER: — The Twins open their season today. The Wolves and Wild are moving toward the playoffs. The Vikings are a month from the NFL draft. The Lynx are about to embark of a frenzied run of free agency and drafts (college and expansion) before their May opener. A fascinating boys’ basketball tournament is ending the winter high school season. But none of that compared to the quantity and quality of Gophers news at a time that it normally pretty quiet for the U. It ranges from excellent to exasperating with a side order of WTF. After a week away, I’m ready to dive in. Let’s go! Howard Sinker
SOUNDTRACK: Headphones on, please.
HOLD ON A SEC: The Timberwolves played perhaps the craziest basketball game ever — or at least that I’ve ever seen — in Wednesday’s overtime win over Houston. Outscored 24-2 at the end of regulation and start of overtime, Minnesota rallied to score the final 15 points to win 110-108. No NBA team had ever recovered from a 13-point OT deficit to win a game in at least 30 years — and the Wolves did it with a lineup that would likely win fewer than 30 games if forced to play a full season. Anthony Edwards is still injured, Jaden McDaniels left injured in the fourth quarter. Rudy Gobert fouled out with nine seconds left in the fourth. Naz Reid was ejected in overtime. You can pull apart the game a dozen ways to make your case about the Wolves. But the biggest takeaway is that if they can conquer the stretches of reckless/immature/disinterested basketball that have pockmarked their season, they can be a special team in the playoffs.
SUMMING IT UP: Via Jon Krawczynski at The Athletic. VERBATIM: “They sprinkled a little magic on this confounding season of theirs Wednesday, and walked out into the Minnesota night with a feeling of satisfaction that has been hard to come by this year. ‘We deserved to win that game,’ Coach Chris Finch said. ‘We were the better team all night, and we gave them a chance to steal it from us. But we stole it right back.’ “ MORE: https://fluence-media.co/wolves0326
BACK TO U: We were watching the Gophers vs. Ole Miss game at 8 a.m. Sunday morning on Maui with, among other things, a plate of Spam-fried rice. A fun way to start another day in paradise. An excellent game finished off by a thrilling comeback that speaks highly of the work done (and standards set) by veteran players who stuck together through a dramatic coaching change — the firing of U legend Lindsay Whalen — and their improvement in three years under Coach Dawn Plitzuweit. Playing No. 2-ranked UCLA (6:30 p.m. Friday, ESPN) in the Sweet 16 is a tremendous challenge and tremendous opportunity. Minnesota now has the right stuff to be a destination for top-tier players in the transfer portal as opposed to a safety school for those overlooked elsewhere. There’s also a solid batch of first-years coming in. Add some size via the transfer portal and the U should be loaded for 2026-27.
BEST OF THE BEST? Haven’t seen this reported elsewhere in Minnesota media, but Gophers commit Natalie Kussow, a 5-foot-10 lefty guard, was named Wisconsin’s Gatorade Player of the Year for the second year in a row this week. Kussow scored 34 points with 10 rebounds and six assists earlier this month to lead her team to the state title in the division that includes Wisconsin’s biggest schools. Maddyn Greenway of Providence Academy, who’s heading for Kentucky, won Minnesota’s award for the second straight year and Paige Bueckers was a three-time winner at Hopkins from 22018-20. ON KUSSOW: https://fluence-media.co/kussow0326.
STATE TITLE VIDEO: Watch and you’ll see why I think Kussow will contribute from the start of her Gophers career. https://fluence-media.co/title0326
MINNESOTA’S GATORADE WINNERS: Girls’ basketball | All sports
VEGAS, KIDS! The U men when caught a break when enough teams opted out of postseason play to land them a spot in the College Basketball Crown tournament in Las Vegas, which has an eight-team field of middling schools from Power Four conferences. Minnesota plays Baylor (9:30 p.m. Wednesday, FS1) in the quarterfinals. The tournament is made-for-TV exposure — (READ: good for recruiting) — and teams are competing for a $500,000 NIL prize pool. Playing well in Vegas would give Coach Niko Medved a boost in building his own team for 2026-27 as opposed to rebuilding the mess he inherited this season.
HOCKEY COACHES. AIM HIGHER? Sports Take was on the front end of calling out the wretched Gophers men’s hockey season and wondering how long Bob Motzko would remain as head coach. Still, I was surprised the end came without giving him another season’s chance to make things right. Athletic director Mark Coyle also ran out of patience with the title drought in the women’s program and sacked Coach Brad Frost after 19 seasons of compiling a .788 winning percentage. We have questions about their replacements. Most are filed under whether Minnesota has dropped from the elite list of hockey programs that coaches consider to be destination schools. Replacing Frost with his assistant, Greg May, doesn’t feel like the jolt needed for the women’s program. Hiring Brett Larson away from St. Cloud State isn’t the needle mover of the last three coaches — Motzko, Don Lucia and Doug Woog, whose tenures date back to 1985. St. Cloud State’s 30-40-2 record over the last two seasons, with fifth and eighth place finishes in the NCHC, hardly provokes excitement regardless of the challenges Larson may have faced. (His career record with the Huskies was 158-116-23.)
GOOD QUESTIONS: Via Michael Rand at Star Tribune. VERBATIM: “Is Coyle putting enough of a priority on hockey if these searches ended with these hires? That’s not the same as saying these are bad coaches, because clearly they are not. But was the process as exhaustive as the ones that yielded P.J. Fleck as football coach, Keegan Cook as volleyball coach, Dawn Plitzuweit as women’s basketball coach or Niko Medved as men’s basketball coach?” MORE: https://fluence-media.co/questions0326
TWO TAKES: (1) A red flag about the men’s program: That former Gophers assistant Garrett Raboin turned down Minnesota’s overtures to stay at Augustana, which just finished its third season as a D-I program in Sioux Falls. His action speaks louder than all the upbeat words about Larson’s hiring. That Raboin played and coached for Motzko tells me he has unique insights into the Gophers program that could have factored into his decision as much as any love he’s developed for running a hockey team in South Dakota. (2) The women were a hockey dynasty with six national titles in a stretch from 2004-16. Yes, it’s still a winning program. But Wisconsin and Ohio State have become the USA and Canada of women’s college hockey while the U has fallen into a secondary role, much like Finland. It’s not unreasonable to expect better.
ONE QUOTE: Via Trent Singer at Sioux Falls Live. Raboin went deep on his commitment to Augustana this week. VERBATIM: "There's a belief in a continued build at Augustana. There's reasons why Augustana and the Sioux Falls community is a place I find greater belief in. As time passes, this is a hockey program that I believe can win. This university attracts student-athletes that are most important in that process that I believe we can win with and continue to elevate our men's hockey program, but outside of the job of being the head coach of this program, this is one of the best communities in the United States.” MORE: https://fluence-media.co/raboin0326
FLECK HIRES FIRED COORDINATOR: Long-ago Alabama head coach Mike Shula (2003-06) has signed on with P.J. Fleck as a special offensive assistant, in large part to work with quarterback Drake Lindsey. Shula has been an assistant with eight NFL teams and was most recently an assistant at South Carolina, where he was fired as offensive coordinator nine games into last season.
WHY THE FIRING? Via Lulu Kesin at Greenville News. With Shula in charge of the Gamecocks’ offense, the team was last in the SEC in total yards per game (294.1), 15th in passing yards of 16 schools (193.3), last in rushing yards (108.8) and last in points (19.7) per game. VERBATIM: "I made the decision last December to promote him and believed it was the right decision for a lot of reasons," Coach Shane Beamer said. "Frankly it just hasn't worked like I wanted it to work." MORE: https://fluence-media.co/shula0326
SO YOU KNOW: Mike Shula is the son of NFL coaching legend Don Shula. His boss, Gophers offensive coordinator Greg Harbaugh Jr., is not related to accomplished veteran head coaches Jim and John Harbaugh.
WRESTLING GOLD: Via Andy Greder at Pioneer Press. Sophomore Max McEnelly won the NCAA 184-pound title over the weekend, defeating Penn State’s Rocco Welsh to avenge a close and controversial loss to Welsh in the Big Ten finals. Winning the bigger prize isn’t enough for McEnelly, who is from Waconia and pictures himself as a three-time NCAA titlist. VERBATIM: “McEnelly was dominant for most of the season, finishing 24-2 overall and 15-2 versus ranked opponents. Half of his win total came by technical fall and two more by major decision. He plans to stay at 184 next season and add to his legacy in his junior and senior seasons. ‘The road doesn’t end here. This is only the start of it. . . . The goal is definitely to become a three-time NCAA champ.’ ” MORE: https://fluence-media.co/max0326
TECHNICAL FALL? That’s when a match is stopped because a wrestler takes a 15-point lead. Kind of like the 10-run rule in baseball or the eight-run rule in softball.
BACK OUTSIDE: The Gophers baseball team, seeking its first winning record in the Big Ten since 2019, moves outside this weekend with a three-game series vs. Ohio State at Siebert Field. The U is 16-8 overall and 2-4 in the Big Ten. Games are at 3 p.m. Friday, 2 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday (BIG+) TICKETS
WELL, IT’S STARTING TODAY: I wish I could bring you a counternarrative of optimism for the 2026 Twins season. Not to boast, I’m pretty good at finding rainbows after a storm. If you can find the Star Tribune’s 1987 baseball preview — my last season covering the team — you’ll find my case for how the Twins could improve from their 71-91 previous season to winning a championship. (It’s in the April 5, 1987 edition, if you want to check newspapers.com.) The 1987 Twins took serious steps to better themselves. The 2026 Twins are betting on a limited lineup of $2 beers to keep fans engaged. The 1987 Twins were the first full season of Tom Kelly managing the team after taking over from unsuccessful Ray Miller. The 2026 Twins are Tom Pohlad’s first full season as their main owner after booting his brother Joe from the job. The 1987 Twins added ace closer Jeff Reardon to their bullpen. The 2026 Twins are adding reliever Zak Kent, who was acquired and let go by the Guardians, Cardinals and Rangers during the off-season. I’ll stop there.
MODERN TIMES: Via Aaron Gleeman at The Athletic. VERBATIM: “For anyone looking for reasons to believe in the 2026 Twins, there’s this: In both 2015 and 2017, the Twins were projected to be awful after being so bad the previous season that it got the manager or general manager fired. And in both 2015 and 2017, they surprised everyone with a winning record.”
REALITY CHECK: “On the one hand, it’s fair to suggest the Twins could have avoided a 90-loss season had they not sold so aggressively at the 2025 trade deadline. On the other hand, it’s hard to put much weight into that when they played like a Triple-A team down the stretch and have since done so little to rebuild the gutted roster. In fact, the Twins’ only notable offseason changes came off the field. There are new leaders in the manager’s office, front office and owners’ suite. Yet even those moves could be perceived as half-measures, because none of the three ‘new’ people in charge are actually new to the Twins.”
IN CONCLUSION: “I see a team that was abysmal after the fire sale and did little to restock the talent shelves this offseason. I see an owner whose words are disconnected from the reality of another payroll drop. I see a disjointed roster that’s short on stars and depth, and severely lacking in defense and reliable relief.”
THE FULL GLEEMAN: https://fluence-media.co/preview0326
THIS BAD? Via Anthony Dabbundo at The Ringer. In this power ranking, you don’t have to look far to find the Twins. That’s because it starts at No. 30 and works toward the top. VERBATIM: “There are teams with worse rosters than Minnesota’s that have a more favorable ranking on this list. But I docked the Twins because of their horrendous vibes entering 2026, following the great sell-off at the 2025 trade deadline. Minnesota had won the AL Central in three of the past six years. It had a talented roster, although many of its key players had underperformed considerably in the first half of 2025. But the franchise decided it was more than an off year and elected to blow everything up. The Twins traded 10 players — including top relievers Jhoan Duran and Griffin Jax, as well as shortstop Carlos Correa — at the deadline. . . . Right now, it seems like the Twins are in a long, uncertain reset.” MORE: https://fluence-media.co/power0326
RAY OF OPTIMISM: Via ESPN. These rankings have the Twins grouped among a bunch of mediocre teams under the heading, “We’re saying there’s a chance.” That’s one rung above “Already playing for next year.” VERBATIM: “How they can be 2026’s biggest surprise: The Twins drafted Royce Lewis in the first round in 2017, Trevor Larnach in the first round in 2018, Matt Wallner in the first round in 2019 and Brooks Lee in the first round in 2022. All of them, to varying degrees, are still waiting to make their imprint in the major leagues. With the Twins flailing, the pressure off and opportunities vast, this is in some ways a fork-in-the-road year for all of them. And if you think it’s too late for some, consider how long it took Byron Buxton -- a first-round pick in 2012 -- to fully come into his own.” MORE: https://fluence-media.co/hope0326
THE ROYCE FACTOR: Via La Velle E. Neal III at Star Tribune. After a poor 2025 season, Royce Lewis batted only .133 during spring training. Number can be deceiving during spring training, but those numbers provoke more than a bit of caution. VERBATIM: “Generally speaking, I would say spring training stats don’t matter,” former Twins player Roy Smalley said. “I have seen it in spring training, and the bell rings and they are not the same player. I will tell you that a manager looking at guys they are counting on and are looking at guys getting 30 at-bats and hitting .090, they are worried. They want to say it doesn’t matter, but they are worried. I want to still be in the camp that Royce Lewis will figure it out and things will be different when the bell rings, but you just don’t know at this point.” MORE: https://fluence-media.co/royce0326
FINDING BASEBALL: Via Awful Announcing. We know that MLB did a major overhaul of its TV and streaming homes during the off-season. But do you know where to find everything? Here’s a guide that covers all seven platforms where you can find games beyond the Twins cable, streaming and over-the-air presence. VERBATIM: “Fourteen months ago, commissioner Rob Manfred called ESPN a ‘shrinking platform’ in a memo to teams and used it to justify opting out of a $550 million-per-year deal with six years left. The memo set off a chain reaction that has fundamentally reshaped how Major League Baseball will be watched in 2026 and for the foreseeable future. The result is the most fragmented, most expensive, and arguably most interesting media landscape in the sport's history.” GUIDE: https://fluence-media.co/watch0326
VIKINGS WANT 2028 DRAFT: Via Ben Goessling at Star Tribune. The NFL has turned its draft into a fan destination, so much so that about 600,000 people were in Green bay for the event and everything surrounding it last year. The draft is in Pittsburgh this year and Washington, D.C. in 2027. Will Minnesota be next? There’s a committee chaired by high-end Minnesota business leaders as well as an infrastructure that has been successful at bringing over major sporting events here. But the realistic view is that sometimes a city needs to go after the event more than once to get it, according to Matt Meunier, a senior official with Minnesota Sports and Entertainment. VERBATIM: “In talking to other draft cities that have hosted, often times it does take multiple attempts to secure future drafts,” Meunier said. “And so certainly if 2028 doesn’t work out, we would need to pivot to a future year. We’d try to figure out what is the earliest available year, because we do want to bring this event to our community. It would be a massive, massive impact. So, we’re focused on ‘28 now, and we’ll just wait until the league tells us otherwise.” MORE: https://fluence-media.co/drafthost0326
SPEAKING OF DRAFTS. With its labor issues settled, WNBA teams will submit lists of five protected players by Sunday to prepare for the expansion draft next Friday that will stock the new Portland and Toronto franchises. The main thing to know is that teams will only be allowed to lose two players from their rosters. MY TAKE: The Lynx will protect Napheesa Collier, Alana Smith, Kayla McBride, Courtney Williams and Natisha Hiedeman — and that Bridget Carleton will end up in Toronto and Dorka Juhasz, who played in Europe last season, will go to Portland. AN ALTERNATIVE: The Lynx risk losing one of the StudBudz while protecting Juhasz. DRAFT RULES: https://fluence-media.co/expansion0326
THEN, THE SCRAMBLE: WNBA free agency opens April 7 and almost every veteran player in the league will be available, as most players signed deals that ended after last season in anticipation of the new labor agreement that will greatly increase future contracts. The WNBA draft is April 13, with the Lynx having the No. 2 overall pick. TWO TO WATCH: While you’re watching the Gophers-UCLA Sweet 16 game keep an eye on Lauren Betts, the Bruins’ 6-foot-7 center who is among the top candidates to end up with the Lynx. Also, UCLA guard Gianna Kneepkens, an elite three-point shooter, is a graduate of Duluth Marshall and a probable first-round pick.
GREAT PERFORMANCES: Via Strib Varsity. His team lost, but 6-foot guard Deron Russell of Waseca tied a state tournament record Wednesday night with 51 points in his team’s 77-69 loss to Minnehaha Academy in the Class 2A quarterfinals. Russell also scored 51 in his team’s section semifinal victory over Glencoe-Silver Lake. He plays in an 8 p.m. consolation game tonight vs. The Blake School at Concordia University. As a junior, Russell scored 38 points against Breck School in the 2A semifinals and 32 in Waseca’s title-game loss to Albany. Russell has committed to play football in college at North Dakota State. VERBATIM: “Deron Russell is as good as advertised,” said Minnehaha Academy coach Jadee Jones. “We had a good scheme for him and I felt like we did a pretty good job. He did make some shots. However, I felt like the strength of our entire squad was just too much for him to overcome.” MORE: https://fluence-media.co/deron0326. STREAM WASECA VS. BLAKE.
RETURNING TO STATE, KIND OF: Perhaps no top team suffered more quality transfer losses than Breck, which won the Class 2A title in 2024 and reached the semifinals last season. Three key guards from last year’s team are starting for schools that are in the state semifinals: DeAngelo Dungey plays for Class 3A Totino-Grace, Waleed Muhammad is at 3A Richfield and Ayden Green is at 2A Minnehaha.
THREE-PEAT POSSIBLE: Wisconsin-River Falls goes for its third straight D-III hockey title with a game against Amherst. Game time is 7 p.m. Friday in River Falls with the title game set for 3 p.m. Sunday. River Falls is 28-1 this season. All but two of the 25 players on the team are from Minnesota. Top scorer is forward Megan Goodreau of Centennial, who has 74 points in 29 games. The team’s top goaltender, Jordan O’Kane, is from Alexandria. The other semifinalists are Norwich and Nazareth. ROSTER | TICKETS | LIVESTREAM
NEW TOMMIES COACH: Via Joel Rippel at Star Tribune. After leading her team from the No. 8 (and bottom) seed in the D-II Central Regional to the region title, Mandy Pearson has left Minnesota Duluth for the women’s basketball coaching job at St. Thomas. She is replacing the retired Ruth Sinn. VERBATIM: “Pearson directed Minnesota Duluth to a 208-105 record, two NSIC regular-season titles, four NSIC tournament titles and six appearances in the Division II NCAA tournament. Under Pearson, the Bulldogs made two trips to the Elite Eight, including an appearance in the championship game in 2023. The team’s season ended in this year’s Elite Eight with a loss to Colorado Mesa on Tuesday.” MORE: https://fluence-media.co/pearson0326
ANNIVERSARY: Via Dan Whenesota on Bluesky. Today is the 66th anniversary of the final game played by the Minneapolis Lakers before their move to Los Angeles. It was a Game 7 loss to St. Louis in the Western Conference finals despite 33 points from Elgin Baylor. MORE: https://fluence-media.co/lakers0326
AND FINALLY: Via Bill McKibben at the New Yorker. Afton’s Jessie Diggins didn’t medal in her final weekend of Nordic ski racing before her retirement. But she once again won the hearts of fans from throughout the world, including those from Minnesota who went to Lake Placid, N.Y., to watch her do well enough to win her fourth World Cup overall title. VERBATIM: “In Lake Placid, the Minnesota state flag was prominent around the course, and American flags flew, too, if not a sea of them. In fact, many of the Minnesotans in attendance wore buttons that expressed their opinions of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers; many of those who cheered Diggins on two years ago spent this winter blowing whistles to protect their neighbors. (The sport definitely skews liberal.) . . . But for every shirt bearing a slogan, there were ten cheeks covered in (biodegradable) glitter like the kind that Diggins sprinkles on her face before every race. Diggins, for all her grit, has also brought a sparkle to the sport. The love for her was palpable; you could follow her progress around the course just by listening for the cheers that would arise as she turned each corner. She perhaps arrived too worn from the Olympics to dominate the proceedings; she mustered a fifth-place and a ninth-place finish in the first two races, but it didn’t matter. Handmade ‘Thank You, Jessie’ signs waved around the track.” MORE: https://fluence-media.co/diggins0326
A LOOK BACK: No Minnesota journalist — and few elsewhere — had as much access and wrote as prolifically about Diggins as retired Star Tribune Olympics writer Rachel Blount. Here are three stories from her archive.
2018: The ski’s the limit for Diggins
2022: Diggins bears the weigh of Olympic gold happily
2023: Star Tribune Sportsperson of the Year
THANKS FOR READING AND WRITING.
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