INCOMING! Sports are coming at us from all directions in the next week. Let’s go to the calendar:
FRIDAY: USA vs. Australia in their second World Cup group play match (2 p.m. Fox). Both sides won their opening matches, so the outcome will be a good guide to how seriously to take United States hopes. Winning Group D should blaze a better trail in the knockout round. SPORTS TAKE WORLD CUP PREVIEW
SATURDAY: Minnesota Aurora vs. River Light FC at TCO Stadium (4 p.m., FOX 9+ and YouTube) Aurora has outscored its opponents 29-0 heading into their final regular-season home game and has a 9-0 record. USL-W playoffs will start up after two final games on the road. TICKETS
SATURDAY-NEXT FRIDAY: Special Olympics at the U of M and Blaine. More than 3,000 athletes and 100,000 visitors are expected. Competitions are free and ESPN+ will show 48 hours of the games Tuesday through next Friday. Opening ceremony tickets at Huntington Bank Stadium are $36. Volunteers are still needed at various venues. VOLUNTEER | TICKETS | MORE
SUNDAY: Lynx vs. Washington (5 p.m., Victory+, NBA TV). If you live here and haven’t seen Olivia Miles in person, I question your basketball fandom. TICKETS
MONDAY-WEDNESDAY: Twins vs. Dodgers (6:40 p.m., Twins.TV; TBS on Tuesday). As of now, Shohei Ohtani is scheduled to start Wednesday.
WEDNESDAY-THURSDAY: NBA Draft (7 p.m., ESPN). The Wolves currently pick 28th in the first round and have the 59th overall pick in the second. That’s subject to change on short notice.
NEXT THURSDAY: USA vs. Turkey (9 p.m. FOX). The end of pool play. Knockout round play begins a week from Sunday. KNOCKOUT ROUND SCHEDULE
NEXT FRIDAY-SATURDAY: NHL Draft. (6 p.m. Friday, ESPN; 10 a.m. Saturday, NHL Network) There are 18 Minnesotans among the 200+ players ranked by the NHL’s Central Scouting service, including a potential first-rounder.
WAY OUTSIDE THE BOX: Via Chris Hine at Star Tribune. There’s an argument to be made that the Timberwolves should follow the lead of the NBA champion Knicks and runner-up Spurs and retool their roster around Anthony Edwards and their other young players. That would mean trading Rudy Gobert and Julius Randle, relying on remaining roster to contend for the playoffs next season and being real title contenders in the years following. Using the term “gap year,” Hine cites a batch of reasons why the move makes sense and throws down a challenge for Edwards.
CHALLENGING ANT: Here’s how Hine sees it. VERBATIM: “Remove the security blanket that is Gobert on that end of the floor and make Edwards guard consistently for one of the few times in his career. It’s also time to see what Jaden McDaniels and Naz Reid can do with more offensive usage. Both have shown flashes of being solid to excellent playoff contributors. Handing them more responsibility in the regular season might help hone their games to be even more consistent in the postseason. Without Gobert on defense, the mistakes Edwards is prone to make (like falling asleep on off-ball defense) will be much louder, and it might inspire him to work harder. Embrace Edwards as a on-ball defender, an area in which the team has constantly said he can be elite. Coach Chris Finch says McDaniels is a high-level rim protector. Lean into that. . . . Finch has repeatedly said Edwards’ path to becoming an MVP candidate is to be the best two-way player in the league. Make him prove it by letting go of Gobert, 33, while his trade value is still relatively high.” FULL STORY: https://fluence-media.co/wolves0618
NAILED IT: Every now and then, someone writes something that gets to heart of how I feel and keeps me from having to find my own words. That’s the case with Nick Nelson’s recent Twins Daily essay on Byron Buxton, which is filled with frustration over Buxton’s late-career excellence (mid-career if we’re lucky, maybe) coming against the backdrop of a 2026 roster that wasn’t built to be competitive. Buxton’s 23 home run (third in MLB), .937 OPS (ninth) and extraordinary defense deserve a better supporting cast. Add to that Buxton building relationships with the organization and community to the point that he doesn’t want to waive the no-trade clause in his contract despite the feebleness surrounding him. In disserving fans by creating obvious roster shortfalls last summer and ignoring them over the winter, the Twins failed to show Buxton the respect that he’s shown them.
MONEY QUOTE: “If I’m being honest, it makes me feel all the more bitter toward a Twins franchise that is unwilling to reward that loyalty with a competitive effort around Buxton as he reaches his full potential in the late stage of his prime. This roster’s shortcomings entering the season were plain to see, regardless of Tom Pohlad’s lip service, and now we’re seeing what happens as an undermanned team ventures into the heart of the season: they are predictably running aground.” MORE: https://fluence-media.co/buxton0618
ONE MORE TIME: What if the Twins hadn’t demolished their bullpen at the trade deadline by sending Louis Varland to Toronto and Jhoan Duran to the Phillies? You would have anchors for an elite bullpen instead of one that is near the bottom of the majors by almost any measurement. The Twins would certainly be closer to 4 1/2 games ahead in the AL Central than 4 1/2 games behind.
DATA PLEASE: Via Aaron Gleeman. In starting off a post explaining the surprising success of recently acquired Twins reliever right-hander Yoendrys Gomez, Gleeman cites these sad bullpen numbers. VERBATIM: “No. 25 in Win Probability Added, No. 27 in strikeout rate, No. 28 in strikeout-to-walk ratio, and No. 29 in ERA out of 30 teams.” MORE: https://fluence-media.co/bullpen0618
ATTENDANCE INCENTIVE? Does this sound like the elementary school challenge where students get rewarded for reading books? The Twins have sold fewer tickets so far this season than in 2025 — down 3.1% through 39 home dates — when they finished with their lowest attendance since Target Field opened in 2010. On Wednesday, the Twins emailed season-ticket holders, telling them they will get a credit toward their 2027 renewal worth 15% of the price of every ticket they use this season — and an extra 5% for each of those games won by the Twins. The offer is capped at $2,000 and doesn’t include the Champions Club or suites. DETAILS: https://fluence-media.co/tickets0618
GRANDMA’S TURNS 50: Via KQDS-TV. The 50th anniversary of the Two Harbors-to-Duluth marathon is Saturday with a field of 9,500 that expands to 23,000 when the half-marathon and 5K entry lists are added. According to local sources the event is expected to generate about $40 million for the Duluth-Superior region. REPORT: https://fluence-media.co/marathon0618
RUNNING EVERY RACE. Via Christa Lawler at Star Tribune. John Naslund, 76, of Bloomington, is the only person to have crossed the finish line in every Grandma’s Marathon. He’ll be at the starting line again Saturday. A pole vaulter at Minnesota Duluth, Naslund became a marathon enthusiast and has also run all 43 Twin Cities Marathons. His best time? 2 hours, 21 minutes at the Milwaukee Lakefront Marathon in 1981. His 2025 times? 5:31:06 at Grandma’s and 6:23:12 at the Twin Cities Marathon in October. The journey takes longer, but it’s still fulfilling. VERBATIM: “Naslund’s memories of most past Grandma’s Marathons are just snippets of interactions here and there, but the rest blends together, he said. Thinking back on his early running years, Naslund said he couldn’t imagine that he would be tied to the marathon in this way. ‘You’re in your mid-20s, you’re doing stuff and having experiences. Long-term, at that point, might be five years out. But, you know, life just keeps chipping away.’ “ FULL STORY: https://fluence-media.co/everyrace0618
MARATHON GUIDE: Watch the race live | Runner and spectator guidebook | Leaderboard and results
FIRST-ROUND DRAFT PICK? Via Scott Wheeler at The Athletic. In November, Moorhead’s Wyatt Cullen was listed as a probable fourth- or fifth-round pick in next week’s NHL Draft. Then the games began and Cullen’s ranking, as a member of the U.S. National U18 team, shot up to the point that he’s now listed 13th on the NHL Central Scouting prospect list. It happened, in part, because of a growth spurt over the last two years in which Cullen, the son of NHL veteran Matt Cullen, grew from 5-foot-5 to 6-foot-1 and gained 56 pounds. There was hard work involved, too. Cullen has committed to playing college hockey for Minnesota, where his father joined the coaching staff in April as director of player development. VERBATIM: “The growth has been a big piece for him. It has allowed him to actually separate a bit,” U.S. NTDP head coach Nick Fohr told The Athletic. “He’s such a good hockey player. He’s got such good hands in tight. He’s got the shakiness, the playmaking, the vision. All of that stuff is elite. And he couldn’t get any time and space last year because he just couldn’t get away from anybody. So the growing that he has done and the strength that he has put on has been immense. Talk about a transformation over two years.” FULL STORY: https://fluence-media.co/cullen0618
MORE MINNESOTA TALENT: Via Olivia Hicks at Strib Varsity. There are 17 more Minnesota players among the 224 ranked by NHL Central Scouting. Others among the Top 75 are forward Victor Plante of Hermantown at No. 42, defenseman Jayden Kurtz of Rogers at No. 61 and defenseman Kyle Heger of Eagan at No. 66. Carter Casey of Grand Rapids is ranked No. 26 among goalies and Luke Carrithers of Maple Grove is ranked No. 28. MINNESOTA LIST | FULL RANKINGS
WILD PICKS: The Wild don’t have a first-round pick because it was traded to Vancouver as part of the Quinn Hughes deal. Their second-round pick went to Nashville for center Michael McCarron. Minnesota has five picks in Rounds 3 through 6, including two in the fifth round. FULL DRAFT ORDER: https://fluence-media.co/nhl0618
SPECTACULAR: Olivia Miles set a WNBA rookie record with 24 points in the first half of Wednesday’s 99-83 win at Los Angeles on Wednesday. She finished with 31 points — including 16 in the second quarter when the Lynx broke open the game — to miss the team’s rookie record of 32 set 20 years ago by Seimone Augustus.
GAME OF THE YEAR? If you were distracted by something else — maybe the concluding game of the NBA Finals — you missed the Lynx and defending WNBA champion Las Vegas put on a show last Saturday night that would be fun to see repeated in the 2026 playoff finals. The Aces jumped out to an early lead, the Lynx battled back and took the lead in the final minute before four-time MVP A’ja Wilson and star guard Chelsea Gray made four free throws in the final 20 seconds to take the 100-97 victory. Olivia Miles scored 29 points and frustrated herself with six turnovers. Wilson scored 24, Gray scored 23. It was the kind of game when one team’s mistakes were usually caused by the other team’s play. In other words, the best kind of basketball. LOOK AHEAD: The teams play at Target Center at noon on August 8 and Minnesota follows that the next day with a 2:30 p.m. game against Dallas. TICKETS
THE ‘REEL DEAL’: Via Maitreyi Anantharaman at Defector. If you need to catch up on her quarter-season with the Lynx, this puts Olivia Miles in perspective. VERBATIM: “Vertical video makes Olivia Miles look good. Horizontal video makes her look better. Her gift shines in context, on the unadorned and unsoundtracked platform that is the next day’s full-game replay. What the Minnesota Lynx rookie does best as starting point guard of the WNBA’s top team is to understand every option available to her before choosing, inevitably, the right one. She’s done well to earn the title ‘highlight reel player,’ but watch her enough and realize she’s special for being a “film room player,” too. Perhaps that’s why this was not something everyone saw coming: the instant stardom, the MVP talks, the Lynx’s surprisingly torrid start as they wait for franchise player Napheesa Collier to return from an ankle injury. MORE: https://fluence-media.co/miles0618
ALL-STAR VOTING: Miles is ninth in fan voting for the WNBA All-Star Game. The top four guards and six frontcourt players are determined by fan, player and media voting. Coaches pick the reserves. Lynx post player Natasha Howard is 12th and guard Courtney Williams, who deserves to be higher, is 27th. The top two finishers will be named captains and choose up sides for the July 25 game in Chicago. VOTE: https://fluence-media.co/vote0618
TOP 40 VOTE-GETTERS: The first batch of votes was released Wednesday. Fan voting ends on June 27. https://fluence-media.co/40top0618
AND THE MEN: The NBA draft’s first round is Wednesday and the second round is Thursday. Barring a trade, which may not be a high bar, the Wolves will pick 28th in the first round. With a pick that far down, it’s understandable there’s no consensus in an assortment of mock drafts. Names getting mentioned include Sergio De Larrea, a 6-5 wing from Spain; Ebuka Okorie, a 6-2 point guard from Stanford; Isaiah Evans, a 6-6 wing from Duke; Joshua Jefferson, a 6-8 forward from Iowa State, and Jack Kayil, a 6-5 point guard from Germany.
TOP 100 PROSPECTS: Via The Athletic. There’s a Gophers player at No. 99 on the list, but only 60 will be drafted. RANKINGS: https://fluence-media.co/100best0618
U’S MURPHY DRAFTED SECOND: Via Kate Shefte at Seattle Times. Gophers forward, All-American and Olympic gold medalist Abbey Murphy was the second player taken overall in the PWHL draft and is headed for Seattle. She was one of five Gophers players selected in the six-round draft after scoring 40 goals and 26 assists in 31 games. VERBATIM: “The skilled agitator captained the Gophers and led the country in points per game. The Wall Street Journal referred to her as ‘America’s trash-talking, goal-scoring, punch-throwing hockey unicorn’ in a February headline. Her 67 penalty minutes were third in NCAA Div. I last season, according to EliteProspects. That’s a long way from her 118 PIMs during the 2023-2024 season. While former Torrent captain Hilary Knight noted her Team USA teammate’s ability to get ‘under people’s skin,’ she also compared Murphy to ‘a cheat code.’ Murphy helped the Americans to gold in Milano Cortina 2026, with seven points in as many games.” MORE: https://fluence-media.co/murphy0618
FROST’S TOP PICK: Via Cassidy Hettesheimer at Star Tribune. The Frost used the ninth overall pick to take defender Sara Swiderski, who played at Ohio State and Clarkson. She was the first Canadian player drafted and was surprised to be taken by Minnesota, which didn’t contact her before the draft. VERBATIM: "They obviously are a team that competes for championships over and over again every year, so I think I can really bring in that great kind of play and do my best to work hard and earn my spot.” MORE: https://fluence-media.co/sara0618
FULL FROST DRAFT PICKS: https://fluence-media.co/frost0618
ALSO: Four Minnesota Duluth players and one from Minnesota State were drafted, too. Gophers defender Nelli Laitinen was taken by expansion Hamilton with the sixth overall pick and defender Sydney Morrow was taken by Seattle with the second pick of the second round. The first UMD player taken was forward Thea Johansson, who went to Vancouver in the second round. The Minnesota State player taken was former Lakeville South star Taylor Otremba, a forward taken by Ottawa with the second-to-last pick of the draft. FULL DRAFT: https://fluence-media.co/pwhl0618
LEWIS FINDS GROOVE: Via Bobby Nightengale at Star Tribune. It’s been only 10 games, but Royce Lewis has a .324 batting average and 1.003 OPS since being brought back to the Twins after a couple weeks in St. Paul. His 12-for-37 showing includes three home runs, two doubles and only seven strikeouts. The numbers is 31 games before the demotion? .163 average, .539 OPS and 37 strikeouts in 104 at-bats. He’s also made a good adjustment to playing first base, which free up Kody Clemens to play other positions and keeps defensive liability Josh Bell to more of a DH role. Part of the process was a return home to California for visits with agent Scott Boras and his father. Together, they watched videos of Lewis at his best. VERBATIM: “I feel like my confidence was always there. I feel like people say, ‘It was a confidence thing, and you’ve got to mentally reset.’ I’m like, dude, I was mentally fine. I just wanted to know what was the thing to get me back to actually doing it in a game.” FULL STORY: https://fluence-media.co/royce0618
PRIDE CONTROVERSY, MINNESOTA ANGLE: Via The Big Lead. Sam Hentges, the former Mounds View star and fourth-round draft choice in 2014, was one of the four San Francisco Giants players who protested the team’s Pride Night. Other players altered caps worn for the game; Hentges chose to wear the team’s traditional cap and the next day said of the team’s LGBTQ+ event, “I don’t morally support it.” The players participating in the action were criticized by Giants broadcaster Mike Krukow, a former MLB pitcher whose son is gay. VERBATIM: “I think that you have the right as a player to believe and say whatever you want,” Krukow told columnist Ann Killion. “But you have to take a broader look at the city you’re playing in. What makes San Francisco so great is the acceptance of others — ethnicities, opinions, cultures — and that extends to the gay community. I would just hope they would understand the demographic of San Francisco and respect people for who they are. What you do to your uniform, that has weight to it. You can offend people. And why would you do that?” MORE: https://fluence-media.co/pride0618
FORFEITING: Via USA Today. An independent minor league team in York, Pa., is forfeiting a game tonight because some of its players said they wouldn’t wear the team’s Pride jerseys. Owners of the York Revolution called the refusal “complete inconsistent with our visions” and said they would make a $10,000 donation to a local LGBTQ+ resource center. MORE: https://fluence-media.co/york0618
MAPLE GROVE TO MADISON: Wisconsin received a commitment from Jack Thelen, the 7-foot-1 Maple Grove center whose team finished fourth in Class 4A last season. Thelen averaged 13 points and nine rebounds a game for Maple Grove. The Badgers are also recruiting his teammate, Baboucarr Ann, a 6-foot-5 wing who is also being sought by the Gophers. Former Maple Grove and Wisconsin player Brad Davison is an assistant at Madison.
INTERNATIONAL PLAY FOR GOPHER: Via University of Minnesota. Gophers junior Tori McKinney has been named to the USA 3x3 team that will play in Chile starting next weekend in hopes of qualifying for the world tournament in China in September. McKinney, from Minnetonka, was chosen to the Big Ten all-defensive team last season and was a second team all-Big Ten selection. MORE: https://fluence-media.co/mckinney0618
PETERSON’S DAUGHER LEAVES MINNETONKA: Via Marcus Fuller at Strib Varsity. Ari Peterson, daughter of former Vikings great Adrian Peterson, posted on Instagram she’s leaving Minnetonka for Long Island Lutheran, a private school that produced three McDonald’s All-Americans in 2024 and 2026. The junior already has scholarship offers from the Gophers and at least a half-dozen other Big Ten schools. Before Minnetonka, Peterson played at Providence Academy. MORE: https://fluence-media.co/peterson0618
CALLED IT: In discussing fallout from the Brendan Sorsby college gambling mess last week, which featured a Texas judge ruling that Sorsby could play for Texas Tech this season despite betting on games when the quarterback attended Indiana, I wrote there was more talk than action about repercussions. That came to pass more quickly than I expected now that Sorsby decided this week to leave school and make himself eligible for the NFL’s supplemental draft later this summer. BIGGER ISSUE: Can the NCAA enforce anything substantial without member schools and the courts getting in the way? I would bet against it.
AND FINALLY: Via MLB.com. The cast of Napoleon Dynamite has bought into the Richmond Flying Mummies of the Northwoods League, the 26-team college summer league that includes franchises in Duluth, Rochester, St. Cloud, Willmar and Mankato. Jon Gries (Uncle Rico), Jon Heder (Napoleon) and Efren Ramirez (Pedro) are among the owners. VERBATIM: “[Gries] wore us down,” Heder said. “He was just like, ‘Baseball, baseball, baseball.’ I was like, ‘Dude, you’re known for football, let’s lean into the football thing.’” MORE: https://fluence-media.co/unclerico0618
THAT’S ALL FOR NOW.
EMAIL HOWARD: sportstake100@gmail.com
ON THE WEB:
Bluesky: @howardsinker.bsky.social
Instagram: @howardsinkermn
Previous editions of Sports Take are here.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/howard-sinker-80921813/
ESPN’s full TV and streaming service listings: https://fluence-media.co/watch