THE OPENER: As Sports Take nears its second anniversary, I am struck by all the choices we have in the sports marketplace. That’s provides both challenges and opportunities when compiling the newsletter. I hope I’m giving you new ways to look at the topics that take up a lot of our attention and introduce you to things you might not otherwise know about. This week, I was intrigued by much of the reporting and remembering about J Robinson, the program-changing U of M wrestling coach who died last weekend and left a complicated legacy that went well beyond the national titles his teams won. I tried to sort out some things. — Howard Sinker
THIS IS GREAT: Unless it busted your bracket or you have a connection to Duke, I’m betting you shed no tears over the UConn buzzer-beater than kept the Blue Devils from advancing to the Final Four. I watched this every-single-angle video a few times and kept seeing new stuff. I recommend the whole four minutes. But if you want the highlight of highlights, go to the 1:45 mark for the reaction by Christine Hurley, the mother of UConn coach Dan Hurley, whose team will be trying for its third title in four years. Good thing she wasn’t mic’d up.
CAN IT GET WORSE? If you find a bigger bullpen meltdown than this one, let me know.
CAN IT GET WORSE II? Do I need to do more than show you this section from The Athletic’s fifth-annual Hope-O-Meter of MLB fans. The Twins came in 30th among 30 teams — and with a stunning drop in optimism from a majority of their fans in 2025 (and before) to 1 in 25 being optimistic about this season. It’s hard to become that unpopular that quickly without committing fraud, right?
HATE TO SAY IT: But this one is warranted. The absolute and only ray of hope is that new controlling owner Tom Pohlad has come to understand how messed up things were before the family deposed his younger brother Joe. I can only imagine what Tom is finding as he digs through the mess, and I’m not sure how quickly a new generation of Twins leadership can make things right.
SORTING THROUGH IT: Via Adam Platt at Twin Cities Business. In this interview, Pohlad comes across as thoughtful. Some of that stems from knowing there’s still a lot for him to learn, as well as things that are outside his control — namely the upcoming MLB labor negotiations that will be strident and cloud clear projections about the future. For now, Pohlad’s credibility comes from his willingness to acknowledge how far the organization went off the rails: VERBATIM: “ ‘I think we thought we owed it to the fans to always be competitive,’ he says, alluding to the question of whether teams must go through winning droughts to achieve full-throated success. ‘If always being competitive comes at the cost of truly being able to compete for a world championship, then I have to question that approach. Also, what is competitive? Is it getting to the postseason? That’s been our [philosophy]. My definition is: ‘Let’s build a team that can truly compete in the postseason,’ rather than, ‘Let’s see if we get lucky.’ ” MORE: https://fluence-media.co/pohlad0402
ON THE FIELD: The Twins looked at bad as advertised during the first week of the season. At their best, the Twins have a slim margin for error, and the opening five games of the season coughed up an array mental errors, misplays and mediocrity. The ill-fitting batting order hardly strikes fear and the defense has made the pitching look worse than it’s actually been — and the pitching staff needs all the help it can get.
FRUSTRATING DECISION: In Sunday’s 8-6 loss to Baltimore, Manager Derek Shelton opted not to remove pitcher Mick Abel sooner in a 3 1/3-inning stint in which he yielded eight hits and four walks after replacing Bailey Ober, who weakened after his first time through the Baltimore batting order. Sticking with Abel was more in line with exhibition-game strategy instead of regular-season play, and was all the more frustrating because the Twins blew an early 4-0 lead and gave up the final three runs after rallying for a 5-5 tie. The Twins also had three runners tagged out on the bases, struck out five times with the bases loaded and ran out of challenges when Matt Wallner challenged a called third strike on a pitch that was clearly in the strike zone. (He did the same thing Wednesday night in Kansas City.) I don’t want to say this, but the Twins looked like a 100-loss team during Week 1.
OF COURSE THERE IS: There’s a website that tracks Automated Ball-Strike decisions in granular detail. DATA: https://fluence-media.co/challenge0402
J ROBINSON’S DEATH: No one can deny that J Robinson, who died Sunday at age 79, built one of the nation’s elite college wrestling programs at the University of Minnesota. He coached at the U for 30 years with his teams winning three national titles and 14 wrestlers winning individual national titles. He was named Big Ten coach of the year eight times. Robinson was fired in 2016 after a U investigation into Robinson’s handling of alleged prescription drug sales involving team members. But too much of the writing about his life has neglected his virulent opposition to Title IX because of its perceived impact on the sport. Yes, many schools eliminated their wrestling programs. But blaming it on mandates for equity, as Robinson did, was (and is) a thinly disguised attempt to oppose fair treatment of women’s sports. To his credit, the Strib’s Randy Johnson included Robinson’s anti-Title IX stance in his obituary
QUOTE: From a Strib profile of Robinson during the 2002 season, when the Gophers were on their way to a second consecutive NCAA title. ROBINSON: "Interest has to play a role in a free society. More men like to play sports. More girls like to play with dolls. Are we going to make a law forcing boys to play with dolls? I think things are changing though. You can only push a dog so far back into the corner before he will bite you. I think women see that and are afraid. When men get organized, it's going to be great." FULL PROFILE: https://fluence-media.co/profile0402
WOMEN AFRAID? Not then, not now. In fact, The U’s Morris campus was the first in the nation to establish a women’s wrestling program in the early 1990s. It was terminated, along with the men’s program, as part of budget cuts and a de-emphasis on athletics by the school in 2004. In 2009, a girl from southwestern Minnesota, Elissa Reinsma, became the first to quality for the state wrestling tournament and had a career record of 64-17, with all but one of those matches against boys. In 2022, the first girls-only state wrestling tournament was held, although girls still have the option to compete against boys. In 2024, Caley Graber of Northfield became the first girl to win a match against a boy at state and finished fifth in the 107-pound division of Class 3A.
2004 COMPLAINT: Via Minnesota Daily archives. A former U official noted a 2004 gender discrimination complaint filed by Robinson with the Minnesota Department of Human Rights against the school. VERBATIM: “Though the Gophers coach declined to discuss the details of the complaint, he said the university has created a class system inside the athletics department, in which decisions are made based solely on gender. ‘If you coach a women’s sport, you get all kinds of advantages based on just coaching women – just coaching the gender,’ he said. ‘There’s nothing else. It’s pretty simple. It’s pretty indefensible really.’ “ FULL STORY: https://fluence-media.co/complaint0402
HIDDEN HISTORY: What people don’t remember is that Robinson was placed on leave by U athletic director Mark Coyle in his first day on the job in June 2016. The firing came about three months later. The chairman of the Board of Regents at the time — the former Republican state legislative leader Dean Elton Johnson — heralded the move. VERBATIM: "In case anyone has not noticed, we do have a new sheriff in town and his name is athletic director Mark Coyle. There's little room, little tolerance for missteps in participating and representing the University of Minnesota.”
BEST CONTEXT: Via Marcus Fuller and Joe Christensen at Star Tribune. This story, published at the time of his firing, is an excellent retrospective of Robinson’s career. VERBATIM: “In 2002, Tonya Moten Brown, then the U vice president and chief of staff, said, ‘J represents a quandary for the university. On the one hand, the wrestling program is a competitive success and J enjoys tremendous loyalty and respect. But at times it feels like the university spends more time, energy and resources investigating issues involving wrestling than the other 22 sports combined. And it never seems to end."
‘LOYALTY AND RESPECT’: “To his wrestlers, Robinson was a father figure who boldly turned teenagers into strong men. Damion Hahn, a two-time NCAA champion in the early 2000s and current Cornell assistant wrestling coach, got choked up when talking about what Robinson meant to him. ‘He was a father figure for me when I was in college. He really pushed me to reach my potential.’ ” FULL STORY: https://fluence-media.co/j0402
A TAKE ON COYLE: Coyle doesn’t get enough credit for being an activist athletic director willing to make changes when he feels they’re needed, even if they aren’t popular. Firings of Robinson, football coach Tracy Claeys, women’s basketball coach Lindsay Whalen and last month’s purge of hockey coaches Bob Motzko and Brad Frost weren’t well received to varying degrees by Gophers fans. I suspect Coyle’s moves would be better understood if he made himself more available to fans — directly and through the media — rather than using his current reliance on news drops-via-press release. Coyle ought to be as accessible in 2026 as he was in 2016.
BRZEZINSKI FOR VIKINGS GM? Via Matthew Coller at Purple Insider. Vikings management has been using a lot of words to say very little about the search for a new general manager, except to let on that the process will play out promptly after the NFL Draft later this month. After attending the NFL owners meetings in Phoenix this week, Coller made a case for promoting Rob Brzezinski, the team’s executive vice president of football operations who has been the interim GM. VERBATIM: “They couldn’t ask for someone who has more experience or is more invested in the fate of the franchise. All indications are that Brzezinski and Coach Kevin O’Connell have great respect for each other and have managed this offseason well together, despite the lack of headline-worthy moves. Hiring Brzezinski would also alleviate the uncomfortable nature of bringing in a new GM to work with a head coach who has had his ups and downs.” MORE: https://fluence-media.co/gm0402
THE QUARTERBACK ROOM: Via Ben Goessling at Star Tribune. At the owners meetings, O’Connell talked about the open competition for the starting quarterback job — a 180-degree shift from this time last year when J..J. McCarthy was the presumed starter with lesser talented and inexperienced QBs taking positions behind him. The main takeaway is a competition between Kyler Murray and McCarthy, with veteran Carson Wentz in a mentoring role and as a fallback candidate. VERBATIM: “The Vikings seem to have a better plan in place than they did before last season, although Wentz is recovering from a season-ending shoulder injury. Does Murray have the smarts and talent to be the key to the Vikings’ first playoff win five years into O’Connell’s tenure? ‘We feel really good about the combination of depth, talent and the fact that we’ve got a room that’s going to push each other,’ O’Connell said. ‘All those guys are gonna have great off-seasons and be ready to rock and roll.’ ” MORE: https://fluence-media.co/qb0402
MORE KOC: O’Connell sat for an interview with Mike Florio and Chris Simms of Pro Football Talk at the owners meetings.
WILD PLAYOFF CONCERNS: With eight games left in the regular season, the Wild are in solid playoff shape with 94 points — third in the NHL’s Western Conference, trailing only Central Division rivals Colorado (108) and Dallas (100). WHAT’S THE PROBLEM? The Wild haven’t won consecutive games since the first week of March and are 4-7 since then. Also, Filip Gustavsson has yielded 10 goals in his last two starts. VERBATIM: Via Jason Chen at Hockey News, who dropped the Wild from sixth to eighth in his most recent power rankings: “The more you watch the Wild play, the more you wonder whether they have one too many holes in their lineup. They're an excellent team, but they lack centers, and their goaltending has suddenly looked very mortal. They have only won once in regulation over the past three weeks.” STANDINGS | WILD STATISTICS
BEST OPPONENT FOR WOLVES? Via Jace Frederick at Pioneer Press. With seven games to play, it would be hard for the Wolves to finish below sixth place in the NBA’s Western Conference. That would make their first-round playoff opponent the Lakers, Nuggets or Rockets. Breaking down the potential matchups, Frederick thinks playing Houston provides the most favorable way to get Minnesota to the conference semifinals. WHY? The Rockets don’t have a game-changer similar to Luka Doncic of the Lakers or Nikola Jokic of the Nuggets. (Sorry, Kevin Durant.) VERBATIM: “Houston consistently plays with physicality and wouldn’t be an easy opponent for any team, but the Rockets’ roster in its current form lacks anything scary for which to gameplan. The Wolves would have a clear talent edge here.” MORE: https://fluence-media.co/playoffs0402
McCARVILLE JOINS LYNX: Via Minnesota Lynx. Former Gophers star Janel McCarville is joining the Lynx staff as an assistant coach. After starting her WNBA career with Charlotte and New York, McCarville played center for the Lynx in 2013, 2014 and 2016. The 6-foot-2 center was the No. 1 overall pick in the 2005 WNBA draft. She was suspended by the Liberty in 2011 when she didn’t show up for training camp and also sat out the 2012 season before coming to the Lynx in a trade. MORE: https://fluence-media.co/janel0402.
GOOD NEWS: The Strib has finally moved Cassidy Hettesheimer into the newly created job of full-time women’s sports reporter that was posted last summer. She jumped in this week with a timeline of what’s ahead for the Lynx in the fast-track run-up to the WNBA season caused by the extended negotiations for a new labor contract. The expansion draft, in which they could lose two players, is Friday (2:30 p.m., ESPN). Free-agent players, a group that includes almost all of the league’s veterans, can sign contracts starting a week from Sunday. The rookie and foreign player draft is April 13, training camp starts April 19 and the opener vs. Atlanta is May 10. DETAILS: https://fluence-media.co/wnba0402 EXPANSION DRAFT RULES: They’re here.
HETTESHEIMER: She joined the Star Tribune staff as an intern after graduating from the University of Georgia and hasn’t left. READ ABOUT HER: https://fluence-media.co/cassidy0402
RIVER FALLS THREE-PEAT: Via KARE-TV. UW-River Falls won its third straight Division III women’s hockey title last weekend with a 4-0 victory over Nazareth University of New York. River Falls is 87-4 over that three-year run and this season’s roster was entirely from Minnesota, except for one player from Hudson, Wis., and another from California.
GOING OUT STRONG: Via Jim Souhan at Star Tribune. The Gophers women’s basketball team set a high bar for its future by getting to the Sweet 16 of the women’s tournament before being overwhelmed by Final Four-bound UCLA in the Sweet 16. Coach Dawn Plitzuweit not only has not only made her team a national factor, but she’s done it in the way vital for contemporary coaches. VERBATIM: “The Gophers weren’t just stunningly good down the stretch this season, they were fun. In the transfer portal area, cultivating a fun atmosphere isn’t merely endearing. It might be necessary. This is not Bobby Knight’s college basketball world. You can’t intimidate and berate your players and survive. They can leave. Modern coaches look more like Plitzuweit, St. Thomas men’s coach Johnny Tauer, Gophers men’s coach Niko Medved and Timberwolves coach Chris Finch, who understand they need to have productive two-way relationships with players to win.” MORE: https://fluence-media.co/uwomen0402
GOING QUIETLY: It may have been for the best that the Gophers men’s basketball season ended with a game that started about 45 minutes late. The 67-48 loss to Baylor in the opening round of the College Basketball Crown tournament wasn’t representative of the grit that the undermanned team showed when playing at its best this season. NAME TO KNOW: Sophomore guard Cameron Carr, who had 15 points and nine rebounds for Baylor, is the son of former Timberwolves guard Chris Carr. BOX SCORE: https://fluence-media.co/box0402
ANOTHER RANKING: Via Max Preps. Among the 250 players on the rosters of the women’s Sweet 16 players, where did Minnesota rank? HERE: https://fluence-media.co/rank0402
MINNESOTA HOCKEY TAKES A HIT: Via NCAA.com. Neither Minnesota entry in the men’s Division I tournament advanced to the Frozen Four on April 9 and 11 in Las Vegas. Minnesota State was knocked out 3-1 by No. 4-seed Western Michigan in the first round and Minnesota Duluth lost 4-3 to No. 1 Michigan in the quarterfinals. Michigan will play Denver in one semifinal and No. 2 North Dakota plays Wisconsin in the other. STORIES, HIGHLIGHTS: https://fluence-media.co/frozen0402
JERSEY REVEAL: Via Minnesota Aurora. The women’s soccer team unveiled a new jersey for the 2026 season, released in collaboration with the Minneapolis Institute of Art. Designed by local artist Lindsay Nohl, the jersey celebrates Aurora’s upcoming fifth season. A jersey launch party is set for 5:30-8 p.m. Friday at the team’s headquarters in Eagan. There will be food trucks. DETAILS: https://fluence-media.co/aurora0402
FUN FACT: Nohl is also a tattoo artist in Uptown. LOOK: https://fluence-media.co/tattoo0402
AND FINALLY: Writing about J Robinson reminded me of an excellent story by the Star Tribune’s Chip Scoggins and Aaron Lavinsky from a few years back about Nari Miller, who was captain of the wrestling team at Edison High School before competing at Texas Women’s University, where she qualified for the national women’s tournament in 2024. VERBATIM: “ ‘Wrestling reminds me that I’m alive every day,’ she says. That awareness is a testament to Title IX. . . . A girl without an athletic background not only finds her place in sports but rises to become a recipient of the prestigious Athena Award as her school’s top senior girl athlete competing in three sports: wrestling, football and track and field.” The words and photos are excellent and made me wonder: What did J Robinson think about her? FULL STORY: https://fluence-media.co/nari0402
THANKS FOR READING AND FOR REACHING OUT ABOUT THE NEWSLETTER.
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