THE OPENER: If we’re going out for pizza and I’m bringing a list of topics, these are on my list. — Howard Sinker
OLIVIA MILES is a rookie who controls a basketball game like a veteran. Find me another player who has her physical skills and can see the game as clearly as she does? I’ll wait. The “Holy Bleep” factor was in full effect in Monday’s 104-100 Lynx win over Phoenix. She needed only 16 shots to score 33 points and gave out eight assists. Miles vs. Caitlin Clark on August 2 and vs. Paige Bueckers on Aug. 9 is going to be must-see hoops at Target Center, providing the ankle injury that forced her from Wednesday’s game is as minor as we’re hoping.
WHITE PEOPLE at Lynx games should be smart enough not to wear Afro wigs as some sort of misguided tribute to Miles. It’s (1) cultural appropriation and (2) one or two steps from blackface. If you don’t get it, I’m wagering you don’t have much culture to appropriate.
THE TWINS are a delightful surprise, worth watching but still suffering from the rightful skepticism and cynicism of fans. The coming month will be tests on an off the field. But the schedule is favorable and — repeating one more time — Tom Pohlad has a chance at the trade deadline to make up for last year’s disastrous decisions and the inertia at the 2024 deadline. C’mon Tom. Live the headline from your media breakfast last week: “We have to f*****g win.” Last week’s Sports Take featured my plan for how the Twins should proceed. It still stands.
VAR IS BUZZKILL because soccer’s system for reviewing close plays sucks the life out of the game. Reviews initiated by a video official are lengthy, and whether to initiate them can seem as imperfect as the calls themselves. Solution? The NHL system of challenges by coaches with consequences for failure. In hockey, that’s a two-minute delay-of-game penalty.
ANOTHER THING that makes The Beautiful Game less beautiful is all the whining by players at the referee. It has felt nonstop during the World Cup. How about letting the captain complain and shutting down any other whiners with a yellow card. More ridiculous? Players and coaching staffs going after the fourth official — the one who controls substitutes and helps with game administration from the sideline — over things happening on the field. If I’m off base and this is actually a vital part of soccer culture, somebody let me know. I hope not.
MINNESOTA AURORA should be taken seriously. The USL W shouldn’t be. Choosing Salmon Bay’s “stadium” in Seattle for the league semifinal — really a recreation complex/beer garden/soccer field with a few sets of bleachers — over TCO Stadium was bad enough. Trying to follow a livestream where the audio was about 10 seconds ahead of the video — a complaint shared by several social media pals that I also experienced — made Aurora’s shootout loss almost unwatchable. (Bonus badness: Both of my email queries about the field choice to the USL W’s publicist went unanswered.)
VIKINGS TRAINING CAMP hasn’t started and I’m already bored with the “quarterback competition.” I think whoever “wins” — J.J. McCarthy or Kyler Murray — will be only marginally better than the “loser.” I’m betting on seeing them both start during the season. WORST CASES: Murray is another Donovan McNabb, who didn’t have anything left when he finished his career with the Vikings in 2011; McCarthy is another Christian Ponder, who took over for McNabb and at his best was mediocre. BEST CASE: One of them is the Vikings starter in 2027 and for years into the future.
GOPHERS STAR v. NCAA: Cade Tyson, the leading scorer on the Gophers men’s basketball team last season, is one of 11 athletes who have filed a federal class action suit against the NCAA seeking another season of college eligibility after the NCAA adopted its new five-in-five eligibility rules. The part being challenged is that players who finished their eligibility last season are not being allowed a fifth year. Tyson averaged 19.6 points per game for the U after spending one season at North Carolina and two at Belmont. ELSEWHERE: An Ohio judge granted a temporary injunction last week to another group of 24 basketball players in a similar suit.
WHAT IT MEANS: Via Myron Medcalf at ESPN. VERBATIM: “If successful, the federal lawsuit could essentially nullify the NCAA’s new eligibility rules for a massive pool of athletes across all sports who would then be allowed to enter the transfer portal and extend their careers. With football season set to begin in a month, a ruling in favor of these athletes could alter the college landscape for the upcoming season. If it’s defeated, it could also signal a significant ruling in favor of the NCAA, which has faced numerous state lawsuits already regarding its new eligibility rules. ‘These athletes aren’t asking for special treatment,’ said Rob Shelquist, a partner at Cuneo Gilbert Flannery & LaDuca, LLP, in a statement. “They’re asking to not be singled out and excluded from the NCAA’s eligibility framework. The NCAA updated the rules but refused to apply them only to the very group that was most immediately affected.’ “ MORE: https://fluence-media.co/ncaa0716
MY TAKE: Yes, it would be chaos if another large batch of athletes had their eligibility suddenly restored just before the start of the school year. But what part of revenue-producing Division I sports isn’t already chaotic? These players appear to be getting a raw deal based on nothing other than the timing of the rule change.
WHERE COULD TYSON GO? Via Sea of Blue. Kentucky basketball blogger Cameron Waddle writes that the Wildcats would pursue Tyson and offer him “real minutes” if he becomes eligible. DETAILS: https://fluence-media.co/cade0716
LeBRON AND THE WOLVES: Via David Aldridge at The Athletic. The veteran NBA writer says that LeBron James has several excellent options for taking taking his remaining talents, which are still better than 90% of NBA players as he enters his 24th season. But his best option is . . . Minnesota. It’s a longshot, but here’s the rationale. VERBATIM: “Minnesota’s behind San Antonio and Oklahoma City in the West right now, but it’s not an insurmountable deficit. The Timberwolves were in back-to-back conference finals in 2024 and 2025. Anthony Edwards is in his prime as an All-NBA-level guard. LaMelo Ball, acquired from Charlotte last month, is coming off one of the best seasons of his career, a key force in the Hornets’ 25-game improvement. In Minnesota, he should help everyone get easier looks because of his own substantial shot diet. (It’s not my favorite shot diet, but no one asked me.) Rudy Gobert remains a defense system onto himself, still among the top five in most of the advanced defensive numbers favored by teams around the league.” MORE: https://fluence-media.co/lebron0716
RETURNING TO EARTH: Via Chip Scoggins at Star Tribune. With the chance of James coming to the Timberwolves being minimal, the more realistic question is what the addition of Ball, the subtraction of Julius Randle and the maturity of the team as a whole can mean to a title run. VERBATIM: “The season epitaph that resulted in this roster makeover came moments after an elimination loss to the Spurs in the second round. Edwards lamented that players failed to build ‘championship habits’ during the regular season. That honest assessment underscored the team’s lack of championship readiness. Eight different teams have won the NBA title the last eight seasons. That speaks to the distribution of talent across the league, but it also reinforces the understanding that a championship path is viable if the Wolves commit to building championship habits.”
COACHSPEAK: Coach Chris Finch on those habits. VERBATIM: “We’ve got to have better habits across the board, ones that we know are going to hold up against the best teams in the West. During the regular season, we’ve shown obviously the ability to beat anybody, and that’s kind of the league these days. We’ve done a great job with playoffs in the early rounds, and we’ve made some runs to the Western Conference finals. But we also know that’s only halfway there. You got to win the Western Conference finals and then win the Finals.” MORE: https://fluence-media.co/wolves0716
CATCHER OF THE (NEAR) FUTURE? Via Dan Hayes at The Athletic. We’ve been having fun with the comparisons between Hall of Famer Joe Mauer and Vahn Lackey, the catcher from Georgia Tech taken with the third overall pick in the MLB draft. But the truth is that the Twins have an unsettled catching situation looking ahead because Ryan Jeffers is set to be a free agent after this season. Lackey, a complete player at the college level, won’t be surprising us if he makes a quick arrival at Target Field. He hit for power (20 home runs) and average (.397) this season and plays solid defense. Unlike Mauer, who spent three seasons in the minors and was drafted No. 1 overall in 2001 out of Cretin-Derham Hall, Lackey didn’t attract attention until college. It shouldn’t take him as long to get here.
VERBATIM: From Sean Johnson, the Twins’ scouting director. “He started making noise with the bat early this spring, and the more we went in to scout Georgia Tech, our guys kept coming out of there going, ‘I thought he was the best player on the field.’ Every time we sent someone in there to see him that hadn’t seen him before, they all came out with the same answer. He’s hard to take your eyes off when you see him play.” From manager Derek Shelton: “My level of intrigue is high, especially if you take a college player. It’s like how quickly is that college player going to be able to accelerate and be a major-league player? . . . I do think with college players we’re seeing them quickly get elevated to the major league level.” FULL STORY: https://fluence-media.co/lackey0716
CAUTION: Via Sam Caulder at Twins Daily. Sometimes we need a reminder like this. VERBATIM: “There's no guarantee Lackey will immediately live up to the hype. Prospects are never sure things. In fact, the last catcher selected this high in the MLB Draft was Henry Davis, who went first overall to the Pirates in 2021. Davis has yet to establish himself in the majors, carrying a career .568 OPS.” MORE: https://fluence-media.co/hype0716
SUNI LEE RETURNS: Via Nick Zaccardi at NBC Sports. Gymnast Suni Lee, whose six Olympic medals include the 2020 Individual All-Around gold, is returning to training for the 2028 Games in Los Angeles. She made the announcement in a video on her Instagram feed, and the 23-year-old St. Paul native said her return will be chronicled in a documentary. VERBATIM: “I know there’s more in me, and this is my chance to challenge myself, test my limits, and see what I’m truly capable of,” Lee said in a press release. “This isn’t about proving anyone wrong. It’s about showing up for myself and discovering what’s possible. Through the setbacks and the victories, I’m giving myself one more chance to find out what happens when I keep going.”
TRAINING IN LITTLE CANADA: Lee will return from New York to train at the gym — Midwest Gymnastics — where she started training and competing as a child. The gym is run by her coaches, Ali Lim and Jess Graba. VERBATIM: "Ali and I have coached Suni since she was a little girl in this gym, and watching her decide to chase this again is something I’ll never take for granted,” Graba said in a post on the gym’s website. “She’s already given the sport everything, so for her to walk back through these doors and go after 2028 on her own terms, with our whole team behind her, it means the world. We’re just going to do the work and enjoy every day of it.” FULL STORY: https://fluence-media.co/suni0716
OOPS: Last week I wrote about Bobby Nightengale’s fun story in the Strib about how the Target Field scoreboard crew chooses Celebrity Lookalikes for its popular between-inning feature — and I forgot to add the link. HERE IT IS: https://fluence-media.co/lookalike0716
BECOMING HITTERS: Via Nightengale. The vastly improved Trevor Larnach is Exhibit A in a midseason story about how the Twins have become one of the best hitting teams in MLB so far this season. From being seen as expendable to batting leadoff, Larnach lauds the team — and gives himself deserved credit. VERBATIM: “Some people come in, they’re overmatched, they’re not ready, and it takes a couple years — more or less — to develop and learn themselves. I’m biased because it’s taken me a while to develop and get better, but it’s also on the player. You have to put the work in. You have to understand and learn what went wrong, what happened. I get it’s a business. Not everyone is willing to stick through that. I’m thankful the Twins have been sticking through that with me, but I’ve also put in an immense amount of blood, sweat and tears for this.”
EXHIBIT B: Kody Clemens has reinvented himself from a fringe player with his former teams to a multi-position offensive threat who rarely gets a full game off. He remembers going hitless in his first 17 MLB at-bats and feeling exiled to a bench role in Philadelphia and Detroit. VERBATIM: “I don’t think I’m a different player. I don’t think I’ve grown into a different player at all. I finally got a chance to play every day and it’s showing.”
STORY: https://fluence-media.co/hitting0716. STATS: LARNACH | CLEMENS | MLB HITTING
PFFFFT: Former Twins and All-Star relievers Jhoan Duran and Louis Varland both pitched in the All-Star Game on Tuesday night. If you combined the stats they brought into the game, you’d have 81 2/3 innings pitched, 117 strikeouts, 11 earned runs 43 saves in 44 opportunities and a 1.21 ERA. I’ll spare you my boilerplate Twins bullpen speech today.
THANKS, PIONEER PRESS: The newspaper hired a freelancer to write about Duran and Varland from the All-Star Game. DURAN: “The Phillies have helped me more with my mentality, with the pressure. I feel so happy because I like the pressure. I like to be there in that moment.” VARLAND: “Looking back now, it’s been a crazy 12 months that’s for sure. If you’d told me this would happen 12 months, ago I would’ve said you’re crazy. But here we are.” DURAN: STORY | STATS. VARLAND: STORY | STATS.
VISA ISSUES CANCEL LOONS MATCH: Via Andy Greder at Pioneer Press. Liberia’s national soccer team won’t be coming to Allianz Field as scheduled on July 26 for a match against Minnesota United because players and members of the traveling delegation have been unable to get visas for the trip. It was the second international game canceled this season. Earlier, the German side Werder Bremen said it wouldn’t come to the Twin Cities after the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal officers during Operation Metro Surge. VERBATIM: “The Liberian ministry said with less than two weeks before the scheduled match, ‘There was no reasonable opportunity to secure alternative visa arrangements, assemble a representative national team and complete all necessary travel requirements before the contractual deadline.’ “ MORE: https://fluence-media.co/liberia0716
WHEN WILL THEY PLAY? The Loons end their two-month World Cup break from competition at Sporting Kansas City on Wednesday. They’ll play host to Vancouver on July 25 and San Diego on Aug. 1 before another break in the league schedule for the Leagues Cup competition involving teams from MLS and Mexico’s Liga MX. STANDINGS | LEAGUES CUP
VIKINGS BY POSITION: Via Purple Insider. Training camp begins Aug. 1 and position previews started dropping this week on Matthew Coller’s comprehensive Purple Insider web site. Short version are available for free; paid subscriptions are $7 per month. WIDE RECEIVERS | RUNNING BACKS | OFFENSIVE LINE | TIGHT ENDS/SAFETIES
CHILDRESS ON THE QBS: Via Michael Rand at Star Tribune. Yes, I professed boredom with the Vikings quarterback duel above. But I know many of you are captivated in it, and the insights of former Vikings head coach Brad Childress, who was in charge when Brett Favre came to Minnesota, are worth a share. VERBATIM: “Childress, like most of us, noticed J.J. McCarthy tended to get overwhelmed at times in 2025 (“frenetic” is the word he used). Kyler Murray, he said, has plenty of arm strength and will help the Vikings with his ability to extend plays. The real challenge for both quarterbacks, in his estimation, is being able to trust that plays will develop. ‘I think the biggest question for both of those guys will be, ‘Can you stand in the pocket and look at it, and, are you able to be an anticipatory thrower?’ ‘Childress said. ‘You can’t wait till you see the whites of a guy’s eyes. A lot of times you’ve got to anticipate and stick it in a spot over a linebacker in front of a defensive back and let him run into that throw.’ ” MORE: https://fluence-media.co/qbs0716
3M OPEN DRAMA: Via Doug Ferguson at Associated Press. The 3M Open tees off next Thursday at TPC Twin Cities in Blaine and there’s a story line to watch in the British Open, which started today at Royal Birkdale. Can Scottie Scheffler, the No, 1 player in the world and scheduled to compete in the 3M, recover from missing the cut at last weekend’s Scottish Open? That ended a streak if 78 tournaments without a miss. As the local tournament’s biggest draw, local golf fans should be rooting for him to get his game back in top form. VERBATIM: “His game didn’t look deplorable in the Scottish Open, just a matter of not hitting it terribly close and not making many putts and then moving on. It was no less frustrating . . . but it was filled with perspective. ‘I don’t think it hurts as much as coming close to winning and finishing second,’ Scheffler said. ‘I felt like coming in second at Travelers hurt more than missing the cut, but missing the cut is significantly more frustrating is how I would describe it.’ “ MORE: https://fluence-media.co/scottie0716
GIVE HER A BREAK: Lynx forward Kayla McBride should be an All Star. She’s averaging 17.3 points, hitting 38% of her threes, 1.7 steals and shooting 91% from the foul line. With Napheesa Collier still sidelined by her ankle surgeries, McBride has stepped up to be the go-to option on offense while remaining the team’s top all-around defensive player. She also leads the team with 32 minutes per game. The well-defined roles that McBride and Olivia Miles play make all their teammates better and, among my savviest hoop-head friends, McBride is typically their first or second favorite. MY TAKE: There are times when I watch the Lynx and think, "Damn, McBuckets looks tired.” That usually happens just before McBride goes on a run of long-range field goals or makes a key steal. So while I’m wrong in the moment, I can’t think of anyone else who deserves six days off her feet to get ready for the second half of the season. I’m pretty certain a player or two will opt out of the All-Star Game in the next week because of health concerns. Please resist the temptation to add McBride as a replacement. Thank you.
A TEAM DIVIDED: The WNBA All-Star Game is a week from Saturday in Chicago and Coach Cheryl Reeve will have two Lynx players on her roster and coach against a third. Reeve’s team, captained by Caitlin Clark, has Miles and Courtney Williams. Their opponents, captained by Paige Bueckers and coached by Becky Hammon, have Natasha Howard. Reeve’s team also has Jessica Shepard, the former Lynx forward now with Dallas. FULL ROSTERS: https://fluence-media.co/stars0716
CHERYL’S SHIRTS: Yes, there’s an Instagram feed that posts photos of the t-shirts Lynx Coach Cheryl Reeve wears on the sidelines at Lynx home games. IT’S HERE: https://fluence-media.co/cherylsshirts0716
NEW UMAC COMMISSIONER: The D-III conference that includes six Minnesota schools and UW-Superior has named Mark Becker as its new commissioner. Becker was the associate commissioner of the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference and has been chair of the NCAA Division III Financial Aid Committee for the past two years. He replaced Corey Borchardt, who was named commissioner of the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. Minnesota’s UMAC schools are UM Morris, Crown, North Central, Bethany Lutheran, Martin Luther and Northwestern.
MIAC COACH HIRED — THEN LEAVES: Early last month, St. Scholastica announced the hiring of Rob McDonald as its new women’s basketball coach. In a press release, the school’s athletic director enthused: "Rob brings a contagious positive spirit, great energy, and a strong commitment to student-athlete growth that will be a tremendous boost to our program.” NOT SO FAST: The job is vacant again because, soon after, McDonald accepted an assistant coaching position in the women’s program at D-i Charleston Southern, where the school’s coach said in its press release that McDonald “brings great enthusiasm to the floor and will help us become the highly energetic, positive program that we are wanting to be.” Sports Take promises to try piecing together the drama.
IN THE MEANTIME: If you want to coach a basketball team in Duluth — a team that went to the MIAC playoffs last season — here’s the job description and application: https://fluence-media.co/coach0716
JUST TO CLARIFY: Rob McDonald is not a member of the three-generation Minnesota high school and college coaching family that started with the legendary Bob McDonald of Chisholm, who died in 2020 and won 1,012 games during his career.
GLAD NOT TO BE COACHING: Via John Shipley at Pioneer Press. Former Gophers baseball coach John Anderson is two years removed from his 43 seasons and Big Ten-record 1,390 victories. In an interview, he said changes in college sports don’t mesh with the way Anderson sought to build his teams at the U. Transfer rules and NIL money would work against his coaching agenda. VERBATIM: “ ‘No, thank you. I’m not equipped for that. It doesn’t match by value system. We were making a commitment to young people, and they were making a commitment to us. We were developing Minnesota kids.’ Anderson liked to work with his players for a good year or two before making them regulars. ‘Now, if a kid turns out to be really good, or if he doesn’t get to perform right away, he’s in the portal. We were creating lifetime relationships.’ ”
FURTHERMORE: Anderson is concerned about the future of baseball and other non-revenue sports in Division I. VERBATIM: “In addition to the added costs, schools must adhere to Title IX, the law requiring schools receiving federal funds to create equal opportunities for men and women. That has aways been a because FBS football — the prime revenue driver for big school programs — can provide as many as 105 scholarships. No women’s sport has those kids of numbers. To bridge that gap, the U recently cut men’s gymnastics and tennis, and the Gophers athletics department expects a budget deficit of nearly $9 million in fiscal year 2026. ‘On the men’s side, I don’t think anybody can feel comfortable what the future holds. (The NCAA) can’t pass any rules, there’s no salary cap, they can’t stop the spending.’ ” MORE: https://fluence-media.co/anderson0716
AND FINALLY: Via North News. Williams Bates IV has a hard time finding a fight. That’s because the 9-year-old, who trains at Lucy Laney Boxing Academy in north Minneapolis, has a 15-0 record and won his third national title last month at a National Junior Olympics tournament in Kansas. Williams said he trains for two or three hours every weekday and sometimes on weekends. VERBATIM: “I wake up, and I eat breakfast, and I go to school, do my work, get my education, and then boxing comes through.” His father, Williams Bates III, is a coach at the academy. VERBATIM: “His achievements have made it difficult to find opponents. According to Bates, William gets turned down for national fights because of his undefeated record. Bates has even tried to schedule fights with older boxers, but ‘they tell us no.’ ” MORE: https://fluence-media.co/champ0716
THAT’S ALL FOR NOW: Thanks for reading and for sharing your thoughts.
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