Gopher women's basketball looks strong heading into tournament season

NINA MOINI: We've made it to March, believe it or not, and for college basketball fans, that means one thing. Tournaments are around the corner. The Big Ten women's tournament starts later this week followed by the men's, and March Madness tips off a couple of weeks from now. Joining me to talk about where Minnesota teams stand plus other sports updates are sports contributors Wally Langfellow and Eric Nelson. Hey, guys.

ERIC NELSON: Happy Monday, Nina.

WALLY LANGFELLOW: How are you?

NINA MOINI: Happy Monday. I am doing OK. Thanks. Hey, how are the Gophers doing going into tournament season, Wally?

WALLY LANGFELLOW: Well, the Gopher women are on a roll. They're one of the top 25 teams in the nation. As a matter of fact, they're out pitching 26-27 women's basketball season tickets right now.

NINA MOINI: Nice.

WALLY LANGFELLOW: That's the kind of season that Dawn Plitzuweit and her crew have had. So it's been really exciting and fun to see this women's team. Another win. They beat Illinois over the weekend, and that was at Illinois. So they're on a roll as they head into the postseason.

As for the men-- and it has been an up and down season for the Gopher men. There's no question about that. And they have sustained a ton of injuries.

Matter of fact, they basically played five guys on Saturday against UCLA. Ordinarily you're playing seven at minimum, eight nine players to keep your guys fresh.

NINA MOINI: Wow. Yeah.

WALLY LANGFELLOW: Well, that hasn't been happening for the Gophers because of all the injuries they've had. So they played five guys, and they beat UCLA, a team that they rarely play. Obviously UCLA just in the Big Ten now.

So good win for the Gophers on Saturday. They will continue the rest of their regular season here over the next week or so. And then it's the Big Ten Tournament, and it's going to be a tough stretch for them to run through the Big Ten Tournament. But, look, what they've been able to do so far this year on minimal resources let's call it has been phenomenal. So a good start into and as they head towards the postseason for the men as well.

NINA MOINI: Well, I hope they have no more injuries as they continue on. So the men's and women's professional hockey leagues are back at it after the Olympics. They didn't get much of a break. How did the Wild and Frost do this weekend, Eric?

ERIC NELSON: Not a good Sunday for both squads, Nina. We'll start with the Wild. I was at that game yesterday at Grand Casino arena in St. Paul. St. Louis 3, Minnesota 1, a clunker loss for the Wild. They're singing the blues after St. Louis gets the victory. The Blues have just 53 points. They're last in the NHL Central Division, so I don't think a lot of us saw that coming.

Pavel Buchnevich scored the game winning goal late in the third period. It was a rocket shot from close range that Wild goalie Filip Gustavsson really had no chance to stop. Meanwhile, St. Louis goalie Joel Hofer was outstanding all day. He came up with an acrobatic save on Vladimir Tarasenko in the final minutes to deny Minnesota a tying goal.

And then Hofer also just missed a goalie goal. That's right, the goalie scoring, which has only happened 20 times in NHL history.

NINA MOINI: Wow.

ERIC NELSON: He missed it by about 5 feet, and he shot it from his own net. I was secretly hoping it would go in, Nina. I got to admit that on these airwaves.

NINA MOINI: It would be historic.

ERIC NELSON: Yeah. Rarity. No doubt.

NINA MOINI: Yeah.

ERIC NELSON: Kirill Kaprizov did score Minnesota's only goal. He's up to 218 in his career, which ties Marián Gáborik for the team record. And I guess the highlight of the day for the fans was the Wild had a pregame ceremony saluting the Team USA women's and men's hockey teams, both who won gold medals at the Winter Olympics in Italy. Next up for the Wild, a game against Tampa Bay Tuesday night in St. Paul. That'll be an 8:30 PM puck drop. Late night hockey.

NINA MOINI: Ooh.

ERIC NELSON: Yeah, both teams have 80 points by the way, so it's going to be a good match-up. As for the Frost, they were up in Quebec and they lost to Montreal 4-0. Maggie Flaherty, who's from Lakeville, Minnesota, scored the first goal of the game for Montreal and the Victoire-- that's their nickname-- dominated. They had 33 shots on goal compared to 17 for Minnesota.

By the way, Montreal is the top team in the PWHL with 33 points. The Frost are third with 28. Next up for the Minnesota Frost, they'll stay in Canada. They take on Toronto on Sunday.

NINA MOINI: Let's catch up with the Timberwolves because they've had a pretty good run lately, right, Wally?

WALLY LANGFELLOW: Yeah, really good run. And really this comes at a great time for them because they're heading down the stretch here as well. They beat Denver yesterday in Denver. Balanced scoring attack which I think was really important because you can't always depend on Anthony Edwards.

Don't get me wrong he played well. He had 21 points, but they also got 20 from Jaden McDaniels. They got 18 from your favorite player, Bones Hyland. He came off the bench, Bones did, and he was good. He was 3 for 3 from beyond the 3-point arc.

3-point con-- as far as 3-point shooting, huge difference. Timberwolves made 14 of them. Denver made just six. And 6 was also the number of fast break points that Denver had to 30 for Minnesota. So it gives you an idea of how the Timberwolves won this game.

They now move into fourth place in the West just ahead of Denver. They move past Denver, and they are just percentage points out of third place. They're now 6 and 1 in their last seven games.

They next play tomorrow at home against Memphis. Thursday they are at home against Toronto. And Saturday they are home against Orlando. These are three games that they should win, and these are the type of games they tend to trip over. And that's been an issue losing to these games that they should win. So we'll see what happens this week.

And by the way they made a signing today. They brought back Kyle Anderson, the guy they call Slow Mo. He comes off of a season with Utah. He was released by Utah. So he comes back to Minnesota. He was last year two years ago.

NINA MOINI: Hopefully Slow Mo is a good nickname. It's a good thing. I don't know.

WALLY LANGFELLOW: It is an interesting nickname.

NINA MOINI: I don't how slow. Well, oh my gosh, let's talk about this. Minnesota United fans were out braving the cold Saturday to see the Loons in their home opener, Eric. Tell us about it.

ERIC NELSON: Yeah got to love this. Minn U gets the win 1-0 over FC Cincinnati. Kelvin Yeboah scored the only goal of the match, and the goalkeeper Drake Callender had a clean sheet for Minnesota United, giving up no goals stopping four shots. And remember he's replacing Dayne St. Clair, the Olympic goaltender. He played for Team Canada who's now down there playing for Inter Miami in Florida. So he's trying to make Loons fans realize he's good in the nets as well.

And it was definitely soccer on the frozen pitch. The temperature at kickoff was a frosty 20 degrees. It's the coldest game FC Cincinnati has ever played in. So they went down to Ohio, and they immediately wanted to warm up with some of that famous Cincinnati chili. They got frozen out of Allianz Field.

Minn U now has 4 points in two games. Next match is in Tennessee against Nashville on Saturday.

And one other-- we talk about soccer being football. How about the NFL, which is US football. The Vikings expected to cut or trade running back Aaron Jones, who spent the last two seasons in Minnesota along with defensive tackle Javon Hargrave. ESPN is reporting this will be done to save salary cap space. The Vikings are way over the cap.

By the way, Nina, the countdown is on. The NFL new year begins March 11th. Get your champagne ready and your confetti and all that good stuff because that's when teams can begin signing free agents.

NINA MOINI: We'll have to leave it there, but I do-- we got an important update from our intrepid newscaster Emily Reese on Slow Mo, the nickname of the-- that Timberwolves player. She says he has an odd release when he shoots the ball, and that is where Slow Mo--

ERIC NELSON: That's true.

NINA MOINI: Apparently comes from.

ERIC NELSON: Yeah, he is. Yeah, he moves slowly as he goes towards the basket. So there's your update on that. And by the way, before we go, I should mention Boys State hockey tournament is this week. Defending state champions Moorhead, they're the number two seed. They play on Thursday night. And the number one seed in class AA this year is Minnetonka, and they open up at 11:00 AM. So they open the tournament.

Usually the number one seed plays that 6:00 PM game. They moved it this year. So the number one seed is Minnetonka. They play Gentry Academy at 11:00 AM. There you go.

NINA MOINI: Yay. Love seeing them here around a downtown St. Paul. Thanks so much, Wally Langfellow and Eric Nelson.