MEGAN DAVIS: Hi, it’s Megan Davis.
REGAN GUIRGUIS: And Regan Guirguis.
DAVIS: With the Minnesota Daily, and you’re listening to the Gold Standard, a podcast dedicated to the University of Minnesota sports. This week I’m covering Minnesota women’s track and field. We have some exciting news with Anthonett Nabwe as she was nominated as an athlete to watch by the Big Ten.
She also moved to number two in UMN history with her discus toss and number three overall with her hammer throw. And these were in their throw competition over this past weekend. There was also the Bethel Invitational, which saw women’s track and field come back with six victories.
But these are kind of like the smaller events as we lead up through the course of their outdoor season. I know that when I talked to Nabwe during her indoor season, she said that the previous season, she wasn’t super happy with her hammer throw and her discus, and really wanted to work on those for the outdoor season. And it looks like she’s on the path to be doing a lot better with that, and maybe she’ll be taking number one pretty soon.
GUIRGUIS: This week I have two stories coming up. First one is about softball’s weekend against Oregon. We lost every game against Oregon. So far in the season, we only have three conference wins and 13 conference losses. So it will be an interesting interview to be able to talk about just kind of like where they’re trying to improve, what they’re kind of falling short on this season because, you know, the players are strong, the coaching is strong, but there’s clearly a disconnect somewhere.
My other story is about the football team. They’re holding, I believe either the first or second fully public practice tomorrow on Tuesday.
DAVIS: Do you know if the new transfer students are gonna be there?
GUIRGUIS: Yeah, yeah. I’m pretty sure they are all there. I’m not sure about, I know the transfers are, I’m not sure about like the incoming freshmen.
DAVIS: Yeah, that makes sense.
GUIRGUIS: But yeah it’s super interesting. I’m excited. My story’s kind of gonna be actually about the fans’ opinions on the team, what they kind of wanna see improve, which will be fun. It’s always nice to hear from Gopher fans, from students, from, you know, people who have been season ticket holders for years, generations.
The people who are going to that practice are people who are obviously passionate about the sport and care about the players and care about the coaching. So I’m excited to kind of hear their perspective. You know, everyone has their own perspective on sports and it’s nice to be able to hear that.
DAVIS: Speaking of transfers, I just want to come back to the Gophers women’s basketball team because unlike many other Big Ten teams, we have seen zero transfers, or zero players enter the portal, which kind of makes sense.
I mean, they did win the WBIT, but still you have girls from USC and UCLA who got very far in the NCAA March Madness tournament. And they’ve all seen transfers. South Carolina, I mean, they’re in the SEC, so a little different. But they had a very strong team. And even though they made it all the way to the end, they lost a lot of girls.
So I think that’s a very good way to enter the next season. Also, the New York Times, who owns the Athletic, put out their way too early, top 25 for college women’s basketball and Gophers came in number 16. ESPN did not get the hint. They did not rank the Gophers, which, to each their own. But the Gophers were the fifth Big Ten team on there.
And the list was mainly dominated kind of by SEC teams, but exciting stuff, they said they had a lot of versatile forwards and wings. What’s not to be excited about?
GUIRGUIS: Kind of, to move on to professional sports, there’s the torpedo bat. A big talk amongst the baseball community and also just like the sports community. Basically the difference is the barrel of the bat is where the ball kind of hits off of, right? You have the handle of it where someone is holding it, and then the barrel. So it’s a wooden bat that has a thicker barrel.
DAVIS: Yeah in the center, so there’s more mass for where the ball to hit off of, which is why people are saying like, every team that seems to be ordering these torpedo bats is doing a lot better.
GUIRGUIS: The game that really, I think showed the difference between this torpedo bat was March 29, Yankees vs. Brewers. The Yankees beat the Brewers 20-9, which is huge. You don’t really see games like that in baseball that often.
DAVIS: Also speaking of American baseball players, Joe Mauer got a statue in Target Field. I know that this was a lot of people’s favorite Twin, and the Twin that they grew up with.
He’s a native from St. Paul. I also found out he went to Cretin-Derham High School in the St. Paul area. Drafted at 18, was a senior in high school. Played his entire career with the Twins, and so obviously you gotta commemorate with a statue.
Other sports news, Rory McIlroy won the Masters.
GUIRGUIS: Which is so exciting for him. It’s been a long time coming.
DAVIS: It’s been a long time coming. He had 29 PGA tour wins. He had 19 European tour wins. He hit a really dominant streak in the early 2010s, and then he kind of faltered and then he came back during COVID. And so many golf legends were incredibly happy for him because if he retired without that green jacket, it would’ve been constantly haunting him and now he could say he has it.
GUIRGUIS: He won four majors, which I know is a big deal. And so finally getting that Master’s win is just a really great thing for his career, and for his name. And you know, obviously there’s hard work put into his playing style and what he does.
And winning this really clearly shows his dedication to the sport and to golf as a whole. And I mean, just seeing this and seeing clips and reading articles just shows how impactful it is because it’s not every day that this kind of stuff happens.
DAVIS: I come from a family who loves golf and I know that he was a fan favorite. And that was mainly because he was Irish.
GUIRGUIS: I saw a video of his golf club back in Ireland cheering him on. It was the most wholesome thing when he won the masters, everyone getting up and cheering for him. It was pretty awesome.
DAVIS: Yeah. But speaking of people whose careers are not going in the right direction and are not seeing the success of Rory McIlroy is the Phoenix Suns Coach Mike Budenholzer who just got fired this morning.
I think every basketball fan saw this coming. He got fired after one season. The Suns did not make the playoffs. Even though they have Kevin Durant, Bradley Beal, Devin Booker, they have an all star lineup and they could not finish it out. Not even the Play-In Tournament. Phoenix Suns are a mess.
But, the Timberwolves, the number six Timberwolves, will be playing the number three Lakers in the first round of the playoffs. Very exciting. It’d be a great game to watch regardless. And honestly, a good matchup. I mean, the Lakers have Dončić, which makes them a little bit more scary. But, the Timberwolves have been doing good.
GUIRGUIS: Yeah. I mean also with some professional sports, but that intertwines with Gopher sports. A lot of hockey players went pro after the season ended. And you know, a couple of notable names are Jimmy Snuggerud and Sam Rinzel, who have both been doing really well with their teams.
Jimmy’s played five games and already has two points, like one assist for two of the last games that he played. Sam Rinzel has three assists. They really just started their season with them. I think all of them have played either five or six games with their respective teams. But, you know, it’s good to feel like you come from a school that brings out good players, you know what I mean?
DAVIS: Last podcast, we completely forgot to mention that Ovechkin broke the goal record. I feel like everyone and their mother already knows that.
GUIRGUIS: Yeah. I think something that is interesting about him, he’s I think four goals away from 900 goals. He has 896 in his career. And so he is currently four goals away from having 900, which would be a crazy statistic to have. He is 39 years old. He’s not a young.
DAVIS: Oh, he’s way past.
GUIRGUIS: He’s not a young player.
DAVIS: It’s time to retire.
GUIRGUIS: And honestly, I think if this man hits 900 goals this season, he could take a little wave. “All right guys, I made the record and I’m gonna head out now.”
That’s all that we have for you guys today. This episode was written by Regan Guirguis.
DAVIS: And Megan Davis.
GUIRGUIS: And produced by Kaylie Sirovy and Ceci Heinen. As always, we appreciate you listening in and feel free to send a message to our email inbox at podcasting@mndaily.com with any of your questions, comments, or concerns. I’m Regan Gruirguis.
DAVIS: And I’m Megan Davis.
GUIRGUIS: And this has been the Gold Standard.