Author: Christopher Hove

The Minnesota Gophers were invited to play in the 2nd annual Women’s Basketball Invitational Tournament. It’s like the normal NIT tournament, but the main differences are that the WBIT consists of 32 teams and is owned and funded by the NCAA, while the NIT is privately run and consists of 48 teams. The Minnesota Gophers (21-11) were probably the favorite in this game against the Toledo Rockets (24-9) even though it was played in Toledo, Ohio. The Gophers got out to a quick start in the first quarter, with a 21-10 lead at the end of the quarter. Amaya Battle…

The NCAA Tournament field of 64 is just about set. Alabama State out of the SWAC Conference punched their ticket to the round of 64. It was the Hornet’s first NCAA Tournament win and their first appearance since 2011. The Hornets will compete against the number-one-ranked Auburn Tigers on Thursday in Lexington, Kentucky.  The other play-in game featured a North Carolina Tar Heel team that was no match for San Diego State. North Carolina will move on to play a battle-tested #6 Ole Miss—Rebels on Friday in Milwaukee, WI. The 11 seeds out of the Midwest region will feature Texas…

The final nail in the coffin was on the Minnesota Gophers men’s basketball team. After a brutal loss to Northwestern last week, the Gophers didn’t wait long to fire Ben Johnson. Johnson finished 56-71 overall, including 22-57 in Big Ten play. His Big Ten Conference tournament record was 1-4. More bad news comes for the Gophers. The team received notification today that they were not invited to participate in the NIT or College Basketball Crown Tournaments, thereby concluding their 2024-25 season. It was a year filled with ups and downs, especially more downs toward the end of the season. As…

The Minnesota Timberwolves are finally healthy and proving to people how dangerous they can be. After the Wolves beat the Utah Jazz Sunday night they improved to 40-29 on the year, with that marking their eighth win in a row. Besides the soft schedule the Wolves have been afforded, they have played their best basketball in March and the end of January. Julius Randle has been great since coming back from injury. In his last 10 games, he’s averaging 18.0 points, 6.3 rebounds, and 5.5 assists. Although his scoring has been down it’s been his spacing, playmaking, and hot shooting…

A somewhat promising season for the Minnesota Gophers concluded with a familiar feeling of disappointment. Today’s loss to the Northwestern Wildcats (72-64) in the First Round of the Big Ten conference tournament. This knocks the Gophers out of the NCAA tournament for a sixth straight year, even though their chances were very slim coming in. This could mark the last collegiate basketball game for 10 Gopher seniors. Northwestern’s first conference tournament win since 2022 was this. Their next game is against No. 5 Wisconsin at 11:30 AM, following a short turnaround. For the second time this season, junior forward Nick…

Get ready! The Dallas Mavericks take on the Memphis Grizzlies tonight at 6:30 PM ET on ESPN. This will mark the first time in Mavericks history that a broadcast comprised entirely of women will air on Mavs TV. Kylen Mills will be the play-by-play announcer, Raegan Pebley will be the primary color commentator and Dana Larson will be the secondary analyst. Lesley McCaslin and Nancy Lieberman will be on the court for pregame, halftime, and postgame analysis. The matchup will also be broadcast OTA on KFAA. Mills serves as a play-by-play announcer, host, and reporter for the Big Ten Network.…

Angel Reese has put herself into a social media frenzy. She has been in the media for a while now expressing more pay and better benefits for WNBA players, now she’s back in the social media spotlight for something she didn’t say. Everyone speculates on what they think. “We should be getting paid like NBA players,” the fake quote read. The quote refers to the controversial discrepancy between NBA and WNBA salaries, with a minimum salary in the men’s league starting at $1.1 million compared to just $64,000 for the women. The fake quote caption, posted on X, read, “Angel Reese thinks WNBA players should…

Ben Johnson has had a rough go in his four years as Minnesota Golden Gophers basketball coach. With brutal home losses to North Texas, Washington, Penn State, and Northwestern, it’s been an up-and-down season, to say the least. The Ohio State end-of-game debacle at home, Johnson has compiled a 22-54 (28.9%) Big Ten record in four seasons. While some things haven’t gone right this season, there have also been some good moments. Following wins over ranked Oregon and Michigan, the Gophers further demonstrated their progress by breaking a long-standing drought, defeating Iowa in Iowa City for the first time since…

For now, Glen Taylor remains the majority owner of the Minnesota Timberwolves, but that looks like it will change, very soon. Fans want his reign to end in the next few weeks, and that could be possible if Taylor doesn’t appeal his lost arbitration decision and the NBA Board of Governors approves the ownership change within the expected timeline- then the Timberwolves will have a new majority owner by playoff time. Over the years Taylor has lost support from the local fans and media over questionable player personnel decisions, and the lack of commitment to win when he prioritizes cost-cutting…

The Philadelphia 76ers announced that Joel Embiid will miss the rest of the season due to a nagging knee injury that he’s had pretty much his whole career. Embiid finished his ninth NBA season with averages of 23.8 points, 8.2 rebounds, and 4.5 assists per contest while shooting 44.4% from the field and 29.9% from the three-point range in 19 games. Following this news former NBA Legend Dwight Howard had this to say on his X account. He wrote: “When the man tell you his situation listen 🤷🏾‍♂️Joel said he wasn’t going to play back to backs to prevent this…

The Auburn Tigers have had a historic season already, and we just got into March. With Auburn’s total dismantling of the Kentucky Wildcats today at Rupp Arena, that ended a 39-year drought with a 94-78 win. This win not only marked Auburn’s first win in Lexington since 1988 but also clinched them a share of the SEC regular-season championship for the 2024-25 season. “I’m so happy for the kids. We played like champions,” Auburn coach Bruce Pearl said. “The guys have been so locked in. The league is so good. Our guards were incredible. To win the SEC in Rupp Arena is…

Things are getting worse for the Minnesota Timberwolves, even though they are getting healthier. Thursday night Anthony Edwards was ejected after picking up his league-leading 16th technical. As he walked off the court he threw the ball into the stands which is a big no-no in any sport. After the game, Coach Chris Finch blasted Edwards and called out the media for baiting him. https://youtu.be/kkqciWh9_z0 Friday night the Timberwolves lost to a terrible Utah Jazz team with Edwards serving his one-game suspension for picking up his 16th technical. With it only being March Edwards and the Wolves have to find…

Minnesota Timberwolves fans have seen this time and time again. The Wolves lost their 20th clutch game of the year. The Wolves are ranked 25th in the NBA in clutch games (15-20). Coach Chris Finch of the Timberwolves knows what the problem is but he hasn’t found a way to get over their last-minute miscues. “Our issue is we got to win close games,” Finch said. “I don’t know who we are in clutch games. We got to be better. Our shot selection, decision-making in clutch games has got to improve on the offensive end. Defensively we’ve got to rebound…

The Minnesota Gophers men’s basketball team had all the momentum going into today’s game against Penn State. Following an impressive California road trip, where they defeated strong opponents UCLA and USC, the Gophers appeared poised for a late-season surge. They aimed for a top-nine finish in the Big Ten, guaranteeing a home game in the conference tournament. Looking at the last five games for the Gophers, it seemed like they could easily go 4-1 or have a slim chance at 5-0 if they could knock off the Badgers at Kohl Center. Insiders expected the team to win against Penn State,…

With the WNBA now set for a new Collective Bargaining Agreement after the 2025 season, it will most likely be a very vocal and intense negotiation. The WNBA players opted out of the current agreement that was set to expire in 2027; now, it will expire at the end of this season. The 2024 WNBA season saw huge spikes in attendance and viewership, gaining the highest average attendance in 22 years. It also averaged 1.2 million viewers per game on ESPN, a 170% increase from 2023. There’s no doubt that salary and better benefits will be at the top of…