Hello  and  welcome  back  to the  weekly  rundown  presented  by  the  Minnesota  Daily. I'm  your  host,  Paul  Hodowonick. And  the  biggest  sports  topic on  campus  right  now  is  no  doubt, the  Gophers  basketball  team, as  they've  taken  a  complete  nosedive  since  we've really  checked  in  on  them  fully  about  a  month  ago. So  we're  going  to  check  back  in  with  them, just  see,  take  the  temperature  of  the  team  right  now. So  to  do  that  and  to  talk  about  why  they've struggled  and  what  the  Gophers  will  do  moving  forward. We  have  our  men's  basketball  reporter, Nick  Young  him  in  studio.  How  are  we  doing  today,  Nick? We're  doing  pretty  good. All  right.  Make  sure  to  check  out  Nick's  work  on  Men Day.com  or  pick  up a  paper  at  any  campus  building.  All  right. So  I  just  want  to  start  with  a  brief  overview  of what  the  team  kind  of looks  or  what  the  team  has  done  recently. Nick  had  a  good  article  about  this  that  came  out this  morning  on  it  about  all  the  close  calls  they've  had. But  another  one  happened  last  night. Indiana  lost  by  five. Before  that,  they  lost  to  Wisconsin by  two,  Maryland  by  one. Beat  up  on  Northwestern. Pretty  good,  which  they  needed. And  then  before  that,  lost  to  Indiana  again, that  went  at  home,  lost  to  Iowa, lost  to  Penn  State,  beat  Wisconsin, who  suddenly  in  first  place  in  the  Big  Ten. Suddenly  that  happened. Even  going  back  farther  than  that, they  lost  to  Illinois  by  eight, lost  to  Michigan  State  by  quite  a  few, the  last  really  month  plus  of  their  games, That's  a  lot  of  games  that  they lost  by  not  that  many  points. That's  been  the  story,  I  think, of  the  Gophers  downfall, so  many  chances  when  you  look  at  those  teams. Indiana's  tournament  team, Wisconsin's  a  tournament  team, Maryland's  tournament  team, Iowa's  tournament  team,  Penn  State's  tournament  team, Illinois,  Michigan  State. Both  those  are  tournament  teams. So  they  definitely  haven't  had  the  easiest  go  of  it. And  I'm  not  sure  at the  beginning  of  the  year  we  would have  expected  them  to  do  much  better  than  that. But  I  think  the  expectations  kind  of  were raised  throughout  the  season  as  we saw  what  they  might  be  able  to  do. So  coming  back  to  those  close  games, why  are  they  losing  those? Well,  it  comes  back  mostly  to  that. It's  a  pretty  young  team  and a  lot  of  times  in  general,  teams, no  matter  what  the  sport  have  to  find  a  way  to  win  games, learn  how  to  close  out  those  situations. But  the  main  tangible  reason would  have  to  be  free  throw  shooting  of  late. I  think  before  the  Indiana  game, Marcus  Fuller  had  a  article  in  the  Star  Tribune  about  it. And  the  number  I  believe  was 56.3%  in  their  past  five  games, of  which  they  lost  four. At  that  point,  they  were  shooting 56.3%  before  the  Indiana  game. And  I  think  they  shot  eight  to  14  against  Indiana. That's  also  a  lot  of  points  left  there. Free  throws  are  crucial. And  it's  been  something  the  team struggled  with  these  last  two  years. At  the  end  of  game  situations, they  don't  really  have  a  guy  who  they  can count  on  to  knock  those  baskets  down. And  then  there  have  also  been  games where  turnovers  are  an  issue. Against  Iowa,  when  they  didn't  score  in the  last  almost  5.5  minutes, they  had  five  or  six  turnovers  in  that  period. The  things  you  have  to  do  to  lock  down a  game  the  Gophers  haven't  really  done. Yeah.  The  free  throws, I  think  are  the  most  obvious  thing. The  thing  that  people  look  at  the  most, just  because  they're  just so  there  people  are  in  any  level, people  expect  to  make  free  throws  at  the  college  level, you're  expecting  them  to  make  those  most  of  the  time. And  when  they're  at  50%  under 50%  that's  really  troubling. But  I  think  the  turnovers was  a  good  point  to  mention  because there's  sometimes  where  they're  like 18  or  one  for  eight  in  the  last  few  minutes. So  it's  not  just  the  free  throws, it's  turning  the  ball  over. It's  not  getting  good  shot  attempts. The  Star  Tribune  had  another  article  about Oturu  not  getting  the  ball  late  in  games. So  I  guess  my  question  to  you  is, where  does  the  blame  lie?  Is  it  on  the  players? Is  it  on  Patino?  You  know, I  don't  know  who  you  blame  free  throws  on, but  I  think  certainly  it  should  go  to  everyone. But  maybe  some  of  those  other  things. Is  it  Patino  not  drawing something  up?  What's  your  take  on  that? Yeah,  you  could  there's plenty  of  blame  to  go  around  for  it. I  think  to  start  at  the  top  with  Patino, there  have  been  some  situations  where  maybe  the  line  up hasn't  been  quite  right  or some  of  the  tactics  late  in  the  game. The  plays  they've  drawn  up  haven't  been  the  best. But  then  players  also  deserve  some  of  the  blame. They  could  be  more  poised. You  have  to  hit  your  free  throws. There's  not  much  you  can  do  about  that. You  can't  really  point  to  any  one  thing, especially  when  you've  had as  many  close  losses  as  they've  had. There  have  been  different  situations. It's  a  little  bit  on  everybody, but  I  don't  think  there's necessarily  been  one  thing  that  you can  pin  all  these  losses  on. So  at  this  point,  what's  the  mood  of  the  team? I  mean,  they  had  those  real  tournament  aspirations. They  were  on  the  bubble. They  were  in  there  for  a  while, seemed  pretty  good,  and  then  they've  fallen  off. Is  the  team  disheveled? Are  they  still  believing  in  themselves? Where  did  they  fall  on  that,  in that  kind  of  ranking  right  now, all  indications  seem  to  be that  they're  still  motivated  to  go  out  and  win. But  you  can  tell  that  obviously  these  losses  have  got to  be  tough  on  the  guys  to  go  from. Last  time  I  talked  to  you  about  this  on  this  podcast, we  were  saying  the  Gophers  have the  opportunities  to  get the  wins  to  go  to  the  NCWA  tournament. And  they  definitely  did. They  just  didn't  take  advantage  of  those  situations. So  a  few  of  those  games  go  differently. We  could  be  having  a  completely  different  discussion about  how  far  this  team  can  go  in  March, but  as  of  right  now, it  seems  like  there  only  hope, and  in  college  basketball, you  always  have  the  hope  to win  your  conference  tournament. But  they're  now  slated  in  as the  12  seed  after  the  loss  against  Indiana  on  Wednesday. So  winning  five  games  in five  days  at  the  Big  Ten  tournament is  obviously  a  long  shot. And  even  to  make  the  NIT  at  this  point, they  would  have  to  win  their  last  regular  season  game and  three  games  in  the  Big  Ten  tournament. So  pro  season  hopes  at  this  point  are pretty  much  just  just  a  long  shot. Yeah,  I  was  looking  at  the  bracket  right  now. If  the  season  ended,  I  believe  Nebraska, then  it  would  be  Penn  State  who they've  had  a  couple  close  battles  with, but  fallen  Illinois  and  then  Wisconsin. And  then  you'd  get  to  the  championship  at  that  point. Pretty  tough  road  for  them. The  thing  is  fans  can  get a  little  bit  of  hope  because they've  kind  of  played  all  those  teams  close. They've  played  pretty  much  everyone  in  the  Big  ten, pretty  close.  There's  going  to  be  that  hope. But  until  they  show  that they  can  hit  free  throws  at  the  end, that  they  can  drop  up  a  good  out  of  bounds play  when  they  need  to  just  get  the  ball  out  to  someone. They've  struggled  with  that  a  little  bit  when they  know  where  they're  going  in  the  final  minutes. I  don't  think  there's  going  to be  much  of  a  chance  that  they  go  very  far barring  that  miracle  run into  the  Big  Ten  championship  where  they  ultimately  win. I  think  everything  once  they lose  is  going  to  be  about  Patino. It  feels  like  the  fan  base, at  least  from  my  Twitter  feed, is  very  fed  up  with  Patino. I  think  last  year  was  kind  of  trending  that  way. And  then  they  did  hit  this  run  where  they  beat Purdue  a  couple  times  and  they made  a  move  in  the  Big  Ten  tournament. And  then  he  was  there  and  he  got  the  extension. And  everything  was  happy  and  everything  was  forgotten. And  I'm  sure  Patino  is  going to  point  to  all  those  close  games  and  say, we  just  needed  guys  to  hit  free  throws. We're  not  that  far  away,  we  got  to  keep  consistency. But  I  think  fans  don't  want  to  hear  that, they  don't  want  to  hear  salad, that's  kind  of,  that's  the  bubbling  frustration. Has  Patino  talked  at  all  about  his  job? Has  he  been  asked  about  at  all  about  his  job and  where  he  lies  on  if  he  could  be  here  next  year? Yeah,  I  think  the  thought has  definitely  creeped  into  his  head about  maybe  not  being  invited  back,  so  to  say. But  as  of  right  now, he  says  he's  confident  that  he'll  return, but  above  all  else, he's  focused  on  ending  out  this  season. But  I  mean,  he's  been  asked  about  it  in  interviews  and, you  know,  usually  after  losses. So  he  hasn't  been  in  the  best  moods  in  those  situations. But  I  think  that he's  definitely  had  the  thought  in  his  mind, but  as  of  right  now, he  seems  to  believe  that  he's still  in  this  job  for the  long  run  and  he'll  return  next  year. But  we  have  not  heard anything  official  from  the  gophers  indicating they're  leaning  one  way  or  the  other  from  the  players All  every  there's  no  one  quitting  on  him. You  know,  I  don't  like  sometimes  you  hear  that  when teams  are  falling  off  the  edge  and  kind  of  nose  diving, do  the  players  feel  positively  about  Patino? Yeah,  I  think  they  do.  All  indication  again  or that  the  players  are still  practicing  hard.  They're  bought  in. I  think  Patino  is  well  liked  amongst  his  players, so  I  would  not  think that  that  is  an  issue  that  would  weigh  into  it. The  team  seems  to  like  Patino  and the  coaching  staff  and  I  don't  think by  any  means  they've  given  up  on  him. And  I  think  it's  important  to  note  that  Coyle  is not  afraid  to  make  some  of  these  decisions to  get  rid  of  some  stagnant  coaches. They  did  it  in  hockey,  they  did  it  in  football. And  both  those  have  gone  well  for  well  for  the  Gophers. And  I  think  usually  they  don't  work  out  that  well. And  so  maybe  fans  are  kind  of  in  a  perspective, like  we  saw  the  football  team turned  around  and  become  a  top  team. We're  seeing  the  hockey  team challenge  for  the  big  ten  after  they've  been  stagnant. Do  you  think  the  success  of  those  coaches are  kind  of  putting  pressure  on either  Coyle  or  putting  pressure  on  Patino to  do  better  just  because  expectations  have  risen. Yeah,  I  think  that's  a  good  point. After  this  season,  in  all  likelihood, the  Gophers  don't  make  the  NCWA  tournament. That'll  be  five  times  in  seven  years  under  Patino, which  for  big  Ten  team  isn't  good  enough. So  yeah,  I  think  that  that's  definitely a  thought  that  a  lot  of  fans  have  had  especially. You  see  as  quickly as  the  football  teams  turned  it  around. I  think  if  you  were  to  let  go  of  Petino, probably  next  year  the  team  would  take  a  step  back. But  long  term,  I  think  fans  have  seen  what  PJ. Fleck  has  done  with  football,  with  Bob  Motzko, has  done  with  men's  hockey, and  they  want  that  for  the  basketball  team  as  well. Yeah.  And  I  think  it's  just  the  question of  do  you  kind  of  stick  with  it  because  you  know, who  are  you  going  to  get  that's  better. Patino  has  done  a  good  job  bringing  in  some  talent. I  think  no  one  is  happy  in Minnesota  and  a  Minnesota  kid  goes  anywhere  else, especially  Wisconsin,  like  so  many  have  gone, that  might  not  be  his  fault. There's  definitely  some  people  he's  missed  on  that. Maybe  we  could  have  had  that  have gone  on  Minnesota  products  that  have  done  well. But  he  developed  Oturu into  a  guy  that  did  really  well  this  year. I  think  you  have  to  give  him  some  credit with  coffee  and  Murphy. Both  those  guys  are  on  the  outskirts  of  a  roster, so  he  has  developed  some  people. I  just  don't  think  people are  going  to  be  happy  when  you're losing  those  guys  to  Wisconsin  and  seeing  them  produce. And  whether  that's  fair  or  not, that's  going  to  kind  of  be  a  mark  against  him  as  well. All  right.  Now,  so  I  want  to shift  regardless  of  if  Patino's  back. I  want  to  give  a  little  outlook for  next  year  because  as  we've  kind  of  hinted  at, IT  is  probably  the  best  case  scenario  for  them. Nit  bracketology  that  I looked  up  today,  had  them  in  there. We'll  see  there's  still  7.12  in  the  Big  Ten  conference. When  there's  so  many  teams  in  it,  That's  not  that  bad. But  when  you  have  all  the  non conference  losses  that  you  do, the  record  doesn't  look  good. Anything  under  500  when  you're a  power  five  team  in  basketball  doesn't  look  great. Back  to  the  outlook  for  next  year. Notable  departures.  You're  not  losing  seniors  this  year, really.  You're  losing  Alhandmi. He's  been  a  nice  piece  towards  the  end  of  this  year, Michael  Hurt  and  Brady  Rudrud. There's  not  a  lot  of  production, they  have  to  really  fill  in  for  those  seniors. But  the  big,  big  question  is  Oturu, he's  only  a  sophomore,  he  could  come  back  for  next  year. But  my  question  is  why  would  he  stay? It  seems  like  the  NBA  just  wants  guys  that  are  younger. They're  looking  down  on  people  that stay  junior  senior  year  because  they're  just  older, less  time  for  them  to  mature  and  everything  like  that, and  Oturu  seems  to be  having  the  best  season  that  he  could  probably  have. Why  would  he  stay? Well,  I  think  you  said  it  well, there's  not  really  anywhere  else  to  go. If  you're  Daniel  Oturu, in  terms  of  statistical  output, you're  already  averaging  over  20  points  and  ten  rebounds a  game  to  come  back  brings  with  it  a  lot  of  risk. There's  always  the  injury  possibility, which  nobody  likes  to  think  about. But  then  there  could  be  a  statistical  drop  off. There's  no  guarantee  that  even  with  an  extra  year, you  could  improve  on  this  season. So  I  think  the  only  reason  to stay  that  I  can  really  think  of  is  if  he  truly enjoys  his  time  at  Minnesota  playing  college  basketball, which  I  think  that  he  does. And  he  also  is very  good  friends  with  a  lot  of  his  teammates, notably  Gabe  Kelher  and  Jeff. So  Mersa,  who  he  goes  way  back  with  to  AAU  ball, he  kind  of  convinced  those  two  to come  along  with  him  to  Minnesota  when  he  committed. But  that's  really  the  only  thing. I  think  that  at this  point  I've  seen  different  mock  drafts with  two  ranging  from a  lottery  pick  to  early  second  round. Even  if  he  doesn't  get  drafted,  maybe  top  ten, it  seems  like  he'd  still  be  in a  good  position  to  make  an  NBA  roster  next  year. That  brings  with  it  a  lot  of  money  and finances  obviously  are  going  to  be  a  big  decision. I  think  that  in  all  likelihood, he  would  leave  for  the  NBA, which  would  leave  a  big  hole in  the  front  court  for  Minnesota. Yeah,  it  feels  like  he's  used this  year  to  gear  up  for  it. Obviously  got  a  lot  better  shooting, the  three  that  seemed  like  a  priority  for  him. That's  definitely  something  the  NBA  wants. I  guess  maybe  he'd  want  to  bulk  up  a  little  bit. You  know,  he's  610240, but  getting  up  there  a  little  bit just  to  continue  to  get  some  size. But  I  think  when  you're  a  big  man, primarily  going  to  work  down  low, obviously  he  has  that  shot. I  think  you  just  got  to  go  when  you  have those  numbers  because  that's what's  going  to  draw  the  team  in. Because  it's  not  going to  be  the  fact  that  he's  going  to  be  some  spacer. Like  he  can  shoot  them  to  keep  people  honest, but  that's  not  going  to  be  where he's  going  to  make  his  money. And  we  saw  it  with  coffee. I  think  he  just  had  to  capitalize  on  the  opportunity. He  talked  so  much  about  bringing the  Gophers  program  back  into  prominence, and  he  was  going  to  stay  for  a  long  time. And  he  stayed  for three  years,  and  he  did  a  lot  of  good  things. But  when  he  had  that  shot,  he  had  to  bolt. And  that  was  just,  you  know, he  didn't  even  really, he  was  on  the  outskirts  of  maybe  getting  drafted. Truer  was  going  to  get  drafted. So  if  I'm  a  Minnesota  fan  trying  to  hold  on, hope  I  would  find a  way  to  start  coping  with  the  fact  that  he's  probably not  going  to  be  here  next  year transitioning  to  what  the  team  would  look  like  next  year. I  want  to  give  everyone  a  little  preview on  the  recruits  they  have  coming  in. So  this  is  definitely could  change  based  on  if  Patino's  here, all  these  guys  committed. Thinking  that  Patino  is  going  to  be  here. So  that's  Jamal  Mashburn  Junior. He  is  from  New  Hampshire, I  believe.  Really  nice  prospect. He's  a  combo  guard.  Really  looks like  a  good  player  for  them. And  then  Martie  Mitchell, those  are  the  only  two  that  they have  committed  right  now. He's  a  center,  her  power  forward center  and  they're  hoping  to  get  right  now, one  of  the  top  targets  they've  got  is Irwin  Walton  from  Hopkins. Maybe  some  of  the  local  guys  can  try  to  work that  connection  a  little  bit  but  he has  not  committed  yet. I  would  assume  at  this  point  he  would  probably wait  to  see  what's  going  to  happen  with  Patino. I  don't  think  you'd  want  to commit  now  with  so  much  uncertainty. And  so  many  other  teams  are  after  him  as  well. I  think  Arizona,  North  Carolina, Iowa  State,  Ohio  State. So  this  season  probably hasn't  helped  him  much  in  wanting  to  come  here. So  that's  just  a  little  bit  of  the outlook  of  who's  going  to  come  in. It  looks  like  there's  going  to  be  a  God, another  guard,  another  forward. What  do  you  see  as  the  big  story  lines heading  into  next  season? Well,  assuming  Oturu  leaves, it's  going  to  be  solidifying  that  front  court, which  could  happen  in  any  number  of  ways, very  likely  could  add  a  grad  transfer  there  at  that  spot. Because  without  Oturu,  you're  looking  at that  five  position  and you  could  have  Eric  Curry  play  there. But  injuries  have  been  nagging  issue  for  him  that, you  know,  I  don't  know  how  solid  they  would  feel. I  know  they  like  Eric  Curry  a  lot, but  what  he  can  do  physically  remains  to  be  seen, if  he  can  get  back  to  that  freshman  form. And  then  this  season, they've  been  playing  omersa  a  lot  at  the  five, which  he's  very  undersized  for  that  position. And  we  saw  Indiana  on  Wednesday  go  at  him  a  lot, so  I  think  they  would  need  another  option  there. And  you  know,  they  have  Matrice  Mitchell  coming  in, who  is  a  center. But  he's  said  that  he  wants  to  play  a little  more  of  like  a  wing  power forward  sort  of  position. So  we'll  see  if  they  would  play  him  at  the  five. But  yeah,  I  think  that  him  and  also  Mashburn, I  think  both  of  those  freshman  could see  significant  minutes  next  year. But  yeah,  if  Patino  does  leave, I  think  then  you  got  to  wonder whether  those  two  will  stay  committed. Because  I  know  Mashburn  in  particular, he  was  good  family  friends  with  a  Patino because  Rick  Patino  coached his  dad  back  when  Rick  Patino  was  at  Kentucky. That  family  tie  was  a  big  reason that  Mashburn  committed  to  Minnesota. So  that's  another  consideration  you have  with  Pitino  is  if  you  lose  him, do  you  lose  those  recruits? And  there  has  been  a  lot  of talk  about  the  Minnesota  recruits and  really  strong  in  state  recruiting  class this  year  that  Minnesota  hasn't  capitalized  on. But  also  right  now  there's seventh  in  the  Big  ten in  recruiting,  which  isn't  horrible. They  have  24  star  recruits  blocked  in. So,  you  know,  they're  not near  the  bottom  of  the  league  by  any  means. They're  just  not  necessarily  near  the  top. Yeah.  Mashburn,  according  to 247  is  the  90th  rank  national  prospect, so  in  that  top  112th, that  his  position,  Martie  Mitchell is  142nd,  so  pretty  good. Irwin  Walton's  right  on  that  edge.  They  haven't  met  99. So  if  they  were  able  to  get  him,  that's a  pretty  good  recruiting  class  and  yeah, the  question  really  is  what  they  do  with two  Mitchell's  only  190  pounds. If  he  has  any  future  starting  at  Center, it's  not  going  to  be  next  year unless  he  puts  on  significant  weight. Curry's  there,  you  never  know  about  his  health. Like  you  said,  Sam  Freeman  seems  like  he's a  long  way  from  being  a  productive  player. That  is  going  to  be  the  question. The  one  bright  side  is  they  got a  lot  coming  back  with  their  guards. They  have  wher  they  have  car, they  have  Trey  Williams,  they  have  Peyton  Willis. All  those  guys  come  back. They've  got  another  year  of Brian  Greenlee  just  progressing. So  they  got  some  people  there. And  it's  definitely  going  to  continue to  be  a  shooting  team. An  is  probably  going  to  have to  step  up  a  little  bit  more. And  I  wanted  to  ask  you  specifically  about  him because  it  feels  like  towards  the  end  of  the  season, everyone's  kind  of  taking  a  nose  dive. He  seems  to  kind  of  be  a  bright  spot. What  have  you  seen  from  him? What  have  people  been  saying  about  him and  how  we  project  him  going  forward? Yeah,  he's  somebody  that  I  think a  lot  of  people  have  been  waiting on  because  coming  into  the  year, he  was  a  really  intriguing  prospect. His  combination  of  skill  and  size,  and,  you  know, the  first  game  of  the  year  he  was  injured, we  didn't  get  to  see  him. So  that  first  game. And  then  it  seemed  like  he  was  always  kind  of  fighting an  uphill  battle  to  get  minutes  in  the  line  up. But  he's  come  along  very  nicely. You  know,  they  just  needed  to  develop him  is  what  the  word  was. And  it  looks  like  they're  doing  a  good  job. He's  been  knocking  down  corner  threes. He's  been  pulling  down  offensive  rebounds, he's  got  great  length, and  there  have  just  been  a  few  mistakes  that  he's  made, maybe  a  couple  turnovers. He  had  a  defensive  lapse  at the  end  of  the  Wisconsin  game that  gave  up  a  crucial  bucket. But  for  a  freshman  who hasn't  played  much  throughout  the  year, the  way  he's  played these  last  couple  games  has  been  impressive. And  I  think  it's  very  encouraging. It  is  encouraging  because  I remember  when  he  came  in,  I  don't Remember  him  being  advertised as  a  big  three  point  threat. I  think  he  came  in  and  he's this  athletic  international  guy, he's  going  to  be  able  to  make  some  plays. And  I've  been  pleasantly  surprised  with  him. And  I  guess  the  other  big  thing is  just  what  happens  to  Kalsher. He  had  such  a  good  freshman  year  and he's  just  been  really  inconsistent  this  year and  another  year  if he's  with  Patino  another  year  in  his  system, if  they  can  just  unlock  him  a  little  bit  more. Because  it  seemed  like  after  the freshman  year  he  was  going  to  be, we  didn't  know  that  Tua was  going  to  have  this  breakout  season, so  Kalscher  was  one  of  those  guys, like  he  might  be  the  focal  point  of  the  team, and  it  just  he  was  relegated  to  kind  of  a  third  option. And  at  that  point  then,  I  don't  think  he  was comfortable  like  in  the  role  that  he  had. And  sometimes  he  was  even  behind  who  you'd  want, shooting  the  ball  behind  Willis. Sometimes  about  behind  Trey  Williams,  even. It's  been  interesting  and  he's  going  to be  a  guy  that  you're  going  to  look  for  going  forward. And  the  one  thing  I  just  would note  is  with  this  team  coming  back, it  just  feels  like  they  need  a  piece. They  got  a  lot  of  solid  role  players that  can  play  in  the  big  ten, but  they  need  that  too. They  need  someone  they  can  give  the  ball  to and  I  just  don't  know  if  they  have  that  yet. Yeah,  that's  exactly  right. In  terms  of  Cal,  it's  kind  of  head scratching  where  he  gets  open  Look, still  hasn't  been  taking too  many  bad  shots  and they  just  haven't  gone  inconsistently  for  him. So  I've  got  a  thing, it's  more  of  a  confidence  thing  because  he was  the  third  option  last  year  as  well, with  Murphy  and  Coffee. So  he  was  used  to  not  being  the  focal  point, and  last  year  he  was  a  very  consistent  shooter, whereas  this  year  it's  been  a  lot  more  streaky. There  have  been  games  where  he's  really  showed  up. But  for  the  most  part in  the  Big  Ten  play  late  in  the  season, he  hasn't  been  able  to  knock  down  shots. He's  had  nights  where  he's  been almost  invisible  in  the  offense. That's  definitely  something  that he's  going  to  have  to  work  on  in  the  off  season, getting  his  confidence  back  up. But  I  think  that  with  a  shooter  especially, we  know  what  he's  capable  of. So  I  I  would expect  him  to  have  a  more  productive  year  next  year. And  hopefully,  he'll  be  able  to  figure  out  a  way  to  get his  shots  to  fall  and  probably  work  himself  back into  one  of  the  more  focal  points  of  the  offense. But  yeah,  I  think  I  agree  with your  assessment  that  they  need  somebody  who  like Tou  did  this  year  to  step  up  and become  something  more  than  just  a  role  player. To  become  somebody  who's really  among  the  best  players  in  the  big  ten. Yeah.  And  maybe  that  can  be  Marcus  Carr,  you  know, taking  on  like  a  Nate  Mason  role that  they  had  a  couple  of  years  ago. I  think  he  showed  flashes  of  that in  games  where  he's  being  able  to  dominate. But  again,  he  hasn't  been  a  consistent  force  either. He's  had  his  turnover  issues and  just  shot  inconsistencies. So  that'll  be  interesting  to  watch and  Nick  will  have  your  coverage  the  rest  of  the  way. If  they  somehow  make  a  miraculous  run, Nick  will  be  with  you  the whole  time  to  give  you  updates  and to  everything  that's  happening  in  Go  for  basketball  land. And  Nick,  I  thank  you  for  joining  us  today. Thank  you,  Paul.  Always  pleasure  in  other  news. The  men's  hockey  team  enters the  Big  Ten  tournament  this  weekend.  As  the  four  seat. They  could  have  been  as  high  as  the  number  one, but  faltered  in  their  final  series  against  Michigan. Still,  they'll  play  host  for  the  quarter  finals. Taking  on  Notre  Dame  in a  best  two  out  of  three  series  that  begins  Friday. The  women's  hockey  team  clared their  first  hurdle  in  the  quest  to take  back  the  WCHA  Crown  Downing  St. Cloud  State  twice  last  weekend. It  will  be  a  busy  weekend  this  weekend  on campus  as  the  team  hosts  the  WCHA  final  faceoff, the  Golphers  will  play  Ohio  State  on  Saturday, and  if  they  win  they'll  play  in the  championship  on  Sunday. The  wrestling  team  will  wrestle  in the  Big  Ten  championships  in  New  Jersey. This  weekend  the  team  will  look  to  compete, well  as  the  wrestlers  who  qualify  will  compete at  US  Bank  Stadium  for  the  NCA  championships. Later  this  month,  the  men's  gymnastics  team dropped  its  latest  dul  to  the  number two  ranked  Michigan  Wolverines. Minnesota  is  still  ranked  number  ten  themselves  and  will host  a  trim  meet  against  Ohio  State and  Nebraska  this  weekend. The  women's  gymnastics  team also  lost  in  their  latest  competition  as the  ladies  have  cooled  off  slightly from  their  red  hot  start  to  the  season. They'll  look  to  get  back  on  track  this  weekend. As  they  travel  in  North  Carolina  state  for  a  duel. The  softball  team  embarked  on a  long  Spring  Break  road  trip  this  week. They  begin  play  on  Friday  at the  UCLA  Long  Beach  tournament  in  California. Then  later  in  the  week,  they  will travel  to  Hawaii  for  a  set  of  games. They're  coming  off  their  best  series of  the  season  in  Auburn, winning  four  out  of  five. The  baseball  team,  on  the  other  hand, is  struggling  in  the  early  goings  of  their  season, currently  sitting  at  5.8  Most  recently, the  boys  lost  in  both  North Dakota  State  and  South  Dakota  State. They  are  on  a  four  game  losing  streak  and will  look  to  get  back  in  the  win  column  with a  home  series  against  Utah  beginning  on Friday.  That's  all  for  this  week. We're  off  next  week  for  Spring  Break, but  we'll  be  back  again  in  two  weeks  to  give  you the  weekly  rundown  on  all  things  go  for  sports. Don't  forget  to  share,  subscribe,  interview. See  everyone  in  a  couple  of  weeks.