My  God.  Hello  and welcome  back  to  the  weekly  rundown presented  by  The  Minnesota  Daily. I'm  your  host,  Paul  Hodowonick, and  we  are  back  after  a  long  winter  break, and  so  much  has  happened  since  we've  been  gone. The  football  team  won  the  Outback  Bowl. The  men's  basketball  team  has  had a  couple  nice  upset  wins. Gable  Stephenson  returned  to the  wrestling  team  after  a  suspension, but  what  I  want  to  talk  about  for today's  podcast  is  not  any  of  those  things. It's  actually  Lindsay  Whalen and  the  women's  basketball  team  because a  lot  has  been  happening  since  we  last  talked. Before  break,  they  couldn't have  really  been  feeling  better. I  believe  they  were  11  in  one  and  now  I'm  not  sure how  much  lower  they  can  kind  of  fall  at  this  point. So  to  discuss  this  crazy  turn  of  events, both  on  the  court  and  off  the  court, we  have  our  women's  basketball  reporter, Brendan  O'brien,  here  in  studio. How  are  we  doing  Brendan?  Good.  How  are  you, Paul?  I'm  doing  pretty  good. Make  sure  to  check  out  Brendan's women's  basketball  coverage  on Mendaily.com  or  pick  up a  paper  in  any  university  building. So  let's  jump  right  in. The  big  news  since  we've  been gone  hasn't  really  been what's  been  happening  on  the  court. It's  been  what  has  kind of  transpired  off  the  court.  And  Right. There's  not  a  lot  of  information about  it  which  I  think  makes  people  a little  bit  more  just  no  one  knows  really  what's  going  on. They're  keeping  it  very  close  to  the  vest  and  so it  has  to  do  with  their  Star  Guard,  Destiny  Pitts. So  can  you  kind  of  take  us  through what  has  kind  of  happened  in  the  last  month from  being  on  the  team, being  their  best  player, their  go  to  option  and  now  off  the  team. Sure.  So  back  on  Thursday,  January  9, even  though  winter  break, the  women's  basketball  team  still has  plenty  of  games  home. And  a  way  they  were  hosting  Northwestern. And  it  was  a  close  match  up  between  both  teams. Within  the  last  7  minutes, if  you  were  watching  or  listening  to  the  broadcast  fans and  media  members  found  out  that  Destiny  Pitts wasn't  playing  in  the  last  7  minutes  of  this  close  loss. And  you'd  think,  okay,  a  leading  score for  this  women's  basketball  team. It'd  be  nice  to  have  her  out there  and  give  yourself  a  better  chance of  winning  that  important  big  ten  game and  snapping  a  losing  streak. Then  on  Friday,  January  10, still  there  was  not  a  lot of  clarity  as  far  as  why  she  didn't  play. She  didn't  look  injured. She  had  been  playing  fairly  well. Destiny  Pitts  herself  learned  that  she was  suspended  for  what the  University  and  the  team called  conduct  unbecoming  of  a  teammate. Which  can  mean  yeah, it  can  mean  a  variety  of  different  things. The  public  was  still  pretty  unaware  and everyone  expected  her  to  still  be  playing  for  the  team. But  then  their  next  game, that  Sunday  against  Illinois, she  didn't  travel  with  the  team  and  neither did  the  two  Bello  sisters  as  well. So  then  a  lot  of  people  did  start  to  kind  of  know that  there  had  to  have  been  something that  was  going  on  within  the  team. And  then  following  Thursday,  January  16, Destiny  Pitts  goes  to  Twitter  and Instagram  and  announces  she's  going  to  enter the  transfer  portal  so she's  no  longer  a  part  of  the  team  and she  can  transfer  to any  other  university  to  play  basketball. It  was  a  pretty  explosive  like  social  media  post. It  seemed  like  there  were  a  couple  shots being  fired,  right? It's  not  sure  how Whalen  feels  about  that  at  the  press  conferences. She  doesn't  seem  too  happy. Obviously,  you're  never  gonna  be happy  when  a  player  is  suspended. But  she  didn't  just  kind  of  go  on  her  merry  way. She  stuff  to  say,  yeah, she  hadn't  been  suspended  in  high  school  or  in  college, and  Pitts  made  sure  that  people  had  known  about  that. So  she  did  say  that she  was  suspended  for  her  body  language. But  still  it's  pretty  vague  because  you're  not  sure  what exactly  she  did  to  really  instigate  the  suspension. And  was  it  something  that  just  happened  that  one  night that  the  coaches  thought  was  worthy  of  suspension, or  was  it  something  that  had  been  kind  of  building  up? So  then  in  this  tweet, she  also  thanked  the  Bellow  sisters for  sitting  out  and  not  traveling  to the  Illinois  game  in  a  protest  of the  suspension  that  Pitts  and the  Bellows  thought  was  unjust. Yeah,  it  was  kind  of  a  weird  scene  because  we want  to  remind  everyone  Wallen's  knew Destiny  wasn't  a  Whalen  recruit. So  that  can  always  just  some  people  don't  fit. We've  seen  that  with  Fleck,  a  lot  of  people to  transfer  out  before  others  came  in and  still  people  that  were  there  before kind  of  feeling  it  out.  So  it  takes  a  while. So  who  knows  if  Whalen  would  have  recruited  Pitts in  the  first  place  if  there was  some  sort  of  rift  between  them? Mm  hm.  But  yeah,  on  social  media, all  the  players  were  kind  of  reaching  out  in  support  of. Pitts,  obviously,  the  Bellow  sisters felt  strongly  enough  about it  that  they  wanted  to  sit  out, and  there's  a  lot  of  speculation on  what  exactly  Pitts  did. I  don't  want  to  get  into  that because  we  don't  have  any  of  that  confirmed. Right.  And  I  don't  want  to  put  anything  out  there. There  are  a  couple  things  online  that  you  can  go  and read  if  you  are  so  interested. But  it's  definitely  interesting when  has  seemed  cordial  about  it, when  asked,  you  can tell  she's  kind  of  working  through  things, trying  to  figure  out  what  to  say,  what not  to  say,  not  to  say  too  much. And  it's  just  a  weird  situation because  Whalen  just  keep  saying we're  going  to  respect  the  player's  privacy  but  it seemed  like  Pitts  was  pretty out  in  the  open  about  what  it  was. And  so  it's  a  little  interesting  that  we  haven't  been able  to  kind  of  piece  together  anything  else. So  yeah,  we  still  don't  really have  a  clear  answer  on  why  she  was suspended  in  her  absence in  going  forward  this  season  and  into  the  future. What  are  the  gophers  missing  without  pits? Sure.  Well  this  season  she  was averaging  about  16  points per  game,  which  was  a  team  high. And  she's  also  a  really top  three  point  shooter  in  the  country. They  do  have  some  three  point shooting  still  intact  around  the  team, but  losing  one  of your  primary  three  point  shooters  obviously is  going  to  be  somewhat  killer on  the  offensive  end  of  the  court. She  was  a  freshman  big  ten  Freshman  of  the  year, she  was  all  Big  Ten  her  sophomore  year. And  then  this  year  ended  up being  in  the  middle  of  December, announced  for  a  National  Player  of  the  Year  Awards. So  they  are  going  to  have some  pretty  big  shoes  to fill  with  her.  Not  on  the  team  anymore. Yeah.  Just  trying  to  compare  it  to  like  men's  basketball. It's  like  if  they  lost  Oturu  or  something  like  that. Yeah.  Color  car. It's  one  of  those  main  cogs. And  the  team  was  struggling  when  Pitts  was  in  there. Just  kind  of  in  the  meat  of  the  Big  Ten  season. And  they've  continued  to  struggle.  Mm  hm. So  it's  unclear  where the  blame  is  and  what  we  can  attribute  those  losses  to. But  recently  it's  especially  the  Iowa  game  they  were  in. I'm  sure  coming  down  they need  a  bucket  just  to  kind  of  seal  it. Pits  would  have  been  a  go,  good  go  to  Option  there. They  were  up  on  Wisconsin  last  night,  Wednesday. And  then  they  kind  of  let  that  one  falter. So  you  can  only  speculate, but  you  would  assume  she would  have  kept  them  in  a  couple  of  those  games. One  thing  I  just  wanted  to  chat  about because  it's  kind  of  fun  to  think about  is  just  because  she, she  answered  or  entered, excuse  me,  the  transfer  portal, that  does  not  mean  she  is gone  forever  100%  There's  a  chance that  she  could  opt  to come  out  of  the  transfer  portal  and  then she  would  still  be  on  the  gophers. The  be  some  moving  parts  to  that, like  someone  just  did  it  in  football. Philip  Howard  was  entered  the  transfer  portal. He  just  announced  Thursday  that  he  was  coming  back. So  it  is  something  that  has  been  done. Obviously,  Philip  Howard  wasn't suspended  and  there  was  all  this  drama. The  players  seem  to  would  gladly  take  her  back. At  least  it  seems  by  everything  that  I've seen  on  social  media  and  by the  way  they  talked  about  Pitts. Pitts  has  been  gracious  in  her  exit. Like  in  what  she's  saying  at least  I  don't  know  if  she  would  want  to  come back  and  Whalen  would  really  have  to  balance. We're  getting  back  one  of our  best  players  who  helps  us  in  the  tournament. But  like  can  we  bring  her  back  when  she's basically  like  turned  her  back  on  the  team  in  essence, and  now  we're  just  going  to  let  her  back. And  I'm  sure  Pitts  wasn't  happy  about the  suspension  and  that's  presumably  why  she  left. And  I  think  if  she  came  back  there'd be  another  suspension  before  she  could  play. It's  interesting  to  speculate  what  could  happen and  it's  just  something  to  keep  an  eye  on. And  again,  Pitts  would  probably  have  to  sit  out  a  year  if she  goes  somewhere  else  and  learn  another  new  system. And  she's  got  talent  and  I  don't  know what  her  draft  prospects  were,  if  any, but  I  would  presume  staying  in  Minnesota  and kind  staying  young  and continuing  to  play  would  have  been  the  best  option. So  I  guess  maybe  if  everything  cools down  and  then  maybe  she  would  decide  to  come  back, but  that's  always  just  something  to  keep  on  the  radar. So  now  I  want  to  shift  to  who  we're kind  of  looking  at  to  replace  Destiny  Pitts. So  give  us  a  little  key  in on  who  so  far  has  kind  of  taken  over  her  scoring  role, her  position  in  the  lineup, and  who  we  can  kind  of expect  to  be  a  bigger  focus  going  forward. Sure.  So  just  in  terms  of  roster, who's  starting  in  place  of  Pitts  right  now? Masha  Dash  is  a  senior  guard. She's  been  with  the  team  for  a  while  now, but  she  really  hasn't  seen  significant  playing  time. She  did  step  up  for  a  couple  of big  moments  in the  fourth  quarter  last  night  against  Wisconsin, when  the  Gophers  needed some  spark  to  try  to  stay  in  the  game. But  again,  since  she  hasn't  gotten  those  minutes, it's  difficult  to  expect  her  to  just step  in  and  do  the  things  that  Pitts  was  doing. Wayland  has  said  that  she  really  has  provided a  little  bit  of  a  spark defensively  which  could  help  the  gophers, but  still,  again,  not  quite  the  offensive player  in  terms  of just  how  they're  going  to  try  to  replace  those  points. Two  names  to  really  keep  on  the  radar. Our  freshman  guard  Sarah  Scalia. And  redcherd  Junior  Guard,  Gadeva  Hubbard. Both  are  also  three  point  shooters. They've  really  just  had  to  step  up  into different  roles  now  for  Scalia, obviously  she's  a  freshman, so  just  trying  to  get  comfortable  to  the  collegiate  pace, switching  over  from  high  school. And  then  Hubbard  has played  significant  minutes  before  for  the  Gophers, but  last  year  did  have  to  sit  out  for  a  foot  injury, and  now  with  Pitts  gone, she  has  to  step  up into  more  of  a  leadership  role  herself. And  it's  just  kind  of  difficult  too  for  her. She's  kind  of  mentioned  that  throughout  the  season, just  that  with  sitting  out  all  of  last  year, it  was  a  good  learning  experience  for  her. But  at  the  same  time,  there's  been times  where  she  said  that  it's  been difficult  for  her  to  really  get comfortable  playing  basketball  again after  not  playing  for  almost  a  full  season. Sure.  I  mean,  looking  at the  schedule  and  just  since  Pitts  has  been  out, I  mean,  it  doesn't  seem  like  it's  been  going  that  great, but  it  wasn't  going  that  great  since  then. Just  kind  of  comparing  before  Pitts, After  Pitts,  how  is  the  team  look? Has  it  been  a  noticeable  drop  off  or  is it  kind  of  just  been  the  same  as  it  was  before? Well,  what  was  interesting,  um, looking  at  how  the  team played  hours  before  their  Iowa  game, is  when  Pitts  announced  her  decision  to  transfer. And  Iowa  has  been  a  little  bit  of  a  surprise this  year  in  the  Big  Ten  and has  been  playing  pretty  well. The  Gophers  actually  hung  in  there  for  most  of  the  game, and  then  in  the  third  quarter  even  took  a  15  lead. So  you  kind  look  at  that  and  say, well,  maybe  this  is  something  that, even  though  you  hate  to  see  a  player  like  Pitts  go, maybe  it  takes  a  little  bit  of  pressure  off  of these  players  and  they  start to  be  more  comfortable  in  the  court  again. And  then  of  course,  they  ended  up  losing  the  lead. I  ended  up  winning  the  last  possession  of  the  game. Now  it's  just  up  in  the  air  in  terms  of  how they're  going  to  rebound  from  the  loss  of  Pitts. They  had  a  big  win  against  Purdue  on this  past  Sunday  and cruised  to  the  victory  in  the  second  half  there. But  last  night  against  Wisconsin, a  game  that  they  also  probably  would  have  wanted  to  have, Wisconsin's  only  9.9  and  was 1.6  I  believe  in  the  big  ten. Coming  into  that  game  would have  been  nice  to  get  a  win  on  their  home  court  there. We'll  still  have  to wait  and  see  how  things  end  up  playing  out. Yeah,  I  was  at  that  Iowa  game just  a  couple  of  hours  after  that  announcement, and  I  think  the  whole  crowd was  kind  of  trying  to  figure  out  what  was  going  on. And  I  think  the  players  took  a  little. The  first  quarter  they  didn't score  a  ton,  neither  did  Iowa. So  they  were  still  in  it  and  it  was  kind of  kind  of  feeling  each  other  out. And  then  the  second  quarter,  third  quarter Scalia  got  was  on  fire  from  deep. She,  she  does  look  like  she  can, especially  in  her  sophomore  junior  senior  year, really  be  a  player  for  the  gophers. And  it  was  like,  oh  wow.  Okay.  Maybe  they're kind  of  rallying  the  troops  a  little  bit. You  know,  we're  going  to  go  in  as  a  team  win  and  Yeah, they  just  couldn't,  they  couldn't  stop Iowa  in  the  final  quarter  and  they  went  cold  themselves. Right.  That's  where  you're  like, well,  Pitts  could  have  helped, but  that  was  still  a  strong  effort  When  was  very positive  in  the  postgame  interviews about  the  team  after  that  game. And  the  team  was  very positive  about  the  way  they've  played. And  they  were  kind  of  like,  if  we  keep playing  like  this,  we're  going  to  win  some  games. So  it  is  interesting  that  they've  missed  her, but  they  don't  look  lost  without  her,  right? So  there  is  still  a  little  bit  of  hope  there, and  the  team  seems  to  have responded  to  it  and  become  closer  and  kind of  ready  to  kind  of despite  the  adversity,  kind  of  rally  the  troops. But  with  that  said,  they're  2.7  in  the  Big  Ten, they  were  2.7  last  year. Both  seasons.  They  started  out well  in  non  conference  last  year. Not  very  good  of  a  non  conference  schedule. Twice  year,  not  I  wouldn't  say  that  they had  a  pretty  decent  non  conference  schedule. I  believe  they  were  ranked  for  a  little  bit.  Mm  hm. So  this  is  a  team  that  was doing  really  well  and  then  has  sputtered  in  the  big  ten, or  do  we  have  any  explanation  of  why? It  has  just  kind  of  faltered  at  the  beginning. I  mean,  last  year  they  finished  9.9  into  the  big  ten, so  they  rebounded,  but  maybe  getting  off  to  slow  starts. Has  Wayland  addressed  that  at  all? You  know,  she  hasn't  really  said  that as  much  about  slow  starts. And  like  you  kind  of  had  alluded  to  there, one  of  the  biggest  story  lines at  the  beginning  of  the  season was  making  sure  that they  had  a  tough  non  conference  schedule. At  least  tougher  than  they  had  last  year. So  that  they'd  be  prepared  for the  Big  Ten  conference  season  this  year. But  I  think  part  of  the  reason  why  they  have  sputtered is  especially  if  you look  at  the  roster  and  their  head  coach, it's  an  interesting  mix  of  components. I  mean,  you've  got  Senior  Guard  Jasmine  Brunson, who's  played  significant  minutes  before  for  the  Gophers, but  has  never  been  their  primary  floor  general  or distributor  who's  now  stepping  into  that  role. You've  got  Gadiva  Hubbard, who  we  mentioned  before  had  a  season  ending  foot. Injury  last  year  that  kept  her  out  the  whole  season. So  she's  trying  to  get  back into  feeling  it  out  on  the  court. You've  got  Sarah  Scalia  and Jasmine  Powell  who  are  both  freshman  guards. They  were  in  high  school  last  year  and are  trying  to  gain  more  experience  this  year. And  then  you,  as  mentioned  before, a  dash  who  is  a  senior but  really  hasn't  seen  significant  playing  time  before. And  to  top  it  all  off, then  a  second  year  head coach  and  second  year  of  coaching  in  general. Obviously  she  played  for a  long  time  in  college  and  the  WNBA, but  doesn't  have  as  much  experience  coaching. It's  early  in  her  career  and a  lot  of  these  other  players  she  has  still have  time  to  improve  this  season  and  then  moving  forward. But  I  think  that  definitely  contributes  to  wide. They're  not  playing  quite  as  well  in  the  Big  Ten  yet. Sure.  And  they've  gone  up against  a  couple  of  rank  teams  in  the  Big  Ten. The  Big  Ten  is  a  good  conference this  year  in  women's  basketball. So  I  think  there,  I  mean  11.1  You can't  expect  to  keep  up  that  pace,  right? It  might.  And  with  pits, maybe  they  have  probably  four  wins  there. They're  4.5  everything. Well,  they're  in  a  tough  big  ten and  they're  kind  of  right  in  the  thick  of  things. So  I  think  probably  with  that. And  then  having  to  play  a  couple  games  where without  pits,  one  you  don't  have  pits. And  then  two,  you're  scrambling  to  play  with an  offense  and  a  defense  that  you're  not  used  to because  everything  kind  of  went  through  her. And  then  without  the  bellows, then  you  don't  have  ti  a  who's  rebounding  the  ball  right, an  impressive  clip  and  you're  not  playing  with  her. And  so  it's  just  a  lot of  adjusting  they've  had  to  make  mid  season, so  I  wouldn't  be  surprised  that  they  start to  kind  of  figure  out  when  they're  going to  be  without  Or  they maybe  you  don't  finish  99  like  they  did  last  year, but  at  least  kind  of  improved  a  little  bit. And  so  that's  kind  of  the  hope, and  right  now  they're  teetering. They're  one  of  the  last  four  teams  in, in  ESPN's  bracketology  for  the  NCA  tournament. They're  an  11  seed  right  now. And  so  it  was  updated. It  was  posted  before  they  lost  to  Wisconsin  on  Wednesday. So  we'll  see  if  that  has  an  impact  at  all. But  they  still  have  a  chance, despite  all  the  adversity, to  make  the  NCAA  tournament, which  would  be  quite  the  feat  I  think  at this  point  let's  just  kind  of  play  a  what  if  game, or  finish  this  sentence, the  Gophers  will  make  the  tournament. If  what  do  they  have  to  do? Scalia  and  Hubbard  both  have  to  be shooting  really  well  from  the  three  point  line. When  Pitts  was  in,  Scalia  was shooting  about  44%  from  three, whereas  Hubbard  was  shooting  only  23, 24%  With  Hubbard  out  the  past  three  games, not  including  last  night's  game  against  Wisconsin, Hubbard  increased  to  about  34%  Scalia was  around  the  same  range  she  was  with  Pitts, but  we  saw  last  night  both  went  cold  from  three. They  couldn't  find  a  lot  offense  in  the  third  quarter. Their  offense  is  going  to  have  to revolve  around  those  two  players, Then  Gophers  will  miss the  tournament  If  they can't  go  on  a  run  here  in  the  Big  Ten, they're  2.7  They've  got  two  games  against  Indiana, who's  in  the  top  15. They've  got  a  home  game  to close  out  the  season  against  Maryland, getting  two  or  three  wins  in  that  range  There, along  with  some  wins  against some  mid  tier  big  ten  opponents  would  really  help. But  if  they  lose  those  games, they  will  miss  the  tournament. And  I  think  it's important  to  note  they didn't  make  the  tournament  last  year. So  I  think  even  without  pits, this  is  kind  of  an  improved  team from  what  we  saw  a  year  ago. And  it's  Whalen  starting  to get  her  players  into  the  system. Scally,  obviously  a  freshman. Broner  Powell,  a  freshman. So  she's  brought  in  some  talent. So  I  think  there's  some  optimism  moving  forward. I  think  as  we  learn  more  about  the  pit  situation  and how  when  handed  it  handled  it. If  it  was  maybe  a  situation  where  she overreacted  or  maybe  it  was  pits  that overreacted  or  maybe  it  was  a  just  reaction  by  both. But  I  think  that'll  be  telling  and  I'm  sure  recruits  are wondering  kind  of  how  that  will,  will  affect. We'll  have  it  too.  So  it'll  be an  interesting  and  important  end  to  the  season, not  only  for  this  year, but  moving  forward  for  the  Gophers. So,  Brendan,  thank  you  for  coming into  the  studio  and  talking  some  gopher  hoops  with  us. Yeah,  of  course.  Thanks,  Paul. All  right,  thanks.  In  other  news, the  men's  basketball  team  lost to  Rucker's  on  Sunday  after a  pair  of  nice  wins  against Michigan  and  Penn  State  the  week  before. They  welcome  another  tough  test  in  Michigan  State. This  upcoming  Sunday, another  ranked  wind  would  do  wonders  for the  Gophers  as  they  sit  on  the  edge  of the  NCAA  tournament  bracketology. And  we'll  need  another  couple  impressive  wins  to feel  good  about  their  resume  moving  forward. The  men's  hockey  team  lost  a  scrimmage  to the  USA  under  18  team  last  Friday. Head  Coach  Bob  Motzko  was not  happy  with  the  team's  energy  throughout  the  game, so  expect  to  see  the  team  start  fast  with high  energy  as  they  host  Ohio  State. This  weekend  of  Ohio  State. The  women's  hockey  team  split a  series  against  the  Buckeyes  last  weekend, falling  41  on  Friday, in  which  head  coach  Brad  Frost  called  it one  of  the  team's  worst  performances  in  years. They  were  able  to  write  the  ship  the  next  day  as  part  of Hockey  Day  Minnesota  playing at  Parade  Stadium  in  Minneapolis. They  are  back  in  action  this  weekend  in Madison  for  another  match up  against  the  number  one  ranked  Badgers. The  Gophers  are  currently  the number  two  team  in  the  country. The  women's  gymnastics  team had  a  strong  start  to  its  season. Most  recently  they  won the  Rutgers  quad  event  last  weekend. Lexi  Ramler  was  the  star  of  the  event, landing  a  perfect  ten  on  the  beam. They  take  the  mats  again.  On  Saturday  at Mattera  Pavilion  against  Illinois. The  men's  gymnastics  team  finished second  in  the  annual  Windy  City  Invitational. Last  weekend,  Junior  Shane  Whiskus led  the  way  for  the  team  winning  titles  on the  floor  and  parallel  bars while  also  winning  the  all  around  title. The  Gophers  are  also  back  in  action this  weekend  against  Illinois  on  Friday. The  wrestling  team  lost  its  most recent  duel  to  Michigan  on  Sunday, which  came  two  days  after  they  beat  Michigan. And  Devon  Skatzka  got  his  100th  win  of  his  career. The  team  is  back  again  for  a  tilt  against  Ohio  State on  Sunday  at  home.  That's  all  for  this  week. We'll  be  back  again  next  week  to  give  you the  weekly  rundown  on  all  things  Gopher  sports, Dot  forget  to  share,  subscribe  and  review. We'll  see  everyone  next  week.