Hello  and  welcome  back  to the  weekly  rundown  presented  by  the  Minnesota  Daily. I  am  your  host,  Paul  Hodowonick. And  with  football  on  a  by  week. This  week  we  turn  our  attention  to  another  sport, and  that  sport  is  basketball. The  men's  basketball  team  had their  final  exhibition  game  this  past  Monday, and  now  they  turn  their  attention  to the  season  opener  on  Tuesday  against  Cleveland  State. So  to  give  us  a  preview  of  this  year's  group, we  bring  in  our  men's  basketball  beat  reporter, Nick  Young. How's  it  going,  Paul?  We're  doing  pretty  good. I'm  excited  for  the  season  to  get  rolling  in. Make  sure  to  check  out  Nick's  work  throughout  the  season, the  basketball  season  on  Madaly.com So  let's  get  right  into  it. I  feel  like  to  look  forward  to  this  season, we  have  to  kind  of  look at  last  year's  team  and  kind  of  what  they're  missing, what  we  should  expect  from  this  year's  team. And  to  do  that,  I  want  to  look  back. So  they  were  22.14  last  season. I  thought  this  was  interesting. They're  home  and  away  splits. There  were  13.3  at  home, 2.9  on  away,  and  then  7.2  on  a  neutral  floor. So  actually  pretty  good  on  neutral  floor. And  at  home  and  away  really  struggled. So  I  think  that's  just  kind  of a  nugget  to  keep  in  your  mind. I  think  it's  kind  of  self  explanatory, but  when  you  see those  numbers  as  stark  as  there, they're  kind  of  interesting. Last  year  they  beat  Louisville  to  advance  to the  third  round  in  NCAA  tournaments, the  first  time  they  had  won a  tournament  games  since  2013. That's  when  they  played  UCLA,  I  believe, and  beat  Shabaz  Muhammad  in  the  first  round. And  then  got  smoked  by  Florida. I  think  it  was  kind  of  a  similar game  as  the  Florida  game. They  lost  to  Michigan  State  this  season,  70  to  50. Never  really  seemed  close,  that  game  in  a  let  down. So  there's  a  lot  of differences  from  that  year  to  this  year. Mainly  coffee  and  Murphy,  a  mere  coffee. And  Jordan  Murphy,  they're  gone. And  also  Dupree  Mcbrayer, Matt  Stockman,  and  Brock  Stall,  they're  also  gone. But  those  two  key  Cogs  were  Coffee  and  Murphy. And  we  know  that  they  were  the  center  of  the  offense. Basically,  it  was  either  get  the  ball  down  low  to  Murphy, let  him  work,  or  give  the  ball to  him  maybe  on  the  corner. Let  him  kind  of  work  down, post  someone  up,  throw  up  a  couple  shots, get  a  couple  offensive  rebounds, put  it  in  the  net,  or  it  was  coffee,  and  let  him  create. So  with  both  those  gone, what  should  we  expect  from  the  offense  of  identity? Well,  it's  going  to  be  very  much  change  this  year. Obviously,  they  lose  their  top  two  leading  scores in  coffee  and  Murphy. And  I  mean,  with  Murphy  you  had a  dominating  physical  presence  down  low, who  could  really  do  a  lot  of  things, posting  people  up,  get  to  the  rim,  use  his  strength. And  then  with  Coffee,  someone  who  is  very  skilled  in transition  can  make very  athletic  plays,  get  to  the  foul  line. And  just  an  exceptional  talent with  the  ball  in  his  hands. So  those  two  are  very much  what  shaped  the  Gophers offense  last  year.  This  year. Without  them,  it'll  probably  have  a  different  look, expect  to  see  more  outside  shots. Three  point  shooting  is  an  area  that the  team  struggled  with  last  year. They  were  near  the  bottom  of  the  Big  Ten  all  season. They  got  a  few  more  guards  this  year. As  we'll  touch  on  that  can  shoot the  ball  a  little  bit  better  from the  outside  and  then  finding  ways  to  score  down  low. That'll  probably  run  through  Daniel  to  now. Yeah,  I  want  to  touch  on  that  shooting  aspect  a little  bit  because  I  know  Patino has  talked  about  it  in  his  blogs. He's  talked  about  it  in  any  media  availability. Just  they're  needing  to  shoot  more  threes. And  does  it  sound  even  if  they're  struggling  to  shoot, they're  going  to  continue  to  shoot because  Usher  is  a  good  three  point  shooter. I  know  they  were  gimmicking  Oturu  being  able  to shoot  maybe  and  they brought  in  some  shooters  but  I  don't  think  any  of  them, neither  of  the  guards,  Willis  or  Car, were  I  don't  think  considered like  sharpshooters  by  any  means. I  know  Kwher  came  in  as  a  sharpshooter  when  he  came  in. But  do  we  expect  even  maybe  when  they're  missing  that, they're  just  going  to  keep  putting  it  up  that they've  realized  that  this  is  kind  of  you, you  get  outscored  if  you're  doing  three  to two  every  time  down  the  floor. It's  what  the  Timber  Wolves  are realizing,  our  pro  counterparts. So  Do  we  expect  them  to  kind  of  be  committed  to  that? Yeah,  I  think  so.  In  the  exhibition  game against  Southwest  Minnesota  State,  they  went  821. Shooting  were  kind  of  cold  early  in  the  game. Shot  a  little  better  in  the  second  half. Patino  said  after  the  game that  fans  can  expect  to  see  that  more, they'll  probably  stay  committed. Peyton  Willis,  actually  looked  pretty good  from  behind  the  arc  went  three  of  seven. Calcher,  we  know  what  he  brings  us, shot  over  40%  from  three  last  year. So  those  two  especially expect  them  to  put  up  a  lot  of  shots. And  as  good  as  a  mere  coffee  was, he  was  never  a  great  three  point  shooter. And  then  Jordan  Murphy  shot  low  percentage, under  25%  From three  more  three  point  shooters  on  the  court  this  year, I  would  expect  to  see  a  bigger  emphasis  on  that. Yeah,  when  you  see  the  starting  line  up, it's  going  to  look  a  lot  different because  Coffee  and  Murphy  have  been  mainstays. Mcbrayer  has  been  a  mainstay. So  other  than  maybe  shifting  to  a  three  point  offense, are  there  other  differences  that  you  can  keen  on? Maybe  even  on  defense  or  offense? I  know  spacing  the  floor  might  be  one  of  them. About  just  noticeable  shifts we  might  see  from  last  year's  team  to  this  year's  team. Yeah,  so  one  of  the  big  ones  is  going  to  be  at the  point  guard  position  with  Marcus  Carr  coming  in. Right  now,  last  season  the  team didn't  really  have  a  true  point  guard. Isaiah  Washington  was  really the  only  guy  on  the  team  that  fit  that  role. He's  transferred  to  Iona  now, no  longer  with  the  Gophers. He  never  had  the  success  that  people anticipated  when  he  came  to Minnesota  as  a  highly  touted  recruit. But  now  with  Marcus  Carr, he  played  well  in  his  freshman  year  at  Pitt, Had  to  sit  out  last  year  due  to  freshman  rules. But  we  should  see  a  different  dynamic  with a  true  point  guard  on  the  Gophers  offense. Someone  who  can  reliably  bring  the  ball  up the  Court  then  defensively, we  haven't  seen  a  lot  yet  out  of  the  gophers. They  were  pretty  vanilla  in the  exhibition  game  on offense  and  defense  didn't  really  run  too  much, just  stuck  man  to  man  on  defense. I  mean,  this  is  traditionally  been a  man  to  man  defensive  team. So  I  would  expect  to  see  more  of  that  this  season. But  we'll  see  as  we  go  on  because they  do  have  good  defenders,  especially  guards. They  did  well  in  the  exhibition  game  with  deflections, getting  steals,  pretty  good  perimeter  defense with  guys  like  Willis  and  Car. Yeah,  and  inside  Oturu  is  a  good  defender  as  well. He  can  get  blocks  from  that  spot. And  I  wanted  to  shift  a  little  bit  to talking  about  Oturu  and  Als. They're  both  only  sophomores, but  they're  kind  of  the  key  returners. And  it's  not  always  that  those are  kind  of  your  main  contributors  other  than  them. You  know,  you've  got  Michael  Rt, and  you  have  Jarvis  Omersa, but  nothing  super  established. Do  we  view  this  as  Oturu  and  Kucher's  team  going  forward? I  think  they  will  be  moving  forward  for  sure. I  mean,  they  still  have  three  more  years left  including  this  one. So  it  will  definitely  be  their, their  program  really  moving  forward. But  don't  underestimate  the  impact  guys  like Marcus  Carr  and  Payton  Willis  will have  their  leaders  in  the  back  court  as  well. They  should  be  able  to  make  contributions. And  I  know  Marcus  Carr  was  just  named  a  captain. Coaches  really  like  what  he  has  done  to  work  with  teams, be  a  leader  and  make  them  better. So  I  think  right  now  we  don't  know  if  there's  going  to be  a  leader  in  the  same  sense as  like  Jordan  Murphy  last  year. But  I  think  that  Oturu  and  Coucher  are definitely  really  important  pieces  on  this  team, especially  having  as  much  experience  as  they  have. Because  really  they  have  the  most  playing  time of  anybody  on  the  team  in  Gopher  uniforms, even  though  they're  just  sophomores. And  I  want  to  get  to  all  those  new  faces. We've  mentioned  Willis  and  Carr  a  little  bit. I  want  to  go  more  in  depth  on  them, but  with  the  departures  of  coffee, Murphy  Mcbrayer,  Stockman,  Stall,  and  Washington. As  you,  as  you  said,  there's  a  lot  of  minutes  open. So  we're  going  to  see  new  faces  in  new  roles. People  that  maybe  we're  here that  are  going  to  be  in  different  roles, but  those  new  faces  that  maybe Gopher  fans  haven't  had  a  chance  to  see, I  want  to  go  through  each  of  them  so  they  can  have a  little  idea  of  what  they're  getting  when  they  hit the  floor  for  the  first  time  on  Wednesday. So  first  I  want  to  start  with  Peyton  Willis. He's  a  Redshirt  Junior  Vanderbilt  transfer. So  he's  got  this  year  and  next  year  in  a  Gopher  uniform. What  can  Gopher  fans  expect  out  of  Peyton  Willis? Good  length  for  guard.  As  I  said  before, he  shot  pretty  well  in  the  exhibition  game. He  should  be  able  to  provide  more  of  that. But  he'll  probably  be the  closest  approximation  to replacing  a  mere  coffee  in  that  back  court. If  I  had  to  guess  he's  not  quite  as  long  or  athletic, but  I  would  expect  him  to  play  a  similar  role. Someone  they'll  turn  to  and  transition  a  little  bit. Play  with  the  ball  in  his  hands  a  little  bit. He  should  be  able  to  hopefully provide  some  benefits  in  that  regard. Yeah.  In  both  Willis  and  Car, it's  not  like  at  Vanderbilt  and  Pitt  respectively. It  wasn't  like  they  weren't  playing  well,  there  it  was. Both  those  programs  were  floundering. I  know  they  had  coaching  issues  there, so  these  aren't  bench  guys  that  are  just coming  and  might  not  have  that  big  of  a  role. Like  they  were  good  players and  they're  coming  here  to  play and  we  should  expect  to  see  good  things  out  of  them. And  so  I  want  to  move  to  car. I  know  we've  talked  about  him  slightly  more, but  it  seems  like  he's  going  to  kind  of  be  the  man running  the  show  more  of  a  traditional  point  guard  role. Like  you  said,  what  should  we  expect  to  see  out  of  him? Yeah,  good  facilitator  at  Pitt. His  freshman  year,  he  was  one  of the  most  impressive  freshmen  in  the  ACC. Can  also  get  to  the  basket  score, He  should  be  exactly  what  the  Gophers  were missing  last  year  in  terms  of that  traditional  point  guard, which  a  lot  of  times, especially  latent  games,  they  didn't have  that  guy  who  could  maybe  beat  the  press, Take  the  ball  up  the  court,  find  open  guys, so  hopefully  you  should  be  able  to  cut  down  on turnovers  a  little  bit  with  the  ball  in  his  hands. All  right,  and  then  our  third transfer  that's  on  the  team, we've  got  a  couple  transfers  and  that's  senior. He  came  from  Drexel. That's  all.  Haan  Demir. When  I  saw  that  he  committed, I  think  I  had  never  seen  him  play. I  didn't  know.  But  it  seemed  kind  of  like the  Brock  Stull  kind  of  version  of  this  year. You  know,  coming  from  a  smaller  school that  put  up  a  lot  of  production  there, he  can  shoot  the  three  supposedly. Is  that  a  fair  assessment?  Do  you  think  he'll  be  more impactful  than  looks  like  Demir  with? Eric  Curry's  latest  injury, when  he  looks  like  he's  out  for  the  season, that  Demir  might  be  the  projected  starter  there. Yeah,  he'll  definitely  have  to  be more  impactful  than  stall  if the  ser  team  is  going  to  have  success on  the  front  court  last  year, Patino  would  always  talk  about  him  just needing  a  little  bit  of  time  to  learn  the  system. So  he  didn't  get  too  much playing  time  in  the  non  conference. He  was  mainly  a  role  player  off  the  bench. Demir  is  going  to  have  to  start right  away  with  Curry  hurt. It  did  look  like  he  was  still learning  this  system  a  little  bit in  that  exhibition  game, but  he's  going  to  be  the  guy  right  away  at  the  fore. He  can  shoot  a  little  bit. He  shot  a  lot  better his  first  season  playing at  Drexel  than  he  did  his  second. He  saw  a  little  bit  of  regression  last  year, but  if  we  expect that  to  move  towards  the  mean  a  little  bit, he'll  provide  more  shooting from  the  four  than  Murphy  did. And  I  think  that  goes  across the  board  like  the  guys  we've  already  talked about  the  back  court  with  Willis  and car  to  they'll  be  able  to  shoot  a little  better  than  coffee  Mcbrier  did. I  think  that's  what  the  Gopher  team  needed. They're  not  knockdown  shooters for  say  they're  not  going  to  shoot  40, 45%  not  going  to  come  close  to  that. They  will  be  able  to  provide  better  shooting  and  that should  put  more  points  on  the  board  for  Minnesota. Sure.  Now  I  want  to  focus  on  the  four  freshmen. So  first  is  guard  Trey  Williams. He  was  not  super  highly  touted  out  of  high  school, at  least  at  the  beginning  when  he  committed. He  kind  of  seemed  like  just  there  wasn't  a  lot  of buzz  generated  when  the  Gophers recruited  him  and  signed  him. But  as  he  progressed  in  his  senior  season, I  think  he  kind  of  raised  up  the  ranks and  people  kind  of  realized  what  they  got  with  him. She,  do  you  believe  we  will  continue  to  see more  and  more  progression  to  where  this  might  kind  of be  another  steal  of  Patino's  recruiting  class. Like  usher  is  kind  of  considered  at  this  point. I  think  so.  Ha,  his  stock  has  been raising,  rising,  I  should  say. He  was  upgraded  from  a  three  star  recruit  to a  four  star  recruit  by  2047  sports as  his  senior  year  went  on. And  I  think  he'll  get  some  playing  time  that  back  court, even  with  the  other  talent  they  have  there, he  should  be  able  to  provide both  athletically,  he  can  get  to  the  rim, but  he  can  also  shoot  a  little  bit  too, so  he  can  be  a  hybrid  guard. Do  a  lot  of  things  in  the  back  court  and  fill  in for  anybody  who  either needs  a  break  or  gets  in  foul  trouble. He  should  be  important  to  that  death. And  he's  a  really  promising  player. Yeah,  I  should  note that  not  all  of  these  freshmen  might  play  that  much. We  saw  last  year,  some  of  them  didn't  play, some  of  them  got  forced  to  play, when  I  should  say  most  of  them  played, some  of  them  got  forced  to  play  more  like  Jarvis  Marson. We  saw  that  he  wasn't  super  ready, so  there's  always  going  to  be growing  pains  with  some  of  these  freshmen, so  keep  that  in  mind. And  I  want  to  focus  on  the  other  guard  that  they  got, which  was  Brian  Greene. I  believe  that's  Green  Lee. He's  a  recruit  from  Florida. I  don't  know  too  much  about  him. I  know  he  was  a  later  commit  for  them. Is  there  signs  that  he  might have  any  sort  of  structured  role? I  really  don't  know  much  about  him. Yeah,  I  don't  know  how  much  we'll  see  him this  year  with  the  back  court. He  probably  won't  get  too  much  playing  time  right  away, but  he  has  shown  some  promise. He  looked  pretty  solid  in  the  exhibition  game, had  some  nice  plays, and  with  the  opportunities  that  he  got, he's  a  little  bit  undersized  for  a  guard. He's  only  about  six  feet  tall,  but  he's  athletic. He's  got  some  nice  vertical  ability. He  can  dunk  the  basketball  and, you  know,  he  could  be  a  good  piece,  some  depth  later  on. You  can  never  have  too  many  guards. He  sounds  like  the  guard  version  of  Jarvis  Omersa. Now  that  you  explain  that  to  me, very  athletic  might  be able  to  dunk  the  ball  a  little  bit, but  he's  got  to  learn  in  other  spots  of  the  game. Now,  going  to  Center, we  have  a  new  center,  Sam  Freeman.  Sorry  about  that. He's  610240,  comes  from  Dallas,  Texas. He  seems  a  good  rebound  or  a  good  defender, he  might  be  that  impact  guy  on  defense, Is  that  what  we  should  expect  to  see? Yeah,  his  length  is  his  best  attribute. I  think  raw  is  a  good  way  to  put  it. He  didn't  play  much  in the  exhibition  game  and  didn't contribute  too  much  right  away. If  Eric  Curry  was  still  healthy, I  don't  think  he  would  play  much  at  all  this  season. But  with  that  injury, the  Gophers  might  need  him  to  play foul  trouble  always  happens  with  forwards. You  need  guys  in that  front  court  to  come  in  and  provide  some  minutes. And  we  saw  how  valuable  that  was  last  year with  guys  like  Matt  Stockman  who  didn't  play  that  much. But  when  they  got  in  for  five, 10  minutes,  they  could  contribute  to  the  team. Freeman  might  have  to  do  that  right  away. But  the  question  is,  is  he  ready  to  do that  against  Big  Ten  competition  right  now? Yeah.  And  you  hope  for  no  other  injuries, but  if  another  injury  to  that  front  court  does  happen, he  might  be  thrust  into  that  rule. So  we'll  see  if  he'd  be  ready  for  that. And  then  finally  the  guy  that  I'm  kind of  most  excited  to  see  just  because  I  don't, again,  I  don't  know  that  much  about  him. I  know  he  had  a  really  good  Italy  trip. The  Gophers  took  a  trip  to  Italy  over  the  summer. That's  Isaiah  in  an sorry  if  I'm  pronouncing  that  wrong,  Isaiah. He  looks  like  he  has  a  lot  of  potential. He  just  seems  like  untapped  is  the  way  I  would  put  it. Did  he  get  much  run  in  the  exhibition  game? And  how  did  he  look  there? He  set  out  the  exhibition  game. He  has  a  wrist  injury  right now  that  coaches  don't  think  are  serious. But  his  status  for  the  season  opener  is  still  unknown. But  he  is  a  very  exciting  player. I  think  coaches  are  still  figuring  out  how  to use  him  right  now  because  he's  six  foot  ning, but  he's  very  athletic  as  good  length. He  says  that  he  tries  to model  his  game  after  Kevin  Durant, not  saying  he's  Kevin  Durant  by  any  means, but  he's  in  that  style, he  should  be  probably  getting  minutes  at  power  forward right  away  with  the  space  left  by  Curry. But  coaches  have  also  said  they've been  trying  to  play  him  at  the  three  a  little  bit. I  think  they're  just  trying  to  figure out  what  his  role  is  and  where  he  can  help the  team  because  I  think  he's  going  to  have to  get  some  significant  minutes  right  away. Yeah,  he's  69210. That's  pretty  comparable  to  Kevin  Durant. Kevin  Rant,  610240. So  he  can  be  the  Minnesota  version  of  Kevin  Durant, which  would  be  great. I'm  interested  to  see  what  he  can  do. He  played  on  the  German  national  team  over  the  summer. I  think  the  U  20  team, he  got  some  run  with  some  international  competition. He  might  have  to  adjust a  little  bit  to  the  game  over  here. I  don't  know  how  much  of an  adjustment  that's  going  to  be  for  him, but  he's  certainly  want  to  keep  an  eye  on  maybe  not even  as  much  for  this  season.  He  might  not  show  a  ton. But  as  he  continues  to  get  more  familiar with  the  style  of  basketball,  this  team, he  has  all  those  athletic  attributes  that  you  want from  a  player  and  he could  be  an  exciting  one  going  forward. And  then  finally,  I  wanted  to  touch on  basically  the  two  other  people  we haven't  touched  on  much  in  this  podcast, and  that  is  Michael  Rt  and  Jarvis  Omersa. They're  the  two  other  guys  that  are  returning. Jarvis  is  only  going  to  be  a  sophomore, Michael  Hurt  is  going  to  be  a  senior. He's  been  in  the  program  a  lot. His  rotation  and  his  role  have  kind  of  shifted from  starting  a  couple  years back  to  not  as  much  last  year. Getting  some  minutes  and  looking  productive, sometimes  unproductive  other  times. But  now  he's  a  captain,  he's one  of  those  senior  leaders  on  the  team. How  much  should  we  expect  to  see Michael  Hurt  and  Jarvis  Omersa  involved? I  think  that's  a  really  important  question that  the  team's  going  to  have  to  figure  out. With  Curry's  injury  being  as  unfortunate  as  it  is, The  Gophers  don't  have as  much  front  court  death  this  year  with  Murphy  gone. They  don't  have  that  go  to  power  forward. And  those  guys  probably  going  to  have  to  play  more in  that  role  last  year. They're  really  important  parts  of the  team  in  terms  of  being  teammates. Coach  Pino  always  talks  about what  important  roles  both of  those  guys  play  on  the  bench, but  we'll  see  how  it  translates  onto  the  court. I  know  they  really  like  hurts  knowledge. Being  a  senior,  having  been  in  the  system  for  so  long, I  think  he'll  probably  get the  nod  over  in  terms  of  the  rotation, but  they  should  both  plays  very  athletic. He'll  have  some  highlight,  real  dunks. But  like  we  saw,  he  got  to  play  late  in the  season  in  that  NCWA  tournament  game after  Murphy  left  with  an  injury. Um,  he  didn't  quite  look  ready  yet, but  he  did  show  Flashes. The  athleticism,  the  talent  is  definitely  there. So  just  needs  a  little  time  to  put  it  together. I  think  he'll  be  an  important  part of  the  team  moving  forward, but  this  season  it's  still a  little  earlier  than  coaches  would  probably  like. Yeah.  Thinking  about  both  their  games, they're  kind  of  opposites  in  a  way. At  the  forward  spot,  Jarvis  is going  to  provide  that  athletic  that,  wow. Maybe  highlight  real  defensive  plays. Michael  Hurts,  not  going  to  do  that. He's  not  as  athletic. He's,  he  just  doesn't  possess  that  skill  level. But  he's  going  to  do  what  the  team  wants  him  to  do. He's  going  to  run  all  the  right  plays, he's  going  to  do  all  those  things. So  it  might  just  come  down  to  what  Patino  needs  and what  situation  Omers  obviously  has. The  higher  ceiling  it  looks  like, but  he  didn't  look  ready  in  those  games. He  struggles  on  defense  being  in the  right  spots  when  the  defense  is  rotating, ball  screens  are  a  little  bit  tough  for  him  to  guard, so  they're  two  different  players. And  that's  interesting  because  then  Patino can  use  them  in  two  different  ways. Finally,  I  want  to  shift  to  expectations  for  the  team. Last  year  they  had  those  NCA  tournament  expectations. They  got  to  them,  they  achieved  them.  They  won  a  game. It  was  a  successful  season  by  all  accounts  this  season, there  isn't  those  expectations. I  think  everyone's  expecting  them, with  both  Murphy  and  Coffee being  fringe  NBA  level  players, and  leaving  with  Mcbrayer, a  four  year  player,  leaving, that  they're  going  to  take  a  step  back. What  are  your  realistic  goals for  what  this  team  could  achieve? Yeah,  I  think  that  right  now  the  ceiling for  this  team  would  maybe  be  an  NT  birth. They  don't  seem  like  a  tournament  team. Although  players  have  been  saying that  even  though  it's  a  much  different  group  of  guys, the  style  of  play  they  play  in  is  what's  giving  them hopes  that  maybe  that will  allow  them  to  be  a  little  more  competitive. Because  they're  not  going  to  be  trying to  play  the  same  style  of offense  with  different  personnel.  They'll  adjust. I  think  if  we  tried  to  look at  this  team  playing  the  same  offense  they  did  last  year, trying  to  have  a  power  forward  muscle  is  way  inside. They  just  don't  have  a  guy  who  can  do  that  right  now. So  they're  going  to  spread  it  out. We'll  see  if  it  works because  we  haven't  seen  it  in  action  yet. But  a  lot  is  going  to  have  to  go  right, if  they  are  competitive  in  the  Big  Ten  this  year. Well,  let's  do  that  a  little  bit  just  to  give some  Gopher  fan  some  hope about  another  NCA  tournament  berth. Finish  the  sentence.  For  me  to  make  the  NCA  tournament, the  Gophers  need  to  do  what? Well,  they're  going  to  have  to  probably shoot  much  better  from  three  point  range. They'll  probably  have  to  shoot over  35%  this  year,  at  least.  And  then I  mean  they'll  have  to  figure out  the  power  forward  position because  right  now  they  have  a  lot  of guys  who  are  unknown. They're  going  to  need  at  least  one  guy  to step  up  and  reach  his  potential  right  away. They'll  turn  to  Ali, hand  Demir  first.  He's  most  experienced. I  think  he  is  the  most known  commodity  out  of  all  of  them. But  they're  going  to  have  to  hope  that everybody  plays  up  to  their  potential  at  the  fore. So  they  don't  just  have  a  void  there  offensively, they  need  some  power  forward  who  can  pair  with Oturu  in  the  front  court and  they  can  go  to  them  for  points? Yeah.  I  think  my  keys  would  be  they  kind  of need  Kalser  and  Oturu  to  be  the  Murphy  and  the  coffee. They  need  both  those  guys  to  take  another  step. They  both  had  really  good  freshman  seasons. Both  of  them  were  solid  recruits, but  I'm  not  sure  everyone  totally expected  them  to  come  out  and  have  that  much  production. Kalser  was  a  really  good  defender. Every  game  I  watched  him, I  saw  him  defending the  wing  and  especially  Carson  Edwards. I  remember  watching  those  games  and  Kalser  was just  doing  a  really  good  job  defending  him. And  Oturu  possesses  that  talent  to  do  that  as  well. So  if  they  can  kind  of  shift  into those  roles,  maybe  that  gives  them  a  chance. And  then  if  Marcus  Ark  can  give  them that  traditional  point  guard  role, I  could  see  them  maybe  doing  well. And  the  one  other  thing  that  every  team  wishes  for  is just  a  clean  bill  of  health  because  I  think the  starting  five  is  not  bad  Car. Willis  Kucher,  Tuer,  if they  can  figure  out  that  power forward  spot  like  you  said, that's  a  decent  starting  five. That's  a  starting  five  that  could  make  the  tournament. But  when  you  start  looking  at  some  of  those  bench  guys, those  inexperienced  freshmen  omersa  and  hurt who  haven't  been  that  productive throughout  those  careers  here  so  far. You're  going  to  have  to  see  some  of  those  pieces rise  because  the  depth  just  isn't  there  right  now. And  in  the  big  ten, you're  going  to  have  to  show  some  of  that. Nick,  I  thank  you  for  for  coming  in  today  and speaking  with  me  and  will  you  look forward  to  your  coverage throughout  the  rest  of  the  season. Awesome.  Thank  you. In  other  news,  the  volleyball  team  picked  up  a  pair  of road  wins  in  the  state  of Michigan  last  weekend,  beating  the  Wolverines. And  the  Spartans  then  in a  midweek  match  against  Ohio  State, the  Gophers  battled  out  a  five  set  match  victory. They're  now  16.3  on  the  season  and  10.1  in  conference, and  are  ranked  number  six  in  the  country. The  men's  hockey  team  got  roughed  up  a  bit  last  weekend, getting  swept  by  instate  rivals  Minnesota  Duluth, including  being  shut  out  for  the  first  time  since  2017. They  look  to  rebound  this  weekend  in a  home  series  against  Notre  Dame. The  women's  hockey  team  lost  their  first  game  of the  season  over  the  weekend  to  Ohio  State, and  they  split  the  series  with  the  Buckeyes. Now  this  weekend  they  come home  and  they  look  for  revenge  as they  host  the  number  one  ranked  team  in the  country,  the  Wisconsin  Badgers. The  Gophers  fell  with  the  Badgers  in the  national  championship  last  season. The  series  begins  Saturday  at  02:00  P.M. The  women's  soccer  season  came  to  a  close this  weekend  as  the  team  failed  to qualify  the  Big  Ten  tournament, finishing  312.4  on  the  season. The  wrestling  team  hits  the  mats  for  the  first  time  on Friday  against  California  State  Bakersfield. However,  they  will  do  so  without their  most  notable  wrestler,  Gabel  Stevenson. Stevenson  remains  suspended  after  he  was  arrested this  summer  on  suspicion  of  criminal  sexual  misconduct. He  has  yet  to  be  charged. That's  all  for  this  week.  We  will be  back  again  next  week  to give  you  the  weekly  rundown  on  all  things,  Gopher  Sports. Don't  forget  to  share,  Subscribe  and  Review. We'll  see  everyone  next  week.