Hello  and  welcome  back  to the  weekly  rundown  presented  by  the  Minnesota  Daily. I'm  your  host,  Paul  Hodowonick, and  we  are  back  after the  week  off  for  Thanksgiving  break. And  a  lot  has  happened  since  then. The  Gophers  football  team  mainly  had a  very  disappointing  end  to an  otherwise  historic  regular  season. And  another  sport,  the  Gophers basketball  team  is  kind  of  getting  into the  swing  of  their  season  and  getting ready  to  start  off  Big  ten  play  here. So  I  kind  of  want  to  break  down  a  little  bit of  both  football  and  basketball  today. So  to  do  that,  we  have our  assistant  editor,  Nick  Young,  him, who  covers  both  teams, and  he's  in  studio  for  us  today.  How  are  we  doing,  Nick? Nick,  you're  doing  fantastic,  Paul. Alright,  we'll  make  sure  to  check out  all  of  Nick's  work  online  at mndaly.com  or  pick  up  a  paper  at  any  building  on  campus. So  I  want  to  start  with  football  first. We're  just  going  to  do  some  headlines. So  yesterday,  offensive  big  ten  awards  were  announced. The  day  before  the  defensive  player and  coaching  awards  were  announced. And  predictably,  with  a  team that  was  in  the  top  ten  for  a  while,  they  had  some  guys. So  obviously,  PJ.  Fleck,  one  coach  of  the  year, just  the  coaches  part  of  that. Ryan  Day,  the  Ohio  State  head  coach, won  the  media  vote. And  then  Antoine  Winfield  Junior won  defensive  back  of  the  year, and  Rashod  Bateman,  one  wide  receiver  of  the  year. So  I  think  both  those  are  well  earned. They  were  maybe  our  two  best  players,  one  on  offense, one  on  defense,  And we  didn't  totally  know what  to  expect  from  either  of  them. Maybe  coming  into  the  season,  obviously, Winfield  was  coming  off  the  injuries, and  he  did  better  than  I  think  anyone  may  have  expected. And  Bateman  kind  of  took  off. And  maybe  even  like  went  ahead  of Tyler  Johnson  in  terms  of wide  receiver  rankings  on  this  team. And  then  a  host  of  others  made  the  all  big  Ten  teams. Tanner  Morgan  was  on  the  second  team. Carter  Kuglin,  Tyler  Johnson  was  first  team. And  then  a  ton  of  oftens of  lineman  on  the  third  team  as  well. But  I  think  the  more  interesting  headline that  people  are  worried  about, concerned  about  fired  up  about is  the  college  football  playoff  rankings. They  were  eighth  before the  Wisconsin  game.  Wisconsin  was  12. And  then  after  losing  to  that  team, they  dropped  all  the  way  to  18th. So  that's  a  ten  spot  drop. I'm  not  sure  I  expected  that  much. Do  you  think  that's  a  fair  assessment? Do  you  think  that  was  too  far? What's  your  thoughts  on  that,  Nick? Yeah.  It  was  definitely  farther than  I  would  have  expected, seeing  as  they  were  top  ten  and they  were  ever  since  they  beat  Penn  State, even  after  the  Iowa  loss. Hovering  around  that  top  ten  area, to  see  him  drop  ten  spots  was  a  little  bit  striking. But  they  lost  by  three  touchdowns  at  home  to  Wisconsin. So  they  don't  have  anyone to  blame  but  themselves  for  that  really. I  think  that  the  committee  really  frowns upon  losing  a  big  game  like  that  by  such  a  wide  margin. Yeah,  Watching  the  game, it  didn't  seem  until  that  very  end  when  they  went to  Tyler  Johnson  on  two  straight  plays on  third  and  fourth  down  and  didn't  convert, and  then  Wisconsin  just  marched  back  down  the  field. It  was  pretty  close  there  until the  start  of  that  fourth  quarter. So  I  think  although  it  is  a  lop  sided  score, it  maybe  wasn't  as  lopsided  as  the  score  indicates. But  yeah,  it  was  striking  to  see  them below  some  teams  that  had  lost  three  games, and  some  other  teams  that  had  had some  questionable  losses,  like  Notre  Dame. I  was  ahead  of  them  now. And  probably  that  win  that  they had  was  kind  of  the  motivating  factor  to  put  them  above. But  yeah,  eighteen's  quite  the drop  for  a  team  that  may  be  beating. Wisconsin  is  a  top  five  team. So  to  see  kind  of  the  Ebben  flow and  how  high  they  could  have  been  and then  how  low  they  did  drop. I  think  that  was  kind  of  another gut  punch  for  all  the  fans. A  couple  days  after  the  biggest  gut  punch  of  the  season. What  do  you  think  their  college  football ranking  now  means  for  potential  bowl  implications? Well,  I  would  say  that  being  18th  isn't  going  to matter  too  much  From  what  I've  been  reading  up  on, and  from  what  I  can  gather, they're  probably  going  to  get  that  big  104  slot. So  I  think  they  will  be  behind  Ohio  State, Wisconsin,  and  Penn  State. I  still  think  even  though  they  are lower  in  the  ranking  than  Iowa, I  think  bowl  selection  committees will  probably  pick  them  ahead  of  Iowa. The  only  real  question  with the  Big  Ten  is  out  of  the  Gophers  control  at  this  point. It's  going  to  depend  on  what  Wisconsin  and Ohio  State  do  in  the  championship  game, But  with  also  Penn  State  Idol, I  can't  see  the  Gophers  moving up  into  maybe  the  third  big  ten  slot. I  think  they're  stuck  right  there  at  four  for  now. Yeah.  And  it's  going  to  be  interesting to  see  what  they  do  with  Michigan, what  they  do  with  Iowan, what  they  do  with  Minnesota. Just  'cause  they're  all  really  close  in  that  rankings. They're  close  in  the  AP  rankings. And  a  lot  of  times those  bowl  games  can  come  down  to  each  bowl  kind of  has  stipulations  about  how often  certain  teams  can  play  in  certain  bowls. I  know  Iowa  and  Michigan, and  have  been  in  some  of  the  bowl  games that  Minnesota  and those  other  two  teams  are  kind of  slated  to  potentially  be  in. So  that  could  affect  them,  and  it  might  actually help  them  the  fact  that those  teams  have  played  there  before, because  it  could  kind  of  open  up  a  spot  for  them  in  one of  those  New  Year's  Day  bowl  games. And  it's  looking  like,  kind  of, maybe  specifically  in  Florida, there's  a  couple  games  that  they  could  be  in. So  let's  just  jump  to  that  really  quickly  right  now. Just  what  you  would  predict from  everything  you've  gathered,  everything  you've  read, everything  you've  thought  about where  they  may  be  bowling  this  year. Yeah.  So  based  again,  on  everything  I've  read, it's  looking  like  the  Outback  Bowl is  probably  where  the  Gophers  are  going  to  end  up. As  you  alluded  to,  those  bowl  games  have stipulations  what the  conferences  they're  affiliated  with, that  they  usually  want five  different  teams  in  a  six  year  stretch. So  the  Gophers  played  in  the  Citrus  Bowl  in  2015. So  that's  still  in  that  six  year  window  where the  Citrus  Bowl  probably  isn't going  to  want  to  take  Minnesota  again. And  then  the  Holiday  Bowl, which  is  probably  where  the  Big  105  team  is  going  to  go. I've  heard  that  they  are  trying to  select  between  Michigan  and  Iowa  right  now. Minnesota  played  in  the  Holiday  Bowl  in  2016, so  that's  also  in  that  six  year  window. So  it  seems  like  the  Outback  Bowl, which  is  the  big  104  slots probably  where  Minnesota  is  going  to  slide  in. And  they  would  play  an  SEC  team  in  that  bowl. And  that's  going  to  be  a  big  question  mark. I've  heard  everything  from  Florida  to  Tennessee, Texas  A  and  M,  even  Auburn. So  the  SEC  is  in  a  situation where  they  could  get  two  teams in  the  college  football  playoff. And  depending  on  that,  is  going to  probably  shape  who  the  Gopher's  opponent  will  be. Yeah,  I  saw  an  article  in the  Pioneer  Press  that  was  even,  you  know, there's  an  outside  shot  at  Alabama, which  I  think  probably  caught  people's  attention. But  yeah,  if  LSU  beats  Georgia  and  then  Georgia  slips, and  then  they'd  be  one  of  the  teams. And  then  you'd  see  where  they  rank,  Florida. And  if  they  then  put  Auburn  ahead  of  Alabama, because  then  Alabama  is the  fourth  top  team  in  their  conference  as  well. So  setting  up  some  cool  hypotheticals that  fans  can  think  about. And  right  now,  are  we  sensing that  fans  are  thinking  about  Bowl  games? Are  they  still  disappointed  in  what  has  happened? What  is  maybe  the  team  thinking? I  know  we  haven't  been  able  to  talk  to them  since  right  after  that  loss, but  what  is  just  kind  of  the  mood  of  the  fan  base, mood  of  the  team  right  now  as  we  shift from  what  everyone  thought  was  going  to  be a  big  Ten  championship  week  against  Ohio  State, people  are  going  to  be  booking  their  flights for  Indy  and  now  we're  just  kind  of sitting  at  home  watching  Wisconsin  do  it  again  and just  kind  of  waiting  to see  where  they're  going  to  end  up. Yeah,  this  one  is  still  a  little  raw  for  Minnesota  fans. Obviously,  the  Gophers  haven't  made  it to  the  Big  Ten  championship  game  ever. They  haven't  won  a  Big  Ten  title  in  so  long. So  to  get  so  close, and  then  to  come  up  short,  it  obviously  stings. And  I  think  it  hits  home  for  a  lot  of  people. But  I  would  assume  that  once  people  take  a  step  back, and  I  think  you're  seeing  it  already, that  people  are  realizing this  Minnesota  team  hasn't  gone  10.2  in  a  long  time. This  isn't  something  they  do  every  year. I  think  they'll  look  back  at the  2019  season  with  a  lot  of  positive  memories. As  for  the  team,  they  were pretty  positive  after  the  loss. They,  they  still  have  work  to  do  winning  the  Bowl  game. A  lot  of  the  seniors,  their  focuses  on getting  the  younger  guys  ready  to  step  in  next  year. And  like  they  said, they  accomplished  a  lot of  things  they  hadn't  done  in  a  long  time. So  even  though  it  wasn't  the  result  they  wanted, there's  definitely  a  sense, both  among  the  fans  and  the  team  that this  program  is  headed  in the  right  direction  under  PJ.  Fleck. And  we'll  do  more  of  this  in  the  off  season, but  when  just  kind  of  looking  at  who's  coming  back, they've  got  pretty  much their  entire  offense  of  line  coming  back. They've  got  Morgan  coming  back. We'll  see  what  Antoine  Winfield does  on  the  defensive  side. That's  kind  of  where  more  of  the  losses  are  going  to  be. Carter  Kuglin,  Thomas,  Barbara,  come  on  Martin. But  they're  not  losing  a, a  ton  of  offense  of  talent  which is  where  this  team  has  hung  their  hat. Obviously  they're  going  to  lose  Smith  and  Brooks, but  they  still  have  Ibrahim. They're  still  going  to  have  Bateman, they're  going  to  have Demetrius,  Douglas,  Risotman  Bell. So  there's  a  lot, even  though  that  this  season  ended  the  way  it  did, a  lot  of  these  guys  are  going  to be  hungry,  they're  going  to  be  back. And  it's  not  going  to  be a  whole  new  cast  of  characters  where they  got  to  start  over  once  again. The  bowl  will  be  announced  on  Sunday. That'll  come  after  all  the  conference championship  games  have  been  played, and  we'll  know  their  fate, and  we'll  have  a  month  to deliberate  who  we  think  is  going  to  win  that. If  they  lose  that  game, then  I  think  fans  might really  start  to  spiral  a  little  bit  more  than  they  have. But  if  they  come  out  strong,  show that  they're  force  to  be reckoned  with  outside  of  the  Big  Ten  conference. I  think  you  have  to  come  away  with this  season  looking  at  it  positively, even  though  you  didn't  get that  ultimate  shot  against  Ohio  State. Now  I  want  to  transition  to  basketball. So  a  little  different  story  for  the  basketball  team. They  are  not  off  to  a  eight  start  or  anything  like  that. Like  the  Gopher  football  team  is, they  are  4.4  right  now. And  they  just  wrapped  up  their  nonconference  schedule, and  they  just  wrapped  up  with  their  first  win against  a  non  conference  Power  five  team. They  had  lost  to  Utah,  they  had  lost  to  Butler, they  had  lost  to  Oklahoma. All  those  power  five  tests that  fans  had  kind of  looked  to  and  then  they  dropped  a  game. Paul  who's  a  really  good  team, that  is  nine  and  no  this  season. And  people  are  forecasting  good  things, so  the  losses  have  come  to  good  teams  or  major  teams. There  haven't  been  huge  upsets, but  still  little  cause for  concern  in  considering  this  team  was a  tournament  team  last  year and  the  expectations  weren't  super  high. But  people  were  excited  based  on  last  year, and  totally  haven't  been met  with  that  same  excitement  this  year. But  again,  they  won  against Clemson  in  their  last  game  out. So  what  worked  well  for  them  in  that  game, What  can  we  kind  of  see  that  maybe  is  starting to  round  into  form  as  we  head  into  Big  Ten  play. Well,  what  happened  against  Clemson  is  Marcus  Carr  had his  best  game  of  the  year  so  far and  that  really  helped  spark  the  offense, had  24  points  and  nines.  And They  were  finally  getting  production  at the  point  guard  position  which  is something  they'd  been  lacking  for  so  long. And  having  Card  to  work  in tandem  with  other  guards  like  Calcher  and  Willis. That's  a  huge  boost  for that  back  court  knowing  they  can  have three  guys  back  there  in  the  starting  lineup who  they  can  rely  on  and  I  mean, they  just  held  onto  the  momentum. It  was  their  most  complete  game, their  most  consistent  game  they  led  from  start  to  finish. Clemson  was  never  really  able  to  go  on  a  big  run that  I've  seen  in  a  lot  of other  games  this  year  with  the  Gophers. That's  been  their  downfall  a  little  bit. They've  lost  momentum  and haven't  been  able  to  get  it  back. I  don't  think  Emson  was  ever  able  to string  enough  buckets  together to  take  that  away  from  the  Gophers. And  they  were  just  able  Minnesota  was  just  able  to build  a  steady  lead  and  build  on  it  throughout  the  game. Yeah.  And  I  know  Patina  has  talked  a little  bit  about  he  didn't  forecast  maybe the  cast  of  characters  he  was  going  to have  this  season  for  this  tough  nonconference  schedule. It's  one  of  the  toughest  in  the  country. Remember  after  the  North  Dakota  game, he  said  he  thought  he'd  still  have  a  mere  coffee. He  thought  Eric  Curry  would  be  back. So  what  have  they struggled  with  in  those  games  that  they  have  lost? And  like,  what  is  maybe  holding  them  back from  being  a  better  team  than  they  have  been  so  far? Yeah,  it's  a  lot  of  consistency  issues  right  now. So  free  throw  shooting  has  been a  well  documented  struggle  of  this  team. So  far  they're  only  shooting  63%  on  the  year  right  now. That  has  to  improve  in  big  ten  play. If  you  want  to  beat  quality  opponents, you  can't  be  leaving  points  at the  free  throw  line  like  this  team has  been  doing  three  point  shooting. It  has  been  a  lot  better  this  year  for  this  team. Most  three  pointers  made  in  the  big  ten, which  is  a  stark  contrast  from  last  year. And  they're  dead  last,  their  fourth and  three  point  shooting  percentage. But  you  can  look  at  the  splits  at  home  and  away. The  teams  shot  a  lot  better  at  home. Particularly  in  victories,  they  have  shot over  40%  from  the  three  point  line in  three  of  the  four  victories. And  then  in  three  of  the  four  defeats, they've  shot  under  30%  from  behind  the  arc. So  they're  living  and dying  from  the  three  point  line?  A  little  bit. Yeah.  And  that's  something  the  Gopher  fans have  not  really  been  able  to  say  recently. It's  usually  O  ball  penetration, getting  into  the  lane,  kind  of  bullying yourselves  in  there  and  getting  your  playmakers the  opportunity  to  make  a  play. So  that's  a  little  different  to  here. Is  this  the  start  to  the  season that  was  expected,  coming  in? What  were  fair  expectations? And  have  they  kind  of lived  up  to  those  or  where  are  we  at in  terms  of  kind  of where  you  thought  they  might  be  at  this  point? Yeah.  It  was  tough  to  predict because  they  had  so  many  unknowns. I  wouldn't  say  that  a  4.4 start  seeing  how  they've  played  so  far, especially  considering the  Eric  Curry  injury  is  particularly  surprising. I  could  have  seen  them  winning  a  couple  more  games, maybe  being  6.2  at  this  point. But  I  think  4.4  wasn't  shocking  necessarily. It  was  definitely  on  the  lower  end though  of  what  I  would  have  expected. Sure.  And  I  kind  of  want  to,  there are  so  many  new  faces  that are  playing  in  major  roles for  this  team  compared  to  last  season. I  kind  of  wanted  to  get  your  take on  each  one  of  them  individually. We  kind  of  did  this  a  little  bit  before  the  season, going  through  each  one  of  them. But  I  want  to  get  your  player grades  on  the  starters  and  the  role  players. So  starting  with  Marcus  Car. I  know  it's  final  season,  so I  kind  of  wanted  to  get  this  in. We're  all  getting  grades  now, so  we  might  as  well  grade  the  players  too. So  we'll  start  with  Marcus  Carr. And  he's  kind  of  been  the  facilitator  on  offense. The  offense  kind  of  seems  to  run  through  him. And  when  he  does  well,  they  do  well. And  when  he  doesn't,  they  haven't  done  as well  so  far  this  season. What  would  you  give  Marcus  Carr? Yeah,  I  would  give  him  a  B  minus  right  now. I  think  consistency  has  been  the  thing  with  him. He  scored  over  ten  points  in  all  but  two  games. So  that's  pretty  positive  production  from  him, although  free  throw  shooting  from him  in  particular  has  been  a  struggle  so  far. That's  an  area  he  needs  to  improve. But  he  did  do  so  against  Clemson, he  bounced  back  from  a  depaul  gamer, only  scored  four  points  to  have his  best  performance  of his  career,  arguably  against  Clemson. And  then,  like  you  said, he's  the  facilitator  out  there, he  is  53  of  the  teams  131  assists  so  far. So  he  is  filling  an  important  role  at the  point  guard  position  and  one that  kind  of  they  didn't  have  last  year. And  he's  really  stepped into  that  role  and  given  him  a  new  dynamic  on  offense. All  right,  and  then  next  up  is  Peyton  Willis. And  Nick  just  wrote  about Marcus  Carr  and  Peyton  Willis and  their  kind  of  connection. They  both  sat  out  last  year  due  to  transfer  rules. So  make  sure  again,  to  check  out  that  online  at Mendaly.com  but  they  seem  to  develop  a  connection. And  he  again,  has  been kind  of  one  of  their  best  sharpshooters. That's  kind  of  where  they  look  to  him. So  how  is  he  done  so  far  this  season? Yeah,  I'll  give  Willis  A  B.  I  think  Carr  going into  the  year  was  a  little bit  more  talked  about  in  terms  of Those  transfers.  But  Willis  has been  really  solid  so  far  leading  the  team  in three  point  shooting  at 38%  He's  been  a  little  bit of  a  microcosm  of  how  the  team  has  gone. If  you  look  at  his  splits  at  home, he's  shooting  in  the  high  40% from  the  three  point  line on  the  road.  He's  been  much  lower. But  he  definitely  has  filled  in  pretty well  a  little  bit in  the  role  that  Amir  Coffee  played  last  year. They  are  much  different  styles  of  player, but  he's  filled  in  as  that  sort of  longer  guard  and  been  able  to  do  a  good  job. He's  fit  right  into  the  offense. Looks  really  comfortable  out  there  so  far, and  I  think  that  Gophers  have  been pretty  pleased  with  what  he's  given  him. Yeah.  And  that  third  guard  forward  type  player  that they've  thrown  into  the  starting  lineup is  a  returning  player. A  sophomore,  Gabe  Kalscher, who  had  a  really  promising  freshman  season. And  you  could  kind  of  see  the  foundation being  laid  by  him. Strong,  deep  range  shooter  and  good  on  ball  defender. So  have  those  things  continued and  where  is  he  at  so  far?  Eight  games  in. Yeah,  he's  got  off  to  a  little  bit  of  a  slow  start, but  over  his  last  three  or  four  games  or  so, the  three  point  shooting  has  come  around. So  yeah,  I'll  give  him  a  C  right  now. And  you  are  seeing  him  make a  little  bit  of  improvements  with  his  game. He's  driving  a  little  bit  more, getting  to  the  rim  a  little  bit  more. Making  it  so  defenses, you  can't  crowd  him  on  the  three  point  line  too  much. They  have  to  respect  the  drive  a  little  more. So  you  can  see  some  new  wrinkles  he's  put  into  his  game and  the  three  point  shooting is  going  to  come  along  for  him. So  I  think  it  was  you  know, teams  now  having  to  defend, Willis  and  Car  to  as  they start  to  turn  around  that'll  just  open  up more  opportunities  for  Calher along  with  what  Tour  was  doing  inside. So  I  think  he  fits  right  into this  offense  and  I  expect  his  play  to  improve. All  right,  we're  going  to  save  tour  for  the  end but  our  next  up, fourth  up  is  the  guy  who's  been starting  in  that  number  four  role  for  most  of  the  season. That's  Alhan,  mere  senior  transfer  from  Drexel. People  didn't  really  know  to  expect  with  him. I  don't  think,  I  don't  think  he  was  supposed  to  start, he  was  kind  of  supposed  to  be  the  back  up  to  Eric  Curry. So  he's  kind  of  been  thrown  into  a  role  that  maybe  he wasn't  or  Patina  wasn't sure  or  wasn't  super  comfortable  with  him  being  in. But  he's  had  some  really  bad  games. He's  had  a  couple  better  games  as  of  late. Where  is  he  at  currently? Yeah,  I'll  give  him  a  manus. Based  on  the  body  of  his  work. So  far,  he  was  thrust  into a  role  that  the  Gophers  weren't  expecting  from  him. They  wanted  Eric  Curry  to  be  at  that  powerful  position. So  I  think  they  took  the  mirror  in  with  the  expectation that  he  would  play  a  role similar  to  what  Matt  Stockman  did  last  year. Not  play  a  whole  lot,  but  if  they  needed somebody  when  one  of their  starters  in  the  front  court  got  in  foul  trouble, he  could  fill  in  for  five  to  10  minutes, give  him  some  quality  play. But  I  think  so  far he's  had  to  be  out  there  longer  than  that. And  we've  seen  a  little  bit  that  he's  not quite  adjusted  to  high  major  competition  so  far. Yeah.  And  then  the  guy  that  started the  one  game  he  hasn't  started  was  Jarvis  Omersa. Really  raw  talent,  really  didn't see  much  of  him  last  year,  really. Only  until  the  CA  tournament  games  when  Murphy  got  hurt. Omersa  kind  of  got  thrust  into  a  different  role. And  he's  kind  of  had that  same  role  this  season,  getting  more  minutes, and  he  had  an  encouraging  game  against  North  Dakota, but  again,  another  up  and  down  season,  where's  he  at? Yeah,  I'll  give  him  a  solid  with  Omersa, you're  going  to  get  a  lot  of highlight  plays,  very  athletic. He  seems  to  be  good  for one  really  exciting  L  up  each  game. But  you  saw  that  game  he  started  against  Utah, filling  in  for  Demir  and  that  one. And  Utah  jumped  out  to  a  160  start. And  Patina  was  pretty  candid  as  to  why Demir  went  in  the  starting  lineup. After  that,  you  start  out  160  with  Omersa  on  the  court. And  I  think  Omersa  only played  about  5  minutes  in  that  game. Went  back  to  the  bench  pretty  quick, but  it's  encouraging  to  see the  response  from  a  young  player. He'll  be  important  to  the  depth  moving  forward. Like  he  said  against  North  Dakota, he  had  11  points,  nine  rebounds. That's  the  Gophers  will  take  that  from  him  any  day. So  I'll  give  him  a  C  right  now. And  then  finally,  probably the  player  that's  been  playing  the best  has  been  Sophomore  Daniel  Turo. He  just  kind  of  seems  to  have  taken  a  step  up  now, kind  of  in  that,  like  he's  kind  of  the  guy  down  low. Last  year  he  was  second  to  Murphy,  which  rightfully  so. But  now  he's  kind  of  getting  his  time  to  shine. He's  extended  his  game  out  to  the  three  point  line. He's  taken  those  and  he's  actually  making  them. It's  not  just  to  keep  him  honest, he's  like  he's  actually  hitting  them  and he's  a  bit  of  a  threat  out  there. So  arguably  the  Gophers  best  player  so  far. Where  is  Oturu  slated? Yeah,  I'll  give  Oturu  and  a, he's  done  everything  the Gophers  could  have  asked  for  him. With  the  departure  of  Jordan  Murphy, graduating  Oturu  has  gone  to  work  down  low, averaging  17.5  points,  almost  11  rebounds  a  game. I  think  that's  exactly  what the  Gophers  wish  to  get  from  him. And  like  you  said,  he's  hit  412  from  three, he's  added  that  to  his  game. Really  looking  like  the  most  improved  player  out  there. Looking  like  one  of  the  better  big  men. The  big  ten  already. So  Daniel,  to  definitely the  standout  player  from these  first  eight  non  conference  games  for  the  Gophers. And  the  big  thing  with  him  is  just  to  always  watch, to  see,  to  make  sure  he  stays  in, out  of  foul  trouble. That's  kind  of  his  Achilles  heel, sometimes  getting  fouls  early. And  then  that  really  sets the  gophers  kind  of  off  for  the  rest  of  the  game. So  quickly,  what  should  we expect  now  that  they  head  into  Big  Ten  play? Their  next  game  is  Monday  at  Iowa. A  tough  team  right  away  to  start  the  Big  Ten  slate. So  what  should  we  expect  a  is  they kind  of  get  rolling  against  these  conference  opponents. Yeah,  so  interesting. First  couple  match  ups  here  in  the  Big  Ten, against  Iowa,  and  then  against  Ohio  State  next  Sunday. Two  of  the  better  big  men  in  the  big  ten, they're  going  to  be  going  against  What  should  be a  really  intriguing  match  up  for  U. You  got  Luka  Garza  at  Iowa  averaging  20  points, ten  rebounds  a  game. And  then  Caleb  Weston  at  Ohio  State, another  really  talented  center, averaging  12  points  in  about  nine  rebounds  a  game. So  good  test  for  Tu. As  for  the  conference  at  large, they  had  an  encouraging  week  in the  Big  Ten  ACC  challenge, went  8.6  got  some  big  wins  out  of  Ohio  State  last  night, Perdue  as  well  knocked  off  Virginia, so  they  got  some  quality  victories. I  would  say  that  there  is  some  room  for the  Gophers  to  get some  victories  over  some of  the  lesser  teams  in  the  conference. Wisconsin's  off  to  a  pretty  similar 4.4  start,  as  is  Nebraska, who  looks  like  they're  still  figuring  things out  under  Hoiberg  over  there. And  then  teams  like Northwestern  have  a  couple  bad  losses to  mid  majors  so  far, and  Ruckers  might  be  a  little  bit  improved, but  still  not  ready  to  compete  in  that  conference. Near  the  top,  I  would  say  there  are about  maybe  678  wins  out  there  for  the  Gophers, maybe  a  few  more  if  they  can  pull  off  some  upsets. But  still  not  quite  enough. I  don't  think  that  Minnesota getting  close  to  the  bubble  for  the  NCD  tournament, Well,  that'll  be  what  we're  going  to be  watching  all  season  and  that's  what Nick's  going  to  be  reporting  on  and  covering  all  season. So  thanks  for  stopping  in  Nick, and  we'll  look  forward  to talking  to  you  in  the  coming  weeks. Absolutely.  Thanks  so  much. In  other  news,  the  women's  basketball  team has  brought  their  winning  streak  up  to six  games  after  their  latest  win  on the  road  against  Notre  Dame  on  Wednesday. The  Gophers  knocked  off  the  national championship  runner  ups,  75,  67. Thanks  to  a  late  charge  and  20  points from  Godiva  Hubbard. The  Gophers  will  look  to  extend  the  streak  next time  out  against  American  on  Sunday. The  men's  team  took  on  North  Dakota  during Thanksgiving  break  and  didn't  leave the  Gopher  faithful  with  much  to  be  thankful. Four,  Minnesota  was  swept  convincingly, falling  93  on  Thursday  and  three  to  two  on  Friday. They  are  now  58.3  on  the  season. Their  next  series  is  this  weekend  at  Ohio  State. Before  a  three  week  break, the  women's  hockey  team  fared  better  as they  traveled  to  Nashville  for  the  Country  Classic. The  women  tied  Boston  College before  taking  down  Harvard  four  to  zero. They  remain  number  one  in  the  NCA  rankings. Their  next  game  is  Saturday  against Minnesota  State  Mankato  in the  US  Hockey  Hall  of  Fame  game  in  prior  lake. Following  that,  they  also  go  on break  and  don't  return  to  action  until  January. The  volleyball  team  earned  the  number  seven  seed  in the  NCA  tournament  and  will  host the  first  and  second  rounds  of  the  playoffs. This  weekend  they  play  Fairfield  on  Friday, and  if  they  win,  we'll  play  the  winner  of Iowa  State  versus  Creighton  on  Saturday. The  wrestling  team  lost  to  a  tough  Oklahoma  State  team, 21  12.  Last  Sunday. They  continue  to  miss  the  presence  of  Gable  Stevenson, who  remains  out  due  to  his  criminal  investigation. The  team's  next  competition begins  on  Friday  in  Las  Vegas  for the  Cliff  Keen  Invitational.  That's  all  for  this  week. We'll  be  back  again  next  week  to  give  you the  weekly  rundown  on  all  things  go  for  sports. Don't  forget  to  share,  subscribe  and  review. We'll  see  everyone  next  week.