Minnesota is not a basketball state. I first heard about that when I tried to find a publisher for my first and then my second book on Minnesota basketball. Minnesota’s not a basketball state. Minnesota is the state of hockey, meaning I don’t think I really want to publish a book about Minnesota basketball. Being at that time just a stupid basketball fan, I admit that I was shocked. Surely, I had thought, people would want to read about Minnesota basketball. But, no.
And, it’s getting worse, you know. It’s not that long ago that you had Lindsey Whalen and the Minnesota Lynx, and Minnesota seemed to be on the way to becoming the state of girls and women’s basketball, at least. But, again, no. In the past 15 years it seems irrefutable that Minnesota has now become the state of volleyball. It used to be that elite Minnesota high school girl’s basketball teams all had 6-5 centers. But, no more. Now, even elite teams are lucky to have a 6-footer. The 6-5 girls are all playing volleyball. As a basketball fan, all one can do is *sigh.*
Still, the real reason that Minnesota is not a basketball state is that there’s nothing to really rally around. I mean, seriously, one could rally around the Minnesota Lynx but even after 4 official WNBA titles, and 2 unofficial titles (out of which the Lynx very obviously got screwed in 2016 and 2024), Minnesotans are still loathe to rally around the Lynx and the WNBA. Still, the Lynx are one of just 4 “signature” basketball teams in the state of Minnesota, around which a statewide fan base could rally if it were so inclined. But, until the WNBA becomes as glamorous as the NBA, well, we’re still just watching and waiting for the other 3 “signatures” to give us something to rally around.
Minnesota’s signature teams, in case it’s not obvious, are those teams whose name is “Minnesota,” period. No hyphens, no qualifiers, no additional information needed. Just “Minnesota.” And that would encompass the Minnesota Gopher men, the Gopher women and the Minnesota Timberwolves. And, of course, the Lynx. And it goes without saying that the Gopher men, Gopher women and Timberwolves have shown very few signs of being a team that the state of Minnesota could rally around over at least the last 20 years.
The Minnesota Gopher men
The Gopher men have been playing ball since 1895. They’re now in their 130th year. And there have been some dreadful years. There have been 4 one-win Big 10 seasons, though all of those were a long time ago (between 1923 and 1933), just like the long-forgotten national championships of 1902, 1903 and 1919. Or, you could measure dreadful by the “basketbrawl” of 1972, the probation that wiped out a 24-3 season in 1977, the rape scandal of 1985 and the academic fraud scandal that wiped out a Big 10 title and a Final Four in 1997. But, there’s every possibility, I’m very, very sorry to say, that this year the Gophers could achieve their 1st-ever winless season in the Big 10, especially if they can’t make half of their FT.
Last night they snatched defeat from the jaws of victory against an Ohio State team that was ripe to be taken. They led 72-68 with one minute to go in the 1st OT but made 1-of-4 FT and turned it over. They lost 89-88 in the 2nd OT when they made 2-of-4 FT. They also made 1-of-4 FT in the final 3 minutes of regulation. This team has a death wish at the FT line. Last night they were 12-of-27. I could march down on to the floor at the Barn at 75 years of age and make more than 12-of-27 FT.
The Gophers were once (2007-2012) coached by 2-time national champion Tubby Smith, who won 60 percent of his games and, OK,. just 39 percent of his Big 10 games. They fired Tubby’s ass in favor of Richard Pitino, who won 53 and 36 percent of his games. Then they fired Richard and they’ve won 43 and 25 percent of their games since. The last time the Gophers hired a new coach who made the team better was, er, Tubby, and before that it was Bill Musselman in 1972. That, my friends, is 50 years of declining fortunes. The reasons are many, and that’s the point. It’s not just one thing, but it’s always something.
Minnesota Timberwolves
The Timberwolves are now on something of a run. OK, no, they’re not. They’ve won 4 of 7. It’s just that that feels like a run after 3 straight losses, including that embarrassing Karl Towns revenge game. But that wasn’t a whole lot more embarrassing than a loss to the Detroit Pistons. So now they’re 18-17 and 10th in the west. It seems likely that they’ll either have to play-in to the play-offs, which almost guarantees a 1st round playoff loss, or they’re going to miss the playoffs altogether.
The Wolves have of course been a historically unsuccessful franchise in their now 35 years, and so last year was all the more a joyous occasion. The Wolves had finally arrived. Management finally seemed to know what it was doing and to have a plan. Now, just a year, or a half-year later, really, it seems that the plan is in fact the plan that has been used to run the Minnesota Twins into the ground these past 4 or 5 years. That is, profits before wins, and a management style that is nothing other than insane. In other words, keep doing what you’re doing and expect a different result.
Well, maybe that’s not fair, though it took almost half a year to cut the minutes of John Randle and Mike Conley in favor of Naz Reid and Donte DiVincenzo. The only thing we’ve really learned is that Towns was a lot better than people liked to think and Anthony Edwards is not really the 2nd coming of Michael Jordan. And the future of the Timberwolves is no longer the 2nd half of 2025, it’s after the Wolves manage to get rid of John Randle. Everybody is hoping against hope that he opts out this year. The Wolves can’t opt out until 2026. By then Gobert and Conley will be gone, too, and you’d better hope that Rob Dillingham is the 2nd coming of Alan Iverson.
The Gopher women
This leaves us with the Gopher women. That is, the one signature (other than the oft-forgotten Lynx) with a shot at greatness. Maybe not this year. Or, maybe this year. It’s hard to expect greatness from a team that has 2 significant contributors out with injuries, but since Mara Braun and Taylor Woodson went down, the Gophers under coach Dawn Plitzuweit have shown remarkable toughness and tenacity and resilience, winning 3 straight games and coming from way behind to beat a good Illinois team last Sunday. So they’re 3-1 and 5th in the Big 10 with one more winnable game (Rutgers at home tomorrow [Wednesday]) before the schedule toughens up. I see greatness in the Gophers future not just because of the 5 or 6 key women on today’s roster, but because I see toughness becoming a key ingredient in the culture, which has not otherwise been the case in recent years.
I wrote many months ago that one day we will look back and say that coach P is the best coach the Gopher women have ever had. Well, we know how fragile basketball success can be here in the state of hockey and the state of volleyball. But, right now the Gopher women are a bandwagon just waiting for some people to hop on.
Signatures
Put it all together and, no, Minnesota is not going to become the state of basketball, not in my lifetime. 5 years from today, the Gopher men will be somewhat improved, the Timberwolves will be essentially what they are now (unless they’re in Seattle), and the Gopher women will be a consistently successful team, but not extravagantly so. Still, it’s easier to catch up to the powers of Big 10 women’s basketball than it is for the Gopher volleyball team to catch Nebraska, Penn State and/or Wisconsin or Gopher football to catch Ohio State, Michigan and Penn State. Or, well, it was until UCLA and USC came on board. Still, I see the Gophers matching the early years under Pam Borton, when they won 95 games in 4 years before Pam’s little snafu.
Then add to that a WNBA title for the Lynx next year. You might recall that after they got hosed out of the 2016 WNBA title, they bounced back to win it in 2017. So after being similarly hosed in 2024, it says here that they’re going to get their revenge in 2025. And, so, maybe, just maybe Minnesota can over the next several years become at least the state of women’s basketball.