Game 11: Gophers host Wyoming 12-14-26

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Ignatius L Hoops

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This is the fifth outing featuring Minnesota and Wyoming. The Gophers are 4-0. In April 2024 Minnesota traveled to Laramie for a WNIT mash-up with the Cowgirls. Rallying from a 40-34 third quarter deficit the Gophers swept to a 65-54 win and a WNIT final four berth.

The Maroon and Gold featured some familiar faces: Battle scored 29, Hart 14, Heyer delivered 8 points and 9 rebounds, while Grocholski grabbed 11 rebounds. Braun ominously sat out with foot soreness,

For the next installment of the series, Wyoming makes the frozen trek to Williams Arena with a much different group of players than suited up for the game two springs ago. The notable exception is the Danish 5’11” guard Malene Pedersen. She is the team’s leading scorer averaging 17.1 points and 4.3 rebounds in 30.9 minutes. And is 17-31 from three. Pedersen was a 2025-26 All Mountain West preseason selection.

The Cowgirls are coached by Heather Ezell now entering her fourth season. She’s finished 3rd, 3rd and 2nd in the Mountain West and made two WNIT’s in addition to last season’s WBIT. This season they were projected 6th in the 12 team league as they attempt to replace both the Mountain West player of the Year and the MW Defensive Player of the Year. Yes, Wyoming would’ve been a better test last season.

This season, Wyoming is 2-5 versus D1 schools with the most recent loss being a 46-56 setback at Colorado. Losses: St. Mary’s 47-56. UT Arlington 44-64, Santa Clara 45-76, North Dakota 45-65 and Colorado 46-56. Wins: Long Beach 72-39 and South Dakota 68-59.

Wyoming’s roster with 9 international players from 6 different countries are experienced travelers so they should be ready to ride next Sunday evening.
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A reminder that the Sunday game is a 5 PM start. Men play at noon on Sunday before us. Hopefully, they do a little clean up of the arena before our game.
 



Just heard announcer Poo-Pah the idea that it gets below zero in Wyoming. I lived their for 7 winters. I'd heard the weather was milder too (not much wind chill like Minnesota) My first week in town, it got down to -28 or lower every night for the first full week I was in town. In fact, you could count on at least 2 weeks (one early and one later) during the winter where the nighttime temps would drop down to -15 to -25 for a full week. That's -25 real temperature with absolutely calm (no) wind. Those were miserable weeks.
 


Who’s doing the announcing? Definitely a radio guy. What happened to the two that usually do it. The one who got so excited was fun to listen to.
 

Gopheritnow said:
Who’s doing the announcing? Definitely a radio guy. What happened to the two that usually do it. The one who got so excited was fun to listen to.
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They're just simultcasting the radio broadcast Justin Gaard and Lynnette Sjoquist? Though I miss too that person (Blythe Whealy?) who gets more excited than Gus Johnson whenever the Gophers make a play.
 
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Gopheritnow said:
Who’s doing the announcing? Definitely a radio guy. What happened to the two that usually do it. The one who got so excited was fun to listen to.
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Gotta admit, this is the best announcing duo that I've heard on Minnesota games on Big Ten Plus. Tough game to broadcast since it's been a blow-out for most of the game.

Also gotta admit that I don't mind or notice if an announcer "seems to be" for or against the team I'm rooting for. I see a lot of people complain if the announcer isn't as excited as I am when my team does something good or doesn't have the same complaints about the refs as I do. That, if I even notice it, doesn't bother me at all.
 

Congrats GG on 1K pts! 3rd player this year!

Overall hard to get really excited about the blowout, because it has made known we haven't had too many issues with these cupcake games. Winning by 25-35 pts lot of 2nd half and Zoey only got in last 3 minutes??? Guessing with games being a week apart, want to get starters working on the things they are in practicing too? Christian did get a little more work with starters which should help. Once Dec 29th comes it gets tough and busier pretty fast.
 

Chico Gopher said:
Gotta admit, this is the best announcing duo that I've heard on Minnesota games on Big Ten Plus. Tough game to broadcast since it's been a blow-out for most of the game.

Also gotta admit that I don't mind or notice if an announcer "seems to be" for or against the team I'm rooting for. I see a lot of people complain if the announcer isn't as excited as I am when my team does something good or doesn't have the same complaints about the refs as I do. That, if I even notice it, doesn't bother me at all.
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I think the announcers doing games on Big Ten Plus are almost always just students at the university that's hosting. So that would be why they're both a little less skilled and a little more enthusiastic about the home team.
 

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Tonight's +/-

Mara 40
Amaya 36
Tori 31
GG 28
Tonga 26
Kena 22
Sophie 23
Glenn 17
Klick 5
Zoey 3
Senden 0
Nia -1
 



thought this was the best Mara has looked in awhile.. maybe just playing now that she got 1k away the away.. or just the rust is finally all the way off.. (which would be great timing)

also the BEST Amaya has looked as far as looking to score.. (we have this Amaya last sunday we win)

congrats to GG on reaching 1k and ofc it was on a 3, because why not

Glenn has been so good for us, where would we be without her tbh! she has 24 assists, 14 steals and 8 TO's so far (coming into tonight)

really wish Nia would have gotten more minutes tonight, especially after how well she played against Alabama AM..
 

Gophers112233 said:
thought this was the best Mara has looked in awhile.. maybe just playing now that she got 1k away the away.. or just the rust is finally all the way off.. (which would be great timing)

also the BEST Amaya has looked as far as looking to score.. (we have this Amaya last sunday we win)

congrats to GG on reaching 1k and ofc it was on a 3, because why not

Glenn has been so good for us, where would we be without her tbh! she has 24 assists, 14 steals and 8 TO's so far (coming into tonight)

really wish Nia would have gotten more minutes tonight, especially after how well she played against Alabama AM..
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This was the best game Glenn has played as a Gopher. She is starting to fit in to the team really well. Thought this was Tonga's best game too.
 

gopherdudepart2 said:
This was the best game Glenn has played as a Gopher. She is starting to fit in to the team really well. Thought this was Tonga's best game too.
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Tonga's first game with us imho was her best.. when she scored 14/7 in 11 minutes.. I just wish our posts could finish at the freakin rim.. between her and Sophie they were 4-11..
 

Another possible side effect of this weak non-conference schedule is a lack of coverage by the local papers. Maybe I missed them but I couldn't find a write-up in either the Star Tribune or Pioneer Press.
 

BBJones said:
Another possible side effect of this weak non-conference schedule is a lack of coverage by the local papers. Maybe I missed them but I couldn't find a write-up in either the Star Tribune or Pioneer Press.
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It was in the Men's BB write up column in ST.
 




Katogopher said:
Miss Kent Youngblood, could always count on a pre game write up (mostly) and post game write up. Star/Trib’s quality is going down fast.
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Agree about the Trib. Since the paper edition is now printed in Iowa, there's never any "late breaking" news anymore. Almost everything in it has been available online for a day or longer. And they cram so many videos into the online version that it's a pain to read. My subscription comes up for renewal in January and I'm going to cancel after being a customer for decades!
 

BBJones said:
Another possible side effect of this weak non-conference schedule is a lack of coverage by the local papers. Maybe I missed them but I couldn't find a write-up in either the Star Tribune or Pioneer Press.
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Even fans find these games irritating and useless. Have to think sportswriters agree. I assume things will pick up when the Gophers play more real teams. (FYI, the paper is not yet printed in Des Moines)
 

I really enjoy the nonconference games against weak teams, as it gives true fans an opportunity to preview new and bench players to see what they might bring to the team this year. But I agree that the Strib's coverage is awful. Why subscribe if you cant get box scores! I don't even see the box scores a day late.
 

thatjanelpick said:
Even fans find these games irritating and useless. Have to think sportswriters agree. I assume things will pick up when the Gophers play more real teams. (FYI, the paper is not yet printed in Des Moines)
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That doesn't explain why the men's weak nonconference matchups still get better coverage than the women.
 

BBJones said:
Guess I didn't dig far enough. Sad that they no longer merit their own headline.
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It is a consequence of unfilled positions at the paper.....as well as they don't "care". Send complaints/concerns to Kathleen Hennessey, editor and senior VP at the Strib to [email protected].

It would take some one at the Strib a few minutes to at least set them up as separate stories. Today's print edition has both the men and women's games report on the back page. Women have a sub headline in that story - about 4 inches of story. No box scores for either game. in print edition, but online links to gophersports.com for game box scores.

St Paul paper on line has a separate story in sports round up that is about the same length. They at least note Grace hitting the 1,000 point mark.

It has nothing to do with strength of schedule or anything else. And, once the Strib printing is done in Des Moines, there will be NO coverage of any evening game next day in print edition due to the extremely early deadlines.

Lack of coverage of Gopher women's sports in general deserves a thread of it's own.
 


GeRoe said:
I really enjoy the nonconference games against weak teams, as it gives true fans an opportunity to preview new and bench players to see what they might bring to the team this year. . . .
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Then the Coach P Gophers are the team for you. Coach P has mastered the NET rankings by slaughtering weak teams, with the Gophers having the lowest average NET wins in the conference, meaning the teams that the Gophers have beaten have the lowest average NET rating:

12/15/2025 Rankings
AP​
NET​
RPI​
AVG NET Ws​
UCLA
4​
3​
1​
61​
Michigan
6​
5​
6​
149​
Maryland
7​
9​
25​
171​
Michigan State
24​
10​
63​
202​
Iowa
11​
11​
5​
132​
Nebraska
23​
12​
11​
157​
Minnesota
​
15​
106​
224​
Oregon
​
23​
10​
166​
USC
19​
24​
13​
144​
Ohio State
21​
33​
50​
203​
Washington
22​
35​
31​
183​
Illinois
31​
36​
28​
186​
Indiana
​
46​
19​
155​
Wisconsin
​
61​
69​
196​
Purdue
​
62​
103​
215​
PSU
​
74​
49​
192​
NW
​
147​
79​
208​
Rutgers
​
153​
139​
222​
 

BigTenGuy said:
Then the Coach P Gophers are the team for you. Coach P has mastered the NET rankings by slaughtering weak teams, with the Gophers having the lowest average NET wins in the conference, meaning the teams that the Gophers have beaten have the lowest average NET rating:
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That average NET win number is helped out by the fact that the Gopher never win against good teams.
 

So let me get this straight, you’re not happy that the average is at 224 yet there are 5 other teams sitting in the 200’s. Look I wish for a stronger schedule as well, but there are more teams that schedule this way than just us. Including one of the teams supposed to be at the top of the conference in Michigan St.
 

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