Stanzel’s Sports Takeout — BREAKING NEWS: 4.8.24
Tell a friend to sign up for The Takeout here!
Coin toss tonight in Phoenix. Give me UConn.
Two-time Minnesota Miss Basketball Tessa Johnson’’s Gamecocks finally took down Caitlin Clark. Complete team effort from the best team in women’s college basketball this season. So much for a rebuilding year for South Carolina. This won’t come as a surprise to many Minnesota fans, but Iowa fans are just insufferable, or at least they were at the local watering hole I was at in Des Moines for the semifinal. Paige Bueckers is the second best player of this class, and the third isn’t all that close.
Masters Week is upon us.
I think I know a lot of smart people, and then Wrestlemania hits.
You can’t be mad at the college sports portal and laud John Calipari’s move to Arkansas because one booster made it happen.
Wolves Beat Lakers; Tied for First with Four Games Left
Just give Naz Reid the Sixth Man Award now. Of course he’s not a sixth man with Karl-Anthony Towns out of the lineup, but Reid hit six 3-pointers en route to a game-high 31 points as the Wolves knocked off the Lebron-less Lakers 127-117 last night in L.A. The Lakers also played the last three quarters without Anthony Davis, who left with an eye injury.
The Wolves used a 19-point second quarter advantage to take control of the game and were never seriously threatened
The Wolves and Nuggets are tied for first, a game up on Oklahoma City. Minnesota and Denver will meet on Wednesday - a game that’ll be the third in four nights for the Wolves, including trips from L.A. back home and then out to Denver.
Per Jimmy Knutsen on Twitter (I’ll always call it that, sorry), with the Wolves’ 54 wins this season, Chris Finch has more victories in one season than 10 Wolves coaches have in their entire tenure.
Wild’s Wallstedt Gets First NHL Shutout in Second Game
I watched Jesper Wallstedt give up five goals in two periods Friday in Des Moines. He allowed another two in the third. None were his fault, it’s been a rough year for the Baby Wild.
Things got much better yesterday in his second NHL start, as the Wall of St. Paul notched a shutout in a 4-0 blowout win in Chicago.
Wallstedt was brought up for one start earlier this season, got lit up for seven goals and hadn’t seen the light of day in Minnesota since. He’s the future, no doubt, and while the only one NHL team has fewer wins than the Blackhawks (10 times shutout in the last 33 games), it was a much more confident Wallstedt yesterday.
It will be interesting to see what happens this summer. Marc-Andre Fleury is a question mark to retire. If he doesn’t, can Bill Guerin trade Filip Gustavsson and give the net to Wallstedt with some Fleury in the mix? The Gus Bus took a big step back in 2023-24 after getting a big raise last off-season. It could be risky, but within two years I expect Wallstedt to be a bonafide No. 1 in this league.
Kirill Kaprizov scored twice to give him his third straight 40-goal season.
Twins’ Bats Continue Silence
The Twins and Cleveland got rained out yesterday. Let’s hope by the time the August makeup game rolls around, the bats will come around.
The Twins dropped the first two games of the series, scoring three runs total. It’s hard to believe this is true, but Minnesota is 0-for-24 in the last two-plus games with runners in scoring position. Twenty four at bats without a hit with a man on second or third. Just amazing. Would you believe that former Twin Michael A. Taylor is leading the league in batting average??
The Shohei Ohtani train rolls into Target Field for the next three days. No MLB team has more wins than the Dodgers (eight). James Paxton vs. Bailey Ober’s 54.00 ERA tonight.
Sponsor The Takeout
Sponsorship packages are available! The Takeout is a great spot to advertise your small business. Get thousands of eyeballs on your product every month. E-mail ryanstanzel@gmail.com
NETWORK PARTNERS
