Bueckers’ college career victory and other Minnesota sports news

NINA MOINI: Paige Bueckers' college basketball career ended with a national championship yesterday. She walked off the court with a couple minutes left in the game, hugging her coaches as UConn finished the game 23 points ahead of South Carolina. The star guard from Hopkins, Minnesota, dealt with multiple injuries during her time as a Husky, but she said after the game, the whole experience was worth it.

PAIGE BUECKERS: An overwhelming sense of gratitude for everything that's happened. Through the ups and downs, I wouldn't trade it for the world. To be able to be shaped to be the person that I am today and the team that we are today, and obviously, you feel like on the other side of a hard time is a really big blessing. And we stuck to it. We kept the faith. And to be rewarded with something like this, you can't really even put it into words.

NINA MOINI: Bueckers is now expected to be the number one pick of the WNBA draft a week from today. Our sports contributors, Wally Langfellow and Eric Nelson, join me now to talk about this and other Minnesota sports updates. Thanks for being here as always, guys.

WALLY LANGFELLOW: Thanks for having us.

ERIC NELSON: Happy Monday, Nina.

NINA MOINI: So, Wally, I wanted to start with you. Can you just describe what happened during that UConn game? Give us a little summary, because they had a pretty strong lead.

WALLY LANGFELLOW: Yeah. They really dominated. I mean, it was from the get go. They led throughout. And actually, they were able to take their star players, including Paige Bueckers, off the floor early, because the game just was out of hand for the most part. And it's interesting that it happened this way, because South Carolina were the defending champions. And South Carolina has a Minnesota kid as well, Tessa Johnson, who ended up leading them in scoring with 10 points.

NINA MOINI: Nice.

WALLY LANGFELLOW: She's from St. Michael-Albertville. But this was your basic blowout with UConn winning it 82-59. Paige Bueckers scored 17 points. She had six rebounds, three assists. I mean, she walks away as the leading all time scorer in NCAA playoff history for UConn, which is saying something, because they have won 12 national championships. So if you're the all time leading scorer that-- she passed Maya Moore, who, of course, was a star for the Lynx.

So it gives you an idea of the impact that she had at the University of Connecticut and the championship, they win that 12th. The UConn women's program has now won more college basketball titles than any college basketball team in history, passing the UCLA men, who, of course, won all those titles with head coach John Wooden back in the '60s and '70s. They had 11. Well, now UConn has 12. And as you said, she'll be the number one pick in the WNBA draft. Dallas owns it. That's next Monday.

And sorry, Lynx fans. It's not going to happen. She's not coming to Minnesota. She's going to be playing for Dallas, unfortunately. But as I mentioned, Tessa Johnson had 10. She and her teammates won the title last year. She's a sophomore, most likely will be returning to South Carolina next year for her junior year because, let's face it, college athletes, especially women, are making more money playing college basketball than they would in the WNBA.

So most likely, she's going to come back. And oh, by the way, tonight is the men's championship game, and that will be Houston versus Florida. No direct Minnesota connections there. So if you're cheering like I am, you cheer for the team have in your bracket. I'm going Florida.

NINA MOINI: All right. Well, I didn't realize, I guess, that she had struggled with all those injuries, or I had forgotten. So I think she's just such a humble character at such a young age. It's pretty amazing and very exciting for Hopkins and the whole state. But let's move on to something not as exciting, Eric. I guess yesterday wasn't great for the Twins. I know they've had their kind of ups and downs. What happened against the Houston Astros?

ERIC NELSON: Yeah. Minnesota, you've got a problem. Not Houston. This was an epic Minnesota meltdown. I was at the game. Wally was there as well. And the Twins led Houston 7 to 1 after four innings. It looked like they were in cruise control to getting another win, but the Astros kept chipping away at the deficit, and then they tied the game in the ninth inning, when the slumping Yordan Alvarez finally heated up. He hit a two run rocket home run to right field off Twins closer Griffin Jax.

Then the Astros in the 10th inning got a game winning RBI from Jose Altuve. They added one more run, and they pick up a comeback win as Josh Hader pitched the final two innings for Houston. But as impressive as this rally was, Nina-- and believe me, it was-- it's not the most incredible win Houston's ever had at Target Field.

Let's flashback to Memorial Weekend 2018. I was at this one as well. Minnesota leads Houston by six runs in the eighth inning, but the Astros erupt for 11 in the inning, three more in the ninth. They win by eight runs in one of the most dramatic shock and awe comebacks in Houston Astros team history. So the takeaway here is no lead for the Twins against the Astros is ever safe. Now, maybe the good news is there were only 14,638 fans at the ballpark yesterday, a very sparse turnout on what was a pretty comfortable spring day, so not a lot of folks saw it.

Some more bad news for the Twins. Royce Lewis, one of their key players, he's been out [? March ?] with a hamstring injury. Probably going to be out at least three more weeks. Now, the good news is, Nina, the Twins have to forget about this disaster quickly. They play tonight against Kansas City down in Missouri. Cheapest ticket, $2. So it's a seven hour drive, Nina. When you're done, just point it down I-35, and you can get into the ballpark cheap tonight.

NINA MOINI: I've made that drive many a times, because I went to the University of Missouri.

ERIC NELSON: So have I.

NINA MOINI: Yeah. So that was kind of sad, but they've got another opportunity tonight, it sounds like. Wally, let's check in on the hockey world and Wild. So the Stanley Cup playoffs begin in less than two weeks. Is the Wild going to be there?

WALLY LANGFELLOW: Oh, I think so. And by the way, I'm impressed that you went to Mizzou. I didn't know that.

NINA MOINI: Yeah, thank you.

WALLY LANGFELLOW: Very good. A good journalism school, by the way.

NINA MOINI: That's what they said, yeah.

WALLY LANGFELLOW: Well, you're proving it, Nina, on a daily basis.

NINA MOINI: Thanks.

WALLY LANGFELLOW: So yeah, it was a big win for him yesterday, because they had slipped four straight games. And this is not the time of year you want to fall into a losing pattern, because the playoffs are right around the corner. And they'll be part of it. I mean, it would take an epic collapse here down the stretch. They now have a six point lead over Calgary. And in baseball terms, that's a three game lead.

So they would have to lose as many as Calgary would have to win down the stretch here. Highly unlikely. But they did lose four in a row coming into this, so anything's possible. But a big win for them. They beat a good Dallas team. Dallas is one of the top teams in the Western Conference. Marco Rossi got the game winner in overtime. And as I said, they now have a six point lead over Calgary for the last spot, and they're just two points behind St. Louis for the seventh spot. Those are wild card positions.

They'll be on the road to start the playoffs if and when they make it. And like I said, it's probably about an 85% to 90% chance now. I mean, they would really have to slip up. And Calgary has been playing well, and they do play each other in a week or so. But I would say that the Minnesota Wild are headed towards the playoffs. Actually, they play on Friday. I'm going to correct myself. They play at Calgary on Friday. Next game for the Wild is Wednesday. They host San Jose.

NINA MOINI: OK. Why I jump ahead to the Timberwolves, the Wolves? Wally, we talked about this a lot last week, so that's why I want to make sure to update everybody. There was a big sale. What's the latest with the team?

WALLY LANGFELLOW: Well, as we know-- we talked about this last week. The sale has been consummated for all intents and purposes, because Glen Taylor has decided not to appeal the court decision, so it's going to be the Minnesota Timberwolves owned by Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez. They'll be the majority owners very soon here. As for the team, they need to keep winning if they want to get in that top six. They've won a couple. They won a couple over the weekend. They beat both the Nets and the 76ers, so those are good wins.

But it has to keep going. Tomorrow, they're in Milwaukee. They come home both Friday and Saturday this weekend. So they've got their work ahead of them. But yeah, they're in good shape to be at least the play-in game. By the way, I just got word that the play-in game, if it happens, will be at home on Tuesday night. So we don't want to prepare for that, but just be aware that a week from Tuesday, they could be at home should they not get into that six spot, which they are tied in right now.

NINA MOINI: OK. And before I let you guys go, this is exciting hockey news. There's a new all time scoring record, Eric?

ERIC NELSON: Yes, there is. Alex Ovechkin from the Washington Capitals reached the summit yesterday, passing Wayne Gretzky. And it's ironic, because Wayne Gretzky, when he played for Edmonton and the LA Kings and the Rangers and Saint Louis, was known as the Great One. And during this chase, because Ovechkin wears number 8, it was G-R-8. GR8.

NINA MOINI: There you go.

ERIC NELSON: So there's some parallels here. He got goal number 895 Sunday in a loss. The Islanders beat the Capitals 4 to 1, and the game was on the island, Long Island. So the folks in DC didn't get to see it in person, but a lot of Capital fans made the drive to New York to see it. Ovechkin, 1,487 games to break the record. That's the same amount Gretzky played in his career. So Alexander Ovechkin is your top goal scorer ever, and Gretzky was at the game to congratulate him.

NINA MOINI: Very cool. Wally Langfellow and Eric Nelson, thank you as always. And thanks to everybody for listening. Have a great rest of your Monday.