Souhan; Pitino Has Done A Good Job Coaching [PODCAST]

The Gopher men's basketball team is ranked 16th in the AP poll and 17th in the Coaches poll this week in Division I college basketball. Star Tribune Sports Columnist Jim Souhan joined me on WJON today. He says Gopher head coach Richard Pitino has done a great job coaching this team with all the new faces playing key roles on the team. He says you can see the improved chemistry and team defense over the past few weeks. He says this quick improvement and key roles for transfers will likely lead to more transfer choosing Minnesota in the future.

The Gopher men's hockey team is ranked #1 again this week the USCHO.com Division I poll. Jim says the success of Gopher hockey is flying a bit under the radar this season due in part to the pandemic. He says there was a time that Gopher hockey was the hottest ticket in town. He says Minnesota not playing traditional in-state rivals and North Dakota often has taken some of the interest away. He says he isn't surprised Bob Motzko is doing a good job with this year's team.

The Minnesota began their short training camp Monday in St. Paul. Jim says there is growing interest in this young team with lots of new faces. He says Jared Spurgeon made more sense to be the team captain because of his age and temperament instead of veteran Zach Parise.

The NFL will play 6 wildcard games this weekend for the first time. Jim says he envisioned this all along and wouldn't be surprised to see the NFL expand to 8 teams in each conference next season.