Sports: Twins spring training is here and Timberwolves face the Thunder (again)

NINA MOINI: Let's talk about the Minnesota Timberwolves. They get a do-over tonight. They lost to the Oklahoma City Thunder in Minneapolis last night, 123 to 130. But in just a few hours, they're going to play them again on the Thunder's home court. Oklahoma City is the top-ranked team in the West, and the Wolves are missing a couple of starters due to injuries.

So joining me now to talk about this and other sports news are our contributors Wally Langfellow and Eric Nelson. So glad you guys are back this week. We didn't get to talk to you last week.

ERIC NELSON: Yeah, we missed you, Nina.

WALLY LANGFELLOW: Good to be back.

NINA MOINI: I missed you, too. We didn't have a show, so. [LAUGHS]

ERIC NELSON: It's all right.

NINA MOINI: Well, all right, so already, we're talking about the Wolves here. And so was that a late game last night? How'd it go, Wally?

WALLY LANGFELLOW: Oh, was it a late game? Yes, that's the understatement of the year.

NINA MOINI: (LAUGHING) I was asleep, so.

WALLY LANGFELLOW: Yeah, as you probably have realized at this point, TV drives everything when it comes to sports.

NINA MOINI: Mm-hmm.

WALLY LANGFELLOW: And yes, the Timberwolves game against Oklahoma City last night tipped off at 8:50 PM, so almost 9:00 PM last night, because it was an ESPN nationally televised double-header game, so it got started a little late, ended a little late. About 11:20 or so is when it finally concluded last night.

But as you mentioned, Oklahoma City won the game. They are the best team in the West. They are the second-best team in the NBA, record-wise, right now.

And they will play again tonight at 7 o'clock in Oklahoma City, so quite a turnaround. So both teams had to get on the airplane late last night. By the time they got into OKC, probably about 3:30, 4:00 AM by the time they got to their hotels, and so on and so forth, so quick turnaround. We'll see if they can turn it back the Timberwolves' way.

As you said, the Timberwolves are missing some key guys. Rudy Gobert is still out. Julius Randle's still out. Donte DiVincenzo's still out.

But you know, we're getting late in the season. You can't really make excuses. The Wolves are now seventh in the West, and you want to be at least in the top six so you don't have to go into a play-in round.

If you're in the top six, you don't have to play in to get into the playoffs. Right now, the Wolves are in that spot. They're a game behind the Clippers, who are in the sixth spot right now, so they have some work to do.

They got 29 points from Anthony Edwards last night, and they got some help from Naz Reid as well as a couple of other guys off the bench. But really, a need for a win tonight because after this, after playing the top team in the West, they have to go play The Lakers.

And the Lakers have been playing much better now, especially now that they've acquired Luka Doncic along with LeBron. They're a pretty big force to deal with. So we'll see how it turns out tonight, but yes, a big game for the Wolves tonight.

NINA MOINI: Yeah, time for them to dig deep, it sounds like. And it's almost March, so a lot of people are going to be focused on college basketball, March Madness. What's the latest on the Gophers, Eric?

ERIC NELSON: Yeah, Nina, here in Minnesota, we use this phrase weather whiplash a lot. Well, how about Gopher whiplash?

NINA MOINI: Mm.

ERIC NELSON: They're a yo-yo team, up one game, down the next. I mean, recently, they completed a very impressive So-Cal sweep with wins at USC, at UCLA, out in Los Angeles. Minnesota comes home, they're going to host lowly Penn State on Saturday, a chance to continue moving up in the Big Ten.

Instead, the last-place Nittany Lions won over the Gophers 69 to 60. And what's frustrating about that for Minnesota and Ben Johnson, the head coach, is the Barn was packed. They had 11,292 fans at that game.

NINA MOINI: Wow.

ERIC NELSON: People were starting to buy in and drink the Gopher Kool-Aid again, and then they lose to Penn State. And this has been a funny team. This is that Gopher whiplash I'm talking about.

Quality wins this season against ranked teams such as Michigan and Oregon. At the Barn, they had court rushes twice, but then clunker losses at home to Washington and Penn State, the other day. Now the Gophers will be right back in action tomorrow night at the Barn when they play Northwestern in Dinkytown.

The Gophers right now tied with Iowa and USC for the 15th spot in what I call the bloated Big Ten, because they now have 18 teams. It's a coast-to-coast conference. But here's the deal.

Only 15 of the 18 will make the Big Ten Tournament in March in Indianapolis, and the Northwestern Wildcats are a half game behind Minnesota, Iowa, and USC. So this is a critical game tomorrow night for Minnesota and Northwestern. I would tell Gopher nation, go back to the Barn and try to get your team a win over a bad team. They seem to only thrive against the good ones.

NINA MOINI: Huh. Well, I hope they have some good energy. The Twins, however, they're just kind of getting started with some spring training. How'd they do with their preseason opener, Wally?

WALLY LANGFELLOW: Well, they played two of them, two preseason openers on Sunday.

NINA MOINI: Oh.

WALLY LANGFELLOW: They beat the Braves. They split their team in two. So they call it split-squad baseball.

They beat the Braves, 3 to 1. They lost to the Pirates, 5 to 1. And, oh, by the way, they were playing today, but that game just got called off by rain after two innings in Tampa against the Rays. And they were tied at 1, and Royce Lewis hit a home run today for Minnesota. But the game has been called because of rain.

But the big news surrounding the Twins really is the ownership group led by billionaire brothers Justin and Mat Ishbia, they have withdrawn their interest in purchasing the team from the Pohlads. And that is big news because there was some talk that deal could potentially have been completed sometime during the season, maybe by early summer, but now that's off the table.

There's some rumors flying around that the Pohlads might just hang on to the team. I think everybody's kind of frustrated by the situation. I'm sure the Pohlads are. I think that they wanted to move ahead, and it looked like they had found somebody that was willing to do it.

And the Ishbias, as I said, billionaires, they own the Phoenix Suns and the Phoenix Mercury, in the NBA and the WNBA, so. And this is an ownership group that has spent money in Phoenix on their basketball team, and they have given breaks on concessions. You don't have to pay $7 for a bag of chips like you do at Target Center right now.

NINA MOINI: Right.

WALLY LANGFELLOW: They have done some good things in Phoenix. I think Twins fans were excited. But now we'll have to wait and see who might step up to the plate next, so to speak.

NINA MOINI: Wait, did they say why they weren't interested anymore?

WALLY LANGFELLOW: You know what? Yes. That's a great question. Apparently, they have a minority ownership in the Chicago White Sox, and they have decided that they want to go more in on that, which is curious to me because the White Sox had the worst team in the modern history of baseball last season.

So why would-- and they don't have-- they contend that they have a stadium problem in Chicago as well. You've got a great stadium in Target Field. You have a franchise that consistently plays well, the Twins, from year in and year out. It doesn't make a lot of sense. Maybe we don't want the Ishbia brothers here, if they're making dumb decisions like trying to get behind the White Sox instead of the Twins.

[LAUGHS]

It is a quandary, if you ask me. That's a great question, though.

NINA MOINI: Oh, yeah, you weren't expecting that follow-up, were you? [LAUGHS]

WALLY LANGFELLOW: No, it was good.

NINA MOINI: Thanks.

WALLY LANGFELLOW: I'm glad you asked me.

NINA MOINI: Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, it's a bizarre situation, but maybe it just wasn't meant to be. Let's talk about football. So NFL scouts, I understand, are in Indianapolis to look for potential draft picks, Eric. Where do the Vikings fit into that picture?

ERIC NELSON: Yeah, Nina, the NFL was out of the news cycle for a total of, what, eight days? And the shield, as some people call the NFL, just has to be in front of every camera and out there in cyberspace and on the radios and in the newspapers. They love attention.

And the NFL Combine does start today in Indianapolis at Lucas Oil Stadium. It runs through March 3. The Minnesota Vikings, along with 31 other teams in the League, will have a contingent of scouts and coaches there.

And I call this the NFL Olympics. There aren't many footballs inside the stadium in Indy. It's more like a cattle call of potential draft choices, and they are put through various drills and tests.

NINA MOINI: Huh.

ERIC NELSON: 329 prospects have been invited to Indianapolis so they can run sprints, do cone and agility drills, take IQ tests. I mean, they go through a battery of workouts in front of these coaches and scouts.

Now, the Combine has been in Indy since '87, and in my opinion, this is paralysis by analysis. There are players who had excellent college football careers, they go to the Combine, and maybe they don't run a 40-yard dash as fast as the scouts want, and their draft stock will drop.

I think it's ridiculous, personally. Too much weight is put on something that doesn't involve football. Now, there are six players from the U of M who got invites to the Combine, so it's a big few days for these individuals-- offensive lineman Aireontae Ersery, quarterback Max Brosmer, wideout Daniel Jackson, defensive lineman Jah Joyner, linebacker Cody Lindenberg, and defensive back Justin Walley.

NINA MOINI: All right.

ERIC NELSON: So they're down there with all the other prospects.

NINA MOINI: All right. Wally and Eric, appreciate you guys so much. Thanks as always.

ERIC NELSON: Thanks, Nina.

WALLY LANGFELLOW: Thanks, Nina.

NINA MOINI: That's our sports contributors, Wally Langfellow and Eric Nelson. I'm Nina Moini. Thanks for listening.