Reusse: Thoughts on the State of Hoops, from Giannis to JUCO ball

As the Super Bowl approaches and the Vikings have decided on Kwesi-Adolfo Mensah as a scapegoat for being a non-contender in the NFC North, and as spring training approaches and the Twins have split with Derek Falvey after he was charged with hiring a new manager and staff, and as the Olympics arrive in Italy and Wild General Manager Bill Guerin heads there to run the U.S. team after making a phenomenal trade for defenseman Quinn Hughes …

Yes, it is time to discuss some basketball issues here in the State of Hoops. We pause first to congratulate coach Dawn Plitzuweit on her 16-6 Gophers team that will next swat around the Hawkeyes in Iowa City on Thursday, Feb. 5. Next, we address these varied issues in the male division:

The way it is seen here is that there’s a major problem with making a trade for the Greek Freak that would definitely include sending Jaden McDaniels to Milwaukee. That would be the fact that McDaniels, at age 25 and an inch taller than his listed 6-foot-9, is now at least the equal to Antetokounmpo as a team asset. McDaniels is also much more likely to be in the lineup than the 6-foot-11 Giannis is at age 31.

The Freak started missing more games a couple of seasons ago, and that has become a great issue in 2025-26.

Giving up McDaniels, Julius Randle and perhaps Naz Reid in a trade for Antetokounmpo would be ego gone mad for new owners Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez and their expensive new president, Matthew Caldwell.

The excitement of adding Giannis would make those inflated prices attached to tickets downstairs at Target Center easier for the customers to accept, but an already thin roster would be stripped down to the nubbins — and Rudy Gobert would still be around to clog the middle when the Freak wanted to drive.

Just find a shooter who can dribble a little (and not the loutish James Harden) and roll with Anthony Edwards and the surging McDaniels as 1A and 1B in stardom for an entertaining, unpredictable outfit.

It is without question now that the two Division I teams with arenas separated by 4½ miles are making a large mistake by not playing each other in November or December.

What the heck … make it a home-and-home and each team keeps its own gate.

The Gophers had a nonconference game in mid-November against Green Bay in which there were reportedly fewer than 3,000 people in the stands. I’m saying a minimum of 10,000 for a Tommies game would have been a better idea for building interest in a new coach’s program.

Meanwhile, the Tommies generally aren’t close to filling their 5,000-capacity arena for Summit League games. Their conference foes are not bad teams (except for Kansas City), but the North Dakotas and South Dakotas are not perceived as rivals with their fan base, not yet.

The Tommies did get 3,000 visitors in St. John’s red when the Johnnies came for an exhibition Dec. 11.

A Saturday afternoon with nothing to do. Any chance there’s a JUCO game up the road at Anoka-Ramsey, where veteran high school coach Reed Caouette took over when Khalid El-Amin resigned last April?

Yes, at 3 p.m. — Ridgewater, arriving from Willmar with a 14-4 record, taking on the 15-5 Golden Rams. You go to a JUCO game looking for the chaos of constant speed, complaints to the refs and coaches, and athletes not afraid to attempt impossible shots.

You know ... hectic, with athletes who have you wondering how they wound up here, battling fiercely for 40 minutes on this court with 200 people in the stands.

Athletes such as: Preston Thielke, a 6-foot-5 pitching prospect who liked hoops too much to stay away and is now a forward for the Rams. DeAndre Holloway, a 6-foot-7 tower of post-up strength, a Black man raised by adoptive parents in tiny Kerkhoven, Minn. — too quiet to share the tale, my friends at the West Central Tribune have told me.

And the Rams’ Akeem Nelson, a 6-foot-1 freshman from Minneapolis, maybe the best player on the court. Yet Nelson was given a technical foul for dunking in pregame warmups (a college no-no) and then got in an altercation in the second half that led to his second T.

Akeem can play. So can Rams guard Stewart Jones, who was born in Anaheim, Calif., but went to high school in Osakis, Minn. And Tyrese Mayo, a guard from Winter Haven, Fla. … he’s non-stop for Ridgewater.

As is young Ridgewater coach Nathan Thooft. Wow.

Excitable boy. When his Warriors lost by one, well, luckily his wife was nearby to give him a hug.