Gopher Sports: Bubble Update

The Bubble update is this—-the bubble is dead. As of the last time we provided a bubble update the University of Minnesota was down to four athletes left in their respective bubbles. As of last Sunday? All of the former Gophers have been eliminated from their bubbles and are back home.

NBA:

Amir Coffey did not see action after the Los Angeles Clippers first playoff series, but he only had to watch one more series. The Clippers were eliminated by the Denver Nuggets in seven games of the Western Conference Semifinals. Hopefully Amir can earn some additional playing time for the Clippers next season, but he will need to earn the trust of a new head coach as the Clippers fired Doc Rivers on Monday.

NHL:

When we last left you both Nick Leddy’s New York Islanders and Nate Schmidt’s Vegas Golden Knights were still fighting for their playoff lives in their respective conference finals. Unfortunately both their teams would lose, Leddy’s Islanders to the Tampa Bay Lightning , and Schmidt’s Golden Knights to the Dallas Stars. The Lightning won the Stanley Cup in six games over the Stars on Monday night. Technically a former Gopher will have his name on the cup as former Gopher hockey star and former Minnesota Wild coach Todd Richards is an assistant for the Lightning.

WNBA:

Rachel Banham and the Minnesota Lynx were getting ready for their one game WNBA second round playoff matchup against the Phoenix Mercury when we last left you. The Lynx pulled out the win 80-79 in which Banham came off the bench to play 15:33 and score 11 points in the win.

The Lynx advanced to the Best-of-Five WNBA Semifinal series against the Seattle Storm...and it didn’t go so well. The Storm owned the Lynx this season winning both regular season matchups and then sweeping Minnesota in three games out of the playoffs and the bubble. Game 1 was the closest where the Lynx lost an a buzzer beating putback 88-86, and the series just got more and more lopsided with the Storm winning 89-79 in Game 2 and 92-71 in Game 3. Banham scored six points in 15 minutes of time in Game 1, scored six points in almost 25 minutes of play in Game 2, and had her worst game of the season when it hurt the most going 0-10 from the field in just over 19 minutes of action in Game 3.

So the Bubble is now over for former Gopher athletes and we can fully turn forward to looking at the current ones as they gear up to begin their seasons for football in about a month and in basketball and hockey in November. Of course there are still the former Gophers playing in the NFL as well to watch.