Happy Hour with John Gaskins

"They can't kill us."   That bold and true remark came from Sioux Falls Stampede coach Ryan Cruthers after the  Herd beat Fargo 3-2 in a thrilling winner-take-all Game 5  of the Western Conference Finals in Sioux Falls on Tuesday night.   At the same time, the San Antonio Spurs put the Minnesota Timberwolves on life support in a 126-97 romp in Game 5 of  that  Western Conference Finals series in t...

Our motley crew slices and dices the ugly Game 5 and how the Wolves can turn around and take Game 6 and Game 7, like they did against the Denver Nuggets to reach the conference final two years ago.   Near the top of the list: Julius Randle needs to play about a billion times better. Should this season be his last in Minnesota? 

The Coyotes twice upset No. 1 seed Omaha, capped by a 2-1 nailbiting championship round clincher. Not bad for the No. 4 seed out of six. How did they do it? Why is it not as much of a surprise to the coach as it may be to others?   Wagner also tells the story of his decade at the helm in Vermillion. Before, he had spent his life and softball career in Pac 12 territory — Washington, Utah, and Arizo...

"They can't kill us."   That bold and true remark came from Sioux Falls Stampede coach Ryan Cruthers after the  Herd beat Fargo 3-2 in a thrilling winner-take-all Game 5 of the Western Conference Finals in Sioux Falls on Tuesday night.   Cruthers joined the Happy Host for a look back on Tuesday's epic victory in front of 5,791 howling fans in the PREMIER Center. The second-year head coach also des...

\ That dream house you drive by every once in a while might bring you a smile when you allow yourself a couple seconds to imagine yourself living in it.   Then, reality smacks you when you look up how much it would cost to buy.   SDSU and USD football leaders and fans perhaps felt that on Monday when reading reports of North Dakota State football coach Tim Polasek's new seven-year deal, which was...

Adrian Peterson was named to the Minnesota Vikings Ring of Honor on Monday. He is the NFL's No. 5 all-time leading rusher and tops the Vikings' list. This begs the question — who joins A.P. on the Vikings' all-time Mount Rushmore? The Happy Hour host gives his after a word about two amazing athletic programs in the heart of Sioux Falls.     Death. Taxes. Augustana baseball and softball teams winni...

Adrian Peterson was named to the Minnesota Vikings Ring of Honor on Monday. He is the NFL's No. 5 all-time leading rusher and tops the Vikings' list. This begs the question — who joins A.P. on the Vikings' all-time Mount Rushmore? The Happy Hour host gives his after a word about two amazing athletic programs in the heart of Sioux Falls.   Death. Taxes. Augustana baseball and softball teams winning...

Death. Taxes. Augustana baseball winning NSIC Tournament titles and playing in the NCAA Div. II Tournament.   It doesn't happen every year. It just seems like it.   On Saturday Tim Huber's baseball squad took home its fifth Northern Sun conference tournament title and automatic NCAA Tournament berth since 2014. It is Huber's ninth trip to baseball's big dance in his 18 seasons and fifth in the las...

It was the flying elbow heard round the world.  The NBA's face of the future Victor Wembanyama swung his wing and struck Minnesota Timberwolves forward Naz Reid in the throat, earning a "flagrant 2" foul and automatic ejection in the second quarter of Game 4 of the Western Conference semifinal. In the end, the absence of the 7'4 NBA MVP finalist for over two quarters may have cost the San Antonio...

Make that two college basketball players from South Dakota headed for the big NIL bucks and bright lights of the Big Ten.    A week after South Dakota State's Damon Wilkison announced he is headed to Nebraska, South Dakota's Isaac Bruns — the Summit League's per-game leading scorer (20.8) this past season — on Thursday announced his commitment to Southern California.   Bruns, the 2023 Gatorade Pla...

The South Dakota Sports Lounge is a weekly show, produced by Midwest Sports Plus and hosted by Sioux Falls Live's John Gaskins, that showcases the best and/or most topical sports conversations from the daily sports shows in the Forum Communications family — Happy Hour with John Gaskins (Sioux Falls), Hot Mic with Dom Izzo (Fargo) and The Nate Brown Show (Rapid City). Most episodes also include at...

We start with the 38-point pummeling and where series is headed then move to flopping — how it hurts the NBA and all of basketball. But is the game overall better today than those glory years of the 80's and 90's so many pine? Enjoy a bigger picture Wolves & NBA chat.

On a Thirsty Thursday in Orion Pub, John Gaskins & Trent Singer react to South Dakota native Isaac Bruns choosing Southern California as his NIL landing spot for his final year of eligibility after a few prolific years at USD. Plus, what did a Miami Dolphins executive say about SDSU legend Mark Gronowski after signing the former Jackrabbit and Iowa Hawkeye to an undrafted free agent contract.

Everything matters in constructing a college football juggernaut.   Recruiting, talent, coaching, culture. It all matters and it all adds up. And, oh, yeah... money matters, in case you haven't noticed. The higher the level, the more NIL matters.   But how much does scheduling — who you play, when you play, and where you play them in a season — matter? SDSU coach Dan Jackson gave the Happy Hour ho...

Recruiting, talent, coaching, culture — Augustana's Jerry Olszweski has inarguably mastered that mix in his first 12 seasons. The Vikings are building on seven consecutive winning seasons, won back-to-back NSIC titles in 2023 and '24, and won their first nine games before finishing 9-2 last season.   How have they done it? What is in place in '26 to keep the Vikings rolling? It starts at the top a...

Everything matters in constructing a college football juggernaut.   Recruiting, talent, coaching, culture. It all matters and it all adds up. And, oh, yeah... money matters, in case you haven't noticed. The higher the level, the more NIL matters.   But how much does scheduling — who you play, when you play, and where you play them in a season — matter? SDSU coach Dan Jackson gave the Happy Hour ho...

Tuesday is another big day for our team at Sioux Falls Live as we gear up to host a debate between the 5 candidates for Sioux Falls mayor. Happy Hour hosted Patrick Lalley, Sioux Falls Live's editor, to get a sneak peek at how the debate will take place.   Joe Batcheller, Christine Erickson, Greg Jamison, Jamie Smith, and David Zokaites will take part in a chat centered around public safety. It al...

John returns from his vacation in Palm Springs tomorrow, so today we take you back to last December and our exciting chat with USD's Chris Strevler. That conversation went like this:     The swashbuckling, clutch playmaking. The larger-than-life personality. The fur coat with bare skin underneath in the sub-zero temperatures in the Winnipeg Blue Bombers' CFL title parade.   There is only one Chris...

With John on Vacation in Palm Springs, we've decided to take a look back at some of our best interview since the show officially began last January.    On May 23rd, 2025, we sat down with one of SDSU's all-time great Taryn Christion. Here's how the conversation went:    He rewrote South Dakota State and Missouri Valley Football Conference record books as part of a juggernaut offense that vaulted t...

After some technical difficulties with our chat involving Aidan Bouman, we are finally able to bring it to you with only minor issues.   The USD Quarterback joined us Monday afternoon after recieving word from his agent that the Green Bay Packers have offered him a tryout with the team. He walks us through the conversations he had leading up to draft night, including his tempered expectations.   ...

Why does Kurtiss figure Kalen DeBoer got a huge salary bump from $8.5 million to $12.5 million, landing him in top four? How competitive is Alabama in NIL against other top Big Ten and SEC teams? What does our QB guru think of Tide QB Ty Simpson going to the Rams to back up Matthew Stafford, the Vikings reaching to take an injured defensive tackle, his overall NFL Draft views, Cooper Terwilliger (...

Why a 10-year streak of a player from South Dakota (native or college player) being drafted to the NFL end this year?   North Dakota State's Cole Payton played for only one season while South Dakota State/Iowa quarterback Mark Gronowski (5) and South Dakota's Aidan Bouman (3) played multiple seasons, both finishing among the best their school's history in both wins and production?   So, why was Pa...

Why a 10-year streak of a player from South Dakota (native or college player) being drafted to the NFL end this year?   North Dakota State's Cole Payton played for only one season while South Dakota State/Iowa quarterback Mark Gronowski (5) and South Dakota's Aidan Bouman (3) played multiple seasons, both finishing among the best their school's history in both wins and production?   So, why was Pa...

Happy Hour host John Gaskins tries to answer these pressing post-NFL Draft questions: Why a 10-year streak of a player from South Dakota (native or college player) being drafted to the NFL end this year?   North Dakota State's Cole Payton played for only one season while South Dakota State/Iowa quarterback Mark Gronowski (5) and South Dakota's Aidan Bouman (3) played multiple seasons, both finishi...

Veteran South Dakota political reporter and columnist Patrick Laley, the editor/publisher of Sioux Falls Live and co-moderator of the third and final South Dakota Republican Primary Gubematorial Debate, joins the Happy Hour host at Orion Pub to preview the issues that will be discussed and who these candidates really are.