Mike Hastings

They get Minnesota Duluth.

We got the Mike Hastings homecoming of Wisconsin going back to Minnesota State.

You have your typical North Dakota Bemidji State home and home this weekend that is not on Thanksgiving.

They're throwing that right in my face the second weekend of the year.

You think about Michigan and Michigan State have both been loaded the past few years.

You know, Wisconsin was in the national championship game last year, right, with an older squad that was just very workmanlike and well-coached by Mike Hastings.

So Notre Dame, it'll be interesting to see.

Are they in for another world of pain? Or because they have a little more talent coming in this year, led by the likes of Sammy Nelson, and then, of course, Danny Nelson, the Islanders pick, is still there and quite accomplished himself.

Well, Mav fam, the time is here.

I mean, Mike Hastings, Todd Knott, they're returning to the Mayo this week.

They're gonna be on the visitor's bench this time, though.

Got you back, back, back.

Um, uh, we were just, we just wrapped up two insane interviews.

Finn Williams coming on, and then we got him.

We got Mike Hastings.

We got him.

23 years, so let's just-

Jeff Vexio as a bean pole 16, 17 year old kid playing for Mike Hastings in Omaha.

What do you remember about Vex? [laughs]

Well, I, I'm just gonna be very transparent with you guys and, and I'm actually glad that I'm not in St. Louis next to him as I'm giving him this review report.

So true.

Yeah.

I think, I think another thing that is really important in that age, because this is the re- the reason that I had the success I had in college immediately, was because of Mike Hastings and the, the details in my life and my hockey game that he beat into all of us.

[laughs] Um, and, and n- everybody, like, I chose Western 'cause I thought I was gonna play a lot.

You know, Wisconsin and Minnesota are both very interesting stories here.

You look at Mike Hastings, came into Wisconsin.

They had an unexpectedly good season, took a big step back his second year.

It was his first year without a winning record as a head coach in over 20 seasons at different levels.

I mean, listen, the way that they played down the stretch, they looked like the absolute ...

They, they had it going at the end of the season and, and it's ...

You know, I think you, you hear coaches talk about getting the blueprint and c- and have you figured things out, and I, I, I wonder was there something that maybe clicked last, last season for Wisconsin, and can Mike Hastings and his staff take that year after year, uh, at least, uh, consecutively here, put it together again, another good run? Can they get back to a national tournament? Can they return to a Frozen Four? I'd like to think that maybe last April's run was so positive for them, I wanna see where their momentum goes, but, you know, I, there's a lot of questions with that team, and Min- Minnesota.

And, and when you, you, you have a new coach in there, you talked about Mike Hastings three years ago, can, can Brett Larson inject something into this Minnesota program that we know, you know, was a really good team under Bob Motzko, they just couldn't get over that hump.

What is it about that, Joe?

For us, you know, I can speak on my f- four years here, gonna be four years, like the people that we have on our team, and the staff, and the people that Mike Hastings commits, it's... we're just such good people, and the culture is so great and tight-knit.

Um, th- there's a million things to say about how special it is, but with our group, it's, it's very cool the cor- culture we have created.

Joe, let me follow up with that because, um, you're both...