How can you not have Minnesota Timberwolves fever, especially on the precipice of a showdown full of stars, storylines, and bad blood between the Wolves and Golden State Warriors?

Jimmy Butler — whose belligerence and self-engineered exit eventually sunk the squad into the abyss — returns to face unruly Target Center fans, not to mention the superstar who has lifted the Wolves from that abyss, Anthony Edwards.

Steph Curry — a Hall-of-Famer who has spearheaded four NBA titles in the Bay Area while the Wolves have mostly wallowed in misery — returns to face the team that passed him over twice in the 2009 Draft. 

Then, there's the Big Man Battle Royale with Rudy Goebert and Draymond Green, who choked Goebert in a game last year and trash-talked him from his pulpit on the TNT set. To add to the spice: ANT said publicly before the season started he couldn't wait to face the Warriors in the playoffs because Green "talks so much trash." 

John Gaskins and Matt Zimmer carve into the carnival to lead off this week's "Nobody's Listening Anyway" from Gateway Lounge, then take a stab at what to make of the tepid but not terrible Minnesota Twins. How much life will the returning-from-injury Royce Lewis give them? The latest heroics of Byron Buxton lead to this discussion:

Is Buxton the most electrifying Twins player of all time? Does he belong on the Mount Rushmore of Most Electrifying Minnesota Pro Sports Athletes of the last 30 years? Which Wolves and Vikings players make that cut?

Closer to home, what is there to make of the recently-announced partnership between the Summit League and Missouri Valley Conference, with the commissioner of the latter league taking over as commissioner of the Missouri Valley Football Conference and Summit League leader Josh Fenton being tabbed "Executive Advisor" in the MVFC?

Finally, South Dakota State's 2025 season opening football opponent has an even more turned-over roster than the Jackrabbits, and the Augusta baseball and softball teams are heating up as the calendar flips to May. Why have the Vikings been so consistently successful in those diamond sports for over a decade?