Happy Hour with John Gaskins

Jaden McDaniels talked the talk, then nuked the Nuggets.
After sending shock waves through the NBA by saying of Denver, "they're all bad defenders," McDaniels and his Minnesota Timberwolves teammates railroaded Nikola Jokic and company to the rim in a wire-to-wire 113-96 blowout to take a 2-1 first round series lead on Thursday night.
How was it so easy? Will Minnesota take the title wave of momentum into the second round with ease, or are there signs Jokic can thrust revenge on Rudy Goebert and send the NBA's wildest and most riveting rivalry back to Denver tied at 2-2?
Our Happy Hour trio of Timberwolves talkers revel in the Game 3 thrills while breaking down where this series may head. 
The Wolves have so powerfully emerged the last two games, it even made our panel ponder if McDaniels and others the Wolves were willing to trade to Milwaukee for the "Greek Freak" before the Feb. 5 trade deadline have earned their spurs and shut down any speculation of said trade ever happening in the future.
Will it continue to be a runaway romp or will a possible return of Aaron Gordon, who sat out Game 3, change the complexion of the Nuggets and the series?
Isn't it fun to have the regional NBA team turning heads and making waves in April again?

It's NFL Draft Day... Yay!
 
Right?
 
Nah.
 
Not for the two merry hosts of Happy Hour on Thirsty Thursday. Not when trusted NFL Draft analysts consider this a weak Draft class, particularly for quarterbacks.
 
So instead, today's Miller Lite-inspired NFL Draft topic: Is that Times Square New Year's Eve tailgating football block party full of drunken die-hards lustily booing or bellowing glee with each Roger Goodell announcement you'll see on TV the next few days a sports bucket list item of yours?
 
If not, what is? And, which sports buckets have you crossed off your list?
 
Over pints at the Orion Pub, the two well-traveled Happy Hour Thirsty Thursday hosts rattle off their lists and share stories of the buckets they've crossed off. Together, this include a World Series game, a drunken mud-sliding Kentucky Derby, Tiger Woods dominating a U.S. Open at Pebble Beach in his prime, a weird Orange Bowl and a wild Fiesta Bowl in national championship games, and several SEC stadiums.
 
Somehow, the Corn Palace and its South Dakota Bucket List appeal (or not) weaves into this discussion.
 
Speaking of the SEC, South Dakota's own Kalen DeBoer has been the talk of college football after signing a whopping seven-year contract extension with Alabama for $12.5 million per year, making him the fourth highest paid coach in the country?

Does he deserve it? Surely, a lively topic at bar stools where the Tides roll and beyond, including the Orion Pub.
 
But first, stories about culture clashes between music crowds at concerts with oddball pairings — like the time Snoop Dogg came to Sioux Falls and performed right after a B-list country act. Or when Santana opened for Rod Stewart. Guess who the elderly ladies in sequins came to see?
 
Cheers!

Believe it or not, Stig did not spend his entire career at SDSU. After starting as a voluntary student assistant in 1977, he bounced around from Northern Iowa to high school ball in Wisconsin, to Northern State, to a grad assistant job at Wisconsin for one season before returning to Brookings. That final move was his last. How does he reflect on that decision that led to so many changes and evolutions in Jackrabbit football, especially after he took over as head coach in 1997?
Also, what are his keys to hiring the right assistant coaches? And how did he become the leader he is without being a "natural born leader?"

The SDSU football patriarch describes his "greatest achievements" — what becomes of his former players and what it is like when they come back to visit Brookings, like a bunch of players from his 2022 national title squad in town for Mason McCormick's wedding on the same day as the 2026 spring football game.

What is a man?

Such a simple question, yet it yields so many different answers.

One answer came from the patriarch of South Dakota State's football empire. It was printed in a page with the same title in the MAD manual — MAD, as in "Making a Difference"—which John Stiegelmeier gave to each player during fall camp throughout his 26 seasons at the helm. It was more of a guide to life than to football.

So, what is Stig's definition of a man? You can find that out in one of the 300 pages of his biography, "Stig and the Rise of South Dakota State Football," authored by Tanner Castora and released last October.

It is also a question "Stig" answered his latest hour-long Happy Hour conversation. Other topics covered:

* Last Saturday's spring football game, followed by the wedding of SDSU All-American offensive lineman and current Pittsburgh Steeler Mason McCormick. The event served as a 2022 and '23 Jackrabbit national championship teams reunion that featured an A-list of SDSU legends, including Stiegelmeier's heir apparent Jimmy Rogers.

* Dan Jackson's "natural" ability as head coach and Chase Mason's development at QB1

* Jimmy Rogers' move to Iowa State and how Stig feels about his SDSU heir apparent becoming emotional at his ISU introductory press conference in describing what Stig and SDSU meant to him

* The reality of how money drives the modern college football world, why it mattered when he was at SDSU, and why it shouldn't matter as much as it seems

* His decision to open up with deeply personal stories about his life and the people closest to him in the book
As always, the conversation feels like a coffee klatch with a friend, offering both light moments that make you smile and the coverage of heavy topics that make you think.

He's The Man, man.