Happy Hour with John Gaskins

There are weeks when Matt Zimmer and the Happy Hour host are flooded with wild local sports events or crazy controversies to react, with passionate opinions bursting like fireworks for a full hour on the weekly "Nobody's Listening Anyway" podcasts.
 
And then there are weeks like this one in the middle of June. 
 
It's that time of the year when the mellow and dreamy 1967 Dr. Saxlove song "Groovin' on a Sunday Afternoon" comes to mind. Except, well, it's Tuesday. Which brings to mind the 1967 Moody Blues song "Tuesday Afternoon."
 
Just as the weather shifts with every season and the sporting calendar changes speeds from "drinking from a firehose" to "a nice light sip here and there," so, too, does the nature of the weekly NLA chat.
 
Perhaps you enjoy the more leisurely pace of baseball and golf to fill the time between the NBA Finals and Stanley Cup Finals and the start of August football training camps.
 
If so, you'll enjoy the lighter side of life this week with Matt and John.
 
Oh, sure, they covered the latest on the Brendan Sorsby gambling scandal at Texas Tech, which took the turn Zim predicted last week.
 
And, a deluge of incoming transfers to South Dakota State's basketball team certainly has Zim's tentacles perked about what changes are in store in Bryan Petersen's second season.
 
But for the most part, this is about 45 minutes of lounging on the porch with an ice cold beer to the tune of topics like:
 
* Zim's rules for grown men wearing (or not wearing) jerseys of college and professional athletes— at least in public. Hint: It depends on the age.
 
* The Happy Hour hosts strories of 90's A-list comedians David Spade and Tom Green being naughty at University of Nebraska homecoming pep rallies
 
* What to make of Byron Buxton putting on a bomb show night after night while the rest of the Twins struggle to generate a spark?
 
* What to make of Kyler Murray and J.J. McCarthy splitting mini-camp reps? Is this really going to be an actual QB1 battle?
 
* Dawn Plitzuweit & Mark Coyle's contracts were extended at the University of Minnesota. While Plitzuweit's deal is a no-brainer, how much does Coyle deserve to continue leading all the Gophers sports? This requires a dissection of his football and basketball coaching hires.
 
* From this, a South Dakota-related Richard Pitino story emerges.
 
Hey, it's June. And we're just groovin' on a Tuesday afternoon. Pull up a lawn chair, grab a beer, and groove with us.

It is difficult to find a more beloved sports figure in South Dakota than Mike Begeman.
 
But being a gregarious and gracious good guy is not what earned the Parker native an upcoming spot in the South Dakota Sports Hall of Fame.
 
Begeman scored 1,477 points, was a three-time All-State shooting guard, and won 70 games (to just 10 losses) in three seasons for legendary coach Gayle Hoover in Parker in the early 1970's. 
 
At Augustana, Begeman was part of a 1978 squad that captured the North Central Conference title.
 
Begeman was far from done winning. He immediately became a high school head coach in Colman, then secured a dream job at West Central in Hartford, close to his family farm.
 
He did well enough there to achieve another dream: Coaching at the highest level in Class AA. 
 
O'Gorman may seem like a plum gig now, but in 1986, the Knights had gone almost 20 years without reaching the state tournament. So, how did Begeman jump start the small Sioux Falls private school back to a tourney team in just his second season?
 
By the 1990's, the Knights were a fixture in the event, reaching the championship game four times from 1992-2005. This included each of Begeman's final two seasons at O'G, with son Mitch at point guard. 
 
And, then, poof, it was over. Begeman called it quits before age 50, choosing to accept a "private sector" job that allowed him to attend plenty of Mitch's games at USD—something being a prep bench boss would not allow. And Begeman never returned to the bench, spending over 15 years as a public relations manager, then vice president at Sanford Health.
 
Did he miss leading young men on the hardwood? Did he have any regrets about switching gears?
 
With a 329-212 record over 26 seasons as coach and 399-222 mark when factoring in his Parker playing days, the only coaching feat Begeman did not reach was hoisting the state title trophy.
 
So, what did it mean to Begeman when Mitch led Sioux Falls Roosevelt to wins over O'Gorman and Begeman's replacement, Derek Robey in back-to-back seasons of 2021 and '22?
 
Now over four years retired from Sanford, Begeman still spends time in leadership roles and recently won a landslide election to be a Minnehaha County precinct committeeman.
 
Begeman sits down with the Happy Hour host for almost 80 minutes for a look back at a basketball life well lived... and one that's still going strong.

The Parker High School star was part of a 1978 NCC title team with Augustana, then jumped straight into head coaching at the varsity high school level— Colman, West Central, and O'Gorman. Hear about the revival of the Knights program, some epic state championship games, and the emotion of watching son Mitch lead Roosevelt to two state titles. 

Why did Mike hang it up before age 50, and why does he have no regrets about it? Begeman is going into the South Dakota Sports Hall of Fame this September.

The former O'Gorman, West Central, and Colman coach who became a Sanford Health executive describes what retirement has been like and takes us back to his formative years on the farm near Parker and playing for prep legend Gayle Hoover.

It's a small basketball world after all. At least in South Dakota.
If you were wondering whether there was a local tie to USD and Summit League leading scorer Isaac Bruns' transfer portal landing spot at USC, you were correct. Well, kind of.
South Dakotans know the name Eric Musselman well. The third-year Trojan head coach is the son of former Golden Gopher coach and the first-ever Minnesota Timberwolves coach Bill Musselman. He was in his 20's when the Thrillers and Sioux Falls Skyforce waged a heated in-state rivalry. In the 30 years since, he has stalked the sidelines in the CBA, USBL, and NBA—where he led both the Warriors and the Kings — the NBA D-League and G-League and, for the last 14 years, the college game.
He took Nevada to its first Sweet 16 and Arkansas to its first Elite Eight since the Nolan Richardson glory years— and famously took his shirt of and twirling it around on-camera along the way.

In part of his entertaining, engaging chat on Sioux Falls Live's "Happy Hour with John Gaskins," Musselman explains exactly how Isaac Bruns ended up in Los Angeles and what Bruns must do to see significant playing time at USC. Plus, how has Musselman's experience as a professional coach honed his ability to deal with NIL roster payroll?

And just how does the construction of a roster in the NIL era work?
The segments leads off this week's South Dakota Sports Lounge, a weekly digital TV show for Midwest Sports+ that takes hand-picked best segments from Forum Communications shows like Happy Hour, Hot Mic with Dom Izzo (Fargo), and the Nate Brown Show (Rapid City)— all which can be found and viewed on your TV (or any device) with the MS+ app.
Other segments this week:
Hot Mic w/ Dom Izzo (Fargo): Dom had Mike McFeely on for his weekly segment. They start by discussing the NBA Finals. Mike takes umbrage with NY Knicks fans complaining about officiating. Then, they discuss the national reaction to the Brendan Sorsby decision at Texas Tech.
 
The Nate Brown Show (Rapid City): Craig Mattick, broadcaster for SDPB/ In Play Podcast host, starts his weekly segment by talking about why the South Dakotas state baseball tournament isn't a sanctioned high school varsity sport. 
 
Zach Borg feature: An investigative piece looking into the viability of Sioux Falls as a host site for the newly expanded first round of the NCAA basketball tournament.