Year in review: The top 10 story lines of 2024 in Minnesota sports

If the external world exhausted you in 2024, perhaps you were extra grateful for the bountiful pleasant diversions offered by Minnesota sports teams.

Unexpected success is the theme of the past 365 days, something that became even more obvious upon compiling the 10 biggest story lines in Minnesota sports this year.

It wasn’t all perfect, of course, but only the most jaded Minnesota sports fan could take a negative view, on balance, of what transpired during the course of 2024. Let’s take a look back at all of the biggest things that happened, in reverse chronological order.

The Mavericks were one of Division II sports’ biggest success stories this year. The men’s and women’s basketball team’s both claimed NCAA titles in the spring, with the men’s squad clinching its 88-85 victory on a last-second three-pointer. And this fall, Minnesota State made an improbable run to the Division II football national semifinals with a string of heart-stopping upsets, while the women’s soccer team made it the national title game.

2024 started with the Gophers coming off a disappointing 5-7 season and rumblings that head coach P.J. Fleck could wind up at UCLA. Fleck ended up staying, which was a positive development for the program in both the short-term and long-term. The Gophers hit on transfer quarterback Max Brosmer, who guided them to a 7-5 finish that included a thorough dismantling of fading rival Wisconsin in the finale. It wasn’t a great season, but it was a good one and a stabilizing one. It gave hope that Minnesota can compete in this new era of college sports.

They’re now called the Frost and trying for an encore title. How they got their first one was improbable at best. Minnesota entered the league playoffs on a losing streak that stretched to seven games during their first postseason series. But after that, they found another gear and started dispatching foes. Minnesota even endured an overturned goal in Game 4 of the championship series to win it all on the road in Game 5. Controversy involving the ouster of General Manager Natalie Darwitz soon followed, making it quite the first season.

Internally, we will remember 2024 as the year the Minnesota Star Tribune expanded its efforts to cover prep sports around the entire state instead of focusing on the metro area. You might be more inclined to remember some of the other huge story lines: Minneapolis South, led by Poet Davis, returning to the boys’ basketball state tournament after a mass exodus of transfers two years prior; Armstrong’s Kevon Johnson putting up massive numbers as our Minnesota Football Player of the Year while Minneota dropped 70 points in the Class 1A Prep Bowl; and Minnetonka dominating competition on the way to a Class 4A girls’ basketball title.

On the heels of one of the two most successful seasons in franchise history (more on that in a bit), the Wolves pulled off a stunning trade just before the start of this season. Former No. 1 overall pick and nine-year Wolves veteran Karl-Anthony Towns was sent to New York, with the primary return being Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo. The results have been mixed, at best, with Towns thriving in New York while the Wolves newcomers have only started to thaw out lately. This trade likely will be judged better in three years. But even then, a segment of the Wolves fan base will never forgive the organization for making the deal.

The U.S. Gymnastics Trials came to downtown Minneapolis this summer, providing a preview of just how much our state was going to influence the games in Paris. St. Paul’s Suni Lee completed an impressive comeback, qualifying for the U.S. women’s team before winning two individual bronze medals and a team gold at the Summer Games. Lakeville’s Regan Smith won five Olympic medals, including two golds, and also set a world record in the 100 backstroke during the Olympic trials.

In mid-August, the Twins were 70-53 and gamely battling for an AL Central title with a wild-card spot seemingly an assured fallback plan. Less than two months later, they were sitting at home while three other division rivals battled in the playoffs after a stunning 12-27 collapse to end the year. And they were put into further upheaval when it was announced that the Pohlad family, which has owned the Twins for 40 years, was putting the franchise up for sale.

Before the Vikings stunned us this season, the Lynx did it first. They finished 30-10 in the regular season, winning almost twice as many games as was predicted. Then they proved they weren’t just a cute little story by riding their regular-season formula of defense and a superb cast of characters around superstar Napheesa Collier to the brink of a title. If not for some controversial officiating at the end of Game 5 of the WNBA finals, the Lynx would have won their fifth title. Even so, it was a magnificent season.

Continuing the season of surprises theme, the Timberwolves entered the 2023-24 season with limited expectations. They won only 42 games the previous year and were quickly dispatched in the postseason. But their group gained continuity and confidence on the way to a 56-26 regular season. From there, they crushed the Suns and then outlasted the Nuggets in seven thrilling games before running out of steam against the Mavericks in a five-game conference finals series. Still, it was only the second time the franchise had made it that far.

I kept waiting to write this one to see where it would fall on the spectrum of the year. While there is still one huge regular-season game left (technically in 2025), the Vikings’ 14-2 record so far has been nothing short of stunning. In a span of less than two months this offseason, the Vikings said goodbye to their QB of the past, signed what seemed to be their temporary QB of the present and drafted their QB of the future. Letting Kirk Cousins explore free agency and sign with the Falcons led the Vikings to Sam Darnold and J.J. McCarthy, a disruption that carried some risk but which has given the Vikings a huge reward. With the aforementioned Darnold playing like an MVP candidate (while Cousins is benched in Atlanta) and every other offseason acquisition paying dividends, the Vikings are in position to win the rugged NFC North and claim home field advantage in the playoffs. For a team that seemed like a fringe wild-card contender, at best, even if everything went their way … phew, what other evidence do you need that this has been an extraordinary year in Minnesota sports?