First-year Gophers men’s basketball coach Niko Medved and his team are embarking on a grueling stretch of 18 consecutive Big Ten games to finish the regular season.

He’s trying not to think of the full obstacle ahead.

“If I looked at it as 18 straight Big Ten games, I don’t think I would sleep at night,” the former Colorado State head coach told reporters on a video call Friday. “Not even with the cliche, but (I) try to take it one day at a time and try to get better and focus on the next challenge.”

The first test for the Gophers (8-5, 1-1 Big Ten) is Northwestern (8-5, 0-2) at 4 p.m. Saturday at Welsh-Ryan Arena in Evanston, Ill.

Minnesota knocked off then-No. 22 Indiana in its Big Ten opener on Dec. 3 and is 8-0 at Williams Arena. But the Gophers are 0-5 away from home this season, including a blowout loss at now-No. 5 Purdue.

After the Wildcats, Minnesota — which was picked to finish 16th in the 18-team league — will have three straight home games at The Barn: No. 25 Iowa on Tuesday, No. 24 Southern Cal next Friday and Wisconsin on Jan. 13.

Another year for Vaihola?

The Gophers will attempt to obtain a medical redshirt for fifth-year senior center Robert Vaihola, who has elected to have season-ending knee surgery after playing only five games into mid-November.

“I told Rob the other day, the whole thing is frustrating,” Medved said. “I really had high hopes for him. I thought he could really have a great season in the things he brings to the table. He is an elite rebounder, a Big Ten-level rebounder, and defensive player and physical guy.”

The 6-foot-8 transfer from San Jose State was leading the U with 7.6 rebounds per game before he aggravated his knee injury in the 66-54 win over Chicago State on Nov. 18.

“This stuff has been bothering him all year,” Medved said. “It just got to the point where he did not feel like he could come back and do it.”

Medved said Vaihola would “easily” qualify for a waiver for a sixth season of eligibility in 2026-27. That same status can be applied to starting point guard Chansey Willis Jr., who played in only seven games before his season ended with a broken foot in late November.

Who guards Martinelli?

Northwestern forward Nick Martinelli leads the Big Ten at 22.8 points per game and will create matchup problems for the Gophers.

The U will throw multiple defenders at the three-level scorer, including Jaylen Crocker-Johnson, Langston Reynolds and Cade Tyson, Medved said.

“You obviously have a guy that is in charge of the matchup, but so much of it is team defense,” Medved said. “It’s how do you bring help to him in certain situations, shrink the floor, bring an extra defender at times, help bump a screen.”

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About 15,000 adult immigrants in Minnesota lost access to their state-funded health care on Jan. 1.

In 2023, the Minnesota Legislature — which then had a Democratic-Farmer-Labor majority in both houses — passed a bill that granted immigrants who entered the country illegally access to MinnesotaCare, a health care program for low-income people that began in the 1990s. The program helps those who are ineligible for Medicaid but unable to afford private health insurance.

When the law was passed, it was heralded as a progressive milestone. That same year, lawmakers passed Driver’s License for All, which allowed immigrants in the country illegally to get a driver’s license.

Enrollment opened in 2024, and beginning in 2025, immigrants were able to get care through the program if they were eligible based on thenservir income. But about halfway through the year, a divided Legislature voted to end those benefits for adult immigrants.

Ma Elena Gutierrez leads the group Fe y Justicia, a faith-based nonprofit that has organized around health equity. She said immigrants in the country illegally are likely to put off care like surgeries and preventative checkups, and to forgo medications.

“This is really sad,” she said. “More people are going to get sick.”

The decision created an uproar among many DFLers, who during a news conference held by DFL Gov. Tim Walz after the decision to roll back benefits banged on the door and yelled, “Don’t kill immigrants.”

Immigrant children under the age of 18 will still be able to receive care. According to the Minnesota Department of Human Services, which administers MinnesotaCare, about 5,000 immigrant children were enrolled in the program in 2025.

Immigrants who entered the country illegally are not eligible to receive care through Medicaid except under specific circumstances such as pregnancy. Now, with health insurance premium costs continuing to rise dramatically, many will be unable to afford care.

John Connolly, deputy commissioner and state Medicaid director in the Department of Human Services, said that those who no longer have coverage can be seen at federally qualified health centers or community health centers, which provide care regardless of a patient’s ability to pay. But he said that might put a strain on those clinics, which won’t be reimbursed for those services.

“We worry both for people in terms of their access to services, but also in terms of providers having a steady form of payment which strengthens them overall,” he said.

Ann Rogers is the CEO of the People’s Center Clinic, a community health center in Cedar-Riverside that predominantly serves East African patients. She said she worries people won’t come in for care or get vaccinated for illnesses like measles.

“I think that’s a really big risk, waiting to come in for care, and then have it be much more catastrophic,” she said.

Rogers said people may delay getting care until they need to go to an emergency room, where the situation is more dire and the costs are higher.

Hennepin Healthcare frequently serves immigrant patients. Pam Quast, director of patient access and financial security for Hennepin Healthcare, said that those who no longer have health insurance coverage can still get care through Hennepin Healthcare’s uncompensated care program. Under that program, patients don’t receive a bill. Hennepin Healthcare conducts their own financial calculations and write-offs, and is then reimbursed through the state and federal government.

But Quast said Hennepin Healthcare isn’t always fully reimbursed for the services they provide.

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“If you get reimbursed for anything through the state or the federal government, it’s very minimal,” she said. “Sometimes you don’t even get anything back.”

Quast said Hennepin Healthcare has been working with patients and notifying them of the changes and what they might be eligible for since the budget was passed by lawmakers in June.

“They might put off care, and we don’t want that to happen, and that’s why we were trying to be proactive, to let them know, ‘You’ll still be able to come and have services rendered,’” she said.

As the end of the year approached, Gutierrez encouraged those who had coverage through MinnesotaCare to get as much care as they could by the end of 2025.

The Department of Human Services has issued this guidance for immigrants in English, Oromo, Somali and Spanish.

This story was originally published by Sahan Journal and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.

By MARIA SHERMAN, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — They’re going to light up 2026 like dynamite: K-pop group BTS’ comeback has an official date.

According to a note shared to social media by the entertainment company BigHit Music, the mega popular group will return on March 20.

That’s after a nearly four-year hiatus, as all seven members of BTS — RM, Jin, Jimin, V, Suga, Jung Kook and j-hope — completed South Korea’s mandatory military service.

“March 20th comeback confirmed,” BigHit Music wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

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Rapper Suga was the last group member to be released — from his duties as a social service agent, an alternative to serving in the military that he reportedly chose due to a shoulder injury. That was in June 2025.

The six others, RM, V, Jimin, Jung Kook, Jin and j-hope, served in the army.

BTS tiered their enlistments, giving ample time for its members to focus on solo projects while the group was on a break.

Last summer, the group teased a world tour and announced that a new album would be released in the spring of 2026. At the time, they said they would begin working on the project in July 2025.

“Since it will be a group album, it will reflect each member’s thoughts and ideas,” they said in a statement. “We’re approaching the album with the same mindset we had when we first started.”

The 2026 album will mark their first since 2022’s anthology, “Proof,” their 2021 Japanese compilation album “BTS, the Best,” and their last studio album, “Be,” released in 2020.

The Twins completed a small trade on Friday, acquiring first baseman Eric Wagaman from the Miami Marlins for minor league pitcher Kade Bragg.

Wagaman, 28, played in 140 games last season for Miami, hitting .250 with a .674 OPS. He hit nine home runs and drove in 53 runs, while primarily playing first base. He also saw some time at third base, in left and right field and at DH last season. Though he was drafted by the New York Yankees in 2017, Wagaman debuted with the Los Angeles Angels in 2024 before seeing regular playing time with the Marlins last season.

The pickup comes after the Twins signed veteran first baseman Josh Bell to a one-year deal last month, their biggest move of the offseason to date.

Bragg is a left-handed pitcher whom the Twins selected in the 17th round of the 2023 draft. Last year, he posted a 2.94 ERA across 67 1/3 innings pitched — all in relief. He finished his season at Double-A Wichita. To make room on the 40-man roster, the Twins designated Ryan Fitzgerald for assignment. Fitzgerald debuted last season at age 30 after a long journey through the minor leagues and appeared in 24 games for the Twins.