Minnesota is in a tough spot. The No. 4 Gophers are down 9 points to No. 13 Green Bay in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

They hadn’t been to March Madness since 2018. Not only that, but also the Gophers earned a host spot. They should win. But the pressure is mounting.

Luckily for them, the Gophers have something Green Bay doesn’t: Blanket Lady.

During a timeout with 6:01 left in the third quarter, the Blanket Lady begins her ritual. She raises the blanket, decorated with a Minnesota emblem, and she runs, waving the maroon and gold fabric as she goes, up the sideline and down the baseline. As she runs, the crowd cheers, louder and louder until she returns to her seat.

“I was saying in the locker room after the game, that’s probably the loudest it’s been, I think, the whole time I have ever been here,” senior Amaya Battle said. “It was a ton of fun. It was nice to have them rally around us.”

The timeout ends, but the energy hangs in the air. Minnesota responded with a 30-8 run, securing a comeback victory and a spot in the Round of 32 for the first time in eight years.

“I feel like we just won the NCAA Tournament,” the Blanket Lady says the next day.

You know who get this game turned around? BLANKET LADY.

She got this crowd on their feet when the #Gophers needed her most! pic.twitter.com/X6NzmSv85q

— GopherHole.com (@GopherHole) March 20, 2026

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You can forgive the exaggerated excitement. She’s better known in The Barn by her Blanket Lady persona, but she’s really 81-year-old Elvera “Peps” Neuman. She’s a superfan who has been hyping up Minnesota supporters at home games since 2004. And she’s loved basketball long before the sport loved women back.

Neuman grew up on a farm in Eden Valley, Minn., with a basket attached to the side of her family’s barn. It was put there for her four older brothers, but Neuman took to the sport. She practiced shooting whenever she could, even when she was milking the cows.

“The milkers were supposed to be on the cows for like, three minutes,” she said. “Well, I thought I could go out there to shoot for three minutes. But sometimes it got to be five or 10 minutes. It probably wasn’t easy on the cows, but we got more milk.”

Neuman’s passion couldn’t be contained to her family farm. She wanted to play for her high school, but in the early 1960s, there were no teams for girls around her, and the boys wouldn’t let her play with them.

“Not to brag,” Neuman said with a laugh, “but I was better than most of the boys anyway.”

In an effort to stay close to the game, Neuman joined the pep club, supporting the same boys who refused to play with her. Then, a conversation with her English teacher changed everything. She told Neuman a team of women were coming to Paynesville, a town just 14 miles down the road, to challenge some of the local coaches.

Neuman went to the game and was in awe of the Harlem Chicks, a team of Black players. As soon as she got home, Neuman wrote a letter to the team’s promoter. She wanted to play for the Chicks. Segregation prevented that, so instead, Neuman joined the Texas Cowgirls barnstorming team. From there, her basketball career took off — at least as much as it could for a woman at that time.

Neuman played basketball until she was 44, and even founded her own barnstorming team, called the Arkansas Gems. Each season, Neuman played in around 140 games, traveling from town to town, sometimes driving 400 miles in one day. It was a grind, but it was all Neuman knew. And it was the only way she could play basketball.

“I loved it,” she said. “I absolutely loved it.”

Every time Neuman walked on the court, she put on a show, once scoring 108 points in a game. That kind of vivaciousness doesn’t just go away, not even at 81 years old. Neuman still brings it to the court, only now, she’s on the sidelines.

“I get more attention from being the Blanket Lady than I ever did from playing basketball,” Neuman said. “That might upset some people, to not get the attention, or the money, but I’m just the opposite. I’m pulling for these girls at 200 percent.”

The Blanket Lady tradition started accidentally in 2006. Neuman serves as a caregiver for her friend and former basketball teammate, Vicky Nelson. Because Nelson is in a wheelchair, the duo sits courtside in an accessible seating section. The blanket was a gift from two other Minnesota fans who noticed that Nelson always draped her jacket over her knees in an effort to keep warm during games.

Overcome by the kindness of the gesture, Neuman held up the blanket to the crowd, and when she did, everyone cheered. Ever the showman, Neuman took the cheers and ran with it — literally — up the sideline. The Blanket Lady was born.

Elvera “Peps” Neuman brings the same energy she brought to the basketball court as a player to her Minnesota courtside seats. (Courtesy of Elvera Neuman)

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Neuman and Nelson haven’t missed a Gophers home game since 2004, when All-America point guard Lindsay Whalen was a senior. They certainly won’t miss Minnesota’s March Madness second-round game Sunday against Ole Miss.

If the energy dwindles, Neuman will be ready.

She paved the way for the current Gophers during her barnstorming days, and she’s still doing everything she can to help them succeed.

“I’ll be there,” she said. “I’ll be there with the blanket and my Gophers gear. I love this team.”

MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) – The Twin Cities broke a heat record Saturday afternoon as temperatures rose into the mid 70s. 

Recording-breaking heat at MSP

What they’re saying:

According to the National Weather Service (NWS), the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport got to a record-high temperature for March 21. 

The airport reached 77 degrees, beating the record of 76 degrees set in 1938. 

Cold front ahead

What’s next:

A cold front is expected to swing by on Saturday night, bringing a chance of a few sprinkles. 

Sunday will be a lot colder but nearly spot on for average high temperatures. 

Expect clouds to slowly decrease throughout the day. 

Most of the work week to follow will stay mild, with highs in the 50s and little to no precipitation along the way.

I grew up in the Land of 10,000 Lakes — Minnesota born, Minnesota bred — and I can tell you without hesitation the state I once knew is slipping away. What was once a model of common sense and good governance has become a national embarrassment under one-party Democratic control, where incompetence, corruption, and a complete lack of accountability now define state government.

Start with the Gov. Tim Walz administration’s Housing Stabilization Services program — sold as a way to help people in need — which became so consumed by fraud that the Minnesota House voted unanimously, 134-0, to shut it down. Think about that. In today’s political climate, nothing is unanimous unless it’s a total disaster. That wasn’t a disagreement — it was an admission of failure.

Then there’s the Department of Human Services, where basic oversight has simply vanished. At the same time, every single House Democrat voted to block mandatory reporting to ICE when a criminal illegal alien breaks the law, despite the fact that 85% of Minnesotans support cooperation between local law enforcement and immigration authorities. A bill designed to focus on violent criminal illegal immigrants and prevent the chaos we saw earlier this year was rejected outright. So who are they representing?

Meanwhile, a program meant to help children with autism exploded from $38 million to $325 million in just five years, with providers jumping from 150 to more than 500, and when credible allegations surfaced that some providers were offering kickbacks to parents, three separate complaints were closed without investigation. The Walz administration’s excuse? A broken, 30-year-old rule written incorrectly, which they claim limits what they can investigate. They’ve known about it, they could have fixed it, and they didn’t. Now they say it could take two more years. That’s not governance — that’s avoidance.

And while fraud runs rampant, Democrats somehow found time to call emergency Friday hearings to push through 16 bills targeting your Second Amendment rights. Apparently, restricting your rights takes priority over protecting your tax dollars.

Speaking of tax dollars, consider this: Democrats blew an $18 billion surplus, grew the size of government by over 40%, and raised taxes by $10 billion—and now Walz wants to raise your taxes again. Even after all that, they still feel entitled to more of your money.

Then there’s the Feeding Our Future scandal, where Ikram Mohamed pleaded guilty to wire fraud involving $14 million, with over a million going into her own pocket, and federal investigators believe she was involved in efforts to bribe a juror. She even secretly recorded Attorney General Keith Ellison while seeking help, yet under her plea deal, she avoids prosecution for other potential crimes. What message does that send? This is what happens when no one is held accountable and government grows too large to manage.

So the question is simple: can Minnesota be saved? Not without restoring accountability, transparency and leadership that actually puts citizens first, because right now those principles are missing, and Minnesotans are the ones paying the price.