Matthew Hurt playing pro ball in G League with the Memphis Hustle

ROCHESTER — Former John Marshall boys basketball standout Matthew Hurt is playing professional basketball for the Memphis Hustle in the G League.

The G League is a minor-league organization of the NBA. The Hustle are an affiliate of the Memphis Grizzlies.

Hurt, a 6-foot-9 forward, is in his second season of pro ball in the G League. His 2021-22 season was cut short after about a dozen games due to a knee injury.

Hurt played two years of college ball at Duke before turning pro as an undrafted free agent. In his standout second season at Duke, he earned All-Atlantic Coast Conference first-team honors and Most Improved Player as he averaged more than 18 points and six rebounds per game.

He has appeared in 24 of the Hustle’s 26 games this season. He is averaging a solid 13.6 points per game along with 3.8 rebounds and 1.3 assists.

Hurt is shooting 58.9% from the floor and 39.4% from 3-point range (36-for-93). Hurt, who will turn 23 in April, has helped the Hustle post a 20-6 record.

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Elgin native Travis Walch has been hired as the football coach at St. Thomas Academy, a private high school in Mendota Heights.

Walch is a former college assistant coach who has been an independent consultant for area high school and college programs. He runs and owns the company, Route Tree, and resides in White Bear Lake.

He played college football at Winona State University and was later an assistant for the Warriors. He was a long-time assistant coach at the University of St. Thomas and was also an assistant at Macalester College and Carleton College.

Walch has also worked on television broadcasts for the Prep Bowl championship football games for the past three years.

His brother, Carson Walch, is the player development coordinator for the Cleveland Browns.

St. Thomas Academy plays in Class AAAAA. The team finished 10-1 in 2022 and earned a state berth. St. Thomas was unbeaten and won the Section 3AAAAA title before suffering a 20-14 loss to Mahtomedi in the state quarterfinals.

Walch replaces Dan O'Brien at St. Thomas, who left to coach at Holy Family.

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Rochester's Lincoln Meister is a member of the University of Minnesota-Duluth men's basketball team that has reached the Elite Eight of the NCAA Division II National Tournament.

The Bulldogs (26-9) won the Central Region championship and were awarded the No. 6 seed in the Elite Eight. They are scheduled to play Black Hills State today in the national quarterfinals.

Meister is a 6-foot-9 junior forward. The John Marshall grad has appeared in all 35 of UMD's games as a reserve and he averages 11.6 minutes per contest. He is averaging 4.2 points, 2.9 rebounds and 1.0 blocks per game. He is shooting 57.4% from the floor (54-for-94).

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Jakob Tordsen, who has area ties, was the national champion in the heptathlon recently at the NCAA Division II Indoor Track and Field Championships in Virginia Beach, Va.

Tordsen is a senior at Concordia University, St. Paul and he hails from Wausau, Wis. His parents Noel and Rachel (Anderson) Tordsen were both high school athletes at Stewartville.

Tordsen won the Division II national heptathlon with a school-record 5,623 points. He was named the NSIC Field Athlete of the Year for the indoor season. Last spring, Tordsen was first-team All-America in the decathlon and he also won that event at the Drake Relays.

His grandparents are Stan and Kathy Tordsen of Stewartville, and Dave and VJ Anderson of Rochester.

Guy N. Limbeck is a sports writer for the Post Bulletin. His Local Notebook appears each Tuesday. He can be reached at glimbeck@postbulletin.com .