Minnesota's Loewe on lookout for 3-point shots, 3-pound bass

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Luke Loewe has found his stride in his first and only season with Minnesota, after the initiation into Big Ten play brought his share of struggles.

The 3-pointer has become Loewe's friend again, as evidenced by his 6-for-10 performance from long range for the Gophers in their most recent game.

Loewe will soon be back in his other element, on the hunt for 3-pounders — as in bass.

“He's having withdrawals right now, because he hasn't fished in I don't know how many months,” teammate Eric Curry said.

This is quite the week for Loewe, the 6-foot-4 guard who joined the Gophers for 2021-22 as a graduate transfer from William & Mary.

Minnesota hosts 13th-ranked Wisconsin on Wednesday night, a rematch against the rival Badgers and another chance for Loewe to beat the home-state team that wasn't interested in him out of Fond du Lac High School.

“I’m looking forward to that one,” he said, “getting another crack at them.”

There's also an outing to Lake Minnetonka in the works on Thursday for Loewe and some of his amateur-angler teammates.

For Loewe, fishing is more than just a time-killing hobby. He has actual aspirations of fishing professionally, with his own YouTube channel — Bass and Buckets — featuring plenty of shop talk and a dash of good humor.

His father, Jason Loewe, taught him the tricks of the trade around age 6, and his love for the rod and the reel has matched that for the ball and the basket ever since. Loewe won a junior national bass fishing championship when he was a teenager

Last summer and fall, before the season got going and the weather turned wintry, Loewe took advantage of the ample lakes around the Twin Cities area and the local presence of his uncle and cousin and was able to enjoy plenty of fishing.

As he deadpanned during a tour of team facilities for one of his YouTube videos, Loewe had to use his index finger for the print to secure biometric access to the building because he had “bass thumb” — the skin was too raw from handling all those wet fish.