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Posted December 4, 2006
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Knight Won’t
Coach Gophers
A certain venerable
sports columnist, one with close personal friends, occasionally likes to
say while speculating about a topic that there is “zero chance” of
something developing. To borrow the phrase today, there is zero chance
Bob Knight will be the next University of
Minnesota basketball coach, replacing Dan Monson.
With all of Knight’s
history of on and off-court problems, and the political correctness of
the University, your local cab driver is about as likely to be coaching
the Gophers next season. Yes, Knight would be a money producing
machine, selling out Williams Arena and generating other revenues such
as merchandising and fundraising. A Midwesterner who won three national
titles at Indiana before being fired, Knight probably would be
interested in a return to a Big Ten Conference school and he has long
admired the Minneapolis area.
Jim Dutcher
coached against Knight as the Gopher coach for 11 seasons, from 1975 to
1986. What does he think about Knight and the Minnesota job? “No, that
would be the last guy you would want to hire. …Not from a winning or
competitive standpoint, but just from other standpoints, that would not
be a good fit,” Dutcher answered.
Knight is 66 years old
and his age raises a question about how much longer he will coach
anywhere. I doubt, too, how effective Knight can be recruiting players
from outside Minnesota. Since his arrival at Texas Tech in 2001 he
hasn’t shown an ability to attract the nation’s best players.
Dutcher coached
Flip Saunders and later Saunders was on Dutcher’s
coaching staff. There have been various theories advanced as to why
Saunders might be interested in the Gophers’ job. One I haven’t heard
is a possible desire to get back at his former employer, the Minnesota
Timberwolves. A successful run coaching the Gophers could make the U
the No. 1 basketball attraction in the state, not the Wolves who moved
him aside as coach in 2005.
Saunders is chasing his
first NBA championship as coach of the Detroit Pistons and perhaps
making $5 million per year. Dutcher said he didn’t know if Saunders is
interested in coming back to Minneapolis where two of his children
attend the University.
Dutcher believes
Saunders, 51, would recruit effectively. “I think so because he’s a
competitior,” Dutcher said. “He knows that winning is a lot more fun
than losing. …”
Rick Majerus,
58, also has ties to the Midwest with friends here and having coached at
Marquette in Milwaukee. He has been out of coaching since 2004 and
while once considered a great coach his candidacy to lead the Gophers
isn’t taken very seriously by many people. His name comes up when there
are job openings but he seems more interested in the attention than
working again as a college coach. “I think he becomes less attractive as
time goes by,” Dutcher said.
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With all of
Knight’s history of on and off-court problems, and the political
correctness of the University, your local cab driver is about as likely
to be coaching the Gophers next season.
Dan Monson
“I think he
becomes less attractive as time goes by.”
Jim Dutcher talking about
Rick Majerus
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Lucia: Freshmen
Should Return
Freshmen, including
three players drafted in the first round of this year’s NHL Entry Draft,
have helped fuel the Gopher hockey team’s rise to No. 1 in the country
and speculation this may be the best team ever at the University. Talk
is the Gophers will not see all nine of the freshmen on the roster
return next season.
Coach
Don Lucia doesn’t agree that it’s certain all his freshmen will
not return including defenseman Erik Johnson, the No. 1 pick in
the draft, and also first round picks Kyle Okposo and David
Fischer. “I don’ think it’s a foregone conclusion but we have to
plan for it,” Lucia said. “I think it’s just one of those things we do
not know. Some of these freshmen I think are going to be very good
players, but I don’t think any of the freshmen should be leaving after
this year, but again as a coach you have very little say over that.”
Ask Lucia about the
talent level of his team and whether it could be the best ever and he
hedges. While acknowledging the collective abilities, he talks about
the youth of the team and the improvement that will come next season if
his freshmen and other underclassmen return. He recalled that the 2002
team would not have won the national championship if Jordan Leopold
and Johnny Pohl had left early to play professionally. “It’s
(about) keeping these kids long enough where
you get the benefit of them being an elite All-American type player,”
Lucia said.
In conversation about
the team’s playmakers, Lucia talked first about senior Tyler Hirsch,
the Gophers’ leading scorer. “Tyler Hirsch’s ability to pass the puck
is second to none,” Lucia said. “He can really move the puck.”
Lucia has been pleased
with the leadership contributions of another senior, captain Mike
Vannelli. “He’s taken this young team under his wing and said, ‘I
am going to be the leader of this team,’” Lucia said.
There’s a lot of hockey
to be played between now and April when the Gophers hope to make their
way to the national championship game. Last season in a stunning loss,
the Gophers were upset by Holy Cross in the NCAA playoffs. “For
whatever reason, some guys lost their confidence in the finals and we
just didn’t have time to get it back,” Lucia said.
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Don Lucia
“Tyler Hirsch’s
ability to pass the puck is second to none. He can really move the
puck.”
Don Lucia
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Puckett
Memories Remain Vivid
This fall the Star Tribune published a four
part series detailing the life and death of Kirby
Puckett after baseball. It was another look into the good and bad
of perhaps Minnesota’s most revered baseball player ever. For all of
his personal problems, memories of Puckett remain positive for many
people including those who were fond of him for much more than his ball
playing skills.
Among those with such recollections is
Gregg Wong, the former Pioneer Press sports writer. I called Wong
on Sunday, May 7 to pass along the news Puckett had suffered a stroke
and was in grave condition. Puckett died later that day.
I recently asked Wong to
write about his memories of Puckett. Wong
was a Twins beat writer from 1985-1987 and covered the team part time
during other seasons. Here’s what Wong wrote:
"He
was the most upbeat, most accessible athlete I've ever dealt with on a
regular basis. He would light up whatever room he was in with his
non-stop chatter, banter and energy. The noise level in the clubhouse
always would go up once he walked in.
"He
always had something to say for the record. A lot of times it might just
be a cliché, but he always was there to face the music. He never ran and
hid, like many top athletes, even if he struck out with the winning run
on base in the bottom of the ninth. He was a true professional in that
regard; he knew you had a job to do, too.
“Probably my favorite remembrance of him was when he made his first
all-star team in 1986, where he was voted in as a starter. The paper did
not send me to the game in Houston, but the boss wanted a Puckett
sidebar after the game. I asked if he would call me as soon as the game
got over so I could ask about his experience and he said he would,
although I believed he would get caught up in the hype and hoopla and
forget to call.
“I
watched the game on TV, made some notes and prayed that he'd call. Five
minutes after the game was over, the phone rang. ‘What's up, Wongie?' he
said. ‘How you doin’?’ Here he had just ended the biggest moment of his
career up to that point and he remembered to call and asked how I was
doing (just fine because he called)! Not many pro athletes would do
anything like that today -- and certainly none of the Vikings I covered
in a half-dozen years.”
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Photo courtesy of Minnesota Twins
Kirby Puckett
"Five minutes after the game was over, the
phone rang. ‘What's up, Wongie?' he said. ‘How you doin’?’ Here he had
just ended the biggest moment of his career up to that point and he
remembered to call and asked how I was doing (just fine because he
called)!"
Gregg Wong telling a Kirby
Puckett story
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Extra Innings
How do you like Pohlad
Park or Wheaties Field as possible names for the new Twins baseball
stadium?
The University of
Minnesota is campaigning to sell tickets for the Insight Bowl through
its ticket allotments. If Gopher fans buy tickets through University
inventory then the school can document its fan following and potentially
use this to diminish the reputation that Minnesota boosters don’t
support the team at bowl games. Fans interested in a travel package to
the Insight Bowl in Tempe, Arizona can contact Creative Charters,
651-748-0080,
www.creativecharter.com. Ticket information is also available from
the Gopher ticket office, 612-624-8080, or 800-U-Gopher.
M Club president
George Adzick is inviting University letter winners to play in the
first annual “Bowl Cup” golf outing on Friday, December 29, the same day
as the Insight Bowl. If interested contact Adzick at 612-626-7305.
Matt Boockmeier,
a former all conference football guard for the University of St. Thomas,
is a State Farm Insurance agent and offices in Edina. His first career
was as a pro football scout including with the Vikings, Packers and
Saints. In1994 he started his pro football career as a training camp
intern with the Vikings, earning $5 per hour. He then “begged” for an
internship in pro personnel scouting with the Vikings and was hired at
$300 per month. The NFL later hired him as a regional college scout
where he “lived out of my trunk,” spending about 220 days per year on
the road. Scouting assignments with the Packers and Saints followed
before Boockmeier got married and decided to give up the nomadic life of
scouting in 2001.
The Fanball.com Fall Poker Classic,
Canterbury Park’s signature poker event, recently paid out a record
$1,448,736 in total prize money. There were a record 4,303 entries, from
22 states and three countries.
Local tennis pro Greg
Wicklund, who writes a newsy column for Tennis Life magazine,
reports in the December issue that former Gopher coach David Geatz
is “now in corporate real estate with the Staubach Corporation in
Minneapolis.”
Recently retired tennis
legend Andre Agassi won his first
professional tennis tournament at the Minikahda Tennis Invitational at
the Minikahda Club in Minneapolis in 1987.
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How do you like
Pohlad Park or Wheaties Field as possible names for the new Twins
baseball stadium?
The NFL later
hired him as a regional college scout where he “lived out of my trunk,”
spending about 220 days per year on the road.
Matt Boockmeier recalling his NFL days |
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