March 2022 – Page 3 – David Shama's Minnesota Sports Headliners

Another Big Ten Conference basketball season ends today with familiar outcomes for Wisconsin and Minnesota. The Badgers are again men’s Big Ten champions and the Golden Gophers have yet another finish near the bottom of the conference standings.

UW has shared or won outright six league titles this millennium. UM hasn’t come close to winning the Big Ten, and in only three seasons have the Gophers posted a winning conference record.

The Badgers have won league championships in two of the last three years. Minnesota has finished 13th and 11th in the 14-team Big Ten the past two seasons, and on this final Sunday hopes to avoid a last place tie with Nebraska.

Wait. The story gets worse.

Since 2000 Wisconsin has been to three NCAA Final Fours and one national title game. The Badgers have earned their way into the NCAA Tournament every year except 2018. The Gophers have been to the Big Dance five times in 22 years, with two wins.

Only a Gopher fan with no expectations could be satisfied with the disparity between the boys from Dinkytown and Minnesota’s rivals to the East.

What UW has achieved in basketball during the last 20-plus years is more than admirable. It’s remarkable. What the coaches and administrators in charge of Gopher hoops have done is embarrassing.

Two states with such similar histories, culture, populations and demographics. We’re also talking two land grant universities with similar resources for their basketball programs—but with such dissimilar results.

The 2000 Badgers went to the school’s first Final Four in almost 60 years. UW had undergone a turnaround with Dick Bennett, a proven coach who the Badgers found in nearby Green Bay—a guy who had turned the mid-major Phoenix into a power. In 1999 the Gophers had taken the riskier path by hiring a hot name among the mid-major programs—inexperienced Dan Monson from Gonzaga.

When the U said goodbye to Monson eight seasons later, Kentucky was okay bidding farewell to Tubby Smith. Gopher fans found out what Kentuckians already knew: Smith was most successful with the storied Wildcat program in the early years, following the glory run of coach Rick Pitino. Kentucky was in decline when Smith departed from Lexington to take over the Gophers.

While the U opted for a big name in Smith, Bo Ryan was the next home run choice to lead the Badgers. His coaching background included UW-Platteville where all he did was win four Division III national championships. From 2001-2015 Ryan’s Badgers won four Big Ten titles and played in two Final Fours.

True to form, the Gophers got the wrong coach and the wrong Pitino in 2013 after Smith was fired. They signed up Rick’s son Richard, then 30 years old, and without a resume to qualify him as a head Big Ten coach.

When Ryan retired in December of 2015, the decision makers in Madison remained true to their formula of hiring home state coaches who are superb teachers, using a system that fits the personnel, and understanding their recruiting base. Greg Gard, Ryan’s assistant and a Wisconsin native, has led the Badgers to two conference titles in seven seasons and had three other teams that finished no worse than fourth in the standings.

Gard should be national coach of the year for what he and his players have accomplished this season. Nobody saw this year’s success coming. The Big Ten title was supposed to be won by Michigan, Purdue, Illinois, Michigan State or Ohio State. Those programs might have more talent but the Badgers are the definition of a team.

They play together in all phases of the game and execute fundamentals like they were at a coaching clinic. There is the trademark stingy defense, including the willingness to sacrifice “life and limb” to clog driving lanes. They move the basketball on offense and have efficient shot selection. They’re physically and mentally tough, and that pays off in various ways including rebounding.

Bennett, Ryan and Gard teams have all played this way. They have built success with players willing to buy in, and many of them are Minnesotans. This year the Badgers have three starters from the Twin Cities area, center Steven Crowl, guard Brad Davison and forward Tyler Wahl. Two years ago the 2020 Big Ten champion Badgers had five Minnesotans on the roster including key contributor Nate Reuvers from Lakeville North.

The parade to Madison started years ago and has turned out successfully for many Gopher state players including guard Jordan Taylor and forward Jon Leuer who were stars on Wisconsin NCAA Tournament teams. Truth is while the Gophers wanted some players who made the Badgers a Big Ten power, often the home boys were shown minimal interest. While the U was landing an Isaiah Washington, UW was signing up a Brad Davison.

Badger players know they will be taught how to play the game and how to win. Their teammates are mostly from Wisconsin, Illinois and Minnesota, with maybe a player or two from places like Ohio or South Dakota. Not a roster with glitzy prep recruits, but team oriented guys with more focus on winning the Big Ten than having a pro career. Despite all their Big Ten and national success, the Badgers haven’t had an NBA draft choice since 2015.

Maybe Ben Johnson, finishing up his fist season as Minnesota’s head coach, will row the program in a different direction. Finally the U has a Gopher alum and native son leading the program. Already he has shown a commitment to Minnesota prep players in his recruiting. The Big Ten record this winter of 4-11 heading into tonight’s final regular season game at Northwestern is dismal but the coaching and effort by the players has kept Minnesota competitive in many games.

But the future is speculation. As of today, the results of this millennium speak loudly in Madison and Minneapolis.

Comments Welcome

The NFL Scouting Combine going on this week in Indianapolis is one of many steps new Vikings GM Kwesi Odofo-Mensah must navigate preparing for his first NFL Draft April 28-30. Mensah reportedly has a four-year contract in his first opportunity to be an NFL general manager and the clock is already ticking.

Initially, Mensah and his staff of talent evaluators will be granted some leeway in trying to lift the Vikings out of mediocrity. But four years go quickly and things will get off to a rocky start if the franchise doesn’t select a first round standout in late April.

The Vikings select at No. 12 and that’s 20 spots ahead of other NFL teams. Picking at that spot isn’t a lock but Jeff Diamond believes Minnesota should be able to land a potential Pro Bowler.

Diamond is the former Vikings GM who was NFL Executive of the Year in 1998 after Minnesota finished the regular season 15-1. What is his advice for a new NFL general manager going into the draft? “Don’t go against your board,” he told Sports Headliners.

Draft board is a catchphrase for the data and information a team has accumulated and evaluated in the months leading up to the seven-round draft. Diamond’s belief is don’t draft for position need, especially in the first round, at the expense of passing up on the best player available. The exception, Diamond added, can be selecting a quarterback instead.

It was this philosophy that led to the Vikings drafting wide receiver and athletic freak Randy Moss in the 1998 draft. Diamond remembered his team needed help on defense and could have gone that way with the No. 21 selection of the first round.

The offense was loaded with playmakers like wide receivers Cris Carter and Jake Reed, and running back Robert Smith. But there on draft night after 20 picks by other teams was Moss—a talent the Vikings had rated on their draft board as a top five player. Diamond thought…“this could be great stuff, even though we needed a little bit more help on defense at that time.”

Moss dazzled from the opening game in 1998, making an already lethal offense into perhaps the franchise’s GOAT. Moss was NFL Rookie of the Year and the Vikings made it all the way to the NFC title game where they lost to the Falcons in overtime. Off-field baggage caused many NFL teams to pass on Moss but he was a superstar for the Vikings and eventually earned enshrinement to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

At No. 12 in the first round the Vikings could both find a player who fills a position need and rates very high on their board. Position help, Diamond said, includes cornerback, pass rushing and offensive line.

Defense might be a priority. “You gotta be able to cover guys,” Diamond said. “You gotta be able to rush the passer.”

Center could be a focus, too, where Garrett Bradbury, the first round pick from 2019, has been average at best. Diamond said Bradbury has “too much trouble with these big, strong defensive tackles.”

Reunion Will Celebrate March Magic

Every year long ago in late March—with winter still in full force and fingers crossed there would be no state tournament snowstorm—Minnesotans sat for three days in front of their televisions, content to be indoors. The state’s citizenry, including those fortunate enough to be ticket holders, were mesmerized by the boys’ state basketball tournament at Williams Arena. Most games drew capacity crowds of over 18,000 frenzied fans, and even a consolation matchup on a Friday morning could pull in 13,000 souls grateful to be in the arena.

The one-class tournament involved just eight teams and started on a Thursday, playing down to the championship game on Saturday night. The drama was nothing short of what Hollywood offered up in the movie “Hoosiers,” where small town Milan won the Indiana state high school title.

In the 1950s and 1960s this state’s fabled tournament was often the sports highlight of the year. The Gophers and pro teams couldn’t match the theatre of teams and players from the big city, suburbs and small towns. Minnesotans sat on the edge of their collective chairs in anticipation of who would emerge as that year’s “state tournament darlings.”

Small town teams against suburban or city teams created a David versus Goliath storyline. But not always, and there are chroniclers of state tourney history who consider the 1963 game between Marshall and Cloquet the greatest ever.

The game was tied 43-43 at halftime and ended 75-74 after Dennis Schroeder of Marshall made two free throws with 15 seconds remaining to give his team the state’s biggest prep prize. It was a back-and-forth exhausting competition—physically and emotionally. Schroeder told the Minneapolis Tribune after the game he “almost died” when his first free throw popped up in the air before going down through the net.

Howard Lavick was a Cloquet freshman back in 1963 and he has gone on to become a Hollywood documentary film maker. He is captivated by that Cloquet team and has posted a YouTube video called “Beyond the Prize.” Whether you lived through that era of state tournament glory or not, it’s highly recommended viewing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjgAf6gXSkM

Now here is something else cool: March 24 there will be a reunion for all players from 1960-1970 who played on teams from the last decade of the one-class tournament format. About 40 to 50 attendees are expected including Ben Trochlil, coach of the 1963 Cloquet team and now 86 years old. Many of his players and their rivals from Marshall will come together again, perhaps for the last time.

Jeff McCarron, a great player on the 1970 Sherburn team that won the last one-class state title, is helping organize a reunion luncheon from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. March 24 at The Graduate Hotel near Williams Arena. Fittingly, this year boys’ state tournament games will be played five straight days at the “Barn.”

The reunion is a passionate endeavor for McCarron. He wrote in an email that the gathering of men now 69 to 80 years old, from various teams and years, will “recognize a bond with not only their own teammates and coaches, but with their opponents.”

More information: jmac8144@yahoo.com

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Month: March 2022

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