Twins left hander Francisco Liriano, who recently pitched four innings of no hit baseball in spring training, could be headed toward dominant performances reminiscent of 2006 before he hurt his elbow. An impressive spring comes after a strong finish last season when his record in the last 10 games was 5-1 with a 3.02 E.R.A. His season stats were 6-4, with a 3.91 E.R.A.
The Gophers helped themselves with a possible invitation to the NCAA basketball tournament with the win over Northwestern yesterday in the Big Ten tournament. It can’t hurt that coach Tubby Smith is president of the National Association of Basketball Coaches and has done a lot of relationship building over the years.
Former Timberwolf Christain Laettner, who playing for Duke made the never-to-be forgotten NCAA tournament shot to beat coach Rick Pitino and Kentucky, stars in a commercial for Vitaminwater, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFNSl4IFRfg&feature=bz301
Timberwolves rookie forward Kevin Love, who played one season at UCLA, attended his first NHL game on Tuesday night, watching the Wild against San Jose at the Xcel Energy Center. He was a guest of Wild executive Bill Robertson who is a UCLA basketball fan. After the game Love received a locker room tour from Marian Gaborik. FS-North filmed a segment for an upcoming Wolves show about Love’s Wild game experience.
Ryan Wittman, the former Eden Prairie star, is a candidate for Ivy League Player of the Year after helping Cornell to a second straight conference title. The Cornell junior was featured in a New York Times article, https://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/27/sports/ncaabasketball/27cornell.html?_r=1&emc=eta1
The Wild’s Houston farm team is 10-2-0 in its last 12 games, in second place in the AHL West Division, and center Corey Locke leads the team in scoring with 63 points.
Matt Lopes and Melissa Mackley, both from Gustavus, are the MIAC men’s and women’s Hockey Athletes of the Week. Lopes made 17 saves in the Gusties’ 5-2 win over Hamline in the MIAC Playoff Championship game last week. The win gave the Gusties, who are 17-10-0, an automatic entry to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1993. They play tomorrow night at UW-Superior.
Mackley, a forward, scored two goals to help the Gusties defeat St. Thomas 3-0 to win the MIAC Playoff Championship game last week. Gustavus, which won the MIAC playoff title for the sixth consecutive year, hosts UW-River Falls in a NCAA tournament quarterfinal game tomorrow afternoon. The Gusties have a 26-game unbeaten streak, the longest in collegiate women’s hockey.