Jimmy Williams, the former Gopher basketball assistant coach known for his recruiting mastery, will not be joining new Minnesota coach Tubby Smith’s staff, according to a knowledgeable source. Williams resigned as an assistant at Oklahoma State last week and there’s been speculation he will come back to Minnesota where he was a Gopher assistant in the 1970s and 1980s.
It was 40 years ago this year that Bud Grant became the Minnesota Vikings head coach. Grant, one of the greatest athletes ever at the University of Minnesota, had been head coach of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in the Canadian Football League. Grant, who turns 80 next month, was 29 years old when he started coaching the Blue Bombers.
The Twins’ Rochester farm team might have a superior starting pitching staff to some major league teams. Matt Garza, Glen Perkins, Kevin Slowey and Scott Baker figure to win a lot of games in AAA.
With five goals in the last regular season game, the Wild set a franchise record for goals in a season with 235, breaking the previous record of 231 set in 2005-06. The 5-1 victory over St. Louis Saturday night gave the Wild its 48th win of the season and established a franchise season record of 104 points.
The Timberwolves haven’t won back-to-back games since mid-February when they had wins against Boston and Denver. The Wolves defeated New York Friday night but came home and lost to New Orleans on Saturday evening.