Author: David Shama

Al Nuness, a former Gopher player and assistant coach, says Tubby Smith is Minnesota’s best basketball coaching hire in his lifetime.  KFAN’s Dan Barreiro, often an outspoken critic and never a homer, rated the Smith hire a “B+” on his radio program yesterday.  Fans e-mailed Sports Headliners to say they don’t know how athletic director Joel Maturi attracted Smith but they love the move. 

Nationally, Dick Vitale told America last night on ESPN that the Smith hire is a “home run, a grand slam” for Minnesota.  Respected basketball author John Feinstein told Barriero’s audience that Smith was a “very good coach.”  ESPN’s Andy Katz gave the hire perspective saying that Smith was tired of the second guessing and scrutiny in Kentucky. 

Nuness, who captained the Gophers in the late 1960’s and later was an assistant coach under Bill Musselman, said Smith is a top 10 coach.  He praised Smith’s ability to teach and coach.   “My hat is off to Joel Maturi,” Nuness said. “I don’t know how he pulled this off.” 

Nuness, an executive with Jostens, has met Smith and followed his career.  As the first African-American coach at Kentucky, Smith has been subjected to racial abuse and other irrational slurs.  “He got tired of having garbage and for sale signs placed on his lawn,” Nuness said. 

With a national reputation that includes 10 years at Kentucky and an NCAA title, Smith brings a more glamorous resume here than perhaps any local coach or manager in memory.  Whether he can maintain his image will ultimately be mostly determined by wins and losses. 

His recruiting was criticized in recent years at Kentucky but Nuness said Smith has long been known as a good recruiter and the effectiveness of that task will also be determined by his assistant coaches.  Nuness suggested Smith’s recent recruiting results may have been lessened by speculation that he wasn’t going to remain Kentucky’s coach. 

At age 55 does Smith have the energy to turn the Gophers into Big Ten Conference champions?  Nuness suggests it’s not a problem, rattling off the names of older coaches you may have heard of including Lute Olson of Arizona, Jim Calhoun of Connecticut and Jim Boeheim of Syracuse. 

For anyone out there in Tubbyville who may not have heard the names, those guys have long been considered top 10 coaches, too.

Wild goalie Josh Harding is raising awareness about breast cancer and helping to generate money for research.  Tonight from 6 p.m. to 6:45 p.m. he and teammate Derek Boogaard will be at Xcel Energy Center to sign autographs for fans attending the Minnesota Swarm-Toronto Rock lacrosse game.

A $5 donation to “Fund the Fight” is requested from each autograph seeker and because room in the autograph line is limited it’s suggested that fans arrive by 6 p.m.  Fans can also purchase a special “Fund the Fight” $10 ticketto the game. 

Harding’s sister Stephanie, 26, from Regina, Saskatchewan, was diagnosed with breast cancer about three months ago.  There had been no cancer in the Harding family and the diagnosis startled Josh.  “Growing up as a kid I never thought about it,” Josh said during a recent interview.  “Now I am starting to learn a little more about breast cancer. …” 

To help generate funds for breast cancer research Harding has established a Web site, www.fundthefight.com. At Wild games he’s wearing a custom made mask featuring pink ribbons and the words “Fund the Fight, Find a Cure.”  He will auction off his mask on the Web at season’s end.  Other hockey memorabilia is available now for auction. 

“She will get through this,” Harding said. “She has a lot of support from everybody else.  Just hopefully they caught it (the cancer) soon enough and they can get rid of it.” 

Harding, 22, is in his rookie season with the Wild and has been a backup.  He has a 2-0-1 record, with a 0.66 GAA and a .978 save percentage. 

He was a second round draft choice of the Wild in 2002.

The Twins season opening game at the Metrodome on April 2 could be sold out before week’s end.  Patrick Klinger, vice president of marketing, said 45,464 tickets (48,000 capacity) had been sold earlier this weekend.  A year ago at this time the Twins had sold 39,995 tickets for the opener. 

The new Minneapolis ballpark and the Twins 2006 Central Division championship is creating more ticket interest, according to Klinger.  He said about 8,400 season tickets were sold last year but 2007 season sales have past 9,000 and the Twins are targeting a final total of over 10,000. 

Herb Carneal, who has been broadcasting Twins games since 1962 and has health problems including diabetes, is expected to do play-by-play on KSTP Radio for a few innings of the Twins season opener on April 2. 

The Wild’s Marian Gaborik is a passionate race car fan.  He has a race car simulator in his Minneapolis home and spends hours with it.  The simulator is custom made and he bought it last September.  Although he wouldn’t say how much the simulator cost, he told Sports Headliners the price was five figures.“It’s an expensive toy but I like it,” he said. 

Minnesota will be making its nation-leading 31st appearance in the NCAA hockey tournament when the Gophers play Air Force tomorrow. The Golden Gophers have won five NCAA titles (1974-76-79-2002-03) and have advanced to the semi-finals 19 times. Minnesota is 49-31 all-time in the NCAA’s and has qualified for seven consecutive tournaments. 

Basketball booster Ken Lien reports that Crystal Clear Sports is covering all the class A, AA, AAA and AAAA semi-final and championship boys’ state tournament games.  www.crystalclearsports.net