Author: David Shama

Timberwolves coach Dwane Casey said 6-foot-7, 250- pound rookie Craig Smith is a “few years and pounds” away from being able to successfully guard small forwards.  Although shorter, Smith has been guarding centers and power forwards. 

The Gopher hockey team defeated Wisconsin in two low scoring games (2-1 and 3-1) back in November and the goals could be few this weekend in Madison, too.  The Badgers are fourth in scoring defense in the WCHA allowing 2.27 points per game, the Gophers 1.91.  The last seven games in Madison between the Gophers and Badgers have been decided by two goals or less. 

Prep super star Kevin Love, from Oregon’s Lake Oswego High School, made a big impression here last weekend playing in the Gatorade Shootout at Target Center.  Love, a 6- foot-10 center, who scored 41 points in his team’s win against Osseo,  might be the nation’s best player and has committed to UCLA.  His father Stan played in the NBA and his uncle Mike is one of the Beach Boys.   

Iowa football fans here and elsewhere aren’t happy with the Hawkeyes late season collapse and 6-7 record including losses to Indiana and Northwestern. Part of the discontent focused on senior quarterback Drew Tate who stirred up Hawkeye fans with comments in the Des Moines Register before Iowa’s Alamo Bowl game with Texas.  When asked about fan reactions, Tate described Iowa as a state where there is much less happening than in his native Texas.  “That’s just the way the state is,” he said on DesMoinesRegister.com.  “There’s nothing really going on there, no pro teams or anything like that. The big news in the media is how the corn stock is doing, or something like that.” 

Was it budget constraints in the Star Tribune sports department that dictated not sending a reporter to cover the national championship game between Florida and Ohio State on Monday? 

Talk among knowledgeable sources about the Gopher basketball job is that Flip Saunders is the No. 1 choice.  “The job is Flip’s to turn down or accept,” a source said.   

Saunders, Bob Knight and Rick Majerus continue to be the top names drawing speculation about the position that opened up when Dan Monson departed following the Clemson game on November 29.  Publicly none of the three has indicated he’s pursuing the job but sources say Saunders, Knight and Majerus could be interested. 

Saunders reportedly makes about $5 million per year to coach the Detroit Pistons.  Doubters ask why Saunders would walk away from so much money while coaching at the highest level of basketball to accept the Gopher job.  But Saunders has made a lot of money already during his 12 year NBA coaching career and earning perhaps $2 million as Gopher coach ain’t bad.   

Saunders is a former Gopher player and assistant coach, has two children attending the University (he could coach son Ryan, a senior on next year’s team), still has a home here, and could give up the intense travel and egocentric players of the NBA to come home to be a college coach.  Don’t discount the possibility, too, that Saunders might enjoy taking over some of the basketball interest in this town from the Timberwolves who encouraged him to leave Minneapolis when they fired him. 

A source said Saunders was approached about the Gopher job in 1999 before the University hired Monson.  Saunders turned down the opportunity to remain as the Timberwolves coach but reportedly said that in the future he might be interested in college coaching. 

Opinion is only Saunders or Knight could sell out Williams Arena for all games next season, generating much needed revenue for the always budget challenged University Athletic Department.  The feel good story of the charismatic Saunders coming home, or college coaching bad boy Knight taking over the Gophers will juice University athletics like nothing else since Lou Holtz dazzled Minnesotans with his one-liners and coaching resume upon arrival here in 1984. 

Does Knight have influential upper Midwest friends who are promoting his candidacy for the Gopher job?  Sources say some successful Minnesotans are pushing Knight’s name.  Through his many years as Indiana and Texas Tech coach Knight has enjoyed making friends in this area while attending speaking engagements and hunting and fishing.  Since being ousted as Indiana coach in 2000, there has been speculation Knight is interested in returning to the Big Ten Conference. Knight’s reputation for controversy, though, makes it unlikely he will draw support from the politically correct University administration and perhaps the Big Ten office. 

Has Majerus already expressed strong interest in the Gopher job?  The former Utah coach who took the Utes to the final four has been out of coaching since 2004.  The guess from afar has been that at 58 years old and a history of heart trouble the portly Majerus is more interested in having his name linked to job openings than interviewing for them, but don’t be so sure this time.  If Majerus becomes the coach, you get a side show watching the big guy navigate the steps to and from the raised Williams Arena court.

Check out the rosters of the NBA’s top teams in the Western Conference and look at the foreign players making an impact.  San Antonio, NBA champion in 2005, is built around Tim Duncan (Virgin Islands), Tony Parker (France) and Manu Ginobili (Argentina).  Dallas, the hottest team in the NBA, is led by Dirk Nowitzki (Germany). His former teammate Steve Nash (Canada) has won two consecutive league MVP awards playing for Phoenix where the supporting cast includes foreign talent like Leandro Barbosa (Brazil) and Boris Diaw (France). Utah, among the league’s surprise teams, counts Andrei Kirilenko (Russia) and Mehmet Okur (Turkey) among its elite players.

The Timberwolves have never had a superb foreign player and currently have a roster of only American talent except for Marko Jaric (Serbia).  Fred Hoiberg, Wolves assistant general manager, noted the impact of European talent in a recent interview.  “What you get is very fundamental players,” he said. 

Hoiberg will soon be visiting Italy and Spain to look at pro players in those countries.  He will be scouting players with the possibility one or more may be drafted by the Timberwolves this year or in the future.  He will also be scouting college players as his “primary focus” becomes helping the Wolves add future talent. 

That means for awhile at least Hoiberg, who played 10 seasons in the NBA before becoming assistant general manager last April, spends less time on non-basketball work.  He has become a prominent face of the franchise, attending corporate golf outings, speaking at breakfasts and luncheons, and appearing regularly on WCCO Radio.   

Asked if he is filling a role that used to be played more by vice president Kevin McHale whose popularity has declined, Hoiberg suggested posing the question to McHale.  “I know my responsibility is to get out and talk to the public,” he said. 

It’s a role Hoiberg is comfortable with and he comes equipped with a resume as a popular player here.  He has a pleasant personality and conveys a Midwestern sincerity associated with places like Minnesota and Iowa where he played high school basketball.  He literally has movie star looks, too.  Heywood Workman, a former teammate with the Indiana Pacers, called him “Harrison,” likening him to movie star Harrison Ford.