Author: David Shama

A certain venerable sports columnist, one with close personal friends, occasionally likes to say while speculating about a topic that there is “zero chance” of something developing.  To borrow the phrase today, there is zero chance Bob Knight will be the next University of Minnesota basketball coach, replacing Dan Monson. 

With all of Knight’s history of on and off-court problems, and the political correctness of the University, your local cab driver is about as likely to be coaching the Gophers next season.  Yes, Knight would be a money producing machine, selling out Williams Arena and generating other revenues such as merchandising and fundraising.  A Midwesterner who won three national titles at Indiana before being fired, Knight probably would be interested in a return to a Big Ten Conference school and he has long admired the Minneapolis area. 

Jim Dutcher coached against Knight as the Gopher coach for 11 seasons, from 1975 to 1986.  What does he think about Knight and the Minnesota job? “No, that would be the last guy you would want to hire. …Not from a winning or competitive standpoint, but just from other standpoints, that would not be a good fit,” Dutcher answered. 

Knight is 66 years old and his age raises a question about how much longer he will coach anywhere.  I doubt, too, how effective Knight can be recruiting players from outside Minnesota.  Since his arrival at Texas Tech in 2001 he hasn’t shown an ability to attract the nation’s best players. 

Dutcher coached Flip Saunders and later Saunders was on Dutcher’s coaching staff.  There have been various theories advanced as to why Saunders might be interested in the Gophers’ job.  One I haven’t heard is a possible desire to get back at his former employer, the Minnesota Timberwolves.  A successful run coaching the Gophers could make the U the No. 1 basketball attraction in the state, not the Wolves who moved him aside as coach in 2005. 

Saunders is chasing his first NBA championship as coach of the Detroit Pistons and perhaps making $5 million per year.  Dutcher said he didn’t know if Saunders is interested in coming back to Minneapolis where two of his children attend the University.    

Dutcher believes Saunders, 51, would recruit effectively.  “I think so because he’s a competitior,” Dutcher said.  “He knows that winning is a lot more fun than losing. …” 

Rick Majerus, 58, also has ties to the Midwest with friends here and having coached at Marquette in Milwaukee.  He has been out of coaching since 2004 and while once considered a great coach his candidacy to lead the Gophers isn’t taken very seriously by many people.  His name comes up when there are job openings but he seems more interested in the attention than working again as a college coach. “I think he becomes less attractive as time goes by,” Dutcher said.

Freshmen, including three players drafted in the first round of this year’s NHL Entry Draft, have helped fuel the Gopher hockey team’s rise to No. 1 in the country and speculation this may be the best team ever at the University.  Talk is the Gophers will not see all nine of the freshmen on the roster return next season. 

Coach Don Lucia doesn’t agree that it’s certain all his freshmen will not return including defenseman Erik Johnson, the No. 1 pick in the draft, and also first round picks Kyle Okposo and David Fischer.  “I don’ think it’s a foregone conclusion but we have to plan for it,” Lucia said.  “I think it’s just one of those things we do not know.  Some of these freshmen I think are going to be very good players, but I don’t think any of the freshmen should be leaving after this year, but again as a coach you have very little say over that.”

Ask Lucia about the talent level of his team and whether it could be the best ever and he hedges.  While acknowledging the collective abilities, he talks about the youth of the team and the improvement that will come next season if his freshmen and other underclassmen return.  He recalled that the 2002 team would not have won the national championship if Jordan Leopold and Johnny Pohl had left early to play professionally.  “It’s (about) keeping these kids long enough where you get the benefit of them being an elite All-American type player,” Lucia said. 

In conversation about the team’s playmakers, Lucia talked first about senior Tyler Hirsch, the Gophers’ leading scorer.  “Tyler Hirsch’s ability to pass the puck is second to none,” Lucia said.  “He can really move the puck.” 

Lucia has been pleased with the leadership contributions of another senior, captain Mike Vannelli.  “He’s taken this young team under his wing and said, ‘I am going to be the leader of this team,’” Lucia said.  

There’s a lot of hockey to be played between now and April when the Gophers hope to make their way to the national championship game.  Last season in a stunning loss, the Gophers were upset by Holy Cross in the NCAA playoffs.  “For whatever reason, some guys lost their confidence in the finals and we just didn’t have time to get it back,” Lucia said.

This fall the Star Tribune published a four part series detailing the life and death of Kirby Puckett after baseball.  It was another look into the good and bad of perhaps Minnesota’s most revered baseball player ever.  For all of his personal problems, memories of Puckett remain positive for many people including those who were fond of him for much more than his ball playing skills. 

Among those with such recollections is Gregg Wong, the former Pioneer Press sports writer.  I called Wong on Sunday, May 7 to pass along the news Puckett had suffered a stroke and was in grave condition.  Puckett died later that day.   

I recently asked Wong to write about his memories of Puckett.  Wong was a Twins beat writer from 1985-1987 and covered the team part time during other seasons.   Here’s what Wong wrote: 

“He was the most upbeat, most accessible athlete I’ve ever dealt with on a regular basis. He would light up whatever room he was in with his non-stop chatter, banter and energy. The noise level in the clubhouse always would go up once he walked in. 

“He always had something to say for the record. A lot of times it might just be a cliché, but he always was there to face the music. He never ran and hid, like many top athletes, even if he struck out with the winning run on base in the bottom of the ninth. He was a true professional in that regard; he knew you had a job to do, too. 

“Probably my favorite remembrance of him was when he made his first all-star team in 1986, where he was voted in as a starter. The paper did not send me to the game in Houston, but the boss wanted a Puckett sidebar after the game. I asked if he would call me as soon as the game got over so I could ask about his experience and he said he would, although I believed he would get caught up in the hype and hoopla and forget to call. 

“I watched the game on TV, made some notes and prayed that he’d call. Five minutes after the game was over, the phone rang. ‘What’s up, Wongie?’ he said. ‘How you doin’?’ Here he had just ended the biggest moment of his career up to that point and he remembered to call and asked how I was doing (just fine because he called)! Not many pro athletes would do anything like that today — and certainly none of the Vikings I covered in a half-dozen years.”