Author: David Shama

David Shama is a former sports editor and columnist with local publications. His writing and reporting experiences include covering the Minnesota Vikings, Minnesota Twins, Minnesota Timberwolves and Minnesota Gophers. Shama’s career experiences also include sports marketing. He is the former Marketing Director of the Minnesota North Stars of the NHL. He is also the former Marketing Director of the United States Tennis Association’s Northern Section. A native of Minneapolis, Shama has been part of the community his entire life. He is a graduate of the University of Minnesota where he majored in journalism. He also has a Master’s degree in education from the University of St. Thomas. He was a member of the Governor’s NBA’s Task Force to help create interest in bringing pro basketball to town in the 1980s.

Vikings Could Draft St. John’s Tackle

Posted on March 20, 2020March 20, 2020 by David Shama

Enjoy a Friday notes column referencing the Minnesota Vikings upcoming draft, regular season and playoff predictions for the Minnesota Twins, and more.

The Vikings’ offseason campaign to upgrade the offensive line could include a draft eligible player from inside the state’s borders. St. John’s left tackle Ben Bartch has earned praise in the months leading up to the April NFL Draft despite playing Division III football.

Pete Najarian, the former Gopher linebacker who has been an ESPN college football analyst, has a son who attends St. John’s. Najarian has watched Bartch’s career as the Oregon native has transitioned from a tight end to tackle while dramatically increasing his weight to about 310 pounds. Despite an impressive NFL Scouting Combine performance this winter, Najarian told Sports Headliners a lot of observers “don’t really understand how good he is.”

Najarian believes the 6-foot-6 Bartch, who could play tackle or guard in the NFL, might be drafted in the fourth round. “He’s athletic as heck,” Najarian said.

Najarian is also a fan of Oklahoma quarterback Jalen Hurts who he thinks the Vikings should pursue, perhaps in the second round. The Vikings don’t have an athletic quarterback with the skill-set of Hurts who also was a star at Alabama. The 6-foot-1, 220-pound Hurts ran a 4:59 40-yard dash at the NFL Scouting Combine.

“…I think he could be a quarterback not too dissimilar to a Dak Prescott, or some of the other quarterbacks that are considered dual-threats including Lamar Jackson,” Najarian said. “I think he is somewhere in that category, and his combine numbers say a lot about how fast and big he really is.”

Najarian, best known as a financial whiz on television, played for the NFL’s Tampa Bucs, who have acquired 42-year-old quarterback Tom Brady. The team is known for its offensive talent, but not at quarterback. Last season the Bucs had a 7-9 record. Najarian believes the arrival of Brady, considered by many to be the NFL’s greatest quarterback of all time, transforms the Bucs into Super Bowl contenders.

“I think he’s that good,” Najarian said. “I think he still has the ability to play at a high enough level—probably not the highest level he ever played at—but a higher level than most quarterbacks in the NFL still. So it gives Tampa what they have been missing, which is somebody secure at the quarterback position.”

Sports Illustrated’s spring baseball issue predicts the Twins, who won 101 games last season and became American League Central Division champs, will again finish ahead of the Cleveland Indians, Chicago White Sox, Detroit Tigers and Kansas City Royals. The Twins will have a 93-69 regular season record but will lose their AL Division series to the Houston Astros (will they cheat?), according to S.I.

S.I. points out the Twins hit an MLB record 307 home runs but at least as impressive was that the pitching staff struck out a franchise record 1,463 batters. “The dingers got the attention last year, but the biggest change was the embrace of modern approaches under new pitching coach (Wes) Johnson,” the magazine said.

The publication forecasts the New York Yankees will defeat the Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series.

Yesterday the website BetOnline.com gave Minnesota the third best odds to win the American League playoffs, and sixth best chance of any MLB club to win the World Series.

Former Twins manager Ron Gardenhire, now the Tigers’ skipper, saw his team lose 114 games last season and could be on track for a similar total in 2020. While the Twins had nine players slug more than 20 home runs, no Tiger hit more than 15 last season.

Former Twins infielders C.J. Cron and Jonathan Schoop, now with the Tigers, hit 25 and 23 respectively last season.

It will be interesting to see if former Timberwolves player and coach Sam Mitchell, who resigned from his assistant’s position with the Memphis Tigers about a year ago, gets back into coaching. Mitchell, 56, now has both NBA and college coaching experience.

Gophers athletic director Mark Coyle speaks to the CORES lunch group Thursday, May 14 at the Bloomington Event Center, 1114 American Blvd. More information is available by contacting Jim Dotseth, dotsethj@comcast.net.

The retirement celebration for prep football coaching legend Ron Stolski has been moved from April 4 to June 13 at Cragun’s Legacy Clubhouse in Brainerd. He coached football in Minnesota for 58 years, including the last 45 at Brainerd.

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Why Pitino Return May Have Happened

Posted on March 18, 2020March 18, 2020 by David Shama

Did circumstances caused by the coronavirus prompt Golden Gophers athletic director Mark Coyle to announce last week that basketball coach Richard Pitino will return for another season?

A sports executive, asking for anonymity, told Sports Headliners a couple of weeks ago he heard Coyle had decided to fire Pitino, who was completing his seventh season leading the Gophers. Another source, with close ties to the University of Minnesota, said rumors this winter were Coyle had reached out to potential replacements.

As of last week, developments from the coronavirus had the University anticipating $50 million or more in new expenses. It could be that Coyle, in consultation with school president Joan Gabel, decided against giving Pitino the $2 million buyout his contract demands.

Critics would have pounced hard on University leaders for spending $2 million during such difficult times at the U and throughout the state of Minnesota. Fault-finders wouldn’t care the $2 million probably would have come from the largely self-supporting athletic department, and not from tax dollars out of the University’s general fund.

Gabel and Coyle may well have sized up the situation and seen that the practicality and the perception of changing basketball coaches just now was not the way to go. “Richard was (probably) spared by the pandemic,” said the source with close ties to the U.

Was it the right decision? For years there has been a chorus of Pitino critics, speaking with conviction that the program has underperformed. This winter the noise level jumped with loud complaining and second-guessing from the fan-base. There were blown leads in games and close defeats, including to border rivals Iowa and Wisconsin. The emotions of this winter became combined with too many past seasons of frustrations that even involved misbehavior by players.

Wisconsin had five Minnesotans on its roster this year and some played key roles in helping the Badgers tie for the 2020 Big Ten championship. Next season the Badgers add two promising Minnesota prep players in Ben Carlson and Steven Crowl. The roster in Madison is expected to have seven Minnesotans for 2020-2021.

For 20 consecutive Big Ten seasons the Badgers have produced better records than the Gophers! And often Minnesotans were major contributors. Part of that Wisconsin success story the last 20 years includes five Big Ten regular season titles and two Final Four appearances. Impressive results for the Badgers who represent a state and school that is demographically, culturally and geographically similar to Minnesota.

Critics have been outspoken for a long time about the Gophers not recruiting more quality Minnesota prep players. A former Big Ten coach told Sports Headliners there were more than a dozen Minnesotans playing for other NCAA basketball teams this winter that could have helped the Gophers. Pitino’s two most recent recruiting classes have no Minnesotans—and he and his staff have come up empty on three of the last four classes.

This year’s Gopher team had five Minnesotans on the roster, with two of them starters. Sophomore center Daniel Oturu was named an All-American and is likely to depart for the NBA in the spring. Sophomore guard Gabe Kalscheur was also a starter and the team’s most active three-point shooter. Forwards Michael Hurt and Jarvis Omersa played limited minutes off the bench, and guard Brady Rudrud hardly at all.

Fans have an expectation that the high caliber and large number of talented prep players in the state will translate into success for the Gophers. Minnesota has become a hotbed of talent, and a regular recruiting stop for college coaches from other places including prominent names like Tom Izzo of Michigan State, Bill Self from Kansas and Mike Krzyzewski of Duke.

Pitino’s seven-year Big Ten record is 48 wins, 72 losses. Only once, in 2016-2017, have his teams won more conference regular season games than they have lost. That 11-7 record was a pleasant surprise and resulted in Pitino being selected the league’s Coach of the Year.

The 2016-2017 team made the NCAA Tournament where the Gophers lost their opening game. Pitino’s team last year also made the tournament and had an impressive upset win over Louisville before losing to Michigan State. In the coach’s first season, 2013-2014, Minnesota won the National Invitational Tournament.

Qualifying for the 68-field NCAA Tournament has become a popular measure of success in the college basketball world, but it shouldn’t be seen by fans or administrators as meaningful as being a conference title contender most seasons. In a statement last week Coyle expressed his expectations for Pitino to compete for championships. (While more detail was sought, Coyle declined to be interviewed for this column.)

Next fall and winter the pressure on the coach and Coyle could increase even more. If Oturu departs, it’s difficult to speculate how the returning players and incoming freshmen (two four-star recruits from out of state) will produce and with what results.

Those results weren’t so good this year with the Gophers finishing in 12th place in the 14-team Big Ten. Minnesota’s record was 8-12 in the conference and 15-16 overall. Home attendance had an announced average for 16 games of 10,232. That is the lowest since the program had an average of 8,395 during the 1970-1971 season. (Announced attendance means tickets distributed.)

The Gophers had one sellout all season when 14,625 was announced for the February 16 Iowa game. Fan apathy has been a reality for years and this offseason indifference is likely to grow. Certainly Coyle sees this and may well have considered how a change in leadership could have jump-started expectations and revenues including season tickets and donations. The right coach could make up the $2 million buyout in short order.

Coyle is a savvy administrator and has impressed with his coaching selections since becoming athletic director in 2016. His hires include football coach P.J. Fleck who in year three at Minnesota led the Gophers to a final A.P. ranking of No. 10 in the nation. That was the highest ranking for the program at the end of a season since 1962. For decades Gopher football mostly struggled against Big Ten opponents, but last year Minnesota had a 7-2 record. The seven wins tied a school record. Fleck’s teams are 15-4 in their last 19 games.

If the football program—requiring large numbers of players—can become a quick success story at Minnesota, then surely basketball can rebound, too. The rise of football should mute the apologists who say Gophers basketball can’t do much better than land in the lower portion of the Big Ten standings.

Pitino was hired in 2013 by infamous U athletic director Norwood Teague who had been unable to convince other candidates to accept the job. Pitino, then 30 years old, had one season of head coaching experience at Florida International where his record was 18-14. The job at Minnesota has been rewarding financially with a current salary base of about $2 million and millions more earned over seven years including through bonuses. Not so rewarded are the Gopher loyalists who have invested their money, time and emotions in the program with minimal return for years.

Teague showed patience with Pitino, and so, too, has Coyle who is on record as personally liking the coach. I like Richard, too, but coaches are hired to win and there has been too little of that for most of the last seven seasons.

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Hopkins Coach Cosgriff to Make Decision

Posted on March 16, 2020March 16, 2020 by David Shama

Hopkins girls’ basketball coach Brian Cosgriff told Sports Headliners he doesn’t know if he will be coaching next season. He has been the Royals head coach for 21 seasons, with seven state titles, 19 Lake Conference championships and 14 section titles.

Daughter Brooke is a senior at Hopkins and has been a reserve on a Hopkins team that won 62 consecutive games. Her college destination is yet to be determined and that was on dad’s mind when he talked about his future Saturday.

“I want to be around to follow her collegiate career, and if coaching doesn’t allow me to do that, I am going to have to have a serious conversation with myself and some people.” Cosgriff said. “But I haven’t made up my mind right now (about next year).”

Coach Cos, as he is known to so many admirers, has experienced so much emotion in 2020 including induction into the Minnesota High School Basketball Hall of Fame. In the last 12 months he’s had a dream run seeing his team win the 2019 Class 4A championship while coaching his daughter and a roster of talented and unselfish young athletes. That roster for several years has included Paige Bueckers, the do-it-all National Player of the Year, and perhaps the greatest girls basketball player in state history.

The winning streak, the 2020 journey to another state tournament, the joy of playing and coaching all came to an abrupt halt last week after the Royals had won their state tournament semifinal game. Because of the coronavirus threat, the Minnesota State High School League cancelled what would have been the 4A title game Saturday between Hopkins and Farmington. This week’s boys’ tournament is also cancelled and spring sports teams as of now are allowed to practice but not play games.

Seeing competition end on the court or fields is frustrating for all concerned. For the Royals and Farmington to stop playing one game short of determining a state champion prompts a lot of emotional pain. Cosgriff said his players were “crying their eyes out” when he told them the bad news.

The coach wanted to offer something to say that would console them. He and the players are used to fixing problems like watching film after games and correcting mistakes. All he could say to his players was to savor the journey they had experienced, and find joy and satisfaction in knowing each other and all they had achieved.

As of Saturday, though, Cosgriff and the Royals yearned for one more game, and another state title. Could something be worked out? “I haven’t been told anything,” the coach said. “At this point it’s cancelled. I haven’t been told that both teams will be crowned state champions, (or) there is a makeup date, or anything like that.”

On Sunday Governor Tim Walz announced all schools in the state, starting Wednesday, will be closed for at least eight days. Shortly afterward the announcement came that Hopkins schools are closed as of today. Saturday Cosgriff was struggling with two realities—his team couldn’t play for a championship they had been working for since last April, yet Hopkins and other schools were open.

Cosgriff understands what a serious situation the state and nation face. He gets it that people can become very ill and inevitably there will be lawsuits involving the coronavirus. So he understands the risks but just seeks some final answers even including a banquet to celebrate what has been achieved (the school district, he said, is discouraging banquets for its teams).

Cosgriff said, “I just want some of these questions answered. What’s the alternative here? Is it just done? Is that what it is?”

Worth Noting

NFL.com is reporting this morning Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins has agreed to a two-year contract extension with the team. No further details reported yet. Cousins was in the last year of his deal and earlier media reports said negotiations were stalled.

A college sports commissioner said the NCAA is deciding whether seniors who play spring sports will be granted another season of eligibility in 2021. The NCAA, like so many organizations across the country, has placed springs sport on hold for now.

The annual Minnesota Football Clinic for March 26-28 has been cancelled and the sponsoring Minnesota Football Coaches Association also announced that its March 28 banquet is postponed. Refund options are available for both the clinic and banquet.

Northfield author Patrick Mader has written another book on accomplished athletes from the state. More Minnesota Gold is devoted to 51 Minnesota athletes who competed in the Olympics, Paralympics, and World Championships. The 392-page full-color book includes a name index and city listing. Among the many names profiled are speed skater Amy Peterson who won three Olympic gold medals, and 1980 Miracle on Ice hockey player John Harrington.

Former Minnesota governor Arne Carlson talking yesterday on WCCO Radio about 100-year-old Sid Hartman’s impact on the state: “He is Mr. Sports. That’s all there is to it.”

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