Author: David Shama

Here’s a guess that two Twins pitchers who may have surprise seasons and help solve an unsettled pitching staff are Brian Duensing and Glen Perkins.  Duensing, 28, is a possible starter and impressed last season, his second in the majors, with a 10-2 record and 2.62 ERA.  Perkins, also 28, has the experience (he won 12 games in 2008) to make a comeback from last year’s 1-1 record and help in the bullpen.

The Wolves Kevin Love is the best in the NBA this season with four games of 30 or more points and 20 or more rebounds.

Apple Valley High School basketball player Tyus Jones was featured this week on FSN North’s Prep Zone show.  The ninth grader has classic point guard court awareness.

Coach Steve Fritz is pushing toward 600 career wins and could get No. 589 tonight when St. Thomas hosts Northwestern College (Roseville) in an opening NCAA tournament Division III playoff basketball game.  In 31 seasons he has 588 wins, 246 losses and his Tommies recently won a 10^th MIAC playoff title.

Former Gophers and Vikings player Jack Brewer has a foundation that helped organize a recent trip to China promoting the NFL.  Among those accompanying Brewer was Vikings wide receiver Sidney Rice.

College hockey increases its prestige next year with the debut of Penn State’s Division I men’s and women’s teams. The school will open an impressive new arena in 2013.  Web reports include Wisconsin women’s coach Mark Johnson as a possible candidate for the Penn State men’s job.

Edina native and Toronto general manager Brian Burke expressed confidence in another Minnesotan when he acquired defenseman Jake Gardiner in a recent trade with Anaheim.  The 20-year-old Gardiner, who played high school hockey at Minnetonka, is third on the Wisconsin Badgers in assists with 37 points (nine goals, 28 assists).

The Wild’s Cam Barker will participate in the Polar Bear Plunge at Lake Calhoun tomorrow to support Special Olympics.  He will match all funds raised up to $15,000.

The Wild’s Brent Burns and Nick Schultz have a bet to see who can last the longest without having a haircut.

As of Wednesday, recently acquired Wild Finnish prospect Mikko Lehtonen led the Swedish Elite league with 29 goals and was second in scoring with 57 points in 53 games.

The Swarm game against Buffalo from Xcel Energy Center on March 27 will be televised nationally on VERSUS.

Joel Maturi may continue as the Gophers athletic director beyond the expiration of his current contract that ends in 2012.

Maturi told Sports Headliners he and incoming University of Minnesota president Eric Kaler will determine his future.  Kaler officially succeeds president Bob Bruininks on July 1.

Bruininks offered Maturi a two-year contract extension last year but Maturi didn’t think it was in the best interests of the new president or the University to accept the offer with the changes going on in school leadership.  The refusal was an example of Maturi’s integrity, a character trait that endears him to associates and friends.

During an interview Maturi said he and Kaler will use the new president’s first year as an opportunity to make a mutual decision about whether he should continue to lead the athletic department.  Maturi, 66, is in good health, and has set no specific retirement goal.  He said “if it’s good for the University” he’s interested in a contract extension.

Kaler and Maturi are already working together.  “We’ve had meetings and discussed concerns (in the athletic department),” Maturi said.

Kaler is a sports fan and his commitment to athletics was among the reasons University regents approved of him as Bruinink’s successor.  Whether he and Maturi determine it’s the right fit for Maturi to continue as athletic director will probably be decided before the calendar year ends.

Maturi, a native of Chisholm, has been athletic director since 2002.  He is credited with uniting the men and women in his department, operating a 25 sport program that is both fiscally and ethically sound, and helping to build TCF Bank Stadium.  He’s been nationally praised as an outstanding athletic director, although in Minnesota he has many critics who are unhappy with the performances of his three marquee sports–men’s basketball and hockey, and football.

Maturi wrote in an email to Gophers fans that the athletic department has operated with a “balanced” budget during his years as director and that revenues have grown 61 percent.  The 2010-11 budget is $76.7 million.

Maturi wrote that from 2002-2003 through 2009-2010 funding for the football budget increased from $7.4 million to $17.5 million, while men’s basketball increased from $2.3 million to $5.7 million, and men’s hockey from $1.4 million to $2.3 million.  Using 2009-2010 figures, the football budget ranked No. 7 in the Big Ten and No. 29 in the country, while basketball was No. 4 in the conference, and hockey’s budget was the third largest in the country.

The athletic department is financially self-supporting.  Maturi said in his email that during the 2002-2003 school year, 14 percent of his budget was provided by University dollars from outside his department, while in 2009-2010 the percentage decreased to three percent.

Coach Tubby Smith’s Gophers basketball team used its superior size to beat Northwestern at home earlier this season, 81-70.  Tonight the Gophers try to end a three-game losing streak when they play the Wildcats in Evanston.  Minnesota is 1-7 since defeating Northwestern on January 26 in a game that forward Trevor Mbakwe had 18 points and 15 rebounds while center Colton Iverson scored 15 points, all in the second half.

Mbakwe said the Gophers “feel bad” about their stunning collapse but the team is a “family” and remains in pursuit of an NCAA tournament invitation.  Minnesota, 17-11 overall, 6-10 in Big Ten games, is pursuing an improbable dream finish now, needing to win the last two regular season games, at Northwestern and home next Sunday against Penn State, and then producing at least three wins in the Big Ten tournament that starts next week.

The 6-10 Iverson, despite attempting close to the basket shots, is 5 of 23 shooting during his last seven games.

Marcus Fuller, the Pioneer Press Gophers beat writer, told Sports Headliners his first team all-Big Ten choices are: JaJuan Johnson and E’Twaun Moore from Purdue, Ohio State’s Jared Sullinger, Penn State’s Talor Battle and Wisconsin’s Jordan Taylor.

Fuller said he will vote for Brigham Young’s Jimmer Fredette as Associated Press Player of the Year in college basketball.

The Big Ten Women’s Basketball Tournament opens tomorrow in Indianapolis and Minnesota has never won the tourney.  Since the tourney began in 1995 Purdue has won seven championships, the most of any school.  Tourney tickets are modestly priced at $65 for all sessions and $12-$16 for single games.  The Gophers play Northwestern tomorrow night at in a game to be televised by the Big Ten Network.