Author: David Shama

For almost 20 years Gophers fans have envied the success of border neighbors Wisconsin and Iowa. Fans have wondered why a long dismal Minnesota program can’t achieve on the field what the Badgers and Hawkeyes have accomplished.

The Badgers tied for the Big Ten title last season and played in the Rose Bowl, the school’s fourth trip to Pasadena since 1994.  The Hawkeyes often are in the mix for a top 25 ranking and BCS bowl game.  The Gophers haven’t been to the Rose Bowl since 1962, have made only two visits to Pasadena and last won a Big Ten title in 1967.  During the last 20 years the Gophers have two winning seasons in conference games.  The Gophers were 3-9 overall last year, 2-6 in the Big Ten.

Kill didn’t hesitate when asked if the Gophers can equal the Wisconsin and Iowa success stories.  “We can but it’s going to take time,” he said.  “They didn’t do it overnight. … What you get out of life is what you invest in it.  We have a lot of investing to do yet before we get to that situation.

“…I think people want to see it changed, but it’s going to take more than me.  It’s going to take a group effort and hopefully we can get everybody to believe in the vision that we’re trying to create and we’ll see how it goes.  Only time will tell.”

At Northern Illinois Kill had a vision to make the Huskies a success year after year.  He will expect no less from the Gophers despite their present lowly place in college football.  In the February issue of Sporting News Magazine the publication previewed 125 college programs prior to spring practices including the Huskies and Gophers.  Capsule comments on Northern Illinois included this: “New coach Dave Doeren should tweak, rather than overhaul the conference’s healthiest program.”  And on Minnesota: “Every aspect of the Gophers program needs an overhaul.”

Kill associates sustained success with Wisconsin and Iowa.  “Our vision is certainly to become one of those programs,” he said. “That was our vision at Northern Illinois that we wanted to become the best team in the MAC conference (Mid-American) and be the most consistent team…year after year after year.  I can promise you I left that program (in good standing) and they’re going to be good for a long time.  They got a lot of talent there.  That’s what we’ll try to do here.

“We have so much to offer here, the Twin Cities, careers after they get done playing.  We just gotta do a good job of selling what we have to offer, and we gotta do a good job of recruiting the right kid to our university.”

The Hobey Baker Memorial Award Foundation has named “Miracle on Ice” and three- time Gophers national championship coach Herb Brooks its 2011 Legend of Hockey recipient.  Brooks will be honored along with the 2011 Hobey Baker Award winner at the Hobey Baker banquet June 23 in St. Paul.  Ticket information is available at www.hobeybaker.com.

Mary Spalding, a basketball season ticket holder since 1945, was recognized at Saturday’s home Gophers game against Michigan.  Spalding has had tickets longer than any Gophers season basketball customer, according to an athletic department email.

Former Gopher Clyde Turner, a starter on the 1972 Big Ten basketball championship team, is the new executive director of the Sabathani Community Center in Minneapolis.

At the request of Sports Headliners, Mr. Basketball chair Ken Lien provided his rankings of the best prep boys teams in 4A, 3A, 2A and 1A.  His top five in big school 4A are Hopkins, Chaska, Eden Prairie, Osseo and Eastview.  St. Paul Johnson is No. 1 in 3A followed by Benilde-St. Margaret’s, Minneapolis Washburn, Hill-Murray and DeLaSalle.  The top five in 2A are Plainview-Elgin-Millville, Braham, Perham, Waterville-Elysian-Morristown and Moose Lake-Willow River.  Minnesota Transitions is No. 1 in 1A followed by Maranatha Christian, Sebeka, Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa and MACCRAY.

Minnesota tennis author Jim Holden emailed that he was in Memphis last week to watch a major tournament where Rochester’s Eric Butorac and partner Jean-Julien Rojer lost in the men’s doubles finals.  Holden praised their play and gushed about rising star Milos Raonic who lost in the singles finals to Andy Roddick.  “Mark my words, he will be in the top 10 in a year,” Holden wrote.  Holden is the author of Tennis in the Northland, a comprehensive history of boys high school tennis in Minnesota.

A golf panel, including University of Minnesota golf director John Harris, will be featured at the C.O.R.E.S. luncheon in Bloomington on Thursday, March 10.  C.O.R.E.S. members can make reservations by contacting Jim Dotseth, dotsethj@comcast.net.  C.O.R.E.S. is an acronym for coaches, officials, educators, reporters and sports fans.

There’s a mantra in college basketball that is slapping the Gophers directly in the face: “You win with good point guards.”

The Gophers have none.  They have lost six of eight games since senior Al Nolen broke his right foot and became unavailable.  Minnesota most likely would have another couple wins during that stretch if junior guard Devoe Joseph hadn’t transferred out of the program in January.

It’s likely, too, the Gophers would have better than a 6-9 Big Ten record and more than one win in their last seven games if Justin Cobbs, a freshman point guard in 2009-2010, hadn’t transferred at the end of last season.  Without Nolen, Joseph and Cobbs, the Gophers are left with senior shooting guard Blake Hoffarber and freshman Maverick Ahanmisi to play point guard.  Hoffarber doesn’t have the quickness to play the position and Ahanmisi is too inexperienced and often makes poor decisions.

The Gophers miss Nolen’s ability to penetrate and pass to open teammates.  At times he had a dependable outside shot, too.  Joseph was a combo guard but a better choice than Hoffarber.  He had some ability to penetrate and was the team’s best outside shooter other than Hoffarber.

The Gophers now have a lineup that has minimal offensive skills, with a lack of ball handling, passing and shooting.  Either because the lineup has players playing out of position, or inexperienced players on the floor, Minnesota has too many turnovers, some leading directly to dunks by the other team.  (See Wednesday night’s second half against Michigan State and a 53-48 loss).

In six of the last seven games the Gophers have scored 63 points or less.  With the absence of a point guard and minimal offensive abilities, the Gophers are likely to lose at least two of their last three regular season conference games.  The guess here is losses to Michigan (tomorrow at Williams Arena) and at Northwestern on March 2, with a win over Penn State in Minneapolis March 6.

Forget about a deep Big Ten tournament run like last year when the Gophers made the finals and Joseph was named to the all-tourney team.  Unless Nolen resumes playing in March, this team could be one-and-done in the NIT.