Author: David Shama

Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor answered “that’s right” when asked by Sports Headliners if coach Kurt Rambis has job security with him.  Rambis reportedly is in the second year of a four-year deal with the Wolves.

The Wolves’ 11-39 record is the second worst in the NBA, and during the 2009-10 season, Rambis’ first year coaching here, the team finished at 15-67.  That record was worse than only one other team, New Jersey, 12-70.

But Taylor expressed support for his coach, formerly a long time assistant with the Lakers whose previous head coaching experience was a 23-14 record with Los Angeles during the 1998-99 season.  “I’ve had talks with Kurt,” Taylor said. “Mostly I just feel for Kurt, knowing how hard he’s working.”

The Wolves have the youngest roster in the league and Taylor agrees with observers who believe the team is playing better than last season.  The club has lost several games that could have been wins if the Wolves had finished with better execution in the closing minutes.

Taylor said the team needs to eliminate costly turnovers, not so much travelling or three second lane violations but mistakes like bad passes that lead to easy baskets by the opposition. Team defense is often also a concern.

However, Taylor is encouraged by team attitude.  He said Rambis has told him “he couldn’t be prouder of the guys’ efforts in practice.”  The coaching staff emphasizes teaching with a young team that often has three players 23 or younger in the starting lineup, 22-year-olds Kevin Love and Michael Beasley, and Wes Johnson, 23.

“He (Rambis) sees the guys not quitting on him,” Taylor said. “That would be a big concern if that were true.  On any team when you lose a lot of games, you don’t want players to stop believing in themselves.  Our guys are not there.”

The Wolves are within a few games of having played two-thirds of the 82-game regular season schedule.  Taylor views the season in one-third increments and is hopeful of improvement between now and the last game on April 13.

He said defining improvement is somewhat subjective but he and knowledgeable fans will recognize whether the club is playing better.  He’s never told a coach he had to win a specific number of games because of many variables that can determine the win total including injuries and schedule.  Still, Taylor will evaluate his team’s effort, execution and togetherness.

“We want the team in the last third of the year to look and show improvement,” he said. “We won’t be content if what we have today is the best we get.  We went into this (rebuilding the club) with looking for year after year improvement, asking the players and staff to find answers.”

Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor was asked if he’s considered naming the team Minneapolis because of the city’s financial commitment to Target Center.  He replied that franchise support is from various areas and Minnesota is “appropriate.”

Wolves forward Kevin Love said in the mid-January issue of Sporting News Magazine that his worst habit is “biting my fingernails—but I recently quit.”

The University of Minnesota athletic department sent a mailing to men’s basketball season ticket holders announcing the annual team banquet will start with a 6 p.m. social followed by dinner on March 7 in the DQ Room at TCF Bank Stadium.

New Oakland football coach Hue Jackson was a quarterback on the University of the Pacific team that beat the 1986 Gophers in the Metrodome.

Mr. Basketball chair Ken Lien announced 20 names as finalists for the 2011 award: Thomas Schalk, Apple Valley; Marquel Curtis, Armstrong; Marcus Alipate, Bloomington Jefferson; Ross Travis, Chaska; Jake White, Chaska; Ben Figini, Chisago Lakes; Zach Lofton, Columbia Heights; Raijon Kelly, Cretin-Derham Hall; Jonah Travis, DeLaSalle; Joe Coleman, Hopkins; Marvin Singleton, Hopkins; Alex Richter, Lakeville South; Seth Hinrichs, MACCRAY; Kyle Noreen, Minnesota Transitions; Cole Olstad, Plainview-Elgin-Millville; Lucas Brown, Roseville; Roosevelt Scott, St. Paul Johnson; Estan Tyler, St. Paul Johnson; Shelby Moats, Waconia; Eric Robertson, Wayzata.

None of the last five winners of the Miss Minnesota Basketball award have become Gophers.  Cassie Rochel, the 2010 winner, is playing at Wisconsin and averaging 0.6 points per game.

Badgers men’s coach Bo Ryan has based part of his success on recruiting Minnesotans including his two best players on this year’s team, center Jon Leuer and point guard Jordan Taylor.  Ryan entered this season, his 10^th, with a winning percentage in Big Ten Conference games of .713, the best in league history. Ryan’s teams have lost only 11 home games, including six conference games, since he started coaching the Badgers in 2001.

VERSUS had its most watched NHL All-Star game in the network’s history on January 30, averaging nearly 1.5 million viewers, a 36 percent increase over the 2009 game, according to a league news release. The telecast peaked at nearly two million viewers, more than double the viewership for the 2007 game on VERSUS (691,000). VERSUS had the No. 1-rated cable network programming in the time period among men 18-34 and was No. 2 among men 18-49 and men 25-54.  VERSUS was the No. 1 rated cable network programming in several cities, including Boston, Chicago, Detroit and Philadelphia.

Steve Bellis, former coach at St. Catherine University, is the new Concordia-St. Paul women’s soccer coach.  He has over 15 years of soccer coaching experience and is a native of England.

The best player in the Gophers’ football recruiting class that will be announced today is Mahtomedi High School guard Tommy Olson, according to local recruiting authority Zach Johnson.

Johnson, who has been covering Gophers recruiting since 2003, told Sports Headliners that Olson is the “face” of new coach Jerry Kill’s first recruiting class, including Minnesota natives and players from other states.  “I think with Tommy Olson…you’re looking at, at least a three year starter on the line,” Johnson said.

Johnson, whose reporting is read on GopherIllustrated.com, groups four other Minnesota preps together when asked who the state’s second best player is.  He said Olson distances himself from anyone else and didn’t label a No. 2 player among Edina wide receiver Devin Crawford-Tufts (Gophers), Minnetonka defensive back James Farrow (Virginia Tech), St. Thomas Academy defensive lineman Anthony Hayes (Stanford) and Holy Family tight end-defensive end Peter Westerhaus (Gophers).

Rivals.com, the often quoted web authority on major college football recruiting, doesn’t give Olson or any other member of Kill’s projected recruiting class a four or five star rating.  Seventeen of the 21 players listed by Rivals receive three star ratings, and four of them are two stars, and Johnson is surprised Olson isn’t labeled a four.

Johnson couldn’t remember a time when the state’s best player wasn’t a four but he’s been told interior offensive linemen sometimes don’t receive high ratings because of the position they play.  “There’s no doubt in my mind that he’s going to be a great lineman in the Big Ten,” he said.

Kill’s class is ranked No. 49 in the country by Rivals.com and among Big Ten schools is listed ahead of only Indiana, Northwestern and Purdue.  “I wouldn’t call this (Minnesota’s class) subpar,” Johnson said.  “I would call it on-par with what you would come to expect from Minnesota.  When Mason was here (1997-2006) their recruiting classes were (ranked) in the 40’s and 50’s.”

Johnson believes the Gophers are “fortunate” to have as much quality in this class as they do given that Kill is a new coach and only had several weeks to recruit.  Johnson said recruiting is about “relationships” and it’s not fair to judge a head coach until his second class.  Former Gophers coach Tim Brewster’s second class was the best of his four, a top 25 nationally ranked group that included quarterback MarQueis Gray from Indianapolis.  That class was not only Brewster’s highest ranked class but surpassed any of his predecessor, coach Glen Mason.

Johnson said Kill’s expected class includes three players who had committed to him when he was coaching at Northern Illinois.  Offensive lineman Foster Bush, defensive back Marcus Jones and tight end John Rabe were Huskies commits.  Another Gopher commit, defensive end Drew Goodger, was recruited by Kill at Northern Illinois but hadn’t said he would play for the Huskies.