Author: David Shama

San Diego State returned all five starters from last season’s team and Dutcher said he knew “we would be good” but didn’t foresee a 20-0 start.  Even the great “Fab Five” team at Michigan coached by Fisher and Dutcher never started 19-0, although that group did earn a No. 1 national ranking.

Dutcher, known as an outstanding recruiter who still talks weekly with former “Fab Five” star Juwan Howard, compared the Aztecs with two of the best Gophers teams ever.  He said San Diego State has senior leadership like his father’s 1982 Big Ten champs.  The Aztecs are a physical team, too, similar to the 1997 Minnesota Final Four team.

Often the most talked about Aztec is 6-7, 225-pound forward Kawhi Leonard, a physical but athletic senior and likely No. 1 NBA draft choice.  “He’s got the biggest hands I’ve seen since Chris Webber,” Dutcher said, comparing Leonard to the former Michigan superstar and “Fab Five” member.

Like the 1997 Gophers, the Aztecs have balance in various basketball skills, along with team depth and respect for one another.  “This is as unselfish of a team as we’ve had,” Dutcher said.

The Aztecs will get another shot at Brigham Young, the team that gave them their only loss, and next time (February 26) the game will be in San Diego.  Both schools are in pursuit of the Mountain West Conference title.  The league doesn’t receive the national attention of the Big Ten and other conferences but San Diego State could beat any team in America.

Dutcher and the Aztecs hope for a No. 1 seed in the 2011 NCAA tournament.  And this year they want to be closer to home than in 2010 when the selection committee sent them packing for an opening game (and loss) all the way to Providence, Rhode Island.  Good for frequent flyer miles, but not much else.

A first round assignment closer to San Diego will require less energy and provide more fan support.  “I think the less travel, the easier it is,” Dutcher said.

Not that Dutcher is thinking much about the tournament.  The night this Minnesotan saw him in San Diego the Aztecs were about to play Air Force and he said: “Tonight’s game is the only game that matters to me.”

Spoken like a coach’s son.

Twins president Dave St. Peter told Sports Headliners that Justin Morneau is “scheduled to start hitting” this week as he continues rehabilitation from the concussion that forced him to miss half of the 2010 season.

St. Peter said the Twins’ home run leader and first baseman has made “tremendous” progress in his rehabilitation.  Morneau’s recovery has been slow so the likelihood of hitting baseballs this week is a major step, but decisions regarding what activities and how much time he spends doing them will be made with caution leading up to spring training next month and continuing during the weeks while the Twins are in camp.  St. Peter said Morneau is a “critical part of our club” and the goal is to have him ready for the season opener on April 1.

Morneau is expected to wear a state-of-the-art protective helmet not only while batting, but also playing first base and as a base runner.  Twins fans will hold their collective breaths the first few times he’s involved in impact plays.

“Yeah, I think those are going to be the key moments,” St. Peter said.  “The first time he needs to dive back into a base. The first time he has a play at first base, or needs to dive for a baseball, or…let alone hitting.  Those are things Justin hasn’t experienced yet.”

Morneau expressed concern last year about Target Field being a difficult ballpark to hit home runs.  St. Peter said manager Ron Gardenhire and general manager Bill Smith had “lots of input” in determining the original dimensions of the playing field, and during the last offseason there was discussion about modifying the distances from home plate to the fences.

But the decision was to not change those distances and the Twins again hope to win more home games in their park than any other team in the American League.  That total was 58 wins and St. Peter referenced the victories when asked about why there won’t be any changes to make the ballpark more home run friendly.

“It was one factor,” he said. “We certainly liked the way our ballpark played.  We think it was advantageous for our pitching staff.  Make no mistake, it’s a difficult park from a home run perspective, but it’s also a park we can use to our advantage in terms of doubles, triples.

“I think it was one of the reasons you saw Gardy really push for us (during the offseason) to be a little more athletic, and the two spots I think we’re particularly focused on right there are up the middle, shortstop and second base.  It’s our hope that the Alexi Casillas and the Tsuyoshi Nishiokas (both middle infielders) and Denard Spans of the world are going to be on the base and running around when those big hitters come up.”

Tracy Claeys looked comfortable when he started speaking to about 100 members of the C.O.R.E.S group earlier this month.  The Gophers’ new defensive coordinator is 42, has wanted to be a football coach since middle school and was talking to an audience that included many former high school coaches, plus ex-officials, reporters, educators and other sports fans.

Claeys declined a microphone, preferring to move away from the podium and closer to the audience.  He’s a big man.  Husky they call a person like Claeys who looks like a former college football lineman but didn’t play at his alma mater Kansas State and began his coaching career as a student assistant at Kansas.

He enjoys being close to the audience when he speaks and explained his move toward the C.O.R.E.S crowd with humor: “It’s about the only exercise I get,” he said.

Claeys and most of head coach Jerry Kill’s staff from Northern Illinois are settling in now to begin work on transforming Gophers football into something better than its current status as a Big Ten Conference bottom feeder.  Claeys said it’s been a “dream” for him to have a Big Ten opportunity.

“We will do everything we can to get this on the right path,” he told his audience.  Later in his talk he said: “I don’t know how long it will take us to win.  We just gotta get better every day.”

How will it all happen?  Claeys said vital elements are discipline, hard work and recruiting.

He didn’t say it in a mean or threatening way, but predicted players are in for “hell” the next couple months.  The process of acclimating to the new culture began earlier this month with a coaches-players meeting where copies of the personal handbook were reviewed.  The 100 or so page document describes what’s expected of the players.

The message from the coaches in the handbook and in the days ahead is this: “You’re going to become one of us.  We’re not becoming one of you.”

Claeys said “problems won’t be swept under the rug” and there can’t be any doubt about a player’s commitment to the program.  The coaches expect to see commitment week after week, starting right now, leading up to spring practice and throughout the 2011 season.  Kill, Claeys said, will tell recruits to make sure they want to play for the Gophers before signing on to come here.