Author: David Shama

Gopher basketball M man John Bell Wilson said Adam Boone has ended his pro career in Austria and is back in Minneapolis.  The ex-Gopher guard wants to work in sports administration, Wilson said.

Tubby’s Tipoff on Friday, October 15 starts at 10 p.m. and will provide Gophers fans their first look at coach Tubby Smith’s team.  The event at Williams Arena will include a scrimmage and dunk contest.

Minneapolis born and New Jersey Devils star Zach Parise was among the hockey celebrities at an NHL image making cocktail party hosted by Vanity Fair magazine earlier this month at New York’s Monkey Bar, according to The Fischler Report of September 21-27.  Attendees also included Sidney Crosby, Alex Ovechkin and NHL commissioner Gary Bettman.

All Big Ten teams begin playing conference games on Saturday and Minnesota, 1-3 after four nonconference games, is the only team in the league with a losing record.  It looks like Minnesota’s eight conference opponents will all be favored in games against the Gophers who before the season started were predicted to finish with an overall 2-10 record.

Ed Rauen, 75, has been covering Gophers football for KROC Radio in Rochester since 1973.  He had no broadcasting experience when he went on the air for KROC as a color man on Gopher football games in 1973.

Former Edina state tennis champion Whitney Taney has been elected a co-captain by her University of Michigan teammates.  Taney and Rika Tatsuno from California will be co-captains for the Wolverines who began their fall schedule last weekend. The two were 10-0 in doubles last season and ranked No. 4 nationally.  Taney, a senior and captain for the second consecutive season, has been selected to play in the ITA/Riviera Women’s All-American Championships next month.

J Robinson’s Gopher wrestling team is ranked No. 4 in WrestlingReport.com’s national preseason ratings.  Cornell is No. 1.   https://wrestlingreport.com/college/rank/ncaa_rank.htm

Robinson, 64, has worked for years without a multi-year contract but is negotiating a deal now with Gophers athletic director Joel Maturi.

Fans of NFL teams can become involved with “The Kick Hunger Challenge,” an online campaign led by Taste of the NFL. The idea is for fans from all 32 NFL teams to compete against each other to see who can raise the most money for food banks. The online-only campaign is an extension of the Taste of the NFL’s events that support hunger relief.  Fans who register at www.TasteoftheNFL.com can create their own fan page to forward to family and friends and “draft” them to make a financial donation and be part of the challenge.

Former Vikings running backs coach Dean Dalton told Sports Headliners he’s still an Adrian Peterson admirer but after last season Peterson must re-establish himself as the No. 1 rusher in the NFL.

“No, there’s a legitimate debate,” Dalton said. “Chris Johnson ran for a couple thousand yards last year.  He kept Tennessee alive when they were 0-6 and then they had an 8-2 finish. …”

Johnson led the league in rushing with 2,006 yards.  What Dalton liked, too, was Johnson didn’t have turnover problems like Peterson who fumbled seven times during the 2009 regular season and six of them were recovered by the opposition.

Peterson, who led the NFL in rushing in 2008, ran for 1,383 yards last season.  Dalton not only likes Peterson’s speed, power and elusiveness, but said the fourth year running back is improving his pass protection and catching.  Still, Dalton, who hosts an NFL show on Sirius Satellite Radio, said Johnson will be No. 1 in the league “until Adrian can unseat him.”

Going into Sunday’s game against Detroit, Peterson is third in NFL rushing with 232 yards, while Johnson is No. 5 with 176 yards.  After two games Peterson has no fumbles and that trend will obviously help him become No. 1.

In the September 20 issue of Sports Illustrated Peterson told Dan Patrick he’s better than Johnson.  Patrick asked Peterson his reaction to those who say Johnson is the best?

“I say to each his own,” Peterson said.  “I play the game to be the best player, and that doesn’t change my mindset at all.”

Peterson described quarterback Brett Favre in the magazine as a “character.”   Favre makes Peterson laugh and Patrick wrote that sometimes in the huddle Favre has “gas issues.”

At the Vikings-Miami game on Sunday Dalton talked about wide receiver Bernard Berrian, who reportedly has a six-year, $42 million contract, but has been unimpressive this season with three receptions for 27 yards.  “He hasn’t made plays for Favre,” Dalton said.  “Therefore, a quarterback will lose his confidence in his No. 1 receiver.

“Today, (on) a couple of these (Favre) interceptions, Bernard didn’t fight to break it up…and those are things that a quarterback will lose confidence in his receiver.  He won’t look his way, if he doesn’t think that he’ll make the play on the ball.”

The Lions team that plays the Vikings at Mall of America Field on Sunday is 0-2 and has lost 21 consecutive road games, but there is reason for optimism in Detroit.  The Lions might have two of the best candidates for NFL rookie of the year.  Explosive running back Jahvid Best has scored five touchdowns.  Rookie defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh, the first player chosen overall in the draft, is already seeing double teams from blockers.  He had a team leading eight tackles in last Sunday’s loss to Philadelphia.

Suh is well aware of Peterson’s abilities. “He’s a powerful runner, but he’s also got speed,” Suh said.  “I think his biggest thing is he likes to try and to run over a lot of guys. He was prone to fumbling last year, so hopefully we can create those again. In the two games that I’ve watched so far, he hasn’t really fumbled it, that I’ve noticed. We definitely want to be able to put that in the back of his head.  Hopefully we can get an early one, and continue to do that throughout the game.

“He’s definitely a guy that’s dynamic that wants to try to break tackles and run over people, so we have to be ready for both. …You need to make sure you wrap up.”

The Gophers (1-2) play Northern Illinois (1-2) tomorrow night at TCF Bank Stadium and probably will win in a close game similar to 2008 when Minnesota defeated the Huskies 31-27 at the Metrodome.

Ohio State looks like the Big Ten Conference’s best team followed by Iowa, Wisconsin, Penn State, Michigan, Michigan State, Northwestern, Purdue, Illinois, Minnesota and Indiana.

The University of Minnesota athletic department has been criticized for having too many sports (25) at the detriment of not spending enough money on football but the undefeated and No. 16 ranked Stanford football team is part of a 35 sport program.