Author: David Shama

Gophers coach Tim Brewster told Sports Headliners he expects Nick Tow-Arnett to “wow” NFL scouts today at the Gophers’ Pro Day on campus.  Scouts will be evaluating Gophers whose eligibility ended after last season and even though Brewster’s tight end wasn’t invited to the prestigious NFL Combine earlier this month he believes talent evaluators will be impressed with Tow-Arnett’s physical skills, versatility and intelligence.  “I think he’s a second day draft pick,” said Brewster who prior to the Gophers was the Denver Broncos’ tight ends coach.

Rumor NOT to be believed: Zygi Wilf will sell the Vikings and buy his home town New York Giants.

Unless the Gophers shock the college basketball world by winning four straight games in the Big Ten tournament starting with Penn State tomorrow night, Minnesota is headed for the NIT.  The NIT field will be announced early next week and the higher seeds usually host games unless there is something unusual such as a facility not being available.

The Denver Nuggets team that comes to Target Center tonight to play the Timberwolves has a chance to finish with the best record in the Western Conference.  The Nuggets, 42-21, have one of their best teams in franchise history and their record compares favorably to the Los Angeles Lakers, 47-18, and Dallas Mavericks, 44-21.

Coach Jay Pivec is job hunting after Minneapolis Community and Technical College ended the basketball program he led for 20 years.  His record there was 435-115.  He is part of the 2010 class for the National Junior College Athletic Association Basketball Hall of Fame.  Pivec’s skill set will result in success, whether his future is in basketball or a new career.

St. Thomas junior guard Tyler Nicolai, who led the Tommies to the regular season conference championship, was named the MIAC Player of the Year in a vote of league coaches.  In conference games Nicolai led the Tommies in scoring (13.8), steals (1.90), assist/turnover ratio (2.65) and field goal percentage (48.7 %).

Saint John’s junior wing Sam Blank was selected MIAC Sixth Man of the Year.  Blank finished fourth in MIAC games making 35 three-pointers with a 41.7% average.  Augsburg head coach Aaron Griess was chosen Coach of the Year.  Griess led the Auggies to their best single season win total since 1998-99.  Augsburg tied for second place in the conference with a 13-7 record.

If Lou Nanne needed a reminder about the importance of family, he got the message in recent weeks with the force of a hard check into the boards.  Two weeks ago the Minnesota hockey legend received a surprise telephone call regarding his son Michael, a Burnsville dentist.

“My daughter-in-law called and I thought she was talking about somebody else I knew,” Nanne told Sports Headliners. “She said, ‘Mike’s got a brain tumor.’  I said, ‘Mike, who?’ She said, ‘Your son Mike.’ ”

Nanne’s son recently had a brain tumor operation.  Unfortunately, the tumor wasn’t benign and Michael will need more medical care.

This week Nanne will be offering TV commentary for a 46^th year during the boys’ state high school hockey tournament and for the first time a grandson will be participating.  Marty Nanne’s son, Louie, is a freshman left wing for Edina High School.

Years ago Nanne’s grandchildren told him he had to continue with state tourney commentary until they were playing.  The arrival of young Louie is a milestone but grandpa won’t show him favoritism on the air.  “I’ll be excited inside but outside I’ll still have to do the job the way I do the job,” Nanne said.

Nanne will be providing color commentary on KSTC, Ch. 45 and he described his role this way: “Make the people understand what’s happening on the ice.  Try and paint a simple picture of how the game is being played.  What teams are doing right, what they’re doing wrong, what to look for and give them (the viewers) an understanding of play, how it’s going.”

He has several other grandchildren but said realistically two others probably could play on state tournament teams in the future.  He believes that may translate into his working perhaps another four tournaments on TV before calling it quits.

Nanne has learned to savor life through the years, whether it’s family, hockey or business.  It was 10 years ago this month that he was diagnosed with prostate cancer and a few years after that he survived a scary landing in a private airplane.

Was the cancer or airplane episode more frightening? “Prostate cancer. The plane crash, I didn’t think I was going to die,” Nanne said.  “I was more worried about how I was going to take the hit on the window because I had a bad shoulder.  Prostate cancer, all of a sudden you realize your mortality and you don’t know how bad it’s going to be.  …”

Nanne will be 69 in June but has no plans to leave his executive position with RBC Global Asset Management in Minneapolis.  He’s been in the investment business since leaving the Minnesota North Stars in 1991.  He enjoys his work with RBC Global and travels extensively including one day business trips to Hawaii which he has done about 50 times.

“I don’t know what else I am going to do, if I don’t do this,” Nanne said.

Nanne’s career and income allow him to enjoy life including his passions such as travel and playing golf.  And hockey is still part of his life, serving on both a board and council for USA Hockey, and also appearing weekly on KFAN Radio to enlighten host Dan Barreiro and listeners about the hockey world.

It’s a world that few others on the planet have as much knowledge about and experience as Nanne.  He grew up with hockey legends Phil and Tony Esposito in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario.  Nanne, an All-American defenseman in 1963, was one of the few Canadians to play for the Gophers in the 1960’s.  After his Gophers career, Nanne became an American citizen and experienced 23 years in the NHL, all of it associated with the North Stars as a player, coach, general manager and team president.

Nanne remains a passionate supporter of the Gophers.  Recent seasons haven’t been successful for Minnesota, a program that is associated with national championships, not absences from the weekly top 20 rankings of the best college teams.

There are five big time college hockey programs in the state now including the Gophers.  In last week’s USCHO.com poll St. Cloud State, the University of Minnesota Duluth and Bemidji State were all top 20 teams while the Gophers and Minnesota State, Mankato were unranked.

Nanne said despite the recent emergence of so many big time college hockey programs in Minnesota, the Gophers can still excel at recruiting high school players in the state.  “…Minnesota in most cases gets the first pick of the players they want in the state even though there’s a lot of teams,” Nanne said.  “When you look at it, they don’t usually miss on the guys that they want.  Now whether they’re taking the right guys, or wrong guys that’s going to be the question.  But the people that they get, for the most part, are the ones that they want.  Their first choices.”

Is Nanne disappointed with the Gophers who are 17-17-2 overall and 12-14-2 in the WCHA, and also had mediocre records the previous two seasons?  Among the big five hockey schools in the state, only Minnesota State’s record is worse than the Gophers.  “I am very disappointed,” he said.  “Who wouldn’t be?  If you add Bemidji into the scheme of things, because they will be in the WCHA next year, we’re what last in the state of all the teams?  So how can you say you’re happy?  They have to do better.”

The resources, including access to talent and facilities, are in place for the Gophers program to still be a power.  “Oh, yeah,” Nanne said.  “If you can have St. Cloud fourth (in the country), how can we not be first?  We definitely got the resources.  No one’s got more than we’ve got.”