Author: David Shama

The Wolves season ended last night.  It makes sense that the game will end Kevin McHale’s association with the franchise.  This spring just might see another major development: the hiring of a new coach with franchise ties.

There are so many valid reasons for McHale not to return as coach that the logic dwarfs contrary positions.  The franchise that’s missed the playoffs for five    consecutive seasons has HELP written all over it.

The Wolves need to restructure their basketball operation from the basement to the upper levels.  Neither performance nor public perception warrants any other direction.

Coaching has value in the NBA but talent more so.  For about 15 years McHale and others in the front office have frequently disappointed with personnel decisions. Pick your decade including years ago when the Wolves under-valued Chauncey Billups and couldn’t convince him to stay here, or the improper contract procedure charged by the NBA over Joe Smith and ultimately a penalty that cost the team five first round draft choices.  More recently missteps have included these draft night blunders: trading future Rookie of the Year Brandon Roy for Randy Foye, and giving up Mario Chalmers, among this year’s best rookies, for cash and two 2009 second round draft picks in a 2008 deal with Miami.

McHale impressed years ago when he drafted Kevin Garnett as a teenager out of high school.  But picking high schooler Ndu Ebi in 2003 on the first round was as bitter as the Garnett choice was sweet.

McHale impressed again in December when he left his executive position to replace Randy Wittman as coach.  In January the team was among the hottest in the NBA and McHale deserved credit for instilling confidence and enthusiasm in his players.  Not so impressive, though, has the performance of McHale and the players been since star center Al Jefferson was injured, with a record of 7-27 since February 4.

Owner Glen Taylor has promised a new basketball decision maker in the front office.  Presumably that executive will have the authority to employ the coach of his choice.  It seems improbable that the new hire would want to retain McHale, a person with such a long history of power, success and failure with the franchise.

Why, too, would McHale want to continue with the organization?  Taylor is on record multiple times saying McHale will not return to the front office.  McHale dislikes traveling and the 51-year-old looks like he’s aging faster than he should.

The one-time Hibbing schoolboy star whose Gophers jersey is memorialized at Williams Arena won three NBA titles with Boston and is officially included among the league’s 50 greatest players.  Now he walks with a noticeable limp (he courageously played for Boston with a broken foot) and his reputation has been bruised for years in his home state.  He should recognize it’s time to move on.

McHale’s seat on the bench might be filled by a Wolves alum, but apparently not by Flip Saunders.  Saunders, who was fired by the Wolves in 2005, got the same directive after last season in Detroit.  Earlier in the week Saunders, 54, was reportedly near a deal to become Washington’s coach.

The development seemingly ends the hope that Saunders, who kept his permanent home here even after being hired by Detroit, will return to the Wolves organization.  Saunders is popular with local fans, many of whom clamored for him to get the Gophers job two years ago.

Hiring Saunders would have been a marketing boost for the beleaguered franchise that annually operates in the red and whose team performs before thousands of empty seats in Target Center.  Ultimately, though, it will be about winning as a cure-all to restore the franchise’s image and that could happen with other coaches including Wolves alums Tom Thibodeau, Tyrone Corbin and Sam Mitchell.

Thibodeau was on Bill Musselman’s first coaching staff here and has a reputation as a defensive master including as an assistant for the NBA champion Celtics.  Corbin and Mitchell are former players under Musselman.  Corbin, although never an NBA head coach, has earned praise as a Utah assistant and Mitchell had a successful run at Toronto where he was 2007 NBA Coach of the Year before being let go last year.

People often ask how Taylor, the likeable Mankato billionaire, can run his businesses with such success and manage the Wolves with…well, you pick the word.  In the weeks ahead Taylor, who has been encouraged for years to revamp the basketball front office, will have the opportunity to write a new business plan at 600 First Ave. North.

Jerry Robertson told Sports Headliners earlier this week he believes grandson Rodney Williams will have the high school GPA and college entrance credentials to be admitted to Minnesota.  Williams, the Cooper basketball star, is part of coach Tubby Smith’s outstanding freshmen recruiting class for 2009.

The NJCAA Men’s Basketball Coaches Association has selected Jay Pivec of Minneapolis Community and Technical College as Division III Coach of the Year after leading his Mavericks to a 33-2 overall record and runner-up finish at the NJCAA DIII Tournament. Pivec’s team held the No. 1 ranking in the NJCAA DIII Men’s Basketball poll seven consecutive weeks last season.  The Mavericks lost in the Division III tournament championship game to Richland College (Texas), 58-57.  Pivec has coached seven NJCAA first-team All-Americans at Minneapolis, the most of any Division III program.

Sporting News Website reported on Tuesday that Konrad Zagzebski, a highly recruited linebacker from D.C. Everest (Schofield, Wis.), has changed his commitment for 2010 from Minnesota to Wisconsin.  More at https://www.sportingnews.com/blog/TheRecruitnik/tag/157565/college_football.

The Big Ten Conference announced yesterday that the Gophers’ first ever game in TCF Bank Stadium (versus Air Force) will be televised on September 12 starting at 6 p.m. local time on the Big Ten Network.  The October 31 home game against Michigan State will also be on the network, starting at 7 p.m.

Win Willy, despite a fourth place finish in last week’s Arkansas Derby, has enough earnings to qualify for the May 2 Kentucky Derby and may participate.  A source told Sports Headliners that trainer Mac Robertson and Minneapolis owner Jerry Myers are likely to enter the horse in the famous derby.

Former Stillwater High grad Glen Perkins has no wins in two starts for the Twins but has been impressive.  He’s 0-1 with a 1.69 ERA, giving up three earned runs in 16 innings, three walks and eight strikeouts.

The Hobey Baker Memorial Award Foundation 2009 Legend of Hockey recipient is Don Roberts, former head hockey coach at Gustavus.  Although Roberts never played the sport, he ranks 12^th in all-time collegiate hockey wins.  Roberts will be honored along with this year’s Hobey Baker Award winner, Matt Gilroy, at the Hobey Baker Award banquet May 7 in St. Paul.  Banquet tickets are available by visiting the Hobey Baker website, www.hobeybaker.com.

Center John Tavares of the Ontario Hockey League and defenseman Victor Hedman of the Swedish Elite League retained their respective top-ranked status among North American and European prospects for the 2009 NHL Entry Draft, according to NHL Central Scouting Bureau final rankings released on Tuesday.  Gophers’ wing Jordan Schroeder is ranked fifth among North American skaters.  The Wild will pick 12^th in the entry draft on June 26.

It was a memorable weekend last week for the Fitzgerald family, Larry Sr. and sons Larry Jr. and Marcus.  Six years ago Carol Fitzgerald, Larry’s wife and the mom to her football playing sons, died from cancer but her memory and spirit live on through the Carol Fitzgerald Memorial Fund.  Last week two fundraisers generated monies that will go to nonprofit organizations.  “We gave out $50,000 last year and we’re going to be close to that or more this year,” Larry Sr. said last Saturday.

What would Carol have thought about the fund and the activities that included friends, family and celebrities trying to help others?  “She’d be ecstatic about it,” Larry Sr. said.  “She was a very giving person.  That spoke to what she was all about.  …The money gets turned around right away to help others.”

Sean Gothier, from the Minnesota Chapter of the National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame, reports that his organization expects a 225 person sellout for its annual awards dinner on Sunday.  The event at St. Thomas University will honor 11 individuals associated with pro and amateur football.  Jim Malosky, former UMD coach, will receive the chapter’s Distinguished Minnesotan award.  St. John’s coach John Gagliardi will give a keynote address.  More at https://nffmn.org/.