Author: David Shama

Tubby Smith has guaranteed compensation of about $1,775,000 this year but could be rewarded further. Gophers’ athletic director Joel Maturi told Sports Headliners that his basketball coach’s contract positions Smith to earn additional compensation for team achievements such as winning the Big Ten Conference title or qualifying for the NCAA tournament.

A regular season league title gives Smith $250,000, while winning next month’s conference tournament championship will provide $100,000, Maturi said.  If the Gophers make the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2005, Smith receives $100,000.  Success in the tourney provides these rewards: Sweet 16, $50,000; Elite eight, $75,000; Final Four, $250,000; NCAA title: $500,000.

Smith didn’t earn such bonuses last year in his first season as Gophers coach.  His  team finished 20-14 overall, 8-10 in the Big Ten and sixth place in the conference standings.

Much improved this season, the Gophers are 18-4 overall, 6-4 in the conference.  They are tied for third place in the standings after Wednesday night’s embarrassing 76-47 loss to first place Michigan State.  Minnesota is ranked No. 19 in the country and has eight remaining conference games before playing in the Big Ten Tournament that begins March 12 in Indianapolis.

While the Gophers are more unlikely than preseason favorites Michigan State and Purdue to win the regular season conference title, they have to be included among several contenders.  Unless Minnesota enters a long losing streak, the Gophers seem likely to be invited to the NCAA tournament where their profile already includes nearly 20 wins and victories over three top 25 teams, Louisville, Ohio State and Illinois.

Compensation incentives like Smith’s are common now in major college football and basketball.  At Kentucky, where Smith coached prior to Minnesota, his teams won five SEC titles and played in 10 NCAA tournaments.  He won one national title at Kentucky and his teams made the NCAA tourney Elite Eight three times, and Sweet 16 twice.

The Gophers play at Ohio State tomorrow night before a home game against Indiana on Tuesday at Williams Arena.  The Gophers and Buckeyes are tied for third place in the Big Ten with 6-4 records.

At the Indiana game former Gopher Trent Tucker will have his jersey retired and a banner honoring him will be placed on the west wall of Williams Arena along with four others previously recognized, Jim Brewer, Lou Hudson, Kevin McHale and Mychal Thompson.  Another former Gopher, Whitey Skoog, will be similarly honored at the Northwestern game on February 22.

Maturi said the selection criteria for honoring players has changed to go beyond basketball prowess and now includes earning a bachelor’s degree and post graduation service in the community.  Tucker was a standout on the Gophers’ 1982 Big Ten championship team, earning second team All-Big Ten honors and making an All-American team. Skoog was twice an All-American, 1950 and 1951.

Twins’ president Dave St. Peter told Sports Headliners there’s “no chance” that former infielder Michael Cuddyer will be asked to play third base in spring training later this month.  St. Peter said Cuddyer is the “starting right fielder” and both Cuddyer and manager Ron Gardenhire want him in that position.  Contrary to media opinion, St. Peter said the Twins don’t view third base as a problem.  He said the multiple Twins who played third base last season combined for 91 RBI and played “great defense.”

St. Peter is expecting season ticket sales of 10,000 to 11,000 in the team’s final season in the Metrodome.  A total of 17,000 to 18,000 are possible at Target Field in the future.

The Twins still have tickets available for all home spring training games but expect to sellout most or all of them.  The first home game in Fort Myers is February 25          against Boston.

The Wolves’ Kevin Love is impressing with 16.9 percent of his rebounds being offensive boards.  That’s the best in the NBA currently and the third highest for a rookie in league history.

The Wolves’ Mike Miller, who had been in a shooting slump, has made 17 of 23 shots in his last four games, 73.9 percent.

Former Vikings offensive coordinator and Baltimore Ravens Super Bowl champion coach Brian Billick will be among the speakers at the Minnesota Football Clinic April 2-4 at the Doubletree Hotel in St. Louis Park.  Others will include Marc Trestman, the former Gopher quarterback who won a Canadian Football League coach of the year award in 2008.  More on the clinic at www.mshsca.org/football/mfcclinic/Schedule.htm

Offensive lineman Randall McDaniel, who played 12 seasons with the Vikings, has drawn lots of praise following the announcement of his inclusion in the 2009 Pro Football Hall of Fame class.  Mike Alstott was a teammate in Tampa Bay for two seasons.  “I was lucky enough to play with Randall his last few seasons here in Tampa,” Alstott said. “I knew he was a great player in Minnesota, but didn’t realize how much so until he got here. I remember seeing him do things I’d never seen a lineman do before physically.  Just an unbelievable athlete. The thing about him is that he’s a better guy off the field.  He’s a good man and I’m proud to have been his teammate.”

Percy Harvin, the University of Florida speedster who has declared for the NFL draft as a junior, could be the Vikings’ pick at No. 20 later this year.  With the Vikings’ need for another explosive receiver to join Bernard Berrian, Harvin makes sense, if he’s still available.

The Gophers add to their football family legacy with the signing of Michael Carter to a national letter of intent, a player coach Tim Brewster told Sports Headliners has the “profile of a great cornerback.”  The Florida native is a nephew of former Gopher All-American safety Tyrone Carter.

The Wisconsin hockey team started 0-6-1 including a loss and tie to the Gophers.  Since then, the Badgers are 14-5-2 and come here to play Minnesota tonight and tomorrow night, featuring Jamie McBain who leads all college defensemen with 30 points.  Wisconsin leads the nation in penalty killing at 90.4 percent and is the best in WCHA power play percentage and penalty kill.

Minnesota’s Ryan Stoa ranks fifth nationally in scoring at 1.30 points per game, while teammate Jordan Schroeder is eighth at 1.27.

Wild goalie Niklas Backstrom has a new career-high in shutouts for a season, six.  He now has 11 shutouts in 75 career starts at Xcel Energy Center, tying a franchise record set by Dwayne Roloson.

When the Swarm play Colorado tomorrow night at Xcel, the first 5,000 fans will receive a commemorative fifth anniversary Swarm lacrosse ball.