BEN JOHNSON – Page 3 – David Shama's Minnesota Sports Headliners

Garcia Big Ten Scoring Title? U Teammates May Hold Key

Posted on November 19, 2024November 19, 2024 by David Shama

The Golden Gophers’ Dawson Garcia enters tonight’s home game averaging 25.5 points per game for his 3-1 team. His average through four games is the Big Ten’s best.

Garcia, a senior, plays for a team that has struggled to score points and may do so all season. The 6-foot-11 center-power forward has scored 102 of Minnesota’s 158 points this season. The next closest scorer to him is guard Lu’Cye Patterson with 34.

Dawson Garcia photo courtesy of University of Minnesota

If the Savage, Minnesota native from Prior Lake High School wins the league scoring title after the 2025 season he will be the first Gopher to do so since Kris Humphries in 2024. Humphries, a high school All-American at Hopkins High School, led the Big Ten in both scoring at 21 points per game and rebounds, 9.5 (stats are league games only). He was the first freshman in league history to accomplish that.

Other Gophers who have won conference scoring titles dating back to 1948 are: Tom Kondla, Quincy Lewis, and Mychal Thompson (twice), per Sports-reference.com.

Will Garcia join the list? Probably not, according to a former major college basketball coach who spoke with Sports Headliners on condition of anonymity.

“It’s going to be hard. He’s going to face a double, triple team every game.”

The former coach is implying if Garcia’s teammates can consistently make shots and cause foes to pay for double and triple teaming Minnesota’s star, it’s a lot more likely Garcia can win the league scoring title (based on regular season conference and nonconference games).

The source is certainly an admirer of Garcia who averaged 17.6 points and 6.7 rebounds last season. Garcia was second-team All-Big Ten as selected by the media and is now on national watch lists for postseason awards.

“He’s really a great player,” the former college head and assistant coach said. “He’s worth the price of admission.”

Garcia, listed at 234 pounds, is averaging a team-best 7.3 rebounds. He is unselfish and a good passer. He can score inside and out, including a pro range three-point shot. He’s making an impressive 57.1 percent of his threes.

“He’s (going to be) a pro player,” said the source. “He absolutely has NBA potential.”

Garcia’s mobility with and without the basketball fits the flexibility of today’s NBA that emphasizes position-less players who can handle the ball. A question about his pro future potential might be development of his lower body strength.

The Gophers have a rebuilt roster after a breakthrough 9-11 Big Ten record in 2023-2024 that followed two last place conference finishes under head coach Ben Johnson. Garcia is one of only two returning starters and Minnesota is a popular choice to finish near the bottom of the league standings.

“It’s going to be a struggle,” the former coach said about the team’s season outlook.

Minnesota plays its fourth nonconference game tonight against 3-2 Cleveland State. The Gophers, averaging a modest 64.5 points per game against so-so competition, are fortunate to have Garcia who initially spurned his hometown team coming out of high school and played at both Marquette and North Carolina.

With Name, Image and Likeness money reportedly involved, the Gophers lost two of their better starters via the transfer portal after last season. Point guard Elijah Hawkins is at Texas Tech and center Pharrel Payne plays for Texas A&M.

It’s believed Garcia is making six-figures via NIL at Minnesota, but he could have commanded more if not for his loyalty to the Gophers and his family.

Worth Noting

Hawkins has played in two of four games at Texas Tech, average 8.5 points per game and has a total of 16 assists. Another Red Raiders guard is Hopkins alum Kerwin Walton who started his college career at North Carolina. He made 47.8 percent of his three-point shots last season.

Payne’s playing time in four games has ranged between 17 and 24 minutes. He is averaging 7.3 points and 5.8 rebounds in 82 total minutes.

Another transfer from last year’s team, forward Joshua Ola-Joseph who was a key reserve, is averaging 11.3 minutes in four games at Cal. He is 0-6 on three-point shots and is averaging 4.5 points per game and 2.5 rebounds.

Great news for the University of Minnesota football and volleyball programs, per Derek Burns from Dinkytown Athletes, the official Name, Image and Likeness collective of Gopher athletics. DA recently concluded its “million-dollar match campaign” with Mark Pearson’s Twin Cities-based financial services company, Nepsis.

“We did hit our number and went over slightly,” Burns told Sports Headliners Monday. Nepsis matched dollar for dollar donations, new memberships or upgraded memberships to DA through November 10.

While the DA president didn’t specify a dollar total, he said this was the most successful campaign ever for the collective which officially launched in September of 2022. DA will now target a similar campaign for February and March to benefit athletes in winter sports.

Funding success is pivotal, Burns said, when Gopher programs approach the time they and other schools across the country compete for athletes in the transfer portal. Within a few weeks, for example, football and volleyball players will be making decisions on whether to enter the transfer portal and, if so, where to go. NIL resources will also be timely for retention of athletes.

The Wild’s Kirill Kaprizov, who is second among NHL players in points with 31, makes $9 million. Although he is playing at a league MVP level, his contract value doesn’t rank in the league’s top 30 highest paid players.

Kaprizov and goalie Filip Gustavsson, whose 2.08 goals against average is best in the league, are unrestricted free agents after the 2025-2026 season. Gustavsson is playing with a $4.1 million deal this season and next. Kaprizov’s contract remains at $9 million next season.

The Lions defeated the Jaguars 52-6 last Sunday, after the Vikings beat the Jags, 12-7 the week prior. The 9-1 Lions, who lead the 7-2 Vikings in the race to win the NFC North, have scored 35 points or more three times in their first 10 games. The only other clubs to do that since the late 1960s are the 1969 Vikings and 1973 Falcons.

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Here’s the Scoop on U Men & Women’s Hoops Tickets

Posted on November 5, 2024November 5, 2024 by David Shama

The University of Minnesota men’s and women’s basketball teams open their seasons this week with home games. Data shows both programs have a lot of ticket availability for their games at 14,625 seat Williams Arena.

As of last week, the men’s program had sold 4,482 full season tickets including 242 to faculty and staff. That compared with 4,800 for the 2023-2024 season. There has been no significant pricing change for either men’s or women’s public season tickets. Ticket information was obtained from the U through the request process by Sports Headliners.

The women’s program had sold 2,309 full season tickets as of last week including 99 to faculty and staff. That compared with 2,424 tickets for the 2023-2024 season.

The women Gophers opened their season Monday night before an announced crowd of 2,647. Dawn Plitzuweit, entering her second season as coach, saw the Gophers defeat Central Connecticut State, 89-48.

Coach Ben Johnson’s team opens its season Wednesday night against Oral Roberts.

With their schedules just beginning, both the men’s and women’s programs may sell additional season tickets, but totals won’t change significantly.

The Gopher women averaged 4,483 fans per game last season. The men averaged 8,140.

Sellouts are rare for either program. The U is projecting over 12,000 for the men’s game with Wisconsin on March 5, with 10,000-plus for Purdue on January 2.

The U women are projected to draw more than 5,000 for the Iowa game February 6, with over 4,000 for the Wisconsin and Indiana games January 26 and February 9 respectively.

The U report said 3,168 single game tickets have been sold so far for women’s home games. Also, 120 tickets have been purchased as part of mini plan ticket packages, a 75 percent decline year-over-year.

Students are admitted free to women’s games, but they must purchase tickets to see the men. The student season ticket total is 2,600 and up from 2,056 for 2023-2024.

The U report said 246 tickets have been sold in mini plan ticket packages for the men’s program. This is up 58 percent year-over-year but down from last season’s final total of 575. Single game tickets sold for men’s games as of last week were 3,590.

Asked what reasons the public is giving for not buying women’s season tickets, the U report responded with the following: “general disinterest, change in life/event circumstances, (and) too many games.”

Regarding the men’s program: “change in life/event circumstances, unhappy with NIL changes, (and) general disinterest.”

The U said reasons cited for purchasing women’s season tickets are: “increased attention and interest in the WBB landscape as a whole, (and) more premium matchups with the expansion of the Big Ten.”

Reasons for purchasing men’s season tickets: “improvement in team performance during the 2023-2024 season, trust and confidence that coach Ben Johnson will continue to lead and grow the program, (and) more premiums matchups with the expansion of the Big Ten.”

The women’s team was 20-16 overall and 5-13 in the Big Ten last season. Only two teams, Northwestern and Rutgers, finished lower in the 14-team standings.

USA Today Sports Network’s prediction for the coming season is Minnesota will finish in a tie for ninth in the now 18-team conference. The order of finish was based on a vote by individuals who cover the conference.

The men’s team is projected to finish last in the Big Ten by many in the media. The Gophers were 9-11 in league games last season and 19-15 overall. Eight teams had better Big Ten records than Minnesota. The previous two seasons Minnesota finished last in the conference.

The women’s and men’s programs have ticket selling attractions in guard Mara Braun and power forward Dawson Garcia, both Minnesota natives.

Braun is on the 20-player watch list for the 2025 Ann Meyers-Drysdale Shooting Guard of the Year Award. Braun was named All Big Ten Honorable Mention by both the coaches and media last season, despite playing only 20 games due to an injury. She averaged a team leading 17 points per game and is the second-highest returning scorer in the Big Ten this season. Braun was second in the nation last season in free throw percentage at 94.8 percent.

Garcia is on the 2024-25 Jersey Mikes Naismith Trophy Men’s College Player of the Year Watch List. He was named a top 50 preseason pick by ESPN and CBS Sports in October. He averaged 17.6 points last season while being named second and third team All-Big Ten. He is the top returning scorer in the conference.

Minnesota men’s basketball was a national power in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. Sellouts were commonplace, but interest has been declining for a long time. For example, the public season tickets total in 2009-2010 was 9,946 or about twice the final total for the 2023-2024 season. As recently as 2019-2020 public season tickets were at 6,820.

In 2019-2020 the average attendance was 10,232, the lowest figure since 1970-1971. Attendance has declined even more since then. Last season, Johnson’s third leading the Gophers, average home attendance had dipped about 20 percent since 2020.

Worth Noting

The St. Thomas women’s team earned a season opening 84-81 win at home last night in overtime over Milwaukee before an announced crowd of 538. Jade Hill set a school record in the Division I era by scoring 35 points.

The St. Thomas men also opened at home last night, playing after the women’s game before an announced crowd of 1,353. The Tommies defeated North Central, 96-71.

Former Minnesota Mr. Basketball Tyus Jones, from Apple Valley High School, is receiving praise in Phoenix. The veteran point guard, 28, signed with the Suns in the offseason and he’s provided playmaking the team didn’t have last season benefiting scorers like Bradley Beal and Devin Booker. In six games (five wins) he has just five turnovers and is averaging 6.6 assists per game.

Al Nuness, 78, the former Golden Gophers basketball captain, is working as a student supervisor at Chanhassen High School. A retired longtime executive at Jostens, Nuness started his post-college career teaching and coaching. Nuness is a cousin of Tyus Jones and his brother Tre Jones.

John Hynes, who took over as head coach of the Wild in late November of last year, has the team off to a fast start and will speak to the Capital Club breakfast group Thursday, November 14 at the Wild’s executive offices in downtown St. Paul. More information about the Capital Club is available from Patrick Klinger, patrick@agilemarketingco.com.

Chanhassen High School junior Andrew Ballou, who as a sophomore was one of four Minnesota prep golfers to qualify for the U.S. Junior Amateur Golf Championship, has made a college commitment to North Dakota State.

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Looks Like a Star to be Born with Golden Gophers Basketball

Posted on September 27, 2024September 27, 2024 by David Shama

Enjoy a Friday notes column on various sports that even includes quotes from former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty.

The Golden Gophers men’s basketball team started official practices this week and insiders are confident the program has a special player in freshman point guard Isaac Asuma from Cherry, Minnesota.

If coach Ben Johnson didn’t have veteran guards, it’s likely Asuma would be in the starting lineup beginning with the first game on November 6 against Oral Roberts at Williams Arena. A four-star recruit by both Rivals.com and 247Sports, he was considered a top 100 player in the national high school class of 2024.

At 6-3 and about 200 pounds, Asuma has a Big Ten ready body with length and strength. He is also an unselfish playmaker with all-around physical and basketball skills that have caught the attention of observers since he arrived on the Minnesota campus earlier this year.

Isaac Asuma photo courtesy of University of Minnesota

Asuma’s willingness to learn, along with his friendly and outgoing personality, is the stuff of leadership. He has a poise and charisma often not seen in teenagers just out of high school.

Put it all together and it’s apparent why the attractive Asuma is referenced as a “stud.”

The team’s established star is senior Dawson Garcia who averaged 17.6 points per game. He is the leading Big Ten Conference scorer returning from last season. The 6-11 forward from Prior Lake High School was second team All-Big Ten last winter.

A scenario Johnson, his staff and Gophers fans want to see is for Asuma to stick around for a couple of years at Minnesota and play with Cretin-Derham Hall senior Tommy Ahneman. The 6-foot-10 center’s improvement has attracted the attention of major college programs including Notre Dame where he is scheduled to visit this coming weekend. Last season’s North Dakota Gatorade Player of the Year is a big target for the Gophers.

Asuma and Garcia are two of seven native Minnesotans on the Gopher roster. Women’s basketball coach Dawn Plitzuweit has 12 natives of the state.

The death last month of former Gopher assistant basketball coach Jimmy Williams reminded Minnesota sports fan Bob Klas of a Williams one liner when he was Minnesota’s interim head coach in 1986. Williams quipped: “I’m one of just two people who coaches in an arena that’s named after him.” (The other facility being the Dean E. Smith Center at North Carolina).

Eric Curry, the well-known Minneapolis area college basketball referee, plans to work 65-70 games this coming season with assignments in the Atlantic 10, Big 12, Missouri Valley and West Coast Conferences.

In the last 12 months news has surfaced about replacing Target Center and also costly renovations to improve Xcel Energy Center. The Timberwolves, if they emerge from an ownership dispute being led by Marc Lore and Alex Rodriquez, apparently have interest in building a new facility in the Farmers Market area in downtown Minneapolis.

Public financing for a new Wolves arena will be difficult to secure including from a Minneapolis city council that seems most interested in grassroots and common folk agendas. “…If Minneapolis doesn’t want it, I would predict there could be more than one or more other cities that would like to bid for it, or try to get involved with the new Timberwolves stadium,” former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty told Sports Headliners. “So they’re going to have competition, I would think, if they are interested.”

Pawlenty was supportive of Minnesota’s professional sports facilities concerns as governor. He is a sports fan and values the quality of life component sports contributes to the lives of Minnesotans.

Asked about the idea of building a new multipurpose arena in Bloomington near the Mall of America for both the Wild and Wolves, Pawlenty defended the importance of Xcel and Target Center to their cities.

“With the exception of the Xcel Center, there’s not a lot of positive things happening in downtown St. Paul. In fact, a lot of negative things happening. If the Wild were to leave and not exist, I think that would present an existential threat to further threat(en) downtown St. Paul.

“So I gotta believe the St. Paul city and St. Paul legislative representatives would fight very hard to keep the Xcel Center or its future version in St. Paul. And I think the same would be true for Minneapolis.”

If the amazing Lynx make the WNBA Finals, they will have an October 18 Target Center conflict with the Timberwolves preseason game scheduled with the Nuggets that evening. The Wolves game would shift to October 17, per a local insider.

The Vikings annual game in Green Bay often prompts memories of former Pioneer Press sportswriter Don Riley who for decades wrote a pot-stirring column called “The Eye Opener.” Riley, who died in 2015 at age 92, loved to provoke the Packers and their fans.

“I never mention them as Green Bay. I just said the capital B Bushers,” Riley told Sports Headliners in 2011. He was then long retired after leaving the newspaper in 1987, with a “fan club” that included Packers fans in western Wisconsin who he insulted at banquets by suggesting they be searched for stolen silverware before leaving the facility.

Riley chose the term “Bushers” because it was “derogatory” without picking on one individual. However, he did take an occasional shot at someone including legendary coach Vince Lombardi whose wife wanted him fired from the St. Paul newspaper. “Vince told her to lay off because he’s selling tickets for us,” Riley said.

Riley built much of his controversial column’s success on bashing the Packers and Green Bay. He wrote that Green Bay had the “world’s largest toilet paper factories” and once boasted that if the Vikings didn’t beat the Pack he would push a peanut with his nose from Appleton to Green Bay. The Vikings lost, Riley never pushed the peanut, and the Green Bay newspaper accused him of having no guts.

No Minnesota sports figure is under more fire than Twins manager Rocco Baldelli who has had a front row look at his team’s depressing late season collapse. From critical emails to chants at Target Field calling for his ouster, he is a likely scapegoat for a team that in August looked like a safe bet to make the playoffs and now is a long shot.

The opinion here is it’s 65-35 Baldelli returns for the 2025 season. His staff? Perhaps 80 percent probability there will be changes.

The Lindenwood football program went Division I in 2022, one year after St. Thomas did so. Lindenwood, located in St. Charles, Missouri, defeated the Tommies 64-0 at home on September 21. The Lions come to Minneapolis to play the Gophers on September 18, 2027.

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