BEN JOHNSON – Page 7 – David Shama's Minnesota Sports Headliners

Ben Johnson Losing Supporter in Departing U President

Posted on June 10, 2023June 10, 2023 by David Shama

Joan Gabel is in the final days this month of her presidency at the University of Minnesota before becoming Chancellor at Pittsburgh. Gabel’s departure is a reminder she played a decisive role in the hiring of men’s basketball coach Ben Johnson.

The Gophers parted ways with head coach Richard Pitino in mid-March of 2021, creating an opening to lead the program. Less than a week later came the surprise announcement that instead of hiring a proven Division I head coach the Gophers were turning to Johnson, a former U player and experienced assistant whose stops had included 2013-2018 at Minnesota and more recently three seasons at Xavier.

Athletic director Mark Coyle vetted Johnson, a Minneapolis native, and presented his credentials to Gabel. Without Gabel’s endorsement Johnson never would have been hired. “To have someone like Ben Johnson leading this program – an ambassador for our University who grew up here, went to school here and knows what the University is all about – is tremendous, for our basketball program and our institution,” Gabel said in a statement announcing the hire. “Like so many Minnesotans, I’m excited to welcome Ben home and look forward to our team’s success under his leadership.”

Success hasn’t been easy to come by in Johnson’s first two seasons. There have been occasional high-five moments, but the Gophers have made program history with first-ever consecutive last place finishes in the Big Ten.

Alex Hickey from Saturday Tradition is probably among the first to predict Minnesota is headed for a third straight bottom of the league finish. Forecasting the Big Ten race for next year he wrote the following this week: “Minnesota is married to the Big Ten cellar until further notice.”

Jeff Ettinger, the former Hormel executive, will serve as interim president for up to a year until the U finds a permanent hire. Whoever takes over won’t have a history with Johnson and be influenced by having hired him. It’s been clear for a while Johnson must make the next two seasons much improved over the previous two.

Worth Noting

Timberwolves starting point guard Mike Conley turns 36 in October, but Chris Finch has no reason to believe his playmaker won’t return for another season. The Wolves head coach said Conley is dedicated to his conditioning and training. Conley joined the Wolves during the season after a three-time trade and he was able to play 24 games for Minnesota averaging 14 points, five assists and providing much needed leadership on and off the court.

“He just does so many things that you can’t measure,” Finch said. “His leadership and presence is invaluable to what we’re trying to do here. His teammates and the organization in general respect him immensely, and that’s not something that we would want to just move away from easily.”

Gophers football legend Darrell Thompson left the Minneapolis area Friday for Atlanta where the 2023 Hot Rod Power Tour starts Monday. Thompson has a 1970 Camaro, a five-speed with 350 horsepower. Billed as the largest travelling car show around, the tour goes into multiple states before ending next Friday in Tennessee.

Wife Stephanie will pass on the adventure. “She will do a drive with me but to lock up in that car for 10 hours does not do anything for her,” said Thompson who is president of the Minneapolis-based Bolder Options nonprofit.

Thompson said son Race, who played basketball in the Big Ten for Indiana, will try out next week with the Timberwolves. Earlier workouts have been with the Nets and Wizards. Projecting as a combo forward, Race hopes to attract interest by an NBA team this summer and play his way onto a roster.

Jim Kaat, who pitched for the Twins from 1961-1973 and last year was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame, speaks to the Twin Cities Dunkers next Friday. Kaat has been a superb baseball analyst on TV for years, including Twins broadcasts.

Jonathan Mekonnen, the Eastview class of 2024 basketball wing, is among the most sought-after preps in the state and has offers from St. Thomas, Colorado State, Drake, Illinois State and Northern Iowa, per head coach Danny Olsen. A visit next week to Loyola Chicago is likely to earn another offer, Olsen said.

Mekonnen is a skilled shooter, including three-pointers, but can also post up and could play small or big forward in college. He has rebounding and shot blocking abilities, too. “He’s very athletic above the rim,” said Olsen who recently became head coach at Eastview.

Prep Hoops ranks Mekonnen as the No. 5 prospect in the state of Minnesota for the class of 2024. Daniel Freitag, formerly of Bloomington Jefferson and now Southern California Academy, is No. 1 and followed by Isaac Asuma, Cherry; Jack Robison, Lakeville North; and Jackson McAndrew, Wayzata.

The Iron Sheik, the famous professional wrestler whose death at 81 years old was national news this week, was trained by Minneapolis wrestling icon Verne Gagne. It was Gagne’s wrestling camp that for many years developed a long list of performers who had successful careers in this market and elsewhere.

Former Gopher football player and pro wrestler Jim Brunzell recalled in an email being at Gagne’s camp with the Iron Sheik (Hossein Khosrow Ali Vaziri from Iran) and others. “The 1972 camp included Ric (Fliehr) Flair, Bob Bruggers, NFL linebacker and Gopher great from Danube, Minnesota, Ken Patera, Olympic weightlifter (first to clean and jerk over 500 pounds), Khosrow Ali Vaziri, national Iranian Greco-Roman wrestling champion, Greg Gagne, Wyoming QB and Verne’s son, and yours truly, Jimmy Brunzell from White Bear Lake and former Gopher wide receiver and high jumper.

“Bruggers’ career was cut short by a near fatal airplane crash. The rest of us had a pretty successful 20 year plus wrestling career, headlining cards around the world!

“It’s hard to believe that camp was 51 years ago. By the way, the camp was in Verne’s barn on Lake Riley (Eden Prairie). It was 4 months long, 6 days a week, 6 hours per day. The British heavyweight champ, Billy Robinson, trained us in submission holds, throws, and stressed wrestling balance for a successful and injury free career. As always, with about 30 minutes to go in our day, Verne would show up and physically manhandle one after another of us until we ran out of gas! Daily I used to ask myself, ‘What did I get myself into?’

“After a 28-year career, nearly 5,000 matches and 12 surgeries…I managed to survive a crazy career that prepares one for nothing. One thing I know for sure, the best tag (team) partner I had was and is my wife of 48 years, Mary.”

Former Vikings GM Rick Spielman on Twitter yesterday: “I wish I could put into words how special the Wilf family is. I lost all my Viking Game Balls during Hurricane Ian. To my surprise, I received a box today replacing all those game balls. I was truly blessed to work for the Wilf family and thank you from the bottom of my heart.”

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Final Four Coach Had Gopher Interest

Posted on March 28, 2023 by David Shama

Brian Dutcher, a University of Minnesota alum, has his San Diego State Aztecs in the Final Four this week in Houston. About 23 months ago there was reason to believe Dutcher might become the new men’s basketball coach at Minnesota.

Dutcher’s contract back then had a reported buyout of nearly $7 million if he were to leave San Diego for another head coaching job—with one exception. The San Diego Union Tribune reported in September of 2020 that Dutcher had a contract in place allowing him to leave for Minnesota with a $1 million buyout.

That signaled Dutcher, a Bloomington native, had a strong interest in coming home even though the Gopher job wasn’t open at the time and wouldn’t be until early March of 2021. A homecoming would have meant living in the Twin Cities and being near his father Jim, the former Golden Gophers head basketball coach, and his three sisters.

When the announcement came that Minnesota athletic director Mark Coyle and head coach Richard Pitino had parted ways, Dutcher was coaching his team in the NCAA Tournament. After the Aztecs were eliminated in a first round loss to Syracuse, Coyle and Brian spoke by phone about the Minnesota opening, per Jim Dutcher.

Jim told Sports Headliners yesterday his son and Coyle talked about getting together but never did. Soon after the initial conversation, Coyle called again to say he had hired former Gopher guard and assistant coach Ben Johnson, who was then an assistant at Xavier. Jim said he understood the reasoning at the time for Coyle’s decision to hire a coach with “Minnesota connections” for recruiting and building the program around more high level local talent.

Would Brian have accepted the Gopher job if offered? “I don’t know,” his father said.

What’s for certain is Brian publicly demonstrated his interest in the U by including the modest buyout in his contract. “It’s my school, where I went, and was able to be part of that basketball program with my dad,” Brian told the Union-Tribune. “But it’s still a buyout. It’s not like it’s free.”

Brian, who after graduating from Bloomington Jefferson High School was a student manager for his dad’s teams at Minnesota, has the Mountain West Conference Aztecs in the Final Four for the first time in school history. They play upstart Florida Atlantic Saturday, with the Connecticut and Miami game to follow. Connecticut is the betting favorite, with the Aztecs second.

Jim, who turns 90 on April 17 and still lives in Bloomington, will fly to Houston Thursday along with eight other family members including two grandchildren. There was a decision made awhile ago that if the Aztecs advanced to the Final Four the family would follow.

Despite advancing age, Jim has frequently made trips to San Diego to visit family and watch the Aztecs. He acknowledges “creaky knees” but otherwise is healthy.

“I don’t use a walker or a wheelchair,” Jim said. “I just kind of shuffle a long. But my health is good. I don’t take one pill. My blood pressure is good. It’s just that arthritic knees make it hard to get a long.”

Either through network telecasts or via streaming, Jim and family in Minnesota have watched every Aztecs game in 2022-2023. They have seen the 31-6 Aztecs win the Mountain West regular season title and tournament championship and rattle off four straight wins in the single elimination NCAA Tournament. It was a team that improved over the weeks and months.

“They play defense,” Jim said. “That’s what keeps them in the games. They’re one of the top three defensive teams in the country. …They’re not a great offensive team but the four teams they played in the NCAA Tournament, all of them had their season low scores when they played the Aztecs.”

In a trip to San Diego several months ago Jim met the players at practice. What he’s learned about them is they are a “tight group” with no academic or off court problems. “It’s just a really good group of kids,” Jim said.

Brian uses 10 players in games and on some teams that could cause dissension about playing time but not for the Aztecs. “…They sometimes get better when they go to the bench, and so that’s helped them keep their defense at an elite level because the guys are always rested,” Jim said.

The Aztecs reflect the admirable character of their coach. Humble and without ego, Brian has the same high values as his father who coached the Gophers to the 1982 Big Ten title. The Dutchers have a calm, rational and common-sense approach to basketball and life.

Basketball advice from father to son? Jim acknowledged the two occasionally talk about situational things like handling full court pressure, but Brian has the whole coaching package from recruiting to X’s and O’s. “He’s a better coach than I ever was,” Jim said.

Brian trusts his team even to the extent of falling off a ladder into the arms of his players. It’s become a tradition after winning big games at San Diego State for the coach to climb a ladder and cut down the nets. “…He does that trust fall where he falls backward (and) they catch him,” Jim said. “So he’s done that for a number of years.”

Brian, 63, has been head coach of the Aztecs for six seasons following decades of assistant coaching including at San Diego State starting in 1999. Brian’s 2020 team was 30-2 during the regular season but there was no NCAA Tournament because of the pandemic.

Jim believes that was Brian’s most talented club, with better personnel than this year’s team that is two wins away from winning the school’s and the Mountain West’s first national title. The Aztecs don’t have an NBA prospect on the team, Jim said.

This is a new time in college basketball with players being compensated for name, image and likeness. Each of the Aztecs receive $2,000 per month for community service work like visiting elementary schools or participating in a walk for charity, Jim said. He referred to the amount as “peanuts” compared with what some schools are reportedly paying out for high-end talent.

Brian’s teams have won multiple Mountain West regular season and tournament titles and been to four NCAA Tournaments. His teams have won 77 percent of their games, certainly among the best percentage in college basketball during his six-year span.

Jim said at one time Brian’s goal was to coach until he was 65. But he’s built a power at San Diego State and in the near future the Aztecs may join the Pac-12 Conference. With UCLA and USC leaving the Pac-12 and headed for the Big Ten in 2024, new recruiting opportunities for the Aztecs beckon in southern California.

Brian could certainly coach beyond 65, dad said. Amen to that.

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Time Expired on Whalen Experiment

Posted on March 3, 2023March 3, 2023 by David Shama

Lindsay Whalen and Mark Coyle announced the right decision yesterday regarding Whalen stepping down as the University of Minnesota women’s basketball coach. Whalen had five seasons to make winning progress with the program and she was unable to do so.

On the street and among media there was a common view that Whalen was going to receive one more year to show she was the right coach for Minnesota. But Coyle is justified in moving on now from Whalen who had never coached before accepting the job at her alma mater.

The women’s program is capable of not only more on court success but coming closer financially to operating in the black. The program has never paid its own way, and now the disastrous season by the men’s basketball program has resulted in revenues being far less than the potential for that cash cow. Maybe Coyle, who waited too long to part ways with former men’s coach Richard Pitino and made an iffy hire in Ben Johnson, wanted to move on from Whalen and not wait a year when he could be dealing with change in the men’s program, too.

Whalen remains one of the most revered sports heroes in state history for her on-court play for the Gophers, Lynx and U.S. Olympic teams. The Hutchinson native had an emotional day yesterday and understandably chose at the last minute not to participate in a news conference with Coyle who described the departure of his coach as a mutual decision.

Maybe not. Whalen posted this on Twitter last night: “I will be ‘appearing’ and ‘showing up’ for a press conference in the near future. My sincere apologies for not being there today as I was overcome with emotion in the elevator on my way to the press conference. I am a human being.”

The season ended with a thud Wednesday afternoon. Playing in the opening game of the Big Ten Tournament—a home environment in front of supporters at Target Center—Whalen’s team lost to Penn State, another bottom feeder in the league who the Gophers had defeated twice earlier in the season.

It wasn’t a pretty loss. The Gophers trailed by as many as 18 points and struggled against a full court press. Minnesota rallied late in the fourth quarter before losing, 72-67, and the team received obligatory praise for its efforts from Whalen.

The Gophers finished the season with a record of 11-19. Their regular season conference record was 4-14. That landed Whalen’s fifth Gopher team in next to last place in the Big Ten.

Not an uplifting way to recognize 50 years of women’s basketball at the U.

Since taking over the Gophers Whalen’s teams never finished above .500 in the Big Ten, with the best showing 9-9 her first season. A legendary Final Four player for the Gophers, she never coached her team to the NCAA Tournament. Whalen’s three predecessors this millennium have all been more successful by far than she has been.

Whalen will stay with the department as a special assistant to the AD through April 12, 2025. That is the date her five-year coaching contract ends. It’s not known what her compensation will be in the new role.

Starting in contract year four (was to begin next month) her base salary was to be $574,761. Most recently she earned $547,391.

Worth Noting

St. Thomas is fast earning respect and attention for its success in Division I sports. With wealthy alums and admirers, it wouldn’t be surprising to see NIL become a bigger success with the Tommies than the Gophers.

The No. 1 ranked U men’s hockey team has a talented line for the ages in freshmen Logan Cooley and Jimmy Snuggerud, and sophomore Matthew Knies, but all three could be gone to the pros next season. Cooley might be the most likely returnee, with chances greatest that Snuggerud and Knies will leave.

Former MLB umpire and St. Paul native Tim Tschida speaks to the Capital Club March 8 at Mendakota Country Club. More information about the club is available from Patrick Klinger, patrick@agilemarketingco.com

Burl Oaks Golf Club is the Minnesota Golf Association’s Club of the Year for 2022. The Minnetrista course hosted the MGA Players’ Championship last year.

Minikahda pro Jeff Sorenson recently won the Pebble Beach ProAm at Pebble Beach and Spyglass, earning his 157^th career win in harsh conditions including cold, wind and snow.

Kaat, Carew & Oliva. Photo contributed by Marshall Tanick.

Rod Carew, Jim Kaat and Tony Oliva, a trio of Cooperstown Hall of Famers, entertained a recent crowd of about 500 at a Minnesota Breakfast Club gathering in Naples, Florida. The former Twins all played together including on the West Division championship teams of 1969 and 1970. Baseball’s efforts to speed up the game is welcome news to Carew who said he has lost interest.

Players earn a lot more now than when Carew, Kaat and Oliva played. MLB player salaries averaged a record high $4.2 million last season, per Front Office Sports.

Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell will give a video presentation at the 2023 Minnesota Football Coaches Association Clinic. The nationally admired annual clinic will again feature Gopher coaches including P.J. Fleck. Clinic dates are March 30, 31 and April 1 with more information available at https://www.mnfootballcoaches.com/

The U Athletic Department has suites available for the upcoming football season starting at $4,500 per game. The home schedule is attractive with games that include Illinois, Michigan, Michigan State, Nebraska and Wisconsin.

Elite Ink is promoting a Kirill Kaprizov memorabilia sale that includes a signed $890 white jersey.

Taylor Heise and Grace Zumwinkle, Gopher forwards and native Minnesotans, are two of 10 finalists for the Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award given annually to the top player in Division I women’s college hockey.

Former Gopher Jamal Mashburn Jr., now at New Mexico, leads the Mountain West in scoring at 19.4 points per game. The Lobos, led by coach Richard Pitino, are 21-9 overall but only 8-9 in league games and are questionable to make the NCAA Tournament.

Former Viking Herschel Walker is 61 today.

I am speaking to the CORES lunch group about my column and career Thursday, March 9 at the Bloomington Event Center. Reservations can be made by emailing Jim Dotseth, dotsethj@comcast.net. CORES is an acronym for coaches, officials, reporters, educators and sports fans.

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