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

20 Years Ago Twins Almost Kaput

Posted on March 15, 2022March 22, 2022 by David Shama

Think Minnesota Twins fans were worried about a 2022 Major League Baseball season happening because of stalled labor negotiations that weren’t resolved until last week?

For sure, but the angst was nowhere near as dramatic as a couple of decades ago.

After the 2001 season MLB owners voted to contract two franchises, the Twins and Montreal Expos. It looked like there would be no 2002 season—or any beyond that—for these clubs. They were struggling financially and other MLB franchises were weary of financial subsidies for bottom feeders Minnesota and Montreal.

Twins owner Carl Pohlad and MLB commissioner Bud Selig were close friends. Conjecture is Pohlad would have received up to $250 million for folding up his franchise. He had purchased the team in 1984 for a reported $34 to $36 million. Pohlad liked making money and contraction looked like a profitable escape route.

Pohlad and his brain trust were frustrated in 2001 after years of failed efforts to earn support for a new ballpark to replace the outdated Metrodome. Opposition to public funding was intense. Phone lines to the state capitol once shut down because of so many calls coming into legislators from stadium opponents.

A source close to the Twins franchise back then remembers the stadium squabble that went on for years. “The organization had been trying for a decade or so to get a new ballpark. It just wasn’t getting any traction,” he told Sports Headliners.

In 1997 Pohlad threatened to sell the team, with the new owner relocating the franchise to North Carolina. To this day the threat is regarded as contrived and a strategy to get the Twins out of the Metrodome and into a new stadium. “…All of the information that came out afterwards, there wasn’t a lot of substance to the threat to move,” the source said.

The Twins won the 1991 World Series and had drawn almost 2.5 million fans in 1992. The club went into decline starting with the 1993 season and played losing baseball through 2000, with the Twins struggling to draw over 1 million fans that year.

Still, the Twins had shown improvement on the field in the first half of 2001 and looked like a team trending upward after finishing 85-77. That improvement was part of the reason those passionate about the team were stunned in the fall of 2001 when contraction was near reality.

“It was really traumatic,” the source said. “First of all, it was our livelihood, but even more so…this was an institution. This was the Minnesota Twins. This wasn’t some corner pizza shop. People over the five-state region followed the Minnesota Twins and grew up with the team. (They) created many special memories. You felt that. You knew what it meant if this were to go away.”

Opponents of MLB contraction included the players’ union and the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission whose leaders filed a lawsuit in Hennepin County asking that the Twins fulfill their Metrodome lease. Judge Harry Crump ruled the Twins had to honor their lease and play the 2002 season in the dome. Selig, Pohlad and others had to backtrack on contraction.

The 2002 Twins won the American League Central Division and saw home attendance total nearly 2 million customers, the best year at the gate since 1993. In 2010 the club moved into outdoor Target Field, funded by Hennepin County and the Twins.

Worth Noting

The men’s basketball Golden Gophers aren’t in the NCAA Tournament, and neither are coach Ben Johnson’s three most recent predecessors. Dan Monson’s Long Beach State team is in the NIT, Tubby Smith is retiring after his High Point Panthers went 14-18 and Richard Pitino also had a losing season, 13-19, at New Mexico.

Colorado State coach Niko Medved, a student manager under Clem Haskins in the 1990s, has his Rams in the tournament with an opening game Thursday against Michigan. Minneapolis native David Roddy, the Mountain West Player of the Year, is the Rams’ best player.

Good guy Dave Wright, a familiar public address voice at Twin Cities hockey and basketball games for decades, started doing P.A. work in high school. This is year 53 for him, with commitments next week to work seven games at the boys’ basketball tournament. “It is still a big thrill,” Wright said via email. “I am always nervous 5-10 minutes before the first game. Once we start, however, the adrenalin starts to flow; you kick into automatic pilot and just do it.”

Timberwolves minority owners Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez are investing in a new company that will allow fans to wager on athletes like football players based on their on-field performance. Mojo will launch an app that could be out by year’s end, per Front Office Sports.

If Minneapolis media legend Sid Hartman was still alive, he would be 102 today.

The Twin Cities Dunkers, the sports-focused group Hartman helped lead for decades, is moving its meetings from the Minneapolis Club to Interlachen Country Club.

College football players, with 50.6 percent, have earned the most compensation from Name, Image and Likeness since the July 2021 startup, according to Opendorse and Axios Sports. Next in NIL money are women’s basketball players at 18.5 percent, with male counterparts third at 15 percent.

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Badger Hoop Titles Spotlight U Failures

Posted on March 6, 2022March 6, 2022 by David Shama

Another Big Ten Conference basketball season ends today with familiar outcomes for Wisconsin and Minnesota. The Badgers are again men’s Big Ten champions and the Golden Gophers have yet another finish near the bottom of the conference standings.

UW has shared or won outright six league titles this millennium. UM hasn’t come close to winning the Big Ten, and in only three seasons have the Gophers posted a winning conference record.

The Badgers have won league championships in two of the last three years. Minnesota has finished 13th and 11th in the 14-team Big Ten the past two seasons, and on this final Sunday hopes to avoid a last place tie with Nebraska.

Wait. The story gets worse.

Since 2000 Wisconsin has been to three NCAA Final Fours and one national title game. The Badgers have earned their way into the NCAA Tournament every year except 2018. The Gophers have been to the Big Dance five times in 22 years, with two wins.

Only a Gopher fan with no expectations could be satisfied with the disparity between the boys from Dinkytown and Minnesota’s rivals to the East.

What UW has achieved in basketball during the last 20-plus years is more than admirable. It’s remarkable. What the coaches and administrators in charge of Gopher hoops have done is embarrassing.

Two states with such similar histories, culture, populations and demographics. We’re also talking two land grant universities with similar resources for their basketball programs—but with such dissimilar results.

The 2000 Badgers went to the school’s first Final Four in almost 60 years. UW had undergone a turnaround with Dick Bennett, a proven coach who the Badgers found in nearby Green Bay—a guy who had turned the mid-major Phoenix into a power. In 1999 the Gophers had taken the riskier path by hiring a hot name among the mid-major programs—inexperienced Dan Monson from Gonzaga.

When the U said goodbye to Monson eight seasons later, Kentucky was okay bidding farewell to Tubby Smith. Gopher fans found out what Kentuckians already knew: Smith was most successful with the storied Wildcat program in the early years, following the glory run of coach Rick Pitino. Kentucky was in decline when Smith departed from Lexington to take over the Gophers.

While the U opted for a big name in Smith, Bo Ryan was the next home run choice to lead the Badgers. His coaching background included UW-Platteville where all he did was win four Division III national championships. From 2001-2015 Ryan’s Badgers won four Big Ten titles and played in two Final Fours.

True to form, the Gophers got the wrong coach and the wrong Pitino in 2013 after Smith was fired. They signed up Rick’s son Richard, then 30 years old, and without a resume to qualify him as a head Big Ten coach.

When Ryan retired in December of 2015, the decision makers in Madison remained true to their formula of hiring home state coaches who are superb teachers, using a system that fits the personnel, and understanding their recruiting base. Greg Gard, Ryan’s assistant and a Wisconsin native, has led the Badgers to two conference titles in seven seasons and had three other teams that finished no worse than fourth in the standings.

Gard should be national coach of the year for what he and his players have accomplished this season. Nobody saw this year’s success coming. The Big Ten title was supposed to be won by Michigan, Purdue, Illinois, Michigan State or Ohio State. Those programs might have more talent but the Badgers are the definition of a team.

They play together in all phases of the game and execute fundamentals like they were at a coaching clinic. There is the trademark stingy defense, including the willingness to sacrifice “life and limb” to clog driving lanes. They move the basketball on offense and have efficient shot selection. They’re physically and mentally tough, and that pays off in various ways including rebounding.

Bennett, Ryan and Gard teams have all played this way. They have built success with players willing to buy in, and many of them are Minnesotans. This year the Badgers have three starters from the Twin Cities area, center Steven Crowl, guard Brad Davison and forward Tyler Wahl. Two years ago the 2020 Big Ten champion Badgers had five Minnesotans on the roster including key contributor Nate Reuvers from Lakeville North.

The parade to Madison started years ago and has turned out successfully for many Gopher state players including guard Jordan Taylor and forward Jon Leuer who were stars on Wisconsin NCAA Tournament teams. Truth is while the Gophers wanted some players who made the Badgers a Big Ten power, often the home boys were shown minimal interest. While the U was landing an Isaiah Washington, UW was signing up a Brad Davison.

Badger players know they will be taught how to play the game and how to win. Their teammates are mostly from Wisconsin, Illinois and Minnesota, with maybe a player or two from places like Ohio or South Dakota. Not a roster with glitzy prep recruits, but team oriented guys with more focus on winning the Big Ten than having a pro career. Despite all their Big Ten and national success, the Badgers haven’t had an NBA draft choice since 2015.

Maybe Ben Johnson, finishing up his fist season as Minnesota’s head coach, will row the program in a different direction. Finally the U has a Gopher alum and native son leading the program. Already he has shown a commitment to Minnesota prep players in his recruiting. The Big Ten record this winter of 4-11 heading into tonight’s final regular season game at Northwestern is dismal but the coaching and effort by the players has kept Minnesota competitive in many games.

But the future is speculation. As of today, the results of this millennium speak loudly in Madison and Minneapolis.

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Whew! Nobody Saw Gophers 7-0 Start

Posted on December 7, 2021December 7, 2021 by David Shama

The University of Minnesota men’s basketball team goes into tomorrow night’s Big Ten opener with a 7-0 record in nonconference games. Anyone who claims they predicted such a start to the season is messing with you.

Before the schedule began in early November the consensus media message was the Gophers would be among the worst teams in major college basketball. Not so far, though. As of Monday morning Minnesota was one of 12 unbeaten Division I teams.

This remarkable start to the 2021-2022 season under new head coach Ben Johnson is totally unexpected. Johnson, the former Gopher and Minneapolis native, had no head coaching experience when he took over and assembled his staff. To critics the hire had the credibility of drawing names out of a hat, but results so far have been eye-opening.

Johnson’s assistants include Dave Thorson, his high school coach at DeLaSalle and a gifted instructor of defense. They inherited two returning players from the 2020-2021 roster. In the summer Isaiah Ihnen, one of the returnees, suffered a knee injury sidelining him for the season.

The new players, mostly transfers from mid-level college basketball programs, were hardly head-turners that sent ticket buyers scurrying to the box office. Some bios looked okay but there were doubts even the best of the newcomers could play with success in the Big Ten.

What’s evident now is Johnson recruited not just for basketball skill, but attitude. His players are all in on buying what the coaches tell them and playing for each other. Togetherness is one of the most over used words in team sports but these Gophers are unselfish and united.

“We need to be a team of all teams,” Johnson said earlier in the fall. “We need to lead the league in high-fives and butt slaps.”

The Gophers not only play together, they play within their skill sets and schemes. The collective basketball IQ is evident. After last weekend Minnesota was tied for seventh in the country with Duke for fewest turnovers at 68. The Gophers ranked No. 12 in fewest fouls with 92.

No one is saying the Gophers have defeated a who’s-who of college hoops opponents through seven games but they have wins against name-brand schools including 6-2 Mississippi State (in Starkville) and 6-3 Princeton (neutral court). The Gophers have won three games by a total of 10 points and another (Princeton) by seven in double overtime.

That shows resolve, something Johnson knew before the season he needed from his new team. “We’ve gotta be the toughest team, especially this year. We don’t have a lot of room for error. Our mental toughness, our physical toughness has got to be on point.”

The Gophers haven’t backed down from big moments in their seven games. Forward Jamison Battle, the team’s leading scorer at 17.9, has often put an end to another team’s scoring run by hitting a three-pointer. Point guard Peyton Willis, 17.4 points per game, has also been a steadying force and a much improved player from when he was at Minnesota a couple of years ago before transferring. Others have contributed in the clutch, too, like guard Luke Loewe who had a game-winning basket in Pittsburgh last week.

The arrival of 13 new players with different backgrounds, skill sets and personalities makes Johnson’s crew among the most transitional in the college basketball world. It’s evident Johnson and staff excel at player development, game preparation and in-game adjustments. Their start to the season deserves high-fives. No new Gophers coach has won his first seven games since Jim Dutcher in 1975.

Richard Pitino, Johnson’s predecessor, is 5-4 coaching at New Mexico with a 15 point loss to Towson. Pitino’s predecessor, Tubby Smith, is 4-4 at Highpoint with a 35 point loss to Northwestern. Dan Monson, who led Minnesota before Smith, is 2-6 at Long Beach State.

There are challenges ahead for the Gophers including better opposition game-after-game in the Big Ten. Many conference teams are talented and all do a thorough job of scouting opponents. Part of the task, too, for Minnesota will be staying healthy. The team lacks depth, mostly counting on a couple of subs to mix in with the starters.

Losing streaks are no doubt coming, but the feel-good start to the season should prompt some walk-up ticket sales for tomorrow night’s game against Michigan State at Williams Arena. The No. 19 ranked 7-2 Spartans are a perennial Big Ten bully.

The Spartans won’t fear the Gophers but they best respect them.

Friends Fret about Jerry Kill’s Health

Jerry Kill is a head coach again for the first time since 2015, a year that saw him resign during mid-season from the Golden Gophers because of health issues. Taking on the responsibility of leading the New Mexico State Aggies has coach’s many friends in Minnesota worried.

It’s not just that the Aggies are annual bottom feeders (one bowl game since 1960) and that winning in Las Cruces is a challenge for the ages. It’s the stark reality that leading a college football program 365 days per year is a mental and physical marathon for anyone, especially a beloved 60-year-old warrior known coast-to-coast for his battles with epilepsy, cancer and exhaustion.

Kill made an enduring number of friends while coaching at Minnesota from 2011-2015. Among those is Jim Carter, captain of the 1969 Gophers and a straight talking guy just like the new coach in Las Cruces.

Carter expressed concerns about his friend in an interview with Sports Headliners. “My hope is that it doesn’t kill him. …I think he knows that there is risk in it (coaching), and I think that’s what he feels he wants and needs to do. I am very sure that (wife) Rebecca supports him in it and I am sure his daughters (Krystal and Tasha) support him in it.”

Kill is on new meds for his epilepsy since he was at Minnesota. In an early November interview on WCCO Radio’s “The Huddle,” Kill wished he felt this well during his last couple of years at Minnesota.

“I’m in great shape,” Kill said. “I’m running every day. I’m doing all the things I should have been doing when I was at the University of Minnesota.”

Carter didn’t disclose all he knows about his friend’s health. However, his understanding is that Kill worked without an epilepsy incident the last two years at TCU where his assignments included interim head coach this fall.

It’s understandable if Kill doesn’t want to be communicative about every detail in his life. “I know him pretty well,” Carter said. “I consider him a good friend. I think he trusts me but when I ask him how he is doing, it’s usually, ‘Oh, I am doing great, or I am doing fine.’ And I am not sure that’s always been true.”

Since leaving Minnesota Kill has tried administrative work at Southern Illinois and Kansas State. He has been an assistant coach at Rutgers where he suffered a well publicized seizure. A football lifer, he can’t step away from leading young men in the sport he loves.

“People say health is the most important thing. Well, some things get in your system and you just have to do them, and I think that’s the case with him,” Carter said.

The Aggies were 2-10 this past season, including 56 and 40 point losses to SEC teams. As fate would have it, the Aggies come to Minneapolis on September 1 for a game scheduled awhile ago. The Gophers will be three or four touchdown favorites going into that opening game of the season for them (Aggies open August 27 at home against Nevada). “He’s taking on a real project (with the Aggies), and I don’t think there’s any chance in hell of them being able to compete when they get up here to play Minnesota,” Carter said.

Yet the pressure will be on Minnesota. The Gophers will be criticized if they don’t dominate. The game decisions of Minnesota coach P.J. Fleck will be scrutinized by critics. Keep it close and the verdict by them will be Kill out coached Fleck. Blow out game? What else can you expect with the Aggies having such inferior personnel?

What’s for certain is the match up of both teams and coaches will draw interest not previously anticipated. The game could be played in front of a sellout crowd at Huntington Bank Stadium with many fans aware of Kill’s critical comments about Fleck in February of 2019. In a satellite radio interview Kill criticized Fleck’s ego and suggested the Minnesota coach is more about himself than the players.

Kill built a winner at Minnesota, just as he had done in previous coaching stops including Northern Illinois and Southern Illinois. Carter predicts (health allowing) Kill will succeed in Las Cruces, making the Aggies a competitive team fans will be proud to support.

It appears Kill may take on the New Mexico State project without any of the familiar staff from when he was at Minnesota including defensive coordinator Tracy Claeys, who is now out of coaching. Nate Dreiling, a former Southeast Missouri inside linebackers coach, will be Kill’s defensive coordinator.

“It surprises me, frankly, because I loved that (Gopher) staff,” Carter said. “I loved the guys. But it doesn’t sound like any of them are going (to Las Cruces).’’

Minnesota was not a competitive program when Kill took over, with the Gophers finishing 3-9 in 2010. It was a rugged beginning including the second game of the Kill era in 2011 when he collapsed on the sidelines from a seizure during an unexpected home loss to (yes) New Mexico State.

But Kill and his staff improved the talent on the roster and were accomplished at player development. By 2015, coming off the program’s first New Year’s Day bowl game since 1962, the Gophers were drawing the largest crowds in TCF Bank Stadium history.

You can bet a lot of the fandom from 2015 will be back on campus September 1, 2022.

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