Gophers Basketball – Page 104 – David Shama's Minnesota Sports Headliners

Griffen Praying for Rodgers’ Recovery

Posted on October 15, 2017October 15, 2017 by David Shama

A Sunday night notes column kicking off with the Vikings, following Minnesota’s 23-10 win over Green Bay.

Vikings linebacker Anthony Barr knocked Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers out of today’s game with a hard hit in the first quarter. After getting up off the turf, Rodgers appeared to have words for Barr while heading toward the sidelines—perhaps describing what he thought was a late hit.

After the game Barr wasn’t available to reporters because he suffered a concussion during the game but two of his defensive teammates didn’t find fault with the play that broke Rodgers’ collarbone. “We play as hard as we can to the whistle,” linebacker Eric Kendricks said. “I didn’t see a flag (penalty) on the play so it was clean.”

Defensive end Everson Griffen said he didn’t hear what Rodgers said, or to whom. “I didn’t hear nothing,” Griffen told Sports Headliners. “I am here to play ball. I want to compete against Rodgers all day. I wish him a speedy recovery—the best quarterback in the league, in my opinion. I pray for him. I hope he heals up well.”

Sam Bradford (photo courtesy of Minnesota Vikings)

While Rodgers could be out for a long time, the Vikings might be getting former starter Teddy Bridgewater back later this season. Bridgewater may receive medical clearance to begin practice with the team this week, and in three weeks the Vikings could take him off the physically-unable-to-perform list and activate him. Although Bridgewater presumably will be rusty after not playing in a regular season game since 2015, he could be an asset to the quarterback roster that is using backup Case Keenum while starter Sam Bradford is sidelined with his ongoing left knee issue.

Vikings offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur was chosen as honorary captain for Michigan State last night. The Spartans defeated the Gophers, 30-27, at TCF Bank Stadium. Shurmur was a captain and All-Big Ten center for the Spartans in the 1980s.

When Gophers athletic director Mark Coyle had the same job at Syracuse he hired Dino Babers as the school’s football coach, and Friday night the Orange stunned the nation defeating No. 2 ranked and defending national champion Clemson.

As of October 5, total men’s Gopher hockey season tickets for the public and students were down slightly from a year ago on that date, according to figures provided by the University of Minnesota. The comparative public totals were 5,511 for 2017-2018 public season tickets, versus 5,941 in 2016-2017. The student numbers were 2,483 versus 2,690. The University reported 89.2 percent of public accounts renewed for this season versus 80.4 a year ago.

The Gophers, who have already opened their home schedule at 3M Arena at Mariucci, sold 183 new public season tickets for 2017-2018. The total as of October 5 a year ago was 227. There was no increase in pricing for either public or student season tickets from last year to this.

Mariucci, with a capacity of almost 10,000, opened in 1993. The all-time single game attendance record is 10,587 set on November 6, 2004 for a Minnesota-Wisconsin game. The Gophers were defending NCAA national champions going into that game.

The Gophers, who won a sixth consecutive regular season conference title in 2017, averaged 9,595 fans per game last season at home. The averages the two prior seasons were 9,847 and 9,982.

WCHA Men’s Commissioner Bill Robertson thinks all five Division 1 men’s hockey schools in the state will for the first time finish the 2017-2018 season ranked among the top 20 teams nationally. In addition to the Gophers from the Big Ten, the other four teams are Minnesota State, Mankato and Bemidji State from the WCHA, and St. Cloud State and UMD from the NCHC.

“The state of Minnesota has never had better overall talent and depth than in 2017-2018 with regard to men’s college hockey,” Robertson said via email. “If all goes well we could potentially see a couple of Minnesota teams make it to the Frozen Four in April at the Xcel Energy Center. It should be a banner year for college hockey in this state leading up to the NCAA Tournament. It will be so exciting for the fans.”

A spokesman for men’s Gophers basketball said about 1,800 new public season tickets have been sold for 2017-2018. The student allotment of about 2,000 tickets is sold out. Single game tickets for the Big Ten season go on sale next month. Multiple sellouts of Gopher conference games at Williams Arena are likely.

Optimism is high about this year’s team, including from observers at fall practice. The Gophers are being ranked among the nation’s top 25 teams by various sources.

The public can attend a free intra-squad scrimmage that begins at 5 p.m. Sunday, October 29 at Williams Arena. There will be an autograph session after the game.

Former Timberwolf player and executive Fred Hoiberg, now the Chicago Bulls head coach, has his 45th birthday today. The Bulls are rebuilding and figure to rank with the NBA’s worst teams this season.

It will be interesting to see how much Brian Dozier is in the local baseball news this offseason. The Twins second baseman, who many observers believe was the club’s MVP during the team’s turnaround season, could be the subject of trade rumors, or given a contract extension. Dozier’s final contract season is in 2018, according to Baseballprospectus.com, which reports the 30-year-old will earn $9 million next season.

Congratulations to high school football coaches Dean Aurich of Mayer Lutheran and Joe Kemp from Wabasso on achieving 200th and 100th career wins respectively earlier this month. Aurich has coached Mayer Lutheran in four state tournaments, while Kemp has had three teams in the tourney including last year.

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U Football Revenue Tops Last Year

Posted on October 5, 2017October 5, 2017 by David Shama

The Gophers have already surpassed last year’s total for football ticket revenue, according to numbers provided Sports Headliners by the University of Minnesota Athletic Department.

A department spokesman reported via email “about $10.75 million in football ticket revenue” has been generated, approximately $3,000 more than the total for the entire seven-game home schedule in 2016. The $10.75 million figure was provided late last month after Minnesota’s first two home games this season. The total includes public and student season ticket revenues and single game sales for all seven home games in 2017.

It’s anticipated that no additional 2017 public season tickets will be sold because three home games have already been played. However, the student season ticket sales campaign started much later than the public sale this year and, according to athletic department spokesman Jake Ricker, more student sales are likely. Also, many more individual game tickets and resulting revenue will be generated in the days and weeks ahead.

None of the Gophers remaining games are sellouts, but capacity crowds are a possibility for the November 11 and 25 games with Nebraska and Wisconsin. Those rivalries are considered premium priced games and they attract thousands of Cornhuskers and Badgers ticket buyers. For the Nebraska game, prices start at $90 and go up to $235, while the range for Wisconsin is $80 to $210.

“We anticipate hundreds of thousands of additional dollars in football ticket revenue …over (last) year by the time this season concludes,” Ricker wrote in an email.

The Gophers had only one premium game (Iowa) last season. While the Nebraska and Wisconsin tickets are pricey, the Gophers did some price reduction from 2016 on early season home games this year, according to Ricker. He also said the cost for season tickets remained the same in 2017 as last year, with the athletic department nixing a long-planned increase in scholarship seating donations.

Although it’s apparent there is curiosity and interest among ticket buyers in new coach P.J. Fleck, the Gophers have been several thousand tickets short of selling out any of their first three games in TCF Bank Stadium.

The athletic department sold 21,985 public season tickets in 2017, 566 fewer than last year. Ricker said a larger base of season tickets partially carried over from 2015 into 2016 than was in place this year. However, the U sold 1,713 new public season tickets this year, compared with 776 in 2016. The total of new accounts is 688 versus 285 in 2016.

Student ticket sales for this year are at 5,964, down about 1,000 from 2016, but a few hundred more tickets could be sold.

Worth Noting

If the Twins dismiss Paul Molitor as manager—or ask him to make changes with his staff—Brad Mills might be a name to watch in Minnesota. The 60-year-old former Astros manager coaches for the Indians where he is highly regarded. He presumably is friends with Derek Falvey, the Twins baseball boss who was with the Cleveland organization until last fall.

After Tuesday night’s wild card loss to the Yankees, the Twins finished 0-4 in games this year at Yankee Stadium. For the season the Twins were 2-5 against New York and Minnesota also had losing records against other superior teams including the Astros, Indians and Red Sox.

Despite having four of five starters in their 30s, the Lynx brought the energy to win last night’s Game Five against the Sparks, earning the Minnesota franchise its fourth WNBA title in seven years. The 12-woman roster has five players with 11 years or more of professional experience. The titles are rewarding for a core group of players who have been together for years, and owner Glen Taylor whose other pro team, the Timberwolves, haven’t made the playoffs since 2004.

The NBA general managers’ survey was announced yesterday on NBA.com. The Timberwolves and Karl-Anthony Towns did well but a year ago the same experts predicted Minnesota’s Kris Dunn would be the league’s Rookie of the Year. This year 69 percent of the votes forecast the Wolves to be the NBA’s most improved team, while Towns was voted the player GMs most want if starting a franchise. He was also voted the league’s best center and most likely to have a breakout season.

Twelve former players from the WCHA are on NHL opening night rosters this fall including Minnesota State Mankato alums and forwards David Backes and Tyler Pitlick, who are with the Bruins and Stars respectively.

The Wild open tonight against the Red Wings in their new home, Little Caesars Arena, where Stubhub.com was listing tickets last night for over $990 each.

Case Keenum said this morning he doesn’t know if he or Sam Bradford will start at quarterback for the Vikings in Monday night’s game against the Bears.

Purdue has been promoting tickets starting at $10 for Saturday’s home game with the Gophers.

Gophers quarterback Conor Rhoda has rushed only nine times in four games for his 3-1 team. He mostly hands the ball to a running back on option plays and that’s with the approval of Fleck who is concerned that Rhoda stay healthy, playing a position where Minnesota has no one in reserve who has starting experience. Fleck said the mission is to “keep him (Rhoda) healthy, continue to get him to distribute the ball and continue to develop the other quarterbacks behind him.”

Those quarterbacks on the depth chart include true freshman Tanner Morgan who enrolled at Minnesota after the first of the year. A finalist for the prep Mr. Football Award in Kentucky as a senior last year, he passed for over 10,000 career yards in high school. “I think he’s getting a lot better,” Fleck said about the young quarterback who he wants to redshirt this season.

Rhoda has also been impressed with Morgan. “I’ve been around a lot of guys who have come in here as 17 year olds, leaving high school early and (I) know how difficult that can be. He’s grown so much just as a person since he got here, but so much as a player as well.

“I really think the sky’s the limit for him. He’s an incredibly intelligent person off the field and on the field. As long as he keeps working the way he’s working, who knows what he’s going to be able to do.”

The Gophers were among the national leaders in targeting penalties last fall, but not in 2017. Through four games Minnesota is the least overall penalized team in the Big Ten with 16 infractions. “I think we’re a very disciplined football team,” Fleck said.

The Gophers are about 14 months out from the basketball game they committed to playing in U.S. Bank Stadium in December of 2018. An announcement about their opponent has been anticipated for awhile and that could be indicative of not being able to secure a high profile team.

Free advice to the Gophers: schedule an annual nonconference game with either Iowa State or Northern Iowa. The Cyclones likely would have to be home-and-home but perhaps the Panthers would be willing to play at Williams Arena two out of every three years.

The 1982 Minnesota State University Moorhead cross country team, led by All-Americans Randy Goblirsch of Redwood Falls and Keith Haverland from Farmington, will be inducted into the school’s sports Hall of Fame on Friday. The Dragons won conference and district titles, before going on to finish 7th at the national meet. Gophers senior associate athletics director Marc Ryan was also a member of the team but missed the 1982 season because of mononucleosis.

Ryan was saddened this week over the death of music legend Tom Petty, who he saw perform at 25 concerts, in 12 different venues across six states. Most recently Ryan watched Petty in late June at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

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Big Ten Title Team to Motivate Gophers

Posted on September 28, 2017September 28, 2017 by David Shama

More than 35 players from Minnesota’s 1967 Big Ten championship football team will be in Minneapolis Friday and Saturday to celebrate their 50th anniversary. That was the last Gopher football team to win the conference title and new head coach P.J. Fleck values the link to the past.

“I think it’s incredibly important,” Fleck said Tuesday. “We talked to them (his players)…about embracing your past to create your future. We want to bring the championships back to Minnesota.

“That doesn’t happen overnight. I said that from day one in my press conference, and every time I’ve talked. …But the one thing I’ll say is, we want to make sure, when the 1967 team watches our game (Saturday), they’re inspired. It brings them back to their day.”

Fleck and some players will attend a reception for the 1967 alums on Friday night at TCF Bank Stadium. Lockers at the stadium will temporarily have nameplates with names of the ex-Gophers and a gift in each space.

Prior to Saturday’s 11 a.m. home game against Maryland the ’67 champions will hear Fleck’s pregame speech. Then between the first and second quarters the ’67 group will be recognized on the field.

Minnesota quarterback Conor Rhoda said he and teammates are grateful to have the legacy players back in town. The 3-0 Gophers, going into their opening Big Ten game against the 2-1 Terps, want to show their elders how much they’ve accomplished in the last eight months.

“Hopefully, we’re able to do that Saturday and be able to show them that this program has taken the steps to get back to how it was in the ‘60s when they won the championships,” Rhoda said.

The 1967 group was the last of coach Murray Warmath’s championship teams from that decade. He has passed away and so has most of his staff, although former assistant Mike Reid will attend the reunion. Deceased players include Mike Condo, Ron Kamzelski, Charlie Sanders and John Williams.

Worth Noting

Fleck has travelled to high school games in the metro area via helicopter. Rhoda said the expense of using a helicopter sends a message. “For those kids that he was out recruiting it would show how important they are to him and how badly he wants them,” Rhoda said.

Fleck said a helicopter allows him to use his time efficiently. He not only wants to see players but engage with coaches and fans at high school games. “The more places we can see, the more benefit we have,” he said.

Rhoda talking about second team quarterback Seth Green, a redshirt freshman who so far has minimal college game experience: “He’s got all the skills in the world.”

It would be interesting if either Iowa or Wisconsin tries to hire popular former Gophers linebackers coach Mike Sherels. He isn’t coaching now but has a great reputation in the state of Minnesota where both the Hawkeyes and Badgers recruit.

The Vikings and Lynx games were both televised in the Minneapolis-St. Paul market last Sunday afternoon. How did TV audiences in the 18-plus category compare? The Vikings telecast averaged 665,500 viewers, the Lynx 40,700.

Profootballfocus.com gave third-year cornerback Trae Waynes the fifth highest grade among Vikings after last Sunday’s win against the Bucs. The former 2015 first round draft choice has been known for his inconsistency.

“Trae seems to be getting better all the time,” said head coach Mike Zimmer. “I think he’s starting to develop more confidence. There’s still things he needs to work on, but he’s got such great athletic ability that he just needs to continue to use it. Sometimes he overthinks a little bit—just go out and play.”

Zimmer, known for his defensive coaching, can appreciate the seven interceptions the Lions have in three games. “They do a good job of getting pressure on the quarterback,” he said. “They play tight in coverage. They are very well coached scheme-wise—fundamentally sound and they are around the football so they end up getting a lot of picks.”

The Lions and Vikings are both 2-1, and Sunday’s game at U.S. Bank Stadium is probably anyone’s guess as to the winner. The Lions won both games last season.

Despite starting quarterback Sam Bradford missing two games, the Vikings have the third most passing yards through three games in franchise history. They have 882 yards, compared with 982 in 2004 and 988 in 1981.

After last Saturday’s “Holy Grail” game won by St. Thomas, the D3football.com national rankings have the Tommies No. 3 and Saint John’s ninth.

The Twins, who play their final regular season game on Sunday, have four players with 20 home runs or more. If Max Kepler hits one more home run to total 20 he will make the 2017 season only the third time in club history five players have reached that level. Brian Dozier (33), Miguel Sano (28), Eddie Rosario (27) and Eduardo Escobar (20) are the 2017 home run leaders.

Gophers sophomore basketball forward Eric Curry, who had successful reconstructive knee surgery September 20, is on crutches and attending classes, but will miss the upcoming season.

The 35 players expected at Big Ten Media Day October 19 at Madison Square Garden in New York will include Gopher center Reggie Lynch and guard Nate Mason. Lynch was Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year last season, while Mason was All-Big Ten.

Condolences to Gophers center and Norway native Matz Stockman, the Louisville transfer, who lost his father Eirik last summer. Stockman, who is redshirting this season, returned home to Norway for awhile because of his father’s death.

Athlon’s college basketball magazine ranks Rochester John Marshall’s Matthew Hurt the No. 5 prep player nationally in the class of 2019. Because his brother Michael is already on the team, the Gophers might be favorably positioned to land Matthew.

Kevin Burleson, who played guard for the Gophers from 1999-2003, is an assistant coach for the NBA Rockets.

Mike Hastings is among the best coaches in men’s college hockey so it wasn’t surprising this week when both a coaches poll and media poll ranked his Minnesota State team most likely to win the WCHA’s regular season championship in 2018. His teams have won 122 games, the fourth most nationally, since he took over the program for the 2012-13 season. Bemidji State was voted No. 2 in the polls.

The WCHA offices are based in the Twin Cities and the men’s administration is led by commissioner Bill Robertson, a former executive with the NHL Wild.

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