Gophers Basketball – Page 116 – David Shama's Minnesota Sports Headliners

Here’s Help Forecasting NCAA Tourney

Posted on March 14, 2016March 14, 2016 by David Shama

Don’t overlook the University of Arkansas at Little Rock when filling out your NCAA Tournament bracket.

That’s the advice of former Gophers coach Jim Dutcher who has been studying tournament fields for 50 years. He predicts the Trojans, a No. 12 seed in the Midwest Region, will upset No. 5 seed Purdue in an opening round game this week. “They’re a real sleeper team,” Dutcher said about the 29-win Trojans.

Upsets are common during the first week of “March Madness” and there is a lot of parity in the field of 68 teams but only a handful are seen as potential Final Four entrants next month in Houston. Dutcher thinks the last four teams will be Kansas, Michigan State, North Carolina and Oklahoma. Kansas is the No. 1 overall tournament seed and Dutcher’s choice to win the national championship.

All four of his predicted finalists are either No. 1 or No. 2 seeds in their regions. “I really went out a limb,” he said.

North Carolina may have the most talented team in the tournament but Dutcher said there might be some glory coming for J.P. Macura and his Xavier teammates. The former Lakeville North guard is Xavier’s fifth leading scorer at 9.6 points per game. The Musketeers are the No. 2 seed in the East behind Carolina and if you’re looking for a mid-major to make a deep tournament run it could be the Musketeers. “Xavier is pretty good,” he said.

A problem for Macura and teammates, though, is the East Region is loaded with strong teams including Indiana, Kentucky, and West Virginia. “I think the toughest route to the Final Four is out of the East,” Dutcher said.

California, the No. 4 seed in the South, has Dutcher’s attention. “Cal is playing really strong,” he said. “They have at least two No. 1 (NBA) draft choices.” Draftexpress.com predicts forward Jaylen Brown will be the third overall pick in the 2016 draft, with forward Ivan Rabb also a first rounder, and point guard Tyrone Wallace a second round choice.

Dutcher believes Iowa State has “got a chance” to be a surprise team in the Midwest but the Cyclones’ in-state rival Iowa isn’t likely to do much in the South. The Hawkeyes have lost five of their last six games and Dutcher said a problem is Iowa plays too many different defenses and doesn’t execute. “They don’t play great defense,” Dutcher said. “They just give up too many points.”

If pressed for a possible surprise team from the West Region, Dutcher goes with Texas A&M. The Aggies are a physical team and got a Final Four vote from college basketball authority Seth Davis on the CBS tournament selection show yesterday.

Worth Noting

The Gophers men’s basketball program has only qualified four times for the NCAA Tournament this century. Minnesota participated in 2013, 2010, 2009 and 2005, with a cumulative record of 1-4.

Coach Richard Pitino’s three-year Big Ten regular season record is 16-38. Minnesota was 2-16 this year, the most conference losses in school history.

The Gophers’ average attendance for the team’s 18 home games was 10,292. That’s the lowest since the 1970-1971 season, 8,395.

Ken Lien will announce the 2016 Mr. Basketball award winner at 5:15 p.m. on 1500 ESPN. The prediction here is the winner will be Amir Coffey from Hopkins High School.

The amazing Sid Hartman—who no longer drives a car but still writes multiple columns per week for the Star tribune and voices opinions six times weekly on WCCO Radio—has his 96th birthday tomorrow, March 15.

Does Jordan Schroeder sleep with a suitcase next to his bed? The 25-year-old forward and Lakeville, Minnesota native has been recalled from the Wild’s Iowa AHL team six times this season. The latest pack your bags notice came when Wild GM Chuck Fletcher announced Friday Schroeder was rejoining the team to fill a roster need. Schroeder, who has scored one goal in 16 games for the Wild, has been among the scoring leaders for Iowa where he has 34 points in 40 games.

P.J. Fleck, 35, is one of the most hyped young head football coaches in the country. Featured in Sports Illustrated last year, Fleck has impressed with his charisma while coaching at Western Michigan. He will be a headline speaker on March 31 at the annual Minnesota Football Coaches Association Clinic at the Doubletree Hotel in St. Louis Park.

While the clinic is annually attended mostly by high school coaches, new this year is the Youth Coaches Clinic April 1 and 2. Sessions on blocking and developing young quarterbacks will be among the offerings for coaches from youth football organizations. There will also be an opportunity to hear Arkansas head coach Bret Bielema speak to all MFCA Clinic attendees April 1. More at mnfootballcoaches.com.

Ron Stolski, executive director of the Minnesota Football Coaches Association, is also head coach at Brainerd where this fall he will be in his 55th season of prep coaching.

Lovie Smith went to a Super Bowl and won NFC North Division championships coaching the Bears so the surprise announcement last week that he is the new Illinois head coach adds another prominent name to the Big Ten. With his NFL roots and known brand in Chicago, Smith can change Illini recruiting for the better but Ryan Burns thinks Notre Dame will still get “the cream of the crop.” Burns is publisher of Scout’s GopherDigest.com.

The Illini have fallen on hard times since a Rose Bowl appearance in 2008. Establishing a winning program will be needed to change recruiting, and that figures to take awhile. Still, Burns predicts improvement in Illinois recruiting for 2017.

“This (2017) will probably be Illinois’ best class in the last five years or so, just because Lovie is a big name,” Burns said. “But I don’t think they’ll be competing with the Penn States, the Michigan States of the world. Even the Minnesotas. If they were able to get on par with what Minnesota has been doing, I think that would be a pretty good jump for them, but I don’t think it will be dramatic.”

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A Different Spring for Tyus Jones

Posted on March 9, 2016March 9, 2016 by David Shama

If Tyus Jones ever writes an autobiography the first chapter might be titled “March.” The third month of the year has been special for Jones—at least for the last few years including when his interest picked up about playing for the Gophers.

Three years ago Jones was a junior point guard leading Apple Valley High School to the 2013 Class 4A championship. During that same March the late Flip Saunders, who had become friends with Jones, talked with Minnesota athletic director Norwood Teague about becoming the Gophers’ coach. The two men met in Indianapolis but couldn’t agree on a deal.

Jones told Sports Headliners a Saunders hire would have placed the Gophers among his final choices for college. “It would have,” he said.

Saunders was out of coaching in 2013 but wanted to get back in at either Minnesota, his alma mater, or returning to the NBA where his stops included the Timberwolves. When Jones was a sophomore in high school he first met the dynamic coach. “I got to know him pretty well throughout my high school days,” Jones said. “Just built a relationship with him, and he was a very humble, down to earth guy.

“What I remember him most for is how he wanted the best for me—and always looked out for me…giving me advice and being there for me.”

Two years ago this month Jones was a senior at Apple Valley when his team couldn’t defend its 2013 state title, losing the championship game in double overtime to Cretin-Derham Hall. During the month he received numerous national and local honors including prep All-American and invitations to the best postseason high school all-star games, while Duke fans anticipated the fall arrival of the school’s next great point guard.

Jones, part of a stellar freshman class at Duke, had the Blue Devils advancing through the NCAA Tournament last March. In early April, just about a month out from Jones’ 19th birthday, the Dukies celebrated an unexpected NCAA championship. The kid from suburban Minneapolis, who had flirted with the thought of playing for Saunders and the hometown Gophers, was named the Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four.

Jones decided last spring to leave Duke and enter the NBA Draft. It seemed most improbable that he could end up playing in Minneapolis for the Timberwolves. But Saunders had joined the Timberwolves during the spring of 2013 and he wanted his young friend on the roster. A draft night trade by Saunders, the franchise’s president and coach, brought Jones home.

Jones’ first NBA season has been a trial, with minimal playing time off the bench and even a demotion to the Development League, but he doesn’t regret leaving Duke to become a pro and fulfill a lifelong dream. “That’s my job now and to be able to say this is a blessing,” he said. “The cherry on the top is I am playing for the Minnesota Timberwolves.”

Jones, of course, wishes Saunders, who died unexpectedly last fall from cancer, was around to see him living his dream and to offer mentoring. Instead, other coaches and players like point guards Ricky Rubio and Andre Miller helped the rookie adjust to the pros where he has played in only 20 games while averaging 4.4 points and 2.6 assists.

Jones said he is a superior player to what he was at the beginning of the season, able to manage the game better and is more knowledgeable about his personnel. “At the beginning of the year I wasn’t quite as aware as I am now,” he said.

When Jones thinks back about the last couple of years and reviews how much has happened, he is grateful. “It seems like it was a blur and everything. I feel like it has just gone my way and so many doors have been opened up for me, and I am extremely blessed and fortunate.”

This March, instead of competing for championships, Jones is playing for a Timberwolves team with a 20-45 record. What has he learned about losing?

“That I don’t like it,” he answered. “But you can always learn from it and let it make you a better player and person. There’s a lot of lessons that can be brought and taught to you through this game of basketball.”

Worth Noting

Jones’ brother Tre Jones is a sophomore point guard at Apple Valley High School whose college scholarship offers reportedly include Duke, but Tyus said there is no favorite yet. “He’s pretty wide open. His recruiting process is just getting started.”

The Gopher baseball team’s first ever game in the new U.S. Bank Stadium will be Tuesday February 28, 2017, against North Dakota. Minnesota will play North Dakota in the evening, and then again the next night at the covered stadium which can be converted from a football configuration to a baseball setup.

When the Gophers played the first ever baseball game at Target Field in March of 2010, attendance was 36,065. That was a Saturday afternoon, so the Gophers’ week night games against North Dakota are expected to draw smaller crowds.

The next Twins telecast from spring training will be Sunday starting at 12:05 p.m. on Fox Sports North. The Twins will play the Orioles from Fort Myers.

Speculation is three former Gophers from the 2015 team will be chosen in this spring’s NFL Draft. Defensive back Eric Murray might be selected in the third or fourth rounds. Defensive back Briean Boddy-Calhoun and linebacker De’Vondre Campbell seem likely for later rounds.

Murray pointed out after the Gophers Pro Day Monday that prospects can’t demonstrate tackling abilities in tryouts because it’s not allowed. Murray, who had no college offers other than the Gophers, said the NFL was a goal coming out of high school in Milwaukee. “It was definitely a dream. You gotta set a goal somehow. Once you set that, it’s something to reach.”

The Gophers had four players drafted last year, the most since 2006. The four were tight end Maxx Williams, Ravens (second round); linebacker Damien Wilson, Cowboys (fourth round); running back David Cobb, Titans (fifth round); and safety Cedric Thompson, Dolphins (fifth round). The 1950 NFL Draft was the last time Minnesota had four players selected in the first five rounds.

It’s been a rewarding week for former Gophers basketball coach Tubby Smith now in his third season at Texas Tech. Smith was named Big 12 Coach of the Week Sunday and yesterday he was announced as Sporting News National Coach of the Year. It was the eighth time he has won a national coach of the year award. He coached the Red Raiders to a surprising 9-9 record in the Big 12 this season (19-11 overall).

Quoting a Sports Headliners reader who will remain anonymous but marveled at this column’s high praise for former Gophers coach Jerry Kill: “I want you to write my obituary.”

Retired Hall of Fame jockey Chris McCarron will be in town in late April to help Canterbury Park promote the May 7 Kentucky Derby and the return of live racing to the Shakopee racetrack May 20. McCarron, who twice won the Derby, will host a fund raiser for the Leg Up Fund at Canterbury April 26. The fund assists recuperating jockeys injured at Canterbury. The Derby attracts the largest amount of wagering at Canterbury each year.

Bill Davis, the former Gopher baseball and basketball star, played on the Richfield High School team that lost the classic 1960 overtime game to Edgerton in the boys state basketball tournament. Davis will speak to the “Breakfast with Leroy” group Saturday at the Bloomington Knights of Columbus, 1114 American Blvd West. Part of Davis’ presentation will include audio from WCCO Radio describing the final minutes of the game, plus postgame interviews. More information about the presentation including how to attend is available by contacting Pat Rickert at 612-861-3981. Attendees are mostly athletes from the Minneapolis public schools in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, many of whom went on to college and professional careers.

Former Midwest Sports Channel and Twins executive Kevin Cattoor is Chief Operating Officer for Foodsby, the nation’s largest food logistics delivery service. The Minneapolis-based company partners with office buildings and restaurants to efficiently provide lunchtime meals delivered by the restaurants.

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U AD Search Needs Top Committee

Posted on March 7, 2016March 7, 2016 by David Shama

Any day now University of Minnesota president Eric Kaler will announce the names of approximately 10 individuals to help lead the search for the school’s next athletic director. Kaler announced the formal start of the search last month and his office’s website has a form accepting nominations for search committee members.

There is no shortage of highly qualified and motivated candidates that can form a blue-ribbon group. Former U athletic directors and athletes, present coaches and athletes, business leaders and other professionals offer a rich and diverse resource to Kaler if he will seek their counsel. “There is a huge talent pool,” Jim Carter said.

Carter played fullback on the Gophers’ last Big Ten championship football team in 1967. In his day the halls were sacred in the athletic building because of the school’s big time achievements in sports. When Carter was a sophomore, Minnesota was seven years removed from a national championship in football. The athletic department was a few years away from being a basketball powerhouse, and on its way to winning NCAA hockey titles during the 1970s.

These days, the glory is minimal in the high profile sports of men’s basketball and hockey and football. Decades of disappointment on the court, ice and field have become the norm with the basketball and football teams seldom able to win more than half of their Big Ten games each season, while the hockey program has often fallen behind state rivals and hasn’t produced a national championship since 2003.

Worse, the athletic department has become a national newsmaker for its scandals and other troubles. The latest woes include the suspension of three men’s basketball players. Last year the department’s negative headlines included the resignation of athletic director Norwood Teague who faced sexual harassment complaints from women at the University and also Star Tribune reporter Amelia Rayno.

Carter said his friend Tom Van Arsdale, a former Indiana basketball star, told him the national perspective of the Gophers is that they are a “laughing stock.”

“How did we get to that, from where we used to be?” Carter wonders.

The opinion here is the search committee should have a strong representation of sports-savvy individuals from varied backgrounds and interests. The viewpoints that need to be represented are those of people like Carter who are knowledgeable about the revenue-producing sports and want to see leadership demanding excellence in those programs that carry the athletic department’s brand and fuel the 23-sport, $100 million budget.

It’s an understatement to say Carter has been recommended for the search committee. “I know for sure I have over 125 nominations that have been sent to the president’s office,” Carter told Sports Headliners. “So if it’s by volume, I would guess they would have to put me on the committee, but you know…I’ve been outspoken a lot over the years.

“I’ve tried to be a truth teller—at least truth the way I see it, and it’s not been popular. I’ve been critical of Dr. Kaler and some of the people over there—so I certainly wouldn’t be their first choice, I am sure.”

Carter is skeptical about the final roster Kaler will approve for the committee. His concern is the group will be comprised primarily of people the president is most comfortable with and will include Kaler staffers, University faculty and regents, and compliant donors. How involved ex-Gophers, current athletes and coaches, and business leaders will be remains to be seen.

Another concern of Carter and others is that even if the committee has leadership committed to sending the athletic department on a mission of excellence, the final selection of the next athletic director will be made by a smaller group. Will a three or four person executive committee chosen by Kaler make the final choice of AD?

Kaler stumbled badly in hiring Teague. In addition to complaints about Teague’s behavior, he hired the inexperienced and now struggling men’s basketball coach Richard Pitino, didn’t get along with popular football coach Jerry Kill and was a disappointment in fundraising. Also under Teague’s watch the feds launched a still ongoing Title IX investigation. Title IX bans gender discrimination at federally funded schools.

Kaler’s career expertise is mostly in academics, not athletics. Carter, who grew up a passionate Gophers fan in South St. Paul and still lives in the Twins Cities, is a former linebacker for the Green Bay Packers and experienced businessman. He went to Kaler’s office in December proposing he head a small volunteer committee to conduct a search for the next AD. Instead of the University paying $125,000 for a professional search firm to assist with the process, Carter and a few others would deliver the best AD possible to the president.

“Forget a big committee of people that really don’t know much about sports,” Carter told Kaler. “Let me chair a committee and we will go find you the best athletic director to come to Minnesota and run this department, and turn it around. I will do it free of charge. I’ll do all the leg work. I’ll find the people. I’ll use my contacts… and there will be no issues with Title IX. There will be no issues with background checks that didn’t happen. We’ll get that (search) done.

“He (Kaler) just smiled and he said, ‘Well, we appreciate your interest.’

“Now you see what’s happened,” Carter continued. “Now we’ve gone to a search firm (name to be announced). We’ve gone to a big committee, and it will be fascinating to see who is on it.”

In a letter to Kaler last December Carter prioritized the most important qualifications he believes the next AD should have and that includes being a former Gopher athlete, an M letterwinner. Carter suggested such an individual “would provide immediate credibility as someone who understands the people and the culture of Minnesota and Gopher athletics.”

Carter also called for top level skills in fundraising, and for a person who believes in and is committed to recognizing and implementing the entertainment aspect of Gophers athletics—someone who “rejects the participation model and the mediocrity it produces, and understands how to intelligently invest in the fan experience for all sports.”

Teague was let go last summer and Beth Goetz was announced as interim AD on August 7. Kaler has been deliberate in finding a permanent AD. He has suggested that identifying qualified candidates will be made easier by waiting until spring when sitting athletic directors at other programs are finishing their school years. He plans to announce the name of the search firm this month and have a public review of the AD finalist or finalists late in the spring.

Carter and others wonder why the pace has been slow, particularly when the athletic department is under scrutiny and in need of a turnaround. “They’re in no rush,” Carter said. “It’s going to be a year without an athletic director in a department that is in disarray. I don’t understand it at all. I can’t imagine how they could take this long when this thing is such a mess.

“You know, we got two coaches (hockey’s Don Lucia and basketball’s Pitino) teetering. We’ve got a brand new football coach (Tracy Claeys), the jury is out (on). Attendance is dwindling. We have no brand. We have no tradition left.

“They (the administration) obviously either don’t see—or don’t care to see—the things that guys…that have been around here for 50 years see in that athletic department. I see it as a complete turnaround, a complete starting over, and yet we have waited a year to have a person in charge. I am mystified.”

Carter won’t give his AD vote to Goetz who has never been a major college athletic director. “I think she is a very capable administrator but I don’t think she is what we need right now,” he said.

Kaler might have a different view. “He likes Beth a lot,” Carter said. “I like Beth a lot. He also told me he wished she had more experience, and everyone does. I think that’s the deal-breaker for me. I don’ think it probably is for him. I think his first choice would be Beth Goetz.”

Worth Noting

Yesterday was the 10th anniversary of Kirby Puckett’s death. Puckett, the club’s centerfielder on two World Series title teams, was a 10-time American League All-Star, six-time Gold Glove Award winner and five-time Silver Slugger Award winner.

The Timberwolves made a franchise-record 68.4 percent (52-of-76) of their field goals Saturday night in a 132-118 win over the Nets at Target Center. The field goal percentage is the highest by an NBA team since the Clippers shot 69.3 percent against the Raptors in 1998.

The Class 4A boys basketball tournament starts Wednesday. Prep basketball authority Ken Lien rates the teams as follows: 1. Osseo; 2. Hopkins; 3. Apple Valley; 4. Lakeville North; 5. Maple Grove; 6. North St. Paul; 7. Eden Prairie; 8. Blaine. Lien directs the Mr. Basketball award program and the 2016 winner will be announced soon.

Tracy Claeys, now involved with his first spring practice as the Gophers head football coach, speaks to the CORES luncheon group on Thursday at the Knights of Columbus Hall in Bloomington, 1114 American Blvd. Reservations must be made by today, Monday. More information is available by contacting Jim Dotseth, dotsethj@comcast.net. CORES is an acronym for coaches, officials, reporters, educators and sports fans.

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