Gophers Basketball – Page 42 – David Shama's Minnesota Sports Headliners

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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Vikings Implode Versus Winless Lions

Posted on December 5, 2021March 15, 2023 by David Shama

“It’s kind of a scary game with all the injuries they have.”

Those were the words of former Minnesota Vikings GM Jeff Diamond this morning. His words were prophetic after the Vikings did the improbable by blowing a 27-23 lead in the last minute in Detroit today against the previously winless Lions.

The Vikings are now 5-7 after the 29-27 defeat and must prepare fast for Thursday night’s home game with the Pittsburgh Steelers. “It’s a big week for the Vikings,” Diamond told Sports Headliners before the game. “I think they need to win these two games (Detroit and Pittsburgh) and get over .500 before they head into Soldier Field for that Monday night game (December 13).”

With five games remaining on the schedule a loss to the Steelers and another to the Chicago Bears at Solider Field will seal Minnesota’s playoff fate that is already in deep peril. Vikings radio analyst Ben Leber echoed the sentiment of fans on the KFXN post game show when he said the team’s playoff chances may have “gone out the window.”

The Vikings played without injured personnel who count among the team’s most important contributors. Absent were Anthony Barr, Dalvin Cook, Christian Darrisaw, Everson Griffen, Danielle Hunter, Eric Kendricks and Patrick Peterson. All were out with injuries except Griffen, sidelined because of mental health, and Peterson on the Reserve/COVID-19 list. Then early in the first quarter Adam Thielen was injured and didn’t return to the game.

Head coach Mike Zimmer (who many fans want dismissed immediately) acknowledged “a lot of guys missing” but didn’t alibi about it on the radio after the game. “We didn’t play good enough today,” he said. “That’s my fault.”

Inexplicably the Vikings used a three-man rush trying to protect a 27-23 lead in the last minute of the game. The Lions drove 75 yards with no pressure on Detroit quarterback Jared Goff other than a safety blitz by Minnesota’s Harrison Smith (he may have called the play on his own). The Vikings chose eight-man pass coverage and the Lions took advantage, driving down the field for a last second TD with zero timeouts remaining.

The Lions, now 1-10-1, played at times like the team they are—trying to give away games to opponents. Twice in the game coach Dan Campbell told his team to try for a first down on fourth down. In the first half the strategy led to a Viking field goal. In the second half the failed effort led to the Vikings taking a 27-23 lead with 1:50 to play.

With a makeshift defense playing without its best cover corner in Petersen and perhaps the unit’s MVP in linebacker Kendricks, the Vikings faced a scary closing minute. The ending was a nightmare.

Worth Noting

The Vikings’ offense couldn’t be faulted (as in other games) for not targeting play-making whiz and wide receiver Justin Jefferson. He had a career high 182 yards in receptions and one touchdown. He even threw a first half pass.

The second-year Viking needed 73 receiving yards going into the game to tie Hall of Famer Lance Alworth as the fourth fastest player ever to reach 2,500 receiving yards (both players in 28 games). Odell Beckham Jr. (25), Charlie Hennigan (26) and Bill Gorman (27) reached 2,500 yards in fewer games.

Multiple sources report it’s the intent of Gophers football coach P.J. Fleck to hire Kirk Ciarrocca as offensive coordinator but processes must be completed before an official announcement is possible. Those stages include a University of Minnesota job posting and possibly legalese in contracts with past employers of Ciarrocca who was the Minnesota coordinator from 2017-2019.

Ironically, as of this moment he is an offensive analyst at West Virginia, the team Minnesota will play in the Guaranteed Rate Bowl in Phoenix December 28. West Virginia, from the Big 12, is 6-6 this season while the Gophers are 8-4.

Two-time All-American Gopher defensive end Bob Stein will be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame Tuesday night in Las Vegas. Stein, who played high school football for St. Louis Park, was a junior on Minnesota’s last Big Ten title team in 1967. He was honored as an All-American in both 1967 and 1968 by four major organizations including the Associated Press and United Press International.

Jim Carter, the former Gophers fullback from South St. Paul, was Stein’s roommate at Minnesota and the two have been close friends for over 50 years. “Stein contributed a lot (to the championship team),” Carter told Sports Headlines. “He was a damn good defensive end.”

Stein was schooled by legendary U assistant coach Butch Nash who made sure his ends excelled in fundamentals. Stein played defensive end with a high football IQ and a mean streak. “I tell you what, Stein was a tough son-of-a-bitch and I had to go against him a lot (in practice),” Carter said.

Stein and Carter were drinking buddies at Minnesota. Sometimes they would face-off the next morning in practice after a night of partying. They engaged in one-on-one drills with Carter trying to pass block his on-rushing pal who wasn’t about to give him preferential treatment. “He’d hit me in the head and then laugh,” Carter remembered.

A two-time Academic All-American, Stein earned a law degree after his undergraduate years at Minnesota. His post-Gopher career included eight years in the NFL and founding president of the NBA expansion Minnesota Timberwolves.

Minneapolis businessman and former Gopher football player Mark Sheffert was instrumental in Stein’s candidacy for the Hall of Fame. Congratulations to both Bob and Mark.

Stein is one of 21 ex-Gophers in the College Football Hall of Fame. Who could be next from the U? Two-time consensus All-Americans Tyrone Carter and Greg Eslinger have the credentials (winners of the Jim Thorpe and Dave Rimington awards respectively).

Billie Jean King, the tennis trailblazer and advocate for equality, is the 2021 winner of the Muhammad Ali Legacy Award. As an elite gate attraction for the Philadelphia Freedoms of World Team Tennis, she helped the league set an attendance record in 1974 at the old Met Center for a match against the Minnesota Buckskins.

A sports marketing authority, speaking anonymously, told Sports Headliners the Minnesota Twins may have prevented the cancelling of up to 500 season tickets by signing Byron Buxton to a $100 million contract. “Had to do this in my mind,” he said.

Dain Dainja, the power forward from Park Center High School, has transferred from Baylor to Illinois. He was a consensus four-star recruit in the high school class of 2020.

Gophers’ first season basketball coach Ben Johnson is 7-0, while the man he replaced, Richard Pitino, is 5-3 leading New Mexico. Johnson and his staff have the Gophers playing extraordinary team basketball, with their latest triumph coming today in an 81-76 win at Mississippi State.

It will be interesting to see if U athletic director Mark Coyle, whose name was linked earlier this year to openings at Kansas and Missouri, is mentioned for the Florida State job.

New Minnesota United CEO Shari Ballard, the former Best Buy executive, speaks to the Twin Cities Dunkers Friday.

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Diggs Deal Works Big Time for Vikings

Posted on November 22, 2021November 22, 2021 by David Shama

There is no second-guessing any more about the Vikings’ March 2020 trade that sent veteran big play wide receiver Stefon Diggs to the Bills. Dissent was all but buried yesterday by the headline performance of second-year wide receiver Justin Jefferson.

The Vikings received draft choices in return for a disgruntled Diggs who didn’t want to be in Minnesota’s offense. Those draft choices gave the Vikings not only Jefferson, but potential significant contributors in safety Camryn Bynum and defensive end Kenny Willekes.

Jefferson, of course, is the prize and all he did yesterday was catch eight passes for 169 yards and two touchdowns in the team’s 34-31 win over the Packers. “…He loves to go out and compete,” Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer said on KFXN’s postgame radio show. “He’s been catching the ball great and running good routes, and he just lives for these moments.”

Diggs and Jefferson are similar in stats this season. Jefferson has 63 receptions for 944 yards and six touchdowns. Diggs has 60 catches for 773 yards and six touchdowns. Jefferson has 17 plays of 20 or more yards while Diggs totals eight.

Not only does Jefferson have the edge in key numbers but at age 22 he is six years younger than Diggs. And he’s a bargain with a base salary of about $1.2 million, while Diggs costs the Bills over $12 million, per Spotrac.com.

Jefferson is also a happy camper with the Vikings who talks team, not just about himself. He likes this offense that helped pull the Vikings to a 5-5 record yesterday against the 8-3 NFC North Division leading Packers.

“I feel like this offense is tops in the league with him (RB Dalvin Cook) running the ball, and me, Adam (WR Thielen), K.J. (WR Osborn) catching the ball. We can go a long way,” Jefferson said. “I feel like it’s hard to stop all of us on this offense and it’s a great offense.”

Quarterback Kirk Cousins, of course, is a big part of the rejuvenated offense that has been so productive of late, and so is his offensive line. Cousins threw for 341 yards and three touchdowns in the win Sunday while the line, including guards Ezra Cleveland and Uli Udoh, and center Mason Cole had success handling Packers defensive tackle and play wrecker Kenny Clark.

Regular center Garrett Bradbury is back from COVID but it seems likely Cole continues to start.

Worth Noting

Vikings network radio analyst Ben Leber was critical of safety Xavier Woods’ performance against the Packers who passed for 385 yards. “No, he did not have a good day,” the former Viking linebacker said after the game. “There were a couple times where it looked like to me it’s simple discipline things where he just has wrong leverage. He is not understanding where his help is and it’s unfortunate for a guy that is such a veteran player, and he’s had a great season so far. …”

The pandemic, high ticket prices and the team’s slow start to the season has the Vikings running TV commercials for single game tickets for remaining home games.

Gophers coach P.J. Fleck said health issues shouldn’t sideline any of his starters for Saturday’s game against the Badgers at Huntington Bank Stadium.

However, defensive line depth is impacted with news Sunday that M.J. Andersen is leaving the team and today that Rashad Cheney is doing the same. Don’t be surprised if other players enter the transfer portal between now and Minnesota’s yet to be determined bowl game.

Quarterback Tanner Morgan, who lost his father about five months ago, has long received the admiration of his coach. Morgan has won more games (25) than any QB in program history and Fleck praises him for his talent, courage and leadership.

“I might be working for him someday,” Fleck said.

Analytics have made 3-8 Nebraska a slight favorite (about three points) over 9-2 Iowa for Friday’s key West Division game in Lincoln.

Ex-Gophers Thomas Barber and Justin Conzemius, along with a TBD Gopher assistant coach, will headline Friday’s Goal Line Club preview lunch of the Minnesota-Wisconsin game at Elsie’s in northeast Minneapolis. www.goallineclub.org/events.

The 4-0 basketball Gophers led by first-year coach Ben Johnson and top assistant Dave Thorson are playing with more togetherness than any Minnesota team in memory.

Former Twins Jim Kaat and Tony Oliva will know December 5 whether they are voted into baseball’s hall of fame. “Both should be in the hall of fame,” former Pioneer Press Twins writer Gregg Wong told Sports Headliners.

Kaat, 83, won 283 games during a 25-year career with the Twins and other MLB teams. For 16 consecutive seasons he was a Rawlings Gold Glove winner, and sometimes was both a pinch runner and hitter with the Twins. “Not a better all-around pitcher in the game,” Wong said in comparing how well Kaat stacks up with pitchers of the past and today.

Oliva, also 83, had a lifetime batting average of .304 and is the only player in MLB history to win batting championships during his first two seasons. Oliva was a three-time American League batting champion and led the AL in hits five seasons. The Twins’ right fielder was a feared hitter who could hit pitched balls headed for the dirt into the seats.

Kaat and Oliva are part of a 10-person Golden Days Era ballot that includes Dick Allen, Ken Boyer, Gil Hodges, Roger Maris, Minnie Miñoso, Danny Murtaugh, Billy Pierce and Maury Wills. Kaat, Oliva and Wills are the only ones still living. “Even better reason to get them in the hall of fame,” said Wong who is a hall of fame voter but not a member of the Golden Days Era Committee deciding the fates of the 10 ex-players.

Any candidate who receives votes on 75 percent of the ballots cast by the 16-member committee will be elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and inducted in Cooperstown on July 24, 2022.

Wong and former Minneapolis Central High School football teammate Bill Forsyth recently had dinner and reminisced with their former coach, 93-year-old Chuck Elias. “One of the most enjoyable evenings of my life,” Wong said.

The 1963 Pioneers were undefeated and City Conference football champions.

Much anticipated in these parts is Patrick Reusse’s annual Turkey of the Year column in the Thanksgiving Day issue of the Star Tribune. Who wins in 2021? Rocco Baldelli and Mark Coyle could be contenders.

The Vikings don’t play on Thanksgiving Day in 2021 but they have taken a liking to such games, going 6-2 over the years. They have won three of the last four with two straight over the Cowboys and splitting two with the Lions.

The Gophers defeated the Badgers 14-0 in Minneapolis on Thanksgiving Day 1963. The game had been rescheduled from the previous Saturday because of President John Kennedy’s assassination.

Former KARE 11 sports anchor Eric Perkins is the latest “Behind the Game” guest of co-hosts Patrick Klinger and Bill Robertson. Perkins is deciding on his next career move. The program is available for viewing on the “Behind the Game” YouTube Channel and via cable access throughout the state.

Happy Thanksgiving!

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