Gophers Basketball – Page 52 – David Shama's Minnesota Sports Headliners

Ex-U Coach Previews Gophers-Badgers

Posted on December 30, 2020December 31, 2020 by David Shama

The University of Minnesota basketball team, playing at home, has defeated No. 4 ranked Iowa and No. 17 Michigan State in the last several days, but the Gophers must prove they can win big games on the road starting Thursday afternoon in Madison against Wisconsin, according to Jim Dutcher.

The 9-1 Gophers have played once on the road this season, experiencing a beat down at Illinois, 92-65. Since then Minnesota has home wins against St. Louis in a nonconference game and the Big Ten Conference victories over Iowa and Michigan State. The Gophers’ surprising success has landed them at No. 21 in the latest AP ranking of the nation’s best teams.

Wisconsin, 8-2 and ranked No. 6 by the AP, lost to Maryland Monday night in Madison. Dutcher, who coached the Gophers to a Big Ten title in 1982, remains a close follower of college basketball, and is optimistic about a Minnesota win in Madison if his former team shows up defensively.

“At home your offense will carry you,” Dutcher told Sports Headliners. “On the road your defense has to carry you. Those three-pointers that you make at home don’t go down quite as easy on the road. Defense travels, offense doesn’t always travel, so I think just clamp down (Thursday). I don’t think Wisconsin is that hard to guard. Their big guys are more perimeter big guys than post up.”

Even with their undefeated record at home, the Gophers have experienced breakdowns defensively keeping opponents in games and certainly did against then No. 13 ranked Illinois. “Can they (the Gophers) bend their knees and stop somebody when they have to?” Dutcher asked. “Because a lot of conference games are going to come down to the last two minutes. Those are the games they didn’t win last year. Those are the games I think they can win this year.”

Minnesota, 8-12 in league games in 2019-2020, lost 71-69 to the Badgers in Madison last March when Wisconsin was on its way to a Big Ten championship. Earlier in the season, playing at Williams Arena, the Gophers defeated the Badgers 70-52, holding Wisconsin to under 30 percent field goal shooting. The Gophers made more than 40 percent of their field goals, including three-pointers.

The Badgers, as usual, are among the elite defensive teams in the country. They are giving up the fewest points per game among Big Ten teams at 60.6, while the Minnesota average is 73.9. Dutcher, though, offered a strategy for Thursday’s game:

“They (the Badgers) got beat inside by Maryland pretty soundly, and our center (Liam) Robbins is playing really good now so I think rather than start the offense at the three-point range, start the offense in the post. I just feel they (the Gophers) got a great chance to go and beat Wisconsin.”

Dutcher believes the Gophers are capable of being Big Ten title contenders but to do it they have to be better offensively in road games than they were at Illinois. Against the Illini, the Gophers made only 27.5 percent of their field goals including 25 percent on three pointers. That’s a different offense than Minnesota has shown at home scoring 90 points or more four times and topping 80 in seven games.

“They’re a great shooting team in Williams Arena,” Dutcher said. “They weren’t a great shooting team in Illinois. Hopefully they can get on somebody else’s floor and take their offense with them, but they’ve been impressive (this season).”

Minnesota’s nine victories are the most in the Big Ten. The Gophers, 2-1 in the Big Ten, have overtime wins against a good St. Louis team and highly ranked Iowa. In the Iowa game if a Hawkeye hadn’t missed two free throws in the closing minutes of regulation, Gopher junior point guard Marcus Carr wouldn’t have had the opportunity to send the game into overtime with a three-pointer with five seconds remaining. It was also Carr who made a three-pointer with 31 seconds left in the game to pull Minnesota within 81-78 of Iowa.

And it was Carr who made the winning basket in an early season 67-64 win over Loyola Marymount. Carr is averaging 24 points per game (third best in the Big Ten) and leading the league in assists per outing at 6.1. Dutcher believes the Canadian native, who had 20 points, seven rebounds and five assists in his last visit to Madison, could some day be remembered among Minnesota’s best guards in program history.

“He’s not one dimensional,” Dutcher said. “It’s not just the three; he can really penetrate and finish at the rim. So he’s definitely an all-conference player and maybe even more than that.”

Badgers point guard Brad Davison, the Maple Grove native, is likely to guard Carr and Dutcher acknowledges he is a capable defender. But the retired coach said Carr is difficult to handle and is complemented by senior forward Brandon Johnson’s outside shooting and the inside and outside threat of Robbins. “Minnesota gives you a lot of problems defensively,” Dutcher said.

The Gophers’ offense, averaging 84.3 points per game, would be even more effective if junior guard Gabe Kalscheur hadn’t been in a long shooting slump from three-point distance (.188 conversion percentage). Dutcher, though, offered at least a partial explanation. “He’s probably been their best defensive player. When you’re really concentrating, playing tough defense, sometimes it affects your offense. …”

Minnesota will need defensive help against the Badgers, including on the perimeter. Wisconsin’s key to winning the game is using its trademark assets of solid defense, minimal turnovers and hitting three-point shots. “…They gotta make some threes to beat Minnesota,” Dutcher said.

Maybe, though, it will be Carr and the Gophers who again find good fortune and win the game with a three-pointer. “He’s really hit some big shots, right when they needed them,” Dutcher said.

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Start Watching Gophers QB Roster

Posted on December 28, 2020December 28, 2020 by David Shama

An offseason storyline to follow with the University of Minnesota football program is whether the quarterback roster remains unchanged between now and kickoff next summer against Ohio State in the Gophers’ first game of the 2021 season.

Minnesota will have five scholarship quarterbacks on next season’s roster unless one or more transfer, or (unlikely) give up football. That’s a high total for a major college football program, and the most in memory for the Gophers.

The quarterback scholarship parade is led by Tanner Morgan who started and played every minute at the position this fall. He will be a redshirt junior in 2021 with more than two seasons of starting experience. The other scholarship quarterbacks for next year are: Zack Annexstad, redshirt sophomore; Jacob Clark, redshirt freshman; Cole Kramer, redshirt freshman, and Athan Kaliakmanis, freshman. The QB depth even includes non-scholarship players at the position.

No one is questioning the loyalty of the five scholarship quarterbacks to the Gophers but they all want to compete in games as collegians. With plenty of eligibility remaining, Annexstad, Clark and Kramer might be contemplating their futures now. Morgan is the established starter and Kaliakmanis hasn’t even suited up for his first practice, so those two are all but certain to be Gophers in 2021.

As a walk-on, Annexstad was the Minnesota starter at the beginning of the 2018 season and stayed at No. 1 for seven games. Injuries set him back in late 2018 and all of 2019. A scholarship player for awhile now, he hasn’t seen game action for two seasons. He wanted so much to be a Gopher, the former Mankato West QB reportedly turned down other major college offers, but could a place like North Dakota State interest him now? The powerhouse Bison will have opportunities at QB next year and beyond.

Clark came to Minnesota as a four-star recruit from Texas and Rivals ranked him the No. 13 pro style passer in the class of 2019. The Dallas Morning News, in a June 2018 story, reported Clark had 16 college offers including California, Iowa, TCU and Purdue. It is surprising that Clark, Annexstad and Kramer didn’t receive even a minute of playing time this fall despite opportunities for a reserve quarterback in one-sided games. If Clark enters the NCAA football transfer portal, he will draw immediate interest from major programs.

If anyone is taking bets on Annexstad, Clark or Kramer moving on, the latter seems least likely to change schools. The former Eden Prairie quarterback has the moxie of a winner and the quality hasn’t gone unnoticed at the U. His affection for the school is genuine, having grown up influenced by relatives who are prominent former Gophers including Carter Coughlin and Tom Moe. Kramer played briefly in three games as a true freshman in 2019.

None of the quarterbacks, by the way, need to move on to other schools because of academic challenges at Minnesota. Annexstad, Clark and Kramer were all honored as Academic All-Big Ten players in 2020. Morgan earned the designation in 2018 and 2019.

With the Gophers coming off a challenging and disappointing 3-4 season in 2020, head coach P.J. Fleck could voice a public challenge to all players that every position is open for competition during spring football practices. That could be done at quarterback without sending the message the coaching staff doesn’t want Morgan to be the starter. An effective message is that offseason competition is an asset for all concerned, pushing individuals and the team to improve. That kind of communication influences players including reserve quarterbacks.

Morgan’s passing regressed in 2020 after making second team All-Big Ten in 2019. He had too many throws off target including a killer interception in the end zone against Wisconsin that cost Minnesota the game and the return of Paul Bunyan’s Axe. To be fair, though, he didn’t quite have the same quality of receivers this fall as he did in 2019, and the Gophers played with a reshuffled offensive line that could be ineffective in pass protection. He was also working with a new quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator in Mike Sanford Jr.

The coaches know they have a special asset in Morgan who is an exceptional and experienced game manager who can consistently throw with accuracy (school record 18 consecutive games with a touchdown pass between 2018 and 2020). He is a eye-catching 17-7 as Minnesota’s starting quarterback. He turns 22 years old in April and as a “geezer” could finish his career at the U as a five-year starter!

Worth Noting

Gophers running back Mohamed Ibrahim was named Third Team All-America by the Associated Press today. He led the Big Ten in rushing attempts (201), rushing yards (1,076), rushing yards per game (153.7), rushing touchdowns (15), scoring (90), points per game (12.9) and all-purpose yards per game (168.4). He was third in the nation in rushing yards per game, fourth in points per game, fifth in rushing touchdowns, sixth in all-purpose yards per game and eighth in rushing yards.

George Paton, the Vikings assistant GM, is a regular on the annual SI.com list of potential NFL general managers. He made the latest rankings published last Friday and his name is rumored for a position with the Chicago Bears front office, while finishing up his 14th year with the Vikings.

Words of praise last week from Andrew Simon writing on Mlb.com about the Twins’ Byron Buxton: “Buxton finished with a stellar 124 OPS+ over 135 plate appearances but how he got there was…unorthodox. This was pretty much the definition of ‘all or nothing.’ Buxton struck out 36 times against his two walks, and 13 of his 33 hits were homers.

“Never before had a player posted an OBP below .280 and a slugging percentage above .550 in a season with at least 100 PA. Buxton also set a record by having 35% of his total times reaching base safely come via the home run ball.”

The Gophers’ men’s basketball team is ranked No. 21 in today’s Associated Press poll. It’s the first time the Gophers have been nationally ranked since Dec. 10, 2017. Nine Big Ten teams are ranked in the AP’s top 25 including No. 17 Michigan State who the Gophers play tonight at home.

Former Gophers basketball public address announcer Dick Jonckowski has cancer, with more specifics to be known this week after meeting with his oncologist. Several years ago he beat stage 4 non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.

St. Thomas men’s basketball coach John Tauer posted these appreciative words on Facebook last week about wife Chancey Anderson Tauer and her battle with breast cancer: “…conclusion of 8 grueling months of chemo, surgery, and radiation, all while supporting and inspiring her family, and pouring her heart into her passion, Prodeo Academy.”

Award winning singer John Legend, uncle of Gophers wide receiver Mike Brown-Stephens, turns 42 today.

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Zimmer Expects Cook & Thielen to Play

Posted on December 2, 2020December 2, 2020 by David Shama

Enjoy a Wednesday notes column:

Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer said this morning he expects running back Dalvin Cook and wide receiver Adam Thielen to play in next Sunday’s game.

Cook, who reportedly hurt his ankle last Sunday, has been a focal point of the offense this fall and taken a lot of hits from opposing players. Zimmer, though, wouldn’t commit to using his star runner any less, saying every game has different demands. “His health is fine, so we’ll just keep going and try to be smart about how we use him.”

Thielen missed the most recent game because of testing positive for COVID-19. “I think he’ll be ready to go,” Zimmer said.

The coach liked the way quarterback Kirk Cousins, not known for his running ability, scrambled in Sunday’s comeback win over the Panthers. “I just think it’s improving (the scrambling). It’s always a work in progress, but you don’t want to run when guys are open. There were times when he was flushed out of the pocket and then made plays with his legs.”

CBS televises next Sunday’s Vikings game at U.S. Bank Stadium against the 1-10 Jaguars. Beth Mowins, who in 2017 became the first woman in 30 years to call an NFL game, will do play-by-play.

In 14 of the past 16 NFL seasons, at least one team with a losing record after 11 games has qualified for the playoffs. The Vikings, Patriots and 49ers currently have 5-6 records.

With 24 players on opening weekend NFL rosters, Houston was first among cities producing talent. More 2020 NFL players graduated from high school there than any other community. Miami was second with 19 natives in the league followed by Fort Lauderdale and Tampa with 14 each.

Eden Prairie has three native sons in Blake Cashman, Ryan Connelly and Carter Coughlin. Minneapolis has Tyler Johnson and Larry Fitzgerald Jr. Other Minnesota natives in the NFL include Ben Ellefson, Joe Haeg, Zack Johnson, Kamal Martin, Billy Turner and Maxx Williams.

States with the most NFL players: Florida, 194; Texas, 192; California, 170; Georgia, 134; Ohio, 71; Alabama, 60; Pennsylvania, 60; Louisiana, 59; North Carolina, 59; New Jersey, 57; Illinois, 53; Tennessee, 45; Michigan, 44; Virginia, 44, Maryland, 39; South Carolina, 39.

Although the Gopher football team has cancelled its last two games because of the pandemic, Mohamed Ibrahim still leads the Big Ten in rushing with 817 yards, averaging 163.4 per game. Next closest in total yards is Iowa’s Tyler Goodson with 564.

Forget about Gophers junior point guard Marcus Carr returning next fall for a senior season. He is playing like a first round NBA draft choice, averaging 29.7 points per game and making clutch shots with none bigger than Monday night’s three pointer to win the game against Loyola Marymount, 67-64. In three nonconference games thus far he has made 54 percent of his field goals and 45 percent of three-pointers.

Meanwhile, long range shooting specialist Gabe Kalscheur has converted less than one percent of his three-point shot attempts. The junior shooting guard is making 28 percent of his field goals.

In three games against mid-major teams (played LM twice), the 3-0 Gophers have just a two rebound edge, 119-117.

Freshman Jalen Suggs, the former Minnehaha Academy guard from West St. Paul and the highest rated recruit ever at Gonzaga, is drawing early speculation as the No. 1 overall pick in the 2021 NBA Draft.

Word is Timberwolves basketball boss Tom Thibodeau traded Ricky Rubio in 2017 because he thought the former lottery pick wasn’t a physical point guard and defensive standout. Rubio, reacquired this fall by current president of basketball operations Gersson Rosas, is the kind of offensive creator who fits the aggressive run and shoot style the Wolves are now committed to.

Here is an obscure name to keep in mind when the Wolves start up their schedule in late December and into January. Reserve forward Jake Layman, injured and not playing much of last season, had a noteworthy impact on a team with an overall record of 19-45. Minnesota was 11-12 in games he played.

Monday’s column suggesting Tony Oliva belongs in the Hall of Fame drew reader response, including from local baseball historian Dave Wright who emailed that the three-time American League batting champion ranks far down the list in key career hitting statistics during an abbreviated career: “…It is a pity that injuries did him in—he never played an inning in the field after 1972. To me, he just doesn’t cut it. If you let him in, you open the gates for guys like Al Oliver, Rocky Colavito and many others who had some very good moments but they didn’t last.”

Wright agreed, though, with Monday’s reference to another former Twin, pitcher Jim Kaat, being Hall of Fame worthy. “Kaat is a different issue. It has always been a mystery to me because he was a starter, a reliever, a fielder, a decent hitter and was used as a pinch runner at times—a rarity for a pitcher. It is one of the great injustices in the game. …”

St. Paul Saints owner Mike Veeck, 69, has been selected by the Society for American Baseball Research as one of baseball’s most significant Off-Field figures in the last 50 years. For SABR’s 50^thanniversary the organization honored Veeck and others like Buck O’Neil, Bill James, Claire Smith, Frank Robinson, Peter Gammons, Ted Turner and Vin Scully.

Veeck told Sports Headliners yesterday he has no comment on the reported deal making the Saints a AAA Twins farm team until MLB makes an announcement.

It’s all but certain the Twins shopped left fielder and free agent Eddie Rosario in trade talks before placing him on waivers. Minnesota is likely searching for pitchers while ready to try top prospects to replace Rosario. Watch to see if ace reliever Brad Hand, from Chaska, becomes a Twin.

Bill Robertson, men’s commissioner of the Twin Cities-based WCHA, reports more than 10 schedule changes of games already this fall because of the pandemic. He has learned more than ever to “take things as they come,” being flexible and ready to adapt.

The WCHA is using regional game officials when possible to minimize travel. No fans, even family of players, are allowed at games. Big Ten hockey has the same spectator policy.

The Twin Cities Dunkers, the well-known organization that dates back to 1948, lost its most tenured member when Sid Hartman passed away this fall. Hartman, who was influential with the organization for decades, joined Dunkers in 1965.

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