Gophers Basketball – Page 56 – David Shama's Minnesota Sports Headliners

Donaldson Impact about Zip So Far

Posted on August 31, 2020August 31, 2020 by David Shama

The Twins took the field yesterday in Detroit without four everyday regulars and proceeded to lose their fifth straight game. Missing because of injuries were center fielder Byron Buxton, third baseman Josh Donaldson, catcher Mitch Garvin and left fielder Eddie Rosario.

No Twin has been a bigger disappointment and more absent from the field this summer than Donaldson who makes a team-leading $21 million in base salary, per Spotrac.com. Acquired in a splashy winter free agent signing, Donaldson went on the Injured List August 7 with a right calf strain after appearing in seven games during this COVID-19 shortened season that began in late July. His minimal stats include a .182 batting average with one home run and two runs batted in.

Minnesota gave Donaldson a four-year $92 million deal, the largest free agent contract in club history. Twins front office leaders Derek Falvey and Thad Levine took a calculated risk the 34-year-old could produce as in the past. Since 2013 Donaldson has been among baseball’s most productive home run hitters and also a standout in the field.

After an impressive start to the season, the Twins have lost 11 of their last 21 games. They were 3-6 on the road trip that ended against the Tigers on Sunday, and the club struggled to score runs. Minnesota is no longer leading the AL Central Division standings, and Donaldson, known as “Bringer of Rain,” has missed 25 games during the 60-game season.

Given the type of injury that sidelined Donaldson, it’s been a head scratcher as to why he has been sidelined so long. However, manager Rocco Baldelli said the former AL MVP could return sometime during the club’s eight-game home-stand that begins tonight against the White Sox.

It’s likely to take Donaldson awhile to find his stroke at the plate—perhaps in the closing weeks of the season in late August and on into September. That would mean ROI for the Twins: Return on Investment.

Worth Noting

Paul Molitor was a first-ballot Hall of Famer following his great playing career and in 2017, while leading the Twins, was named American League Manager of the Year, but the Minnesota native acknowledges watching baseball is a test of patience for many fans.

During the most recent segment of the Twin Cities cable TV program “Behind the Game” (also available on YouTube), the personable Molitor was asked about the length of MLB games which typically last over three hours and sometimes longer. His view is the impact on fans goes deeper than the duration of games. “It’s that the action is not there,” he told program hosts Patrick Klinger and Bill Robertson.

Among the culprits in causing slow action is the increase in frequency of hitters striking out and also drawing more walks than in Molitor’s day when he played in the big leagues from 1978 to 1994, ending his playing career with his hometown Twins. “I just think the fact that there is a lack of flow to the games really makes people check their watch more than you would like to get them watching a baseball game,” Molitor said.

Molitor was known both as a player and manager for having a high baseball IQ. During his playing career the game of baseball was more varied with hitters striving to place the ball in play, while managers strategized about advancing runners with the hit and run, or bunts, and base stealing. Today’s players and managers are focused on power baseball with launch angles and home runs. “It’s not as entertaining for me to sit back and wait to see who outslugs who,” Molitor said.

This summer the 64-year-old Molitor has been biking, golfing and coaching his son in Edina youth baseball. He was a career .306 hitter and had a lofty total of more than 3,000 hits.

The Twins check in at No. 5 in S.I.com’s latest power rankings of MLB teams, trailing the Dodgers, low budget Rays and Athletics, and Yankees. Minnesota’s Central Division rivals rank like this: Indians, No. 8; White Sox, No. 9; Tigers, No. 24 and Royals No. 26.

The Twins have played 23 of their 35 games against the Tigers, Royals, No. 21 ranked Brewers and No. 30 Pirates. Minnesota has a 12-11 record versus those teams.

The MLB trade deadline is today and seemingly the Twins’ biggest need is a return of their own injured position players and pitchers.

There has been a lot of hype about Minnesota natives being selected in this fall’s NBA Draft and S.I. com had an interesting take in its mock draft late last month projecting first and second round picks (contracts guaranteed to first rounders only). Tyrell Terry, the guard from DeLaSalle who played one season at Stanford, is predicted as the only Minnesotan going in the first round, at No. 19 to the Nets.

S.I. projected the Timberwolves will use the No. 1 overall choice on Georgia guard Anthony Edwards, with Minnesota also picking Memphis forward-center Precious Achiuwa at No. 17 in the first round. The Wolves will take hometown favorite and point guard Tre Jones, who played at Apple Valley and two seasons for Duke, with their No. 33 choice early in the second round. Zeke Nnaji, the forward-center from Hopkins who played one season at Arizona, will go No. 34 to the 76ers, per S.I.

I strongly disagree but S.I. has Daniel Oturu, formerly of Cretin-Derham Hall and the Gophers not being drafted until the Wizards take him at No. 37. He averaged more than 20 points and 11 rebounds last season while showing he can play inside and out, but his collective draft predictions have been far ranging for months.

That was ex-Viking Herschel Walker, former Gophers football coach Lou Holtz and ex-Gopher defensive back Jack Brewer appearing as speakers at last week’s Republican convention.

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Tommies Hoops: Big Time Potential

Posted on August 6, 2020August 6, 2020 by David Shama

Transitioning from Division III, the University of St. Thomas takes its 22-sports program into Division I competition in a year. Tommies men’s basketball has the long-term potential to become the first money-making program in the athletic department, and perhaps one day emerge as a high profile national team.

School athletics director Phil Esten was asked about the program eventually earning that kind of success. Maybe in 10 years? “I certainly think that we’re going to make progress toward that,” Esten told Sports Headliners.

Right now the Tommies are at the starting line. For the first five years, men’s basketball and the other UST sports aren’t eligible to participate in NCAA Tournaments. Men’s basketball and most of the other UST sports will compete in the Summit League. The initial goal is for the basketball team to soon hold its own in a mid-major conference that includes four schools from the Dakotas. “I think we can be a very competitive basketball team (in the future),” said Esten, who has been a high level athletics administrator at Minnesota, California and Penn State.

In men’s basketball the Tommies can target the quality recruiting base in the Twin Cities area. “There’s a lot of very deep and rich talent in the state of Minnesota,” Esten acknowledged.

The Gophers have been the state’s only Division I program in the past but Minnesotans will now have a second choice to compete at the NCAA’s top level while staying close to home. “There’s plenty of talent I think for St. Thomas to be able to recruit a couple (standouts) every single year,” said Esten who believes preps in Wisconsin and Illinois could also be prime targets.

Former University of Minnesota Big Ten championship coach Jim Dutcher has been impressed with the quality talent within the state. “…Some of the players that Minnesota may hesitate on, they (the Tommies) may be able to get in the door,” Dutcher told Sports Headliners.

St. Thomas will make the transition to Division I led by coach John Tauer. The Tommies have been a national power in Division III under Tauer, and won the 2016 NCAA championship. A Tommie alum, he has a passion for the school, and has built a strong relationship with Minnesota high school coaches. He will be expanding his staff to better compete at the Division I level, according to Esten.

Esten said already “we’ve had some pretty interesting conversations” from prominent men’s and women’s basketball schools about scheduling St. Thomas teams in the near future. While some schools may look at the initial Tommies teams as easy opponents and want St. Thomas only for their home games, Esten said a couple of programs have expressed interest in coming to the Twin Cities for games, too.

Motivation to travel here includes exposure to the state’s recruiting talent, but Esten said there is also a willingness to help UST successfully start its men’s or women’s programs. While Esten wants most basketball games played on campus in the school’s 2,000 seat arena, he is willing to consider an attractive matchup in a much larger venue in either Minneapolis or St. Paul.

No doubt such a game would attract a portion of UST’s 110,000 alumni, a large percentage of who live in the Twin Cities. Those Tommies alums are expected to support St. Thomas in greater numbers than in the past for various sports. The spectator turnout for UST home games will also benefit from the approximately 40,000 people in the Twin Cities who are alums of various Summit League schools.

The Tommies wouldn’t schedule a showcase basketball game at a Target Center or Xcel Energy Center without believing it would be a money-maker. The men’s and women’s programs could eventually become competitive enough to spark conversation about building an on-campus arena, perhaps seating 8,000 to 10,000 spectators. Esten is a proponent of playing in on-campus facilities. In the meantime, the Tommies men’s basketball program may soon receive six-figure paydays by agreeing to play at the home arenas of Division I powers from conferences like the Big Ten and ACC.

The school leadership compares UST with other well-known urban Catholic universities. With factors such as geographic location, endowments, curricula, graduation rates, and job placements, administrators say St. Thomas is similar to schools like Creighton, Dayton, Marquette, Villanova and others. Those schools, of course, have great basketball legacies including national titles. Three of the four (Dayton not included) are members of the prominent Big East Conference where a former St. Thomas insider told Sports Headliners he thinks the Tommies could land 10 years or more down the road.

Because of the pandemic the total St. Thomas sports program has one more uncertain year of competition in the MIAC before it exits to Division I. The COVID-19 virus already has caused MIAC decision makers to move the football season to spring. The UST football schedule had included a November 7 date at U.S. Bank Stadium against St. John’s to be hosted by the Johnnies.

Esten believes in normal times the game might attract at least a near capacity crowd at the Vikings’ home stadium. Tommies-Johnnies is a legacy rivalry that a few years ago set an all-time record for attendance at a D-III game, with an announced crowd of 37,355 at Target Field. That record has since been broken, but with U.S. Bank Stadium’s football capacity of nearly 69,000, a UST-St. John’s game would have the potential to set a Division III record (perhaps never to be broken).

Whether there is a game in 2021 or not, the end appears near for the nationally publicized football rivalry. UST will be a FCS Division I program competing in the Pioneer Football League in the fall of 2021. Esten couldn’t think of a game matching a Division I program against a Division III team, referring to it as “very rare.”

By transitioning to Division I the Tommies are expected to grow their subsidized athletics budget by three or four times. The initial budgets perhaps will be $21 million to $25 million. The school, though, is firmly behind the transition, citing multiple benefits ranging from competing in sports at the Division I level to extending the UST brand across the region and country.

In retrospect did the MIAC do the Tommies a favor by unexpectedly asking UST to leave the conference because of the school’s dominance in athletics? Esten said no, referring to the disappointment of the surprising news and the ending of 100 years of association with the conference. “It was really sad,” he said.

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Incentives Likely in New Cook Deal

Posted on August 4, 2020August 4, 2020 by David Shama

Enjoy a Tuesday notes column leading off with Minnesota Vikings developments.

Vikings general manager Rick Spielman said his organization is “working extremely hard” to finalize a new contract with starting running back Dalvin Cook who becomes an unrestricted free agent in 2021.

Whether it’s coincidence or not, the Vikings media schedule in coming days includes making Cook available to reporters a week from Friday. Cook, about to begin his fourth season with Minnesota, is in training camp but Spielman offered no timeline when a new deal might be completed for one of the NFL’s top running backs who reportedly will earn $1.3 million in base salary this season based on his rookie contract from 2017.

Cook’s 1,135 rushing yards during the regular season last year was 10^th best in the NFL. His 53 receptions with a 9.8 yards per reception is impressive, too, but a source close to the team told Sports Headliners management is “very concerned” about Cook’s injury history, and that will impact the next contract.

The explosive Cook played in only four regular season games in 2017, 11 in 2018 and 14 (of 16) last year. The source believes the Vikings could offer a two or three-year deal at about $10 million per season, with perhaps only one-third of the money guaranteed. Such a contract could offer incentives, with Cook awarded bonuses for playing in 12 games and 16 games. In addition to durability incentives, bonus structure could include performance compensation such as leading the NFL in rushing.

A multi-year contract extension was announced for Spielman on Monday. No specifics on duration were offered, or compensation, but the deal might be for three years at $2 million or more annually. Head coach Mike Zimmer, under a new contract through 2023 that was announced last week, was scheduled to make $5 million in 2020 per Forbes last May, but his new deal could be for $7 million as early as this year.

Dating back to when Spielman started as general manager in January of 2012, the Vikings rank ninth in the NFL with a .570 winning percentage (72-54-2)—fourth best in the NFC over that eight-season period. And Spielman has more draft picks (93) than any other general manager in the National Football League. Of those selections, 56 are the result of trades and 13 have been first-round selections.

Spielman is respected in the Viking organization and doesn’t flaunt an ego like some front office heads in professional sports. He tries to put others first and began a news conference yesterday praising a long list of individuals who help him with his job. He stresses communications and honesty as the football department’s leader. “There’s no BS going on,” he said.

Spielman hired Zimmer in 2014. Both are sons of football coaches and love the process of building a team. Zimmer described himself and his boss as “hard headed,” yet said both agree on things about 99 percent of the time. “I understand his bad jokes probably better than anybody,” Zimmer kidded.

Spielman and Zimmer are seeing some sense of normalcy in these pandemic times with players finally on the field after virtual instruction had to be used in prior months. There is a level of confidence about the anti-virus measures at the team’s practice facility, but, of course, no certainty. “I feel like I am the COVID police,” Spielman said.

Zimmer reminds players to be cautious when they leave the facility. NFL labor policy does not allow keeping players in a hotel during training camp, so instead they can go home and to other parts of the community. The COVID issue reminds Zimmer a bit of what his friend and legendary former coach Bill Parcells told him years ago: “Five things will cross your desk every day you’re not prepared for.”

The Wilf family, owners of the Vikings since 2005, has been rumored as potential buyers of the Minnesota Timberwolves whose asking price might be $1.2 billion. The Wilfs could leverage the Vikings or their other business holdings for a sizeable bank loan, but they may not be interested because of the unsettled real estate market in New York and New Jersey where the group has many holdings.

If Gophers fans wonder whether any other players will join wide receiver Rashod Bateman in leaving the team to prepare for the 2021 NFL Draft, the answer is almost certainly no. Quarterback Tanner Morgan could be an early round draft selection next year, but he can raise his draft stock by playing this fall (if there is a season).

The Twins conclude their first home-stand of the year this afternoon, with eight games played before zero fans. It appears the Twins and other MLB teams will play their entire shortened season in front of empty seats—with the COVID-19 pandemic being a particularly ill-timed development for a Minnesota franchise that might have attracted 3 million customers this year.

Coming off 101 wins last season and a MLB record 307 home runs, there was a lot of preseason buzz about the Twins. Now it looks like optimism about Minnesota being one of baseball’s best teams is on target. Minnesota is off to a 8-2 start with continued power hitting and superb pitching out of the bullpen. The Twins have drawn 3 million customers three times in franchise history, including the first two seasons at Target Field, 2010 and 2011.

With so many MLB games already cancelled, there is speculation the season could be shut down as early as this week.

Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said on WCCO Radio last night he expects Jake Odorizzi, who has been sidelined this season with back issues, to pitch this weekend against the Kansas City Royals.

Former Twins manager and Hall of Fame player Paul Molitor will tape an interview Friday for the Twin Cities cable TV program “Behind the Game.” Co-hosts Patrick Klinger and Bill Robertson will ask Molitor about his career and the current status of baseball.

Prominent Minneapolis attorney Marshall Tanick, a former sports editor of the Minnesota Daily, wrote a detailed story last month for the Minnesota Lawyer about the “eclectic litigation” the Twins have experienced in 60 seasons here. The preeminent litigation came about 20 years ago when financially challenged Major League Baseball sought to contract franchises including the Twins under the ownership of Carl Pohlad. The Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission, owners and operators of the Metrodome, took to the courts and successfully blocked the contraction. The litigation preserved the franchise for Minnesota, allowing enough time to win public approval for Target Field.

Deepest condolences to family and friends of Jim Presthus following his unexpected death Friday. The younger brother of former Gopher basketball captain Paul Presthus, the 67-year-old doctor and Edina resident died peacefully in his sleep.

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