Gophers Basketball – Page 57 – David Shama's Minnesota Sports Headliners

P.J. Fleck 15-5 Last 20 Games, But…

Posted on November 11, 2020November 11, 2020 by David Shama

P.J. Fleck, now in his fourth season as the University of Minnesota head football coach, is an impressive 15-5 dating back to November 10, 2018. That’s his overall record in both Big Ten and nonconference games including two bowl wins, highlighted by an Outback Bowl gem last January against SEC blueblood Auburn. His Big Ten record during the period is 10-5.

Fleck’s 15-5 translates to a winning percentage of .750. In all games during his Gopher career that began with the 2017 season he is 24-17, a winning percentage of .585. Looking back almost 100 years in Minnesota coaching history, only the legendary Bernie Bierman with a .727 winning percentage has a better number than Fleck’s .585.

But in the “what have you done for me lately” world of high stakes college football, Fleck must build on his record. Despite the honeymoon of last season’s 11-2 record and No. 10 AP final ranking, critics have rushed in to criticize the 39-year-old coach this fall, with his team losing two of its first three games and at times playing with an Olé defense. Minnesota is giving up 36 points per game and opponents have scored 15 touchdowns.

The defensive unit is inexperienced and development was slowed by the cancellation of spring practice and late start to the season caused by the pandemic. However, there was better tackling and swarming to ball carriers in last Saturday’s 41-14 win at Illinois. Friday night at home against Iowa, Minnesota’s defense is likely to determine the game’s outcome.

The Hawkeyes, 1-2 with the two losses by a combined five points, deserve to be favored. This is a typical Iowa team, fundamentally sound and conservative in approach with success starting with its defense. The Hawkeyes have given up only seven touchdowns, the fewest among Big Ten teams who have played three games.

New starter Spencer Petras is settling in at quarterback and Iowa scored a season high 49 points last Saturday in a win over Michigan State. The victory gave head coach Kirk Ferentz his 163rd win at Iowa, fourth best for overall wins in Big Ten history.

If Minnesota can upset Iowa that will end a streak of five consecutive losses to the Hawkeyes—and also of importance, improve Fleck’s standing in rivalry games. He is 4-8 in trophy games against Iowa, Michigan, Nebraska, Penn State and Wisconsin. Nebraska is included here even though neither the Husker nor Gopher athletic departments officially recognize the $5 Broken Bits of Chair Trophy—an Internet creation that started several years ago.

A Gopher win in the nationally televised Fox game will slow the frequent carping by Fleck critics and boost Minnesota’s record to 2-2 in Big Ten games. That development keeps in place aspirations of winning the Big Ten West Division where 3-0 Northwestern is already in a commanding position. The Gophers and Wisconsin tied for best record in the West last year with 7-2 records.

Worth Noting

Although the Minnesota defense played poorly in its 45-44 loss October 30 to Maryland, the emergence of new Terrapins starting quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa as a high impact passer and scrambler provides perspective to the performance. The Terps, 2-0, took down Penn State last Saturday. His combined 676 passing yards over the last two weeks against the Gophers and Penn State are the most by a Big Ten player this season.

Former Gophers Darrell Thompson and MarQueis Gray help preview the Minnesota-Iowa game at noon Friday via zoom courtesy of the Goal Line Club. More on the program at the GoalLineClub.org.

Arland Bruce IV, son of former Gopher wide receiver Arland Bruce III, is a composite three-star athlete recruit per 247Sports, and is verbally committed to be part of Iowa’s 2021 recruiting class. He plays for Ankeny High School in Ankeny, Iowa.

Word is the Vikings wanted 5,000 fans, seated in acceptably distanced sections, to attend home games this fall but with pandemic concerns trending in the wrong direction it doesn’t appear the state of Minnesota will allow that target number at any of the team’s four remaining dates at U.S. Bank Stadium. The policy of allowing a maximum of 250 spectators per home game seems all but certain to continue.

Twin Cities author Jim Bruton is finishing up a book on former Viking Scott Studwell to be marketed next fall. Named as one of the 50 greatest Vikings, Studwell’s connection to the organization is defined by 14 years of playing linebacker and 28 years in the scouting department.

Viking linebacker Eric Kendricks, who has led the team in tackles for five consecutive seasons, is third in the NFL with 84 total tackles. Linebacker teammate Eric Wilson is the only player in the league with at least three interceptions and more than one sack (he has 2.5).

Minnesota wide receiver Justin Jefferson’s 627 receiving yards lead all NFL rookies in 2020. His receiving yardage total is already the fifth most for a rookie in Vikings history and is the most ever for a rookie through Minnesota’s first eight games.

In SI.com’s NFL power rankings out yesterday the Vikings are No. 17, with next Monday night’s opponent, the Chicago Bears, No. 18. The Kansas City Chiefs are No. 1, with the Green Bay Packers No. 5.

Erik van Rooyen, the South African golfer and former Golden Gopher, is playing in this week’s Masters in Augusta, Georgia. Van Rooyen’s opening tee time Thursday is 11:05 a.m. (Central). He tied for 23^rd this year in the U.S Open and has $941,958 in career winnings since turning pro in 2013. He won the local Tapemark Charity Pro-Am in 2016 but didn’t make the cut at this year’s 3M Open.

Anecdotal observation indicated for months that Minnesota golf courses were busier than usual, and Monday’s Axios Sports newsletter offered national numbers about the boom. In September there was a U.S. 25.5 percent increase in number of rounds played year-over-year—the fifth consecutive month to surpass 2019 totals. Also per Axios, “Equipment sales increased 42 percent year-over-year in the third quarter to just over $1 billion. It was the industry’s second-best quarter ever.”

Despite seven teams (half of the Big Ten) being ranked in the Associated Press men’s basketball preseason top 25, the unranked Gophers could turn out to be an NCAA Tournament entry. Coach Richard Pitino, after losing All-American center Daniel Oturu as an early entrant to the NBA Draft, has regrouped with six new players, including talented transfers with college experience (Both Gach, Brandon Johnson and Liam Robbins). Plus, All-Big Ten point guard Marcus Carr decided against entering the draft and is one of the best at his position in college basketball. The Gophers are expected to open their schedule at home November 25 against Green Bay.

Pitino’s dad, 68-year-old Rick Pitino, told the Sporting News Monday his new gig at Iona is a stepping stone job—to eventual retirement. Realtor.com reported last month Rick Pitino sold his $17 million south Florida home.

Jeff Munneke of the Timberwolves and J.P. Paul of the Vikings, both with expertise in fan relations, are the latest guests on “Behind the Game,” with co-hosts Patrick Klinger and Bill Robertson. Munneke and Paul discuss fan engagement in the pandemic era and how the experience of fans will be different when spectators return to venues. The program is available on the “Behind the Game” Channel on YouTube and on cable access throughout the state.

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Dalvin Cook Joins Elite NFL Runners

Posted on November 9, 2020November 9, 2020 by David Shama

A newsy Monday notes column covering the Vikings, Gophers, Twins, Wild and more:

Dalvin Cook totaled a career-high 252 scrimmage yards (206 rushing, 46 receiving) and two rushing touchdowns in the Vikings’ 34-20 win against the Detroit Lions Sunday. He is now the third player in NFL history to have at least 225 scrimmage yards and two touchdowns in consecutive games, joining Jim Brown (1963) and Deuce McAllister (2003). Cook had 226 scrimmage yards and four touchdowns (three rushing, one receiving) a week ago Sunday against the Green Bay Packers.

Dalvin Cook (photo courtesy of Minnesota Vikings)

Cook has 12 rushing touchdowns this season, tied for the fourth-most by a player in his first seven games of a season in NFL history. All-time leaders are Brown (14 rushing touchdowns in 1958) and Emmitt Smith (13 in 1995) and Priest Holmes (13 in 2004).

The Gophers’ Mohamed Ibrahim is the Big Ten’s Offensive Player of the Week, the conference announced this morning. He rushed for more than 200 yards and four touchdowns for the second consecutive week in Minnesota’s win Saturday over Illinois. He tied his career high with 224 rushing yards, adding 31 yards receiving and 27 yards on kick returns to set a career high with 282 all-purpose yards. He is the second Gopher ever to have two consecutive 200-yard rushing games and the first since Terry Jackson II in 2002.

Gophers coach P.J. Fleck remembered when the junior running back was on the scout team early in his college career and “never complained” about his status. “He’s earned everything he’s got,” Fleck said.

Trey Potts, Ibrahim’s back-up, was carted off the field Saturday with an apparent ankle or foot injury. Fleck speculated Potts is “day-to-day” for Friday night’s game with Iowa.

Assistant coach Joe Rossi missed the Illinois game because of COVID-19 and Fleck offered no timeline on Rossi’s return, although he did say the defensive coordinator is “doing well.”

What an interesting Big Ten football season so far. Wisconsin, the preseason favorite to win the West Division, has only played one game because of COVID. Minnesota, another popular pick to emerge as the division champ, is off to a 1-2 start, while Northwestern, 1-8 in league games last season, is 3-0 and could win the West. In the East Division nobody saw a 0-3 start for Penn State or 3-0 beginning for Indiana, a program historically among the worst in the nation.

Because he is 40 years old, Minnesota Twins DH Nelson Cruz didn’t make MLB.com’s list from today of the top 25 free agents this offseason based on analytics for future production. No Twins made the list but three former Minnesota players did, second baseman Jonathan Schoop at No. 17, relief pitcher Liam Hendriks, No. 19, and outfielder Robbie Grossman, 24.

MLB.com on Saturday listed the “perfect” free agent fits for all 30 major league teams and tagged the Twins with New York Mets starter Marcus Strommen. He is a potential No. 2 or 3 talent but MLB.com speculates the Mets could extend an $18.9 million qualifying offer. Twins free agent starting pitcher Jake Odorizzi is projected as the right fit with the Boston Red Sox.

Organizer Patrick Klinger reports the Capital Club will hear from Golden Gophers men’s basketball coach Richard Pitino tomorrow (Tuesday) via zoom. Klinger, the former Twins executive who now runs a St. Paul-based marketing company, uses this signature quote in his emails from English essayist and moralist Samuel Johnson:

“The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good.”

Pitino will be upbeat tomorrow talking about transfer guard Both Gach. Pitino announced today the Austin, Minnesota native, who played his first two seasons at Utah, has been given immediate eligibility by the NCAA. Gach joined Pitino’s program this summer after playing two seasons at the University of Utah. An almost certain starter for the Gophers this fall, Gach will have two years of eligibility at Minnesota.

A media panel selected a 10-member preseason All-Big Ten team announced today that includes Pitino’s junior point guard, Marcus Carr. He was an All-Big Ten third team selection last season, after having a school record 207 assists.

The Gopher men’s hockey team program is the favorite to win the Big Ten Conference in 2020-21, per a poll of league coaches who also designated four Minnesota players with preseason honors. It was announced this morning Minnesota led the poll ahead of Michigan, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Wisconsin, Michigan State, and Penn State.

Minnesota junior forward Sammy Walker is a member of the preseason All-Big Ten first team. Senior forward Brannon McManus and sophomore defenseman Jackson LaCombe are on the second team. Sophomore forward Ben Meyers received honorable mention.

Defending WCHA regular-season champion Minnesota State is the unanimous favorite to repeat as champions, earning all 10 first-place votes in the league’s media poll announced today. The Mavericks are followed by Bemidji State, Bowling Green , Northern Michigan, Michigan Tech, Lake Superior State , Alaska, Ferris State, Alaska Anchorage and Alabama Huntsville. Minnesota State junior goaltender Dryden McKay is the media poll choice as WCHA Preseason Player of the Year.

Nobody is saying Marco Rossi is the next Mikko Koivu yet, but the Minnesota Wild need to develop an extraordinary center and it could be the 19-year-old Rossi. The team’s 2020 first round draft choice might make the Minnesota roster in his first season.

The NHL hasn’t announced when the season will begin but don’t count on spectators being allowed, at least early on.

“The Rundown,” Jeff Crilley’s daily newsletter, reports in today’s issue that early analysis by Pfizer says more than 90 percent of volunteers given the company’s vaccine didn’t develop COVID-19.

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Sid Hartman Thought We Were Rivals

Posted on October 19, 2020October 23, 2020 by David Shama

I lost a boyhood hero, and later a sports writing rival with the death yesterday of Sid Hartman. Sid played a role in my life, particularly while growing up and since 2006 when I started writing this blog.

Sid was as competitive as any athlete he covered. He wanted the scoop and didn’t welcome competition. After I launched my blog 14 years ago, he reacted on “The Sports Show” and said: “Dave Shama is on the Internet.”

I think TV show colleagues Mike Max, Dark Star and Patrick Reusse either scratched their heads, or let out a collective yawn upon hearing the pronouncement.

Sid first knew me when I was a columnist and sports editor for the University of Minnesota Daily in the late 1960s. Inspired by him, I wrote a well-read notes column followed on campus and downtown at the Minneapolis Tribune. In 2006 Sid didn’t know much about the Internet, but he figured I offered unwelcome competition in the hunt for Minnesota sports news.

For several years after I started my column, Sid would spot me among a group of sportswriters and needled with this greeting: “Nobody reads you.”

Eric Eskola, Sid Hartman, Dave Mona at WCCO

Well, that wasn’t quite true but I certainly didn’t have the mighty platforms of Sid’s Star Tribune and WCCO Radio. As a young man from north Minneapolis, he grew up poor, didn’t attend college, and yet battled his way into positions of authority with Minneapolis newspapers in the 1940s and on the radio station starting in the 1950s. I can never remember a time when he wasn’t reporting and offering opinion on both media outlets.

As a kid I often read “Sid Hartman’s Roundup” before anything else in the Tribune. Back then his column included business scoops. I didn’t quite understand that but later learned he made a lot of money in real estate. While the business blurbs didn’t do much for me, I loved the items in his column and the many head photos of various newsmakers.

When I started my column at the Daily, guess who used head shots just like the guy downtown? Sometimes those little photos got away from proof readers like the time a white Gopher football player was identified as Lew Alcindor (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar). But my column was a success and toward graduation from the U, Sid hinted there might be a position for me at the Tribune.

While working for the Daily, I once wrote something that irritated Sid. Soon after I received an unexpected telephone call at home from Sid voicing his displeasure. He was a master at pursuing people by phone or in-person. Long ago he was in the New York Jets locker room with other reporters waiting for star quarterback Joe Namath to appear. Finally, an exasperated Sid went in the showers where the water was running, and Namath was hiding, and did an interview!

It was a compliment for Sid to inquire about my post-graduation plans. Truth was I didn’t know whether to pursue a career in journalism or business, so I didn’t follow up on a couple of “feelers” from the Tribune. A few years later I was sports editor of the suburban St. Paul Sun Newspapers group, and scooped Sid when I cited sources predicting the ouster of Murray Warmath as Gopher football coach about 12 months before it happened. Five years ago I was the first to interview Vikings legend Bud Grant and write about his dangerous landing in a small airplane when the wheels malfunctioned.

I came to learn Sid didn’t direct praise to me and a lot of others all that often. But it sure makes it easier to remember those rare moments. I will forever recall a kindness he directed my way after an ownership change at the Minnesota North Stars in 1990. I was dismissed from my marketing position and Sid said to his listening audience on WCCO, “If you want to hire a great young man, hire Dave Shama.”

A colleague of mine with the North Stars once sat in the Met Center press box with me and watched Sid practically bounce up the stairs toward us. He was nearly 70 years old but charged up the stairs like a guy half that age. His remarkable energy allowed him to pursue the news nearly 24-7.

Even if there were no Minnesota teams playing, Sid was on his beat. Years ago the back seat of his Cadillac was filled with out of town newspapers. When not thrusting a microphone in someone’s face, he sometimes occupied his time sifting through those newspapers. The inside of the car looked like a homeless person lived there but somewhere in that newsprint was a nugget that could fill his jottings inventory.

When Sid was driving around, he liked to park his car as close to the destination as possible. This might include handicap parking spaces. Even though he didn’t have a certificate, close buddy Bobby Knight once told him it was okay for him to park in such areas. Knight’s rationale? Sportswriters are “handicapped.”

Even at 96 years old Sid was on the move. When the Gophers held an early January news conference in 2017 to introduce football coach P.J. Fleck, there was Sid using a walker and accompanied by a nurse. The legend had fallen to the ground several weeks before and broken his hip, but not his will. Sid had demanded his stay in the hospital be brief, but you were both surprised and certain he would attend the press gathering.

It was grit and energy that allowed him to be so competitive. In the early years of my blog, I was in the press room at Target Center before a Timberwolves game making small talk with Star Tribune sports editor Glen Crevier. Sid noticed our friendly conversation and thought I was pitching his boss for a job. To the astonishment of Crevier and myself, Sid blurted out something like, “Go hire the guy!”

Occasionally, there would be a quiet moment before a press gathering where Sid and I conversed (no easy task with his impaired hearing). I never knew what to expect, and once at Winter Park he really shocked me! We were sitting within a couple of seats of each other, and Sid turned to me while holding a small bag of potato chips and said, “Here, open these.”

I feel a loss over Sid passing away. I know it’s not rational but I thought he would live awhile longer. Yes, he was over 100, but when someone is part of your life for so many years there can be an expectation things will not change.

I will miss Sid in the days ahead and think of him often. I can close my eyes and see a 40-year-old Sid, dressed in a an expensive suit and alligator shoes, strutting around the Williams Arena floor before a Gophers game and talking to coaches and other newsmakers. I can also hear his voice from a more recent time when he congratulated me for my work leading the Twin Cities Dunkers, “You did a good job,” he said.

Told you, I remember the compliments.

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