Gophers Basketball – Page 81 – David Shama's Minnesota Sports Headliners

Pitino Upbeat on Team Despite Critics

Posted on October 3, 2018October 3, 2018 by David Shama

Richard Pitino’s Golden Gopher basketball team began formal practices last week and will play a season-opening exhibition game in about four weeks against Minnesota Duluth at Williams Arena. How Pitino’s sixth year as coach will go is a mystery to college basketball observers, including me.

Athlon’s college basketball publication forecasts an 11th place finish in the 14-team Big Ten Conference for the Gophers. Dan Murphy, writing for Espn.com last August, placed Minnesota at No. 10 in his Big Ten power rankings.

Street & Smith’s basketball magazine is more optimistic about the Gophers, listing them No. 4 behind Michigan State, Michigan and Nebraska. I am more aligned with Street & Smith’s outlook and believe Minnesota has the personnel to finish between fifth and seventh in the standings.

Front court talent is where the Gophers are most promising. Senior forward Jordan Murphy averaged more than 16 points and 11 rebounds last season. Athlon ranks him the No. 66 player in college basketball and he is on everyone’s list of potential All-Big Ten forwards.

Junior Amir Coffey, a starting forward in the past who could play shooting guard this season, is so versatile he is expected to impact most every game including as a playmaker. Sophomore forward Eric Curry missed all of last season but his scoring and rebounding totals could be in double figures many games this season.

Minnesota’s backcourt outlook is murky with the departure of last season’s senior leader, point guard Nate Mason. Sophomore Isaiah Washington was a flashy but erratic playmaker last season and could be Mason’s successor.

Answering a question last week about Washington, Pitino stressed the importance of improving fundamentals. “…In high school it’s different than college, but I think he is progressing nicely. He’s been really good over the summer. And it’s very important that over the next month, he continues to get better.”

Starting senior shooting guard Dupree McBrayer has a career field goal percentage of .390. His three point percentage is .351. Without improvement, that will open up playing time for combo guard Brock Stull, the senior transfer from Milwaukee who averaged 13.4 points per game last season.

“Really, really good passer. Really good shot-maker,” Pitino said about Stull. “It’s just a matter of getting that conditioning up. That will be there in time.”

For the Gophers to make “crystal ballers” like Street & Smith’s look accurate they will not only need top play from the above mentioned players but also newcomers including top 50 recruit and center Daniel Oturu of Cretin-Derham Hall. Freshmen Gabe Kalscheur (guard) and Jarvis Omersa (forward) may make major contributions too, although it’s possible someone could redshirt. Pitino is still waiting to hear from the NCAA whether Pitt transfer and sophomore point guard Marcus Carr will be eligible for this season or will have to redshirt.

Pitino describes his program as “strong” but others aren’t so sure. “I love where we stand as a program,” he said. “Two years ago we had a terrific regular season. One of the best they’ve ever had (at Minnesota). Last year we were sitting at 13-3 after 16 games. …”

Pitino’s 2016-2017 team was 11-7 in regular season Big Ten games and earned its way into the NCAA Tournament. That was an unexpected turnaround after the Gophers had been 2-16 in conference games the season prior. Last season Minnesota had the impressive start Pitino referenced above but injuries to Coffey, Curry and McBrayer, and center Reggie Lynch’s suspension that hit in January, wrecked what looked like a special year.

“If the Gophers can stay clear of the snake eyes this season, they should be significant factors in the Big Ten race and strong candidates for an NCAA Tournament berth,” Street & Smith’s wrote.

However, both Street & Smith’s and Athlon have Pitino on their national lists of coaches on the hot seat for the coming season. Pitino’s five-year conference record in regular season games is 31-59. In all games he is 12 games over .500 at 90-78.

Dan Murphy’s article for ESPN acknowledged the Gophers great start last season but also said, “…It will take a Herculean effort to get things back on track. Pitino enters the season as the Big Ten coach who has to do the most to keep his job for another season.”

Worth Noting

College basketball authorities don’t consider the Big Ten an imposing league. Neither Athlon nor Street & Smith’s has a Big Ten team in its top eight nationally. Athlon ranks Michigan State No. 10 in the country, with Michigan No. 24 and Nebraska No. 25. Michigan State, at No. 12, is the only Big Ten school in Street & Smith’s top 20.

The conference sent only four teams to the NCAA Tournament last season. The Big Ten hasn’t had a national champion since 2000 (Michigan State).

Senior forward Zeke Nnaji, the Hopkins High School basketball star, is being recruited by Baylor and he included the Bears this week on his top five list (he excluded the Gophers). Jared Nuness, who was a standout player for the Royals in the late 1990s, is part of the Baylor staff.

Jared’s dad, Al Nuness, the former Gopher, works at Hopkins and has been impressed with Nnaji for a couple of years. He compared the 6-foot-10 Nnaji with the state’s most coveted senior, forward Matthew Hurt from Rochester John Marshall.

“I think his potential is just as good as Hurt,” said Al Nuness. “He has the potential to be very good. This kid runs the floor, and has a lot of ability. He can shoot and make the three-point shot.”

Congratulations to Minikahda Club pro Jeff Sorenson who topped the 2018 Minnesota PGA standings with 513.70 points and is the Omega Player of the Year. Brent Snyder from Troy Burne was second with 390.50 points. Sorenson has topped the state standings six times since 2007.

The Minnesota United has now sold and distributed more than 50,000 tickets for its last home match of the season at TCF Bank Stadium on October 21. The United is trying to set a new single match attendance record for Minnesota professional soccer. A record announced attendance of 49,572 was established over 40 years ago at Met Stadium for a Kicks game.

The Capital Club, the St. Paul-based networking gathering that features prominent sports speakers, will hear from a panel of prominent female sports reporters including Rachel Blount and Dawn Mitchell on October 23, and Gophers men’s hockey coach Bob Motzko November 13, and Gophers women’s basketball coach Lindsay Whalen November 28.

Meetings are usually at Town & Country Club, but a program is also scheduled for October 30 with a tour of the Treasure Island Center and TRIA Rink. More information about the Capital Club is available at Capitalclubmn.com, or from Patrick Klinger, patrickklinger@klingercompany.com.

Dick Jonckowski will sign copies of his new book, It’s All about Me, from 5 to 7 p.m. October 11 at Mancini’s Char House in St. Paul. The book about the well-known Minnesota emcee and public address announcer has been available for about three months. Jonckowski said over 600 copies have been sold. “It’s really going well,” he told Sports Headliners.

Jonckowski can be contacted at 952-261-3013.

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Twins to Explore Free Agent Market

Posted on September 12, 2018September 12, 2018 by David Shama

Enjoy a Wednesday notes column on baseball, basketball, football, sports wagering and tennis.

Twins president Dave St. Peter said the club will look at the free agent market this offseason, but that won’t be the main path for improving a team that had Central Division title ambitions last spring but is 12 games under .500 with the schedule ending September 30.

St. Peter said in an interview with Sports Headliners this summer that the roster core in the future will be comprised of players with the club now and in the farm system. He expressed confidence in the personnel already under the franchise’s contractual control.

Although the results and impact weren’t significant from the club’s free agent shopping last winter, St. Peter termed the efforts “aggressive.” He also debunked speculation that for whatever reasons free agents aren’t interested in coming to the state and playing for the Twins.

“I don’t think there is anything that detracts free agents from wanting to come to Minnesota,” St. Peter said. “I think that’s a fallacy. I don’t think it’s accurate. We haven’t played significantly in that space (pursuing free agents) so there really isn’t a lot of track record.

“I can assure you this past offseason we spent a lot of time talking to some very prominent free agents and they were all very willing to come to Minnesota. Normally, it comes down to dollars. That’s ultimately the driver.”

A remarkable half century association with St. Thomas ends next spring when Tommies athletics director Steve Fritz retires. Fritz will end an affiliation of 52 consecutive years with the school that began with being a student-athlete in basketball. He has known various roles at St. Thomas including coaching the men’s basketball team to the 2011 Division III national championship.

St. Paul Saints owner Mike Veeck has his team in the finals of the American Association playoffs against the Kansas City T-Bones. This could be the Saints’ first league playoff championship since 2004. The Kansas City, Kansas based T-Bones were originally the Duluth-Superior Dukes.

Veeck told Sports Headliners yesterday morning he was evacuating his home in Charleston, South Carolina and was headed to Florida because of hurricane Florence.

Before Joe Mauer came to the plate last night with the bases loaded, the Target Field public address system played the theme song from the Rocky movie, “Gonna Fly Now.” Mauer responded with a 416-foot home run to center field and later came out of the dugout for a curtain call. After the sixth inning blast, the Twins went on to defeat the Yankees 10-5, ending an eight game losing streak to New York.

The Vikings’ Mike Zimmer after being asked if he ever feels like he has the wind at his back while coaching in the NFL. “No, I always got the wind in my face. …”

When Mark Coyle was the athletic director at Syracuse he was interested in P.J. Fleck. Coyle was looking for a new head football coach in the fall of 2015 and Fleck was among recommended potential candidates. Fleck was coaching at Western Michigan and Coyle told Sports Headliners that people he trusted suggested contacting the young head coach who was gaining national attention.

Coyle said the two had a brief conversation because Fleck let it be known that coaching in the Big Ten was his dream and he didn’t want to pursue the Syracuse opening that ultimately was filled by Dino Babers. Coyle described the talk as a “really good conversation” and appreciated Fleck’s honesty and career ambitions.

The Broncos’ record was 8-5 in 2015 and then 13-1 the next season. That near undefeated 2016 season certainly got Coyle’s attention and on January 6, 2017 the then 36-year-old Fleck was named Minnesota’s head coach.

If there was a negative about the Gophers’ quality win against Fresno State last Saturday night, it was the home attendance at TCF Bank Stadium. The announced attendance of 38,280 was the lowest for a nonconference game in stadium history. It was also the second smallest crowd since the stadium opened in 2009.

Minnesota had an announced crowd of 41,291 for its first game of the season. That was on a Thursday night instead of a Saturday evening like the Fresno State game. The weekend night figured to pull more customers and so, too, did the opponent because Fresno is much better than New Mexico State who the Gophers opened against on August 30.

The Gophers, 2-0 going into Saturday’s home game against Miami of Ohio, have a number of intriguing freshmen and sophomores. Because Blaise Andries plays in the interior offensive line, he is more difficult to observe than many of the other young players but the redshirt freshman guard from Marshall, Minnesoa has caught Fleck’s attention. The coach refers to the 6-5, 315 pound Andries as someone who is “going to be a really great player.”

Part of Andries’ skillset is his intelligence. Fleck said, “He’s going to be an actuary, right. Remember, I didn’t even know what an actuary even was, and he wants to be that.”

Fleck believes Andries could eventually be moved to tackle. That switch would partially be determined by where he is needed as Minnesota also has promising young offensive linemen like true freshmen Curtis Dunlap Jr. and Daniel Faalale.

Former Gophers football player Kim Royston was named athletics director at Southwest High School in Minneapolis earlier this summer. The city school system might be close to naming a replacement for ex-Gopher basketballer Trent Tucker who resigned last winter as AD for all the public high schools in Minneapolis.

Former Gopher football captain Jim Carter is grateful for all the get well wishes this week after being hospitalized and receiving two angiogram procedures. He suffered a heart attack last Saturday with one of his arteries being 90 percent blocked. Now recovering, he texted yesterday that the response from people “has been humbling and somewhat overwhelming!”

Vikings safety Harrison Smith was named NFC Defensive Player of the Week today. In Minnesota’s opening win against the 49ers Sunday he had eight tackles, one interception and one fumble recovery. Smith could become a finalist for NFL Defensive Player of the Year.

Gopher basketball coach Richard Pitino said on WCCO Radio’s “Sports Huddle” show Sunday he is still waiting word from the NCAA whether Pittsburgh transfer and guard Marcus Carr will be eligible this fall. Carr averaged 10 points and four assists as a freshman last season at Pittsburgh.

Playing tennis added an average of 9.7 years to a person’s life, according to a Danish study reported last week by the Dailymail.com.

Shelley Buck, tribal council president for the Prairie Island Indian Community that owns Treasure Island Resort & Casino, said on a recent segment of TV’s “Behind the Game” that legalized sports betting won’t be as profitable for operators as other forms of gambling already in place. She also said casinos like Treasure Island have the experience and infrastructure to handle sports betting if and when it is approved in Minnesota.

A pro football source predicted to Sports Headliners that the approval of legalized sports betting in Minnesota is only a couple of years off.

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Vikings Kicker Carlson on Spot Thursday

Posted on August 28, 2018August 28, 2018 by David Shama

Enjoy a Tuesday notes column on the Vikings, Gophers and Twins.

No Viking will probably be more closely watched in the team’s Thursday night final preseason game than placekicker Daniel Carlson. The rookie fifth round draft choice missed two field goal attempts in last week’s win against the Seahawks and he prompted the displeasure of coach Mike Zimmer.

Zimmer was upset enough to call for a two-point conversion attempt after a touchdown rather than have Carlson kick the extra point. Carlson’s rough evening against the Seahawks came days after the Vikings released veteran Kai Forbath.

While Zimmer apparently is playing head games with his promising 23-year-old kicker, this might be a moment for a slice (no pun intended) of levity. If the Vikings want to consider options other than Carlson before their September 9 regular season opener against the 49ers, they need look no further than a couple of Purple alums.

Last time we checked, Forbath—the man who struggled to make extra points with Minnesota—was available on the NFL labor market. Blair Walsh, who missed the infamous playoff field goal attempt against the Seahawks in January of 2016, was replaced by Forbath later that year and is also now a free agent.

Retired kicker Ryan Longwell, the third leading scorer in Vikings history, just turned 44 years old this month. The Seahawks employ 40-year-old Sebastian Janikowski, and 45-year-old Adam Vinatieri is still kicking for the Colts. Why not a Longwell comeback even if the Packers, another of his former NFL teams, just inducted him into their Hall of Fame?

Okay, back to reality. Zimmer, burned by kicking failures in past seasons, will turn up the “heat” again on Carlson to determine whether he has a specialist with a long future in Minnesota. Perhaps as soon as Thursday night in Nashville against the Titans.

Kirk Cousins posted on Twitter last Saturday that trying to find parking at the State Fair was such a challenge he had to take a “rain check.” The Vikings quarterback wrote he is still hoping to try a “fried Twinkie.”

The Vikings’ new headquarters and practice facility in Eagan has opened this year with raves from not only the organization and media but also fans of Minnesota’s NFL team who attended training camp. Since the franchise’s inception in 1961, the organization has done business, including its training camps, in various places in the Twin Cities and state.

Minneapolis attorney Marshall Tanick, writing an August 7 article on Hometownsource.com, recalled the Vikings once looked at a site in Golden Valley before choosing Eden Prairie and developing Winter Park where the team made its football headquarters for more than three decades before moving to Eagan.

“In the late 1970s, the Vikings were looking for a new consolidated business operations and practice site,” Tanick wrote. “By then, it had outgrown its meager corporate facility on France Avenue in Edina and sought to build its own indoor field in order to shed its nomadic ways of practicing at different venues around the Twin Cities with no dedicated practice facility.

“The campus of what was then Golden Valley High School, immediately east of Highway 100 to the north of Glenwood Avenue, became available. The school district had closed due to declining enrollment, merging in 1981 with the Hopkins District. The Vikings closely eyed the facility for its business offices, along with its already existing adjacent football field, which could be converted easily into a covered site.”

The Vikings, though, couldn’t close a deal with Golden Valley authorities. Instead, they moved on to Eden Prairie and left behind their practice facility at Midway Stadium in St. Paul. As for the Golden Valley site, it became and still remains the home of Breck High School.

The New Mexico State team the Gophers open against at TCF Bank Stadium on Thursday night looked awful offensively in its August 25 game with Wyoming. The Aggies had one first down in the first half on their way to a 29-7 loss to Wyoming, a team with an outstanding defense.

Although the Aggies were coming off their first bowl game last season since 1960, there were lots of empty seats for their home game in Las Cruces. Yet some tickets were priced as low as $3 each.

The Minnesota Athletic Department has been selling tickets starting at $1 for Lindsay Whalen’s first game as Gopher women’s basketball coach on November 9 against New Hampshire.

The Gophers have 113 players on their roster and 60 of them—or 53.1 percent—are true freshmen or redshirt freshmen. Those are the highest numbers in the country among major college football programs.

Minnesota’s roster of four quarterbacks consists of one true freshman and three redshirt freshmen. The Gophers are the least experienced team in the country at quarterback.

Zack Annexstad wil start Thursday night, the first time the Gophers have begun the season with a true freshman quarterback since Tim Salem in 1980. Salem completed 13 of 16 passes and threw one touchdown pass in Minnesota’s 38-14 over Ohio.

It looks like Gophers special team headliners will include kickoff returner Rodney Smith, punt returner Antoine Winfield Jr., placekicker Emmitt Carpenter and punter Jacob Herbers.

Punting could be a concern for Minnesota. The now departed Ryan Santoso punted 66 times last season, while Herbers punted once. Head coach P.J. Fleck said SMU transfer Alex Melvin will also have opportunities in games.

The Gophers were No. 1 nationally in both fewest total penalties and yards penalized last season. The year before Minnesota ranked 91st in fewest penalty yards and 86th in yards penalized.

Barry Mayer, who is a former running back for the Gophers and three-year letter winner from 1968-70, is a certified paid trainer with the Positive Coaching Alliance in Minnesota. The organization provides various resources, including workshops, to help youth and high school athletes enjoy positive experiences in athletics. PCA’s motto is “Making Better Athletes Better People.”

Mayer’s son Adam was a wide receiver for the Gophers in 2015 and 2016. After lettering in 2016, he gave up football because of chronic hamstring injuries but is still in school and plans to graduate from Minnesota next spring with a degree in business.

“…When Adam told me he was thinking about stepping away from football, he knew it was going to disappoint me,” Barry said in an email. “I told him that sports are a means to an end, never the end in itself. My goal for him participating was to gain and understand the many life lessons sports offers and carry those on into one’s adult life. I truly believed he had done that, and apparently it was time to move on to his life’s next chapter. I couldn’t be more proud of the young man he is becoming.”

The Twins were a Wild Card team last year and expectations this spring were they could qualify for the postseason in 2018. Instead, the Twins are a good bet to finish under .500 and not even come close to earning a Central Division title, or Wild Card entry.

Twins president Dave St. Peter, who often talks about playing “meaningful games” late in the season, was asked if expectations were too high for his club. “I think we had realistic expectations based on what took place last season. Second half of last season we were the best team offensively in the American League, one of the better teams offensively in baseball. Unfortunately, sometimes it doesn’t play out that way. We never really had our entire lineup on the field. …”

The suspension for about three months of shortstop Jorge Polanco and serious injuries to other frontline players impacted the club. Players have also underperformed. St. Peter, though, likes the “young core” of players on the roster and is optimistic about the talent in the club’s farm system.

The great Ted Williams, who played for the minor league Minneapolis Millers before his MLB career with the Red Sox, would be 100 years old tomorrow if still alive.

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