Gophers Basketball – Page 92 – David Shama's Minnesota Sports Headliners

Kirk Cousins High Reward or Risk?

Posted on March 13, 2018March 13, 2018 by David Shama

A Tuesday notes column:

Reports that quarterback Case Keenum will sign with the Broncos this week add credibility to rumors the Vikings are targeting Kirk Cousins as the NFL moves into its free agency signing period tomorrow. Acquiring Cousins looks like the kind of personnel decision that could either help the Vikings to a Super Bowl, or put general manager Rick Spielman in a bad spot with ownership.

The Vikings recently sent a message to Keenum by not making him a franchise player and providing a lucrative contract. The Broncos need a quarterback and Keenum could certainly be impressed by joining up with John Elway, the former Denver hall of fame quarterback and now a team executive.

Keenum was 11-3 as a sub for the Vikings last season and was popular in the locker room. However, he wasn’t outstanding in the NFC title game loss to the Eagles and it appears the Vikings think Cousins is more talented.

Acquiring Cousins could cost $90 million, with a sizeable portion guaranteed money. That’s a big financial commitment for a player who the Vikings will gamble can fit their system and change his image to that of a winner.

Rich Cimini, writing on ESPN.com February 25, said the 29-year-old quarterback has a 4-19 record against winning teams (based on final season records). Cousins has set franchise passing records for the Redskins during his six seasons with them.

Karl-Anthony Towns told ABC television Sunday he wants to become the greatest basketball player ever. To do so the Timberwolves third-year center has to one day move past an extraordinary and long line of players, but his career goal is nothing to laugh at.

At 22 years old, the 7-foot, 248-pound Towns is already an NBA All-Star but certainly not the best player in the league. His size, skills and versatility do give him a chance at one day replacing a LeBron James or Kevin Durant as the top player on the planet. Forget the all-time stuff, that alone is lofty goal setting. But remember, too, that a preseason poll of NBA general managers named Towns the player they would most want to start a franchise with.

Towns made the general managers look prophetic Sunday during ABC’s nationally televised game when he led his team to a 109-103 win over the defending NBA champion Warriors. He scored 31 points (the Warriors’ Durant had 39) and grabbed more rebounds, 16, than anyone on the court. Towns, as usual, scored inside and out including two of five three point shots. He earned praise “as a very versatile offensive player” from Warriors coach Steve Kerr.

After the game Towns had a league-leading 57 double-doubles (171 career). It was his ninth 30+ point performance of the season, and he has 10+ rebounds in 16 of the last 18 games.

The win over the Warriors ended a three-game losing streak for the Wolves. With 14 games remaining in the regular season the team is competing to make the playoffs for the first time since 2004. If the season ended today the Wolves would qualify but with a 3-3 record since team MVP Jimmy Butler was injured, Minnesota is in must-win status in the weeks ahead including tonight on the road against the Wizards.

With his team pursuing a playoff assignment, and Butler’s return uncertain for anytime soon, this is an opportune time for Towns to take another step in building his resume. He told ABC he knows a lot of work will be involved if he wants to fulfill his biggest ambition. The present moment and leading the Wolves to the playoffs is the best place to start.

Sunday’s Timberwolves-Warriors game at Target Center was Minnesota’s second consecutive sellout and 13th of the season—the team’s most since 2003-04 (15 sellouts).

Dick Jonckowski is co-writing a book about his life with local sports author Jim Bruton. “It’s All about Me—Dick Jonckowski a Minnesota Treasure” is due out in May. Jonckowski hopes to sell copies at two venues where he became famous, Williams Arena and Siebert Field. Known to generations of Minnesotans as the Gophers public address announcer for men’s basketball and baseball games, the 74-year-old Jonckowski has enjoyed a career that also includes radio and banquet emcee assignments.

ESPN2 will televise the Gopher-Green Bay first round women’s NCAA Tournament basketball game starting at 4 p.m. CDT Friday from Eugene, Oregon. Minnesota is the No. 10 seed in the Spokane Region while Green Bay is No. 7. The team that advances will play Sunday against the winner of the first-round game between No. 2 seed Oregon and 15th-seeded Seattle. Minnesota earned its second NCAA Tournament spot in four years (first since 2015) and the 10th in program history.

Among teams Minnesotans will follow with interest in the men’s NCAA Tournament are the underdog South Dakota State Jackrabbits who play their opening game Thursday afternoon as a No. 12 seed against No. 5 Ohio State in the West Region. Twelve seeds are famous for upsetting fives.

Jackrabbit forward Ian Theisen started five of 30 games and averaged 4.7 points and is the lone Minnesotan on the South Dakota State roster. He graduated from Osseo High School as the school record holder in points, 1,590, and rebounds, 1083.

Guard Owen King from Caledonia will join the Jackrabbits next season as a scholarship freshman. King is one of five finalists for Minnesota’s Mr. Basketball Award and last December was also a finalist for the state’s Mr. Football.

Award winning comedian and actor Bill Murray, a part owner of baseball’s Saint Paul Saints, is the father of Luke Murray who is an assistant coach for Xavier, the No. 1 seed in the West Region of the men’s NCAA Tournament. The younger Murray, a 2007 graduate of Fairfield, is known as an outstanding East Coast recruiter.

The city of Cincinnati has two teams in the tournament, Xavier and No. 2 South Region seed Cincinnati. Meanwhile, the Big Ten managed to send only four teams to the tournament—Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State and Purdue.

If you’re keeping score, the U men’s program has produced five tournament teams since 2000.

Xavier senior guard J.P. Macura is no longer projected to be selected in the second round of the 2018 NBA draft, per Nbadraft.net who had the former Lakeville North all-stater at No. 55 back in December.

Duke freshman guard Gary Trent Jr., a former star at Apple Valley, is predicted to be the No. 15 pick in the first round.

Club president Dave St. Peter told Sports Headliners yesterday about 1,000 tickets remain for the Twins’ home opener April 5 against the Mariners. As of now, none of the franchise’s 2018 home dates are sold out but the opener soon will be.

St. Peter said the season ticket total has surpassed last year, although he declined to provide figures. It’s believed the club’s total in 2017 was about 12,000.

A friend who saw last night’s Twins 2-1 exhibition win over the Yankees in windy Tampa said Minnesota catcher Bobby Wilson impressed not only with a two-run homer but in catching foul balls. Not so good were four plate appearances and four strike outs by center fielder Byron Buxton.

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Kevin Love Impressive Role Model

Posted on March 8, 2018March 8, 2018 by David Shama

When Kevin Love played for the Timberwolves, I talked to him a couple of times and liked him. I also watched and admired his skills many times, but never have I appreciated him more than this week when he wrote openly and emotionally about mental health.

Love’s essay posted on the Playerstribune.com is a must-read for any thoughtful sports fan, including those who influence young athletes. Love details how he had a panic attack early this season that caused him to flee the court during a game. It was an experience unlike any the 29-year-old Cavs star had ever known, and it ultimately prompted enough self-examination to see a therapist for the first time in his life.

In macho America, boys and men have forever been taught to bury damaging feelings including guilt and shame. Love writes that during his life he never wanted to show emotional weakness but he knew something was very wrong that night last year when he panicked and experienced shortness of breath.

Love has been seeing a therapist and he’s targeted some personal issues including one he shares in detail. He writes about his grandmother Carol who lived with the family when he was growing up. Carol was still alive during part of the time he played for the Wolves and she had planned to visit him in Minneapolis at Thanksgiving one year. The trip was cancelled, though, because Carol was hospitalized and shortly thereafter she died unexpectedly. In therapy Love came to realize how he had not adequately grieved about his grandma’s death.

In and out of athletics this is a mixed up world with a lot of confused and troubled minds. Love writes this warning in his article: “Everyone is going through something that we can’t see.”

It’s true and so many people, whether involved with sports or other parts of society, need help. Troubled with burdens real and imagined, they frequently don’t receive help. (See the latest news on opiate use, or school shootings). There are no easy answers but there is always someone out there—family, friend or stranger—willing to give support and encourage a person to seek assistance.

Love, a former NBA All-Star and contributor to the Cleveland Cavs 2016 league champions, has long been known as one of basketball’s better passing front court players. This week he might have made his biggest “assist.”

Worth Noting

Credit Minnesota Wild general manager Chuck Fletcher in making one of his best moves signing center Eric Staal to a three-year free agent contract in June of 2016. Staal, 33, is tied for fourth among NHL players in goal scoring with 36, and is a valued leader on a team with a need in that department.

Staal has been exceptional at the right time, producing 21 points last month while helping the Wild to a 9-2-2 record. He’s a catalyst for a team that sometimes prompts doubt about qualifying for the playoffs.

Now it looks like the Wild will make the playoffs (at times the team falters when the schedule gets busy and the ages of players shows). How far they go in the postseason appears tied to—no surprise—whether goalie Devan Dubnyk is hot.

While the Wild seem likely for the playoffs, the Timberwolves can be labeled iffy. The club was on track to make the postseason for the first time since 2004 before Jimmy Butler went down with a knee injury sidelining him indefinitely. He is the team’s best defender and fourth quarter big shot and big play specialist. This is a less capable and confident team without the 28-year-old Butler, who may deserve a place among the top 10 players in the NBA and is in his first season with the Wolves.

In the competitive Western Conference race for eight playoff spots, the Wolves will probably have to earn a surprise win or two in this immediate schedule stretch that starts with games against the Celtics and Warriors tonight and Sunday at home. There are only 16 Wolves games left in the season. If the season ended today, the Wolves would have one of the eight Western Conference playoff spots but the competition to be part of the field is intense.

The Wild is averaging 19,006 fans per game at home—seventh best in the 31-team NHL, according to Espn.com. The Timberwolves, according to the website, average 16,811—ranking No. 22 in the 30-team NBA.

I once argued with Lou Nanne about whether this was a better pro basketball or hockey town. Guess which position Nanne took? What I know is the Wolves set an NBA single season attendance record in the franchise’s first year of 1989-90 and despite a mostly poor product this century have been pretty successful at the box office. Decades ago the basketball Golden Gophers led the Big Ten and even the nation in attendance.

Former Gopher Natalie Darwitz, now coaching at Hamline, has the Piper women’s hockey team in the NCAA Division III Tournament for the first time ever. Hamline has a 20-4-3 record including a 4-1 win over the Gusties in the MIAC Playoff Championship game last Saturday at Gustavus. The Pipers will play their opening NCAA game Saturday against the winner of Friday’s Gustavus and Wisconsin-Eau Claire game.

Two of the five finalists for the 2018 state Mr. Basketball Award will be Gopher freshmen next fall but it’s difficult to think Apple Valley’s Tre Jones won’t win the honor. Jones, a McDonald’s All-American, is the best all-around Minnesota prep guard I’ve ever seen.

Other nominees are guards Owen King from Caledonia and Calvin Wishart of Delano, and future Gophers Gabe Kalscheur from DeLaSalle and Daniel Oturu of Cretin-Derham Hall. As a center or power forward, Oturu seems likely to emerge as Minnesota’s best rim protector on next season’s team. Kalscheur gives the Gophers a big guard off the bench playing behind senior Dupree McBrayer.

It’s surprising there is still no announcement identifying who the Gophers will play in next December’s nonconference game at U.S. Bank Stadium. The game (date not known) will be an operations rehearsal for the 2019 Final Four in Minneapolis.

Will the December date include not only the Gophers, but a second men’s game?

A ticket lottery for the 2019 Final Four opened this week and continues through May 31. The tournament dates are April 6 and 8, with tickets priced at $210 per sessions (a steal compared with the Minneapolis Super Bowl pricing). More at Gophersports.com, or Finalfourminneapolis.com.

The Twins home opener is four weeks from today, April 5 against the Mariners. The weather forecast is for a high of 52 with a “little afternoon rain,” according to Accuweather.com.

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Nick Foles Unlikely to Land Here

Posted on March 6, 2018March 6, 2018 by David Shama

A Tuesday notes column:

With the clocking ticking toward today’s 3 p.m. deadline for NFL teams to put the franchise tag on players, it’s still unclear what the Vikings’ quarterback strategy is. It doesn’t appear the organization will tag Case Keenum and give him the mega contract that goes with that decision.

Case Keenum (photo courtesy of Minnesota Vikings)

NFL free agency begins later this month and the Vikings may still work out a deal with Keenum, the super sub who was 11-3 for last year’s surprise team. The coaches know what they have in Keenum, who showed an accurate arm and leadership in helping the Vikings to a season that almost ended in the Super Bowl.

There has been speculation Eagles No. 2 quarterback Nick Foles, who beat the Vikings in the NFC title game, could land in Minnesota. That doesn’t seem likely, though, for a few reasons.

The Eagles want to be sure starter Carson Wentz’s recovery from ACL surgery is on schedule for the 2018 season before moving Foles who has one more season before free agency. Then, too, the NFL Network said this morning the Eagles will want a first round future draft choice for Foles. Not only might the Vikings balk at that, but Minnesota is unlikely to have a high first round pick in the next few years.

Foles, the Super Bowl MVP, carries a reported $7.6 million salary. That’s a lot of money for a QB the Eagles hope doesn’t play in 2018 but do the Eagles really want to trade him to a key NFC rival who they could face again in the playoffs? And do the Vikings want to wait around to see when the Eagles are in the mood to trade Foles?

Not likely. Look for the Vikings to sort out their quarterback situation soon.

Except for pitcher and designated hitter, the Twins could have the same opening day lineup in 2018 as last season. Ervin Santana is injured and unavailable to pitch, while newcomer Logan Morrison is all but certain to replace Robbie Grossman as DH. Manager Paul Molitor hasn’t named his starting pitcher.

It’s going to be interesting following Isaiah Washington in the offseason and beyond. The Gopher freshman point guard experienced some lows in his first season at Minnesota and there was speculation he might transfer but the talk has quieted after late season games where he played better.

In Minnesota’s finale, a 65-54 loss to Rutgers last week in New York City, Washington led the Gophers in scoring with 18 points. In seven of the last nine games he scored in double figures. Coach Richard Pitino was asked about the former New York state Mr. Basketball during the Minnesota postgame radio show.

“That’s the silver lining,” Pitino said. “As hard as this was to endure, I thought Isaiah…I wasn’t sure if he was going to be able to make it here. I really wasn’t, and I think the last month he has taken a major step forward just as a basketball player and as a person.”

Washington finds himself compared with former Maple Grove all-stater Brad Davison who made the Big Ten All-Freshman team this season while starting for Wisconsin. Even as a first-year player, Davison emerged as a leader and popular player for the Badgers. He finished second on the team in scoring at 12.1 points per game.

The Gophers need Washington as a successor to Nate Mason at point guard. If Washington isn’t around then the point guard job might go to either shooting guard Dupree McBrayer or small forward Amir Coffey. A missing Washington would not only leave Minnesota looking at other options for point guard, but further reduce team depth which was lacking this season and must improve in 2018-2019.

With a 4-14 Big Ten record, and 15-17 overall, the Gophers fell hard after national rankings last fall had them No. 12 nationally. The disappointment figures to show up at the box office next fall and in other ways. For example, KMGK in Glenwood, a longtime radio network affiliate, will not carry games next season.

Eden Prairie football coach Mike Grant, known for his dry wit, has won 11 state titles with the Eagles. His past honors have included national coach of the year and he was asked Monday if any new awards have come his way. He said no, and what he is happy about right now is his name was selected for a license in the state’s spring turkey hunting lottery. “That’s more important than any awards,” Grant told Sports Headliners.

Asked if his father Bud will hunt with him, Grant said, “He can’t plan that far ahead.”

Bud, who turns 91 in May, will be holding another of his well publicized garage sales at his Bloomington home this spring. Mike said the sale dates will be near or on his dad’s May 20 birthday.

Gopher football practice begins today and will continue through April 16 but you won’t hear from the quarterbacks competing to be the starter. Coach P.J. Fleck isn’t making his quarterbacks, early enrollees and injured players available to the media this spring.

It looks like redshirt freshman Tanner Morgan and sophomore transfer Victor Viramontes could lead a four-man competition during the 15 spring practices. Don’t expect a starter to be named until sometime in August.

The annual spring game (open to the public) is Saturday, April 14 at TCF Bank Stadium and begins at noon.

Former Gopher running back Mo Forte, who turned 71 earlier this month and was a college coach, is retired and living in Nova Scotia.

Minnesota Wild center Eric Staal faces the organization that drafted him tonight when Minnesota plays Carolina at Xcel Energy Center. The Hurricanes selected him No. 2 overall in the 2003 NHL Entry Draft and in 2006 he helped Carolina win the Stanley Cup. He is No. 1 on the all-time Carolina list for winning goals with 47. That total was compiled in 12 seasons.

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