Golden Gophers – Page 277 – David Shama's Minnesota Sports Headliners

College Title Game Likely Coming Here

Posted on October 30, 2015October 30, 2015 by David Shama

An announcement regarding the site for the College Football Playoff Championship Game in 2020 is expected early next month. My prediction is Minneapolis and U.S. Bank Stadium will be the city and venue announced.

A site committee headed by CFP executive director Bill Hancock visited Minneapolis earlier this fall. The group left town impressed by a presentation similar to what Minnesota leaders used to convince Super Bowl and NCAA Final Four authorities to bring those events to U.S. Bank Stadium in 2018 and 2019.

Last spring governor Mark Dayton announced the formation of the Minnesota CFP Steering Committee comprised of representatives from the Minnesota Sports Facilities Authority, Meet Minneapolis/Sports Minneapolis, the Vikings and the University of Minnesota. The CFP organization announced in late May bids had been received from the Bay Area (Santa Clara game site), Charlotte, Houston, Minnesota, New Orleans and San Antonio to host the 2020 game to be played on Monday, January 13.

The selection of a northern city to host the game would add diversity to the site locations. The inaugural game last January was played in Arlington, Texas. Glendale, Arizona will host the game next January and Tampa will be site for 2017. The CFP organization is expected to announce next month its choices of host cities for 2018, 2019 and 2020. Minnesota didn’t submit bids for 2018 or 2019.

The successful winter hosting of the 1992 Super Bowl in Minneapolis and the eagerness of NFL officials to return the game here in 2018 could certainly have played a part in easing any concerns about the weather by CFP authorities. This area offers a state-of-the-art domed venue in U.S. Bank Stadium and also covered practice facilities owned by the Gophers and Vikings. Positives also include Minneapolis’ reputation as an easy to reach travel destination, with varied local transportation including light rail, and a city offering facilities to host ancillary CFP events. The city’s famous skyway system allows visitors to walk around downtown without going outdoors.

Worth Noting

The Vikings and Gophers already have covered practice facilities, and seem targeted to have new ones by 2020 when the CFP Game will likely be played here. The Vikings appear headed toward developing a complex in Eagan that will include offices and practice facilities. The Gophers today will host a ceremonial groundbreaking event on the East Campus for the new Athletes Village that will include a new football practice facility.

During the time Jerry Kill was the Gophers head football coach the state’s high school football coaches have been among his vocal admirers. After Kill’s resignation on Wednesday the Minnesota Football Coaches Association distributed a tribute that said the coach gave “every minute of his time and every ounce of his energy” to not only his players and assistants, but also to the public including causes both large and small. “No request was denied, no cause too minor,” the statement said. “He was and is the ultimate giver. …From the very bottom of our collective hearts, THANK YOU, COACH.”

The are “still a limited number of tickets” available for the Gophers Halloween night game Saturday against Michigan, according to an athletic department spokesman. The game could be Minnesota’s fifth consecutive home sellout this season. The Wolverines, college football’s winningest program, are always a gate attraction but adding to the hype this season is the debut of glamour coach Jim Harbaugh who after a star career as Michigan’s quarterback developed winning teams at Stanford and with the NFL’s 49ers.

The Wolverines, who prior to Harbaugh’s arrival this year were struggling, are among the surprise teams in college football. Michigan, 5-2, has lost only to Pac-12 power Utah in an opening game and to Michigan State on a fluke fumble by the Wolverines punter.

When Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany was in Minneapolis earlier this month he was asked about Harbaugh’s impact on the conference. “He’s got a great track-record as a player and coach,” Delany answered. “Only halfway through the season but they’ve played awful well. The Michigan people are excited. A great conference needs great coaches, and needs great programs. I think that in football and in basketball we’re well positioned with some of the coach-teacher leaders that we have, and obviously Jim is off to a fabulous start.”

Because of the Kill resignation and being major underdogs, the Gophers will be a national story if they can win Saturday’s game. The Wolverines, who have shutout three opponents and lead Big Ten teams in six defensive categories, are likely to go into the game favored by a couple of touchdowns.

College football authority Jerry Palm has the Gophers, 4-3, as one of 10 Big Ten teams who will play in a bowl game. Palm, writing this week for Cbssports.com, predicts Minnesota will play Air Force December 29 in the Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl in Fort Worth.

The Timberwolves opened their season Wednesday night with a comeback one point win in Los Angeles against a Lakers team that was 21-61 last season. “They’re still going to be really, really bad.” That’s a quote about the Lakers from an anonymous scout in the October 26 issue of Sports Illustrated.

In the magazine’s NBA preview issue the Lakers are predicted to finish 14th among 15 Western Conference teams. The Timberwolves, 16-66 last season, are forecast to finish 12th. The Cavs, whose key players include former Wolves star Kevin Love, are the choice to defeat the Thunder for the NBA title.

NBA.com surveyed the league’s general manager with questions about teams and players. The Wolves Andrew Wiggins, who was the Kia NBA Rookie of the Year last season, drew the most support as the player expected to have a breakout year. Among NBA rookies this season, the Wolves Karl-Anthony Towns is a runaway choice to be the best player in five years.

Basketball stat of the day: with a career record of 172-68 (.717 percent) Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan has the highest Big Ten winning percentage in conference history.

Among the newcomers to watch on the Gophers basketball team is 6-6 freshman forward Jordan Murphy from San Antonio. “He can jump with anybody (on the team),” teammate Charles Buggs told Sports Headliners. Murphy averaged 23.6 points and 10.5 rebounds as a high school senior.

Buggs, a 6-9 junior forward, wears size 17 shoes. Reggie Lynch, the 6-10 junior center who isn’t eligible this season after transferring from Illinois State, wears size 18 shoes, the biggest on the team, according to Buggs.

Buggs, who has increased his weight from 210 to 230 through training and by eating four to five meals per day, has a 3.0 GPA and is a sports management major. He spent part of the offseason working events at TCF Bank Stadium.

The Gophers play Minnesota Crookston in an exhibition game Sunday starting at 4 p.m. in Williams Arena. BTN Plus will televise the game.

After winning Tuesday night, the Wild is now 21-3-1 in its last 25 games against the Oilers. Tonight the Wild plays the Blackhawks at Xcel Energy Center. In the last 15 games between the two clubs eight have been decided by one goal and four were shootouts.

Two former Gophers hockey players, now coaches at Hamline, are about to start their seasons. Hamline men’s coach Cory Laylin, whose team last winter won the MIAC playoffs after a fifth place regular season, will send his Pipers into games tomorrow night and Sunday afternoon against Gustavus Adolphus and Saint Mary’s as part of the MIAC Men’s Hockey Showcase in Blaine. Natalie Darwitz starts her first season coaching the women’s team with games at Concordia (WI) tonight and tomorrow afternoon.

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U Needs to Find a Role for Jerry Kill

Posted on October 28, 2015October 28, 2015 by David Shama

I have sat in Jerry Kill’s office when he talked about “not stealing” from the University of Minnesota. What he meant was that if he ever thought he wasn’t up to the job as head football coach he would walk away.

In this morning’s unexpected and emotion-drenched news conference Kill announced that time has come. Those who care deeply about the University and Gophers football are saddened to lose one of the finest individuals who ever worked in the athletic department.

Kill’s fabric is built on character including the virtues of nurturing, integrity and hard work. After suffering recent seizures and only having a few hours sleep at night, he decided to step down as Gophers coach. As he cried at today’s news conference he poured out his emotions and thoughts including his concern about what he will do with the rest of his life.

Kill is 54 years old and while he has a history of seizures and cancer he still has much to contribute to this world. He wants to do something meaningful. The pressure cooker of being a big time college football coach isn’t in his future but he won’t want to sit in a rocking chair day after day.

Doctors and family will help Kill make a decision going forward as to what he can do with his life. Maybe his path will be focusing on his Chasing the Dreams fund to benefit people with epilepsy and seizures.

But what University president Eric Kaler must do is dialogue with Kill over the coming weeks and months about whether there is the right fit for a position at Minnesota. Knowing Kill as I do, it’s almost impossible to imagine that there couldn’t be an appropriate assignment—even if it was part time.

Kill is so respected and loved by so many supporters of the University there is no question they would want him to continue officing in Dinkytown. He played a major role in the fundraising that has resulted in the Athletes Village project for which ground will be broken on Friday. His reputation, people skills and relationships would allow him to be an extraordinary fundraiser for the athletic department which still is only about halfway home in raising funds for new and renovated facilities. Whether Kill’s interest and health would allow him to do more than wear the hat of a full or part-time fundraiser remains to be seen.

Also, it’s no secret the Gophers need a permanent athletic director. If Kill thought he was healthy enough and had the energy he would be fabulous at the job. Over 30 years in coaching has given him great experience in athletics. Kill would bring so many of the attributes to an administrative role that he showcased as the Gophers football coach. The quality of the assistant coaches he has hired and the loyalty they have shown to him demonstrates his skill in assembling and keeping a staff in place. He set high standards for excellence including wins on the field. He was committed to the welfare of those around him including his assistant coaches and players. He was honest and direct with people, sometimes telling them what they needed to know even if they didn’t want to hear it.

Kill took over a terrible football program in December of 2010 and made it into something the state of Minnesota is proud of. The Gophers, once a laughing stock of the Big Ten, are now a competitive team, and within a season or two Minnesota could exceed the eight win years of 2013 and 2014.

Kill has turned around the football program beyond the playing field. His team collectively had a 3.04 GPA last spring semester and his players are earning their degrees after he inherited a program where players were on academic probation and not attending classes. Also, ask the University police and Minneapolis police if there hasn’t been a dramatic change in off-field behavior.

The Gophers lost the face of their athletic department today. The University lost the most beloved leader at the school. It’s up to Kaler now to dialogue with Kill and determine whether this extraordinary leader wants to continue on at the University.

Kill was a damn fine coach. He is an even better educator and human being.

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Flip Did It All in His Basketball Life

Posted on October 26, 2015October 26, 2015 by David Shama

Flip Saunders was probably the most unique basketball man in the history of this state. He was raised in Ohio but Minnesota was home. He died yesterday at age 60 in Minnesota and he wouldn’t have wanted to depart this earth from anywhere else.

I first saw Flip as a feisty teenager playing point guard for the Gophers in the 1970s. During the last few years I knew him as the basketball boss of the Timberwolves. Through the decades he played every role possible in big time basketball in Minnesota. At the end of his life he had an unprecedented list of simultaneous responsibilities as part owner, president and coach of the Wolves.

Flip Saunders (Photo courtesy of Timberwolves)

Flip played on some of the best Gophers teams ever, including the 24-3 group in 1977, his senior season. He had been a high school All-American in suburban Cleveland and came to the Gophers as coach Bill Musselman’s alter ego. Musselman was back alley tough and reveled in the basketball smarts and competitiveness of Flip, a small guy like his coach but just as willing to battle enemies of all sizes and skills.

After Flip’s college career he had an NBA tryout with his hometown Cavs. If guts and determination were all that was required, the 5-11 Saunders would have been All-NBA 10 years in a row. Flip had averaged 32 points per game in high school and started 101 of 103 possible games for the Gophers but he soon realized his future was on the sidelines and not on the court.

Flip started his coaching career at Golden Valley Lutheran where his record of 92-13 included 56 straight wins at home. In 1981 he became a Gophers assistant to head coach Jim Dutcher for whom he had played his final two seasons. He stayed five seasons with the Gophers, helping them to the 1982 Big Ten championship. Then it was two more years of assistant coaching at Tulsa.

After Tulsa he went into the CBA, pro basketball’s minor league and NBA feeder system. His achievements, though, were big time. In seven seasons his teams won two league championships, he was twice named Coach of the Year, and he had a record number of players promoted to the NBA.

By 1995 Flip had proven he was as much a grinder hell-bent for success as a coach as he was as a player. Kevin McHale, the Wolves basketball boss and former teammate with the Gophers, hired Flip to work in the front office but soon switched him to the sidelines as head coach.

It’s no coincidence that the mostly forlorn franchise known as the Timberwolves has experienced its greatest successes under Flip’s direction. In the late 1990s the Wolves looked poised to become one of the league’s elite led by Kevin Garnett, Tom Gugliotta and Steph Marbury. But only Garnett stuck around and the Wolves regrouped early in the new Millennium led by KG, Sam Cassell and Latrell Sprewell. They were on the edge of an NBA title in 2004 when an injury to Cassell derailed plans for a championship parade down Hennepin Avenue.

Any list of the franchise’s 26 years of mistakes has to include the decision to fire Saunders as coach early in the 2004-2005 season. That was a blow to the gut for Flip but by now anyone who knew him realized he would march on to more coaching experiences. There was success in Detroit where his Pistons were annual contenders to win the Eastern Conference. Then there was a stop in Washington D.C. as Wizards coach before he was let go.

Flip was almost 57 when the Wizards said he was out in early 2012, but he was hardly through writing his basketball story. He became a special assistant to the Celtics, worked for ESPN analyzing the NBA and plotted a return to coaching.

That return might have been to his alma mater in 2013. Flip was looking for a job and the Gophers had an opening. He would have been a sensational fit, and not just as a coach but as a recruiter and promoter of the program. He had told me years before that if he ever got back into college coaching he would revive the Harlem Globetrotters-like pregame ball handling show he had been part of at Minnesota under Musselman. The show was a knockout and amped fans to near craziness by game time.

In 2013 Flip interviewed for the Gophers job with athletic director Norwood Teague and his basketball administrator Mike Ellis. The interview went no where including a disagreement over Flip’s authority to hire a staff. I was told Flip was willing to take the job at a modest salary and willing to donate $500,000 toward the cost of a new practice facility. The same source also said Flip did want bonus compensation based on the box office success of his team.

Teague should have given Flip just about anything he asked for. That’s how big time deals are made. Go ask Michigan how they were able to bring Jim Harbaugh back to the Big House. Do a little homework on how the Blue Devils keep “Coach K” at Duke. Teague was a flop as Minnesota’s AD and the half-hearted effort to land Flip is one of the now departed administrator’s failures.

Glen Taylor (Photo courtesy of Timberwolves)

Soon after the Gophers’ opportunity fell through in 2013 Flip was rehired by the Wolves, this time as the basketball authority in charge of personnel and other decisions. He negotiated a part ownership of the Wolves with lead owner Glen Taylor who also gave Flip the coaching job in 2014 when Rick Adelman retired.

Flip not only knew how to coach, he was a savvy talent evaluator. In the last couple of years he undid some of the damage left by overmatched general manager David Kahn. His acquisition of young players Andrew Wiggins, Karl-Anthony-Towns and Zach LaVine has put hope back into spirits of the fan base. The Wolves are no longer the laughingstock of the league and have the foundation to build a playoff team.

This season was going to be Flip’s next step in the resurrection of the Wolves. He had big plans and likely would have been interested in eventually expanding his share of team ownership. He reached out awhile ago to big money guys like Dr. Bill McGuire about possible ownership if Taylor went through with plans to sell.

Flip was always ready to do what was needed, whether it was Xs and Os, college scouting, NBA trades, pitching potential owners, or marketing his team to the fans and media with public appearances and news gatherings. He was a basketball icon who did it all while earning tens of millions of dollars.

Now the tributes to the man who died at the height of his influence are coming from all over the map. Ironically one came from Marbury who played only a couple of seasons for Flip before bolting out of town and blowing up a potential Wolves championship. Yesterday the former point guard wrote this on Instagram about his ex-mentor:

“I thank you for giving me my foundation in how to play the professional way. I thank you for giving me unconditional love as if I were your son when I was so young. …What an impact you’ve had on so many humans on earth.”

Flip worked his way up from the bottom. Played so many roles. Touched so many lives. He won’t just be missed. He won’t be replaced.

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