Golden Gophers – Page 302 – David Shama's Minnesota Sports Headliners

NFL Scouting Combine Not the Gospel

Posted on February 27, 2015February 27, 2015 by David Shama

The NFL Scouting Combine that ended earlier this week in Indianapolis drew plenty of attention (as usual) from pro football fans but all the measureables recorded of participating players certainly don’t guarantee future results.

Representatives of the NFL’s 32 teams judged more than 300 college prospects, evaluating speed, strength and what’s in their collective noggins (Wonderlic intelligence test). Over the years the combine has proven this: low test scores won’t deter players from fooling the personnel gurus and becoming All-Pros.

Former Vikings All-Pro defensive end Jared Allen wasn’t drafted until the fourth round in 2004 by the Chiefs. Michael Salfino, writing in the February 19 Wall Street Journal, offered insight on Allen in his article about the combine. “Jared Allen became a fearsome pass rusher despite being third-weakest since 1999 in the bench press.”

Combine results from 2015 aren’t yet posted on NFLcombineresults.com but details of prior years are. Ever heard of Tom Brady? He is the guy who won four Super Bowls as the Patriots quarterback despite being a sixth round draft choice. Salfino points out that since 1999 Brady ranks 283rd among the 288 quarterbacks tested in the vertical leap at the combine. “Coming out of Michigan in 2000, Brady barely managed to get himself two feet off the ground in the vertical-leap drill,” Salfino wrote.

A source close to the Vikings told Sports Headliners that going into last year’s NFL Draft the Vikings weren’t interested in selecting quarterback Johnny Manziel. “Johnny Football” was drafted by the Browns’ with the No. 22 choice in the first round last year while the Vikings took Teddy Bridgewater at No. 32, the final pick of the round. Maybe Manziel’s 32 score on the Wonderlic (Bridgewater had a 20) was part of the Browns’ decision-making process.

Manziel was no wonder last fall as a rookie having zero touchdown passes, two interceptions and a passer rating of 42 in five games (two starts). Bridgewater was selected as the quarterback on the Pro Football Writers of America All-Rookie team. His percentage completion of 64.4 percent was the third highest in NFL history for a rookie.

While college prospects at the combine parade around in track outfits, it might be best to remember how these guys played on the field during their college careers. NFL teams have countless hours of game films to use in evaluating prospects and scouts are seeing players live week after week in the fall.

ESPN talk show host Colin Cowherd wisecracked last week on his show that if he were running an NFL team he would instruct the personnel guys to stay home. Instead he suggested dispatching a private detective and psychologist to Indy.

Worth Noting

NFL scouts also look at college prospects during pro days at various schools. Expected to participate at the Gophers Pro Day on Monday are former U players Michael Amaefula, Cameron Botticelli, David Cobb, Derrick Engel, Zac Epping, Isaac Fruechte, Logan Hutton, Marcus Jones, Donnell Kirkwood, Harold Legania, Ben Perry, Cedric Thompson, Derrick Wells, Maxx Williams, Damien Wilson and Devon Wright. The event isn’t open to the public.

The Vikings will use their No. 11 first round draft choice to select Stanford junior offensive tackle Andrus Peat, according to this week’s NFL mock draft by Sports Illustrated’s Don Banks. He predicts on Si.com the Browns, drafting one spot after the Vikings, will take DeVante Parker, a wide receiver from Louisville and former college teammate of Bridgewater’s.

Parker, 6-3 and 210, is one of the best wide receiver prospects in the 2015 draft. Although Parker doesn’t have elite speed, he has quickness and is able to get open and make yards after receptions. Bridgewater’s familiarity with Parker causes speculation the Vikings, who need help at wide receiver, will give plenty of thought to drafting him.

The Gophers basketball team upset Michigan State last night for the program’s first win in East Lansing since 1990. It was one of Minnesota’s best performances of the season but the Gophers are a disappointing 6-10 in Big Ten games. Many college basketball authorities thought before the season the Gophers would finish between third and sixth in the standings but with two regular season games remaining Minnesota is in seventh place.

The Gophers have lost seven conference games by a total of 27 points. Jim Dutcher believes if Minnesota had former Apple Valley star and Duke freshman Tyus Jones the Gophers would be around .500 in the Big Ten. Jones, among the nation’s elite point guards, has been a clutch performer for the Blue Devils. “He’s a big game player who knows when certain things need to be done,” said Dutcher, the former Gophers coach.

Dutcher thinks it will be a mistake if Jones decides to enter the NBA Draft after this season. He said Jones, 6-1, 190, needs more experience and physical strength to maximize his chances of succeeding in the pros.

Darryl Mitchell, who was an all-conference selection on Dutcher’s 1982 Gophers Big Ten championship team, has been practicing law in Florida but is relocating to Minnesota in March. Mitchell was a first team Parade Magazine high school All-American and chose the Gophers over other schools including 1970s powerhouse UCLA.

The Western Collegiate Hockey Association has three teams in the top 11 in the country in two national polls, with No. 2 Minnesota State, Mankato; No. 3 Michigan Tech and No. 11 Bowling Green. Tonight and tomorrow evening Minnesota State hosts Tech.

“I think we’re as competitive as any other league in college hockey,” WCHA commissioner Bill Robertson told Sports Headliners. “We have the hope and intention to get three teams into the NCAA Tournament and we’re on track for that. We could also have more if a surprise team wins the WCHA Final Five which would give them an automatic bid.”

The Final Five will be March 20 and 21 at the Xcel Energy Center. Robertson hopes to approach 8,000 fans in attendance on each of the dates. Ticket information is available via Ticketmaster.com.

St. Thomas men’s basketball coach John Tauer was featured in a February 17 article in the New York Times. Tauer is not only one of the most successful Division III basketball coaches in the country but is also among the few who teach in the classroom, according to the story. Tauer, who has his doctorate in social psychology, is currently teaching a class called Motivation and Emotion.

The Tommies, who won an MIAC record 10th regular season title in 2015, open the playoffs tonight at home against Gustavus. St. Thomas finished 22-3 and 17-3 in the MIAC while the Gusties were 16-10 and 11-9. The Tommies are one of only three Division III programs to have won 1,600 games.

Tommies football coach Glenn Caruso speaks tomorrow at the Chicago Catholic League Coaches Association Clinic at Fenwick Park High School in Oak Park, Illinois. Other speakers include Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz. Caruso is 73-13 in seven seasons at UST and the Tommies have participated in the NCAA playoffs five of the last six seasons.

Tickets are on sale for the sixth annual Camden’s Concert at the Hopkins Center for the Arts. The event will be held July 13 featuring The Wright Brothers who were popular at last summer’s concert and helped generate funding for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Tickets are available via Hopkinsartscenter.com.

1 comment

Book Reminds Why Sports Inspire

Posted on February 25, 2015February 25, 2015 by David Shama

Sometimes I am reminded why sports has played such a prominent role in my life. My latest wakeup call was prompted by reading Triumph and Tragedy in Mudville by the late Stephen Jay Gould. Gould’s 2003 book consists of essays he wrote about his lifelong passion for baseball that appeared in publications like the New York Times. Gould was a paleontologist but his intelligent musings about his baseball love affair introduced him to another audience.

A Harvard intellectual, Gould grew up in New York City in the 1940’s and 1950’s, a golden era for baseball in New York. He watched his beloved Yankees in the World Series almost every year. He saw baseball gods like Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle from the Yankees, and the Giants Willie Mays and the Dodgers Jackie Robinson.

Although Gould died from cancer in 2002 at age 60, his passion for baseball over a period of seven decades lives on, and his essays stirred something in me. As I read his book, I realized how the great and rare moments of sports have impacted my being while both enriching and frustrating my life.

I say frustrated because slogging through the mediocre and miserable performances of many teams and athletes year after year is no fun. It’s an experience that lessens my fervor for spectator sports and creates both apathy and anger that my sports world has frequently fallen on hard times.

The last great ride for me came in the autumn of 2009 watching Brett Favre. The legendary quarterback was 40 but in his first season with the Vikings he threw darts where no balls had any right to go. His statistics included career bests in completions (68.4 percent) and passer rating (107.2).

The Saints won the postseason’s dirty play of the year award with their shameless diving at Favre’s legs. Then the Vikings screwed themselves late in that infamous NFC championship game by killing a chance to win after being penalized for having 12 players on the field.

The Humpty Dumpty end to the season and Super Bowl chase couldn’t spoil my satisfaction in watching the old gunslinger will the Vikings to one of their best seasons ever. No Vikings quarterback since scramblin’ Fran Tarkenton in the 1960’s had brought such entertainment as Favre. Tarkenton—who seemingly could run away from tacklers so long you had time to make a sandwich—brought that rare skill level and excitement that we’ve seen too little of in this town.

Where have you gone, Kirby Puckett? The center fielder told teammates they should jump on his back because he would carry the Twins. Perhaps he never carried the load better than when his game six winning home run forced a seventh game in the 1991 World Series against the Braves. “And we’ll see you tomorrow night,” TV’s Jack Buck told the world.

The Twins unexpectedly won both the 1987 and 1991 World Series, the only two MLB titles in franchise history. The nation watched when Twins heroes like Puckett and pitchers Frank Viola and Jack Morris showed they were World Series competitors and heroes for the ages.

For the ages? Coach Herb Brooks and his 1980 Winter Olympics players are at the head of that line. Miracles are not forgotten and the US Hockey team’s 1980 gold medal triumph at Lake Placid still stirs emotions of all sorts including national pride. The best moment, of course, was America’s stunning upset of the Soviet Union. The US team consisted of amateurs while the Red Machine was capable of playing in the National Hockey League.

For years the Soviet Union had tried to bully America politically. Premier Nikita Khrushchev had long ago proclaimed, “We will bury you.” In 1980 America had lost prestige in the world and at home. When the Soviet hockey team humiliated the US in an exhibition game prior to the Olympics, America shrugged its collective shoulders and hung its head lower. But the US Hockey team’s semi-final ground-shattering triumph had Al Michaels asking the TV audience: “Do you believe in miracles?” Americans found new swagger and confidence about their country and themselves. The stunning upset and later gold medal win in February of 1980—35 years ago—helped jumpstart an American comeback at home and on the world stage that saw the eventual collapse of the Soviet Union empire.

Those who had known Brooks for many years may have been surprised by how far the former Gophers coach led the US team but they weren’t completely caught off-guard. The St. Paul native led the Gophers to national championships in 1974, 1976 and 1979. It was the greatest period ever for Gophers hockey.

The 1970’s and the immediate decades before delivered a scrapbook full of great sports memories for Minnesotans. Bud Grant’s four Super Bowl teams set the standard for a franchise that is still trying to climb back to the biggest stage. Tarkenton, Eller, Page, Marshall. Their jerseys are still worn by fans and their images are forever remembered.

Bill Musselman’s Gophers basketball teams created an electric environment in Williams Arena with their pre-game Harlem Globetrotters routine during the 1970’s. The coach got in trouble with NCAA rules but he ignited a passion inside Williams Arena that’s never been duplicated. The highlight of the Musselman era was the 1972 Big Ten championship team that included NBA first round draft choices Ron Behagen and Jim Brewer, and baseball Hall of Famer Dave Winfield.

The Twins Rod Carew flirted with baseball’s immortals when he chased a .400 batting average and graced the cover of Time Magazine in 1977. The sweet swinging Carew was hitting over .400 in early summer of that memorable season before finishing at .388.

The Twins were an American League power in the 1960s led by a wrecking crew of home run sluggers captained by the great Harmon Killebrew. Long ball baseball put an excitement on the field during that era which the Twins have never duplicated. The team high point was reaching the World Series in 1965. Invincible pitcher Sandy Koufax and the Dodgers were too much for the Twins in their first Minnesota World Series appearance.

The Gophers made two trips to the Rose Bowl in the early 1960’s. The second time they got it right with a 21-3 win over UCLA. The glory of that win, though, didn’t match the Gophers winning the 1960 national championship. That was Minnesota’s seventh and perhaps last national title. The Gophers, led by legendary coach Bernie Bierman, won national championships in 1934, 1935, 1936, 1940 and 1941. Coach Henry Williams also led Minnesota to a national title in 1904.

Bierman’s titles came before another glorious run in Minnesota. The Minneapolis Lakers dominated pro basketball from the late 1940’s through 1954, winning five world titles and boasting pro basketball’s first superstar. George Mikan, the giant 6-10 center, was so revered that he was commonly called Mr. Basketball. When the Lakers once played in New York’s famous Madison Square Garden, the marquee said “George Mikan vs. the Knicks.”

Olympic gold, national championships, world titles, men named Bierman, Brooks, Carew, Favre, Grant, Killebrew, Mikan and Puckett. Whew! That’s the kind of high life this town knew.

Comments Welcome

Gophers 4-Star Recruit a Nice Fit

Posted on February 23, 2015February 24, 2015 by David Shama

Kevin Dorsey is the only Rivals.com four-star recruit in the Gophers’ 2015 class. The point guard from Clinton Christian High School in Upper Marlboro, Maryland is also a leading candidate to start for the Gophers next fall.

The Gophers starting point guard for most of this season, DeAndre Mathieu, is a senior. The team’s top shooting guard, Andre Hollins, is also in his last season of eligibility. Minnesota coach Richard Pitino will be looking for replacements and while freshman Nate Mason can play the point he might be a better fit in the starting lineup next season as a shooting guard.

Ryan James, the basketball recruiting authority for Rivals affiliate Gopherillustrated.com, told Sports Headliners that “without a doubt” Dorsey could be one of the Big Ten’s top dozen freshmen next season. James has seen Dorsey play five times and also watched him online.

James said to his knowledge Dorsey is the highest-ranked point guard the Gophers have ever recruited out of high school. While James won’t predict Dorsey as an immediate starter, he is confident the teenager will be a major contributor. “I just know he’s going to get a lot of minutes just because he’s an excellent on-ball defender and off-the-ball-defender, and he’s one of the best pace pushers you will see. I mean he will fly with the basketball in the other direction, and he often ignites it with his own defense.”

At about 5-11, 160, Dorsey certainly doesn’t impress with his stature but his athleticism, including his quickness, draws attention. So, too, does his competitiveness and aggressiveness. “Yes, I don’t think I saw a guy on the summer circuit that played as hard in an AAU-style of game defensively,” James said. “He was always drawing the other team’s best assignment, and that said everything.”

Pitino is an advocate of fast play offensively. Grab the defensive rebound and push the basketball fast toward the Minnesota goal, or create a steal and accelerate into a fast-break. Dorsey sounds like a clone of the point guard prototype for the Pitino system.

“This offense is perfect for him,” James said. “This is exactly the right fit.”

A weakness? James said Dorsey is an okay shooter. “I saw him make jumpers but I think overall he probably has to get better in that regard.”

Dorsey is rated the No. 87 prospect nationally in the class of 2015, according to Rivals.com. In 21 games for Clinton Christian High School he has averaged 22.1 points, 3.8 assists and 3.1 steals, according to Maxpreps.com.

But it’s the eye test that also impresses about Dorsey. James observed that Dorsey wears basketball shorts that are short enough not to bother his knees while trying to move his feet and legs on defense. “He doesn’t care about the shorts. He cares about getting it done, and that’s another reason why people like him.”

While saying to heck with more fashionable longer shorts, Dorsey takes the court to create a frenzy including on offense. “You have to get in front of him or he’s going to hurt you,” James said.

Gophers fans hope he will do some hurting on opponents immediately next fall.

Worth Noting

This observer’s opinion on the Gophers’ chances of winning on Thursday night at Michigan State: 10 percent. Minnesota, 5-10 in the Big Ten, has lost three consecutive games and plays a Spartans team, 10-4, that has won four straight and leads the conference in field goal percentage defense. Coach Tom Izzo has the Spartans on another classic bull run to season’s end.

The Vikings announced this morning the signing of free agent linebacker Brian Peters who played the last two seasons with the Saskatchewan Roughriders of the Canadian Football League. In 2014 the former Northwestern player led the Roughriders with 78 tackles, plus he had three sacks, one forced fumble and two interceptions.

The Twins open their home spring training schedule at Hammond Stadium in Fort Myers next week with exhibition games against the Gophers March 4 and Red Sox March 5. A dugout box seat costs $15 for the Gophers game but $44 to see the Red Sox. Both games will be telecast on Fox Sports North Plus starting at 6 p.m. Minneapolis time.

Twins second-year slugger Kennys Vargas was listed at No. 25 by USA Today in a February 13 article about “young players primed to make impacts during the major league season.” The 24-year-old designated hitter and first baseman hit .274 with nine home runs and 38 RBI in 215 at bats last season for the Twins. Vargas, 6-5, 290, was the only Twins player listed in the article headlined “The 50 names you need to know.”

Kevin Garnett is 38 but he remains feisty. He was suspended one game last month for head-butting Dwight Howard of the Rockets. Known for his temper when he played for the Timberwolves from 1995 to 2007, Garnett’s altercations with teammates included Wally Szczerbiak and Rick Rickert. Garnett, who was traded by the Nets last week to the Wolves, averaged 5.1 points and 17.4 minutes per game during January. He makes his home debut with the Wolves Wednesday night against the Wizards.

Timberwolves rookie star Andrew Wiggins has his 20th birthday today in Houston where his team plays the Rockets. Wiggins was about five months old when the Wolves drafted Garnett in June of 1995.

Jim Petersen, Timberwolves TV analyst and Lynx assistant coach, turned 53 yesterday. The former Gophers and NBA player was a McDonald’s All-American at St. Louis Park High School. As a prep senior he was also the 1980 Minnesota Mr. Basketball winner.

Gophers football fans can take encouragement from a recruiting analysis article in the February 9 issue of Sports Illustrated. Big Ten powers Michigan State and Wisconsin averaged No. 6 and No. 13 in the final Associated Press rankings from 2010-2014 despite neither program having high enough averages to be in the Rivals.com top 25 team recruiting rankings during the same period.

1 comment