Golden Gophers – Page 325 – David Shama's Minnesota Sports Headliners

AP Impresses Zimmer with Pass Catching

Posted on June 19, 2014June 19, 2014 by David Shama

It’s not fall but there is football news including from Vikings coach Mike Zimmer and also the Minnesota Football Coaches Association.

The Vikings ended their mini-camps today and Zimmer answered questions from the media including whether All-Pro running back Adrian Peterson is making good on his goal of improving as a pass receiver.

“Yeah, I think I’ve seen him drop one ball the whole time and that was probably yesterday, I think,” Zimmer said. “He catches the ball good. Obviously when he’s got the ball…he’s extremely dangerous.”

The new Vikings coach had seen tape of Peterson and realized how fast and powerful the dynamic running back is. But in the offseason practices Zimmer was surprised by Peterson’s pass catching and his ability to cut. “Some of the cuts he made are like, wow. Like some of the great backs that you’ve been around.”

Zimmer said he’s not announcing a date as to when he will choose a starting quarterback from the competition between Teddy Bridgewater, Matt Cassel and Christian Ponder. “I probably have a date in my mind, but I’m not going to tell anybody,” he said.

The team now has five weeks off before opening training camp on July 24 in Mankato. What are Zimmer’s plans?

“I’m going back down to my ranch in Kentucky for a little while, (also) probably stop in Dallas,” he answered. “Go see my parents down in Naples.”

The Minnesota High School All-Star Football Game dates back to the 1940s but this year’s June 28 game will be branded differently. The MFCA Tackle Cancer All-Star Football Game is the latest effort by the Minnesota Football Coaches Association to assist the Randy Shaver Cancer Research & Community Fund.

In January of 2012 leaders of the MFCA were having a meeting and Minnetonka High School football coach Dave Nelson spoke up about cancer, a health problem that is epidemic in America. He is a prostate cancer survivor.

At the meeting Nelson asked what others thought about helping KARE TV’s Randy Shaver who had started his cancer fund after battling his way through Hodgkin’s Disease. Nelson’s idea was to reach out to Minnesota high school football programs and encourage them to designate a home game to “Tackle Cancer” and raise monies for Shaver’s fund.

Ron Stolski, executive director of the MFCA, recalled it didn’t take long for the idea to click with association leaders. Nelson agreed to chair the MFCA’s “Tackle Cancer” Committee. “He’s just like a Bulldog when he gets on something,” Stolski told Sports Headliners. “He’s been on this for…two years.”

During the 2012 football season, the first year of the initiative, $120,000 was raised for the fund. Last year high school football programs generated $190,000, plus the Gophers promoted a “Tackle Cancer” game and so did MIAC schools. This year the Vikings will designate their September 28 home game against the Falcons to the cause.

Stolski said schools can take a simple or sophisticated approach to the “Tackle Cancer” project like placing donation buckets at the stadium or using more elaborate means. The initiative will be going on again this fall at Minnesota high schools but before that happens the all-star game, a week from Saturday at Saint John’s in Collegeville, will serve as the kickoff to the 2014 campaign.

Stolski is excited because the game’s purpose has always been to recognize outstanding graduating high school seniors and now the event will also help in the fight against cancer. “It (the game) helps to carry on a long tradition of recognizing in one final effort the best of our best,” Stolski said of the 88 players representing 83 schools who are grouped into North and South rosters.

There certainly is a tradition to the All-Star game and this year’s event has players whose fathers and grandfathers participated. Michael Strand, a fullback from Barnesville High School who will play for the North, will be joined at this year’s game by his grandfather, Dick Strand, an Honorary Coach. Dick Strand, from Southland High in Adams, also coached in the 1984 all-star game. Bryan Strand, Dick’s son and Michael’s dad, coached in the game last year representing Barnesville.

Carter Thiel, a strong safety from Wheaton/Herman-Norcross playing for the North, has All-Star family connections, too. Tony Thiel Jr., Carter’s dad, played in the 1980 game as a strong safety from Battle Lake. Tony Thiel Sr., Carter’s grandfather and also from Battle Lake, coached in the 1978 game and was an Honorary Coach in 1991.

Worth Noting

The Gophers’ coaches and their most passionate believers won’t agree but don’t expect lofty predictions from most national media about Minnesota’s upcoming football season. Uncertainties at key positions like quarterback and a demanding schedule that includes games with Iowa, Michigan, Nebraska, Ohio State, and Wisconsin has magazines like Athlon Sports and Lindy’s Sports taking a cautious approach about the Gophers.

Minnesota’s record last season was 4-4 in the Big Ten Conference and 8-5 overall including a bowl game loss to Syracuse. Athlon predicts the Gophers’ 2014 record will be 3-5 in league games, 6-6 overall. Minnesota, according to the magazine, will tie for fourth place in the seven-team Big Ten West Division.

The Athlon write-up includes this quote from an anonymous rival Big Ten assistant coach: “They have a good offensive line and good running backs, but can they get the ball consistently downfield in the passing game?”

Lindy’s Big Ten publication ranks the Gophers eighth in the 14-team conference, ahead of Maryland, Illinois, Indiana, Northwestern, Rutgers and Purdue. That places Minnesota fourth in the West Division. The magazine says the Gophers (who have gone from three to six to eight wins the last three years) continue to improve but “they’re still miles away in the depth department.”

Lindy’s has Minnesota offensive lineman Zac Epping and tight end Maxx Williams on its All-Big Ten second team offense. Defensive end Theiren Cockran is on the second team defense. David Cobb is a third team choice at running back and so too is punter Peter Mortell.

The NCAA has released average home attendances for the top 25 men’s basketball programs and nine Big Ten schools were included but not the Gophers who averaged 11,255 fans last season. Minnesota ranked No. 23 in 2013 with an average of 12,580. The Gophers led all of college basketball in attendance in 1975 and ranked third in 1972, second in 1973. Last season the Big Ten led the nation in average attendance for the 38th consecutive year.

Former Gophers football player Mark Sheffert, who writes for Twin Cities Business, has an intriguing headline on his June column: “Quitting to Win.” Sheffert writes that smart business leadership sometimes prompts the decision to “throw in the towel.”

Bill McGuire was approached in the past about Timberwolves ownership but told Sports Headliners this week it’s “not appropriate” for him to be involved with the local NBA franchise because of his ownership of Minnesota United, the North American Soccer League team.

The 2014 NHL Entry Draft will be Friday, June 27 and Saturday, June 28 at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia. The first round on June 27 will begin at 6 p.m. (CDT) and televised by NBC Sports Network. Rounds 2-7 will be on June 28 starting at 9 a.m. (CDT) and televised by the NHL Network. The Wild own eight picks in the draft including the 18th overall selection.

For all the talk about the Twins being improved over last season, Minnesota goes into tonight’s game at Target Field against the White Sox having lost five straight and with two more losses than a year ago. The Twins are 32-38 and 6.5 games out of first place compared with a year ago when Minnesota was 32-36 and 6 games behind.

Aaron Wiederhoeft from Prior Lake High School, who won the Jake Anderson Award for Minnesota’s best senior boys lacrosse goaltender, will play lacrosse at Lindenwood, a Division II school in Missouri. He plans to major in international business. What about a future in pro lacrosse, a sport that has modest salaries for players?

“Oh, well, maybe by the time I get there it will (pay better),” he said.

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Jones Works on Gaining U Admission

Posted on June 18, 2014June 18, 2014 by David Shama

Jeff Jones is focusing on earning admission to the University of Minnesota by attending Minneapolis Public Schools summer classes, and recently took the ACT test for a fourth time hoping to improve his score.

A source told Sports Headliners Jones is working to raise his overall high school GPA and hopes that improvement along with a higher ACT score will allow him to gain admission to Minnesota and join the Gophers in time for August workouts and preparation for the 2014 season. Jones took the ACT test last Saturday and the results are expected later this month.

A combination of ACT result and GPA determines admission at Minnesota and other colleges. Jones signed a letter of intent last February to become a scholarship player for the Gophers but has known for awhile he faced academic challenges.

Jones is the only Rivals.com four-star recruit in the Gophers’ 2014 recruiting class. He drew national attention in the prestigious Under Armour All-America Game in Florida last January, gaining 72 yards and being named Team Nitro MVP.

Other members of the freshman class have started summer school classes at Minnesota and are becoming acclimated to the football program through conditioning and on the field drills. This is Gophers coach Jerry Kill’s fourth freshman group at Minnesota and potentially the best. The coaches have been impressed with the physical size of the players and wait with optimism to see what the freshmen can do during the coming months.

Preseason college football publications rank Jones as Minnesota’s top recruit. Lindy’s Sports rates Jones the No. 10 incoming freshman in the Big Ten Conference but many other Gophers newcomers are intriguing too. Kill and his staff have developed a reputation for identifying talent that is better than advertised.

That intriguing group could include tight end Gaelin Elmore, wide receiver Melvin Holland Jr., center Connor Mayes, quarterback Dimonic Roden–McKinzy and defensive lineman Andrew Stelter. Lindy’s identifies wide receiver Isaiah Gentry as its “sleeper” among the Minnesota freshmen. “Isaiah Gentry out of Cincinnati Moeller was one of the most overlooked players in the Buckeye State, and Minnesota is getting a steal in the speedy 6-4, 185-pound pass catcher,” the magazine wrote.

Worth Noting

The Gophers players and coaches received their Texas Bowl rings on Monday. Minnesota lost to Syracuse in the Houston-based game last December.

Prior Lake linebacker Blake Weber, who was the South Suburban Conference Defensive Player of the Year in 2013, has decided to play football at Rochester Community and Technical College.

Gophers football coach Jerry Kill said on WCCO Radio’s “Sports Huddle” program on Sunday that earlier this month the great grandson of the legendary Bronko Nagurski attended Kill’s camp. Nagurski is one of five former Gophers to have his jersey number (72) retired.

Dr. John Baumgartner, who passed away last week, was an outstanding Gophers football player who lettered four times, from 1951-54.

That was Minneapolis entrepreneur, best-selling business author, motivational speaker and former Gophers golfer Harvey Mackay sitting with wife Carol Ann near courtside at Sunday’s Game Five in San Antonio when the Spurs defeated the Heat to win the NBA championship. Carol Ann gave her husband the trip as a Father’s Day present.

“I go almost every year to a finals game,” Mackay said. “This was the loudest arena I’ve ever been in.”

Mackay said he didn’t meet one San Antonio native who wasn’t aware of Sunday’s game. “What was normally a 15 minute drive from our hotel to the arena took two hours. We got out and walked the last five blocks.”

It will be interesting to see how Flip Saunders fills in his Timberwolves coaching staff after already naming Sidney Lowe and Sam Mitchell assistants. Saunders’ son Ryan, with a reputation for statistical analysis expertise, has NBA coaching experience with the Wizards and seems likely sooner or later to join the Timberwolves organization. Don Zierden, a Minnesota native, was an assistant to Flip Saunders with the Timberwolves, Pistons and Wizards in the past, and is still with the Wizards. Former NBA head coach and assistant Eric Musselman is close to Saunders and resigned earlier this season from Arizona State.

Xavier Thames, a 6-3 senior guard from San Diego State, is a player to follow in next week’s NBA Draft. Thames isn’t a “brand name” but he impressed with his shooting at the NBA Combine last month. It would be ironic if the Spurs drafted Thames since their NBA Finals MVP Kawhi Leonard is from San Diego State and was also underrated coming out of college.

The June 18 issue of Sports Illustrated refers to Nick Gordon, who the Twins selected No. 5 overall in baseball’s amateur draft this month, as the “best high school shortstop in America.” The Gordon article includes praise from former Reds shortstop great Barry Larkin. “The kid fields with the best angles of any young shortstop I’ve ever seen,” Larkin said of Gordon who was the first infielder taken in the draft.

The same issue includes a story about the infamous O.J. Simpson whose wife Nicole was murdered 20 years ago this month. Simpson later dated Nicole look-a-like Christie Prody, a Minnesota native who the magazine reported is serving time in a Minnesota prison “after a conviction for stealing prescription painkillers from an elderly couple.” Simpson is incarcerated in Nevada from a 2008 conviction on charges that included kidnapping.

Twins first baseman Joe Mauer went 18 games without an RBI before driving in the team’s lone run in a 2-1 loss last night to the Red Sox. The face of the franchise, Mauer is hitting .258 with 16 RBI and two home runs this season. Not surprisingly, he isn’t among the top five fan vote recipients for starting American League first baseman in the 2014 All-Star Game in Minneapolis.

StubHub.com is listing tickets starting at $13.77, $170.30 and $331.45 for the All-Star Futures Game, Home Run Derby and All-Star Game in Minneapolis. Top price listed for the July15 All-Star Game is $11,002.00.

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U, Not Iowa, Right Choice for Nuness

Posted on June 4, 2014June 4, 2014 by David Shama

When Al Nuness gave the commencement address this spring at Iowa Central Community College in Fort Dodge, Iowa he recalled how his decision to attend the University of Minnesota changed his life.

Nuness was pursued by Illinois and Purdue while playing high school basketball in suburban Chicago but his grades kept him from being admitted to either one of those Big Ten universities. Nuness enrolled at Fort Dodge Junior College (now Iowa Central) in 1965. By the time he departed in 1967, he was a junior college All-American who averaged 28.3 points per game.

Nuness planned to attend the University of Iowa. “I had my choice of schools and I chose Iowa,” Nuness told the commencement audience at Iowa Central last month. “That choice started a learning curve that would forever change my life.”

The announcement to be a Hawkeye was to come at a Monday night dinner in Iowa. But Nuness went home the weekend before, and it was then he met Minneapolis businessman and Minnesota alum Harvey Mackay who happened to be in Chicago.

Mackay, who has become a best selling business author, talked with Nuness and his parents. Mackay had a strategy for his conversation with Nuness who is African-American.

“He asked me why I chose the University of Iowa,” Nuness said at the commencement. “I told him it was based on basketball.

“He replied, ‘So, if you don’t play pro basketball, what do you plan on doing?’

“Before I could answer that question he said, ‘Will you be able to live and raise your family in Iowa City?’

“Hey, folks, this was 1967. I don’t think Iowa City was ready for the Nuness family.

“He pulled out a copy of Life Magazine. It listed all the Fortune 500 companies in Minneapolis. He also showed me where Minneapolis was number one in the country for job opportunities for African-Americans. It was also number two in the country for quality of life for African-Americans. That got my parents’ attention.”

Mackay also talked about summer employment in Minneapolis, and said if Nuness became a student-athlete at Minnesota he would become his mentor. He now had the attention of Nuness and his parents.

“Then he wanted to know what time the ‘I’ Club dinner was on Monday night,” Nuness recalled in his commencement talk. “My mom said, ‘Al’s not going to the dinner.’

“And the rest is history!”

Nuness, an outstanding shooter, played two seasons for Minnesota, 1967-68 and 1968-69. His senior year he captained the Gophers, averaging 16.4 points per game and he made second team All-Big Ten guard.

But if the story ended there Nuness would only be in the Iowa Central athletics hall of fame. He is also a member of Iowa Central’s distinguished alumni hall of fame.

His decision to attend school in Minneapolis created opportunities after college. First he became head basketball coach at Minneapolis Central High School and then a Gophers assistant coach. The name he made at Minnesota helped him gain a position at Pillsbury and later as an executive with the Timberwolves. But in the business community his name is most closely associated with Jostens.

Nuness, now retired from full-time work, spent 18 years with the Minnesota-based school products company. He was a vice president for 15 years with assignments that included heading up Jostens’ championship rings sales for the Super Bowl, World Series and Bowl Championship Series.

Nuness’ father had been a poor farmer and his son certainly couldn’t have been sure of his future when deciding on a college. Mackay showed Nuness how important college decisions are, and started him on a pathway to a productive career and life that has also included volunteer work in the Minneapolis area.

“I am living proof that the American dream is indeed alive,” Nuness told his audience at Iowa Central. “Hard work, preparation, and perseverance all help to make it possible for even the son of a share cropper to pursue his dreams.”

Worth Noting

Vinny Del Negro, who reportedly has interviewed with the Timberwolves regarding the team’s coaching vacancy, was featured in Mackay’s 2010 book Use Your Head to Get Your Foot in the Door: Job Search Secrets No One Else Will Tell You. The two are friends and although Del Negro had no NBA, college or high school coaching experience he became head coach of the Bulls in 2010. He later became head coach of the Clippers before being let go after the 2012-2013 season despite having a 56-26 and winning the Pacific Division championship.

Henry Ellenson, the power forward from Rice Lake, Wisconsin who will be a senior next winter, is now rated the No. 5 player in the national class of 2015 by Espn.com. Ellenson’s brother Wally left the Gophers program during the past season.

Grand Rapids power forward Alex Illikainen is ranked No. 90. A good guess is Illikainen will become a Gopher while Ellenson will be a Badger.

Kevin Love turns 26 in September and the next few years of his NBA career are potentially his best. The Timberwolves have a massive sales challenge trying to convince Love to remain with a franchise that has missed the playoffs each of his six seasons in Minneapolis. Don’t look, though, for Love to be dazzled by the Lakers and Hollywood or the Knicks and Broadway. His next move is likely to be a lot more about winning games than geography.

New WCHA commissioner Bill Robertson is relocating the league offices from Denver and Madison to Minnesota. He is temporarily working in Bloomington but soon plans to have permanent offices in Saint Paul or the Minneapolis suburbs. Robertson said WCHA representatives will have business meetings in Saint Paul next week for future planning.

It seems likely Adam Weber has suggested to Mitch Leidner that the Gophers sophomore quarterback try for an invite to the prestigious Manning Passing Academy held each summer in Louisiana. Weber, who has been working out with Leidner, twice attended the academy as a counselor when he played for the Gophers. The academy is for campers entering grades 8-12 in the fall.

The Twins swept the Brewers in four games last year but that won’t happen this season. The two teams split two games in Milwaukee earlier this week. Tonight they start a two-game series at Target Field. Lynx point guard Lindsay Whalen will throw out the ceremonial first pitch.

Brewers center fielder Carlos Gomez is tied for seventh with 11 home runs among National League players and is eighth in batting average at .310. If the Twins hadn’t traded him away to the Brewers in 2009 they could feel almost cocky about the deal they made to originally bring him to the organization. Gomez was one of four prospects the Twins acquired from the Mets in the 2008 trade sending former Cy Young award winner Johan Santana to New York. But Gomez didn’t produce at a high level here and the Twins haven’t realized much value from the trade.

The Tapemark Charity Pro-Am the men’s tournament at Southview Country Club in West St. Paul is Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The women’s event is Thursday and Sunday, also at Southview. Spectators are welcome and will see some of the area’s best golfers.

The Tapemark, now in its 43rd year, benefits people with developmental disabilities. More at Tapemarkgolf.org.

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