Golden Gophers – Page 345 – David Shama's Minnesota Sports Headliners

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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If Not U, Jeff Jones Headed to Iowa CC?

Posted on May 30, 2014May 30, 2014 by David Shama

Jeff Jones, the nationally recognized Washburn High School running back who is arguably the prize recruit in the 2014 Gophers football class, could be headed to Iowa Western Community College in Council Bluffs.

Jones needs a higher score on his ACT test to be accepted by the University of Minnesota. He will take the test for a fourth time on June 14. Washburn coach Giovan Jenkins declined to specify what score Jones needs to become eligible to play for Minnesota this year.

“I honestly think he is going to get it (the improved score),” Jenkins told Sports Headliners. “He’s improved each time. He is confident he’s going to get it. He knows junior college is not where he wants to be.”

Jenkins said if Jones doesn’t qualify for admission to Minnesota he will need to spend two years at a community college and earn a degree to then have immediate eligibility at an NCAA program, presumably the Gophers.

Jenkins has spoken with Iowa Western coach Scott Strohmeier and is enthusiastic about the program that is annually a national power. Jenkins described the Reivers, who won the 2012 National Junior College Athletic Association championship, as a “great program” that has sent more than 20 players to Division I schools the last two years. “It’s definitely a program he (Jeff) wants to be part of,” Jenkins said.

But Jones, of course, would rather be a Gopher, fulfilling the commitment he made in February when he signed his national letter of intent binding him to Minnesota. Jones is the only Rivals.com four-star recruit in the Gophers 2014 recruiting class. He turned heads playing in the prestigious Under Armour All-America Game in Florida last January, gaining 72 yards and being named Team Nitro MVP.

In past years the best Minnesota football preps have chosen schools other than the Gophers so Jones’ commitment to play for his hometown team is viewed as a step forward for UM coach Jerry Kill.

In pursuit of a qualifying ACT score, the 6-foot, 200-pound Jones could take encouragement from former Washburn tight end Ra’Shede Hageman who didn’t become eligible to play for the Gophers until June of his senior year. Hageman became an All-Big Ten defensive lineman and was selected in the second round of this year’s NFL Draft by the Falcons.

Worth Noting

Iowa Western Community College’s Strohmeier has been head coach of the Rievers since 2008. He is from Watkins, Minnesota and played quarterback at Fergus Falls Community College and the University of Minnesota, Crookston.

Jenkins said Hageman has signed his contract with the Falcons and purchased a Porsche.

The Chanhassen house of former Vikings defensive end Jared Allen is for sale at $1.75 million, according to a Wednesday Bizjournals.com story by Jim Hammerand.

Vikings coach Mike Zimmer after being asked yesterday if players attending the organized team activities are buying into a new coach and system: “I don’t worry about if they are buying in. My job is to coach them hard and try to get them to be the best players they can be. …”

Zimmer on what he’s seen from All-Pro running back Adrian Peterson: “Yeah, he looks great. He’s made some tremendous cuts, you’d have to ask him, but he seems excited to be here, about some of the things that we are trying to do with him and I think it’s only going to continue to get better.”

With reported trade rumors involving Kevin Love, it’s fair to wonder if the Timberwolves All-Star forward will participate as scheduled in the July 13 celebrity softball game at Target Field. The game is part of the MLB All-Star Game promotional activities and it seems likely Love, sure to be greeted by boos, will become a cancel if traded to another NBA club between now and July 13.

Gophers basketball coach Richard Pitino, who was hired about 14 months ago, will receive a raise and if the increase isn’t agreed to yet it will be soon. Pitino’s initial salary was set at $500,000, plus $700,000 of supplemental compensation.

Randy Wittman, fired as Timberwolves coach in 2008, is close to a contract extension with the Wizards.

The MIAC all-sports standings recognize an overall annual champion for each gender. For the seventh consecutive school year St. Thomas has finished first in both the men’s and women’s all-sports standings. St. Olaf and Saint John’s were second and third in men’s sports while Saint Benedict and Gustavus were runners-up in women’s athletics.

The St. Thomas men have finished first 28 times in 52 years, while the women have done it 23 out of 32 years. The Tommies have finished first in both genders 19 of the past 30 years, an indication of the many winning teams and seasons at the St. Paul school.

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