Golden Gophers – Page 411 – David Shama's Minnesota Sports Headliners

Ex-Governor Casts U A.D. ‘Vote’

Posted on March 5, 2012March 5, 2012 by David Shama

Arne Carlson was outspoken last week when he advocated that the University of Minnesota promote John Anderson to athletic director, and hire Flip Saunders and Lindsay Whalen as basketball coaches.

The former Minnesota governor is a U alum and passionate supporter of Gophers athletics. Speaking on Thursday’s WCCO Radio morning show with John Hines, Carlson said he isn’t formally involved with the search for a new athletic director but added “we have a lot of gold right under our nose.”

“John Anderson would be a remarkably good athletic director,” Carlson said. “A very successful baseball coach, knows how to build a program. He’s very modest, but also very capable.

“And then look at what else we have—Flip Saunders. How many people would love to see him take over the basketball program? And then you look at Lindsay Whalen. What a remarkable addition she would be on the women’s side.

“We have the talent right here and we have to learn to develop that talent to give them a chance to manage, to build, and then we can hold them accountable. But these are all good people.”

Anderson is in his 31^st season as Gophers baseball coach. He, Saunders and Whalen are Minnesota alums.

The Gophers athletic administration has often been criticized, and the department’s most visible programs like football and basketball have struggled to win games. Carlson said years ago Wisconsin was in the same “pickle” as Minnesota when it turned to former Badgers football hero and state native Pat Richter to become athletic director. That hire put the Badgers on a path to success that continues to this day.

Carlson said Minnesota can also learn a lesson taught in the University’s business school and practiced by the Wisconsin athletic department. When Badgers savior Barry Alvarez stepped down as football coach, he chose defensive coordinator Bret Bielema from his staff as his successor.

Succession planning and searching for local candidates makes sense to Carlson. “…If you look at that team of Anderson, Whalen and Saunders, I would buy that any day of the week,” he said.

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Worth Noting

Posted on March 5, 2012March 5, 2012 by David Shama

Condolences to the Fitzgerald family, including Larry Sr., Larry Jr., and Marcus, following the death of Sally Fitzgerald, their mother and grandmother. Services were held last Friday in Chicago.

The NBA’s compacted, strike-shortened season can be ridiculous as witnessed last week when the Wolves played on three consecutive nights—all road games. No wonder the Wolves, including Kevin Love who had a busy All-Star Weekend and was suffering from the flu during the week, looked sluggish at mid-week.

Gophers senior forward Trevor Mbakwe, injured and unable to play since November 27, was ceremoniously named the sixth man of the game on Saturday in Minnesota’s 81-69 win over Nebraska. The Williams Arena crowd responded with a standing ovation for Minnesota’s best player.

Paper work has been submitted to the NCAA requesting one final season of eligibility for Mbakwe since he was only able to play in seven games. It’s not known when the NCAA will respond and if Mbakwe will want to play next season for the Gophers, or pursue a professional career.

Sophomore guard Chip Armelin had a career high 20 points off the bench in Minnesota’s win, the last Big Ten regular season game prior to the start of Thursday’s conference tournament. He was given a rare second half start. Armelin has talked in the past about playing college football. It will be interesting in the coming months to see if he tries to play both football and basketball, or chooses one sport.

Coach Jerry Kill will provide C.O.R.E.S. members with a look at his Gophers football program on Thursday. Minnesota starts spring football practice on March 22. Ron Stolski, Brainerd High football coach and executive director of the Minnesota Football Coaches Association, will introduce Kill. C.O.R.E.S. members can still make reservations by contacting Jim Dotseth. C.O.R.E.S. is an acronym for coaches, officials, educators, reporters and sports fans.

Fox Sports North televises the first of five Twins spring training games starting tonight at 6 p.m. when Minnesota plays Boston.

Patrick Reusse, talking on 1500 ESPN last week, credited a caller with a different way to look at the public commitment for a new Vikings stadium: The team ownership is willing to spend $427 million on the proposed $975 million facility and will use it only 10 or 12 times per year. The state and city, investing a combined $548 million, gets a covered facility to use for more than 300 days per year for community sports and a variety of major events. Seems like a good return on investment.

License plate seen Saturday on the all-electric Nissan Leaf car: Ybuygas.

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Search Firm Identifies U A.D. Profile

Posted on March 2, 2012March 2, 2012 by David Shama

At a Monday meeting earlier this week a representative of Parker Executive Search described what the Atlanta-based company will look for in the next University of Minnesota athletic director.

The University search advisory and search committees were told that Parker will seek candidates who it believes can foster a program that successfully graduates student-athletes, wins championships, and operates within the rules and ethics of the school and NCAA.

The two committees will help generate candidates to fill the vacancy created by departing athletic director Joel Maturi, but much of the searching will be done by Parker. Grassroots searching will be aided by a series of listening meetings with University supporters that will be held on campus next week.

Parker will conduct a national search that ultimately will help generate a few finalists to be reviewed by the four-person search committee and one or more names are expected to be forwarded to school president Eric Kaler. The Parker firm—also retained in 2010 to identify head coaching candidates for Gophers football—has been involved with many searches for athletic directors across the country.

Those searches have typically—although not always—resulted in the hiring of a person with previous administrative experience in an athletic department, often athletic directors willing to become directors at other schools. Also, with a significant representation of University employees on the search advisory and search committees, it seems likely the next Gophers athletic director will have an academic-athletic background rather than a business or legal resume.

Non-traditional candidates can be attractive, though, if it’s the right person. Many will argue Paul Giel, who came to campus from WCCO Radio, was the best Gophers athletic director since World War II. Pat Richter, who once was an executive with Oscar Mayer, received a lot of praise for his work as Wisconsin’s athletic director in the 1990s. Like Giel and Richter, Pat Haden is another former college football hero, and he returned to his alma mater (USC) in 2010 to become athletic director, giving up a law career and broadcast duties to re-energize a sagging athletic department.

A smart search at Minnesota won’t deal in any stereotypes involving gender, race, age—or heaven forbid—a non-academic background.

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