Golden Gophers – Page 418 – David Shama's Minnesota Sports Headliners

Worth Noting

Posted on February 8, 2012February 8, 2012 by David Shama

Jim Rantz, Twins senior director for minor league operations, likes infielder Brian Dozier who will start the season at Class AAA Rochester. Dozier hit .296 in the Arizona Fall League and will play mostly second base at Rochester, although he’s drawn past speculation as a big league shortstop.

Sports Headliners has been told that to build a Vikings Stadium on the Arden Hills site will require about 33 permits from government agencies, a far larger number than building on or near the Metrodome site.

The Gophers, 0-2 in the Big Ten this season against Iowa, play another border rival tomorrow night, Wisconsin at Williams Arena. The Gophers play in Madison on February 28.

Minnesota coach Tubby Smith, now in his fifth season with the Golden Gophers, is 6-2 in rivalry games against Iowa, and 3-3 versus Wisconsin.

The Gophers will likely start two Minnesotans tomorrow night, forward Rodney Williams and guard Joe Coleman. The Badgers figure to start three Minnesotans, forward Mike Bruesewitz, center Jared Berggren and guard Jordan Taylor.

Last season Badgers sophomore guard Josh Gasser became the first Big Ten freshman to earn a triple double since Magic Johnson in 1977.

The NBA All-Star balloting is a reminder about the lack of quality centers in pro basketball compared with power forwards. Superior power forwards like the Wolves’ Kevin Love weren’t voted on to the first team.

The Wild are home tomorrow night against Vancouver, part of a favorable home schedule the rest of the season that has Minnesota playing 18 of its remaining 29 games atXcel EnergyCenter. Tickets remain for all home games.

The Wild’s Cal Clutterbuck and Nick Schultz answer questions and provide autographs tonight at Main Street Bar and Grill in Hopkins. Matt Kassian and Nate Prosser will do the same on Monday at Cowboy Jack’s in Bloomington. Both appearances begin at 7 p.m. and are part of the Wild Hockey Unplugged series. Autograph tickets for each player will be distributed.

Saint John’s forward Aaron Barmore knows about perfection. The former Bloomington Jefferson High School player is the MIAC Men’s Basketball Athlete of the Week. All he did last week was not miss a single field goal attempt in helping the Johnnies upset St. Thomas for the first time since 2003 and also defeat Hamline. Barmore averaged 16 points and 6 rebounds per game. He made all 12 of his field goal attempts.

The Minnesota High School All-Star Football Game training camp will for the first time be at Saint John’s University in Collegeville. The game will be played on June 30 at TCF Bank Stadium.

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Super Bowl & Other Notes

Posted on February 6, 2012February 7, 2012 by David Shama

Vikings second-year quarterback Christian Ponder can find inspiration in the two quarterbacks who played in last night’s Super Bowl. New England’s Tom Brady struggled during his college career at Michigan and New York’s Eli Manning was highly criticized during his early NFL years.

Former Vikings defensive end Chris Doleman will be enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in August and he was introduced with other 2012 inductees before last night’s Super Bowl. “Doleman is one of those rare guys–maybe one of four or five that I played against during my career–right there with Reggie White, Bruce Smith, Derrick Thomas, that you had to know where they were and set your protection accordingly,” said former NFL quarterback Warren Moon. “You had to know if you were going to help the tackle out with a tight end or running back to chip on those guys. Doleman was someone you always had to worry about because you knew he could get to the quarterback. …”

NBClosangeles.com reported on Friday that NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said the league has no plans for expansion and doesn’t want to relocate existing teams. A new stadium plan in Los Angeles hasn’t been finalized as a potential home to the Vikings or another NFL team.

The Lucas Oil Stadium where last night’s Super Bowl was played will be among the facility models that planners for a new Vikings stadium will study.

Minneapolis hosted the Super Bowl in 1992 and a new Vikings stadium is almost certain to be the site of a future Super Bowl.

The Super Bowl will be in New Orleans next season, then at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey for outdoor football in 2014.

Since 1988 the NFC has won the Super Bowl every year during a presidential election year except 2004.

Among the TV competition for the Super Bowl is Animal Planet’s Puppy Bowl. The annual show achieved a ratings record last year with 9.2 million viewers, according to Huffingtonpost.com. The 2011 Super Bowl had a record 111 million viewers.

The 17^th annual Vikings Arctic Blast Snowmobile Rally, scheduled at Lake Mille Lacs next Saturday and Sunday, will feature current and former Vikings players along with coaches and team executives. Among those scheduled to participate and help raise money for the Vikings Children’s Fund are quarterback Joe Webb and running back Toby Gerhart.

Allen Trieu of Scout.com speaking on the Big Ten Network about Gophers football recruit Ben Lauer from Wayzata High School: “Watch out for Ben Lauer, an offensive tackle that I don’t think gets talked about enough from right there in their backyard.”

Gophersillustrated.com’s Zach Johnson said Gophers coach Jerry Kill works his tail off recruiting.

In addition to discussing Kill, Johnson told Sports Headliners assistant coaches Bill Miller and Jay Sawvell were most instrumental in recruiting the 2012 class announced last week. Miller, the Gophers only assistant with BCS recruiting experience, specializes in south Florida. Sawvell was active in the Deep South and North Carolina including recruitment of highly regarded wide receiver Jamel Harbison from Charlotte.

Wisconsin has won consecutive Big Ten football championships but only twice in the last 10 years has Rivals.com ranked the Badgers recruiting classes among the top half in the conference.

Prep basketball authority Ken Lien emailed that sophomore Apple Valley High School point guard Tyus Jones received a scholarship offer from Duke.

The start time for the Wild game against the Bruins atXcel Energy Center on Sunday, February 19 has been changed to 2:30 p.m. from 2 p.m. The game will be televised nationally as part of “Hockey Day inAmerica” coverage on NBC.

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Next U A.D. Needs Hiring Expertise

Posted on February 3, 2012February 7, 2012 by David Shama

As written here last Friday, it was only a matter of days or weeks before Eric Kaler and Joel Maturi made a final decision on the Gophers athletic director job. Yesterday at a University of Minnesota news conference, President Kaler and Maturi announced that a new athletic director will soon be running the Gophers 25 sport program.

Maturi, 66, has been the athletic director since 2002 and is retiring. Kaler, who became president last July, has likely been thinking for some time about a new department leader. He will receive a lot of advice from the public and special interest groups including former Gopher athletes regarding who to hire.

Three qualities should top the list in searching for a new athletic director. The department needs a boss who is exceptional in identifying and hiring extraordinary coaches. Minnesota’s teams can compete with the best schools in the Big Ten in all sports if the coaches are high achievers.

The other qualities leading the list are fundraising and solid fiscal leadership. The athletic department has major financial challenges including whether to continue with 25 sports. The football and basketball programs (men’s and women’s) are under- achieving financially. A long term solution must be found for archaic Williams Arena. A dynamic individual who has the expertise to see the challenges and also the vision to find solutions will place the department in a much healthier fiscal position.

Kaler should first search for candidates who know this community and the culture of Gophers athletics. A local person with existing relationships will have a jump-start in fundraising and generating other support for Gophers athletics, plus an invaluable knowledge about the state and school.

Kaler must make the right hire, even it’s ultimately someone from outside Minnesota. The new A.D. needs to be a person who is extremely passionate in his or her commitment to win while operating within the ethics of modern day athletics. Nowhere is this more needed than in the “front porch” sports of football and men’s basketball. Those sports are annually a source of major frustration to Gophers fans.

The new A.D. might ideally be a person with experience in both business and athletics, and certainly needs to be someone who can as adroitly manage a coaching search as a student protest.

Kaler may have interest in the athletic director he knew while working at Stony Brook University. Jim Fiore is in his ninth year at the New York school where his teams have won numerous conference championships and he’s known as an effective fundraiser. He’s also consistently balanced the budget for his Division I school. Fiore’s name was rumored with the North Carolina athletic director opening last fall.

Other national names that could draw speculation include Iowa athletic director Gary Barta and Mountain West Conference commissioner Craig Thompson. Barta was born in Minneapolis and attended Burnsville High School. Thompson worked in the Gophers sports information office years ago.

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