Golden Gophers – Page 94 – David Shama's Minnesota Sports Headliners

Glen Taylor: Wolves Were Close on Trade

Posted on February 16, 2022 by David Shama

The NBA trade deadline was February 10 and Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor told Sports Headliners the club almost changed its roster.

“I can say that they (the front office) were close to making a trade,” Taylor said Monday. “I don’t want to talk about the players (involved) because I just think that would be kind of a negative. But they had a couple of deals (involving)…a third team and at the last minute the other team backed out in a couple of cases.”

Minnesota media and fans had been infatuated for months about the Wolves possibly acquiring Ben Simmons. At 6-11 he is among the elite point guards in the NBA. The disgruntled Simmons refused to play this season with the 76ers and was finally traded last week to the Nets.

Near the trade deadline the Wolves weren’t close to swinging a deal for Simmons whose reasons for wanting out of Philadelphia remain murky. Taylor said the Wolves were in pursuit of players who could come off the bench to help their run toward the playoffs, and were not negotiating a blockbuster deal.

The Wolves last made the playoffs in 2018. Before then the franchise hadn’t earned its way into the postseason since 2004. With a 31-27 record and 24 regular season games remaining, there is an expectation about a playoff return. Not only is the record over .500 but the Wolves are 15-7 since January 3.

Taylor likes his team and he should. There is a roster of players (including a talented big three of Anthony Edwards, Karl-Anthony Towns and D’Angelo Russell) with their best years ahead of them.

The owner believes the potential is there for a “great future” and he wants to see the club make a statement by entering the playoffs in the spring. “If we can get going this year, there’s no reason we can’t build upon it,” he said.

Taylor praised efforts by interim Wolves front office leader Sachin Gupta and his staff involving possible trades. Taylor, though, didn’t offer specifics on who will lead the basketball operations decisions after this season. “We’ll wait and see how this year goes. Again (like coach Chris Finch), he’s done a good job of communication of what’s going on.”

Gupta still holds the same title, executive VP of basketball operations, he had under Gersson Rosas who was dismissed as president in September. It was Rosas who led the construction of the present roster and hired Finch.

Gupta displayed patience in not executing a trade, resisting a change of the roster just to prove he could make a deal. Taylor also sees patience in Finch who has been the head coach for about a year. “He doesn’t get excited. He doesn’t get too worried. He’s just kind of a consistent type of a person.”

By the end of 2023 Taylor expects new owners Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez to have the majority financial interest in the franchise. The three men set up a process last year that targets a gradual change in ownership. Taylor said Lore and Rodriguez have been attending games, meeting with staff and been supportive. “I am really happy with it (the process),” Taylor said.

Taylor will eventually own a minority share of the franchise. Speculation is 20 percent. “Something like that,” he said.

Worth Noting

Lore and Rodriguez saw the Wolves win their seventh consecutive game at Target Center last evening. Post game A-Rod tweeted about the “GREAT” win and energy in the building.

The Wolves, who defeated the Hornets 126-120, had 39 points from Towns, including 19 in the fourth quarter and overtime. Minnesota trailed by 13 points with 9:55 remaining in the fourth quarter.

The Golden Gophers men’s basketball team is 12-11 overall and 3-11 in Big Ten games after last night’s 70-45 loss in Columbus. Minnesota will probably need at least three more wins to prompt interest from the National Invitational Tournament.

The Gophers have quality wins including over Michigan, Mississippi State and Rutgers.

Olympic gold medal winner Gable Steveson, the University of Minnesota heavyweight wrestling icon from Apple Valley, had his final career match on campus last Friday night. It was a storybook finish. After defeating his Ohio State opponent he took a bow and did one last signature back flip in front of fans at Maturi Pavilion.

Steveson will chase another Big Ten title in Lincoln March 4-5 but his legacy as one of the Gophers’ all-time great athletes is secure. His All-American record includes a collegiate 48-0 dual record, 20-0 at the Pav. He came to Minnesota as a four-time state champion.

Former Albert Lea state championship wrestling coach Paul Ehrhard, who also was a college wrestling official, raved about the 285-pound Steveson in an email to Sports Headliners. “Most of the other top heavyweights were not nearly the technicians that Gable is. His ability from all positions is good but he excels on his feet. He has the uncanny ability to set up his opponent so he can use his quickness and great body carriage to take down opponents time after time.”

Ehrhard, a regular at Gopher wrestling meets, remembers the compliment Iowa fans paid Steveson after he defeated his Hawkeye opponent. “When you beat the Iowa heavyweight and the Iowa crowd gives you a standing ovation, you know you are special. I have observed him signing autographs and taking pictures with fans young and old for a half hour before meets. He is not only the best wrestler of his class, but a great ambassador for amateur wrestling.”

Wild coach Dean Evason has a tattoo with these words: “One day at a time.”

The Wild play at the Jets tonight, with Evason returning to his native Manitoba.

The Wild could make a deep playoff run and early games at Xcel Energy Center will gross about $1.75 million in ticket sales, per an NHL source.

Coach John Anderson and his Gopher baseball team begin their 2022 season Friday at Florida Atlantic. This will be Anderson’s 41st season leading the legacy program.

Condolences to family and friends of Tim Moreland, the former broadcaster of Vikings and Twins games in the early 1980s, who passed away last month at age 75 in North Carolina.

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Rams’ Way a Potential Path for Vikings

Posted on February 8, 2022 by David Shama

The Rams play in the Super Bowl Sunday and are 55-26 during the last five seasons. Their front office uses an approach that could help the Vikings build their roster and elevate out of the mediocrity of recent seasons.

The Rams haven’t drafted in the first round since 2016. Their next first rounder, as of now, is scheduled for 2024. Put the word scheduled in bold face if you like because with the Rams things happen with personnel acquisition—before the season, during training camp and even close to Super Bowl time.

This is an aggressive front office with a philosophy that believes it’s better to acquire proven impact players (like quarterback Matthew Stafford, wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. and linebacker Von Miller) than gamble on first round prospects. The roster has been constructed with key personnel who came via trades, free agency and draft picks beyond round one.

By not drafting in the first round, the Rams avoid the big salaries such players command. The savings is used to pay a bevy of stars on the roster that includes those mentioned above and others like defensive tackle Aaron Donald, cornerback Jalen Ramsey and offensive tackle Andrew Whitworth.

Superior scouting can pay off big with draft choices beyond the first and second rounds. The Rams’ poster boy for that is wide receiver Cooper Kupp, an NFL MVP candidate selected on the third round out of Eastern Washington.

Don’t get the idea the Rams trade away most of their draft choices in their wheeling and dealing. They often receive draft picks in return, and they also are awarded compensatory picks from the NFL for letting their free agents walk away. Part of the Rams’ successful roster construction approach is stockpiling draft choices.

Rams GM Les Snead isn’t afraid to make mistakes in the draft, or with free agents or via trades. Sometimes he and his front office colleagues are working on deadlines in crisis situations—drawing some similarity to the pressures of Wall Street where new Vikings GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah worked before building a career in the NFL.

It will be interesting to see if he uses a versatile and comprehensive approach like the Rams in the days ahead. Rick Spielman, his predecessor, was aggressive in stockpiling draft choices, too. He was spot on with some draft selections after the first round, taking Dalvin Cook and Brain O’Neill in the second round, Danielle Hunter in the third and Stefon Diggs and Ezra Cleveland in the fifth. But the Vikings haven’t done much over the years with mega free agent signings or trades. It’s been a long time since a Brett Favre or Jared Allen walked through the front door of the practice facility.

Worth Noting

Coach Jim Dutcher expects most of his players from the 1982 Golden Gophers’ Big Ten title team to participate in their 40-year celebration February 22, 23 and 24. It looks like 10 of the 12 will get together, including all the starters except for guard Tommy Davis who likely will be in France.

That starting group had just one native Minnesotan, center Randy Breuer. When Dutcher coached in the 1970s and 1980s at Minnesota, there were years when the state high school programs didn’t have a single Division I prospect. That’s in sharp contrast to the new millennium with the state now having a national reputation for producing quality D-I talent—sometimes the best in the country in Chet Holmgren, Jalen Suggs and Tyus Jones. “It’s worlds different,” Dutcher told Sports Headliners.

The 1982 group has been invited by Gopher head coach Ben Johnson to watch practice February 22 and then have dinner with the team. At halftime of the February 23 game against Wisconsin, Dutcher and his players will be honored. The next day the coach will host brunch at an Edina restaurant.

Johnson has faced the most difficult rebuild in memory at Minnesota. The first-year coach started the schedule with one returning player from last season and a roster of newcomers put together in hurry up fashion last spring. The Gophers, 11-9 overall and 2-9 in the Big Ten, have impressed with their competitiveness after going into the fall with the lowest of media and fan expectations. “He’s done an amazingly good job for his first year,” said Dutcher whose 1982 team was the last at Minnesota to win the league title.

Dutcher, 88, will attend granddaughter Liza’s wedding in San Diego next October. Father Brian Dutcher is head men’s basketball coach at San Diego State where assistant coach Mark Fisher coaches from a wheel chair after being diagnosed with ALS in 2013.

Bill Fitch only coached two seasons at the University of Minnesota, 1968-69 and 1969-70. He bolted for an NBA career that began with the expansion Cavaliers. If he had remained at Minnesota, he could have made the Golden Gophers Big Ten champs and a force on the national scene.

The Hall of Fame coach died earlier this month and I mourn his loss. I covered him during his Gophers days and we talked a few times by phone in recent years. Bill had a sharp tongue for his players and a quick wit for the media.

The Gophers had a shoot-first guard named Ollie Shannon who Fitch inherited after taking over the program. Ollie thought his shooting range was pretty much anywhere on the court. After a game in which Shannon almost cast a shot from mid-court the sarcastic coach told the media, “There goes Ollie running one of our options (from the playbook).”

Lou Nanne will provide TV analysis for the 58th year at the state hockey tournament next month. He is also doing four TV games this season for the Wild.

Nanne was captain of the 1968 US Olympic hockey team. Do the Americans have a chance of winning a medal this winter? “I definitely think they have,” he said.

Gopher athletic director Mark Coyle’s expected contract extension through 2028 is welcome news for fans “rowing the boat” because it helps assure a tight relationship with head football coach P.J. Fleck.

Surging Tom Hoge from Fargo, who finished second last month at the American Express in La Quinta and won Sunday’s AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, will be a headliner at this summer’s 3M Open in Blaine. “We fully expect him to play the 3M,” said Hollis Cavner who runs the Minnesota PGA Tour event.

Celebrity players at the AT&T included Bill Murray, the comedian, star of Caddyshack and St. Paul Saints investor. The showman wowed the crowd with a no-look putt.

Senior PGA rules official Mark Dusbabek, the former Gopher football player from Faribault, worked the tournament.

The Tapemark Minnesota PGA Pro-Am is set for June 10-12 at Southview Country Club. The event was successfully run for decades by the Klas family and this year will be the 51st annual.

With the ongoing pandemic, CORES program organizers are uncertain about a March gathering in Bloomington. CORES is an acronym for coaches, officials, reporters, educators and sports fans.

The dual meet between top-ranked Penn State and No. 2 Iowa last month averaged 363,000 viewers, making it the most-watched wrestling broadcast in Big Ten Network history. The previous record was 343,000 viewers, also set by the two wrestling powerhouses in January of 2020.

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Bet on Jim Harbaugh for Viking Job

Posted on February 1, 2022February 1, 2022 by David Shama

University of Michigan head football coach Jim Harbaugh will interview in Minnesota Wednesday for the Vikings’ job to replace Mike Zimmer. That meeting became public news earlier in the week and indicates how serious Harbaugh is about the Vikings.

“Serious? I don’t know why if you’re the head coach at Michigan—I don’t know why you would do it (the interview) unless you had the job.”

Those words are from former University of Minnesota head coach Glen Mason who spoke with Sports Headliners this morning. Mason spent 19 seasons successfully leading programs at Kansas and Minnesota and was an authoritative voice for years on the Big Ten Network. He said Harbaugh’s interest in the Vikings comes with “ramifications” back in Ann Arbor—involving colleagues and bosses, the Wolverines’ fan base and high school recruits (Wednesday is college football National Signing Day).

All of it sends a message.

To Mason, the interview indicates “you want the job, you want to leave Michigan.” Harbaugh reportedly had an exploratory phone interview with the Vikings’ leadership last Saturday. It’s more than a good guess the conversation and details that followed have been so favorable Harbaugh is willing to risk his reputation with the Michigan job to travel here tomorrow.

Perhaps to sign an already agreed upon deal with the Vikings.

“Jim Harbaugh is a pretty smart guy,” Mason said. “You wouldn’t think that he would leave himself vulnerable there (at Michigan) unless he thought he was at least going to be offered the job. Why would you take that risk?”

Harbaugh gives up a lot of credibility if he returns to Michigan, his alma mater. “I think you would have a heck of a sales job going back to Ann Arbor,” Mason said.

The other finalists for the Vikings’ job reportedly are Rams defensive coordinator Raheem Morris, Rams offensive coordinator Kevin O’Connell and Giants defensive coordinator Todd Graham. Morris and Harbaugh are the candidates with previous NFL head coaching experience. Morris was coach of the Bucs from 2009-2011 and was the league’s youngest head man during his first season.

O’Connell is in his second season with the Super Bowl-bound Rams. He was an assistant with the Washington Football Team before joining the Rams and he had a five-year NFL career as a quarterback (ending in 2012). Graham has more than 10 years of pro coaching experience and was a recent candidate for the Giants’ head job, since filled.

Harbaugh, 58, has a coaching resume that is among the most extensive and accomplished in the country. For starters, he is the only coach ever to lead teams to the Super Bowl and the FBS college football playoffs.

As head coach of the NFL 49ers from 2011-2014, he led teams to three NFC championship games. He had an overall record of 49-22-1 and was 5-3 in the postseason including a Super Bowl loss to his brother John Harbaugh of the Ravens.

Harbaugh’s seven-year record at Michigan is 61-24 and is among the best in school history. Prior to the 49ers, he was a young whiz as head coach at Stanford and San Diego. “His resume is pretty darn impressive,” Mason said.

Harbaugh also brings credibility because of his playing career as an All-American quarterback at Michigan and his on-field accomplishments with various teams including the Bears and Colts. Both his coaching and playing background could be advantageous in teaching and motivating Vikings players.

Downside? Harbaugh has a reputation for being a stern boss and Zimmer had that label, too. How would Harbaugh’s style go down with Viking players? Difficult to predict but there will be questions about every coach going into a new job, regardless of accomplishments.

Don’t discount Harbaugh’s ability to adapt, though, and learn from his stops at Michigan, the 49ers and elsewhere. “I am sure he’s had time to reflect on the things that he did real well… (and) things that he would do differently,” Mason said.

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