NCAA – Page 104 – David Shama's Minnesota Sports Headliners

U’s Murphy May Miss All-Star Game

Posted on April 5, 2019April 5, 2019 by David Shama

Enjoy a Friday notes column with a focus on the Final Four.

Golden Gophers forward Jordan Murphy, still cautious after injuring his back two weeks ago in Minnesota’s NCAA Tournament win over Louisville, said he may not play in the Reese’s College All-Star game scheduled this afternoon (Friday) at U.S. Bank Stadium as part of the Minneapolis Final Four activities.

Murphy, though, plans to participate in the Dos Equis 3-on-3 tournament starting today at Mall of America. The three-day tournament consists of college seniors like Murphy who are grouped with other players from their conferences, and they compete for $150,000 in prize pool money, with $100,000 going to the winning team.

Murphy had never missed a Gophers game until his back problem of two weeks ago forced him to sit out Minnesota’s second NCAA Tournament game against Michigan State. He never had previous back problems but he suffered spasms and soreness when the Gophers were in Des Moines for the tournament. Trying to get ready for Michigan State, Murphy said he saw a chiropractor twice, took ice baths and also used heat, and did some stretching and jogging.

“There’s probably zero chance I could have played in that game,” Murphy said.

Internet reports and a Sports Headliners source believe the University of Arkansas has interest in the Gophers’ Richard Pitino for its head basketball coach opening.

Inner city youth received a lesson yesterday as to why sports—even when played at the highest levels—is about more than wins and losses. Youngsters at a Minneapolis Convention Center event took home about 1,000 items including sports apparel donated by the Clean Out For A Cause program supported by coaches, athletes, and staff from college and professional teams throughout the country.

The program launched in 2013 when basketball coach Tubby Smith donated excess Gophers items after he was let go by the University of Minnesota. The 100 pound donation has since turned into over 200,000 pounds of sports gear donated by over 100 college programs, and nearly half of all pro sports teams as they pass on used or excess shoes and other items each season.

Drew Boe, a former Gopher student manager under Smith, has been the driving force of the Clean Out For A Cause program and the generosity it provides. More on Boe at the Managers On A Mission website.

Boe admires Smith who was joined by other sports celebrities at the Convention Center to deliver messages about life. Smith has long been known for his commitment to help in places where he has coached including in Minneapolis.

“I just have so much respect for his commitment and integrity,” Boe said about the coach who is still mentoring him. “He is willing to go above and beyond in developing men.”

Smith said he’s moved past his firing at Minnesota by controversial athletic director Norwood Teague that came after his team had played two games in the NCAA Tournament of 2013. “I’ve got too much going in my life,” he told Sports Headliners yesterday. “Too much excitement to worry about anything. Once it’s over it’s gone. Losses will stick with you but it’s all about family. …”

Smith’s predecessor as Gophers coach, Dan Monson, is also in town for the Final Four. Smith had a 16-15 overall record as head coach at High Point last season. Monson was 15-19 at Long Beach State.

Jim Nantz, who has spent his entire national broadcasting career at CBS television, works his 30th Final Four in Minneapolis this weekend as the network’s play-by-play voice. Nantz is doing his third Final Four in Minneapolis.

David Ching, writing Tuesday for Forbes.com, said all four coaches in the Minneapolis Final Four will be receiving bonuses for the NCAA Tournament runs of their teams and can add a lot more by winning the national championship on Monday night. None can profit more than Virginia’s Tony Bennett who with the Cavaliers’ tournament march to Minneapolis has already earned $850,000 in incentive bonuses. A national title will add $400,000 more to the payday.

How difficult is it to predict before the season the teams that will be in the Final Four? Very challenging even for the best crystal ballers. The entrants in Minneapolis this weekend are Auburn, Michigan State, Texas Tech and Virginia. Prior to the season Athlon’s college basketball magazine had Duke, Gonzaga, Kansas and Kentucky in the Final Four. Nice try with Duke, Gonzaga and Kentucky all losing in Elite Eight games.

Michigan State will try to win the Big Ten Conference’s first men’s NCAA Tournament basketball championship since 2000 when coach Tom Izzo’s Spartans won it all. The league is frequently promoted as a great hoops league but all time the Big Ten has won only 11 titles in the tournament that started in 1939. Per Wikipedia, UCLA alone has 11 national crowns. Kentucky has eight, and ACC powers North Carolina (six) and Duke (five) have 11 titles.

Indiana with five titles and Michigan State with two, are the only Big Ten programs to have won multiple NCAA men’s basketball championships. Minnesota, of course, has no national titles and has a combined 9-11 record in the NCAA Tournament not counting vacated games due to NCAA violations.

No doubt the absence of Duke and its must-see freshman Zion Williamson put a damper on ticket prices for Minneapolis Final Four tickets. The average resale ticket price for games Saturday and Monday won’t come close to the $900 reported by geekseat.com for the 2015 Final Four involving showcase programs Duke, Kentucky, Michigan State and Wisconsin.

Game tickets aren’t the only hot commodities in Minneapolis. Reservations at the city’s top restaurants are popular, too, including at Murray’s where the iconic steak house (in business since 1946) is sold out on Friday and Sunday nights. Earlier this week owner Tim Murray said Saturday and Monday will be busy, too.

Word is Duke freshman point guard Tre Jones from Apple Valley could be a first round pick if he decides to leave college early for the NBA. Former DeLaSalle and Kentucky standout Reid Travis, who projects as a power forward in pro basketball, isn’t likely to be drafted in either the first or second round by an NBA team, per a pro scout.

Former Timberwolves player and front office executive Fred Hoiberg, now the new Nebraska head coach, is assembling his staff including Matt Abdelmassih who he referred to at his introductory press conference this week being “as good as” any recruiter in the country. Abdelmassih, who was a student manager for St. John’s from 2004-2007, met Hoiberg after college when he was an intern for the Timberwolves. Abdelmassih, described by ESPN authorities as the best transfer recruiter in the country, left his position as an assistant coach at his alma mater to join Hoiberg in Lincoln.

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It Always Was Duke for Tre Jones

Posted on April 3, 2019April 3, 2019 by David Shama

The image of a distraught Tre Jones weeping after Duke’s loss to Michigan State last Sunday will long stay in the minds of those who care about the former Apple Valley All-State and prep All-American point guard.

The 68-67 loss to the Spartans in the NCAA Tournament crushed the hopes of Tre and his Duke teammates to earn their way to Minneapolis for this weekend’s Final Four and possibly win the national championship. Tre had a dream of coming home and playing in front of so many Minnesotans who had followed his high school career. He also carried the burden of being a key leader on a team representing a blueblood program, but there was even more contributing to his grief in seeing the Duke season end before he wanted.

“He dedicated this season to his mom, who is suffering from breast cancer,” Al Nuness told Sports Headliners. “I think it (Sunday’s loss) was a big emotional let down for him.”

Nuness, the Golden Gophers basketball captain in 1969 and a former University of Minnesota assistant coach, is a cousin of Tre and his older brother Tyus, who as a freshman point guard led Duke to the 2015 national title. Nuness has long been a role model and mentor for Tyus and Tre, who refer to him as “Uncle Al.”

In 2010, when Tyus was in the eighth grade and Tre in the fourth, Al took the boys to Indianapolis to see the Final Four. He knew even then the two Jones youngsters were “basketball fanatics,” and so he asked their parents (Debbie and Rob Jones) for permission to head for Indy where he also had business as a Jostens executive.

Family values are important to Al, and there was more to his basketball trip than the Final Four. “It also provided an opportunity for them (Tyus and Tre) to see their biological grandmother (on their dad’s side of the family),” Al said. “…The kids had never spent any time at her home (in Illinois) so it gave them an opportunity to spend a night with her, and then we drove on to Indianapolis.”

In the days leading up to the Final Four, Jostens had a booth at the convention facility in Indianapolis that attracted potential customers for its celebration products. Al encouraged the Jones boys not to hang around the booth but instead wander the facility to see what was going on.

They found a shooting contest and Tyus won uniforms for his Apple Valley team back home in Minnesota. The fact he won the contest probably didn’t surprise some college coaches in attendance for the Final Four. Even though Tyus wasn’t even in high school, he was already being followed by major college programs and was recognized in Indianapolis by the likes of Michigan State coach Tom Izzo.

Another memory Al talked about in a telephone interview earlier this week was watching Duke practice in Indianapolis. When the Blue Devils finished, Al told the boys it was time to leave but Tre said, “No, Uncle Al, Coach K (Mike Krzyzewski) is going to talk to the crowd.”

“Sure enough Coach K picked up the mic and talked to the crowd that was there at their practice.” Al remembered. “After he finished, I said, can we leave now? He said, yes.”

After Duke won the 2010 national title, Al told one of his regional managers who called on Duke to tell Krzyzewski that he had never given Jostens any business. Al was head of Jostens’ championship division and he wanted Jostens to make Duke’s championship rings.

He also had a back-story with Krzyzewski and he asked his regional manager to inform the coach that Al Nuness was his boss. Nuness and Krzyzewski were both honored back in the 1960s as All-Chicago area players by the Chicago Tribune.

Coach K’s reaction? He decided to have some fun with this Jostens sales pitch, but so did Al. The coach said Jostens would get no business unless Al came down to North Carolina and visited Duke.

“Knowing Mike, like I know Mike, he was setting me up,” Al recalled. “I went back and found in my old scrapbooks the picture of me and Mike when we were named to the All-Chicagoland area team. Mike had this flat crew cut. He just looked like the All-American guy. I took that (picture) with me in my briefcase.”

When Al sat down with Krzyzewski the coach went on the attack. “Mike just chews me out. He just says, man, you never passed the ball, you never did anything. He used some other ‘superlatives’ that I won’t mention to you, but he just gave me a hard time.”

Then it was Al’s turn, pulling out the old photo of the crew cut Krzyzewski. A couple of Duke assistant coaches were also at the meeting and they were very amused after seeing the picture of their boss. The photo got a big reaction from Krzyzewski who eventually said, “Okay, you guys got the business. Design the ring.”

While in Durham in 2010, Al told Krzyzewski to remember the name Tyus Jones. Three years later the coach called and asked Al if he would help him recruit Tyus. Al told him no because his loyalties were to his alma mater and also Baylor where son Jared was an assistant coach.

A subtle connection with Tre also began at that 2010 meeting between Al and Coach K. Al told his friend that “Tre Jones is a Duke fanatic.” He asked the famous coach to sign Duke memorabilia including a team poster. Then back home Al also gave young Tre a Blue Devils watch that Jostens made.

Tre created a Duke shrine in his room. Years later when Krzyzewski came to the Jones home on a recruiting trip he saw Duke memorabilia in Tre’s room. “You know it was pretty obvious where Tre had his mind set,” Al said. “He always had an infatuation with Duke and Coach K.”

This season was special for the Blue Devils even if they didn’t travel the final road to Minneapolis. Duke’s record was 32-6, playing some of the best teams in the country and reaching the Elite Eight in the NCAA Tournament after spending part of the season ranked No. 1 in the nation.

The Blue Devils had a freshmen dominated team including Tre, with three of his first-year teammates projected to be among the top five picks in June’s NBA Draft. As for Tre, he is predicted by some authorities to go later in the first round if he decides to become draft eligible.

As the team’s point guard, Tre frequently played long stretches in games—sometimes on the floor for 40 minutes. “He’s as important a player as we have,” Krzyzewski said last Saturday at a NCAA Tournament news conference televised on the Big Ten Network.

At that news conference the coach was asked about both Jones brothers who have helped him to so much success including the 2015 NCAA championship when Tyus was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player. “They are big time moment players,” Krzyzewski said.

Tyus was the better shooter and scorer in college, while Tre, even as a freshman, might have been the most effective on-ball defender in the nation this season. Tre had struggles with his shooting, particularly with three point field goals. He made just 26.2 percent of his three pointers. Overall, he converted 41.4 percent of his field goals, while averaging a fourth best on the team 9.4 points per game. He led the Blue Devils in assists at 5.3 per game.

Al offers perspective, though, when discussing Tre’s shooting. He talked about the heavy minutes the teenager played and the enormous pressure to distribute the basketball to highly publicized teammates so they received enough shots. “You gotta remember he is only a freshman, so he is trying to adjust and trying to understand how his body works when he is forced to play 40 minutes a game,” Al said.

Tre has for years handled the pressure of being the younger brother of Tyus, who has built on his high school and college storybook career to become a first round NBA draft choice and four-year member of his hometown Minnesota Timberwolves.

“…My gosh, has this kid handled the pressure,” Al said. “This kid has done and carved out his own way. Regardless of whatever Tyus has done, Tre has been very good in his own right.

“He was (also) a McDonald’s All-American. He’s playing extremely well at Duke. He’s carved out a defensive image…as one of the best defenders in the country, and that (defense) is always what he has hung his banner on. I am so proud of him and I am so proud of what he has become. Whether he decides to stay one year, or go back to Duke…I support whatever his decision is.”

By now you know “Uncle Al” is in the corner of the Jones boys, and with good reason. “It’s just been interesting to watch these two kids grow up, and just kind of follow their success,” Al said. “I cannot be more proud of the two and how the family has embraced them, and really how they turned out.

“I mean they are perfect gentlemen, both of them. You’ve never heard anything bad about either one of them. They are well spoken kids. They were great students in high school. I don’t know anyone that disliked them.”

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Twins Missed on Retractable Roof

Posted on April 1, 2019April 1, 2019 by David Shama

A Monday notes column that includes quotes from Minnesota governors and a lot more.

The Twins did okay with the weather for their 2019 home opening series in Minneapolis. Game time temperatures in their three-game series with the Cleveland Indians were 49 degrees on Thursday and 34 both Saturday and Sunday. The 34 degrees tied a record for the third coldest temperature in Target Field history. The coldest is 27 on April 7 of last year.

Not exactly balmy but better than early season weather in 2018 that led to postponements. Cold weather, rain and snow keeps ticket buyers away, and the Twins management knew this years ago when they pushed state officials for a retractable roof facility to be built along the Mississippi River in downtown Minneapolis.

Arne Carlson, Minnesota’s governor in the late 1990s and a sports fan, saw the advantage of a retractable roof facility. Reached by telephone last weekend at his residence in Florida, Carlson talked about Minnesota’s “adverse weather” in both the spring and late fall. “…So a retractable roof only makes good common sense,” he said.

A financial package couldn’t be agreed upon for a retractable roof baseball stadium in the 1990s and the club finally worked out a deal with Hennepin County to build open air Target Field, a facility in operation since 2010. The acclaimed ballpark is often ranked among baseball’s best stadiums, but it can’t guarantee that weather won’t postpone games, and that’s a challenge in selling tickets to potential customers who live near and far.

The proposed cost for a Twins retractable roof stadium years ago was $438.8 million. Target Field, with financing from the county and the Twins, cost over $550 million including original expenditures and later enhancements.

The Twins drew a sellout crowd of 39,519 for opening day, then announced attendances of 15,271 Saturday and 15,613 Sunday. The best numbers of the last few days for the Twins were winning two of three games against their AL Central Division rival Indians, the favorite to win a fourth consecutive championship.

Minnesota native and Indians ace reliever Brad Hand pitched in both Thursday’s and Saturday’s games. After the Saturday game he told Fox Sports North that as an amateur in Minnesota he had pitched while it was snowing.

In a feature story on how technology has impacted baseball, the late March issue of Sports Illustrated said, “the Twins hope they have found the next undervalued pitcher based on data.” The magazine reported Martin Perez, who Minnesota signed in January for a reported $3.5 million for one season, threw his fastball 97 miles per hour in spring training—faster than he had achieved in four years. The left-hander had a 6.22 ERA with the Texas Rangers last season.

Perez, pitching in relief, was the winning pitcher yesterday in Minnesota’s 9-3 victory. In 3.2 innings he gave up three earned runs but struck out six batters.

Governor Tim Walz, elected to office last fall, spoke to high school football coaches Friday night. He is a former prep football coach. “My peers sit in this room,” he said at the 12th annual Minnesota Football Coaches Clinic in St. Louis Park.

Walz was the defensive coordinator for the 1999 Mankato West state championship team. “This game (football) shaped me,” he said.

Three-day event organizers, including Ron Stolski and Jim Dotseth, said the clinic had record attendance of about 1,500. Among the recipients of awards from the Minnesota Football Coaches Association (MFCA) was KARE TV’s Randy Shaver, who was recognized for his contributions to football in the state including through his Prep Sports Extra program that starts its 35th season this fall.

At Iowa State Shaver planned to be a football coach and teacher before deciding to enter broadcasting. At KARE 11, first as a sportscaster and now a news anchor, Shaver remained intrigued with high school football. On Friday nights after going off the air he will work until 3 a.m. poring over game film for information he will eventually use to determine the station’s all-metro offensive and defensive teams. “People think I am crazy,” he told Sports Headliners about his passion to review film.

The MFCA announced Mike Kesler of Rochester Lourdes as its 2018 Coach of the Year on Saturday. His Eagles had a 14-0 record in 2018 and won the Class 3A State Football Championship last November.

Among clinic speakers was Golden Gophers head coach P.J. Fleck who recommended reading the following books: Belichick, Date Your Wife, Power of a Positive Team, and You Have What It takes: What Every Father Needs to Know.

Fleck also told the audience he enjoys vacationing at Disney World in Orlando.

Ryan Suter can become the third Minnesota Wild player ever to win the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy. The popular defenseman would join goalies Devin Dubnyk and Josh Harding as winners of the award named after the late Bill Masterton from the Minnesota North Stars. The trophy is presented annually to the NHL player who best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey.

You can be sure the many friends Fred Hoiberg made while working for the Timberwolves are happy he is back in coaching. The former Iowa State and Chicago Bulls coach, who both played for and worked in the Wolves front office, has agreed to a reported seven-year, $25 million deal to coach at Nebraska. It looks like another savvy hire by Bill Moos, one of the best athletic directors in the country. At Nebraska Moos also hired football coach Scott Frost and while at Washington State he hired football coach Mike Leach.

The Michigan State team that plays in the Minneapolis Final Four on Saturday had a great season even though the Spartans’ Miles Bridges and Jaren Jackson declared early for the NBA where they are averaging 7.2 and 13.8 points per game respectively.

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