NCAA – Page 121 – David Shama's Minnesota Sports Headliners

Kirk Cousins High Reward or Risk?

Posted on March 13, 2018March 13, 2018 by David Shama

A Tuesday notes column:

Reports that quarterback Case Keenum will sign with the Broncos this week add credibility to rumors the Vikings are targeting Kirk Cousins as the NFL moves into its free agency signing period tomorrow. Acquiring Cousins looks like the kind of personnel decision that could either help the Vikings to a Super Bowl, or put general manager Rick Spielman in a bad spot with ownership.

The Vikings recently sent a message to Keenum by not making him a franchise player and providing a lucrative contract. The Broncos need a quarterback and Keenum could certainly be impressed by joining up with John Elway, the former Denver hall of fame quarterback and now a team executive.

Keenum was 11-3 as a sub for the Vikings last season and was popular in the locker room. However, he wasn’t outstanding in the NFC title game loss to the Eagles and it appears the Vikings think Cousins is more talented.

Acquiring Cousins could cost $90 million, with a sizeable portion guaranteed money. That’s a big financial commitment for a player who the Vikings will gamble can fit their system and change his image to that of a winner.

Rich Cimini, writing on ESPN.com February 25, said the 29-year-old quarterback has a 4-19 record against winning teams (based on final season records). Cousins has set franchise passing records for the Redskins during his six seasons with them.

Karl-Anthony Towns told ABC television Sunday he wants to become the greatest basketball player ever. To do so the Timberwolves third-year center has to one day move past an extraordinary and long line of players, but his career goal is nothing to laugh at.

At 22 years old, the 7-foot, 248-pound Towns is already an NBA All-Star but certainly not the best player in the league. His size, skills and versatility do give him a chance at one day replacing a LeBron James or Kevin Durant as the top player on the planet. Forget the all-time stuff, that alone is lofty goal setting. But remember, too, that a preseason poll of NBA general managers named Towns the player they would most want to start a franchise with.

Towns made the general managers look prophetic Sunday during ABC’s nationally televised game when he led his team to a 109-103 win over the defending NBA champion Warriors. He scored 31 points (the Warriors’ Durant had 39) and grabbed more rebounds, 16, than anyone on the court. Towns, as usual, scored inside and out including two of five three point shots. He earned praise “as a very versatile offensive player” from Warriors coach Steve Kerr.

After the game Towns had a league-leading 57 double-doubles (171 career). It was his ninth 30+ point performance of the season, and he has 10+ rebounds in 16 of the last 18 games.

The win over the Warriors ended a three-game losing streak for the Wolves. With 14 games remaining in the regular season the team is competing to make the playoffs for the first time since 2004. If the season ended today the Wolves would qualify but with a 3-3 record since team MVP Jimmy Butler was injured, Minnesota is in must-win status in the weeks ahead including tonight on the road against the Wizards.

With his team pursuing a playoff assignment, and Butler’s return uncertain for anytime soon, this is an opportune time for Towns to take another step in building his resume. He told ABC he knows a lot of work will be involved if he wants to fulfill his biggest ambition. The present moment and leading the Wolves to the playoffs is the best place to start.

Sunday’s Timberwolves-Warriors game at Target Center was Minnesota’s second consecutive sellout and 13th of the season—the team’s most since 2003-04 (15 sellouts).

Dick Jonckowski is co-writing a book about his life with local sports author Jim Bruton. “It’s All about Me—Dick Jonckowski a Minnesota Treasure” is due out in May. Jonckowski hopes to sell copies at two venues where he became famous, Williams Arena and Siebert Field. Known to generations of Minnesotans as the Gophers public address announcer for men’s basketball and baseball games, the 74-year-old Jonckowski has enjoyed a career that also includes radio and banquet emcee assignments.

ESPN2 will televise the Gopher-Green Bay first round women’s NCAA Tournament basketball game starting at 4 p.m. CDT Friday from Eugene, Oregon. Minnesota is the No. 10 seed in the Spokane Region while Green Bay is No. 7. The team that advances will play Sunday against the winner of the first-round game between No. 2 seed Oregon and 15th-seeded Seattle. Minnesota earned its second NCAA Tournament spot in four years (first since 2015) and the 10th in program history.

Among teams Minnesotans will follow with interest in the men’s NCAA Tournament are the underdog South Dakota State Jackrabbits who play their opening game Thursday afternoon as a No. 12 seed against No. 5 Ohio State in the West Region. Twelve seeds are famous for upsetting fives.

Jackrabbit forward Ian Theisen started five of 30 games and averaged 4.7 points and is the lone Minnesotan on the South Dakota State roster. He graduated from Osseo High School as the school record holder in points, 1,590, and rebounds, 1083.

Guard Owen King from Caledonia will join the Jackrabbits next season as a scholarship freshman. King is one of five finalists for Minnesota’s Mr. Basketball Award and last December was also a finalist for the state’s Mr. Football.

Award winning comedian and actor Bill Murray, a part owner of baseball’s Saint Paul Saints, is the father of Luke Murray who is an assistant coach for Xavier, the No. 1 seed in the West Region of the men’s NCAA Tournament. The younger Murray, a 2007 graduate of Fairfield, is known as an outstanding East Coast recruiter.

The city of Cincinnati has two teams in the tournament, Xavier and No. 2 South Region seed Cincinnati. Meanwhile, the Big Ten managed to send only four teams to the tournament—Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State and Purdue.

If you’re keeping score, the U men’s program has produced five tournament teams since 2000.

Xavier senior guard J.P. Macura is no longer projected to be selected in the second round of the 2018 NBA draft, per Nbadraft.net who had the former Lakeville North all-stater at No. 55 back in December.

Duke freshman guard Gary Trent Jr., a former star at Apple Valley, is predicted to be the No. 15 pick in the first round.

Club president Dave St. Peter told Sports Headliners yesterday about 1,000 tickets remain for the Twins’ home opener April 5 against the Mariners. As of now, none of the franchise’s 2018 home dates are sold out but the opener soon will be.

St. Peter said the season ticket total has surpassed last year, although he declined to provide figures. It’s believed the club’s total in 2017 was about 12,000.

A friend who saw last night’s Twins 2-1 exhibition win over the Yankees in windy Tampa said Minnesota catcher Bobby Wilson impressed not only with a two-run homer but in catching foul balls. Not so good were four plate appearances and four strike outs by center fielder Byron Buxton.

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Here’s a Primer for Tournament Picks

Posted on March 11, 2018March 11, 2018 by David Shama

Sunday’s column offers suggestions (serious and not) about how to fill out your NCAA Tournament Bracket…and news on a Minnesota club sport that could develop fast in state communities.

If you live on another planet and don’t know, today is Selection Sunday for the men’s NCAA basketball tournament. That means tonight and tomorrow there will be a lot of collective head-scratching as college basketball (and wagering) fans try to figure out who will advance through the tournament field and ultimately win next month’s NCAA championship.

You could pick teams the way certain Canterbury Park patrons wager on horses—by their colors. That method means selecting favorites based on likeable team names, mascots, or school colors. If that’s your thing, pick up the latest issue of Sports Illustrated to “help” with your bracket.

The magazine informs readers that the Wildcats of Arizona, Kentucky and Villanova are 6-3 in tourney championship games since 1985. However, tournament teams with dog names like the Gonzaga Bulldogs are 35-25 against cat teams since 1985.

Perhaps consider too that Sports Illustrated research says in the last 14 years only one team that did not have blue in its colors has won the NCAA title. The exception? Infamous coach Rick Pitino and his Louisville Cardinals. And, yes, now the NCAA has stripped Louisville of its 2013 title because of rules violations.

Maybe just use a favorite coin and flip heads or tails to fill out your bracket, but before turning to that method consider some advice from former Gopher head coach Jim Dutcher who is one of the smartest people I know.

Dutcher follows the college basketball season intently, partly because of his roots in the game including as an assistant coach at Michigan and then as the Gophers’ head man from 1975-1986. His son Brian Dutcher is head coach at San Diego State, a team that won the Mountain West Tournament championship last night and secured a spot in the NCAA Tournament.

Dutcher has seen “The Big Dance” grow into a unique part of Americana that captivates the public and enriches the NCAA. “People who don’t even follow basketball are in the (tourney bracket) office pool,” Dutcher said.

Part of the tournament charm is there are teams and conferences some fans have never heard of. This year’s field includes the likes of Bucknell from the Patriot League, Lipscomb of the Atlantic Sun, and Radford from the Big South.

Chasing Cinderella in a bracket can be fun, trying to see if mid-major teams can knock off the bluebloods of the tournament. “You’re always trying to pick the upsets,” Dutcher said.

But Dutcher cautions fans about falling too hard for Cinderella as you sort through the 68-team tournament field. There’s a reason teams like Virginia, Villanova and Xavier will be given high seeds on Selection Sunday. Those schools, along with other familiar names like Duke, Kansas, Michigan State and Purdue, possess a lot of the best college talent and coaching. “Generally, the No. 1 seeds end up there (in the finals),” Dutcher said

Dutcher acknowledges that historically tournament teams who are No. 12 seeds do have a track record of success in games against No. 5 seeds. Oddsmakers know this and point spreads will sometimes be narrow between five and 12 seeds. That could be the time to make a spoiler pick in your bracket.

Dutcher suggests researching teams playing at high levels right now. He mentioned Arizona and Kansas as two of the bluebloods who are closing fast, but his choice to emerge in San Antonio next month as national champion is Duke.

The Blue Devils? Sounds familiar, and that’s the idea when filling out your tourney bracket. Don’t venture too far away from the facts. Of course, reality also is that even students of bracketology are going to be wrong when trying to predict the outcome of all those games. “March Madness, right?” …

Hugh McCutcheon has developed women’s volleyball into a national power at the University of Minnesota, but he has wondered why there is no boys’ volleyball in the state’s high schools. Last summer he started talking about that with Walt Weaver, the legendary Minnesota girls’ volleyball coach.

Conversations between McCutcheon and Weaver resulted in a developing story. Others picked up the initiative and volunteered their time during the last several months, and the result has been over 400 boys from various high schools have registered to play club volleyball this spring.

“There’s always been a lot of interest…from boys to play,” McCutcheon said. “We have a club team at the U, and so we talked to those players and they’re like, ‘Hey, we would have loved it if we could have played in high school but we never had the chance.’ ”

McCutcheon is hopeful that “if we can show continued interest,” boys’ volleyball will not only expand to more participants and schools, but also be elevated from a club sport to the more fully funded and supported status of sports in the state like baseball, basketball, football, softball and girls’ volleyball. Boys’ high school volleyball is played in Iowa and Wisconsin.

McCutcheon said the North Country Region of USA Volleyball has helped to offset costs of the startup and make participation more affordable for participants.

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Pat Shurmur Big Loss for Vikings

Posted on January 28, 2018January 28, 2018 by David Shama

Pat Shurmur’s departure as offensive coordinator for the Vikings creates a concern for next season. Perhaps jumbo size.

Shurmur’s job performance with Minnesota prompted his hiring last week as the New York Giants head coach. After succeeding Norv Turner as offensive coordinator during the 2016 season, Shurmur showed why head coach Mike Zimmer promoted him.

Turner was Minnesota’s offensive coordinator for two-plus seasons. His offenses seldom dazzled, and reportedly he and Zimmer had different views. Shurmur, though, helped turn the offense from a worry to an asset in 2017 despite the early season loss of quarterback Sam Bradford to knee issues.

Shurmur’s offense struggled to produce points in last Sunday’s playoff loss to the Eagles, scoring a lone touchdown. But during the regular season the offense finished 11th in the NFL in yards per game with 358.9 and the unit tied for seventh with 68 plays for 20 or more yards, demonstrating big play ability.

Shurmur was adept at utilizing personnel within schemes players were capable of accomplishing. His game plans were impressive including what looked to be scripted early first quarter plays designed to not only gain yards but make the personnel comfortable and establish confidence.

The 52-year-old Shurmur has 19 seasons of coaching experience in the NFL, including as head coach of the Browns. With the Vikings he has shown a calm and even pleasant demeanor during games. He appears to be the kind of coach who makes players comfortable.

Zimmer hired Shurmur in 2016 as his tights ends coach before promoting him to offensive coordinator. While it’s questionable whether Zimmer and Turner worked well together, it’s obvious Shurmur and Zimmer did.

Since day one of Zimmer’s arrival as head coach of the Vikings in January of 2014, his signature has been all over the defense which has become one of the top units in the NFL. Shurmur provided major direction to the offense and offered a counter balance to the 24-7 intensity and temper of the head coach.

Style of play, strategizing, handling players and getting along with Zimmer look like ways Shurmur’s successor will be compared. A year from now we’ll know whether the Vikings have “Shurmur 2” or something less.

Worth Noting

“Welcome to the Bold North and Super Bowl 52.” Those are the recorded words of former Viking Chad Greenway on the sound system at Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport as the area begins welcoming visitors to the big game February 4. Greenway, the ex-linebacker who retired after the 2016 season, agreed about a year ago to help local organizers with the Super Bowl effort.

Reports are legal authorities and the NCAA will be investigating alleged sexual assaults involving Michigan State athletes including football players and how the school handled incidents. Such news won’t surprise writers Jeff Benedict and Armen Keteyian. In their 2013 book, The System, The Glory and Scandal of Big-Time College Football, they wrote about the prevalence of criminal, or alleged criminal conduct, involving college football players. They referenced a nine-year study of criminal complaints of felony assault attributed to pro and college athletes. The study concluded athletes are less likely to be convicted of crimes.

The authors devote a chapter to the 2004 Brigham Young incident where four football players were put on trial for rape charges but were not convicted. The prosecutor, Donna Kelly, was later told by jurors that the players had suffered enough with the loss of their football scholarships. Kelly found the logic bizarre and was quoted in the book as saying, “That’s the power of college football.”

The NHL first-year Vegas expansion team has 68 points at the All-Star break, the most in the Western Conference. The Golden Knights are in first place in the Pacific Division, nine points better than the second place Sharks. In their 1967-1968 NHL debut the expansion Minnesota North Stars scored 69 points for the season. The Minnesota Wild, in its expansion season of 2000-2001, produced 68 points.

So far this season the Wild has 57 points, nine fewer than the Central Division leading Jets. Qualifying for the playoffs is in doubt.

The vast number of first period empty seats at Mariucci Arena, including the best locations, was startling to see when No. 1 ranked Notre Dame played the Gophers Friday night in Minneapolis. Lack of fan interest fuels speculation about the future of 19-year head coach Don Lucia whose team split two games over the weekend against the Fighting Irish.

A program long billed as Minnesota’s “pride on ice” has struggled this season with an overall record of 16-13-1, and 7-10-1-1 in the Big Ten. There’s public frustration too about no national titles since 2003, and fans continue to complain about the move in 2013 from the popular WCHA to the hockey start-up Big Ten.

The presence of the Wild is a problem too. Interest in Gopher hockey benefitted from 1993 to 2000 when there was no pro hockey competition in Minneapolis-St. Paul.

From the lighter side: A teenage grocery store employee said yesterday she didn’t know the Gophers have been playing football longer than the Vikings.

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