NCAA – Page 125 – David Shama's Minnesota Sports Headliners

Fleck, Gophers on New Recruiting Track

Posted on March 29, 2017March 29, 2017 by David Shama

It’s early in the 2018 recruiting process but coach P.J. Fleck has Gophers’ football recruiting headed in a new direction. High school players from the class of 2018 can’t sign National Letters of Intent with Minnesota or other schools until next February, but they can make verbal commitments. An early look at Minnesota’s commitments list offers a contrast with what fans saw during the Jerry Kill–Tracy Claeys era from 2011-2016.

Fleck, who left Western Michigan in early January to become head coach of the Gophers, has verbal commitments from seven high school players so far—a total that exceeds what many Power Five conference programs have. A year ago on this date the Gophers didn’t have a single commitment, an indication of the aggressive recruiting by Fleck and his assistants.

In past years Minnesota pursued and often signed players who were two and three star players. Frequently the Gophers’ competition for recruits in past years came from the “have-nots” of college football—schools like Ball State, Colorado State or Louisiana Tech.

Contrast that with players Fleck has commitments from so far. Collectively they have impressed various football recruiting authorities, and Minnesota’s 2018 class has a No. 15 national composite ranking by 247Sports. If by Signing Day next February Fleck can hold anything near that No. 15 spot, it will be a big difference from Minnesota’s No. 56 composite ranking of its 2017 class.

“The expectation from his staff is to have a top 25 recruiting class in 2018 and that’s something that hasn’t happened here in a long time,” said Ryan Burns, the recruiting authority from GopherIllustrated.com.

Fleck and his assistants are chasing and in some instances gaining commitments from players who have offers from prominent football schools like Michigan State and Oklahoma. Among those who have verbally committed is Chicago defensive tackle Elijah Teague who earlier this year said he wanted to be a Gopher.

“He (Fleck) has arguably the best defensive tackle in Illinois coming here,” Burns said. “He had quite the offer list from Oklahoma, South Carolina—anywhere and everywhere he wanted to go—and it wasn’t even March yet.”

Burns said a recruiting expert who covers Ohio preps believes Gophers commit Brennan Armstrong is the best class of 2018 quarterback in the Buckeye state. The Gophers made Armstrong a recruiting priority and got to him early, according to Burns. “They got him to campus and they were able to seal the deal,” he added.

Jaylen Mayfield, a prize offensive tackle from Grand Rapids, Michigan, initially made a verbal commitment to Minnesota, but now has backed off after recently being pursued by the Michigan Wolverines. “That’s going to be an interesting battle for P.J.,” Burns said before Mayfield de-committed. “A Michigan kid, a Grand Rapids kid, (who) gets an Ann Arbor offer. Someone I don’t know that he (Fleck) is going to be able to hang on to. But he’s a very athletic kid that they need on the offensive line.”

The early recruiting success by Fleck and his assistants didn’t sneak up on Burns. “I am not surprised at all,” Burns said. “I knew that when P.J. took over at Minnesota that there was going to be a bump in the recruiting rankings. It’s what his M.O. had been at Western Michigan.

“He had the top rated recruiting class, according to Scout.com, all four years he was in the MAC (Mid-American Conference), and it showed. His first year he went 1-11. His final year he ends up going 13-1, so it’s a correlation between if you’re higher in the recruiting rankings. …”

The 36-year-old Fleck and his extroverted personality received a lot of attention at Western Michigan. National media, including Sports Illustrated, wrote about his energy and passion as he rebuilt the Broncos. Western Michigan was 13-0 last season before losing in the Cotton Bowl to Wisconsin, 24-16.

At Minnesota, Fleck and his staff have many more resources than at their former home in Kalamazoo, Michigan. The “sales kit” includes the Big Ten brand, a unique college town in Minneapolis, varied academic offerings at the University of Minnesota, post-graduate job opportunities in the metro area including with Fortune 500 companies, new playing and training facilities, and the chance to sign on with a program that Fleck claims is going places.

“As long as P.J. Fleck is going to be here, people are going to be interested because he is so unique in the college football scene,” Burns said. “He’s so young. He’s got a lot of things to sell with his energy, including playing time with the number of positions they’re going to have to replace here at Minnesota in the near future. …”

Fleck inherits a roster that both now and next season has depth issues. The depth problem is partially caused by missed recruiting opportunities in the past. But it is further impacted by players leaving under Fleck whose style can cause attrition.

Fleck’s intense ways and warp-speed culture, including frenzied practices, aren’t for everyone. He said the other day that in his second year at Western Michigan “close to 21 players” left his program and during spring football he had only about 40 players participating in drills. Yet, Fleck insisted that eventually he will build two-deep quality at various positions with the Gophers.

“There’s always going to be people that leave the program,” Fleck said. “There’s (also) always going to be people that love it and stay. It’s just so different (his football environment) and so new. …We gotta get our numbers up (at Minnesota) over the next few years.”

Fleck had about 150 high school juniors watching practice last Saturday. Burns said there is so much interest in the Gophers that high school players from faraway states like Georgia are paying their own expenses to check out the Minnesota football program. Burns added it’s all part of an intense recruiting plan where Fleck will target having all his 2018 recruits verbally committed prior to the opening game on August 31 against Buffalo.

Burns estimated about 75 percent of high school players who originally make a verbal commitment to a school actually keep their pledge and sign National Letters of Intent. He thinks Fleck’s percentage at Minnesota could turn out to be 90 percent. “He does a very good job of keeping his verbals,” Burns said. “Once you buy into P.J. Fleck, he is going to make sure he does everything in his power to keep you there.”

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Number of State Hoopsters Surprises

Posted on March 24, 2017March 24, 2017 by David Shama

A Creative Charters fan bus had taken Gene Lindahl and others to Milwaukee for the Gophers opening NCAA Tournament game against Middle Tennessee State earlier this month. On the ride home a passenger near Lindahl wondered out loud what states all the basketball players from the NCAA Tournament teams come from.

“…Nobody took him seriously that anybody would actually be dumb enough to sit and do that (calculate the answer),” Lindahl said with amusement. “I got home and started thinking about it.”

“Hell, I can do that,” Lindahl told himself. “You just go to all the teams’ websites, and copy and paste (names and hometowns).”

Lindahl lives near Faribault and is a retired high school basketball coach. It required eight to 10 hours to come up with the origins of players from not only the 68 teams in the NCAA Tournament, but also the 32 NIT teams. He researched 1,319 players.

Any surprises? “I was surprised that (the state of) Minnesota had as many (players) as they did,” Lindahl said.

There were 31 Minnesotans on various teams, and Minnesota’s total ranked behind only 12 other states. Minnesota finished ahead of neighboring Wisconsin (No. 29 with 14 players) and Iowa (No. 30, 13 players). Minnesota also had more players than more populous states like No. 15 New Jersey (30 players), No. 16 Pennsylvania (29 players) and No. 27 Washington (16 players). At No. 13, Minnesota trailed these states and their totals of players:

1. California, 119

2. Texas, 111

3. Illinois, 86

4. Florida, 75

5. North Carolina, 70

6. Ohio, 69

7. Georgia, 68

8. Indiana, 60

9. New York, 53

10. Virginia, 52

11. Maryland, 46

12. Michigan, 38

The Gophers’ roster has six Minnesotans, including starters Amir Coffey and Reggie Lynch. Jarvis Johnson is a scholarship player from the state who didn’t play last season, but could be counted as a seventh Minnesotan.

North Dakota’s roster has five Minnesotans including starting guards Geno Crandall and Quinton Hooker. They played prominent roles for their team as did some other Minnesotans including guard/forward Sanjay Lumpkin at Northwestern and guard J.P. Macura with Xavier.

After searching over 150 team websites, Lindahl also compiled a breakdown of countries. In addition to the United States, 56 other nations were represented by 178 players on the 100 teams. Only four of those countries had double-digit totals of players—Canada, 29; Australia, 23; Nigeria, 13; and Senegal, 10.

Lindahl shared his findings with Creative Charters who distributed the information via email to those who made the trip to watch the Gophers. The research and email came as a surprise but was appreciated.

“Nobody would expect somebody to be as stupid as I am,” Lindahl repeated.

Worth Noting

Collegead.com reported on Monday the current “NCAA Tournament is the most-watched in 24 years through the first Sunday (March 19), with an average of 9,325,000 million viewers, up 10% from 2016 (8,513,000).”

Horse racing enthusiast Steve Erban emailed that Malagacy, a top 10 contender for this year’s Kentucky Derby, has a sister who is a Minnesota bred racehorse. Classy Shackles sold for $26,500 in a Minnesota thoroughbred yearling sale last year, Erban wrote.

Erban’s Creative Charters, based in Stillwater, annually offers a trip to the Kentucky Derby. He said this year’s trip to the May 6 Derby in Louisville is sold out.

The Star Tribune named its All-Metro boys basketball teams this week and the first team included Maple Grove guard Brad Davison and Lakeville North forward Nathan Reuvers. Both will play for Wisconsin next season and are high potential college players. The Gophers could be second-guessed about their recruiting if the next few seasons are successful for Davison, Reuvers and the Badgers. Wisconsin, a program that hasn’t finished below fourth in the Big Ten standings since 2001, has a history of using Minnesota-raised talent in its starting lineup.

Jerry Krause, the legendary general manager who shaped the rosters of the Chicago Bulls NBA title teams in the 1990s, died this week at age 77. I met Krause at Met Center when he brought the Bulls to Minnesota for an exhibition game I helped arrange. He was all business and demanded the Bulls’ fee before tipoff—or the team wasn’t taking the court.

Jacob Isaia, a highly regarded offensive lineman from Bishop Gorman High School in Nevada, has offers from the Gophers and many other colleges including Michigan State, UCLA and Utah, according to a Tuesday online story from the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Isaia is originally from Hawaii and is the grandson of Bob Apisa, the starting fullback on the 1966 national champion Michigan State team. A senior in high school next fall, Isaia has 13 college offers and is being nationally recruited, according to the Review-Journal story.

Cordarrelle Patterson (photo courtesy of Minnesota Vikings)

With Cordarrelle Patterson leaving the Vikings via free agency to the Raiders, Laquon Treadwell has more opportunity to figure in Minnesota’s plans for its wide receivers. Treadwell, the team’s first round draft choice in 2016, wasn’t ready to play last season and caught only one pass for 15 yards. Former Vikings wide receivers coach George Stewart told Sports Headliners this week that Treadwell can become a “fine player.” Treadwell doesn’t turn 22 until June 14.

The Gopher hockey team will try to win the Northeast Regional this weekend, and advance to the Frozen Four and compete for the NCAA title. Minnesota has a NCAA-best 37 national tournament appearances, but what frustrates many fans is the Gophers have won just two national championships since 1980. The Gophers were NCAA champions in 1974, 1976, 1979, 2002 and 2003.

Jason Shaver, the Apple Valley High School alum and son of Gophers radio play-by-play man Wally Shaver, is the TV voice of the American Hockey League’s Chicago Wolves. Jason’s grandfather is the legendary radio voice of the North Stars, 89-year-old Al Shaver who is retired and living on Vancouver Island.

White Bear Lake’s Phil Bonin, a well-known hockey name, passed away from cancer on Monday. Phil was a youth hockey supporter and father of Brian Bonin, the former Gopher hockey player and 1996 Hobey Baker Award winner. Condolences to family and friends.

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Pitino to Face another Prove-It Year

Posted on March 20, 2017March 20, 2017 by David Shama

Gophers basketball has often been so bad in the new millennium it has caused all but the most optimistic fans to have minimal expectations. That has everything to do with why Minnesota’s breakthrough year in 2017 has been received with such enthusiasm and appreciation. Going from a 2-16 Big Ten Conference record in 2016, to 11-7 this year is encouraging, but future optimism will plunge if coach Richard Pitino can’t build on this winter’s unexpected success.

Minnesota has just three winning records in the Big Ten since the 2000-2001 season. This year Pitino and his players earned a third place finish in the conference, the best work in the new century for the program (the Gophers’ previous best was a 10-6 fourth place finish in 2005). Often Minnesota has ranked among either the Big Ten’s most mediocre or worst teams.

The Gophers 11-7 league mark and overall 24-10 record resulted in an invitation to the NCAA Tournament—only the fifth for the program in the last 17 years. The turnaround season was reportedly the best among NCAA teams. This month brought a wall-full of awards from the Big Ten, with Pitino honored as coach of the year and four players recognized for their achievements.

But a year from now Gophers fans will feel down if the team isn’t turning in a report card at least equal to this season. Give the Gophers a B+ or A- for their work in 2016-2017, but ambitions need to go beyond one season, and target success next year and for those following.

The standard for consistency is right next door—just four-plus hours away by car. In Madison there is no doubt each year the Badgers are going to have a winning record, be in the mix for the conference championship, and spend March competing in the NCAA Tournament. The Badgers have finished fourth or higher in the league standings every season since 2001-2002.

It appears the Gophers have the coaches and players to be better next season. The nucleus is even present to create optimism about the team two years from now. Pitino, 35, is still the youngest head coach in power-five college basketball. He has experienced highs and lows in four seasons at Minnesota but has been here long enough now to put a program in place that should annually be consistent and successful.

Pitino made a smart move when during the last offseason he hired former Tulane head coach Ed Conroy, 50, as one of his assistants. Conroy has been a college coach, either as an assistant or head man, since 1990. His presence and experience complements Pitino and the rest of the staff including East Coast recruiting specialist Kimani Young.

Pitino used an eight-player rotation this season and all of those players return next season except for senior guard Akeem Springs who was the team’s fourth leading scorer. That scoring absence could be filled and then some by incoming freshman guard Isaiah “Jelly” Washington, a flashy point producer and playmaker. Close observers will watch to see how the four-star player from New York City fits in with his teammates.

The Gophers played with camaraderie-plus last season. Their teamwork, including a willingness to share the basketball, was one of the key reasons for success. If there were chemistry problems, they must have been minor because on the court the Gophers were a band of brothers. Neither Washington, nor any other player on the roster will be expected to deviate from the togetherness model next winter.

Washington’s presence likely will make the Gophers stronger in at least two ways. First, except for team leading scorer Nate Mason, the Gophers didn’t have a “go-to” closer at the end of games. Second, a must-do for Pitino and staff next season is to develop a quality bench that is three or four players deep. Washington could be an explosive contributor off the bench and join a group of much improved returnees and reserves from last season.

Much more will be expected of reserve forward-center Eric Curry in his second season at Minnesota. He had defensive lapses this winter and sometimes looked flustered at both ends of the court, but he has the potential to be an outstanding all-around player. Others who figure to contribute off the bench include forward Michael Hurt who as a sophomore next fall might be among the team’s best shooters and center Bakary Konate who as a senior needs to play with more on-court savvy.

And then there is junior forward Davonte Fitzgerald who sat out last season because of a major knee injury. The transfer from Texas A&M could come off the bench, or become a starter and give the Gophers a starting lineup with four players who are 6-6 or taller. That development most likely would push Dupree McBrayer to the bench and a reserve role that he played effectively at times last season.

Minnesota’s starters in its final two games were McBrayer and Mason at guards, Jordan Murphy and Amir Coffey at forwards, and Reggie Lynch at center. If Fitzgerald becomes a starter, one scenario might have Coffey, who made the All-Big Ten Freshman team, switching to guard.

Another option might be to have Coffey coming off the bench as a super sub, and perhaps the best at that role in the Big Ten. The 6-8 Coffey is the team’s most versatile player and could become the most valuable performer on the roster with all the things he can do. His improvement might include developing into the team’s preferred closer in tight games.

Having Mason back as a senior scorer and playmaker is a big plus. While he is no dazzler passing the ball and finding open teammates, the first team All-Big selection makes few ball handling mistakes and will again be among Minnesota’s top outside shooters. McBrayer is Minnesota’s best player at slashing toward the basket and creating his own shot. As a junior he should continue the improvement of his first two seasons.

Lynch, as a junior transfer from Illinois State, set a school record for blocked shots and was named Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year. Murphy, who made third team All-Big Ten as a sophomore, helped spark an eight-game conference win streak with his rebounding and inside scoring.

But for the Gophers to be better next season, they will need Lynch and Murphy to avoid the foul problems that too often had them sitting on the bench. Without those two on the floor the Gophers were a different team, as their one and done NCAA Tournament game loss to Middle Tennessee State showed. Different defensively, without Lynch and Murphy guarding the basket, and also missing the inside scoring of the two.

In the Middle Tennessee State game the Gophers lost 81-72. In the team’s prior game, Minnesota lost 84-77 to Michigan in the semifinals of the Big Ten Tournament. In those high scoring losses the Gophers perimeter defense was exposed. That has to be fixed next season, and combined with Lynch patrolling the inside could make Minnesota’s defense special.

With so much talent and experience returning, Minnesota is a potential preseason selection for a top 25 national ranking. Publicity is okay but results are better and the Gophers, who were among the younger teams in college basketball last season, should be determined not to be a one-year wonder. To do that Pitino and staff will need to excel at player development. And the players must build on their strengths and minimize weaknesses, while continuing to keep the identity of a group that does so many things well.

All that will be another step in establishing a program—not just a season.

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