NCAA – Page 126 – David Shama's Minnesota Sports Headliners

U Looks for Top Opponent at Dome

Posted on April 19, 2017April 19, 2017 by David Shama

Notes on the Gophers, Twins, Vikings and Wild:

John Cunningham, the athletic department administrator who oversees University of Minnesota basketball, said the Gophers don’t know the opponent they will be able to schedule for their December of 2018 game at U.S. Bank Stadium, but he is aiming high. “We’re going to get the best opponent that we can get,” he told Sports Headliners.

Coach Richard Pitino’s team is participating in the trial run game for the April 2019 Final Four scheduled for the new stadium. Minnesota is the host school for the 2019 Final Four and in December of next year they will play the first college game at U.S. Bank Stadium. Local and out of town NCAA representatives will observe and critique the setup for the U.S. Bank Stadium game that will preview by only a few months the 2019 Final Four to determine the men’s national champion.

For awhile the plan was to stage the Gophers game in December of 2017 but Cunningham said it became apparent the timeline for scheduling was too tight. “We felt like we could get a better opponent by moving it back one year,” he said.

U.S. Bank Stadium will also be the site of the 2020 NCAA wrestling championship, the first time the event has ever been staged at a non-arena venue.

Cunningham reported via email today the Gophers have sold over 400 new season tickets for men’s basketball. “Well above where we were last year at this time,” he wrote.

There are various basketball top 25 rankings for next season and they are paying attention to the Gophers. Athlonsports.com put out a top 25 and among Big Ten schools, only Michigan State at No. 13 was ahead of No. 17 Minnesota in the website’s rankings last Wednesday.

Lou Nanne endorses the evaluations of other authorities regarding former Eden Prairie star Casey Mittelstadt who is the state’s 2017 Mr. Hockey and will play for the Gophers next season. Nanne believes the talented forward will be selected among the first 22 players in the June NHL Draft, perhaps going in the top 15. He projects Mittelstadt as some day being an “excellent pro” but sees him maturing in college for a couple of seasons.

Dick Jonckowski, who finished his 31st and final season last month as Gopher basketball public address announcer, will be roasted by the Minnesota Minute Men starting at noon Friday, May 5 at Jax Café. Scheduled roasters include Vikings executive Lester Bagley, former Gophers football star Jim Carter and WCHA men’s commissioner Bill Robertson. More information is available by calling Terry Sullivan, 952-451-2104, or at Minnesotaminutemen.com.

Gene Taylor’s name was mentioned over a year ago as a possible candidate for the Gophers athletic director vacancy. Taylor, the former North Dakota State AD who was deputy athletics director at Iowa, has been hired to run Kansas State’s athletic department at a starting salary of $450,000 per year, according to an online story Monday by the Topeka Capital-Journal. That’s $400,000 less than Gophers AD Mark Coyle earns.

Word is fundraising for the Gophers Athletes Village now under construction is over $100 million. The projected cost is $166 million.

Don’t bet the title to your lake home but it’s difficult to believe the Wild won’t win tonight’s Game 4 against the Blues in St. Louis. Coach Bruce Boudreau’s Minnesota team trails 0-3 in the best of seven series but could have won any of three close games. Odds now seem to favor the Wild.

Home ice is no guarantee of victory in the Stanley Cup playoffs. The Wild is 0-2 at home in the Blues series and last season lost two of three games at Xcel Energy Center in a playoff series the Stars won 4-2.

Three of the 20 highest paid NHL players are in the Wild-Blues series, according to Spotrac.com. Ryan Suter and Zach Parise from the Wild each earn $7,538,642 and are tied for the 17th highest salaries this season. Vladimir Tarasenko of the Blues, who earns $7,500,000, is tied for 19th with two other players.

Vikings defensive end Brian Robison, who turns 34 on April 27 and is saying he may retire after the 2018 season, is married to Jayme Miller, an accomplished rodeo barrel racer. She attended college on a rodeo scholarship.

J.D. Spielman, son of Vikings general manager Rick Spielman, caught a touchdown pass in the Nebraska spring game last weekend and could be an impact player as a receiver for the Cornhuskers next fall after redshirting as a freshman in 2016.

The Vikings Miller Lite DraftFest will be at U.S. Bank Stadium on Saturday, April 29. The tailgate-themed event is from 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. and will provide fans the opportunity to meet Vikings players and alumni, while watching rounds four through six of the NFL Draft.

Vikings scheduled to appear throughout the day are linebacker Kentrell Brothers, wide receivers Stefon Diggs and Isaac Fruechte, defensive end Everson Griffen and tight end David Morgan. Ex-Vikings running back Chuck Foreman and safety Paul Krause also plan to attend. A complete schedule of player appearances can be found at Vikings.com closer to the event, which requires paid admissions for adults and teens.

After last night’s win by the Indians over the Twins, Minnesota has now lost three consecutive games for the first time this season. The Twins, 7-7, have lost six of their last eight and are mostly drawing crowds of under 20,000 at Target Field.

Twins third baseman Miguel Sano hit his fourth home run of the season last night. He hasn’t gone more than four games this year without homering.

Malagacy, whose sister Classy Shackles is a Minnesota bred racehorse, has qualified for the 143rd running of the Kentucky Derby May 7. Advance wagering on the Derby at Canterbury Park starts May 4.

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Don’t Buy Into Twins Exhibition Record

Posted on March 31, 2017March 31, 2017 by David Shama

A notes column, with emphasis on the Twins who open their 2017 regular season at home on Monday against the Royals.

The Twins lost 103 games last year but have a 2017 winning record of 16-13 in spring training as the club prepares to head north. Does a team’s exhibition record mean anything?

“Zip, zero.”

Those are the words of former Twins catcher Tim Laudner who now works as an analyst on Fox Sports North. Laudner, who will work Twins pregame and postgame programs, told Sports Headliners spring training wins and losses are misleading because MLB teams split their rosters for same day games, schedule more home games than away and often use marginal big leaguers instead of regulars.

Before the Twins compiled a regular season record of 59 wins and 102 losses last year, the club was 19-11-2 in exhibition games. Two years ago Minnesota’s regular season record was 83-79 after being 13-16-3 in spring training.

Sports Illustrated’s March 27-April 3 issue included an extensive preview of all 30 MLB teams, and the publication predicts the Twins’ record will be 69-93. The forecast is a fourth place finish in the American League Central behind the Indians, Tigers and Royals, but ahead of the White Sox.

An anonymous scout quoted in the magazine is critical of the team’s starting pitching and warns that if injured closer Glen Perkins isn’t available, it’s a big problem for the Twins. “Well, they’re in big trouble anyway,” the scout said.

Max Kepler (photo courtesy of Minnesota Twins).

Looks like the Twins will have four new faces in their opening day lineup and batting order compared with a year ago—and one player, Miguel Sano, at a different position. It’s expected Jason Castro will be the catcher, with Jorge Polanco at shortstop, Max Kepler in right field and a yet to be determined player filling the Designated Hitter role when the Twins open the regular season. Sano is expected to play third base instead of right field.

The lineup for the opener last year was: Ervin Santana, pitcher; Kurt Suzuki, catcher; Joe Mauer, first base; Brian Dozier, second base; Eduardo Escobar, shortstop; Trevor Plouffe, third base; Eddie Rosario, left field; Byron Buxton, center fielder; Sano in right; and ByungHo Park at DH.

Many Twins players need to have better performances than last year for the club to make a major step forward, and near the top of any needs list is Mauer. He turns 34 next month and is coming off his lowest batting average in 13 years with the Twins. After hitting .261 in 2016 and .265 two years ago, the career .300 hitter is no longer assured of being No. 3 in batting order this season.

“There might be days against some left-handers that we might not see Joe in the lineup at all,” Laudner said. “Joe is getting a little long in the tooth. I am not going to say that Joe is a platoon player. Joe in the past has shown that he has done a really nice job of hitting left-handers. There’s going to be some tough decisions for (manager) Paul Molitor to make as to why he’s going to fit. Sometimes it might come down to the analytics, (and) sometimes it might come down to the gut instincts of…Molitor as to where he is going to bat in the order, or if he is going to be in the lineup at all.”

Laudner said Mauer still has “batting skills” and is capable of a much higher average this season than in the recent past. Whether he stages a comeback, Laundner said, is predicated on staying healthy. The last few years Mauer’s health chart has sometimes been as interesting as his hitting stats.

The Twins surprised yesterday by giving Park a minor league reassignment and opening up the DH role to what looks like a platoon plan with perhaps Robbie Grossman, Kennys Vargas and others. In spring training this year Park came to camp as a non-roster player but led the club in home runs with six and RBI with 13. The Twins decision makers reportedly want to have a roster of 13 pitchers, not 12, and that doomed Park for now, although he could be recalled later this spring.

Park, who will be 31 in May, had a difficult adjustment last year coming from his home in South Korea and trying to break into the big leagues with the Twins. Faced with a new culture, injuries and big league fast balls, Park hit just .191—although he did have nine home runs in his first 29 games.

Laudner predicted last year it would be a difficult adjustment. “I’ve played in Japan and that’s different than playing in the United States,” Laudner said referring to his owner international experience. …

Gary Trent Jr., the former Apple Valley star who played his 2016-2017 senior season for a school in northern California, scored seven points on 3 of 11 shooting Wednesday night in the McDonald’s All-American Game in Chicago. Trent, who will be a freshman at Duke in the fall, played 21 minutes for the West team that defeated the East, 109-107.

The website Casualhoya.com has been speculating about candidates for the Georgetown head basketball coaching vacancy. Minnesota’s Richard Pitino was included in a poll where 81 percent of voters said they didn’t want him as the Hoyas coach, while 19 percent did. …

ESPN will be televising 21 spring college football games. No, the Gophers game on April 15 at TCF Bank Stadium isn’t on the list. …

CollegeAD.com reported Monday the Gophers athletic department will be receiving more than $1 million as part of the NCAA’s one-time $200 million distribution to Division I schools in mid-April. Distributions are being made based on the number of athletic scholarships in place during the 2013-2014 school year. Schools with the largest athletic programs reportedly receive the largest amounts. The Gophers have a 23-teams program for men and women. …

The Wild’s Eric Staal played in his 1,000th NHL game on March 19 and will be honored in a pregame ceremony next Tuesday before Minnesota’s game against the Hurricanes at Xcel Energy Center.

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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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