Recruiting – Page 84 – David Shama's Minnesota Sports Headliners

Dutcher Predicts U NCAA Tourney Invite

Posted on January 29, 2014January 29, 2014 by David Shama

Jim Dutcher told Sports Headliners he expects the Gophers — a team predicted to finish near the bottom of the Big Ten standings — to make the NCAA Tournament in March.

The Gophers, 4-4, have been a surprise team in the Big Ten even though they let a bull’s-eye opportunity for a win get away on Sunday when the Cornhuskers, now 2-5, defeated Minnesota 82-78 in Lincoln. Dutcher didn’t see that coming but he still believes the Gophers will win enough games to make the tournament, even without injured leading scorer Andre Hollins who is out indefinitely with an ankle injury.

The Big Ten will likely have the highest (or near highest) RPI of any conference and Dutcher said that means the tournament selection committee will be looking for six Big Ten teams. “There’s enough winnable games left that they can still get to 10 games (wins),” the Gophers former head coach said. “Even if they get to nine they’re going to make the tournament because they’re going to want to take a minimum of six Big Ten teams. …The Gophers would have to fall flat on their faces not to finish in the top six (in the conference).”

The Gophers play Northwestern, 3-5, at home on Saturday. Then go to Purdue, 3-4, February 5 before playing Indiana, 3-4, in Minneapolis on February 8.

“They should be favored in all three of them (those games),” Dutcher said. “Then they got a home game coming with Penn State (1-6). They got a home game with Illinois coming (2-6). You gotta think that they can win those games. So they wouldn’t have to really come out (and) upset a bunch of people to get into the tournament.”

Dutcher said the Gophers, now with an overall record of 15-6, can win the next three games without Hollins. He knows, however, the value of a player he describes as the team’s best offensively. “They probably would love to have him available on the fifth of February at Purdue,“ Dutcher said.

Dutcher believes the Gophers have “much better personnel” than Northwestern. He also said Purdue “struggles to score points” but Indiana will be a more difficult game and one that could go either way.

“I think 10 (wins) still is a reasonable number but they’re going to have to guard somebody,” Dutcher said. “They can’t give a guy like Petteway 35 points.”

Terran Petteway led Nebraska in scoring with a career high on Sunday night. The Cornhuskers made 50 percent of their field goal attempts in the game. And in Minnesota’s previous road loss, Iowa converted 49.2 percent of its field goal attempts during a high scoring 94-73 game.

Dutcher, who coached the Gophers to the 1982 Big Ten title, pointed out that in the Nebraska game point guard DeAndre Mathieu had nine turnovers. “He didn’t make good decisions,” Dutcher said.

Last year’s Gophers were 8-10 in the Big Ten during the regular season and finished seventh in the conference. That club was 20-12 overall after the Big Ten Tournament and received an NCAA Tournament invitation.

Worth Noting

Isaiah Gentry, the 6-4 wide receiver from Cincinnati Moeller High School, verbally committed to the Gophers last night. He is expected to sign his National Letter of Intent on February 5.

Iowa State hired former Kansas head coach Mark Mangino as offensive coordinator earlier this month. Mangino, who once was offensive coordinator at Oklahoma and made Kansas a top 10 team, will be Jeff Jones’ coordinator if the Washburn High School Rivals.com four-star player decides to attend school in Ames and not Minneapolis.

Nikola Pekovic scored 22 points when the Wolves defeated the Pelicans earlier this month. That was one of 17 times this season he has totaled more than 20 points but with bursitis in his right ankle sidelining him indefinitely he won’t be on the court tonight when the Wolves and Pelicans play at Target Center.

The DeLaSalle High School basketball team has high profile players in Reid Travis and Jarvis Johnson but Sacar Anim has been leading the team in scoring average. Ryan James, reporting for Gopherillustrated.com, wrote on Monday the Islanders’ wing is averaging a team best 15.9 points per game and being recruited by Creighton, Iowa, Nebraska, Northern Iowa and Wisconsin.

Taste of the NFL, a Twin Cities-based non-profit organization dedicated to reducing hunger in America, has raised more than $14 million dollars for local and national food banks, providing more than 112 million meals. This year’s event will take place Saturday, on the eve of the Super Bowl, at Pier 12 of the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal. Taste of the NFL was created in 1992 by Cuisine Concepts co-owners Wayne Kostroski and Mark Haugen, the restaurateurs from Goodfellow’s, Tejas, Bar Abilene and the Franklin Street Bakery.

In recognition of the Taste of the NFL, Kostroski rang the closing bell yesterday for the New York Stock Exchange.

Twins president Dave St. Peter said the estimated local economic impact from next July’s MLB All-Star Game is about $85 million.

A hockey source told Sports Headliners he expects Minneapolis-St. Paul to host an outdoor NHL game in the “next couple of years.” The Red Wings used Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor for their game with the Maple Leafs while Comerica Park in Detroit was the site of other hockey events as part of the NHL Winter Classic promotion. A similar setup could be done here using both TCF Bank Stadium and Target Field.

The WCHA hopes to have a new commissioner by the end of March to replace retiring Bruce McLeod.

Not sure if the thought warms you but the “World’s Toughest Rodeo” will be indoors at Xcel Energy Center Friday and Saturday nights.

KSTP TV sports director Joe Schmit has written a book, Sudden Impact: Stories of Influence through Purpose, Persistence & Passion. The book includes stories about Larry Fitzgerald, Joe Mauer and Paul Molitor. More at Joeschmit.com.

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RB Jones ’50-50′ about Gophers-Cyclones

Posted on January 27, 2014January 27, 2014 by David Shama

Jeff Jones, the Rivals.com four-star running back from Washburn High School, met at his Minneapolis home late yesterday with Gophers coach Jerry Kill. Jones committed verbally to the Gophers after Signing Day last year but is undecided whether he will attend Minnesota or Iowa State.

“I think it’s 50-50,” Jones told Sports Headliners last night. “At this point I don’t know.”

Jones described Iowa State’s head coach Paul Rhodes as a “great guy” and a leader who is enthusiastic. But he likes Kill, too. “He cares about his players a lot,” Jones said.

Kill made a good impression with Jones and family members last night. Kill had them laughing including when he said no flash would be necessary for photos because of his bald head.

Kill’s visit to the Jones home lasted about two hours. It was the most recent of several contacts the two have shared. “I feel I know him,” Jones said.

The 2014 National Signing Day will be February 5. Jones plans to wait until then to announce his decision and sign his national letter of intent. He will do so at Washburn with other Millers who will announce college plans.

Jones said his college choice will primarily be determined by him and he is unsure what will be the deciding factors.

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Vikings Need to Avoid Panic Hire

Posted on January 8, 2014January 8, 2014 by David Shama

Dave Mona was retained as a consultant by the University of Minnesota in 2010 to assist in the search for a new football coach. It was a successful process leading to the hire of Jerry Kill as coach.

Hiring Northern Illinois’ Kill, a low profile coach who didn’t come from a football power conference, wasn’t enthusiastically endorsed by the public. However, Kill has improved the Gophers in each of his three seasons, demonstrating he has a plan and the ability to build a competitive Big Ten Conference program.

Mona, a University of Minnesota alum and now a recently retired business executive, isn’t surprised by Kill’s success. He and then Gophers athletic director Joel Maturi were repeatedly told during the search that Kill was viewed as a special coach by his peers.

Mona learned lessons during the search that apply to the Vikings who are looking for a head coach to replace Leslie Frazier. At some point there will be a candidate or two the Vikings will like a lot before completing their reviews. “There’s a bit of a panic factor that you don’t want to lose your guy,” Mona told Sports Headliners. “The thing (the search) gets compressed. In business, a search might take months, a series of interviews.”

The Vikings fired Frazier in late December. General Manager Rick Spielman wants to have a new coach by January 25, if not sooner. Spielman and Vikings owners Zygi and Mark Wilf face that deadline and the competition of several other NFL teams looking for head coaches while knowing assistant coaches are in demand also.

Mona said if multiple NFL teams make hires before the Vikings, the organization can’t panic. “Can you stand up to the criticism you’re going to get in the media? ‘What’s wrong with the Vikings? Why aren’t they making their move?’

“I think no matter how tough Spielman is, it’s hard to resist that (pressure) when it looks like you’re falling behind the pack (even though) you may be doing it the right way.”

A factor sometimes receiving minimal mention during searches is “chemistry” between the decision-makers who have to work together. “You need to have strong chemistry between the ownership, the general manager and the coach who is hired,” Mona said. “…If there’s not good chemistry and you get off to a bad start, it rarely gets better. I think you’ve got to have people who philosophically are on the same page.”

Coaching searches often result in hires who are the opposite of the leaders they replace. A coach with a reputation for being offensive oriented is replaced by a defensive authority. A rah-rah leader is hired to take over for a coach who was quiet on and off the field.

Mona was warned by human resources experts about hiring opposites. “You have to be careful not to go too far because in solving one problem, you might create another,” he said.

The co-host for years of the Sunday morning WCCO Radio “Sports Huddle” program, Mona has followed the Vikings since the franchise began in 1961. How does he describe the type of coach the club should hire?

“Ideally, I think this person is going to have to identify and develop a quarterback that can lead the team for the next decade. Someone with proven experience recognizing and developing skill in quarterbacks.

“I (also) think a good evaluator of people and the ability to put out a team that reflects what’s happening in a changing league. We’ve been a solid 4-3 team. There’s a lot of success out there with 3-4 defenses. There are offensive schemes we’ve probably stayed away from.”

Worth Noting

Expect a high school quarterback and junior college linebacker to enroll at the University of Minnesota later this month. Both would take part in spring football, with the quarterback having four years of eligibility and the linebacker three.

Gophers offensive tackle Ben Lauer has been named to the Football Writers Association Freshman All-America Team. He was a first team selection.

Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski will visit Rice Lake, Wisconsin later this month to see highly recruited prep star Henry Ellenson, brother of Gophers sophomore forward Wally Ellenson.

The Gophers basketball team plays at Penn State tonight against a Nittany Lions roster that includes freshman guard Graham Woodward from Edina. Woodward has played in 12 games, averaging 2.6 points per game.

The Gophers avoided a 0-2 start in the Big Ten season by defeating Purdue, 82-79, on Sunday at Williams Arena. Coach Richard Pitino’s Gophers lost their first conference game last Thursday against Michigan at Williams Arena.

“Coach said it wasn’t really a must-win (Sunday) but we felt it was a must-win as a team,” said Minnesota guard DeAndre Mathieu. “…0-2 in the Big Ten wouldn’t have been what we expected. We expected to be 2-0 and we came out 1-1. We’ll just have to be satisfied (with) 1-1.”

The Gophers wore gold home uniforms for the Michigan game and then brought out their home whites on Sunday. Are they superstitious about uniforms? “I think so because we won every game in the whites so far,” Mathieu said. “Even the big game over Florida State we wore the whites.”

The Gophers led Purdue by 19 points multiple times but the game was close in the final minutes. Pitino said the first 35 minutes of the game’s 40 minutes “absolutely” were his team’s best of the season.

A look at the most immediate games ahead on the schedule indicates how important the Purdue win was. Although PennState is 0-2 in the Big Ten with 16 and 20 point losses to Michigan State and Illinois, Minnesota knows road wins don’t come easy (last season the Gophers lost eight of nine away from home). After Penn State the Gophers have consecutive games with top 25 ranked teams—at Michigan State, home against Ohio State, at Iowa and home with Wisconsin. OSU, MSU and Wisconsin are ranked among the top five teams in the nation.

Gophers forward Oto Osenieks was inspired as a teenager in his native Latvia when he watched American basketball on TV. He came to the United States where he first played AAU basketball followed by one year of high school competition. He has become a starter for the Gophers as a redshirt junior and turns 23 in March. “I am old,” he said.

There is an extraordinary new sports book on Ted Williams that reports on his life including the 1938 season with the Minneapolis Millers. There are other Minnesota references including to Bob Short who moved the Lakers from Minneapolis to Los Angeles before buying baseball’s Washington Senators and making Williams his manager. The Kid The Immortal Life of Ted Williams is written by investigative journalist Ben Bradlee, Jr. and is 855 pages.

Right wing Eriah Hayes, a La Crescent, Minnesota native, has played in two games for the NHL Sharks since being recalled from Worcester of the AHL. The former Minnesota State, Mankato player had eight points in 29 games for Worcester, his first full season of pro hockey. During the 2012-13 college season he led the nation in shots on goal with 186.

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