RICHARD PITINO – Page 40 – David Shama's Minnesota Sports Headliners

Sooners Interested in U RB Target Jones

Posted on October 2, 2013October 2, 2013 by David Shama

Oklahoma is the latest school to show interest in Washburn High School running back Jeff Jones. Washburn coach Giovan Jenkins told Sports Headliners the Sooners contacted him last week about Jones, the Rivals.com four-star running back who remains verbally committed to the Gophers.

“The Gophers will always be No. 1 until someone else shows something different that he can’t get at home,” Jenkins said. “He is a hometown kid who loves the thought of being a superstar in his home state. He loves the idea of being the next guy having the whole state on his side.”

The senior running back, who Rivals.com reports is the only four-star player to commit so far to the Gophers for the class of 2014, scored seven touchdowns last week to increase his season total to 24. “He’s having a phenomenal senior year,” Jenkins said. “He‘s on track for over 40 touchdowns.”

Jenkins believes Jones’ statistics, that include a career best 28 touchdowns as a sophomore, may have been what first prompted interest by national power Oklahoma, a program whose former great running backs include Adrian Peterson. “He probably reminds them of No. 28,” Jenkins said.

Jones spoke with Oklahoma assistant coach Cale Gundy on Monday night. Jenkins said the Sooners want to review Jones’ academic records before making an offer. Jenkins said his star running back is “on track to graduate.”

Worth Noting

The other Minnesota prep named Jones who is being highly recruited is Apple Valley point guard Tyus Jones. It’s speculated Jones will make Duke his college choice but maybe not. Jones is likely to keep his pact to attend the same school with Jahlil Okafor, the Chicago Whitney High School center. But does Okafor want to accept a scholarship to Duke where forward and former Chicago prep rival Jabari Parker is already a freshman?

Speculation is Okafor likes the Kansas coaches and perhaps leans toward a November commitment to the Jayhawks. But does Jones want to play in the Big 12 Conference where the Jayhawks’ rivals will include Baylor? The Bears’ coaching staff includes Jared Nuness who is a friend and relative of Jones.

Okafor and Jones might have their reasons for cancelling out Duke and Kansas. Could Baylor be the compromise choice?

Rivals.com rates Okafor the No. 1 national recruit in the class of 2014. Jones is No. 5.

Last Sunday games involving the Twins (Fox Sports North) and Vikings (WCCO TV) were televised in the local marketplace with dramatic differences in viewership. The Twins, ending a 66-96 season, had a 0.8 rating while the Vikings number was 33.

Byron Buxton, named this week by the Twins as the organization’s Minor League Player of the Year, backs up the hype about his extraordinary speed. He led all of minor league baseball in triples this year with 18 and was 12^th in stolen bases at 55. Buxton, who played in 125 total games with Cedar Rapids and Fort Myers, was also selected by Baseball America as its Minor League Player of the Year.

Sports Headliners’ Big Ten football power rankings: Ohio State, Wisconsin, Michigan State, Northwestern, Michigan, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Penn State, Minnesota, Indiana and Purdue.

NHL authority Lou Nanne told Sports Headliners he’s taking a wait-and-see approach with the Wild who open the regular season tomorrow night at Xcel Energy Center against the Kings. Whether the Wild improve over last season’s 26-19-3 record depends on how young players “produce,” Nanne said. He mentioned 21-year-old forwards Charlie Coyle and Nino Niederreiter, and defenseman Jonas Brodin, 20, referring to Coyle and Brodin as potential stars.

Nanne, a University of Minnesota alum, is involved with the new fundraising campaign to raise $190 million for Gophers facilities. He said a campaign announcement could come in three weeks.

Gophers basketball coach Richard Pitino said yesterday he has 13 players practicing and is looking to add one or two walk-ons. He also said the NCAA hasn’t informed the Gophers yet whether Drake transfer Joey King will be eligible this season or have to sit out a year.

Pitino on former Gophers coach Tubby Smith: “He is one of the better teachers of fundamentals in the game.”

Local high school basketball authority Chris Monter describes Seattle prep Josh Martin as a “physical player” who can score inside. “He’s not a great athlete but a good athlete,” Monter said about the power forward who verbally committed to the Gophers this week.

ESPN.com dropped Martin, who makes only about half his free throws, from a four-star to two-star player. “His AAU team did not have a good summer,” Monter said.

News conference overload: The Gophers men’s hockey team will have a news conference this afternoon to preview the coming season. That will be the last of six local news conferences that started late Monday morning with the Timberwolves and included the Twins, Vikings, and Gophers football and basketball.

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Gophers Still in Mix for Tyus Jones

Posted on August 19, 2013August 19, 2013 by David Shama

Tyus Jones has now made multiple unofficial visits to the University of Minnesota and the Gophers remain a solid possibility for his college choice, according to his mother, Debbie Jones.

Jones and his mom met with Gophers coach Rick Pitino and staff last week. “It went really good,” Debbie told Sports Headliners yesterday. “We had good conversations with the coach and coaching staff.

“He (Tyus) is still considering it (Minnesota). After the official visits (to other schools) we will sit down and talk about them. He is not leaning toward one (school now).”

An official visit is paid for by the school while an unofficial is at the family’s expense. Per NCAA rules, recruits are allowed only five official visits.

Jones, the Apple Valley High School senior point guard rated by Rivals.com as the second best player nationally in the class of 2014, is planning official visits to Baylor later this month, Kentucky in September and both Kansas and Duke in October.

Debbie said four visits, and not five, allow the flexibility of scheduling one more official visit and that could be to Minnesota. “You can get a little more in-depth with things (on official visits),” she said.

It’s interesting that Michigan State’s Tom Izzo pursued Jones early and often but the Spartans aren’t on Jones’ list of schools for official visits. “He just made a decision he wasn’t going to take an official visit there,” Debbie said. “They are still in contact.”

Worth Noting

A hockey source told Sports Headliners an announcement will be made this week that the Gophers men’s team will host Ohio State in the first outdoor hockey game at TCF Bank Stadium on January 18, 2014. The defending national champion Gophers women’s team will also play that day against Minnesota State in a doubleheader being promoted as the Hockey City Classic. The games will be part of Hockey Day in Minnesota and likely televised on the Big Ten Network.

Chicago-based Intersport, a sports and entertainment marketing agency, is playing a major organizing role with the event, according to a source who requested anonymity. Intersport, in partnership with Soldier Field, was involved with last winter’s Hockey City Classic at Soldier Field that included the Gophers and Badgers men’s teams.

While the Gophers’ stadium has been mentioned as a site for a future NHL Winter Classic Game, the game will likely be scheduled at Target Field, possibly on January 1, 2015.

Big Ten hockey’s initial season will be in 2013-2014 with six schools participating: Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Penn State, Ohio State and Wisconsin. The Big Ten has scheduled a media day on September 19 in St. Paul with all six head coaches in attendance.

Gophers coach Jerry Kill will have his 52^nd birthday on Saturday.

Kill is one of three coaches on the ballot for the Southern Illinois All-Century team that will be introduced on September 14 at Saluki Stadium. Kill coached at Southern Illinois from 2001 through 2007, taking the Salukis from an initial 1-10 record to 12-2 in his last season.

The Goal Line Club is hosting the first of five Gopher Gridiron Luncheons on August 28 at Jax Café. The public is welcome and each luncheon will include a member of the Gophers coaching staff who will talk about the program. More at goallineclub.com.

The Gophers open the season at home against UNLV on August 29 and the Rebels’ roster includes wide receiver Jerry Rice, Jr. The son of the NFL Hall of Famer, Rice is a transfer from UCLA where his stats as a junior included seven catches for 52 yards.

UNLV’s athletic director is Tina Kunzer-Murphy whose husband Greg Murphy earned a letter playing quarterback for the Gophers in 1983.

The August 19 issue of Sports Illustrated has only one Big Ten team in its top 10 rankings of college football teams. That’s not a surprise after recent years of sub-par performance by league teams. Ohio State is No. 4, with Michigan State No. 15, Michigan No. 18 and Northwestern No. 22. Northern Illinois, the school where Kill coached before joining the Gophers, is No. 24 in the magazine’s top 25.

If the Twins continue to play sub-.500 baseball in 2014 it will be interesting to see how many season ticket holders renew tickets for 2015. Speculation is some season patrons are renewing for 2014 to have priority buying tickets to next summer’s MLB All-Star Game in Minneapolis. Those who choose to resell their All-Star tickets could use the money to cover a portion of season tickets expenses.

The risk patrons take in dumping their tickets is losing their prime seat locations when superstar prospects Byron Buxton and Miguel Sano arrive at Target Field within a couple of years. The issue of Sports Illustrated referenced above has a six-page feature on Buxton and Sano, rated the No. 1 and 3 players in Baseball America’s prospect rankings of minor league talent. “Imagine having the next Bryce Harper or Mike Trout in your system—then imagine having them both,” S.I. wrote in an article titled “Glimmer Twins.”

It seems possible but no certainty that after three losing consecutive seasons the Twins will part ways with Ron Gardenhire this fall, the team’s manager since 2002. Even the most ardent Gardenhire supporters wouldn’t argue the Twins could create a new look and gain a fresh start with a new field boss. “Sometimes you make a change for change sake,” a passionate fan said.

The contrary argument is the Twins’ top decision makers recognize the lack of talent Gardenhire has been given. He is popular with team management and has earned a reputation for being cooperative.

The reorganized Timberwolves roster has 14 players who are 6-6 or taller. Seven of the 17 players on the roster are 6-9 or taller. Flip Saunders, the team’s president of basketball operations, expects the Wolves to be better defensively than last season because “We’re going to have great length.”

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Pitino Versus Pitino in Vikings Stadium?

Posted on July 12, 2013July 19, 2013 by David Shama

New Gophers coach Richard Pitino told Sports Headliners he will talk with his father, Rick Pitino, about scheduling Minnesota and Louisville nonconference games.

“I think it would be great for fan bases and great universities, great athletic departments,” Richard said this week. “We would definitely talk about that at some point down the road.”

How about playing in the Vikings stadium that opens in 2016? “That would be a great idea,” the Gophers coach said. “That would bring some good exposure.”

Such a game could attract 25,000 fans or more to the downtown dome stadium. With Louisville’s reputation as an elite basketball school and the intrigue of a father against son matchup, it doesn’t take much imagination to see the game being nationally televised and providing valuable publicity for Pitino as he builds his Minnesota program and brand.

It’s likely any agreement between the two schools would include games scheduled in both Louisville and Minneapolis. The Pitinos met on the court as head coaches for the first time last December when Rick’s team beat Richard’s Florida International group, 79-55 in Louisville.

Richard worked for his dad at Louisville until he took the head coaching job at Florida International last season. The two are close and talk frequently. Rick, who coached the Cardinals to the national championship in April, is known for his work ethic.

“I think he really taught me just do (things) with unbelievable effort, unbelievable hard work,” Richard said. “He’s one of the most motivated guys I know. I just learned a lot by example from working with him for three years and being around him my whole life.”

Richard on other subjects including Drake transfer and former Eastview High School player Joey King who is waiting for an NCAA ruling on whether he will be eligible this coming season or have to wait a year:

“I love him. Tough kid. Huge chip on his shoulder. Really believes he is the best player on the court. Has that great confidence. Fearless. Can play multiple positions on the court.”

The 6-9 Eagan native has an ill family member who wants to watch King play at Minnesota, Pitino said. The NCAA is known to grant immediate eligibility in such situations.

Pitino wasn’t surprised his best player, junior guard Andre Hollins, didn’t make the USA junior team at tryouts last month. Hollins, as part of his academic experience, was in Italy before the tryouts and didn’t have access to a basketball facility.

“I told him, ‘Listen, you gotta expect you’re not going to make it. It has nothing to do with your ability. It has nothing to do with how good of a basketball player you are. You’re just very rusty.’ He wasn’t too down about it. He understood that.”

Pitino said right now there are no players who have a lock on starting next season, not even Hollins who led the team in scoring at 14.6 points per game or senior guard Austin Hollins who was second at 10.7. “I would assume that they are going to be in the starting five and they are going to play major, major minutes,” Pitino said. “But they’ve got to show me that.”

The Gophers finished with an 8-10 record in the Big Ten last season. Minnesota has only two Big Ten season records above .500 since 2000 but Pitino expects “to build this program on a high level.”

What does high level mean? “I think the biggest thing that you’ve gotta do is try to compete for conference championships,” Pitino said. “Try to get to the top half of that league and win a conference title. If you win a conference title in a conference like us, you’re gonna get a great seed in the (NCAA) Tournament. Then you never know what might happen.”

The Gophers have only two returning starters in Andre and Austin Hollins. Just two other returning players averaged double figure minutes per game, senior guard Maverick Ahanmisi and junior center Elliott Eliason. Pitino said it’s too early for him to talk about what his first Minnesota team accomplishes in wins and losses. “It’s going to take time, that’s what it does whenever you build a program.”

The Big Ten has a reputation for teams playing slow, conservative basketball. Pitino wants to coach at a fast pace on offense and defense. “I don’t think it has as much to do with the conference as it does with the players that I have on my team,” Pitino said. “I will be able to run. I will be able to press. I will be able to play fast if I have athletes and fast players on my team. I won’t be able to do it if I don’t.

“It comes down to the personnel more than the conference. Certainly game by game will be a little different but we just need to have the right type of players to play that style.”

Pitino has a new blog at Gophersports.com and this week he discusses each of his players.

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