Timberwolves – Page 83 – David Shama's Minnesota Sports Headliners

Viking Pick Promising, But No Certainty

Posted on April 29, 2016April 29, 2016 by David Shama

It was a no-brainer for the Vikings to use their first round pick in last night’s NFL Draft to select Mississippi wide receiver Laquon Treadwell. It’s far from certain, though, how much he will help the team—and how soon.

While the Vikings have needs in the offensive line and at safety, adding a quality wide receiver is the franchise’s major personnel need. The Vikings WR group caught only six touchdown passes last season.

The hope is Treadwell can help boost production immediately. The 20-year-old 6-2, 222-pound Treadwell is known as a physical pass catcher who can go up and take the ball away from defenders.

In its April 18 issue rating NFL Draft prospects, Sports Illustrated ranked Treadwell No. 1 among wide receivers. The magazine praised his ability to push around defensive backs and be dominant in the air.

After selecting Treadwell last night, Vikings coach Mike Zimmer described him as “the best blocking receiver I’ve ever seen.” General manager Rick Spielman listed several of Treadwell’s attributes including his work ethic. Indeed, the Vikings must have been sold on Treadwell’s attitude because in two seasons coaching here Zimmer has let the world know he won’t tolerate poor work habits.

What the Vikings didn’t acquire in Treadwell is speed. The call for a fast receiver to open up the long range passing game has been heard for quite awhile now, but that’s not Treadwell, who ran a slow 4.63 40-yard-dash at the NFL Combine. It could be challenging for Treadwell to get separated from quick cornerbacks in the NFL.

Last night ESPN draft analyst Jon Gruden had another word of caution. “He’s got to catch the football better to be great,” Gruden said. “There’s just too many times he lacks concentration.”

The months and years ahead will show what Treadwell can do but Vikings fans can feel some optimism looking back at the influence of Speilman. The franchise has made 11 first round selections going back to 2007 and 10 were starters in their rookie seasons, seven were All-Rookie picks, and four were Pro Bowlers as rookies.

Worth Noting

There’s speculation that next season will be Adrian Peterson’s last with the Vikings because of his advanced age and compensation for a pro running back. It’s been thought for awhile he might end his career with the Cowboys but that seems unlikely after Dallas used its first round draft choice last night to select Ohio State running back Ezekiel Elliott. With his power and speed, Elliott could be an AP clone.

Elliott, chosen No. 4 by the Cowboys, was one of three Buckeyes selected in the top 10 last night. A total of five Ohio State players were chosen in the first 20 selections.

Minnesota sports trivia master Dave Mona e-mailed that despite successes as college running backs, ex-Gophers haven’t gained a lot of rushing yards in the NFL. He researched 15 prominent U runners going back to the 1960s and learned the following: “Six of them had no NFL carries. That group includes Thomas Hamner, Tellis Redmon, Amir Pinnix, Garry White, Chris Darkins and Barry Mayer. The leading rusher, by far, is Marion Barber III with 4,780 yards and 53 touchdowns. His college running mate, Laurence Maroney, was second at 2,504 and 21.”

Darrell Thompson, the Gophers all-time leading career rusher, ran for 1,641 yards and seven touchdowns during five years with the Packers. His totals placed third on Mona’s list behind Barber and Maroney.

Multiple media reports during the last several days have Benilde-St. Margaret’s offensive lineman Eric Wilson verbally committing to Harvard and declining offers from other schools including the Gophers. Wilson will be a high school senior next fall and is a Rivals.com three-star recruit.

Tickets are available for the Jerry Kill Roast & Toast May 6 at Jax Café. The event starts at noon and is sponsored by the Minnesota Minute Men. Proceeds benefit the Chasing Dreams program for children through the Epilepsy Foundation. Jim Carter, Dave Lee, Joel Maturi, Mike Max and Ron Stolski will be among those roasting the former Gophers football coach. Dick Jonckowski will emcee. More information is available at Minutemen.com, or by calling Claud Allaire at 952-913-6502.

Former Gophers football coach Jim Wacker, who died in 2003, would have been 79 yesterday.

A memorial service for former Gophers All-Big Ten linebacker Bill Light will be held tomorrow (Saturday) starting at 11 a.m. at Westwood Community Church in Chanhassen, 3121 Westwood Drive. A lunch at the church will follow. Condolences to Bill’s wife Julie, children, other family and many friends.

Former Gophers basketball trainer Roger Schipper and his wife are relocating to Naples, Florida.

Some fans attending this evening’s Twins-Tigers game at Target Field purchased Wrestling Night VIP Packages. Perks include a Twins wrestling mask, and private meet and greet with pro wrestling legends “Jumpin” Jim Brunzell, Greg Gagne, Larry “The Axe” Hennig and Baron Von Raschke.

Glenn Caruso, who coached the Tommies last year to the Division III football title game, is proud his team placed first among 3,500-plus national student fundraising groups generating monies to support Memphis-based St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. His team raised nearly $40,000 in donations in 2015-16, a record total, according to Tommiesports.com. The website reported the total tripled the UST amount from the previous school year and is the most any single organization has generated for the national effort called Up ‘Til Dawn that raises money for St. Jude.

Former Timberwolves president Bob Stein told Sports Headliners when he was assembling a staff for the Minnesota expansion team years ago he wanted Scott Layden to be the franchise’s first general manager. Layden was working for the Jazz in the late 1980s and declined Stein’s offer. Last week Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor hired Layden to become his GM, taking him away from the Spurs where he was assistant general manager.

It might be a couple of weeks before new Wolves coach Tom Thibodeau decides on his assistant coaches and other staff. A sentimental choice with the public, of course, is Ryan Saunders who was hired as an assistant by his late father Flip two years ago. It will be a surprise if Ryan isn’t given a continued assignment with the franchise.

The Lynx are considering multiple sites in the metro area for playing home games in 2017 while Target Center is renovated. The WNBA team will be able to work around arena renovation this summer for its 2016 schedule.

Horse racing analyst Kevin Gorg guests on the KARE 11 Saturday show tomorrow morning about 9:35 a.m. and will talk about the May 7 Kentucky Derby, a popular wagering day at Shakopee’s Canterbury Park. Nyquist might be an early favorite for winning the Derby.

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The Kid Sure Looked Like Prince

Posted on April 27, 2016April 27, 2016 by David Shama

In the days since Prince’s death last week, it seems like most of the world has a story about him. I thought I had one, too.

Back in the early 1970s my ninth grade boys basketball team, the Ramsey All-Stars, played Bryant Junior High whose roster included a really small kid with a big Afro. After Prince became famous, I thought the little guy was him. This made a nice memory for a long time because not only did my Ramsey team defeat our south Minneapolis rivals, but we played against a future music legend.

Uh, oh.

A couple of days ago I called one of the Ramsey players I coached. He let the air out of my balloon pronto, telling me Prince was a few years younger than my bunch and the mysterious little guy we played back in the day wasn’t Prince Rogers Nelson.

So I turned to my friend Al Nuness, the former Gophers basketball captain who has true Prince stories in his “memory bank.” Nuness took a job as a physical education teacher and basketball coach at Central High School in 1971. At the time Prince was at Bryant, the junior high school located near Central. Prince was drawn to basketball and so was his brother Duane and Prince’s best friend Paul Mitchell.

It didn’t take Nuness long to meet up with the threesome who regularly rode their bikes over to Central. “These guys would sneak into the Central gym, and they would bring their dog with them,” Nuness told Sports Headliners. “My office had a window that looked right into the gym. I would see these kids and I heard this dog barking. I’d chase these guys out of the gym at least three days a week. I have no idea how they got (in) there. …They were good kids.”

Prince eventually played on the Central sophomore team but never the varsity. “He was a good player,” Nuness remembered. “He loved basketball. He was quick, (but) he was small. Prince was 5-6 in his high heel shoes. He was probably 5-2 in his stocking feet.”

At Central it was evident music, not hoops, was Prince’s future. Nuness and others saw he was a natural. “This kid could not read music. He played everything by ear. He could play five instruments. He was the music guy in school.”

Prince was even part of a band while at Central. “They were playing for adult parties back when they were in high school,” Nuness said.

When Nuness became a sales and community affairs executive for the startup Timberwolves franchise in the late 1980s, he called Prince’s office. Nuness wanted to make sure the basketball-loving Prince had the opportunity to purchase prime seats to watch Minneapolis’ new NBA franchise.

The person who answered the telephone at Prince’s office didn’t know Nuness and said he didn’t believe his boss was interested in tickets. “I said, ‘Will you tell Prince coach Nuness called?’

“The guy called me back five minutes later and said, ‘Hey, I am really sorry. I didn’t know. Yes, Prince wants to talk to you. Yes, he wants season tickets.’

“The guy was very apologetic.”

There was another time Nuness learned the famous entertainer hadn’t forgotten about the coach who many years before had chased him out of the gym. Kelly Smith, a young lady who was a friend of the Nuness family, was a Prince fanatic and formed a Prince fan club in Chicago. Smith called Nuness because she remembered his Central connection to Prince. Nuness responded by sending her an old Central yearbook that included Prince—but that wasn’t the end of hearing from Smith.

“She just went crazy (after receiving the yearbook), and so she calls me back and she says, ‘I need something.’

“I said, ‘What do you need now, Kelly?’ She says, ‘Can you get a picture of Prince in front of his house?’

“I said, ‘What? Prince doesn’t give pictures out. He doesn’t do stuff like that.’

“She said, ‘Oh, but I know you can get it for me.’

“I called his brother Duane. I said, ‘Duane, I need you to get me a picture of Prince in front of his house.’

“He said, ‘Coach, you want me to do what (then)’?

“I said, ‘Duane, this is coach Nuness. You tell Prince that coach Nuness wants a picture of him in front of his house.’ This is when he lived on Lake Riley in Chanhassen and had that purple house.

“He said, ‘All right, coach.’

“A week later I got a picture in the mail—Prince sitting on top of his car in front of his house. I sent it to Kelly.

“I said, ‘Kelly, don’t ask me for anything else.’ ”

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Could Izzo be Next Wolves Coach?

Posted on April 18, 2016April 18, 2016 by David Shama

A sports industry source told Sports Headliners Tom Izzo has been contacted about the vacancy created last week with the dismissal of Timberwolves interim head coach Sam Mitchell. Izzo, 61, is one of college basketball’s icons because he has coached Michigan State to a Big Ten record 19-straight NCAA Tournaments including seven Final Fours and a national title.

Izzo came to Michigan State as a part-time assistant coach in 1983. He has been MSU’s head coach since the 1995-1996 season and earlier this month was elected to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. NBA teams, including the Cavaliers and Pistons, have reportedly flirted with hiring him previously.

Flip Saunders (Photo courtesy of Minnesota Timberwolves).

It’s believed the Wolves were also one of those teams two years ago. The late Flip Saunders, as the franchise’s president of basketball operations, was looking for a coach to succeed Rick Adelman in the spring of 2014. Saunders and Izzo were buddies, and it’s possible Izzo may have been offered the Wolves job. Ultimately Saunders made himself coach and continued in that role and as the franchise’s basketball boss until his death last fall.

Jim Dutcher coached Saunders with the Gophers. He said Saunders and Izzo became close friends years ago. “He (Izzo) read scripture at Flip’s memorial service,” Dutcher remembered.

Izzo is a highly likeable personality and is known for having a big heart. A native of Iron Mountain, Michigan who attended college at Northern Michigan, Izzo has loved mentoring young players and shown unusual loyalty by staying so many years at MSU. Would he want a new career challenge at this stage of his life?

Maybe he would be drawn to Minneapolis by his relationship with Saunders. The opportunity to continue the work of his friend in changing the Wolves from a joke franchise to a place among the NBA’s elite could be rewarding for Izzo.

The Wolves’ coaching job is attractive, too, because of a young and talented nucleus of players that Saunders assembled. Led by forward Andrew Wiggins, last year’s NBA Rookie of the Year, and center Karl-Anthony Towns, a lock to win the same award this year, the Wolves have a roster that still needs more playing experience. That roster also needs a few personnel changes and superior coaching to move toward division, conference and—possibly one day—Minneapolis’s first NBA championship since the Lakers won it all in 1954.

Indications are Wolves owner Glen Taylor is ready to spend significant money to hire a power coach. The source referred to in the opening paragraph said three other well-known names have already been contacted about the vacancy—Scott Brooks, Dave Joerger and Tom Thibodeau.

Brooks and Thibodeau have ties to the late Bill Musselman, the Wolves first coach. Brooks played for Musselman in the early 1990s while Thibodeau was an assistant during that period. Brooks was head coach of the Thunder until last year and successfully helped develop a young roster in Oklahoma City. Thibodeau was dismissed as the Bulls’ head coach last year after wowing the NBA with his defensive tutoring—a skill set that has to be on the to-do list of Wolves players. Joerger, currently the Grizzlies head coach, is a Minnesota native and it’s believed Saunders and Taylor were interested in hiring him two years ago.

The Wolves leadership is influx. General manager Milt Newton, who held that title under Saunders, now has more basketball personnel power but Taylor told Sports Headliners a couple weeks ago his GM is being evaluated too. A source said the Wolves are open to a structure like they had when Saunders carried the titles of both coach and president of basketball operations.

Perhaps Taylor decided awhile ago to fire Mitchell. In his interview with Sports Headliners, Taylor offered few words of praise about Mitchell who had been an assistant under Saunders.

The Wolves are receiving assistance on their coaching and front office review from search firm Korn Ferry.

Worth Noting

Ron Gardenhire has been hired as a special assistant to general manager Terry Ryan. The Twins made the announcement this afternoon that Gardenhire, who managed the team before being replaced by Paul Moltior after the 2014 season, will be a roving instructor and evaluator in the club’s minor league system.

Three sources told Sports Headliners Gary Trent Jr., the highly recruited Apple Valley High School shooting guard, is considering a prep school in 2016-2017. He has apparently visited at least two prep schools and one of them might be national basketball power Findlay Prep in Henderson, Nevada.

Trent, who is finishing his junior year at Apple Valley, may want to compete against better and stronger players in practice by playing for a prep school. Already considered a potential NBA prospect, Trent is physically strong and has superior strength compared to Eagle teammates.

“I feel a guess is he is headed out (from Apple Valley),” said a source who knows Trent.

Trent, who averaged 26.4 points per game last season, hasn’t selected a college but Ohio State or Duke could be his final choice, the source said.

Former Cooper High School star Rashad Vaughn transferred to Findlay for his senior year and then played one college season at UNLV. Vaughn, a shooting guard, was a first round pick in last year’s NBA Draft. Playing for the Bucks in 70 games this season, he averaged only 3.1 points while making 29.5 percent of his field goal attempts.

Casey O'Brien (photo courtesy of Abe Booker III, Stratman Photography). — Casey O’Brien (photo courtesy of Abe Booker III, Stratman Photography).

There were many recipients last night at the Minnesota Football Honors event at the Hilton Minneapolis but only one person received a standing ovation from the audience. Casey O’Brien, who twice has dramatically recovered from cancer, received the Courage Award at the event organized by the Minnesota Chapter of the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame.

The Cretin-Derham Hall junior has taken inspiration from football and hopes to be a co-captain and holder on the Raiders team next season. The Raiders new coach will be former Viking Brooks Bollinger who played collegiately at Wisconsin. Asked by emcee Frank Vascellaro for confirmation about Bollinger’s Badger roots, O’Brien quipped, “Sadly.”

At the event the Vikings announced the following 2015 award winners: Community Man of the Year Chad Greenway; Rookie of the Year Stefon Diggs; Offensive Player of the Year Adrian Peterson; Defensive Player of the Year Linval Joseph; and Special lTeams Player of the Year Adam Thielen. All of the players were present to accept awards except Peterson who was out of the country on a Starkey Hearing Foundation mission.

For a complete list of those honored last night, including scholar-athlete winners, see the March 16 Sports Headliners.

The Wild learns tonight whether home ice can help make a series out of Minnesota’s first round matchup with the Stars. In franchise history the Wild is 12-14 in Stanley Cup Playoff games at Xcel Energy Center including 7-4 the last two postseasons. The Wild trails Dallas 2-0 in the series and it looks like Minnesota will play again without injured leaders Zach Parise and Thomas Vanek.

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