Timberwolves – Page 95 – David Shama's Minnesota Sports Headliners

Taylor May Change Wolves Sale Plan

Posted on April 17, 2013April 17, 2013 by David Shama

Glen Taylor told Sports Headliners on Monday he might change his intent to find a majority buyer for his Timberwolves. He also said the future of his team for next season starts with coach Rick Adelman who he believes will decide to stay with the franchise.

Taylor, the club’s majority owner since the mid-1990s, has been shopping the team for awhile because at 71 years old he thought that might be a good idea if he encountered health problems. While Taylor has identified potential out of town buyers, he hasn’t found one from Minnesota and he wants the Wolves to continue to play in Minneapolis.

“I don’t have a deal (to sell),” said Taylor who turns 72 tomorrow. “I may go back to what I originally started out with. Go out and look for some minority interests. I would look for people who do live in the state to replace some of the people that have been my partners in the past. … So I may just change my tactic next summer and go back to talking to some of those people — that maybe their interest isn’t to run the club — but they would like to be a partner in it.”

Former UnitedHealth executive Bill McGuire is the new owner of the Minnesota United FC soccer team. McGuire was a high school basketball player and is a Wolves season ticket holder. He has the financial resources to become the Wolves’ majority owner, keeping a Minnesotan in charge of the franchise.

Taylor said McGuire hasn’t expressed interest in buying him out but could be on a list of potential minority investors. “He’s the type of person I would ask. He’s a friend and I respect him. He’s a good business guy, and he’s got an interest in the Timberwolves.”

Crushed by injuries, the Timberwolves end their regular season tonight at San Antonio. The team’s hard luck year included the absence of Adelman who left the team for 11 games to support his wife Mary Kay. She suffers from seizures and Adelman’s coaching future is uncertain.

Taylor said Adelman is waiting for medical consultation on his wife and that information could come in the next 30 days. “We’re hoping so, yes,” Taylor said.

Adelman, 66, is among the NBA’s most admired coaches and it’s believed if necessary he will retire to spend more time with his wife. Although Taylor has a president of basketball operations (David Kahn) with an expiring contract and challenges with player personnel, it is the coach and his availability for next season that is priority No. 1. He described Adelman as “the key” to the immediate future.

“I think right now the No. 1 decision for me is Rick,” Taylor said. “I just think with his experience and his relationships with these players and this team, that’s such a critical part of our plan. And whatever he decides could affect some of the other decisions.”

Kahn’s contract expires May 27. Taylor said all the injuries this season make it difficult to evaluate whether to retain Kahn, and the Wolves’ owner wouldn’t say whether he will announce a decision prior to late May.

Flip Saunders began his Timberwolves’ career as the team’s general manager and then was quickly given the coaching job. Would Taylor consider Saunders for either the coaching or general manager positions?

“I just think that I should just not answer that question but first find out what Rick’s decision is going to be,” Taylor said. “I just think that’s way premature to say what I might do because at this point I believe Rick is going to stay. He hasn’t said that but that’s my belief.”

Taylor said he recalled in 2005 then general manager Kevin McHale fired Saunders because McHale thought a change was needed. The Wolves were losing games and Taylor was told by McHale the players-coach relationship wasn’t what it should be. But later Taylor didn’t hesitate to recommend Saunders for another head coaching job in the NBA. Saunders is now involved with NBA commentary for ESPN but he and Taylor are friends.

Raising Taylor’s optimism for next season are conversations he’s had with his two star players, power forward Kevin Love and point guard Ricky Rubio. Love played in only 18 games this season because of injuries and Rubio missed early games recovering from the torn ACL that sidelined him a year ago March.

The two players have informed Taylor about their summer plans to prepare for the 2013-14 season, describing not only what they intend to do but also the names of people who will assist them. Love and Rubio also told Taylor they welcome having a Wolves’ assistant coach monitor their work. “To me, it speaks of confidence,” Taylor said.

Worth Noting

A decision regarding the site for the NHL’s Winter Classic in 2015 could be announced next month, according to a knowledgeable pro hockey source. He said it’s not known when the league will make its choice but the Wild is pushing for 2015.

Both TCF Bank Stadium and Target Field are under consideration for the outdoor game annually played on New Year’s Day. The Twins want the game, and they and the Wild can use the attraction to reward season ticket holders who will receive priority seating.

The NHL likes to involve teams who have North American appeal and the Wild have attractive players in Niklas Backstrom, Mikko Koivu, Zach Parise, Jason Pominville and Ryan Suter, but the franchise has yet to establish itself as a postseason winner. “If they make the playoffs (this spring) they have an outstanding chance of getting the game (for 2015),” the source said.

The 2014 Winter Classic will be hosted by the Red Wings and played at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor.

The Wild are ranked No. 15 among 30 teams in the latest ESPN.com NHL power rankings.

Sports Illustrated looks clairvoyant regarding Twins’ rookie center fielder Aaron Hicks who has only two hits in 45 at bats this season. In its April 1 baseball issue the magazine said Hicks’ .370 batting average and four home runs in spring training were misleading, pointing out that most of his success came against “fringe” major league and minor league pitching. S.I. said the four home runs came with an “asterisk,” pointing out three were wind-aided.

Meanwhile, the Twins’ two regular center fielders from last season are having mixed results. Denard Span is hitting .313 with two stolen bases in 13 games for the Nationals. Ben Revere, now with the Phillies, is hitting .207 with five stolen bases in 14 games but he made headlines with an extraordinary catch earlier this week.

The Twins (6-7) have a two-game winning streak after defeating the Angels last night, 8-6. The Angels (4-10) are tied for the worst start in franchise history, matching the 1961 season when the club was in its first season ever.

The Gophers had their 10^th spring practice yesterday and all sessions have been indoors. Rather than risk pulled muscles or other cold weather induced problems, the Gophers have stayed inside where they can also better focus on execution.

Happy birthday to former Gophers’ basketball coach Jim Dutcher who turns 80 today.

G.G. Smith, Tubby Smith’s son who had been an assistant men’s basketball coach at Loyola University Maryland, was promoted last week to the head job there. Does that mean Tubby’s son Saul Smith, who was an assistant at Minnesota, will be added to the Texas Tech staff where his dad now coaches?

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U Waits for Summer to Find Burner

Posted on April 12, 2013April 12, 2013 by David Shama

The Gophers are working their way through 15 spring practices but one of the team’s potentially most explosive playmakers won’t arrive until summer. Freshman running back Berkley Edwards, 5-9, 190 pounds from Novi, Michigan, is already on the minds of head coach Jerry Kill and offensive coordinator Matt Limegrover.

Edwards has game changing speed, the kind of attribute otherwise absent on the Gophers’ running backs roster. “He’s one of (the) top 10, 12 sprinters in the country,” Kill said in February when he announced Edwards will play for Minnesota. “Those things we need. And he’s a great fit for us at running back because we got some big backs, but we’d like to have one just to hand it off and it’s over. Goodnight. And he can do that because he’s got that kind of speed.”

The longest run from scrimmage by a Gophers’ running back last season was 38 yards by Donnell Kirkwood. In some games the Gophers didn’t have a running back with a run longer than 15 yards.

Limegrover is diplomatic about the running backs he has now and said he’s “very excited” about what they can do but he knows Edwards will complement the punishing style of Kirkwood and Rodrick Williams, the team’s two leading rushers from last year after now departed quarterback MarQueis Gray.

“I think the great thing about Berkley is that he truly can bring that change of pace over what we have right now,” Limegrover said. “The more weapons you have…the better off you’re going to be because every time you do that, it makes defensive coaches stand up and take notice, and be aware of, ‘Okay, they have a tailback in but which one is it?’

“So having a guy like Berkley with his speed and the things he can do getting the ball to the perimeter I think is going to be just a fantastic complement to what we already have in place.”

Limegrover won’t have to be envious of a team like Wisconsin if Edwards comes through for the Gophers. The famed Badgers’ running game pounds away for yards over and over…and then a speedy Wisconsin back darts through a hole, or jets outside for a long run.

Limegrover said it’s difficult for an offense to just rely on long drives for touchdowns. “Every once in a while you need to have that two play, 80-yard drive. …That’s what we’re working towards and that’s what we need, and Berkley is that kind of kid.”

Worth Noting

Limegrover said he isn’t set on naming the starting quarterback after spring practice ends later this month. “Not really. I think that what it comes down to is I think the offense is kind of bigger than who the starting quarterback is going to be.”

Kill emphasizes competition at all positions. “I think it shows up every day with the way kids compete,” Limegrover said.

Two of the three finalists for the Hobey Baker Award are Minnesotans for the first time in the award’s history, spokesman Wally Shaver told Sports Headliners. The winner of the 33^rd annual award will be announced tonight with coverage beginning at 5 p.m. CDT on the NHL Network.

Finalists are Boston College sophomore Johnny Gaudreau from Carneys Point, New Jersey; Quinnipiac senior goalie Eric Hartzell from White Bear Lake; and St. Cloud State senior forward Drew LeBlanc from Hermantown.

A Minnesotan, UMD’s Jack Connolly who attended Duluth’s Marshall High School, won the award last year. The last Gopher to win was Jordan Leopold in 2002.

With recent announcements that five juniors will be leaving school early, plus the end of eligibility for senior Seth Helgeson, the Gophers’ hockey program has lost more than 25 percent of its roster.

Two football games will be played at sites within walking distance of one another on Thursday, August 29. That evening the Gophers host UNLV in a nonconference game at TCF Bank Stadium while the Vikings play their final preseason game against the Titans at Mall of America Field.

The Vikings’ other home preseason game will be August 9 against the Texans.

Last Sunday in Atlanta Lewis Garrison, the former Gophers football player, officiated the Division II men’s college basketball championship game for a second consecutive season.

This is a big weekend for the Carol Fitzgerald Memorial Fund with a benefit tonight at the Metropolitan in Golden Valley, and a community celebration tomorrow at the Martin Luther King Center in Minneapolis. Pro Bowl wide receiver and Minneapolis native Larry Fitzgerald Jr. will be at both events and sign autographs at a fundraising session on Saturday. Other guests at the Metropolitan event will include Jamecia Bennett, Cris Carter, and Big Sy Huff. The fund supports multiple causes and honors Carol Fitzgerald who passed away from breast cancer in 2003.

A local source told Sports Headliners assistant basketball coach Ben Johnson interviewed on Monday for a position on Minnesota coach Richard Pitino’s new staff. Johnson, a former Gopher player, joined the Nebraska staff last year.

The 2013 Division I men’s basketball tournament, televised on four networks, was the most-watched NCAA tourney in 19 years, according to a Wednesday story by Sportsmedianews.com, attributing viewership statistics to Nielsen. “The tournament averaged 10.7 million total viewers, up 11% from last year’s 9.6 million total viewers, and is the highest average for the NCAA Tournament in 19 years (11.2 million, 1994),” Sportsmedia.com reported.

The story also said Monday night’s title game between Louisville and Michigan had 23.4 million viewers, an increase of 12 percent from the 2012 game.

The Timberwolves FastBreak Foundation will host a jersey auction after tomorrow night’s game against the Suns at Target Center. Fans can bid on jerseys worn by Timberwolves players during the game. The winning bidders will have jerseys signed and photos taken with players.

St. Thomas men’s basketball coach John Tauer, who led the Tommies to a 30-2 record and the NCAA tournament semifinals, is the Basketball Times Division III Coach of the Year.

Vance Worley (0-1, 5.73 ERA), acquired in the offseason from the Phillies, makes his third start of the season tonight for the Twins against the Mets and Jonathon Niese (1-0, 2.13 ERA) at Target Field. Worley has a 3-3 career record with a 5.17 ERA against the Mets.

Yesterday was the 52^nd anniversary of the first Twins’ regular season game ever, a 6-0 win in New York against the Yankees. Pedro Ramos was the winning pitcher, Whitey Ford the loser in that 1961 game.

Oswaldo Arcia, the Twins Minor League Player of the Year in 2012, is hitting .458 with three home runs and eight RBI in 24 at bats for Triple-A Rochester.

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Hallelujah! Gophers Find Their Chemistry

Posted on February 27, 2013February 27, 2013 by David Shama

The Gophers went to church on Sunday. Last night their prayers were answered.

Coach Tubby Smith took his players to a church service, part of a plan to bring the team closer together. Who could argue with the strategy after a 77-73 upset win over No. 1 ranked Indiana at Williams Arena last evening?

Before last night the public’s memory of the Gophers was a disinterested performance in Columbus on February 20 when Ohio State embarrassed Minnesota 71-45. The Gophers lacked confidence, cohesiveness and energy in defeat, their third loss in the last four games.

But against the 24-3 Hoosiers the Gophers were reborn. Is there no wonder to what a morning in church, tutoring from a sports psychologist and a new found commitment will do?

Smith resurrected his team, now 7-8 in the Big Ten and 19-9 overall, for at least one night. Give him credit for bringing in the psychologist and using team building activities to shake off the Gophers’ malaise.

Smith said even before the game he saw a “calm” in his players not witnessed before. “It was good to see them having fun (last night),” the coach said.

Reserve forward Oto Osenieks said the psychologist helped a Gophers team that is now intent on starting a new winning streak and playing like the group rated among the nation’s 10 best last month. “We had a team meeting,” Osenieks said. “We talked to each other (and) with him. We just kind of found how to play together more and not blame each other for mistakes. Just be accountable.”

On Sunday the Gophers not only went to church, but had lunch together. “We’ve done a lot of stuff to build the team chemistry,” Osenieks said. “That was a big part of it (the success last night.)”

This was a game that had an observer believing in the second half that it was the Gophers night to win. Andre Ingram, a .333 percent free throw shooter, made two foul line shots including one that made a strange landing on the rim. Later Andre Hollins, the team’s best free throw shooter, threw up a foul shot that looked like a miss until fate gave the ball a friendly bounce.

But make no mistake, the Gophers earned this win with skill and pluck. And maybe Hollins was right when he said he thought the Gophers “wanted” the victory more than the Hoosiers. No one defined Minnesota’s night and effort more than senior center Trevor Mbakwe who had a blocked shot for the ages against Indiana center Cody Zeller, and led all scorers with 21 points and 12 rebounds.

Mbawke’s performance and that of his teammates got the Gophers their biggest win of the season, improved the likelihood of an NCAA Tournament invite next month, and set off a pandemonium not seen in Williams Arena for a long time—maybe ever. Fans rushed the court after the game, swallowing up the players despite their superior size and letting loose the frustrations that have dogged both the Gophers and their followers.

In a mostly empty arena late last night a fan walked past Mbakwe in the concourse. “You’ll never forget this night,” the fan said.

Mbakwe beamed.

Amen.

Worth Noting

Smith said Sunday on WCCO Radio’s “Sports Huddle” he once thought his team could win 12 to 15 Big Ten games.

The Gophers’ Mbakwe and Rodney Williams are projected to be the No. 33 and 36 picks in the June NBA draft by Nbadraft.net.

Former Gopher basketball All-American Mychal Thompson’s son, Klay Thompson, has been an important contributor to a surprisingly successful season for the NBA’s Warriors. The second-year shooting guard is third on the team in scoring average at 16.3 points per game.

Klay was recruited by the Gophers and Smith out of high school but preferred to stay on the West Coast and never made a recruiting visit to Minnesota. At Washington State his play improved, as it has with the Warriors (averaged 12.5 points his rookie season) and he believes his “best basketball” is still ahead.

Klay said his dad, who is a radio commentator for the Lakers, gives him “advice all the time.” A consistent message is “don’t take a night off” and be aggressive in his play.

“He says if I do that on both ends I will play a long time in this league,” Klay said.

Warriors’ rookie starting forward Harrison Barnes played high school basketball in Ames, Iowa and likes Smith, who recruited him. But Barnes, who was highly recruited and chose North Carolina, said the Gophers weren’t on his final list of 10 potential colleges.

Barnes and Thompson were in Minneapolis on Sunday when the Warriors, who trailed the Wolves by 16 points in the first quarter, defeated Minnesota 100-99. The Wolves frequently can’t win close games because they don’t have an elite finisher.

Their closer, All-Star forward Kevin Love, has been sidelined with a broken hand since early January and he is unsure when he will return. He hasn’t started “basketball related stuff” as he rehabs after surgery but he hopes to have medical clearance to play in the team’s last 15 to 20 games.

Love said it’s important to participate in the final games with his teammates rather than wait until training camp next fall. Love has been working out with another injured Wolves player, small forward Chase Budinger.

A reporter questioned whether Love has everyday restrictions such as “pouring” with his injured right hand. Love teased with his response: “I do a lot of pouring.”

He said LeBron James is not only the NBA MVP but “at least in our generation you’ve never seen somebody play at that level before and win.” The two players were teammates on the 2012 Olympic team and Love admires James’ work ethic.

Love said James’ leadership style made an impression, too, and it’s something he wants to continue with the Wolves. “Just to be vocal,” Love said. “I am a guy that is always vocal and playful, and always around my teammates. …”

Apparently the performance of the Vikings’ special teams made an impression on Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz. Last week he hired Chris White, who was an assistant special teams coach with the Vikings, to coordinate special teams for the Hawkeyes and coach running backs. White had been on the Vikings staff since 2009 but his previous coaching experience had been college and high school jobs.

With a need at cornerback and past willingness to take chances on draft choices, would the Vikings in the later rounds select controversial LSU cornerback Tyrann Mathieu?

McKinley Boston was the first African-American athletic director in the Big Ten. The former Gophers AD is featured this month on the Big Ten Network’s salute to Black History Month. Boston is now AD at New Mexico State.

With three games between now and next Monday, the Wild won’t practice today after last night’s 2-1 win over the Flames. The Wild are at Phoenix tomorrow night and Anaheim Friday evening—looking for their first wins of the season against the Coyotes and Ducks. The Wild are 1-0 against the Oilers who are at Xcel Energy Center on Sunday.

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