KARL-ANTHONY TOWNS – Page 18 – David Shama's Minnesota Sports Headliners

Kirk Cousins High Reward or Risk?

Posted on March 13, 2018March 13, 2018 by David Shama

A Tuesday notes column:

Reports that quarterback Case Keenum will sign with the Broncos this week add credibility to rumors the Vikings are targeting Kirk Cousins as the NFL moves into its free agency signing period tomorrow. Acquiring Cousins looks like the kind of personnel decision that could either help the Vikings to a Super Bowl, or put general manager Rick Spielman in a bad spot with ownership.

The Vikings recently sent a message to Keenum by not making him a franchise player and providing a lucrative contract. The Broncos need a quarterback and Keenum could certainly be impressed by joining up with John Elway, the former Denver hall of fame quarterback and now a team executive.

Keenum was 11-3 as a sub for the Vikings last season and was popular in the locker room. However, he wasn’t outstanding in the NFC title game loss to the Eagles and it appears the Vikings think Cousins is more talented.

Acquiring Cousins could cost $90 million, with a sizeable portion guaranteed money. That’s a big financial commitment for a player who the Vikings will gamble can fit their system and change his image to that of a winner.

Rich Cimini, writing on ESPN.com February 25, said the 29-year-old quarterback has a 4-19 record against winning teams (based on final season records). Cousins has set franchise passing records for the Redskins during his six seasons with them.

Karl-Anthony Towns told ABC television Sunday he wants to become the greatest basketball player ever. To do so the Timberwolves third-year center has to one day move past an extraordinary and long line of players, but his career goal is nothing to laugh at.

At 22 years old, the 7-foot, 248-pound Towns is already an NBA All-Star but certainly not the best player in the league. His size, skills and versatility do give him a chance at one day replacing a LeBron James or Kevin Durant as the top player on the planet. Forget the all-time stuff, that alone is lofty goal setting. But remember, too, that a preseason poll of NBA general managers named Towns the player they would most want to start a franchise with.

Towns made the general managers look prophetic Sunday during ABC’s nationally televised game when he led his team to a 109-103 win over the defending NBA champion Warriors. He scored 31 points (the Warriors’ Durant had 39) and grabbed more rebounds, 16, than anyone on the court. Towns, as usual, scored inside and out including two of five three point shots. He earned praise “as a very versatile offensive player” from Warriors coach Steve Kerr.

After the game Towns had a league-leading 57 double-doubles (171 career). It was his ninth 30+ point performance of the season, and he has 10+ rebounds in 16 of the last 18 games.

The win over the Warriors ended a three-game losing streak for the Wolves. With 14 games remaining in the regular season the team is competing to make the playoffs for the first time since 2004. If the season ended today the Wolves would qualify but with a 3-3 record since team MVP Jimmy Butler was injured, Minnesota is in must-win status in the weeks ahead including tonight on the road against the Wizards.

With his team pursuing a playoff assignment, and Butler’s return uncertain for anytime soon, this is an opportune time for Towns to take another step in building his resume. He told ABC he knows a lot of work will be involved if he wants to fulfill his biggest ambition. The present moment and leading the Wolves to the playoffs is the best place to start.

Sunday’s Timberwolves-Warriors game at Target Center was Minnesota’s second consecutive sellout and 13th of the season—the team’s most since 2003-04 (15 sellouts).

Dick Jonckowski is co-writing a book about his life with local sports author Jim Bruton. “It’s All about Me—Dick Jonckowski a Minnesota Treasure” is due out in May. Jonckowski hopes to sell copies at two venues where he became famous, Williams Arena and Siebert Field. Known to generations of Minnesotans as the Gophers public address announcer for men’s basketball and baseball games, the 74-year-old Jonckowski has enjoyed a career that also includes radio and banquet emcee assignments.

ESPN2 will televise the Gopher-Green Bay first round women’s NCAA Tournament basketball game starting at 4 p.m. CDT Friday from Eugene, Oregon. Minnesota is the No. 10 seed in the Spokane Region while Green Bay is No. 7. The team that advances will play Sunday against the winner of the first-round game between No. 2 seed Oregon and 15th-seeded Seattle. Minnesota earned its second NCAA Tournament spot in four years (first since 2015) and the 10th in program history.

Among teams Minnesotans will follow with interest in the men’s NCAA Tournament are the underdog South Dakota State Jackrabbits who play their opening game Thursday afternoon as a No. 12 seed against No. 5 Ohio State in the West Region. Twelve seeds are famous for upsetting fives.

Jackrabbit forward Ian Theisen started five of 30 games and averaged 4.7 points and is the lone Minnesotan on the South Dakota State roster. He graduated from Osseo High School as the school record holder in points, 1,590, and rebounds, 1083.

Guard Owen King from Caledonia will join the Jackrabbits next season as a scholarship freshman. King is one of five finalists for Minnesota’s Mr. Basketball Award and last December was also a finalist for the state’s Mr. Football.

Award winning comedian and actor Bill Murray, a part owner of baseball’s Saint Paul Saints, is the father of Luke Murray who is an assistant coach for Xavier, the No. 1 seed in the West Region of the men’s NCAA Tournament. The younger Murray, a 2007 graduate of Fairfield, is known as an outstanding East Coast recruiter.

The city of Cincinnati has two teams in the tournament, Xavier and No. 2 South Region seed Cincinnati. Meanwhile, the Big Ten managed to send only four teams to the tournament—Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State and Purdue.

If you’re keeping score, the U men’s program has produced five tournament teams since 2000.

Xavier senior guard J.P. Macura is no longer projected to be selected in the second round of the 2018 NBA draft, per Nbadraft.net who had the former Lakeville North all-stater at No. 55 back in December.

Duke freshman guard Gary Trent Jr., a former star at Apple Valley, is predicted to be the No. 15 pick in the first round.

Club president Dave St. Peter told Sports Headliners yesterday about 1,000 tickets remain for the Twins’ home opener April 5 against the Mariners. As of now, none of the franchise’s 2018 home dates are sold out but the opener soon will be.

St. Peter said the season ticket total has surpassed last year, although he declined to provide figures. It’s believed the club’s total in 2017 was about 12,000.

A friend who saw last night’s Twins 2-1 exhibition win over the Yankees in windy Tampa said Minnesota catcher Bobby Wilson impressed not only with a two-run homer but in catching foul balls. Not so good were four plate appearances and four strike outs by center fielder Byron Buxton.

Comments Welcome

JC Quarterback Could Be U Prize

Posted on November 14, 2017November 14, 2017 by David Shama

Recruiting authority Ryan Burns from Gopher Illustrated doesn’t see Shelby, Ohio senior quarterback Brennan Armstrong signing a National Letter of Intent with the Golden Gophers next month. Armstrong re-opened the recruiting process in October after being a solid verbal commit to Minnesota for most of the year.

Burns predicted the highly regarded dual-threat quarterback will be on Virginia’s roster next season. Armstrong may have developed second thoughts about Minnesota because of competition at the quarterback position including the emergence of redshirt sophomore Demry Croft as the team starter this fall, and the enrollment next year of freshman preferred walk-on Zack Annexstad who is originally from Mankato, Minnesota but has played this fall for IMG Academy in Florida.

Armstrong’s status concerns Gophers followers but Burns believes head coach P.J. Fleck will have a promising quarterback in his 2018 recruiting class. Brevin White, a California prep quarterback who has verbally committed to Princeton and turned down offers from Washington, Washington State and Tennessee, is considering the Gophers. Minnesota is also after Utah high school quarterback Zach Wilson who has verbally committed to Boise State and California junior college QB Victor Viramontes.

Burns said Minnesota’s “best chance” among the three is probably Viramontes, a dual threat quarterback. He was a prominent high school player from Norco, California when he enrolled as a freshman at the University of California in 2016. There was a coaching change at Cal after the 2016 season and late last spring Viramontes left the Golden Bears. A four-star recruit by 247Sports coming out of Norco High School, he would have three seasons of eligibility at Minnesota.

At about 6-2, 240-pounds, Viramontes has been compared with former Heisman Trophy winner and Florida legend Tim Tebow. When Sonny Dykes was California’s head coach this is how he described Viramontes to Calbears.com:

“Victor is an unusual athlete at his size as a 240-pound quarterback that is a great runner and a good passer. He’s pretty raw but he’s got a lot of upside and really can develop into a good player. He has an unusual skill set with his size and strength. He plays with great passion. I really like the way that he plays the game and the toughness that he brings. I’m really excited about him.”

Fleck has 23 verbal commits and wants to have all the players signed to National Letters of Intent in the early signing period that starts December 20. Burns estimates only 16 or so scholarships are currently available but anticipates seven or so players leaving the Gophers will make up the difference.

Most or all of the verbal commits are expected to make official visits to Minnesota December 8. The early signing period for high school players is December 20-22, while junior college players can sign December 20-January 15, 2018.

Worth Noting

With a 5-5 overall record, the Gophers will definitely be invited to a bowl game with one more win in their last two games. A 5-7 final record could even earn an invite as it did two years ago.

Not surprisingly, there were no press box seats assigned to bowl representatives at last Saturday’s home game against Nebraska (4-6).

Last Saturday’s announced attendance of 39,933 was the second smallest in TCF Bank Stadium history. Minnesota drew 38,162 for the Northwestern game last season.

At 6-foot-10, Gophers tight end Nate Wozniak is the tallest skill player in major college football. His 34 career starts lead all offensive players on the Gophers. The senior from Greenwood, Indiana has his under graduate degree in agricultural and food business management.

It will be interesting for state basketball fans to watch tonight’s ESPN matchup of No. 1 ranked Duke and No. 2 Michigan State. Apple Valley’s Tre Jones has signed his National Letter of Intent to play for Duke next season and he will likely have to compete for playing time next fall with current Blue Devils freshman point guard Trevon Duval. Both are five-star recruits.

The game is also an opportunity to see former Apple Valley five-star shooting guard Gary Trent, Jr., who is a freshman at Duke, and also compare Michigan State with the Gophers. The two teams are favorites to win the Big Ten title.

The Gophers justified their A.P. No. 14 ranking last night in an impressive road win at Providence against a Friars team Athlon Sports magazine described as “the most experienced in the Big East.”

It seems like a “duh” by now, but Adam Thielen’s speed still seems to be news—perhaps even to NFL defensive backs. The 27-year-old Thielen—now in his fifth pro season and ranking third in NFL receiving yards (793) during a breakout season—told Sports Headliners his best time in the 40-yard dash is 4.45.

Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer after being asked Monday whether anything still surprises him about Thielen: “The one ball he kind of dropped there at the end (in Sunday’s game), that surprised me. He usually makes all those catches.

“The guy is a gamer. When he gets the opportunities, he makes the most of them. Adam does a lot of dirty work. He blocks defensive ends. He blocks linebackers in the run game. He’s just a competitive guy. ….”

Former Vikings linebacker Ben Leber has been retired from the NFL since 2011. His weekends this fall are busy while working for FS1 on Saturdays and as a sideline reporter on the Vikings radio network. He has provided color commentary on college games for FS1, mostly Pac 12 and Big-12 games, but he also did analysis on last Saturday’s Golden Gophers-Nebraska game.

Leber has been earning more prominent TV college football assignments during his four full time seasons. Does he want to make a career out of the broadcast work? “I do,” he said. “It’s been a lot of fun. It’s been a challenge that I’ve readily accepted, and now I am just kind of rolling with the punches and seeing where it goes.”

Twins fans can watch the MLB Network tonight at 5 p.m. when the Baseball Writers Association of America announces its American League Manager of the Year winner. The Twins’ Paul Molitor is a finalist along with the Astros’ A.J. Hinch and Indians’ Terry Francona.

Francona, who directed the Indians to a 22-game winning streak last season, was named The Sporting News AL Manager of the Year last month. Hinch managed the Astros to the franchise’s first World Series championship.

Molitor, who was a finalist for the writers’ honor in 2015, had less talent to work with than Francona and Hinch but got his team in the playoffs after a 59-102 record in 2016. The Twins became the first MLB franchise to make the postseason after losing 100 games the year before.

Karl-Anthony Towns had another double-double last night in the Timberwolves’ win over the Jazz, scoring 24 points and grabbing 13 rebounds. He has 10 double-doubles in 13 games this season. The 21-year-old center is the seventh player in NBA history to total 3,000-plus career points and rebounds prior to age 22. Towns turns 22 tomorrow.

The Wild try to make it consecutive shutouts over the Flyers tonight at Xcel Energy Center. Last Saturday Wild goalie Devan Dubnyk stopped all 32 shots he faced and Jason Zucker had the team’s lone goal. St. Paul native Paul Holmgren is in his fourth season as Flyers president.

After a loss to Purdue last week, the nationally ranked Gophers volleyball team has dropped from No. 5 to No. 7 in the latest American Volleyball Coaches Association poll.

Comments Welcome

NBA Champs to Test Timberwolves

Posted on November 7, 2017November 9, 2017 by David Shama

A Tuesday notes column including a look ahead to the Timberwolves game Wednesday evening against Golden State:

Tom Thibodeau told Sports Headliners yesterday his team’s game in Oakland tomorrow night against the defending champion NBA champions will be a “test,” but win or lose he won’t make too much out of the early season result.

The Wolves, 7-3, are on a five-game win streak—a franchise best since 2009. Optimism about making the playoffs for the first time since 2004 is growing with new starters Jimmy Butler, Jeff Teague and Taj Gibson. They join two of the NBA’s better younger starters in Karl-Anthony Towns and Andrew Wiggins—and Thibodeau, in his joint role as the franchise’s president of basketball operations and coach, has strengthened the bench this season.

Butler is a top 10 to 15 NBA player who at 6-7, 231 pounds, can guard all five positions. Some NBA authorities might include Towns in a top 15 listing of league players, and Wiggins could potentially be a top 25 player soon.

The Warriors, though, have two players who could be included among the NBA’s five best. Kevin Durant and Steph Curry are in the conversation when the elite players are talked about, and two more Warriors starters, Draymond Green and Klay Thompson, are stars, too.

The two teams split a pair of exhibition games in China in September. Thibodeau said those games will help preparations for Wednesday night in California against a Warriors team that is 8-3 so far, and has won four consecutive games.

Fans are dazzled with the playmaking and shooting of the Warriors, but they excel on defense, too. They have won two of the last three NBA titles and are so young and so good that even an NBA All-Star team might not win in a seven-game series against them.

No wonder Thibodeau sees Wednesday night’s game as a test. The two teams play twice more this season—again in Oakland on January 25 and March 11 in Minneapolis.

Rochester John Marshall power forward Mathew Hurt watched Sunday’s Minnesota-Green Bay game at Maturi Pavilion. Hurt is ranked by recruiting authorities in the top five nationally among high school players in the class of 2019.

Minnesota writer and recruiting authority Ryan James told Sports Headliners Hurt could end his prep career as the highest ranked Minnesota boys high school basketball player ever. Hurt’s brother Michael is a sophomore reserve for the Gophers, and James believes that if the older Hurt’s experience continues to be positive it will help Minnesota’s chances in landing Matthew.

A winning season in the Big Ten and success in the NCAA Tournament will be factors too in the race to influence the younger Hurt. James said Hurt is far from a decision on his college choice, with the Gophers in the mix with some of college basketball’s blue bloods.

Power programs Duke, Kansas and North Carolina have extended scholarship offers. “I think they’re right there (the Gophers) having the same chance as everybody else,” James said.

Ryan said Hurt and his family haven’t announced a timeline for choosing a school. “He can take his time with his decision because every one of those schools is going to wait for him because he is that level of player.”

Ticket proceeds and a portion of the concessions and merchandise revenues from the Green Bay game are to be donated to the American Red Cross for hurricane relief efforts in Puerto Rico. The Gophers provided hotel rooms for the Green Bay staff and players on Saturday night but the Phoenix didn’t receive a fee for participating in the exhibition game.

The NCAA has allowed teams two exhibition games in the past but added a third this fall because of the disaster in Puerto Rico. Gophers coach Richard Pitino thinks it’s a “no- brainer” for future years regarding a third exhibition game with proceeds dedicated to a good cause.

The Gophers were impressive in a 115-86 win over the Phoenix but defense on both sides was sometimes lackadaisical. Gophers sophomore forward Amir Coffey showed his versatility, including scoring 26 points. He could be Minnesota’s best player in 2017-2018.

Freshman guard Isaiah Washington scored 24, and had a game-high six assists. His flashy style gave notice he could become the most electrifying playmaker ever at Minnesota.

Senior center Reggie Lynch picked up his third personal foul with 19:06 to play in the second half. Lynch, who fouled out eight times in 33 games last season, ranks near the top of the program’s best shot blockers ever but he has to avoid so many fouls in 2017-2018.

Pitino said Lynch understands he has to use better judgment. “We’re working on it,” Pitino said.

Former Apple Valley star Gary Trent Jr. is a freshman at Duke and Sports Illustrated’s basketball issue that came out last week predicts the shooting guard will average 10.8 points per game and 5.4 rebounds.

Ric Flair, the legendary professional wrestler who spent part of his youth in Edina, is the subject of ESPN’s documentary “Nature Boy” airing tonight as part of the network’s highly regarded “30-for-30” series. The program begins at 9 p.m.

In the prior hour, ESPN will air a show announcing MLB’s Gold Glove winners with Twins center fielder Byron Buxton expected to be among those honored.

The Gophers won Big Ten baseball championships in 1968, 1969 and 1970. Players and others associated with the program back then will hold a reunion next May. During that era Stew Thornley was a batboy with the Gophers, while Gregg Wong was an official scorer and public address announcer. Both are now Twins official scorers.

Comments Welcome