Vikings – Page 203 – David Shama's Minnesota Sports Headliners

Wolves May Intro New Players at Fair

Posted on August 22, 2014August 22, 2014 by David Shama

It sounds like the Timberwolves will introduce some new players at the State Fair next Tuesday. Owner Glen Taylor told Sports Headliners during a telephone interview he’s been asked by his NBA club to keep the day open and appear at the Wolves’ State Fair location.

“I don’t have (details) exactly what is going to happen, but I have held Tuesday open…(in) anticipation of going up to the State Fair and being involved in some kind of an announcement we would hold over there,” he said yesterday from Mankato.

Media reports have speculated the Wolves will trade All-Star power forward Kevin Love to the Cavs tomorrow, or soon thereafter. The Cavs’ Andrew Wiggins, the overall No. 1 pick in last June’s NBA Draft, will be eligible under NBA rules to be traded tomorrow—30 days after he signed his rookie contract.

Wiggins, a small forward, is regarded as an extraordinary athlete who must prove his basketball skills. The Wolves may also receive Cavs’ power forward Anthony Bennett and a future No. 1 draft choice, according to media reports circulating for weeks.

Taylor said his club hopes to “be in position to get things done” on Saturday. “That would be my preference, that we just get it done as soon as possible,” he said. “We’re going to look at possibly doing a three-team trade.”

Taylor said basketball president of operations and coach Flip Saunders has talked to the Cavs and also to the 76ers. The 76ers have a veteran power forward in Thaddeus Young who might be coming to the Wolves. “I did not know Thaddeus Young myself,” Taylor said. “I just only watched him on TV, so I called some players and talked to them about him, and I’ve only gotten really kind of…glowing reports back as to the type of person (he is)—a hard worker. I look forward to meeting him and getting to know him too.”

It seems likely the Wolves will deal away more players besides Love but Taylor didn’t offer names. The remaining roster after the trade or trades will include a core of promising players who have yet to reach their 23rd birthdays. Taylor said he and Saunders are excited about the potential and he didn’t sound discouraged about reorganizing his team yet again—a franchise that hasn’t been to the playoffs since 2004.

“Probably, if you really kind of look at our starters, we could sort of almost start the same team as we did last year with Thaddeus Young replacing—if that trade goes through—Kevin,” said Taylor who has owned the team since 1995. “But then what is so interesting would be the second five guys that you would have on your team who all probably have the potential of being starters at some time.”

Taylor is talking about a second unit with Gorgui Dieng, 24, at center, with forwards Bennett and Wiggins, who are 21 and 19, and guards Shabazz Muhammad and Zach LaVine, 21 and 19. “You have five kids who were drafted really high with high potential all coming off the bench…with the potential of working into starting lineups,” Taylor said.

Those athletic players would complement point guard Ricky Rubio, the team’s passing whiz who turns 23 in October. Taylor offered Rubio a four-year contract extension earlier this summer but nothing is happening now in negotiations.

The Wolves signed Love to a four-year extension in 2012 instead of a five year deal—a decision that has played a role in the anticipated departure of the 25-year-old who is one of the best players in the world. Taylor said “I am not going to say to you I absolutely won’t change” regarding eventually offering Rubio a five-year contract.

Worth Noting

After visiting all 14 Big Ten Conference football camps, Big Ten Network analyst Gerry DiNardo said on Wednesday night the Gophers, Illinois and Rutgers are the league’s most improved teams. The Gophers are receiving praise from BTN commentators for building quality offensive and defensive lines.

Cordarrelle Patterson, who tied an NFL kickoff return record with a 109-yard touchdown last year, might return a kick tomorrow night for the Vikings in their preseason game with the Chiefs in Kansas City. Special teams coach Mike Priefer said he hopes so but the decision whether to use Patterson in that role is up to head coach Mike Zimmer.

What makes Patterson so effective? “Size, speed, strength,” Priefer said. “He’s got great quickness and, like a lot of the great returners in this league, he’s got great vision. I’ve coached some guys that have the size and speed before, and didn’t have good vision. They just kind of ran into blocks and stuff, but he has an innate ability to see things right before they happen and he’s very good at that.”

Defensive tackle Shariff Floyd could become a starter for the Vikings in his second season. Going into tomorrow night’s third preseason, game defensive coordinator George Edwards will continue to evaluate Floyd.

“We were really pleased last week, he got some pressure up inside,” Edwards said. “Did a good job of pushing the pocket, those kinds of things. He’s been pretty consistent in his run stuff, but last week was the first time he really got good as far as pushing the pocket inside as far as the pass rush.”

Phil Hughes, the winning pitcher for the Twins in their game against the Indians yesterday at Target Field, has won four consecutive games and is now 14-8. In those four games he is 4-0 with a 1.32 ERA.

Rookie DH and first baseman Kennys Vargas hit his fourth home run yesterday. He has only played in 19 games for the Twins but has 17 RBI.

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Ponder Not Counting on Saturday Game

Posted on August 20, 2014August 20, 2014 by David Shama

Christian Ponder told Sports Headliners he isn’t counting on playing time in Saturday night’s Vikings-Chiefs exhibition game in Kansas City.

Ponder said he hasn’t been told if he will play but his status could be the same as last Saturday night when he watched the entire exhibition game against the Cardinals from the sidelines. “I would be surprised if it (playing) changed,” he said. “I hope I can get in and get an opportunity to play. We’ll see what happens.”

A starter in nine games last season, Ponder has accepted the No. 3 quarterback role on the team behind Matt Cassel and Teddy Bridgewater. Ponder’s contract is up after this season and he anticipates being with a different team in 2015.

“If we look at the reality right now, Matt’s the starter,” Ponder said. “They’re (developing) Teddy to be the future starter at some point. I am excluded in their future plans so I would assume I will be on a different team next year, but I am not really thinking about it right now.

“I have to be prepared (for the present). It’s a lot of responsibility being the third string quarterback. You’re not getting that many reps and you have to be ready to play at any point, so that’s what I am focused on right now and we’ll see what happens after the season.”

Ponder did play briefly toward the end of the Vikings’ first exhibition game on August 8 against the Raiders. Playing with other backups, he was sacked three times while completing three of seven passes.

Saturday’s game in Kansas City will be the third exhibition for both teams. Game threes are typically when starters see their most minutes of the preseason schedule so Ponder could certainly be correct about not participating in Kansas City.

Before last Saturday’s game, Ponder was seen talking with new offensive coordinator Norv Tuner in the tunnel at TCF Bank Stadium. What was the discussion?

“We actually were talking about getting together to eat at some point,” Ponder said. “We weren’t even talking football. Before the game is a pretty relaxed atmosphere. We were just talking and joking around a little bit.”

Ponder and Turner live near one another and a future dinner—on a date yet to be determined—makes sense. Ponder speaks highly of Turner whose career experiences include being a head coach with three NFL teams.

“I think he’s done a great job of reaching out to everybody and building a personal relationship,” Ponder said. “He’s a great coach. I think he knows how to get the best out of everybody.”

Turner said he was disappointed with the negative way some fans reacted to Ponder in the August 8 exhibition game. “I think he’s done everything he can do and he’s working his butt off, and I think he’s a guy that’s going to be valuable to our team,” Turner said.

Worth Noting

Ponder’s wife Samantha gave birth in July to a baby girl, Bowden Sainte-Claire Ponder. The Bowden first name is in honor of Ponder’s coach at Florida State, the now retired and legendary Bobby Bowden.

“Everyone assumes it was my idea,” Ponder said. “It was actually my wife’s idea.”

Coach Bowden is well-known to Samantha who works for ESPN and is a college football authority. Ponder admires his ex-coach’s character and recalled listening former Florida State players talk about Bowden when he was in college. “A lot of guys said they might be dead if it wasn’t for him,” Ponder said.

The Vikings have renewed over 80 percent of season tickets and expect to increase that to a final figure of about 85 percent (first home regular season game on September 14). That will mean a season ticket total in the upper 40,000’s at TCF Bank Stadium where capacity is 52,000.

The home game with the Packers on November 23 is sold out. Only a small number of tickets remain for the Patriots game September 14 while other games have a few thousand tickets available.

Purchase of personal seat licenses in the new downtown stadium opening in 2016 has exceeded expectations. The Vikings’ goal is to eventually total $125 million in the sale of PSLs, and the intent was to reach $37 million by this December. Instead, the club is already near $62 million.

State Fairgrounds parking and shuttle service will be available after Labor Day for Vikings and Gophers games at TCF Bank Stadium. That option wasn’t available for the Vikings’ first two home exhibition games.

About 10,000 to 11,000 Vikings fans used light rail service to the team’s opening preseason game at TCF Bank Stadium on August 8. Numbers aren’t yet available for last Saturday night’s game.

Gerry DiNardo offered a flattering statistic about the Gophers defense on the Big Ten Network’s Minnesota season preview last Saturday. He said the defense stopped opponents in the red zone “74 percent” of the time last season, the best results in the Big Ten for all games, nonconference and league.

Last week’s college football preview issue of Sports Illustrated had four Big Ten teams in the magazine’s top 25 rankings, Ohio State No. 4, Michigan State No. 6, Wisconsin No. 15 and Nebraska No. 24. The publication predicts the first ever Division I four-team College Football Playoff next January will consist of Alabama, Florida State, Ohio State and Oklahoma.

Four state prep football coaches will enter the upcoming season with 99 career wins. Those coaches are John Austinson, Byron; Chad Johnston, Minneota/Lincoln Hi; Bob Staska, McGregor; and Jeff Weiland, Orono.

Oswaldo Arcia, 23, has now played in 167 major league games for the Twins over two seasons. His home runs, 27, and RBI, 79, are impressive during a total number of games that is only a little more than a single 162-game season. His average, .242, would improve with fewer strikeouts (202 in 603 at bats) but for a young player making about $500,000 per season he’s a promising asset on the power-starved Twins.

Arcia homered last night in the team’s loss to the Indians. It was the third consecutive game he has homered. He has seven home runs in his last 20 games. That’s the second most in the American League over that period.

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Smith Shadow Still Relevant to Wolves

Posted on August 11, 2014August 11, 2014 by David Shama

Remember forward Joe Smith? You can be sure the Timberwolves do, and his shadow could be hanging over the rumored trade with Cleveland—for both the Cavs and Minnesota.

The Timberwolves were punished years ago by the NBA for signing Smith to a contract in violation of the league’s salary cap. Glen Taylor was the Timberwolves owner and had to live through a difficult period when his franchise wasn’t allowed annual first round draft choices because of a league reprimand.

Today Taylor still owns the Timberwolves and media reports indicate his club has agreed to trade All-Star forward Kevin Love to Cleveland on or shortly after August 23. Andrew Wiggins, the overall No. 1 pick in last June’s NBA Draft, will be eligible to be traded by the Cavs on that date—30 days after he signed his rookie contract. The Wolves will also reportedly receive another Cavs forward, Anthony Bennett, and a future No. 1 draft choice.

Basketball fans are convinced this trade will happen. But the deal would later be vetoed by the NBA if there were any violation of league trade rules prior to August 23—involving teams or players including Love. In addition to the Smith fiasco, the league has some history of taking assertive action with trades.

It doesn’t take any assumption to believe Taylor and the Wolves don’t want a problem. During an interview with Sports Headliners last week Taylor insisted no trade involving Love has been agreed to and multiple trade partners are in the mix.

Taylor described August 23 as a “trigger point day” with the Cavs or another club. “I think it (the trade) could come together in one or two days,” Taylor said. “We could give ourselves until October 1 (early days of training camp) but I don’t really see it falling that way.”

Taylor said Cleveland, Chicago, Golden State and Philadelphia have been involved with trade talks. Love has made it known he wants to be traded rather than re-sign with the Wolves when he becomes an unrestricted free agent next summer.

Taylor gave the impression that on August 23 or 24 the Wolves might allow teams one final and best offer for the coveted 25-year-old power forward. A Love trade could also involve a third team—one that would send a power forward to the Wolves.

Worth Noting

The Wolves are on the spot to sign point guard Ricky Rubio—their No. 2 box office attraction after Love—to a contract extension. Rubio isn’t half the player Love is but he has plenty of upside and few NBA players have his flair in the open court.

With former Washburn four-star running back Jeff Jones now admitted to Minnesota it is certain he will not attend Iowa Western Community College even if the NCAA doesn’t grant him eligibility to play for the Gophers this year. Jones and the Gophers are awaiting word on an appeal made to the NCAA about whether Jones can be academically eligible in 2014. Even if Jones isn’t eligible this year he can work on his grades as a freshman at the University and become eligible for 2015, whereas if he attends Iowa Western he will need to earn a two-year degree before gaining eligibility to play for a FBS school.

Former Gophers coach Jim Dutcher arranged a lunch last week that included ex-Gophers Randy Breuer, Flip Saunders and Jim Petersen. Also attending was Dutcher’s son, Brian Dutcher, a University of Minnesota alum and now associate head coach at San Diego State.

Jim Dutcher coached 11 seasons at Minnesota and was also head coach for six years at Eastern Michigan. In each of those 17 seasons he always had a center that went on to play in the NBA including Breuer and Petersen.

A look at Sports Illustrated’s fantasy rankings of NFL players from the magazine’s August 4 issue could put a scare in Vikings fans. The Vikings gave up 480 points last season, the most in the NFL, and improvement will be needed to slow down all the offensive weapons in the NFC North.

In the fantasy rankings of quarterbacks, Aaron Rodgers from the Packers is ranked No. 1 while the Lions’ Matthew Stafford is No. 4 and the Bears’ Jay Cutler is No. 11. Vikings’ rookie Teddy Bridgewater is ranked No. 28 among 32 quarterbacks listed.

Calvin Johnson of the Lions is No. 1 among wide receivers with the Bears’ Brandon Marshall No. 2. The Packers’ Jordy Nelson is No. 6 and fellow wideout Randall Cobb No. 10. The top Viking is Cordarrelle Patterson at No. 25. Minnesota’s Kyle Rudolph is the highest ranked NFC North tight end at No. 10.

Four players from the division are in the top 15 among running backs with Matt Forte from the Bears No. 2, the Vikings’ Adrian Peterson No. 3, the Packers’ Eddie Lacy No. 5 and Reggie Bush of the Lions No. 15.

Anthony Barr, the former UCLA linebacker who was the Vikings’ top first round pick with the No. 9 selection this spring, was rated the best athlete in the country coming out of high school in Los Angeles by prep recruiting authority Tom Lemming. Barr started in the 10-6 win over the Raiders in the Vikings’ first preseason game last Friday night.

Adam Thielen, who signed with the Vikings as a free agent last year and played on the practice squad, made an impression Friday as a receiver, punt returner and special teams tackler. The former Minnesota State player attended Detroit Lakes High School where he not only played football but was on the Lakers’ state championship golf team as a senior.

Trevor May’s name is on the Twins’ blueprint for a winning future so the right-hander’s pitching debut Saturday against the Athletics was disappointing. He lasted only two innings and walked seven batters in an apparently nervous debut. At Triple-A Rochester the 25-year-old made 17 starts for the Red Wings, going 8-6 with a 2.93 ERA (95.1 innings pitched, 31 earned runs) and 91 strikeouts and only 37 walks.

Minneapolis area resident and former pro tennis star David Wheaton has a book coming out called, My Boy, Ben. It’s the story of Wheaton’s close companionship with a yellow lab by that name.

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