Wild – Page 4 – David Shama's Minnesota Sports Headliners

Big Homecoming Looms for Cubs Slugger and Simley Alum

Posted on July 7, 2025July 7, 2025 by David Shama

Enjoy a Monday notes column.

Michael Busch, the Simley High School alum, will be in town starting tomorrow night with his Cub teammates for a three-game series at Target Field against the Twins. Busch, 27, is having a career year in his third MLB season and is on a torrid pace at the plate.

He recently finished fourth in All-Star Game balloting among NL first basemen, and he has nine hits in his last 12 at bats, raising his season average to .297 to go along with 18 home runs and 56 RBI. Among the MLB leaders in slugging percentage and OPS, he hit four home runs in a two-game span last week. In his last 30 games, he is hitting .365 with 11 home runs and 26 RBI.

Born in Inver Grove Heights, the 6-1, 210-pound left-handed hitter was drafted out of the University of North Carolina in 2019 by the Dodgers in the first round. The Dodgers sent Busch to the Cubs in a January 2024 trade after a rookie season in which he had only 72 at bats and hit .167.

The Cubs struck it right with the acquisition of Busch who last season hit .248 with 21 home runs. Manager Craig Counsell told the Cubs official website last week that Busch has “turned into a great offensive player.”

Busch, who has seven siblings and is the son of Mike and Judy Busch, captained baseball, hockey and football teams at Simley. The Interleague matchup means a rare road visit to Minneapolis by the Cubs who lead the NL Central Division with a 54-36 record.

July 7 Twins birthday club: former World Series outfielder Dan Gladden is 68; TV broadcaster Cory Provus is 47; and ex-broadcast voice John Gordon is 85.

A Sports Headliners reader offered this documentation on how bad Gopher men’s basketball has been compared to neighboring rivals Wisconsin and Iowa.

In the past 20 seasons:

Minnesota
Winning conference seasons: 1
NCAA Tournament wins: 2

Wisconsin
Winning conference seasons: 17
NCAA Tournament wins: 25

Iowa
Winning conference seasons: 9
NCAA Tournament wins: 4

Vikings general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah speaks to the Twin Cities Dunkers July 17. Golf’s Zach Johnson, winner of two majors and captain of the 2023 American Ryder Cup team, addresses the group July 22 while in town for the annual 3M Open.

The 3M field includes defending champion Jhonattan Luis Vegas and 2022 titlist Tony Finau who has four top 10 career finishes in the tournament. Local names playing at the July 21-27 3M Open at TPC Twin Cities in Blaine are Frankie Capan III (Stillwater), former Gopher Erik van Rooyen and PGA veteran Tom Hoge who is a Fargo native.

Looks like Wild GM Bill Guerin pulled off a savvy move by acquiring veteran winger and Russian native Vladimir Tarasenko from the Red Wings for future considerations. He turns 34 in December but is expected to help the Minnesota offense with his experience, playmaking and scoring. It doesn’t hurt that Tarasenko adds a second Russian teammate (along with Yakov Trenin) for Wild superstar Kirill Kaprizov who the Wild hope will sign a contract extension this offseason.

Koi Perich, Anthony Smith and Darius Taylor, all underclassmen and receiving preseason recognition for honor teams from college football authorities, will represent the Golden Gophers at Big Ten Football Media Days later this month in Las Vegas, along with head coach P.J. Fleck. The Gophers will receive the media focus on July 23. The Big Ten Network will have live coverage of all 18 conference teams July 22, 23 and 24.

A belated happy birthday to former Golden Gophers trainer Jim Marshall who turned 95 on July 3.

Congratulations to legendary Minnesota prep coaches Brian Cosgriff and Larry McKenzie on their respective selections as National Coach of the Year for girls and boys basketball as recognized in June by the National High School Athletic Coaches Association.

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Voss, State’s No.1 Ranked Football Recruit, Commits to U

Posted on June 23, 2025June 23, 2025 by David Shama

Roman Voss, the multi-positions player from Jackson, Minnesota and considered the state’s No. 1 recruit in the class of 2026, verbally committed to the Golden Gophers today. He told Hayes Fawcett @on3recruits this afternoon of his news making decision.

About 6-foot-4 and 220 pounds, Voss is considered one of the dozen or so most athletic prep football players in the country for the class of 2026. Although he has played both offense and defense in high school, he projects as a tight end with Minnesota. It’s believed he has the pass catching and run breaking skills to not only excel in college but perhaps become a play-on-Sundays tight end.

The four-star recruit’s final college choices were Minnesota and Alabama. The Gophers have one other tight end among their 2026 verbal commits, Gabe Weaver from St. Louis. Alabama doesn’t have a tight end in its class so far, per 247Sports.

Voss is now considered the most highly coveted member of the Gophers’ 2026 class that has more than 20 verbal commits. He was recruited by Minnesota tight ends coach Eric Koehler and offensive coordinator Greg Harbaugh Jr., according to 247Sports. Head coach P.J. Fleck was heavily involved, too.

Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer and his offensive coordinator, Ryan Grubb, have roots in the Upper Midwest. DeBoer, as head coach at the University of Sioux Falls and Grubb, as an assistant there, recruited this area and now are doing the same from Tuscaloosa. Among the Tide’s verbal commits for 2026 is quarterback Jett Thomalla from Omaha, considered the state of Nebraska’s No. 1 recruit, per 247Sports.

The decision to commit to the Gophers means family and friends will have less than a three-hour drive to watch Voss play at Huntington Bank Stadium. The driving distance to the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa is over 1,000 miles and non-stop takes almost 16 hours.

In the new world of college football, recruits are well aware of being paid for their talents. Revenue sharing is expected to start this summer in major college football with the guess here that perhaps 50-plus football Gophers will receive money from the athletic department which is expected to pay athletes not only in football, but men’s and women’s basketball, men’s hockey and volleyball.

Next school year Minnesota’s official collective, Dinkytown Athletes, is likely to have a record amount of money for name, image and likeness compensation. NIL has played a key role in the Gopher football program’s success in retaining core players on the roster including pre-season All-American safety Koi Perich and star running back Darius Taylor.

The Gophers’ 2026 recruiting class is also led by two other 247 four-star recruits, defensive lineman Howie Johnson from Forest Lake and offensive tackle Andrew Trout from Cold Spring. They are the state of Minnesota’s No. 2 and No. 3 ranked players by 247Sports.

Fleck and the Gophers have landed the top high school recruit in Minnesota in three of the four previous years: Eden Prairie defensive lineman Trey Bixby (2022), Esko athlete Koi Perich (2024), and Robbinsdale Cooper linebacker Emmanuel Karmo (2025).

When Voss officially signs on make it four of the last five.

Worth Noting

Five Gophers have been chosen by Phil Steele Publications as either members of the preseason All-American team or preseason Big Ten all-conference teams. Koi Perich is a second team All-American safety. He is also a second team All-Big Ten safety and third team All-Big Ten punt returner.

Steele also recognizes defensive tackle Deven Eastern on the All-Big Ten third team, while running back Darius Taylor, defensive end Anthony Smith, and long snapper Alan Soukup are fourth team All-Big Ten.

Monday is a historic day for the University of St. Thomas after a vote by the NCAA Division I Board of Directors makes the Tommies a full member of the NCAA. The Tommies become the only NCAA member to reclassify directly from Division III to Division I. The Tommies are now fully eligible to compete in postseason play, including NCAA tournaments and championships.

Glen Taylor agreed to sell the Timberwolves about four years ago for $1.5 billion to Alex Rodriquez and Marc Lore. Now the NBA’s most glamorous franchise, the Lakers, is reportedly selling for $10 billion!

The Lakers, who originated in Minneapolis, moved to Los Angeles after the 1959-1960 NBA season. That was owner Bob Short’s decision, and he retained control of the franchise until 1965 when he sold it for about $5 million, per multiple reports.

Wild ownership and management is disappointed in the state’s decision not to help fund major renovations for Xcel Energy Center during the last legislative session. The Wolves, with the second oldest arena in the NBA, have ambitions to replace Target Center and perhaps build a privately financed facility. Financial heavyweight Michael Bloomberg is part of the new ownership group.

Wild fans look forward to this week’s NHL Draft and at the same time might recall the blunder of 2018 when Minnesota selected defenseman Filip Johannsson in the first round. At No. 24, GM Paul Fenton’s selection went before others thought he should go and Johansson never played for the Wild.

The Wild has hired 62-year-old Greg Cronin as head coach of the Iowa Wild, the franchise’s primary affiliate in the American Hockey League (AHL). He has 38 years of coaching and player development experience including at the NHL, AHL and NCAA levels.

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National Voice Not on Board with QB J.J. McCarthy Outlook

Posted on May 11, 2025May 11, 2025 by David Shama

Maybe all of us local rubes are so smitten with the reputation of Kevin O’Connell as a quarterback guru that it takes an authority from beyond fly over-country to voice skepticism about J.J. McCarthy.

Colin Cowherd expressed his doubts the other day about McCarthy who missed his rookie season in 2024 but is considered all but certain to be the Viking starter this season—partially because of O’Connell’s confidence in him and the weak competition from Sam Howell and Brett Rypien. “In a league where every good team knows who their quarterback is, nobody knows what J.J. McCarthy is. I am a skeptic,” said Cowherd, the popular national sports talk host.

“First of all, he played for a college team known for a run game and defense. He was not asked to win games. He was asked not to lose them.

“What the draft people said about J.J. McCarthy coming in (was) ‘his strength (is) mental prep. Well, he plays with a chip on his shoulder.’

“Weakness? Modest arm strength, average escape ability. Very few examples of him adjusting protections at the line.

“All this stuff I am supposed to love is this sort of nebulous he is a winner; he plays with a chip.

“How is his arm? How is his athletic ability? How is his size? Eh, huh.”

In three seasons as Vikings head coach O’Connell has dazzled with his impact on quarterbacks. His most praised work came last season when he transformed journeyman Sam Darnold, in his lone season with Minnesota. The Sporting News and Professional Football Writers Association of America both named him league Comeback Player of the Year for his 2024 production that included career highs in several passing categories.

O’Connell seems committed to McCarthy who he referred to last year as the “young franchise quarterback.” The 22-year-old, who was 27-1 as a starter at 2024 national champion Michigan, apparently has successfully rehabbed from knee surgery.

The Vikings made McCarthy their selection at No. 10 in the first round of the 2024 NFL Draft. He and O’Connell, and others, can express all the confidence about succeeding as an NFL starter but it’s all conjecture. Just ask Herd.

Worth Noting

Anthony Edwards, the Timberwolves 23-year-old guard, made five three-point shots last night to set an NBA record. His career total of 108 is the highest in league history for a player under 24 years old.

He scored 28 of his 36 points in the second half as the Timberwolves came from behind to defeat the Warriors, 102-97, and take a 2-1 lead in their Western Conference playoffs semifinals best of seven series.

Howard Sinker, writing recently in the Fluence Media sports newsletter, reports that Chris Hine’s book on Edwards will be out June 3. Sinker talked to the Star Tribune’s Wolves beat writer who said Edwards best sport growing up was football and he didn’t blossom in basketball until he was a teenager.

“…Another thing is people may not realize how he can read people,” Hine told Sinker. “He knows how to read a room, and one person close to him called him a ‘politician.’ He’s very in touch with how to deal with people, who has his best interests at heart and who doesn’t, and it’s been that way for a long time.”

The book is titled: Ant: The Incredible Journey of NBA Rising Star Anthony Edwards.

No surprise to the news that the Wolves’ Mike Conley Jr. was named to the inaugural NBA All-Interview team (second team recognition) last week. The Professional Basketball Writers Association recognized players “who are consistently thoughtful, insightful and engaging with the media,” per a news release from the PBWA.

Steph Curry, of the Warriors, and Kevin Durant, from the Suns, were the top finishers in a vote by PBWA members and are joined on the All-Interview first team by Giannis Antetokounmpo, Bucks; Donovan Mitchell, Cavaliers; and Draymond Green, Warriors. With Conley on the second team are: Tyrese Haliburton, Pacers; Bam Adebayo, Heat; Josh Hart Knicks and Damian Lillard, Bucks.

Happy Birthday next Friday to retired Gopher baseball coach John Anderson who turns 70 years old. In various roles, including head coach and as a player, Anderson spent 49 seasons with the Gophers before retiring last year.

Marc Ryan, one of the all-time good guys in the University of Minnesota Athletic Department for 36 years, is retiring effective June 15. The longest tenured employee in the department, Marc has served in various roles over the years. Currently as senior associate athletics director, he is the sport administrator for nine teams at the U. His charm and wisdom will be missed!

The Giants need a win today to avoid being swept by the Twins at Target Field for only the second time since Interleague play began in 1997 (also swept in 2002). The Twins have won seven consecutive games to put their season record at 20-20.

Condolences to my former North Stars colleague Peter Jocketty following the recent passing of his brother Walter, 74. The Minneapolis native was a much-admired baseball executive whose transactional moves helped the Cardinals to championships including the World Series crown in 2006.

Seven players from the 2025 Wild roster will represent their countries at the 2025 IIHF Men’s World Championship in Stockholm, Sweden, and Herning, Denmark, from May 9-25.

Canada: goalie Marc-Andre Fleury and defenseman Jared Spurgeon.

Czech Republic: defenseman David Spacek.

Slovakia: goalie Samuel Hlavaj.

Sweden: defenseman Jonas Brodin and center Marcus Johansson.

United States: defenseman Zeev Buium.

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