Wild – Page 47 – David Shama's Minnesota Sports Headliners

Fleck Updates LB Kamal Martin Status

Posted on November 12, 2019November 12, 2019 by David Shama

Enjoy a Tuesday notes column including news from Minnesota coach P.J. Fleck about senior linebacker Kamal Martin, one of the team’s best players who was held out of last Saturday’s Penn State game because of an undisclosed injury.

Fleck said on KFAN Radio this afternoon that Martin came to him after warm-ups prior to the game and announced he was playing. Martin badly wanted to be on the field but Fleck told him there is a lot of football remaining this fall and it was best that the future pro sit out the game.

“Had a great day at practice today,” Fleck said of Martin. “Looked really good.”

Fanduel.com has Iowa (6-3 and 3-3) as a surprise three point favorite over Minnesota (9-0 and 6-0) for Saturday’s game in Iowa City.

In Minnesota’s six Big Ten Conference games the Gophers have been behind only about 11 minutes (10:35).

With a sellout crowd of 51,883 announced for last Saturday’s dramatic Penn State game, and with over 40,000 expected for the season’s final home game against Wisconsin November 30, the Gophers are certain to average more in attendance per game than last year’s 37,915. That’s the lowest season average in TCF Bank Stadium history (opened in 2009).

This afternoon at the stadium Fleck will present a ceremonial game ball from the Penn State game to Governor Tim Walz who will accept it on behalf of the state of Minnesota.

Fleck is the Dodd Trophy Coach of the Week for Minnesota’s upset 31-26 win over nationally ranked Penn State.

The Nittany Lions came into the game ranked No. 5 in the country, with Minnesota No. 13 in the Associated Press poll. Coach James Franklin is now 1-7 against nationally ranked teams on the road at PSU, per the Big Ten Network.

The Gophers learn tonight on ESPN how far they have moved up from No. 17 in the latest College Football Playoffs rankings. It should be a big jump because Penn State was No. 4 last week.

The Capital Club will hear from new University of Minnesota president Joan Gabel Wednesday, November 20 at Town & Country Club. More information about the club is available from Patrick Klinger, patrickklinger@klingercompany.com.

Familiar Arizona Coyotes names at Xcel Energy Center Thursday night will include former Wild goalie Darcy Kuemper, ex-Gopher forward Phil Kessel, and assistant coach Phil Housley, a native of South Saint Paul.

The Wild is 14-4-3 in its last 21 games against the Coyotes, including a win in Arizona last Saturday. Minnesota is 5-1-2 in the last eight games with Arizona played at Xcel Energy Center.

Because the Timberwolves revamped their offensive and defensive schemes for this season, they are drawing more early season attention from NBA scouts than in the past under coach Tom Thibodeau. An NBA insider praised new coach Ryan Saunders.

“Ryan has done a phenomenal job of getting guys in the right frame of mind,” the source said. “Things were so negative in the past.”

Scouts caution the teams they work for to be alert against the fast tempo Wolves, with defenders needing to get back down the floor in a hurry, guard the three-point line, and defend any open shooter standing behind the arc. “Their offense is predicated on the three-point shot, and (also) the shot close to the basket,” the source said.

Rookie Jarrett Culver, 20, has potential to be one of the team’s best three-point shooters. “He is talented. I am kind of excited to see his development,” said the insider who has watched the Wolves early season games.

The Timberwolves’ record so far is 6-4 including wins over struggling teams. The opinion here is Minnesota doesn’t have enough talent to win beyond 35 or 40 games during the 82-game schedule.

It was 30 years ago last week the expansion Timberwolves played their first ever regular season game in the Metrodome, losing to Michael Jordan and the Bulls before an announced crowd of 35,427. The Wolves went on to set a single season NBA attendance record of 1,072,572.

A prominent but now retired former Minnesota high school football coach predicts these schools will emerge as 2019 state champions: 6A Wayzata; 5A Chaska; 4A Hutchinson; 3A Pierz; 2A Caledonia; 1A BOLD; 9-Man, Hancock.

As usual, the most attractive U men’s basketball nonconference opponents won’t be coming to Williams Arena. The Gophers played Oklahoma last Saturday night in Sioux Falls, with games this week at Butler (tonight) and Utah (Friday). In late December coach Richard Pitino’s team is at Oklahoma State, while the best of the nonconference opponents, DePaul and Clemson, come to Minneapolis November 29 and December 2.

Tickets for DePaul and Clemson are priced at $15 to $50, while Iowa, Michigan State and Wisconsin prices are $45 to $90, per Gophersports.com.

Zach Edey, the over 7-foot Canadian prep center the Gophers were pursuing, has verbally committed to Purdue. The early period for Division I basketball signings is November 13-20.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported a few days ago that Prior Lake power forward Dawson Garcia, who the Gophers want, recently visited Marquette for a second time.

Nate Reuvers, the 6-11 Wisconsin junior forward from Lakeville North, averaged 18 points, 10 points and 6.5 blocks in a pair of games for the Badgers last week and yesterday was announced as the Big Ten Player of the Week.

The Twins will hear from starting pitcher Jake Odorizzi this week whether he is accepting their one-year qualifying offer of $17.8 million.

With four-fifths of the starting rotation to be determined between now and next season, there will be plenty of offseason Twins news. There are other questions, too, including who will be the starting outfielders on opening day. Will Byron Buxton’s September wrist surgery allow him to be in the lineup? Will Eddie Rosario be traded for starting pitching?

Max Kepler (photo courtesy of Minnesota Twins).

Likely roster locks for opening day include starter Jose Berrios, reliever Taylor Rogers, DH Nelson Cruz, catcher Mitch Garver, second baseman Luis Arraez, shortstop Jorge Polanco, third baseman Miguel Sano and outfielder Max Kepler who will be in his native Germany this month promoting baseball.

The 22-year-old Arraez led the club with a 334 batting average in 2019, his rookie season, and he drew comparisons to former Twins second baseman Rod Carew. Hall of Famer Carew hit .292 his rookie season of 1967 when he was 21 years old. Similarities between the two left-handed hitters include peek-a-boo batting stances and hitting the ball to all fields.

Rosters expand from 25 to 26 through August 31 of next year with a cap of 28 through the last month of the season.

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Ageless Peterson Won’t Play at 40

Posted on October 22, 2019October 22, 2019 by David Shama

Adrian Peterson, 34, could be playing against his old team, the Vikings, for the last time Thursday night at U.S. Bank Stadium. There was doubt earlier this week about Peterson’s availability for the game because of an ankle injury but Cbssports.com is reporting this afternoon that he will play in Minneapolis.

The future Hall of Famer has been a starter on a bad 1-6 Redskins team. Peterson, filling for injured starter Derrius Guice, has run for 307 rush yards and one touchdown on 83 attempts in six games. His longest run is 25 yards and he is averaging 3.7 yards per carry. Although time and the pounding of the NFL have surely diminished Peterson’s skills, it’s remarkable he is still productive at such an advanced age for a running back.

Peterson, who played for the Vikings from 2007-2016, has long talked about becoming a king of old age ball carriers. Even when Peterson was with the Vikings he speculated about being on the field at age 40. Then last December in an interview posted on NFL.com he revisited the topic.

With one game remaining in the season his Redskins weren’t going to qualify for the playoffs but Peterson claimed to have “fresh legs” and was upbeat while answering questions. “My body feels great,” he said.

Toward the interview’s end Peterson was asked how many more years he might play in the NFL? “God willing, I am thinking about 40 years (old),” he said.

Peterson, who earlier this season set the NFL all-time record for rushing touchdowns with 107, has also played for the Saints and Cardinals since leaving Minnesota. He loves to play football but money is likely a motivation, too. Multiple media sources last summer reported he had serious financial problems.

The Redskins lost 9-0 to the 49ers on Sunday with Peterson gaining 81 yards on 20 carries. Word from a Sports Headliners source is Peterson was less effective in the second half, and that his third quarter fumble, on the team’s best drive, was a turning point in the game. “He still runs hard, but seems to lack the breakaway quickness or agility of earlier times,” the source said via email.

In the competitive world of the NFL, teams are looking to the future as well as the present. Peterson has set records and made remarkable comebacks from injuries but playing to age 40 seems impossible. More likely is that all those Vikings fans who cheered for him so long will say goodbye Thursday evening.

Worth Noting

The Vikings announced this afternoon the release of cornerback and punt returner Marcus Sherels who has played most of his NFL career with the organization. The Rochester native was a walk-on standout with the Gophers.

Former Vikings quarterback Case Keenum, a featured part of the Redskins’ struggling offense, is expected to be the starter for Thursday night’s game in Minneapolis.

Gophers head football coach P.J. Fleck reiterated today on KFAN Radio that the availability of injured senior linebacker Kamal Martin will be a game-time decision Saturday before taking on Maryland.

Fleck talking on the radio about inspirational four-time cancer survivor Casey O’Brien who is the Big Ten Special Teams Player of the Week, and will visit a hospital to help others this afternoon: “The attitude he has is non-human.”

Fleck’s wife, Heather, will attend Friday’s Goal Line Club lunch at Jax Café where Gophers cornerback coach Rod Chance will speak. Mike Grimm, radio voice of the Gophers, will emcee. More at Goallineclub.org.

It will be interesting to watch the secondary tickets market for Saturday’s showdown game in Brookings between North Dakota State and South Dakota State. Monday StubHub.com was featuring tickets ranging in cost from $ 85.39 to $283.89.

The “coaching tree” is healthy: first year NDSU head coach Matt Entz is 7-0 while Chris Klieman, the mentor he succeeded in Fargo, is 4-2 at Kansas State following a big win over TCU last Saturday. Klieman’s former boss with the Bison, ex-NDSU head coach Craig Bohl, is 5-2 at Wyoming.

Running back Zach Zenner, the former Eagan, Minnesota and South Dakota star, caught a pass for six yards and rushed for a single yard in his debut game for the Saints on Sunday.

Mike Mahlen of Verndale became the first Minnesota prep football coach to achieve 400 career wins when his team defeated Rothsay last week. Mahlen, 400-123-3, is in his 51st season at Verndale (about 150 miles northwest of Minneapolis) where he has spent his entire head coaching career.

The Timberwolves, who open their NBA regular season Wednesday night against the Nets in Brooklyn, are predicted to finish 13th among 15 Western Conference teams by Sports Illustrated. In the magazine’s NBA preview issue the Wolves are ranked No. 22 among the league’s most fun teams to watch. There are 30 NBA teams.

“The offensive brilliance of Karl-Anthony Towns is basically weighed down by the offensive brickiness of Andrew Wiggins,” the magazine said in the story about the entertainment appeal of all 30 NBA teams.

Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor on Towns’ whose offensive game is among the NBA’s best: “He’s pretty well got that down.”

Taylor told Sports Headliners last week that coach Ryan Saunders has asked him to travel with the team, something that Ryan’s dad, Flip Saunders, also requested.

Taylor, an investor in the Minnesota United, said the third-year MLS franchise will not be profitable this year and probably won’t be for awhile.

It’s believed Twin Cities winter time teams are finding it a challenge to sell season tickets. A guesstimate is the Wild could be at about 11,000 season tickets, with the Timberwolves and basketball Gophers in the 7,000 to 8,000 range. Sports Headliners reported Sunday that Gophers hockey non-student season tickets are at 4,610 and down from 5,060 in 2018-2019, according to the University of Minnesota.

Budget ticket prices are featured now by the University in multiple sports including a $15 single game ticket for men’s basketball.

Condolences to family and friends of former Gophers volleyball coach Mike Hebert who passed away Monday at age 75.

It was 20 years ago last Sunday that original Twins owner Calvin Griffith died at age 87.

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Don’t Expect Vikings to Change ID

Posted on October 3, 2019October 3, 2019 by David Shama

A Thursday notes column, focusing on the Minnesota Vikings and Minnesota Wild:

The 2-2 Vikings produced just 40 rushing yards last Sunday in their 16-6 loss to the Chicago Bears. But it will be a surprise if Minnesota doesn’t emphasize running the football against the 2-2 New York Giants this coming Sunday at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.

Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer wants a physical, rushing offense and that was his message long before the season started. While the offensive line and quarterback Kirk Cousins have been inconsistent, no one doubts the skills of running back Dalvin Cook who ranks second in the NFL in rushing yards at 410.

“I think the way Dalvin is running the ball, I think it’s just kind of building things off of that…and just finding different ways to get people involved,” backup quarterback Sean Mannion told Sports Headliners when talking about what’s next for the offense.

Even when the offense is slowed like it was against the Bears (perhaps the NFL’s best defense) the Vikings are advised to still focus on their playmakers starting with Cook who makes both short and long gains with only minimal running space available. Wide receivers Adam Thielen and Stefon Diggs can also make the proverbial “something out of nothing” plays.

Looking toward next Sunday and beyond, Cook said “it’s important to get the running game going early” to open passing routes so wide receivers can make plays. He also expressed confidence in Cousins who has struggled in both of the team‘s losses, games that came against NFC North Division rivals the Bears and Packers—the two best teams Minnesota has played so far.

The Giants will offer a mediocre defense to test the Vikings playmakers. The unit ranks No. 25 in the 32-team NFL, giving up 389.2 yards per game. Former Viking Matt Birk predicted on KFAN Radio yesterday his old team will win by more than three touchdowns.

The Vikings’ defense has impressed after four games. Minnesota has allowed only one rushing touchdown and has made 24 tackles for loss (tied with Carolina and Pittsburgh for most in the league). The Vikings are giving up 321.8 yards per game, sixth best in the league.

The Giants have names familiar to Minnesota sports fans on the coaching staff. Head coach Pat Shurmur, now in his second season with the Giants, was the Viking offensive coordinator in 2017 when he was named NFL Assistant Coach of the Year by the Pro Football Writers Association.

Giants offensive coordinator Mike Shula was head coach at Alabama when the Golden Gophers defeated the Crimson Tide in the 2004 Music City Bowl.

John Gilbert, among the preeminent hockey writers in the country, is upbeat about the Wild’s likelihood of returning to the playoffs. “I think they got a great chance to really have a good season,” he told Sports Headliners.

For 30 years Gilbert covered pro and college hockey for Minneapolis daily newspapers, and he now lives in Duluth working as a freelance writer. He believes it’s no mystery why the Wild, who open the regular season tonight in Nashville against the Predators, didn’t make the playoffs last spring. He said injuries causing the absences of defenseman Matt Dumba and center Mikko Koivu put an end to six consecutive playoff runs by the Wild.

Gilbert regards Dumba as perhaps the top defenseman in the NHL. He considers Koivu to be among the league’s best centers when judged by all around play including coverage of the other team’s leading defenseman. “And he is a great leader,” Gilbert added.

Gilbert is confident that with Dumba and Koivu, Minnesota would have been in the 2019 postseason. “They (the Wild) lose those two guys, and they barely miss the playoffs,” he said.

Two key players can make that much difference, according to Gilbert. “So you look at every team that made the Stanley Cup playoffs last year, and you take away their best two-way centerman and you take away their best offensive defenseman, they don’t make it.”

The Wild didn’t do much to change the roster in the offseason but the club did sign free agent wing Mats Zuccarello who had 40 points playing for Dallas and the New York Rangers last season. Gilbert likes Zuccarello’s skills, believes goalie Devan Dubnyk “can stop anybody, at any time,” and refers to Bruce Boudreau as a “great coach.” With Boudreau’s coaching and a roster that includes the return of Dumba and Koivu, Gilbert has this forecast: “They’re going to be really strong this season.”

Of course, the prediction comes without a guarantee. “No league has the parity that the NHL has,” Gilbert said. “You can finish 16th, and scratch your way in, and win the Stanley Cup if your goalie gets hot and your guys are playing well.”

Gilbert just finished authoring a book, Miracle in Lake Placid, that celebrates the 40th anniversary next year of the U.S. Olympic hockey team’s stunning march to the Gold Medal in 1980. Gilbert covered the team back then and had access to players and coach Herb Brooks that others didn’t.

Gilbert saved his notes from covering the American team almost 40 years ago. “I could recreate the West Germany game (for example) like it happened this afternoon,” he said.

Quoting new Wild general manager Bill Guerin’s message to the team: “I am not here to win friends. I am here to win games.”

Anthony LaPanta, the TV play-by-play voice of the Wild, is also an assistant football coach for the 4-1 Totino-Grace football team.

Gophers coach Richard Pitino, with seven new players, acknowledged he probably would have a different team if Amir Coffey hadn’t passed up his senior season of eligibility to turn pro. “But you can’t hold these guys back from doing what’s great for them and what they have dreamed of their whole lives,” he said at Big Ten Media Day yesterday in Rosemont, Illinois where expectations were high for teams like Michigan State and Ohio State, but low for Minnesota and Nebraska where Fred Hoiberg will coach his first Cornhuskers team.

Hoiberg, the former Minnesota Timberwolves player and front office executive, won’t lack for fan support in Lincoln. Despite minimal success predicted for his first team, all home games are sold out.

Forty years ago Mike Prochaska, Joe Hoffman, Kevin Keohen, and Dale Lapic were members of the Montgomery, Minnesota team that won the 1979 Babe Ruth state championship. The four are now part of the Union Hill Greyhounds team that last weekend won the amateur baseball Class 6A state championship for players over 50 years old with an 11-10 win over the Alexandria Redbirds. Hoffman scored the winning run for his team whose roster includes Dave “Greek” Wagner, a member of the Minnesota State Amateur Men’s Baseball Hall of Fame.

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