Wild – Page 82 – David Shama's Minnesota Sports Headliners

Nanne: U Potential Frozen Four Team

Posted on February 1, 2013February 1, 2013 by David Shama

Here is a Friday morning Sports Headliners roundup including Gophers hockey and basketball, the Wild, the Wolves and NBA commissioner David Stern, and even Cuban bully Fidel Castro!

Hockey authority Lou Nanne told Sports Headliners the 2013 Gopher team is “skilled at every position and has excellent goaltending.” No. 1 ranked Minnesota played in the Frozen Four last year and Nanne can see a return engagement.

“If they play up to their capabilities, they should be in the Frozen Four,” he said.

The Gophers, 18-4-4, have scored four or more goals in eight of their last nine games. In their 4-1 win over Minnesota State last Saturday night four different players had goals. Among the four was Nate Schmidt who leads the nation’s defensemen in scoring.

Minnesota leads the WCHA in power play goals and penalty killing. Goalie Adam Wilcox has a WCHA-best 17-3-4 record.

St. Cloud State and the Gophers are first and second in the league standings. The two teams play each other February 8 and 9 in St. Cloud. Minnesota has a bye this weekend.

Nanne said the Wild are talented and could finish among the better teams in the Western Conference. The key is “balanced scoring and defense.”

The Wild play at Anaheim tonight, facing a Ducks team that may pose problems in the Western Conference playoffs. In this week’s ESPN.com NHL power poll the Wild are ranked No. 9 and the Ducks No. 10 among 30 league teams.

The Wild’s Matt Cullen, who led the team in points (six) in four games against Anaheim last season, played in 427 games with the Ducks from 1997-2003. The 36-year-old center, scoreless in his first six games, scored twice in the Wild’s 3-2 win over the Blackhawks on Wednesday night.

Wild prospect Jason Zucker, representing the Aeros, scored a goal for the Western Conference on Monday in the AHL All-Star game. The Western Conference defeated the East, 7-6. Zucker leads the Aeros in points with 36.

Nanne and wife Francine spent a week visiting communist Cuba late last month as part of a University of Minnesota Alumni Association trip. Asked for a quick impression, Nanne said, “Too much government.”

Cubans use ration books for food, and some buildings have no running water. The higher wage earners, including doctors, make $500 a month in American currency, Nanne said.

There are many 1950s American cars on the streets in Cuba and Nanne even rode in a 1932 vehicle. “It had a rumble seat,” he said.

Nanne also said Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, in poor health for years, was recently seen walking with a cane. His brother Raul Castro runs the country.

The basketball Gophers, who ended a four-game losing streak with a home win over Nebraska (84-65) earlier in the week, play Iowa at noon Sunday. Minnesota, 16-5 overall and 4-4 in the Big Ten, lost twice to a mediocre Iowa team last season, 64-62 and 63-59.

The Hawkeyes were frequently the more aggressive team in those wins, combining for 21 steals. In Iowa’s 63-59 win in Iowa City the Hawkeyes not only had 11 steals to Minnesota’s one, but they out rebounded the Gophers.

Iowa, 3-5 in the conference and 14-7 overall, has several returning players from last season and is again a scrappy, well coached team. “I think, honestly, we just didn’t have the toughness mentality (last year),” said Minnesota junior guard Maverick Ahanmisi. “This year I think we have a lot of guys on this team that can take it upon themselves to slow the game down, or know when we need a shot or a basket. Last year we just let the game get away from us. Once they started scoring on us, we just put our heads down and stopped moving (fighting back).”

Center Trevor Mbakwe is disappointed with the Gophers’ start to the Big Ten schedule but still thinks Minnesota can be one of the nation’s best teams and win the league championship. “Little surprised (with the start),” he said. “We thought we had a chance to be 6-2 coming out of those two big games (losses to Indiana and Michigan). …We played a tough schedule so far. It’s the best conference in the country.”

Nebraska coach Tim Miles predicted the Gophers can win games in the NCAA Tournament. “I am really impressed with them. …If they don’t turn it over they’ll be good.”

The Gophers came into the Nebraska game averaging a Big Ten high 14.6 turnovers a game but had only five against the Cornhuskers. Among those responsible for the improvement was Ahanmisi, a reserve point guard who entered the game with 20 turnovers in 207 minutes this season. He had no turnovers in 19 minutes on Tuesday night.

Ahanmisi said his confidence, including shooting the ball, has improved. He scored nine points and made four of seven shots on Tuesday. His season field goal percentage of .463 and three point percentage, .417, are major improvements from last year’s numbers of .361 and .294.

“Back in high school I was a shooting guard.” Ahanmisi said. “That was my game. I used to shoot a lot of threes. When I came here I just got away from it. Tried to really turn into a point guard.

“It’s kind of something I really worked on—my shooting again. I think it’s coming back.”

Miles, in his first season at Nebraska, will have his Cornhuskers playing in a new state-of-the-art arena next fall. Each players’ locker has an iPad.

The first in a series called the Minnesota Timberwolves Business Alliance will be held next Wednesday at the Graves 601 Hotel and NBA commissioner David Stern will be the keynote speaker. The event, preceding a Target Center game against the Spurs, will bring together Wolves season ticket holders and corporate partners for networking opportunities.

Wolves president Chris Wright told Sports Headliners efforts to bring the NBA All-Star game back to Minneapolis (last here in 1995) will wait until his organization completes negotiations with the city for Target Center renovations. There’s no timetable for completing negotiations.

Wright and others with the Wolves have never seen a stretch of hard luck like this year’s team has experienced with numerous starters and reserve players sidelined with injuries for days, weeks and months. And even coach Rick Adelman missed 11 games to be with his wife who suffered seizures.

Since the early days of TargetvCenter there’s been speculation the franchise’s misfortunes have been tied to constructing the arena on an ancient Indian burial ground. Not true, said Wright. “That may have come from a couple of drunken guys talking at the (Cafe) di Napoli 20 years ago,” he joked.

Prep basketball authority Ken Lien e-mailed this week that DeLaSalle power Reid Travis has been offered a scholarship by Arizona.

The Wednesday Sports Media News e-mail reported Brett Favre will be a guest on the NFL Network morning show Sunday preceding the Super Bowl. The network is providing more than 16 hours of live pre-game and post-game Super Bowl coverage on Sunday, according to SMN.

Denis McDonough, a 1992 Saint John’s graduate and a three-year starter for the Johnnie football team, is President Barack Obama’s White House chief of staff after serving as deputy national security adviser the past two years.

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Stumbling Gophers Try Madison Next

Posted on January 25, 2013January 25, 2013 by David Shama

Embarrassing.

There’s not a better word to describe the Gophers’ 55-48 loss to Northwestern on Wednesday night in Evanston. The Wildcats have minimal talent and are playing out the season minus their best player, Drew Crawford. The Gophers have the personnel to dominate the dwarfs of the Big Ten like Northwestern, and to defeat any team in the league.

Northwestern coach Bill Carmody saw his team behind 27-24 at halftime, but he saved a half-court zone trap for the game’s last 20 minutes. The Gophers have faced the same defense for years and often have been ineffective versus the scheme. In Evanston, the Minnesota coaches and players looked baffled again.

Attempting to start the offense, the guards spent precious seconds trying to pass out of double teams. When the Gophers were able to advance toward the basket by dribbling or passing, they found multiple defenders again and couldn’t create scoring opportunities.

More decisive passing and better positioning of players on the floor could have attacked the trap more effectively. Instead Minnesota not only scored just 21 second half points, but also created baskets for Northwestern with turnovers.

The Gophers had 15 turnovers in the game, just about their average of 14.7, highest in the Big Ten. In Madison tomorrow the Gophers will play a Badgers team with the lowest average, 9.1. And while Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan has a team that annually plays virtually mistake free basketball, the Gophers have been talking about eliminating turnovers since last fall.

The Gophers have lost three consecutive games, the first two to top 10 ranked Indiana and Michigan. The dream of chasing a Big Ten championship looks dead seven weeks before the season ends. Minnesota is 3-3 in conference games with likely losses ahead in road games at Wisconsin, Michigan State and Ohio State. The way the Gophers performed against Northwestern—making 33.3 percent of their field goal attempts and 41.2 percent of their free throws—they could lose to a bunch more teams, on the road and at home.

“Unimaginable” was a word Gophers coach Tubby Smith used to describe the three game slide to obscurity. Smith made that comment on his post-game 1500 ESPN radio show on Wednesday night and also expressed frustration that his team wasn’t “mentally tough.”

Last Sunday on WCCO Radio’s “Sports Huddle” he said the team (following the Indiana and Michigan losses) “should really be sitting here at 15-1.” Instead the Gophers are now 15-4 overall and will be plummeting in the A.P. national rankings from their No. 12 spot unless they defeat the Badgers.

Minnesota’s inability to beat the league’s best teams—and even the mediocre ones—is consistent with the Smith era. In five-plus seasons his record in regular season conference games is 41-55.

Last October Smith told Sports Headliners he has three potential NBA first round draft choices in guard Andre Hollins, center Trevor Mbakwe and forward Rodney Williams. But the Gophers are stumbling and a disgruntled fan made this prediction about how only one thing may change from Wednesday night to tomorrow:

“Look for a superstitious team to switch from gold uniforms to maroon.”

Worth Noting

TwinsFest at the Metrodome starts today and ends Sunday afternoon with announced attendance likely to be near 30,000.

With high fan interest and a unique venue to host the event, the annual attendance is the largest in MLB for fan festivals. Profits go to the Twins Community Fund, and this year’s contribution is likely to be $275,000 or more. Since the inception of TwinsFest in 1989 the Community Fund has received more than $4.2 million.

While players from other MLB teams are compensated for their time at similar fan festivals, Twins players are not. Expenses such as airfare are paid by the Twins.

More than 60 current and former Twins, including Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau, are expected to participate during the three day event. TwinsFest opens today at 4 p.m.

The delay to the start of the Wild’s season was frustrating but the team is likely to make fans happy in the coming months, according to a Sports Headliners hockey source who spoke on condition of anonymity. “They have much more depth than they have ever had,” he said. “This is (also) the most talented team in club history. …I don’t see any major weaknesses.”

The Wild, 2-1, play at Detroit tonight and then in St. Louis on Sunday. The source said if the Wild can start 10-2 or 10-3, the club could then play .500 hockey the remainder of the regular schedule and still qualify for the playoffs “where anything can happen.”

He credited general manager Chuck Fletcher with exceptional work in rebuilding the feeder system and already adding outstanding players like Mikael Granlund. “They’ve done a marvelous job,” he said.

Fans are responding enthusiastically to the team, particularly because of adding star performers Zach Parise and Ryan Suter. Last Saturday’s season opener set a TV ratings record for a Wild game on FOX Sports North.

The Wild could sell a lot of season tickets for 2013-2014, although reaching the club’s record high of over 16,000 established several years ago will be a challenge.

St. Thomas men’s basketball coach Johnny Tauer teaches psychology classes so it’s not surprising he can see both aspects of the Tommies’ reputation. The Tommies entered this week ranked No. 1 in the country by D3hoops.com and are 84-9 in their last 93 MIAC games.

Those numbers can command the attention of opponents, even giving the Tommies an edge before the game starts. “Teams can think these guys (the Tommies) are really good,” Tauer said. “The flip side is we get everybody’s best shot.”

Tauer’s recollection is the other team “rushed the court” in celebrations after each of those nine St. Thomas losses. And that includes Monday night’s loss at Concordia, 54-52.

St. Thomas won on Wednesday night, though, defeating St. Mary’s 87-46 while building this season’s record to 17-1 overall and 12-1 in the MIAC. Tomorrow Hamline plays at St. Thomas.

Two years ago the Tommies won the Division III national title when Tauer was an assistant coach. The club featured a senior group, just like the 2013 Tommies. “That team played its best basketball at the end of the year, winning six straight and the national tournament,” Tauer said.

He likes the depth on this year’s team. Asked about a closer to finish out games, the coach said, “We really have eight or nine guys I would be comfortable with taking the shot.”

Gophers’ freshman Adam Wilcox (16-2-4 record) leads the WCHA in wins at 16, winning percentage at .818 and goals against average, 1.72 per game. He’s unbeaten in the last 10 games. The No. 1 ranked Gophers play Minnesota State at home tonight and in Mankato tomorrow night. The two teams split an earlier series this season.

Wild draft choice Erik Haula leads the Gophers in points with 29. Another Wild prospect, Louis Nanne, has 13 goals and 14 assists in 32 games playing for Penticton in Canada.

Golden Valley-based Buffalo Wild Wings has a partnership with the NCAA to be the “Official Hangout of March Madness,” according to a Wednesday email from Cynopsis: Sports.

Happy birthday to KSTP TV’s Darren Doogie Wolfson who was 33 on Sunday.

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Just No Forgetting Ex-Stars Owner

Posted on January 21, 2013January 23, 2013 by David Shama

I was sitting in a Caribbean restaurant last Wednesday morning eating pancakes when I caught a partial glimpse of the TV screen. Something about the former owner of the NHL San Jose Sharks.

Even before learning the full details approximately 30 minutes later, I was sure one of the Gund brothers had died.

George Gund III, 75, died of cancer in Palm Springs, California last week. The news revived my memories of working for the Gunds in the 1980s.

The two brothers owned the NHL North Stars and operated Met Center. I was involved with marketing both entities, and mostly became acquainted with the Gunds through my boss, the late Frank Jirik.

Frank loved to tell stories including many jokes you couldn’t use in today’s sensitive office environment. A favorite tale was Frank’s story about George’s unpredictable behavior. The way I recall it, George was traveling in Europe with his wife and friends. The group was at an airport waiting for the plane to depart.

“George wanders off, sees a travel poster and takes a flight to that destination without telling anybody where he’s going,” Frank told me.

Several days later word reached George’s family and others as to his whereabouts.

If you didn’t guess by now, George was a character and free spirit. He had bushy eyebrows thick enough to hide the safe deposit box key where his inheritance might have been secured. He also mumbled, and when Frank impersonated George it was high comedy.

George and his brother Gordon grew up in Cleveland where their father, George Gund II, was a wealthy businessman. George II might have been interested to see how George III enjoyed his inheritance. His son loved to travel, collect art, and play hockey, chasing the puck even into his 40’s or maybe 50’s. He was also a well-known philanthropist and long time supporter of the San Francisco Film Society.

An online story in last Tuesday’s Cleveland Plain Dealer by Pat Galbincea recalled that George once suited up as a goalie for a North Stars practice and liked to show off a picture of himself in uniform. The same article referred to the Gund brothers owning the NBA’s Cleveland Cavs for many years and how George enjoyed dropping Cuban cigar ashes on the scorebook of the team’s radio play-by-play guy, Joe Tait.

“He was one unique individual,” Tait said in the story.

George spent time in his adopted hometown of San Francisco. He was also enamored with Squaw Valley, California. Frank and I talked about encouraging either George or Gordon to buy a home in Minneapolis and establish more identity in this community. Never happened, and while Gordon was somewhat of a regular around the Met, I just don’t think Minnesota was very often on George’s world travel itinerary.

In the late 1980’s the North Stars were struggling at the box office. Bad hockey produced bad results on and off the ice. The dress suit season ticket holders crowd from the franchise’s early days had been replaced by single game buyers who often relieved themselves on the sidewalks outside the building.

Frank and I had built our reputations filling the Met Center for concerts, family shows and other events including a Lakers NBA exhibition game. “If there’s one empty seat (for any event) it’s one too many,” I told Frank.

He loved to hear that and shared the statement with Gordon, a capable businessman who was blind because of retinitis pigmentosa. Gordon, who once was featured on TV’s “60 Minutes,” was a pleasant guy who watched the bottom line of his businesses.

Our management team made money for him on the non-hockey events, but we disliked not being profitable with the North Stars. We tried to convince the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission to invest over $10 million in the renovation of Met Center, adding suites and remodeling concourses. After negotiations failed, George and Gordon sold the team to Norm Green and other investors in 1990.

George and Gordon weren’t done with hockey, though. They bought an expansion team for San Jose that began play in the NHL in 1991. The club was and still is the city’s only major league sports franchise. George was popular in San Jose and is fondly remembered among Bay Area residents more than 10 years after selling the Sharks.

Frank moved to San Jose in the early 1990s to continue working for the Gunds. I talked to Frank about joining him in California, but never did.

In the 1990s the Sharks were a new team in a new NHL market with a new arena—a classic “honeymoon” situation. The building was packed for concerts like Pavarotti and Sharks games. Frank might have thought about my mantra, “If there’s one empty seat, it’s one too many.”

If he mentioned it to George and Gordon, I’m sure they were pleased.

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