Wild – Page 85 – David Shama's Minnesota Sports Headliners

Low Expectations for U Opening Foe

Posted on August 1, 2012August 1, 2012 by David Shama

The UNLV team the Gophers open the season against on August 30 is predicted to finish ninth in the 10-team Mountain West Conference, according to a poll of media who cover the league’s football teams.

The Gophers’ second opponent, New Hampshire, will be a fourth place team in the 11-team Colonial Athletic Association, according to a poll of media and coaches. Reporters covering the Mid-American Conference predict Western Michigan will finish third in the six-team West Division. The Broncos are the third team on the Gophers nonconference schedule that concludes against Syracuse, a team that is forecast by the media to place seventh in the eight-team Big East. (All polls referenced here were announced last week or this week.)

UNLV has been 2-10 and 2-11 in two seasons under third-year coach Bobby Hauck. The Rebels have finished 2-6 and 1-6 in conference standings. Mountain West media, who picked Boise State to win the league title, didn’t include any UNLV players on the 25-player preseason all-conference team.

Asked about the predicted low finish for the Rebels, Gophers coach Jerry Kill said: “I can’t control the people that we play. I can control what we do and I am more concerned about the Gophers and us getting started and getting ready to play UNLV.”

Kill has known and respected Hauck for years. Hauck was a national championship coach at Montana before taking the UNLV job.

The Gophers are in no position to disregard UNLV when the teams play in Las Vegas, or the next three nonconference teams — all of whom come to TCF Bank Stadium. Big Ten media predict a last place finish for the Gophers in the Legends Division after Minnesota was 3-9 overall in 2010 and 2011.

Kill is establishing his program in year No. 2 including academics. The team’s cumulative GPA’s for the fall and spring semesters during the 2012-13 school year have been over 3.0. The GPA’s compare favorably with Northwestern football players, a school long known as among the best in the country academically.

Kill said the plus-3.0 results aren’t something that will happen every semester. “You take 115 students; it’s hard to do that good. …I’ve been coaching for 29 (years) and most of the time you get excited if you’re about a 2.55 or 2.6 overall in football because you deal with so many numbers. Those GPA’s (fall and spring) are exceptionally high.”

Gophers and other notes:

Condolences to family members on the passing Monday night of Murray’s Restaurant owner Pat Murray who was 72. Pat was diagnosed with bladder cancer in 2011. He was a popular figure not only at the restaurant but as a civic leader in Minneapolis. “People knew what he was like. He was very dedicated professionally and personally,” his son Tim Murray said. “He loved everything about the restaurant business yet somehow juggled his time to do all he could for his kids.”

Visitation is scheduled tomorrow from 4 to 8 p.m. at Washburn-McReavy Edina Chapel. Memorial services Friday will be at St. Olaf Catholic Church downtown beginning at 10 a.m. and visitation will be one hour prior. Memorials of the donor’s choice are welcome.

Kill meets with the media tomorrow, and has several practices open to the public from August 4-8, all beginning at 10:25 a.m. at the Gibson-Nagurski Complex. The Gophers open practice on August 4.

The Big Ten Conference has a rule that athletes transferring from one member school to another can’t receive a scholarship from the new program. However, the NCAA will allow Penn State football players to transfer to Big Ten schools and receive scholarships.

Congratulations to Dick Larson, Rick Meyer, Mike Wilkinson and others who helped make possible the Murray Warmath conference room at the new fitness center at Friendship Village in Bloomington. A celebration at Friendship Village was held last week attended by former Gophers, including those from Warmath’s first team in 1954 to his last in 1971. The conference room is decorated with Warmath memorabilia including his national championship and Big Ten title teams.

The Vikings are not only an overwhelming favorite to finish last in the NFC North, but they have lost 11 consecutive division games.

Look for Charlie Johnson, moved since last season from left tackle to his more comfortable position of left guard, to possibly lead a resurgent and rebuilt offensive line that also includes rookie left tackle and No. 1 draft choice Matt Kalil.

New Vikings defensive coordinator Alan Williams worked several years for Tony Dungy. Williams said yesterday a lot of his philosophies and schemes “comes from coach Dungy.”

The Wild have sold over 3,000 new season tickets since July 4 when the signings of Zach Parise and Ryan Suter were announced.

With a likely NHL labor dispute ahead, the 2012-13 season for the Minnesota Wild and other clubs probably won’t start as scheduled. The Wild are scheduled to open the season at home October 13 against the Avalanche. By early November the NHL schedule may resume.

According to Elias Sports Bureau, last night Francisco Liriano was the first White Sox starter to make his debut the same season against the same club he was acquired from since Marino Pieretti on June 19, 1948.

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Yeo Coaches to Win Stanley Cup

Posted on July 13, 2012July 13, 2012 by David Shama

Second-year Wild coach Mike Yeo didn’t have his team in the playoffs last season but that’s certainly the future expectation now with the early July free agent signings of Zach Parise and Ryan Suter to 13-year, $98 million contracts. Yeo will need to show he’s a high level coach, matching the promise of a roster led by talented veterans like Parise, Suter, Mikko Koivu and Niklas Backstrom, plus the much anticipated development of young prospects including Mikael Granlund.

Yeo characterizes the addition of Parise and Suter, the 27-year-olds who will revitalize the team’s scoring and defense, as exciting and not adding to his stress. “I put a lot of pressure on myself to make sure I am working and doing everything I need to do to prepare the team,” Yeo said. “This is not about pressure. This is about opportunity, and now we have opportunity here.

“For me, I don’t coach to try to keep my job. I coach to try to win a Stanley Cup. You add a couple players like this and all it does is enhance those chances. So to me this is not about pressure. This is about excitement. This is about opportunity.”

By the size of the investment in money and contract years made by the Wild to Parise and Suter, will Yeo have to coach them differently than other players? He answers that coaches relate to players individually, implying it will be no different with his two new arrivals. It’s up to coaches to understand what makes players “tick.”

Making Yeo’s job easier is that Parise and Suter are quality people on and off the ice. Tom Reid, the former North Stars player and radio analyst on Wild games, told Sports Headliners the two are “great mentoring” players.

Yeo, who has the reputation of being a players coach, is of course hoping there will be no NHL labor strike and training camp starts on time in September. “…We have to be real focused on our training camp, making sure we get off to a great start in the season,” he said. “Just build off this kind of excitement and build the positive things we’ve got going on right now. …”

Koivu was the team’s leader in assists last season with 32. Parise scored 31 goals for New Jersey. Will the two be on the same line?

“I don’t want to say it’s a given, but when you show up for day one of training camp, that’s who you are going to see,” Yeo said. “We won’t beat our heads against the wall but we will expect them to complement each other very well and I am fully expecting those two to click right off the bat.”

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Worth Noting

Posted on July 13, 2012July 13, 2012 by David Shama

Zach Parise was eight years old when the North Stars moved to Dallas in 1993 but he has memories of the NHL franchise that includes his dad, J.P. Parise, among its alums. “We always loved going to the games,” Zach said.

He described meeting North Stars legends Neal Broten and Mike Modano as the “highlight of a lifetime.”

Ryan Suter said he doesn’t set personal goals but the objective before each season is to have his team win the Stanley Cup. “I think that the better your team does, the more success you have personally. My goals, I think, are just trying to be the best leader I can be. Helping young players – obviously contributing on and off the ice as much as I can. …”

Suter, age 27 and with a 13-year contract, talking about playing at 40: “I hope so. I hope I am still healthy. I would love to be able to play. “

If the Minnesota hot weather continues into August when the Gophers begin preparations for their August 30 game in Las Vegas it will be a plus for conditioning. Summer temperatures in Las Vegas can exceed 110 during the day, although the Gophers-UNLV game will be played at night.

Memorials and donations can be made to a donor’s choice of several organizations in memory of former Gophers football player John Williams. For information about those organizations visit his CaringBridge website, https://www.caringbridge.org/visit/johnbjwilliams

Discussions between the Gophers and basketball coach Tubby Smith regarding a contract extension have been ongoing since at least spring of last year. At this point it will be no surprise if a deal is reached, or if Smith continues with his present contract that has two years remaining.

The basketball staff’s recruiting prowess will be tested during the next two years because of coveted state prep prospects Tyus Jones, Reid Travis, Rashad Vaughn and Kyle Washington.

NBA referee and Minnesota native Ken Mauer Jr. will be the speaker on Thursday, September 13 at the C.O.R.E.S. luncheon in Bloomington. Anyone interested in more information can email Jim Dotseth at dotsethj@comcast.net. C.O.R.E.S. is an acronym for coaches, officials, reporters, educators and sports fans.

The Timberwolves have a minicamp roster of players competing this week to be on the team that plays a five-game schedule starting next Monday in Las Vegas for the NBA Summer League. Players trying out include Luke Sikma, son of Wolves assistant coach Jack Sikma, and Coby Karl, son of Nuggets head coach George Karl.

Five-time All-Star Camilo Pascual, who pitched for both the old Washington Senators and the Twins, will be inducted into the Twins Hall of Fame tomorrow night during a pre-game infield ceremony at Target Field prior to Minnesota’s game against Oakland. Pascual might have had the best curve ball ever thrown by a Twins pitcher.

The Kansas City Star reported online Sunday that the biggest economic impact for the city of Kansas City in hosting this week’s MLB All-Star game is media exposure worth $75 million (33 million viewers in 217 countries). Minneapolis may host the 2014 game.

Sports Headliners is told Nativity of Our Lord Catholic Church on Prior Avenue in St. Paul will be the site of the Joe Mauer–Maddie Bisanz wedding on Saturday, December 1, and security will be tight.

Internet speculation includes talk various clubs want to acquire former Twins starter Matt Garza, now with the Cubs.

The Vikings, like other NFL teams, have to be concerned about fans who prefer watching games via high-definition television. With a new stadium to fill in 2016 and beyond, look for the Vikings to factor this into marketing decisions including ticket pricing and the game day experience downtown.

Mike Freeman, writing on July 10 for cbssports.com, said 39 Vikings have been arrested by law enforcement officials since 2000, the most in the NFL. The latest was Adrian Peterson’s arrest in Houston several days ago. Freeman also wrote the Vikings have “10 arrests since the start of 2011.”

The St. Thomas football team is ranked No. 4 nationally in the Lindy’s Sports Magazine Division III preseason poll. The Tommies are ranked No. 7 in the USA Today top 10 poll. Last year St. Thomas became the first team in MIAC history to complete back-to-back 10-0 regular seasons and lost to eventual national champion UW-Whitewater in the NCAA Division III semifinals. Saint John’s and Bethel join UST in the Lindy’s Top 25 Poll at No. 14 and No. 15.

Suzy Bogguss, a recent guest on Garrison Keillor’s Prairie Home Companion radio program, will perform at the third annual Camden’s Concert on Wednesday, July 25 at the Hopkins Center for the Arts. Camden’s Concert is named after Dave and Linda Mona’s 4½-year-old grandson Camden Mona, and the event raises money for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

A silent auction on July 25 will include footballs signed by Jerry Kill, Percy Harvin and John Carlson, plus an Adrian Peterson autographed jersey. Tickets are available by calling the Hopkins Center for the Arts, 952-979-1111, or via the organization’s website. www.hopkinsartscenter.com/

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