Williams Arena, built in 1928, is 80 years old this year.  It’s the oldest basketball facility in the Big Ten Conference by a few decades and one of the most historic college arenas in the country.  Gopher coach Tubby Smith generated conversation late last year when he told a writer for the New York Times that he wanted a new building.

In an interview with Sports Headliners last week athletics director Joel Maturi said that today’s college basketball is all about recruiting and he believes his coach was responding to a question about attracting players to Minnesota.  Anyone who has seen an empty Williams Arena, including Maturi and Smith, know the facility is about as appealing as a $1,000 car on the budget lot. “When you come in here and it’s filled, and it’s electric, and they’ve got the raised floor, it’s about as exciting…a place as there is in college basketball,” Maturi said.

He acknowledged that given its age, Williams Arena will eventually need to be significantly remodeled or replaced but that day isn’t likely to come any time soon, probably not during the tours of duty by Maturi and Smith.  “I am not so sure Tubby even believes he’s ever going to play in a different arena here,” Maturi said.  “I think his first priority is a practice facility and I think that is a realistic expectation.  And we’re hopeful that we can find a way to make something like that happen in the near future.”

The Gophers practice in Williams Arena.  Smith wants a separate practice facility similar to what many other schools have.  Such a venue would be more practical than the antiquated practice set up at Williams Arena and more impressive to potential recruits.

Williams Arena was remodeled in the 1990s.  Chair backs and private suites were added. Total seating has been reduced over the years to the present capacity of 14,625.  Maturi said further enhancements are pretty much nil, mentioning that corridors can’t be widened or restrooms added.

A question was asked about whether the athletic department might look at lowering the floor as a means of improving sightlines and adding seats.  Maturi and others cherish the building’s elevated playing floor and that signature element “isn’t going away” as long as he’s athletics director.

Maturi thinks Williams Arena has enough seats, although there are seven venues in the conference with larger capacities.  The Gophers have traditionally grossed more dollars than bigger arenas because of higher ticket prices and fewer students buying tickets.  “We’ll keep filling it (Williams Arena) with Tubby here,” Maturi said.

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Torii Hunter was featured in the Sunday Los Angeles Times.  Hunter, the former Twin who signed a five year, $90 million off-season deal with the Angels, grew up in poverty and had a father addicted to cocaine, according to the Times.  Hunter now has a home with 11 bathrooms.

Guard Steve Hutchinson, running back Adrian Peterson and defensive tackle Kevin Williams were named to the Sporting News all-pro team.  Peterson was also the publication’s near unanimous choice for Rookie of the Year.  Selections are made through voting by pro personnel directors.

Gopher football coach Tim Brewster said assistant Tim Cross has been selected by rivals.com as the No. 1 recruiting assistant coach in the Big Ten Conference and No. 8 in the country.

Sports Illustrated didn’t include the Wild’s Marian Gaborik among its Western Conference all-star wings, instead choosing Jarome Iginla of the Flames and Henrik Zetterberg of the Red Wings.

Hobey Baker Memorial Award ballots go out to Division I hockey coaches next week and the top 10 candidates for the 2008 award will be announced on March 22. The winner will be announced April 11 during the NCAA Frozen Four championships in Denver and televised live on ESPNU at 7 p.m. Minneapolis time.  The award annually honors college hockey’s top player.  More information is available at www.hobeybaker.com.

Randy Foye started his first game of the season last night as the Timberwolves easily defeated Philadelphia 104-88.  He and regular point guard Sebastian Telfair started at the guard positions. “I wanted to see him (Foye) and Basie together a little bit more,” coach Randy Wittman said. “I can get them together with more minutes starting them together than I can bringing them off the bench. …”  Foye scored 13 points and Witman predicted the two guards will start again tomorrow night (Thursday) against San Antonio at Target Center. The Spurs have won eight of the last nine against the Wolves.

St. Paul is being labeled as “Tournament City USA” with Xcel Energy Center and Roy Wilkins Auditorium playing host to six athletic tournaments over five weeks, starting with last weekend through March 22.

Former pro Tracy Austin is coming to town in early May to help promote tennis, according to a local source.

Sophomore forward Craig Heiman had the third highest scoring game in school history with 36 points on Saturday night, leading Concordia University (St. Paul) to a 79-61 win at Upper Iowa University.  The performance moved him within 94 points of Brian Jamros’ single season school record of 529 points.

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In the current issues both Sporting News and Sports Illustrated praise the 2008 Gopher football recruiting success.  In unprecedented coverage of the school’s recruiting, the two national publications joined with other news sources in admiring the work of coach Tim Brewster and his staff for a recruiting class acknowledged as among the top 20 in the country despite coming off a 1-11 season and decades of mediocrity and abysmal on-field performance.

Sporting News included the Gophers among its “top 10 signing day stories.”  Under a “Minnesota matters” heading, the publication described Brewster as a “voracious recruiter who is selling his vision.”

SN ranked the Gophers’ recruiting class 16^th in the country, placing Minnesota only behind No. 9 Ohio State and No. 10 Michigan among Big Ten schools.  The Gophers were ranked one spot behind No. 15 Texas, another super power among college football programs and a school that signed Brewster’s son Nolan, from Denver Mullen.  Imagine where the Gophers would have ranked if star recruits Nolan Brewster, Michael Floyd of Cretin-Derham Hall and Willie Mobley of Eden Prairie all signed with Minnesota.  That was a possibility last year.

For the Gopher football program to draw attention in Sports Illustrated is almost as rare as a Jesse Ventura sighting.  Years ago quarterback Bobby Cox made the cover as “America’s best quarterback” and more recently extraordinary running backs Laurence Maroney and Marion Barber III were featured.  But coverage of Gopher recruiting in SI?  No memory of that!

Under a “Gophers Strike Gold” heading, SI referred to Minnesota as one of the recruiting season’s surprise success stories and said Brewster produced a “consensus” top 20 class.  In a related article about the college football trend to big, physical quarterbacks like Florida’s Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow who can devastate opponents passing and running, SI included Minnesota recruit MarQueis Gray.  The magazine said the 6-4, 220-pound Indianapolis player “had Minnesota coaches envisioning touchdowns through the air and by land.”

The Gophers’ recruiting class success was both anticipated and surprising.  Brewster had a reputation for years while an assistant coach for being among the nation’s best recruiters. Then, too, he hired his staff based on their collective abilities to recruit as well as coach.  But consider, too, no school other than Minnesota that produced a top 20 class was coming off a 1-11 season.  Compare, too, Minnesota’s big time bowl history in the last 50 years with other schools in the Sporting News top 25 recruiting list and see how shabby the Gopher scrapbook looks (you remember the 1962 Rose Bowl, right?).

The Gophers’ recruiting success is no surprise to recruiting analyst Tom Lemming who is among the most quoted of authorities year after year and has admired Brewster for a long time.  On the Gopher Web site, www.gophersports.com, Lemming said,“Tim is one of the top 10 recruiters I’ve ever seen.”

Recruiting rankings and articles are fun.  They are downright uplifting after a winless Big Ten Conference season, but the more important results will come during the next couple of falls.  How much success will the Gophers have on the field?  Right now it appears the class of 2008 provides Brewster and staff a bright future.

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