Sports Illustrated’s baseball preview issue picks the Twins for a fourth place finish in the AL Central Division.  The magazine has Cleveland, Detroit and Chicago ahead of the Twins who were ranked as the 17^th best team in the major leagues.  SI’s top five teams: New York Yankees, Los Angeles Angels, Boston, Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Mets. 

Both the Yankees and Red Sox make their only visits to Minneapolis early in the season. The Yankees are here April 9-11 while the Red Sox series is May 4-6.  As of yesterday morning ticket sales were about 60,000 tickets for the Yankees series and 70,000 for the Red Sox. 

Viking head coach Brad Childress visited coaching legend Murray Warmath, 94, at his residence last week.  “Where do I sign up for 94?” Childress asked.  He brought Warmath a Viking sweatshirt and visited with him for about two hours.  Warmath was head coach of the Gophers from 1954-1971 and worked for the Vikings following his college career as an assistant coach and scout. 

ESPN.com listed the best teams that never went to the Super Bowl.  The 1998 Vikings, who scored an NFL record 556 points, ranked No. 1.  The Vikings, 15-1 during the regular season, were upset by Atlanta in a home playoff game that could have sent the franchise to the Super Bowl for a fifth time. 

Cole Aldrich of Bloomington Jefferson High School, bound for Kansas, was the only Minnesotan playing in Wednesday night’s McDonald’s All-American Game in Louisville.   Aldrich is one of five finalists for the state’s Mr. Basketball Award.  The others are Noah Dahlman of Braham, Blake Hoffarber of Hopkins, Trevor Mbawke of St. Bernard’s and Alex Rubin of Armstrong.  The winner will be announced on April 29.  

Jai Lucas, who also played in the McDonald’s game, hasn’t made a college choice and was considering Kentucky and Tubby Smith earlier this year.  A true point guard, Lucas would probably help the Gophers win several more games next season if he comes to Minnesota.  Lucas is from Bellaire, Texas and is the son of former NBA star John Lucas.

Al Nuness, a former Gopher player and assistant coach, says Tubby Smith is Minnesota’s best basketball coaching hire in his lifetime.  KFAN’s Dan Barreiro, often an outspoken critic and never a homer, rated the Smith hire a “B+” on his radio program yesterday.  Fans e-mailed Sports Headliners to say they don’t know how athletic director Joel Maturi attracted Smith but they love the move. 

Nationally, Dick Vitale told America last night on ESPN that the Smith hire is a “home run, a grand slam” for Minnesota.  Respected basketball author John Feinstein told Barriero’s audience that Smith was a “very good coach.”  ESPN’s Andy Katz gave the hire perspective saying that Smith was tired of the second guessing and scrutiny in Kentucky. 

Nuness, who captained the Gophers in the late 1960’s and later was an assistant coach under Bill Musselman, said Smith is a top 10 coach.  He praised Smith’s ability to teach and coach.   “My hat is off to Joel Maturi,” Nuness said. “I don’t know how he pulled this off.” 

Nuness, an executive with Jostens, has met Smith and followed his career.  As the first African-American coach at Kentucky, Smith has been subjected to racial abuse and other irrational slurs.  “He got tired of having garbage and for sale signs placed on his lawn,” Nuness said. 

With a national reputation that includes 10 years at Kentucky and an NCAA title, Smith brings a more glamorous resume here than perhaps any local coach or manager in memory.  Whether he can maintain his image will ultimately be mostly determined by wins and losses. 

His recruiting was criticized in recent years at Kentucky but Nuness said Smith has long been known as a good recruiter and the effectiveness of that task will also be determined by his assistant coaches.  Nuness suggested Smith’s recent recruiting results may have been lessened by speculation that he wasn’t going to remain Kentucky’s coach. 

At age 55 does Smith have the energy to turn the Gophers into Big Ten Conference champions?  Nuness suggests it’s not a problem, rattling off the names of older coaches you may have heard of including Lute Olson of Arizona, Jim Calhoun of Connecticut and Jim Boeheim of Syracuse. 

For anyone out there in Tubbyville who may not have heard the names, those guys have long been considered top 10 coaches, too.

Wild goalie Josh Harding is raising awareness about breast cancer and helping to generate money for research.  Tonight from 6 p.m. to 6:45 p.m. he and teammate Derek Boogaard will be at Xcel Energy Center to sign autographs for fans attending the Minnesota Swarm-Toronto Rock lacrosse game.

A $5 donation to “Fund the Fight” is requested from each autograph seeker and because room in the autograph line is limited it’s suggested that fans arrive by 6 p.m.  Fans can also purchase a special “Fund the Fight” $10 ticketto the game. 

Harding’s sister Stephanie, 26, from Regina, Saskatchewan, was diagnosed with breast cancer about three months ago.  There had been no cancer in the Harding family and the diagnosis startled Josh.  “Growing up as a kid I never thought about it,” Josh said during a recent interview.  “Now I am starting to learn a little more about breast cancer. …” 

To help generate funds for breast cancer research Harding has established a Web site, www.fundthefight.com. At Wild games he’s wearing a custom made mask featuring pink ribbons and the words “Fund the Fight, Find a Cure.”  He will auction off his mask on the Web at season’s end.  Other hockey memorabilia is available now for auction. 

“She will get through this,” Harding said. “She has a lot of support from everybody else.  Just hopefully they caught it (the cancer) soon enough and they can get rid of it.” 

Harding, 22, is in his rookie season with the Wild and has been a backup.  He has a 2-0-1 record, with a 0.66 GAA and a .978 save percentage. 

He was a second round draft choice of the Wild in 2002.