David Shama's Minnesota Sports Headliners

What Vikes’ First Division Win Means

Posted on October 20, 2019October 21, 2019 by David Shama

The Vikings defeated the Lions 42-30 today in Detroit and won their first NFC North Division game after earlier road losses to division rivals Green Bay and Chicago. Although nine games remain on the regular season schedule, a loss to the mediocre Lions might well have diminished chances of winning the division.

The 5-2 Vikings are chasing the 6-1 Packers who have benefitted from a favorable schedule to start the season. Minnesota has won three consecutive games after a 2-2 start, and perhaps the Vikings can duplicate the success of two years ago when that team won eight straight after splitting the first four games of the season.

Thursday night the Vikings are at home against 1-6 Washington, but then Minnesota has consecutive road games against difficult opposition, Kansas City and Dallas. Assuming a win in the next game, Vikings fans could stay optimistic with a split versus the Chiefs and Cowboys. With the Lions win today, even two losses wouldn’t be devastating to playoff aspirations.

After the game Vikings coach Mike Zimmer told KFAN Radio he gave game balls to the entire offense and quarterback Kirk Cousins. The offensive line, labeled a liability earlier in the season, has become impressive at run and pass blocking as the Vikings have scored 80 points in the last two games.

Cousins threw four touchdown passes for the second consecutive week. “Kirk made some unbelievable throws,” Zimmer said.

Minnesota’s secondary was less than impressive against the Lions including on Detroit’s first touchdown when pass interference calls were made against Xavier Rhodes and Trae Waynes, who also missed a tackle allowing wide receiver Marvin Jones to score. For the day Rhodes was beaten twice by Jones on touchdown catches.

The Lions, though, a dysfunctional franchise that hasn’t been great since Elvis Presley was first gyrating across America, lost to the Vikings for the fourth straight time.

Worth Noting

The 7-0 Golden Gophers, ranked No. 20 last week in two national polls, are now No. 16 in the Coaches Poll and No. 17 in the Associated Press Poll. Minnesota has won nine straight games dating back to last season and has the fourth longest winning streak in the country.

Host school St. Thomas and classic rival St. John’s drew a Division III record football crowd of 37,355 two years ago at Target Field and a capacity attendance of 19,508 in the first football game at Allianz Field on Saturday but a new record will be set November 16 at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Ticket sales for the Ithaca College and SUNY Cortland game exceeded 39,000 earlier this month.

After not qualifying for the NCAA playoffs last winter and playing in front of many empty seats for home games in recent years, the U men’s hockey program is trying to reclaim the excellence of its storied past and regain the support of its once passionate fan base.

Minnesota men’s hockey, now in its 99th season, has won five national titles but none since 2003. Although the Gophers have won four of the six Big Ten hockey titles since the league began, conference coaches predicted in a preseason vote that Minnesota will have a fifth place finish behind Penn State, Notre Dame, Wisconsin and Ohio State in the seven-team league.

After Saturday night, and a two-game sweep of Niagara at home, the Gophers are 3-1 in nonconference games. Bob Motzko, in his second season, is labeled outstanding if not a great coach by observers who know college hockey. His roster includes sophomore forward Sammy Walker, last season’s Big Ten Freshman of the Year who scored the winning goal in overtime on Friday night against Niagara. First-year goalie Jared Moe is 2-0 this fall for Minnesota. The optimistic view is the Gophers have the coaching and talent to improve considerably over last season’s 18-16-4 record. The previous season the Gophers were 19-17-2.

Announced attendances for the first two home games of the season were 7,294 and 7,802 in Mariucci Arena at 3M, with a seating capacity of 10,000. The early season single game attendances should increase if the Gophers continue their successful start, but season tickets have declined from last year when the program also struggled at the box office, and so many empty seats were visible game after game.

According to figures provided by the U to Sports Headliners last week, the nonstudent season tickets total for this year is 4,610, compared to 5,060 for 2018-19. For this season 4,098 tickets, or almost 81 percent, are renewals. The student season ticket total is 1,387, versus 1,999 in 2018-2019.

For this season 1,520 mini-plan tickets have been sold, while the total last year was 1,669. Group tickets were 8,133 last season and now total 3,537.

Season tickets start at $500, the lowest price point for men’s hockey at the U since 1999-2000. The home schedule is attractive with all six Big Ten teams (Notre Dame, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, Penn State, Wisconsin), along with nonconference games against North Dakota, Minnesota Duluth, Minnesota State, Bemidji State, St. Cloud State and Niagara.

Calling it a “serious situation,” Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor deferred questions about the Chinese-NBA controversy to league commissioner Adam Silver when asked by Sports Headliners to comment. Taylor is on the NBA Board of Governors and familiar with the league’s lucrative dealings with the huge China market. He acknowledged meetings will be forthcoming to discuss recent American criticism about the authoritarian Chinese government.

A few years ago Taylor sold a minority stake in the Wolves to a Chinese businessman who he has since bought out. Taylor said “nothing bad happened” during the experience, but a situation arose where businessman Lizhang Jiang needed his money returned for non-basketball reasons. Taylor made Jiang the first Chinese minority owner of an NBA team and was comfortable in doing so because he already was doing business with the Chinese via his other companies.

“When we do business over there we have to be mindful how they do things,” Taylor said. “Even if we disagree, we have to be respectful to honor them if they consider it (something) a law… .It makes it difficult sometimes.”

Minnesota Twins ratings on Fox Sports North in primetime were up 65 percent this past season, the second largest increase in MLB after the San Diego Padres, according to a October 15 Forbes.com story.

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Downtown Safety Concerns Wolves Owner

Posted on October 16, 2019October 16, 2019 by David Shama

A week from Sunday night the NBA Timberwolves open their home regular season schedule at Target Center against the Miami Heat. Many of the Wolves’ customers will be concerned about safety in downtown Minneapolis for that game and the 40 other home dates to follow.

Patrons of city-owned Target Center and many other places downtown are alarmed by the shootings, beatings, harassment and other abhorrent behavior by thugs who roam downtown streets, say and do what they want, and threaten the well-being of defenseless men, women and children.

The environment in a once great downtown and admired city has changed with a population of troublemakers who brazenly do everything from panhandling to stealing to inflicting physical harm and property damage. A downtown proprietor told Sports Headliners about his building being spray painted with graffiti and his entrance doors frequently being urinated upon. Another person confirmed she and her workers are funneled off the street into a protected place to ensure their safe arrival.

Downtown business leaders, and the police, want more cops hired in the city, maybe even 400 additional law enforcement officers. The City Council, though, hasn’t approved additional hires and many skeptics don’t think it will. Critics say the Council just thinks differently. “They’re on another plane,” a former city official said.

Downtown businesses provide huge revenues to the city via commercial property taxes, and contributing significantly too are the customers who generate sales tax revenues. Without those monies the City Council would have a much different Minneapolis budget to work with. “They (the Council) are killing the Golden Goose,” the source quoted above said.

Glen Taylor has owned the Timberwolves for about 25 years and he has seen the deterioration of downtown. “The safety of our fans downtown at night is of the utmost importance for us,” he told Sports Headliners. “Not to have the proper law enforcement people out there to at least discourage any bad things to happen is just the wrong way to go. I hope the City Council will get in line and help support this idea (of) getting more law enforcement downtown for not only us but for all the events down there.”

Taylor is knowledgeable about his customer base, including families with young children. They may think twice about attending a Wolves game. Perception is enough to frighten fans, even if they haven’t been traumatized by past experiences. Taylor said, “…It just keeps them from coming downtown because they’re frightened that it (an incident) might happen to them.”

Worth Noting

Taylor’s other team, the WNBA Lynx, is done with its season and made the playoffs for a ninth consecutive year. He said the club again was financially profitable, although not as much as in the past when the Lynx had deep playoff runs.

All-Pro forward Maya Moore took a sabbatical and didn’t play last season. What about next year? “I don’t have any knowledge of what her decision is going to be,” Taylor said.

Golden Gophers redshirt junior forward Eric Curry, who suffered a season-ending knee injury last week, will have surgery next week, per an announcement this morning from basketball coach Richard Pitino.

In a couple of “mop-up” situations, including in the fourth quarter last Saturday night when the Golden Gophers had a 34-7 lead over Nebraska, coach P.J. Fleck has not used freshmen backup quarterbacks Jacob Clark and Cole Kramer. By doing so Fleck preserves the option of being able to use either, or both, for up to four games and still preserve their redshirt status if they have to replace starter Tanner Morgan because of injury or illness.

Morgan ranks No. 4 nationally in passing efficiency, while running back Rodney Smith is ninth in rushing yards per game (112.5) and 14th in all-purpose yards (134.33). Minnesota ranks 10th in the country in fewest penalties at 4.50 per game, and No. 12 in time of possession, 33:33.

Fleck said on his KFAN Radio show Tuesday that Gophers offensive tackle Daniel Faalele, who missed last Saturday’s game against Nebraska, was back at practice. He also said quarterback Zack Annexstad, last year’s early season starter, was not wearing a protective boot at practice, and possibly could play before year’s end. He had foot surgery in August.

Twin Cities native Amanda DeKanick, a graduate of Irondale High School, is the first female full-time athletic trainer in Vikings history.

If coach Mike Mahlen’s Verndale team defeats Rothsay Wednesday night, he becomes the first Minnesota prep football coach to achieve 400 career wins. Mahlen, 399-123-3, is in his 51st season at Verndale (about 150 miles northwest of Minneapolis) where he has spent his entire head coaching career. He can become the 18th active high school football coach in the country with 400 or more career wins. The national all-time high school career wins leader is John McKissick from Summerville High School (South Carolina), with a career record of 621-156-13.

Yom Kippur was last week and Minneapolis attorney Marshall Tanick authored an article for the October 4 American Jewish World regarding Jewish athletes who chose not to play on the sacred holiday. Tanick recalled that Dodgers’ superstar pitcher Sandy Koufax sat out the October 6 opening World Series game in 1965 against the Twins at Metropolitan Stadium. In 1967 Gophers All-American defensive end Bob Stein chose not to play when his team’s game against Illinois came on a Yom Kippur Saturday.

Quoting Wild owner Craig Leipold via email: “The NHL scheduler in NY was hard on the Wild this year by starting the season with 4 of 5 games on the road. Tough way to start the year.”

Birthday wishes to classy Fred Hoiberg, the former Timberwolves player and executive, who turned 47 on Tuesday. Hoiberg, now head men’s basketball coach at Nebraska, has twice had open-heart surgery and worn a pacemaker for years.

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Don’t Expect Stefon Diggs Trade Now

Posted on October 14, 2019October 14, 2019 by David Shama

The NFL trade deadline is October 29 but there seems zero chance the Vikings will move Stefon Diggs between now and then. Diggs has been mentioned nationally in trade rumors as recently as yesterday when he had 167 receiving yards and three touchdown receptions in the Vikings’ 38-20 win over the Eagles.

Diggs created controversy by skipping practices and meetings earlier this month, and was reportedly fined more than $200,000. The fifth-year wide receiver wanted to be a bigger part of an offense that was struggling with its passing game. Maybe his disgruntlement prompted opening things up the last two Sundays, including yesterday when Diggs not only caught seven passes (he dropped two) but ran the ball twice for 18 yards.

Before Sunday’s win Billswire.usatoday.com posted a story saying Good Morning Football Weekend host Michael Robinson speculated a Diggs trade was the most likely involving an NFL star before the October 29 deadline. The 4-1 Bills are chasing the 6-0 Patriots in the AFC East Division.

“They need another number one receiver,” Robinson said. “Zay Jones (wide receiver traded to the Raiders) has just got out of there. So I’m telling you, go get Stefon Diggs. He could be the piece, the secret piece to beat the New England Patriots.”

But six games into the season the Vikings seem too committed to their roster to shake things up by trading Diggs. With Super Bowl ambitions and coming off a failed season in 2018, they want to give quarterback Kirk Cousins the best and most familiar personnel possible to make the offense successful. Cousins was unfamiliar with Vikings receivers in his first season a year ago but now can take advantage of the knowledge he has about Diggs and others. That’s a comfort for the inconsistent Cousins.

Diggs is talented and experienced, and forms a big-play threat with Adam Thielen, the team’s other dangerous wide receiver. The Vikings, though, aren’t deep at WR and that’s another reason why a trade during the season makes no sense given Minnesota’s commitment to win now.

Worth Noting

Donald Trump made no mention of Minnesota sports teams or celebrities including Cousins (the two spoke a week ago Sunday) when in Minneapolis Thursday night for a campaign re-election rally, but when the President was in Lake Charles, Louisiana the next evening he was touting the undefeated LSU Tigers and quarterback Joe Burrow.

The unseasonably inclement weather for Saturday night’s Minnesota-Nebraska game might have prompted a few Golden Gophers football historians to recall the late October upset of 10th ranked USC at old Memorial Stadium in 1955. Played in an October 25 snowstorm, the Californians acted like they had never seen snow (and many had not) and couldn’t wait to fly home. A mediocre Gophers team that won just three games all season, took care of the chilly and wet Trojans.

Gophers senior linebacker Kamal Martin was named Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week today for his 15 tackles performance in Minnesota’s win over Nebraska. He had six solo tackles for the 6-0 Gophers who are now ranked No. 20 nationally in both the A.P. and Coaches polls.

Former Gophers basketball captain Paul Presthus, now retired from the financial industry, is a starter at Braemar Golf Course in Edina. He only played 27 holes this season because of a torn Achilles suffered last October. Presthus and wife Linda celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary September 20.

Lindy’s college basketball magazine lists the top 150 players in the nation with Duke’s Tre Jones, the former state Mr. Basketball from Apple Valley, at No. 4. Another Minnesotan, McKinley Wright from Champlin Park and now at Colorado, ranks No. 10.

The state’s 2019 Mr. Basketball, Matthew Hurt from Rochester John Marshall, is preparing for his freshman year at Duke and Lindy’s ranks him No. 59 on its 150 list. “More than capable of leading the Blue Devils in scoring this year,” Lindy’s says.

No Gophers made the list, although Minnesota natives and sophomores Daniel Oturu and Gabe Kalscheur could be deserving of such recognition by next March.

The state’s pipeline of current top prep players includes Minnehaha super talents Jalen Suggs (class of 2020) and Chet Holmgren (2021). Both had recent visits to Gonzaga, with speculation the Spokane, Washington school could be the college choice for Suggs.

Meanwhile the Star Tribune is reporting Minnesota coach Richard Pitino might receive a verbal commitment today from four-star Brewster Academy guard Jamal Mashburn Jr.

Lindy’s preseason top 25 of women’s teams includes Minnesota at No. 18. The Big Ten Conference schools ahead of the Gophers are No. 5 Maryland and No. 15 Michigan State.

Street & Smith’s college basketball magazine refers to Hopkins superstar Paige Bueckers as the “nation’s top-rated player” and has her headlining its first team of high school All-Americans.

Former Timberwolves player Mark Madsen is in his first season of coaching at Utah Valley.

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