David Shama's Minnesota Sports Headliners

Could Izzo be Next Wolves Coach?

Posted on April 18, 2016April 18, 2016 by David Shama

A sports industry source told Sports Headliners Tom Izzo has been contacted about the vacancy created last week with the dismissal of Timberwolves interim head coach Sam Mitchell. Izzo, 61, is one of college basketball’s icons because he has coached Michigan State to a Big Ten record 19-straight NCAA Tournaments including seven Final Fours and a national title.

Izzo came to Michigan State as a part-time assistant coach in 1983. He has been MSU’s head coach since the 1995-1996 season and earlier this month was elected to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. NBA teams, including the Cavaliers and Pistons, have reportedly flirted with hiring him previously.

Flip Saunders (Photo courtesy of Minnesota Timberwolves).

It’s believed the Wolves were also one of those teams two years ago. The late Flip Saunders, as the franchise’s president of basketball operations, was looking for a coach to succeed Rick Adelman in the spring of 2014. Saunders and Izzo were buddies, and it’s possible Izzo may have been offered the Wolves job. Ultimately Saunders made himself coach and continued in that role and as the franchise’s basketball boss until his death last fall.

Jim Dutcher coached Saunders with the Gophers. He said Saunders and Izzo became close friends years ago. “He (Izzo) read scripture at Flip’s memorial service,” Dutcher remembered.

Izzo is a highly likeable personality and is known for having a big heart. A native of Iron Mountain, Michigan who attended college at Northern Michigan, Izzo has loved mentoring young players and shown unusual loyalty by staying so many years at MSU. Would he want a new career challenge at this stage of his life?

Maybe he would be drawn to Minneapolis by his relationship with Saunders. The opportunity to continue the work of his friend in changing the Wolves from a joke franchise to a place among the NBA’s elite could be rewarding for Izzo.

The Wolves’ coaching job is attractive, too, because of a young and talented nucleus of players that Saunders assembled. Led by forward Andrew Wiggins, last year’s NBA Rookie of the Year, and center Karl-Anthony Towns, a lock to win the same award this year, the Wolves have a roster that still needs more playing experience. That roster also needs a few personnel changes and superior coaching to move toward division, conference and—possibly one day—Minneapolis’s first NBA championship since the Lakers won it all in 1954.

Indications are Wolves owner Glen Taylor is ready to spend significant money to hire a power coach. The source referred to in the opening paragraph said three other well-known names have already been contacted about the vacancy—Scott Brooks, Dave Joerger and Tom Thibodeau.

Brooks and Thibodeau have ties to the late Bill Musselman, the Wolves first coach. Brooks played for Musselman in the early 1990s while Thibodeau was an assistant during that period. Brooks was head coach of the Thunder until last year and successfully helped develop a young roster in Oklahoma City. Thibodeau was dismissed as the Bulls’ head coach last year after wowing the NBA with his defensive tutoring—a skill set that has to be on the to-do list of Wolves players. Joerger, currently the Grizzlies head coach, is a Minnesota native and it’s believed Saunders and Taylor were interested in hiring him two years ago.

The Wolves leadership is influx. General manager Milt Newton, who held that title under Saunders, now has more basketball personnel power but Taylor told Sports Headliners a couple weeks ago his GM is being evaluated too. A source said the Wolves are open to a structure like they had when Saunders carried the titles of both coach and president of basketball operations.

Perhaps Taylor decided awhile ago to fire Mitchell. In his interview with Sports Headliners, Taylor offered few words of praise about Mitchell who had been an assistant under Saunders.

The Wolves are receiving assistance on their coaching and front office review from search firm Korn Ferry.

Worth Noting

Ron Gardenhire has been hired as a special assistant to general manager Terry Ryan. The Twins made the announcement this afternoon that Gardenhire, who managed the team before being replaced by Paul Moltior after the 2014 season, will be a roving instructor and evaluator in the club’s minor league system.

Three sources told Sports Headliners Gary Trent Jr., the highly recruited Apple Valley High School shooting guard, is considering a prep school in 2016-2017. He has apparently visited at least two prep schools and one of them might be national basketball power Findlay Prep in Henderson, Nevada.

Trent, who is finishing his junior year at Apple Valley, may want to compete against better and stronger players in practice by playing for a prep school. Already considered a potential NBA prospect, Trent is physically strong and has superior strength compared to Eagle teammates.

“I feel a guess is he is headed out (from Apple Valley),” said a source who knows Trent.

Trent, who averaged 26.4 points per game last season, hasn’t selected a college but Ohio State or Duke could be his final choice, the source said.

Former Cooper High School star Rashad Vaughn transferred to Findlay for his senior year and then played one college season at UNLV. Vaughn, a shooting guard, was a first round pick in last year’s NBA Draft. Playing for the Bucks in 70 games this season, he averaged only 3.1 points while making 29.5 percent of his field goal attempts.

Casey O'Brien (photo courtesy of Abe Booker III, Stratman Photography). — Casey O’Brien (photo courtesy of Abe Booker III, Stratman Photography).

There were many recipients last night at the Minnesota Football Honors event at the Hilton Minneapolis but only one person received a standing ovation from the audience. Casey O’Brien, who twice has dramatically recovered from cancer, received the Courage Award at the event organized by the Minnesota Chapter of the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame.

The Cretin-Derham Hall junior has taken inspiration from football and hopes to be a co-captain and holder on the Raiders team next season. The Raiders new coach will be former Viking Brooks Bollinger who played collegiately at Wisconsin. Asked by emcee Frank Vascellaro for confirmation about Bollinger’s Badger roots, O’Brien quipped, “Sadly.”

At the event the Vikings announced the following 2015 award winners: Community Man of the Year Chad Greenway; Rookie of the Year Stefon Diggs; Offensive Player of the Year Adrian Peterson; Defensive Player of the Year Linval Joseph; and Special lTeams Player of the Year Adam Thielen. All of the players were present to accept awards except Peterson who was out of the country on a Starkey Hearing Foundation mission.

For a complete list of those honored last night, including scholar-athlete winners, see the March 16 Sports Headliners.

The Wild learns tonight whether home ice can help make a series out of Minnesota’s first round matchup with the Stars. In franchise history the Wild is 12-14 in Stanley Cup Playoff games at Xcel Energy Center including 7-4 the last two postseasons. The Wild trails Dallas 2-0 in the series and it looks like Minnesota will play again without injured leaders Zach Parise and Thomas Vanek.

Comments Welcome

‘Ballet Genes’ Gave Max Kepler Edge

Posted on April 15, 2016April 15, 2016 by David Shama

There are several interesting things about Max Kepler but the most important to the Twins’ future is whether he can become a regular in their lineup—perhaps even a star.

The 23-year-old rookie outfielder was called up from Triple-A Rochester last weekend to replace infielder-outfielder Danny Santana who went on the 15-day disabled list. Kepler played in Sunday’s game as a late inning defensive replacement in right field for Miguel Sano. It didn’t take long for Kepler to show his athleticism when he raced toward the fence and made a spectacular catch on a ball that could have gone for extra bases.

“To tell you the truth I don’t know how he caught that ball,” Jim Rantz told Sports Headliners. “It turned him around about three times, I think, and he caught that ball.”

Max Kepler (photo courtesy of Minnesota Twins).

Rantz is a retired Twins executive who was involved with personnel development when the club signed Kepler as a 16-year-old undrafted free agent in 2009. The Twins found Kepler in Germany and liked his potential so much they gave him a reported $800,000 signing bonus—believed at the time to be the largest ever for a European player.

The Twins were willing to take a gamble on a prospect from far away (going into the 2016 season only 43 German-born players had ever been major leaguers). “I think the genes were there,” Rantz said of the long and athletic Kepler. “His mother and father were ballet dancers.”

Parents Mark Rozycki and Kathy Kepler raised an athletic wunderkind who played baseball, soccer and tennis. He was a swimmer and skier too. He even earned a tennis scholarship to the Steffi Graff Tennis Foundation in Berlin. Along the way he has also learned to speak four languages including English.

As a 16-year-old, Kepler moved to Fort Myers with his mother. The Twins wanted him working out at their complex while he attended nearby Fort Myers High School. “He didn’t have much time socially to do anything because he went from school to the ballpark,” Rantz said.

Kepler hit .322 with 32 doubles, 13 triples, nine home runs and 71 RBI in 112 games at Double-A Chattanooga last season. He was the Southern League MVP during what was his most impressive of six minor league seasons. He entered this year ranked near the top among Twins’ minor league prospects, and Baseball America said his strike-zone discipline was tops in the farm system.

Kepler, 6-4 and about 205 pounds, has played first base in the minors but he has transitioned to the outfield where he continues to be an intriguing fielding and hitting prospect. “He made himself into a pretty good defensive player,” Rantz said. “He’s got that kind of bat that he’s going to hit for average and show a little power at times. He’s got some versatility. He can play the outfield, he can play first base. He’s just a good all-around athlete.”

Manager Paul Molitor has started Kepler in one game so far, Wednesday night, when Kepler was 0-4 at the plate and played in right field. He might return to Rochester when Santana is healthy, and he may not be back in a Twins uniform for awhile, perhaps even next season. But Rantz expects Kepler will one day be a major league regular—maybe a star.

“I think so,” Rantz said. “I think he’s going to be for sure (at least) an average major league player.”

Minnesota is a state in which Germans are the largest ethnic group. Berlin-born Kepler might just make a second home here.

Worth Noting

The Wild, down 1-0 in its Stanley Cup Playoff series with the Stars, has a short turnaround after tomorrow night’s game two in Dallas. The team heads back to the Twin Cities and has scheduled an 11 a.m. practice Sunday at Xcel Energy Center.

Pete Najarian, the nationally-known investment guru and candidate for the Gophers’ athletic director position, speaks to the CORES luncheon group on Thursday, May 12 at the Knights of Columbus Hall in Bloomington, 1114 American Blvd. Najarian, a Minneapolis native, was a starting linebacker and captain of the 1985 Gophers. He was Academic All-Big Ten three times during his UM career. CORES is an acronym for coaches, officials, reporters, educators and sports fans. Reservations and more information are available by contacting Jim Dotseth, dotsethj@comcast.net.

Leave it to sports savant Dave Mona to come up with a startling comparison of Gophers and Purdue quarterbacks from the last 60 years. Mona researched back to 1956 and learned former Boilermakers quarterbacks—ranging from Len Dawson to Drew Brees—threw 1,340 touchdown passes as NFL/AFL players. Ex-Gophers have a total of five during the same period. Yes, five!

Minnesota’s Mike Hohensee threw four TD passes as a replacement player for the Bears during the NFL strike season of 1987. Gino Cappelletti, playing for the AFL Patriots, had one TD throw on a busted field goal attempt.

The Gophers’ total goes to six if Spergon Wynn is counted. Wynn played one season at Minnesota in 1996 when he attempted three of eight passes for no touchdowns, according to Sports-reference.com. Wynn, who transferred to Southwest Texas State, later played for the Vikings and threw the only NFL touchdown pass of his career for them, according to Wikipedia.com.

James Johannesson, the reserve redshirt freshman running back from Fargo who surprised fans at the Gophers Spring Game by rushing for 130 yards, comes from a football family. His father James played at Jamestown College while his uncle Jon Norstog played at North Dakota State. Johannesson is probably on anyone’s list of most improved Gophers coming out of spring practices.

Reed Larson, Bob Paradise and others will roast the late Herb Brooks for the Old-Timers Hockey Association during the evening of April 26 at the Prom Center in Oakdale. The Minnesota Minute Men will roast Jerry Kill at a noon lunch May 6 at Jax Café. Jim Carter, Joel Maturi and Ron Stolski will be among those roasting the former Gophers football coach. Dick Jonckowski will emcee both roasts.

Last Monday’s column about Gophers sports and the frustrations of boosters prompted more responses than any other since this website began in 2006. Nearly all responses expressed strong concern about the University of Minnesota’s commitment to athletics.

Baseball great Pete Rose, who was a celebrity guest at the Twin Cities’ Tapemark Charity Pro-Am years ago and still dreams of being enshrined in Cooperstown, turned 75 yesterday.

Comments Welcome

Stakes High for Wild in Playoffs

Posted on April 13, 2016April 13, 2016 by David Shama

The Wild opens its Stanley Cup first round playoff series with the Stars tomorrow night in Dallas—and it looks like more than the usual postseason pressure is on Minnesota.

Critical evaluations and judgments about the Wild appear probable whenever this spring’s playoffs end. The franchise that initially began with the 2000-2001 season has never won its way into the Stanley Cup Finals and only once made the conference finals. Although the Wild has qualified for the playoffs each of the last four years, Minnesota didn’t advance beyond the second round.

General manager Chuck Fletcher and new coach John Torchetti may need an impressive stretch of playoff hockey by their team to further secure their positions. Fletcher has been the franchise’s general manager since 2009 and the Wild hasn’t been able to make a deep playoff run during that time. Twice the club didn’t make the playoffs.

Fletcher has hired three coaches during his era—Todd Richards, Mike Yeo and Torchetti. Yeo was dismissed in February when doubts prevailed about the team making the playoffs. Under Torchetti the club played well enough to just qualify for the postseason, but the inconsistency of play during 2015-2016 continued.

Torchetti’s job security could be tied to Fletcher. If Wild owner Craig Leipold decides to replace Fletcher, it’s certainly plausible the new GM will want another coach.

When the Wild is given a final report card after the playoffs, the players won’t avoid judgment either. There is speculation disgruntled players pushed Yeo out. If so, Leipold can ask how did his personnel respond to Torchetti?

Torchetti hasn’t hesitated to be direct with his players, letting them know what he thinks and sometimes telling them they need to just watch and learn. Whether this team has the skills and chemistry to beat the Stars will be interesting. Dallas won the Central Division with 109 points. Minnesota, with 87, had the fewest points of any Western Conference club qualifying for the playoffs and finished fifth in the seven team Central.

The Wild don’t have superstars but when Leiopold signed forward Zach Parise and defenseman Ryan Suter to $98 million deals in 2012 it raised expectations these two might do more for the franchise’s Stanley Cup ambitions than what’s happened so far. A playoff run where Parise and Suter have their best springs for the Wild will make fans feel the club has received more value from the expensive contracts. But Parise’s contribution toward that looks in doubt because of a back injury that will at least keep him from playing in the first two playoff games, according to numerous news reports.

There might not be a more worn out cliché in sports than a hot goalie can take a team deep in the playoffs. Goalie Devan Dubnyk reportedly signed a $26 million, six-year deal last summer to stay with Minnesota. Much will be expected of the 30-year-old Dubnyk whose regular season goals against average of 2.33 didn’t earn a spot among the NHL leaders but was certainly better than the league average of 2.51.

The franchise is increasing ticket prices for next season. Part of the fans’ perspective and attitude about those prices will be impacted by how the team performs. Customers will obviously feel better about the extra expense with a big playoff run.

Worth Noting

The Wild will have home playoff games against the Stars next Monday and Wednesday. Both are certain to be sellouts. The club has sold out 106 straight regular season games and all 26 playoff games in franchise history—with each postseason game surpassing 19,000 in attendance. The official seating capacity for games at Xcel Energy Center is 17,954. Standing-room-only tickets allow for additional capacity.

The franchise set a regular season home attendance record during 2015-2016 by averaging 19,062 fans per game. Thirty-five of the club’s 41 regular season home games drew over 19,000 fans.

The Twins announced this morning they have placed left-handed pitcher and All-Star closer Glen Perkins on the 15-day disabled list with a left posterior shoulder strain, retroactive to April 11. To replace Perkins on the 25-man roster, the Twins have recalled left-handed pitcher Taylor Rogers from Triple-A Rochester. Rogers will make his major league debut with his first appearance—possibly tonight when the Twins play the White Sox at Target Field. He has a career minor league record of 37-28 with a 3.27 ERA.

The Twins, Rod Carew and the American Heart Association will promote the Heart of 29 Campaign at Target Field with a pregame ceremony tonight featuring heart disease survivors including Carew. Twins players will wear Heart of 29 patches on their red jerseys.

WCCO Radio Sports Huddle host Dave Mona and his wife Linda drove around Ramp A for 37 minutes searching for a parking space prior to Monday’s Twins opener at Target Field. Frustrated, they ultimately skipped the game and went home to watch on TV.

Bob Lurtsema presented a gold football to his old high school earlier this week. In recognition of the Super Bowl’s 50th anniversary, the NFL is providing players who participated in the games with gold footballs to give their high schools. Lurtsema, who played for Ottawa Hills High School in Grand Rapids, Michigan, was a defensive lineman on Vikings Super Bowl teams in the 1970s.

While in Michigan, Lurtsema also stopped at his college alma mater, Western Michigan in Kalamazoo. His Broncos jersey is on display in the team’s weight room.

Lurtsema is a believer in Teddy Bridgewater, the Vikings’ 23-year-old quarterback who starts his third NFL season next September. “The media is way too rough on him,” Lurtsema said.

Look for media reports about Gophers men’s basketball tonight and tomorrow after head coach Richard Pitino meets with journalists this afternoon to talk about the program’s offseason. Media will also watch player workouts.

The Lynx have two second round draft choices (No. 14 and 22 overall) and one third round (No. 35 overall) in tomorrow night’s WNBA Draft. ESPN2 will televise the first round starting at 6 p.m. Minneapolis time. ESPNU will televise the second and third rounds.

Former Gopher Rachel Banham, the 2016 Big Ten Player of the Year and the conference’s all-time leading scorer for women’s basketball, will be the No. 4 selection in the first round after being chosen by Connecticut, according to Bleacherreport.com’s mock draft. Draftsite.com predicts Banham will be the No. 5 selection by Dallas.

Comments Welcome