David Shama's Minnesota Sports Headliners

Perra Pushing for U No. 2 QB Spot

Posted on April 1, 2015April 1, 2015 by David Shama

As the Gophers move through their practices toward the April 11 Spring Game who is their No. 2 quarterback?

“If it was tomorrow it would be Chris (Streveler) because of the experience factor, but I think Chris would be the first one to tell you he’s gotta continue to perform,” offensive coordinator Matt Limegrover said last week. “It’s no secret that…Jacques Perra from Roseville really opened some eyes with some things he did—just being around the program and now in the spring. There’s a pretty good competition that’s developing there. I think Chris is still the No. 2 but I think Jacques is getting bigger and bigger in his rearview mirror.”

Mitch Leidner is a lock as the team’s No. 1 quarterback but injury or illness could force him to the sidelines during Minnesota’s 12-game schedule in 2015. Last fall Streveler, then a redshirt freshman, filled in for an injured Leidner. Streveler started the San Jose State game, rushing for 161 yards (third most ever for a Gophers quarterback) while completing one of seven passes.

Perra joined the program as a non-scholarship quarterback last year but didn’t play as a redshirt freshman. He did impress the coaches, and Limegrover described Perra as a more “natural thrower” than Streveler who is a gifted runner.

In spring practices so far Leidner has received more work with the team’s better offensive players. Not playing with a superior supporting group in practice makes it more difficult to fairly evaluate Streveler and Perra, Limegrover said. But Limegrover expects that to change as the Gophers move through their last six spring sessions.

Limegrover will then have a better report card on Streveler and Perra, but he already believes both can be starting Big Ten quarterbacks. Leidner will be a redshirt junior next season so he is one class ahead of Streveler and two in front of Perra. The future Gophers starting quarterback could be one of the two current backups.

Streveler is a scholarship player who was All-State his senior season at Marian Catholic in Woodstock, Illinois. His straight ahead speed is impressive and the best among the Gophers quarterbacks. Streveler, who in 2014 was Academic All-Big Ten, can make explosive gains on designed runs and scrambles from the pocket. While fans saw an unpolished passer last fall, he has made some good throws this spring and is a fierce competitor who will work to improve. Streveler is a leader, too, and last summer he and Leidner got players together for volunteer practices—something that impressed Limegrover.

Perra was All-State and the Minnesota Gatorade Player of the Year at Roseville High School where in his senior season he threw for over 3,100 yards and 35 touchdowns. “The great thing about Jacques is that I don’t know if he has a bad day.” Limegrover said. “There isn’t a whole lot that bothers him. Not a whole lot that phases him.”

If an observer just watched Perra, and didn’t see all the other things happening on a particular play, the person probably wouldn’t know what happened because the 19-year-old quarterback is so under control. “I think that part of his makeup is fantastic,” Limegrover said. “…This kid was put on this earth to play quarterback.”

Limegrover said incoming freshman Demry Croft could figure in the plan to determine the No. 2 quarterback. The Gophers tell all their new players not to assume they will redshirt and Limegrover is enthusiastic about the 6-5 quarterback from Boylan High School in Rockford, Illinois.

“We feel like the sky’s the limit for him,” Limegrover said. “We feel like he’s a kid that at some point might overtake these two (Streveler and Perra). That’s what you try and do every year. You’re trying to recruit to beat out the ones that you already have in the program—and that’s how you go from 3-9, to 6-6 (records). If you get to that point, where you’re doing that every year, that’s when special things happen.”

Why does Limegrover talk about Croft having so much potential?”

“We saw that he had a lot of athletic ability when we saw his film as a junior,” the coach said. “Then being able to see him live at camp and watch him throw the football, and how he approached camp and being coached, and how he went about his business, and his physical tools.

“There’s a maturity there. He’s not your typical dimply faced 17-year-old kid. There was kind of a presence about him, which you really like in your quarterback.”

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McEnroe & Hawk-Eye Coming to Town

Posted on April 1, 2015April 1, 2015 by David Shama

James Blake, Michael Chang, John McEnroe and Andy Roddick are scheduled to play in the PowerShare Series Tennis Champions Shootout at Target Center on April 29. Minneapolis is part of a 12-city tour involving former ATP Tour stars. In each city there are three one-set matches (semifinals and finals) to determine a winner and accumulate points.

The tour has made only a couple of stops so far and Roddick is currently second in points with 400, trailing Mark Philippoussis who has 600. Blake is fifth in the rankings with 200 points.

At 56, McEnroe is the oldest of the foursome appearing here. Chang, who lived for awhile as a child in St. Paul, is 43 and the next oldest. “In my 20s if you told me I would be doing this, I would have said you’re crazy,” McEnroe said.

McEnroe won the PowerShare Series championship last year with 1,600 points and four event titles. His enthusiasm to compete and excel was evident during a telephone conference call with reporters last week. He credited playing tennis and having a consistent workout routine with helping him to remain active and competitive.

What about nutrition? “I am certainly aware of what I am eating but I don’t worry about that now,” McEnroe said. “Life is short. At this stage…there’s times I would indulge a little bit.”

The PowerShare series is using an electronic system for line calls. Players are allowed challenges and this is an innovation that McEnroe—who probably barked at more linesmen than anyone in tennis history—certainly welcomes. “I haven’t missed a call in 35 years,” he joked.

At Target Center there will only be Johnny Mac’s opponent, the umpire and the Hawk-Eye technology—no linesmen. There will be no disputing a human’s judgment, or McEnroe invoking his infamous “You cannot be serious” sarcasm to some cowering soul.

With Hawk-Eye in place years ago, McEnroe could have eliminated a lot of tirades. “I believe I would have been a better player and that my results would have been better because I would have spent far less time wasting energy on that and more time focusing on the actual match, and just doing what I needed to do, and that would have allowed me, I believe, to be 15 percent better than I was,” he said.

McEnroe has a tennis history in Minneapolis. His last year playing for the U.S. Davis Cup team was 1992 and Target Center hosted the semifinals against Sweden. The U.S. advanced to the finals and McEnroe’s appearance in Minneapolis was his second to last Davis Cup competition. “That was pretty emotional,” he said about playing here.

In the 1980s he played an exhibition match at Met Center against Bjorn Borg who felt the love from the state’s Scandinavian population. But McEnroe said the crowd was appreciative of him too and that energy helped him perform. He will welcome more of the same on April 29.

McEnroe has spent a lifetime playing, watching and commenting on tennis. Who does he regard as the game’s greatest players ever?

Roger Federer, Rod Laver, Rafael Nadal and Pete Sampras are his top four but he has a lot of admiration for Novak Djokovic who is currently ranked No. 1 in the world. “He’s like a human backboard,” McEnroe said. “He’s like a machine almost now, he’s so well prepared.”

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Dubnyk and Wild Look at Big Stage

Posted on March 30, 2015March 30, 2015 by David Shama

What an interesting spring this will be for the Wild and “Superman” goalie Devan Dubnyk.

The Wild has six regular season games remaining before the Stanley Cup playoffs begin. A franchise with shaky playoff ambitions a few months ago, the Wild has made a remarkable recovery since acquiring Dubnyk in a trade. The man wearing a “Wild cape” has won 26 times in 34 games for Minnesota. The NHL’s hottest team and hottest goalie look like they will not only play in the postseason, but be a favorite for a deep run.

In the playoffs a superb goalie can be even more valuable than during the regular season. With a short series, it’s win or start relaxing on the golf course. The Wild and their fans hope they see the same goalie in the playoffs they’ve watched with awe in January, February and March.

That’s not a guarantee, though. Despite Dubnyk’s superhero performance so far he is (as far as we know) human. In his NHL career with three other clubs he didn’t win or compile the same impressive goals against average (1.70) and save percentages (.939) as with the Wild. A change in goaltending technique that better helps him track the puck receives at least partial credit for the upgrade that puts Dubnyk among the league’s best goalies now.

Dubnyk’s salary, reportedly at $800,000, certainly doesn’t place him among the NHL’s top paid goalies. At 28, with five previous seasons in the league, he is a journeyman who has found sudden success, almost like a character in a Broadway play. Dubnyk turns 29 on May 4 and if the Wild are still in the playoffs and toying with the possibility of winning Minnesota’s first Stanley Cup ever, it will be a great script for the 6-foot-6 Canadian.

Dubnyk, who has led the Wild to five straight wins and 10 in a row on the road, is an unrestricted free agent after this season and unless he flops in the coming weeks he will command a huge pay upgrade. Not as much compensation as Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist’s $8.5 million per season (per Spotrac.com) but perhaps in the $4 million to $5 million range.

Those numbers are much more likely if Dubnyk doesn’t lose his kryptonite and the Wild at least make the Western Conference Finals, if not the Stanley Cup finals. An NHL title is a no-brainer for a long-term deal at major money.

Dubnyk is in his prime career years and 2015 could be his best and last chance to secure a max deal. Lundqvist is the league’s top paid goalie and six others make $6 million or more, according to Spotrac’s 2014 goalie salary rankings. If Dubynk is wowing the NHL as summer approaches, Wild general manager Chuck Fletcher will have competition in re-signing the goalie he aced with his trade last January, giving up a third round draft choice to the Coyotes.

If Dubnyk has the Wild in a bidding war, the team’s fans can feel some confidence about owner Craig Leipold’s willingness to open his wallet. Leipold wants to win and he puts that in writing every time he signs the checks of Zach Parise and Ryan Suter, two players he signed to long-term $98 million deals in July of 2012.

The challenge for the Wild, though, is how to fit all the salaries on their roster together and stay near the league’s expected payroll cap of about $73 million. Part of the puzzle and challenge is there are other free agents beyond Dubnyk. One helpful move could be to buyout the contract of backup goalie Niklas Backstrom who reportedly is due $4 million for next season.

The summer of 2012 was interesting. This spring will have its own drama.

Worth Noting

In Sports Illustrated’s baseball preview issue last week the magazine included a story on Byron Buxton, saying he can “hit to all fields like Kirby Puckett, possesses the arm of Russell Wilson” and “is nearly as fast as Bo Jackson.” The 21- year-old center fielder is ranked No. 1 by Baseball Prospectus and MLB.com, according to the magazine, and the publication reports the much-hyped Twins prospect threw a 98 miles per hour fast ball in high school and has been timed in 3.9 seconds from home plate to first base.

The Minnesota Football Coaches Association has honored the O’Brien family including Gophers senior associate athletic director Dan O’Brien and his 15-year-old son Casey O’Brien with its Cal Stoll Award. Casey has recovered from bone cancer after an ordeal that included a seven hour operation and 24 rounds of chemotherapy. His support group includes his family and Gophers coach Jerry Kill who has praised the young man for his courage. The award is named after Stoll, the former Gophers football coach, and is given to someone who has overcome adversity.

The MFCA honored Dwight Lundeen, the only coach in Becker High School football history, as its Man of the Year on Saturday night. Lundeen coached Becker to 13 consecutive wins last year including the 4A state title.

The MFCA’s Minnesota Football Clinic had a record 1,263 registrations and 67 vendors last week. The clinic dates next year are March 31, April 1 and 2.

Joe Haeg, the 6-6, 300-pound former Brainerd High School player who walked on at North Dakota State and is now an All-American, has the interest of pro scouts and might be selected as an offensive tackle in the early rounds of the 2016 NFL Draft. He will be a senior for the Bison this fall.

Greg Kleven reported in the March 26 Eden Prairie Sun Current that Eden Prairie High School safety and linebacker Blake Cashman will be a preferred walk-on with the Gophers this summer. Kleven wrote that Cashman turned down Division I offers from Iowa State and North Dakota State, hoping to earn a scholarship at Minnesota.

Gophers basketball coach Richard Pitino signed four recruits late last year for his 2015 incoming class this summer. He has three more scholarships available, although not all of them maybe used this spring. “We believe we will have a top-25 recruiting class when it’s all said and done,” Pitino wrote on his Gophersports.com blog last week.

Big Ten women’s basketball drew a record total of more than 869,000 fans for the home games of its 14 conference teams this past season. The Gophers, with an average of 3,846, finished 10th in average home attendance.

The women’s WCHA is represented by 40 current or former players at the International Ice Hockey Federation World Championships that started last Saturday and continues through April 4 in Malmö, Sweden. Seventeen of the women played during the 2014-15 season, while 23 are WCHA alumnae. The list includes three Gophers from the 2015 national championship team: Hannah Brandt, Dani Cameranesi and Lee Stecklein.

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