David Shama's Minnesota Sports Headliners

Flip’s Tweets Draw Attention to Gophers

Posted on March 15, 2013March 15, 2013 by David Shama

What’s up with Flip Saunders’ tweets yesterday during and after the Gophers game?

The former Gophers guard and assistant coach had plenty to say about Minnesota’s performance including sharing his expertise on lack of execution. Saunders wasn’t critical of individuals but his passion for the Gophers was obvious.

Was it all the emotion of a U alum? Or was it more? Flip followers think the unemployed former NBA coach has interest in the Gophers if there is a job opening.

His resume is loaded with pluses including popularity with the fan base, Gophers donors and media. And this is one guy that doesn’t come with a costly buyout involving his former employer. During a year of coaching unemployment Saunders has stayed close to basketball on the college and pro levels, and even the Minnesota high school scene.

Meanwhile, the Gophers will learn on Sunday if they can back their way into an NCAA Tournament invitation after losing eight of their last 11 games and turning up the heat on embattled coach Tubby Smith. The Gophers, 20-12 after losing 51-49 to Illinois in the Big Ten Tournament yesterday, are still a likely selection for the NCAA Tournament because of the difficult schedule the team has played and its high RPI ranking.

But if the perspective is about recent results and appearances, this is a team that has doused plenty of public enthusiasm concerning postseason play. Minnesota has lost three consecutive games and only won five times since January 9 when the Gophers were 15-1. And the way Minnesota has often played has to cause doubt among the players and coach.

Smith was asked before yesterday’s game if the Gophers might have renewed energy with the regular season over and about to open play in the Big Ten Tournament. “That’s a good question,” Smith said on 1500 ESPN. “This team has been hard to read all year long. I would like to think so. We’ve got a lot to play for. …But again, we’ve had many opportunities before.”

Minnesota said no to its latest opportunity, displaying both energy and focus that faded in and out. In a 49-49 tie and possession of the ball with about 16 seconds remaining in the game, the Gophers turned the ball over when guard Austin Hollins stepped out of bounds. Illinois’ Brandon Paul then made a jump shot as the game ended to defeat Minnesota.

The Gophers self-destructed at the end just as they had earlier in the game and so many times during the last two months. The team’s turnovers prompted BTN play-by-play man Gus Johnson to say early in the second half: “Minnesota just looks sloppy from top to bottom.”

Eleven first half turnovers (19 total yesterday) played a significant role in changing an early 7-2 Minnesota lead into the Illini pushing ahead 19-12 with about six minutes remaining in the period. Austin Hollins had scored five of the first seven points in the first half and was moving effectively without the ball. Center Trevor Mbakwe was a brute on the boards. But after seven minutes both players were on the bench with two personals each.

Hollins and Mbakwe were grounded for the rest of the half. Their presence almost certainly would have lifted a team that has often been in free fall in past weeks, and one that was stumbling again yesterday. Why not risk the possibility of more fouls on either or both players?

Instead the Gophers played without Mbawke and Hollins while missing defensive assignments that twice allowed Illini players to race down the lane without being guarded. Offensively, Minnesota was even more of a mess in the first half, often passing up shots, and playing indecisively with ineffective player and ball movement.

The Gophers reverted to other bad habits including botched efforts to inbound the ball underneath the basket or on the sideline. An early second half pass thrown by guard Joe Coleman was intercepted and resulted in a three-point goal by Illinois that slowed Minnesota’s momentum.

Behind the scoring of Mbawke, Austin Hollins and point guard Andre Hollins the Gophers made a comeback in the second half after trailing 25-16 at halftime. The Gophers built leads by as many as five points.

But Minnesota couldn’t’ score a field goal in the last five minutes and wasted an opportunity to win. The defeat adds to the criticism directed at Smith who in six years has yet to produce a winning record during the Big Ten regular season, or win an NCAA Tournament game.

But he is likely to have an opportunity to win his first “Big Dance” game next week.

Worth Noting

Don’t be surprised if in a couple of years beer is sold to the public at Williams Arena and Mariucci Arena, following the trend started last fall at TCF Bank Stadium. A majority of state legislative leaders might support the additional beer sales and the change will increase athletic department revenues.

Also ahead is a likely Big Ten schedule where each conference football team plays nine or 10 league games. A nine game schedule means in alternate years a school plays four or five home conference games.

Asked on WCCO Radio Wednesday morning about the future of basketball coach Tubby Smith, Gophers athletic director Norwood Teague said Smith is “ensconced” in his work.

New University of Tennessee football coach Butch Jones will speak at the Minnesota Football Clinic on Thursday, April 4 at the DoubleTree Hotel in St. Louis Park. North Dakota State national championship coach Craig Bohl will also speak on Thursday as part of the three-day clinic. Coaches interesting in registering for the clinic can Google Minnesota Football Clinic and find the link for more information.

The Vikings will choose Tennessee wide receiver Cordarrelle Patterson with the No. 23 pick in the first round of the NFL draft next month, according to Joe Dove’s Bleacherreport.com NFL mock draft posted on Wednesday. At No. 25, using the first round pick acquired in the Percy Harvin trade with the Seahawks, the Vikings will select Kansas State inside linebacker Arthur Brown.

Other names of wide receivers you may see on mock draft listings are DeAndre Hopkins, Clemson; Keenan Allen, California; and Tavon Austin, West Virginia.

The Chicago Tribune’s Dan Pompei, writing for a March 9 online story about Marc Trestman, points out how fickle the coaching profession can be. Trestman, the former Gophers quarterback and Vikings assistant coach, has been fired seven times during his pro and college coaching career. At 57 he has his first NFL head coaching job with the Bears. In the story Trestman talks about how he values players as more than athletes.

Tommy Hannon — the St. Thomas All-MIAC and All-Region senior center who has already played for one Division III Tommies national championship team and is trying to win another — could have given up on his basketball career after being cut from the Cretin-Derham Hall team as a junior.

“I was so out of shape then,” Hannon said. “I was 6-foot-2 and weighed about 235. After I was cut from the team as a junior, I played intramurals. I also started working out a lot, and got myself in shape. I lost 35 pounds or so and grew three or four inches.”

Hannon, now 6-foot-7, 210, keeps a picture in his wallet from his junior year to “remind me where I once was.” Hannon and his teammates play Calvin (Michigan) at home on Saturday starting at 7 p.m. The matchup will be a Sweet 16 Division III playoff game between the 28-1 Tommies and 26-3 Calvin.

Timberwolves center Nikola Pekovic will sign autographs on Sunday, April 14 from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. at the Valley West Mall in Bloomington. The Sports Card Show is a two-day event (April 13-14) and is organized by the Twin Cities Sports Collectors Club. Club members receive a discount on autographs.

Fox Sports North will televise the Twins-Red Sox game beginning at 6 p.m. Minneapolis time tonight. Other Fox North Sports telecasts from spring training will be March 21, 23, 24, 25 and 28.

It’s been a winning sports winter at Edina High School where the boys’ hockey team won an 11^th state title, the girls’ hockey team placed third in the state tourney, the boys’ swimming team finished second at state, and the boys’ basketball team has advanced to next week’s state tournament.

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Tourney Authority Not Ruling U Out

Posted on March 13, 2013March 13, 2013 by David Shama

Sources, including a former member of the NCAA Tournament selection committee, believe the Gophers might need a win in this week’s Big Ten Tournament to be included in the NCAA’s field of 68 teams.

McKinley Boston, the former Gophers athletic director, served on the selection committee for several years. During an interview with Sports Headliners, he labeled the Gophers, 20-11 overall and 8-10 during the Big Ten regular season, a “bubble team.”

The Gophers have stunned their followers after a 15-1 start that included nonconference wins over Memphis, Stanford and Florida State, and Big Ten Conference victories in their first three league games against Michigan State and Northwestern at home and Illinois on the road. Since January 9, Minnesota has won five games, losing 10. The Gophers are 4-6 in their last 10 games, including two consecutive losses. Their league road record is 1-8.

Boston, now athletic director at New Mexico State, was asked about how the selection committee views teams that stumble late in the season. “Well, that was one of the things that the committee looked at. How was your record in the last 10 games? Were you hot? Were you faltering?

“It’s not a good thing that they’re not finishing strong (the Gophers), but at the same time you can’t dismiss the strength of the league this year. That’s going to carry a lot of weight.”

Many authorities who rank college basketball conferences — like Teamrankings.com — have the Big Ten No. 1. The league has four teams in the A.P. top 10 and five in the top 25 this week.

And then as every “March Madness” expert knows, the selection committee uses the Ratings Percentage Index (the famous RPI) as prime criteria in deciding who is invited to the NCAA Tournament and who is rejected. There are five Big Ten teams among the top 25 in the latest RPI listings from CBSsports.com including the Gophers at No. 24. Statistically, Minnesota’s strength of schedule ranks near the top nationally.

Although Minnesota finished in a three-way tie for seventh place in the Big Ten, the Gophers are ahead in the RPI rankings of No. 41 Wisconsin even though the Badgers were 12-6 in league games and tied for fourth in the standings. Illinois, a team that tied the Gophers along with Purdue for seventh place in the Big Ten, has a No. 43 ranking.

The Illini, the No. 8 Big Ten Tournament seed, and the Gophers, the No. 9 seed, split two games during the regular season. Minnesota won at Illinois, 84-67, while the Illini were winners in Minneapolis, 57-53.

It’s possible — perhaps even likely — that regardless of who wins tomorrow’s game, both Illinois and Minnesota will make the tournament. Eamonn Brennan, writing yesterday for ESPN.com, believes both schools probably will be invited when the tourney selections are announced on Sunday. “Odds are the Gophers will back their way into this thing. But it’s not like they’ve been convincing in doing so,” he wrote.

Worth Noting

Gophers coach Tubby Smith wasn’t happy with his defense in 53-51 and 89-73 road losses to Nebraska and Purdue last week. “This is probably the worst defensive team we’ve had, to be honest with you,” Smith said on Saturday during his postgame show on 1500 ESPN. “That’s disappointing — to have five seniors and still have the worst defensive team we’ve had.”

Smith has coached the Gophers for six seasons and his regular season Big Ten record is 46-62. This season’s seventh place finish in the league standings follows 10^th and 9^th place finishes the two previous years. None of his teams have placed higher than sixth in the Big Ten or won more than nine games in a league season.

Sid Hartman, the Star Tribune and WCCO Radio personality, has defended Smith and said the coach won’t be let go after this season. But Hartman said on WUCW’s “Sports Show” on Sunday night that Smith needs to have a winning team next season.

The name often speculated upon as Smith’s successor is VCU’s Shaka Smart but he may prefer to wait for an opening at one of the nation’s premier programs. His name is rumored with the job at UCLA, arguably still college basketball’s most storied program.

This is the 75^th year of the men’s NCAA Basketball Tournament. Sports Illustrated, in its March 6 issue, picked the 10 players the magazine believes were the “best performers” in tourney history: Lew Alcindor was No. 1 followed by Bill Walton, Bill Russell, Oscar Robertson, Larry Bird, Wilt Chamberlain, Bill Bradley, Magic Johnson, Christian Laettner and Jerry West.

Former Gophers athletic director McKinley Boston, now AD at New Mexico State, expects the 2013 Aggies football team to be better than the group that defeated Minnesota, 28-21, at TCF Bank Stadium in 2011. Boston said the Aggies have “more overall team speed” than the team that upset Minnesota two years ago.

The Aggies will open their season on August 31 at Texas before hosting the Gophers on September 7. Boston didn’t have the exact figure but believes his school will receive about $900,000 for playing the Longhorns.

Kickoff time for the Gophers game in Las Cruces will be 6 p.m. (daylight Mountain time). Boston predicted temperatures in the ”mid-90s” and possible rain.

The Aggies are a college football independent now and have a home game next season against Boston College. Former Gopher player DeWayne Walker left his job in January as New Mexico State’s head coach to become an assistant with the NFL Jaguars. Ex-Kent State head coach Doug Martin, who was offensive coordinator in the Aggies’ win in Minneapolis, is now head coach at New Mexico State.

A story yesterday on the International Business Times website listed the Seahawks — following the Percy Harvin trade with the Vikings — as 8-1 favorites to win the 2014 Super Bowl. The Patriots are 6-1, 49ers 7-1 and Broncos 8-1 favorites while the Vikings are 50-1.

Rookie Aaron Hicks, who already has Twins fans excited to see him during the regular season as the team’s new center fielder, leads the club in spring training home runs with four although he never hit more than 13 in five minor league seasons. Hicks, who is hitting .371 this spring and also leads in RBI with 13, led all Twins minor leaguers last season in stolen bases with 32 playing for New Britain.

Tom Windle, the former Osseo all-stater who last Saturday threw the first nine inning no-hitter for the Gophers since 1933, was an academic All-Big Ten choice last season as a sophomore. During his freshman season he made the Big Ten All-Tournament team after pitching eight scoreless innings and striking out six.

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At 93 Hartman Still Chases the News

Posted on March 11, 2013March 11, 2013 by David Shama

Sid Hartman started chasing sports news for a Minneapolis newspaper in 1944.

Who could have predicted that 69 years later he would still be sniffing around locker rooms for a scoop?

Hartman’s 93^rd birthday will be Friday. He writes a sports column four times per week for the Star Tribune. His comments are heard three times each morning Monday-Friday on WCCO Radio and on Sundays the station airs the Sports Huddle program with Hartman and Dave Mona.

To the outside world, sports journalism looks like a cushy job. But sportswriting and broadcasting involve long hours and weekend assignments. Journalists work under the pressure of deadlines, and in today’s Internet and social media world there’s a constant appetite for news.

In this town many of the sports reporters are in their 20s, 30s and 40s. Only a few are in their 60s and nobody approaches Hartman’s age. At 93 he could be the great grandfather of reporters he competes against.

Where does the drive come from to be working like this seven years away from being 100 years old? What motivates Hartman to attend as many or more games, practices and news conference as most anybody in Minnesota? And when there are no formal news opportunities, he is likely to be stopping by Jerry Kill’s office or visiting Winter Park, or some place else where there might be a scoop, or at least a column note.

To understand Hartman’s work ethic look at his background. Hartman, who never attended college, grew up poor on Minneapolis’ North Side. In his biography, Sid, he described a family of four children with a sickly mother and alcoholic father.

“We had nothing,” Hartman wrote. “We ate chicken every night. My mother would go down to the Jewish butcher and buy two chickens for a buck. She would make chicken soup, chicken this, chicken that. To this day, I hate chicken.”

Hartman learned about hard work as a child. He began selling newspapers when he was nine. By the time he was in his 20s he was writing for the Minneapolis Times. Although his writing skills were minimal, he had something that attracted his newspaper bosses and provided opportunity.

In his biography Hartman wrote that his first boss in the sports department told him: “Don’t worry about writing. Give us the news. Writers are a dime dozen. Reporters are impossible to find.”

Despite limited education and training — or perhaps because of it — Hartman has worked seven days per week pounding his beat for information. “He found out the way to advance was to be aggressive, and I think that’s served him well during his career,” Mona told Sports Headliners. “I think he’s relished the role of the under dog.”

Hartman, divorced from Barbara Balfour decades ago, remains married to his work. “He is what he does,” Mona said. “Literally there is no doubt that Sid is always working or thinking about work.”

It’s admirable that at 93 Hartman has the energy and will to be so active. He moves around like a spry 70-something, fortunate to come from a family tree that included relatives who lived long lives. And Hartman has helped his cause by not smoking and doing a lot of walking.

“He is in remarkably good health, except for the hearing loss which he acknowledges and which is probably becoming even more obvious on the air,” Mona said. “I think in every other manner he’s incredibly fit. I would say robust.”

Mona, 69, has known Hartman since he was seven years old. Mona’s father, Lute Mona, was a successful Minneapolis high school basketball coach. Mona recalled that most reporters would telephone the house and ask, “Is your dad around?”

Not the uber-aggressive Hartman who commanded: “Hey kid, put your old man on.”

Hartman and Mona have worked as hosts on the Sports Huddle since 1981. It required time but Hartman came to trust Mona who jokes that the probationary period was only “20 to 25 years.”

“I think now that he respects that I am never going to hang him out there,” Mona said.

Hartman was born in Minneapolis on March 15, 1920. By now Hartmanologists have concluded that the man WCCO Radio’s Dave Lee refers to as a “Hall of Fame” sportswriter is never going to retire.

Those Hartmanologists are correct.

Mona said he receives text messages asking about Hartman’s future. “If it seems like we haven’t touched on the subject (retirement) for a long time — or maybe in advance of a birthday — I’ll ask him on the air. But I know the answer because we’ve talked about it so many times,” Mona said.

Hartman has watched sports figures who continued their careers into their 70s and even 80s die soon after retiring. People like Hartman who were totally wrapped up in their careers. “I think that Sid knows there’s a certain amount of immortality attached to continuing work,” Mona said.

So Hartman’s career —covering eight decades in newspapers and seven on radio —continues on. The legend grows, his name associated with the notable figures in this state’s cultural history. And like a Kirby Puckett or Jesse Ventura, Hartman long ago was even honored with his own bobblehead.

A week ago Sunday the Star Tribune published a New York Times story about a California man who at age 93 was still delivering newspapers for a paper he once owned. But guess what?

The Strib has a better story in its own sports department.

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