David Shama's Minnesota Sports Headliners

Next U A.D. Needs Hiring Expertise

Posted on February 3, 2012February 7, 2012 by David Shama

As written here last Friday, it was only a matter of days or weeks before Eric Kaler and Joel Maturi made a final decision on the Gophers athletic director job. Yesterday at a University of Minnesota news conference, President Kaler and Maturi announced that a new athletic director will soon be running the Gophers 25 sport program.

Maturi, 66, has been the athletic director since 2002 and is retiring. Kaler, who became president last July, has likely been thinking for some time about a new department leader. He will receive a lot of advice from the public and special interest groups including former Gopher athletes regarding who to hire.

Three qualities should top the list in searching for a new athletic director. The department needs a boss who is exceptional in identifying and hiring extraordinary coaches. Minnesota’s teams can compete with the best schools in the Big Ten in all sports if the coaches are high achievers.

The other qualities leading the list are fundraising and solid fiscal leadership. The athletic department has major financial challenges including whether to continue with 25 sports. The football and basketball programs (men’s and women’s) are under- achieving financially. A long term solution must be found for archaic Williams Arena. A dynamic individual who has the expertise to see the challenges and also the vision to find solutions will place the department in a much healthier fiscal position.

Kaler should first search for candidates who know this community and the culture of Gophers athletics. A local person with existing relationships will have a jump-start in fundraising and generating other support for Gophers athletics, plus an invaluable knowledge about the state and school.

Kaler must make the right hire, even it’s ultimately someone from outside Minnesota. The new A.D. needs to be a person who is extremely passionate in his or her commitment to win while operating within the ethics of modern day athletics. Nowhere is this more needed than in the “front porch” sports of football and men’s basketball. Those sports are annually a source of major frustration to Gophers fans.

The new A.D. might ideally be a person with experience in both business and athletics, and certainly needs to be someone who can as adroitly manage a coaching search as a student protest.

Kaler may have interest in the athletic director he knew while working at Stony Brook University. Jim Fiore is in his ninth year at the New York school where his teams have won numerous conference championships and he’s known as an effective fundraiser. He’s also consistently balanced the budget for his Division I school. Fiore’s name was rumored with the North Carolina athletic director opening last fall.

Other national names that could draw speculation include Iowa athletic director Gary Barta and Mountain West Conference commissioner Craig Thompson. Barta was born in Minneapolis and attended Burnsville High School. Thompson worked in the Gophers sports information office years ago.

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U Football & Other Notes

Posted on February 3, 2012February 3, 2012 by David Shama

Hired as Gophers coach about 14 months ago, Jerry Kill’s leadership is becoming more evident. How do you measure it?

The classroom attendance and grades by his players are improving. Academics were much more of a problem on the team when Kill and his staff first came here. For fall semester the football team earned an impressive overall 3.1 G.P.A. Expect more positive future news about football G.P.A.’s.

Although no major college football program is bullet proof, the Gophers haven’t been in the news for major off the field behavior problems and scandals. There’s a code of conduct emphasized by the staff and plenty of reminders.

Most of the sports public is still apathetic about Gophers football but Kill has won many admirers among boosters, media and high school coaches since he came here in December of 2010. His straightforward manner has earned him friends and is in contrast to his outspoken predecessor, Tim Brewster.

Kill has shown commitment to making the Gophers much better than a Big Ten bottom feeder with his tireless work on the job. He has also demonstrated courage in dealing with his seizures. Whether it’s coaching in front of a regional TV audience, or talking to a recruit in his home, Kill hasn’t let his history of seizures deter him.

At a Signing Day news conference on Wednesday, Kill said he’s still not driving a car. His wife Rebecca accompanied him on recruiting trips to help out.

Signing Day on Wednesday was another indication that Kill will build his program similar to Wisconsin’s. The Gophers signed 10 players from Minnesota to national letters of intent, compared to five in 2011 and three in 2010. The Badgers roster, including stellar offensive linemen, has for years listed a dominant number of Wisconsin high school products.

Kill and his staff will continue to recruit plenty of players from beyond the Minnesota border but expect higher numbers of Minnesotans than in the past. Kill knows there are good players here, just not enough to completely fill the roster of a contender.

Among the 27 signees are high-profile Hopkins wide receiver Andre McDonald and Mankato West quarterback Phillip Nelson. McDonald, an ESPN four-star recruit, is a “tremendous talent,” Kill said. MaxPreps’ Tom Lemming rates Nelson the No. 2 pro-style quarterback in the country and National Sleeper of the Year.

Tim Salem, the former Gophers quarterback, has been hired as running backs and special teams coordinator at Illinois.

Gophers junior player Rodney Williams isn’t included among players projected to be drafted next June by an NBA team, according to nbadraft.net. In 2010 the website predicted Williams would be among the first 10 picks in the 2011 NBA draft.

There’s speculation the Vikings will take USC left tackle Matt Kalil with the No. 3 choice in the first round of the upcoming college draft. He’s listed as the second best player in the draft after Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck by ESPN.com-Scouts Inc.

It was 40 years ago this winter the Vikings re-acquired Fran Tarkenton, pulling off a major trade with the Giants to bring the quarterback back toMinneapolis. Tarkenton led the Vikings to three Super Bowls in the 1970s.

Seven new affiliates have joined the Timberwolves Radio Network, bringing the total to 26, the most since the 2006-07 season. The new affiliate stations in Minnesota are Aitkin/Brainerd, Mankato and Montevideo. New in North Dakota are Carrington, Jamestown, Oakes andValley City.

Former North Stars executive Dean Lombardi, now general manager of the Kings, is earning praise for his decision to replace coach Terry Murray with Darryl Sutter. The Kings are second in the NHL’s Pacific Division.

Herb Brooks, who coached the Gophers to three national championships and America’s “Miracle on Ice” in the 1980 Olympics, is included on the short list of the Big Ten Network Icons series that includes Woody Hayes, Bo Schembechler and Dan Gable.

St. Olaf hockey seniors Ben Leis, Charlie Raskob and Jeff Warren made the right impressions during summer internships and have full-time employment waiting after graduation. Leis and Warren will be joining Best Buy as Demand Planning Analysts later this year. Raskob will work for Target as a Business Analyst.

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Sampson Told Son to Stay with Gophers

Posted on February 1, 2012February 1, 2012 by David Shama

Ralph Sampson III is in the final months of his college basketball career but the Gophers 6-11 senior center appears no closer to fulfilling his potential now than when he was a freshman.

A gifted athlete and the son of former college Player of the Year Ralph Sampson II, the younger Sampson has compiled similar stats and performed inconsistently this season as in the past. Tonight the Gophers play at Iowa—halfway through their Big Ten regular season schedule—and Minnesota fans wonder what contributions Sampson will make to a Minnesota team (4-5 in conference games, 16-6 overall) that could qualify for the NCAA tournament with a strong finish in February and March.

Last Saturday night, with his dad in town to watch him, Sampson played only 20 minutes before fouling out in Minnesota’s game against Illinois at Williams Arena. He had three rebounds and five points while making two of eight shots.

That performance contrasted with Minnesota’s game at Illinois in late December when the Duluth, Georgia native scored 22 points and had nine rebounds in 35 minutes on the floor.

During Sampson’s first three seasons he shared playing time with center Colton Iverson and with Iverson having transferred after his junior season last spring it was expected that Sampson’s minutes and contributions would increase. But he’s averaging 22.9 minutes per game, the fewest since his freshman season. His scoring average of 8.2 points and rebounds of 4.8 per game this season are almost identical to career stats of 8.2 and 5.1.

Sampson’s lack of aggressiveness has limited his success and frustrated fans who often target him for criticism. His dad was asked if Sampson can play more assertively for coach Tubby Smith.

“I know he is (capable),” Ralph II said. “I’ve worked with the kid for all my life. It’s just how do you do that? How do you do that with the system and don’t break the system? Tubby has that system where five guys play five minutes, and five guys play the next five minutes. That’s a little different. …”

Sampson’s dad, who at 7-4 was a four-time All-American at Virginia, said ample minutes on the floor allow big body players to have a feel for the game, becoming more comfortable with themselves, teammates and opponents. What’s evident, though, is the younger Sampson isn’t earning a lot of extra minutes in the Smith system and he doesn’t look like a player enjoying his time on the floor.

Does fan criticism bother the Gophers center? Ralph II said fans should consider that unlike Iverson and guard Devoe Joseph, his son didn’t transfer from Minnesota. Ralph III is the only player remaining from his freshman class at Minnesota. “…You didn’t transfer like everybody else did and you stuck it out,” Ralph II said. “I think they should appreciate that.”

Sampson said his son thought about transferring from Minnesota to another school. “Every year, like everybody else,” Ralph II said. “First year to this year. I wouldn’t let him leave. We started it, we’re gonna finish it.”

The Gophers’ team potential the last two seasons has lessened because of several players leaving the program. The departed include forward Royce White who has become an All-American candidate at Iowa State in his first season. Joseph is Oregon’s leading scorer at 15.4 points.

“The question is why did they leave?” Ralph II asked. “What was going on that made them leave and wanted to leave? I am not going to get into a lot of details with it because I don’t know the internal things about it. …”

What the older Sampson knows is he believes in his son’s potential to become a better player. He acknowledges, too, that Ralph III is a young man of character who has never given his father problems. “He’s a great kid,” Ralph II said. “He’s the best in the world. The sky’s the limit if he wants to work at it.”

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