David Shama's Minnesota Sports Headliners

Wolves & Denver Looks Like Mismatch

Posted on April 17, 2023April 17, 2023 by David Shama

There was a significant discrepancy in talent, scrap and performance between the Nuggets and Timberwolves last night. It’s just one game in a potential seven game series, but based on what happened in Denver late Sunday night and the season long reputation of the two teams it appears this playoff matchup could end soon.

Denver, the No. 1 seed in the NBA Western Conference, encountered little resistance from No. 8 seed Minnesota in winning 109-80. The Nuggets, led by two-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokic, finished with a regular season record of 53-29. The Wolves, who prompt a lot of head scratching to figure out their team MVP, were 42-40.

The Wolves look like a team that has regressed from a year ago when they opened the playoffs by defeating a solid Grizzlies team in Memphis after finishing the regular season with a 46-36 record. The 2023 team looks dysfunctional too much of the time including in last night’s game that saw the Wolves out scored 32-14 in the third quarter after trailing 55-44 at halftime.

Even at the intermission the Wolves were drawing criticism from TNT analyst Charles Barkley. Targeting the Wolves’ Twin Towers of 7-foot Karl-Anthony Towns and 7-1 Rudy Gobert, Barkley said “Minnesota’s biggest problem” is the combo isn’t effective enough on offense to justify playing them together.

Gobert, acquired in a controversial trade last summer with the Jazz, scored eight points, while Towns, picking up some late points in the meaningless fourth quarter, had 11. And it wasn’t just scoring where the Wolves’ bigs were lacking. In plus-minus stats that measure a player’s contribution on the floor, Gobert was a team-high -28 while Towns was -11.

The Wolves used 13 players last night and Wendell Moore Jr., who played for two minutes, was the only individual with a plus rating (two).

Denver coach Mike Malone wanted his team to be more aggressive and disciplined than the Wolves for the playoff opener. Combine those elements with better talent, the result is what happened last night.

Worth Noting

Because of national TV scheduling the game had an absurd start time of 10:51 p.m. Eastern, 9:51 Central. The next game is Wednesday (also in Denver) with a scheduled tipoff at about 9 p.m. Central.

Walker Kessler, among five players and multiple draft choices the Timberwolves gave up in the trade to obtain Gobert, is one of three finalists for NBA Rookie of the Year. The 7-foot Jazz center averaged 9.2 points and 8.4 rebounds in his first professional season.

Only three other NBA players bettered Kessler’s 2.3 blocks per game. The other finalists for Rookie of the Year are Paolo Banchero of the Magic and Jalen Williams of the Thunder.

Former Wolves star Jimmy Butler, now with the Heat, is a finalist, along with De’Aaron Fox of the Kings and DeMar DeRozan of the Bulls, for NBA Clutch Player of the Year.

The Wild-Stars playoff series opens tonight in Dallas with possibly seven games needed to decide the winner. The two teams played a combined 55 overtime games during the regular season. Both franchises have recent histories of scoring droughts in the playoffs. The Wild hasn’t advanced out of the first round since 2015.

The Wild was 7-2-3 when star scorer Kirill Kaprizov was injured and unable to play late in the season. Minnesota had balanced scoring during that stretch and must continue that with forwards Matt Boldy, Ryan Hartman and Mats Zuccarello needed to step up on the playoffs.

The Stars franchise, known as the Minnesota North Stars until relocating to Dallas in 1993, might never have moved if the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission had funded a major renovation of Met Center in the late 1980s.

The Frozen Four championship game April 8 on ESPN 2 between the Gophers and Quinnipiac averaged 808,000 viewers, a 100 percent increase over the 2022 title game, per Front Office Sports.

St. Paul native Bill Robertson, commissioner of the USHL, said there were 80 alums of his league playing in the Frozen Four that also included Boston University and Michigan. Twenty-three of those players were from the state of Michigan and 22 from Minnesota.

Since 2017 the Twins are 4-18 at Yankee Stadium in regular season games. That record includes wins Thursday and Friday that ended up giving Minnesota a series split over the weekend.

Minnesota’s Sonny Gray, 2-0 with a gaudy 0.53 ERA, will start Tuesday night in Boston when the Twins open a three-game series against the Red Sox. The Twins’ starting staff, all of whom were acquired from other teams, has been leading MLB in multiple statistical categories including ERA and batting average against.

Happy 90^th Birthday today to former Gophers’ head basketball coach Jim Dutcher. Articulate and sharp as ever, Dutcher has always been a great family man and travelled to Houston this spring to watch son Brian’s San Diego State men’s team finish second in the Final Four.

Joe Salem, who was the Gophers’ head football coach when Jim Dutcher’s 1982 team won the Big Ten title, will be 85 on May 1. He told Sports Headliners via email his health is “okay,” but wife Sue has dementia and is in memory care in Sioux Falls. He spends much of his time following football and literally has a family coaching tree.

Sons Tim (a former Gopher quarterback) and Brad coach tight ends at Pittsburgh and Memphis State respectively. Both programs won their most recent bowl games. Brad’s son Eli is a reserve quarterback at North Central College in Naperville, Illinois and the team won the Division III national championship Stagg Bowl last year. Jeremiah is a freshman quarterback at Eastern Michigan, 2022 winners of the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl.

“The family was 4-0 in bowl games last fall,” Joe Salem wrote. “Not bad.”

Son Wade sells motivational programs to school athletic teams while son Brent, a former college football coach, is an insurance executive in the Twin Cities.

The Capital Club’s next breakfast program at Mendakota Country Club is April 27. Charles Adams III, head coach of the North Community High School Polars football team and a recently retired Minneapolis police officer, will help lead an “important conversation about life, death, humanity and how sports can bring people and communities together,” according to an email from club organizer Patrick Klinger. Former Gopher football star Darrell Thompson, president of the Bolder Options mentoring program, will be the program moderator. More information about the Capital Club is available from Klinger, patrick@agilemarketingco.com

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Give a Nod to Karma & U at Frozen Four

Posted on April 4, 2023 by David Shama

I’ve never been known as a sports writing prophet with a shiny crystal ball resting next to the keyboard. Shama the Seer, the great purveyor of the future? Nope, not me.

I make this confession knowing I put at risk my prediction the University of Minnesota men’s hockey team will win its two games in this week’s Frozen Four in Tampa and come home with the national championship trophy.

My history, though, is that of a dysfunctional prophet. Consider the following.

I could have been the guy who bet his retirement nest egg on the 19.5 point favorite Timberwolves to cover the spread on Sunday. They made national news by losing 107-105 to the Trail Blazers.

I once worried the world would end with Y2 K. A computer bug didn’t spin the world into chaos, but Armageddon remains top of mind. I keep Nostradamus on speed-dial.

Remember Rocky-like punching bag Chuck Wepner? I might have predicted he was going to knock out Muhammad Ali back on my birthday of March 24, 1975. Before you snicker, remember Wepner did go 15 rounds with the heavyweight champ before losing on a technical knockout.

Thomas Dewey? Wouldn’t be surprised if someone in my family wagered cold cash on Dewey winning the 1948 presidential election instead of Harry Truman. Heck, the Chicago Tribune even got it wrong, printing this headline the day after the election: “Dewey Defeats Truman.”

On my mother’s side, we had family who fought in the Revolutionary War. They might have held rifles in one hand while wagering on the British Redcoats.

So more than 200 years of bad family luck predicting outcomes doesn’t deter me from writing with confidence that the No. 1 seeded Gophers will not only win Thursday night against No. 4 Boston University but emerge Saturday evening with the 2023 NCAA Division I championship. I am overdue and so are the Gophers.

Minnesota hasn’t won the national title since 2003. That’s 20 years ago and a good omen.

The Gophers lost in the Frozen Four semi-finals a year ago. Coach Bob Motzko and the players benefit from that experience.

The Gophers, 28-9-1, are the No. 1 overall seed in the tournament and have been considered the nation’s best team in 2023 boasting a 26-man roster with 14 of those players NHL draft choices.

Minnesota is loaded with talent including goal tending and perhaps the best scoring line in school history with Logan Cooley, Matthew Knies and Jimmy Snuggerud. Gopher goalie Justen Close is third in the nation in shutouts with six and has a 2.08 goals against average versus top 10 teams.

Cooley and Knies are two of the three finalists for the Hobey Baker Award recognizing college hockey’s best player. Cooley’s 37+ rating leads all NCAA players, while Knies is a tight moments specialist and has scored seven game winning goals. Snuggerud is fifth in the country in points per game at 1.32, while the third Hobey Baker finalist, Michigan’s Adam Fantilli, is No. 1 at 1.85.

Brock Faber photo courtesy of University of Minnesota.

Knies typifies the Gophers’ play in clutch moments, and this team also excels on the power play and defensively. The Gophers rank fourth nationally in power play percentage at 0.264 and that’s better than any other Frozen Four team. The defensive corps of Jackson LaCombe, Ryan Johnson and Brock Faber is special.

Minnesota won three national championships in the 1970s under the peerless direction of the late Herb Brooks. Later Brooks built the St. Cloud State program where Motzko was on his staff. Good connections, great karma. Gotta believe Herbie is watching over things in Tampa this week.

The hockey gods deem not only that the Gophers win the national title but take revenge against Michigan in Saturday night’s championship game. The No. 3 seed Wolverines, who need to beat No. 2 seed Quinnipiac Thursday to set up the retribution, defeated Minnesota 4-3 in Minneapolis last month to win the Big Ten Tournament title.

It’s always triumphant to beat Michigan in anything—from tiddlywinks to robotics to ice hockey as they call it in Tampa. To do so in the national championship game is this soothsayer’s dream.

And one so richly deserved!

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Buxton Flashes Early Season MVP Skill

Posted on April 2, 2023April 2, 2023 by David Shama

The Twins are 2-0 this season because of superb pitching, timely defense and (no surprise) Byron Buxton playing like the team (and perhaps American League) MVP.

The team has won two American League Central Division games in Kansas City against the Royals by identical scores of 2-0. Buxton, the Twins’ designated hitter, has scored three of the team’s four runs and “pushed the envelope” with his base running, per manager Rocco Baldelli.

In Minnesota’s opening series win Thursday he stretched an outfield drive into a triple and scored the team’s first run. Yesterday he scored both runs.

Buxton set up Minnesota’s second run in the sixth inning Saturday by doing what few others can. First he advanced from second to third base on a ground ball hit by Jose Miranda to the shortstop. Then he scored on a short outfield fly ball off the bat of Kyle Farmer, running 30.1 feet per second, according to Twins TV analyst Glen Perkins. No wonder after the game, Baldelli said approvingly that Buxton “pushed the envelope” on the bases.

Buxton has a single, double and triple in his first two games. He is two home runs short of hitting 100 in his career.

In Buxton’s early seasons with the Twins he didn’t show a lot of power but that’s changed. In 92 games and 340 at bats last season he hit 28 homers. At 29 years old he has the potential this season to become the fourth hitter in franchise history to join the 40 home run club (the others are Brian Dozier, Harmon Killebrew and Roy Sievers). If Buxton could send 50 over the fence, he would break Killebrew’s single season club record of 49.

Potential is practically Buxton’s middle name. His career has been one characterized by do-everything talent in fielding, throwing, hitting and base running but also being sidelined by more injuries and missed time than any Twins star ever. Only once in his nine-year career has he played in over 100 games.

For now, the Twins are trying to protect Buxton’s health by not playing him in the outfield where diving for fly balls or crashing into walls to save potential home runs can be hazardous to the uber-talented center fielder. The first two games of the season have shown Buxton doesn’t need a glove to be the team MVP.

Worth Noting

Sports Illustrated’s baseball issue has the Twins finishing second in the division with a 87-75 record, a game behind the Guardians. However, the magazine predicts Minnesota defeats Cleveland in the postseason before losing to the Astros. The World Series forecast has the Yankees beating the Padres.

Weather allowing, the Twins will face an early season test against the Astros in a three-game series in Minneapolis starting Thursday. Minnesota is starting the season against two of baseball’s weakest teams in the Royals and Marlins (Monday-Wednesday in Miami).

Sports Illustrated said the Twins “spent more money on big league free agents this winter ($241 million) than the rest of the division combined ($176.75 million).”

This is Dick Bremer’s 40^th season of Twins broadcasts. The team’s TV play-by-play man will work games with a rotation of four analysts, all Twins alumni: Justin Morneau, Roy Smalley, LaTroy Hawkins and Glen Perkins.

New Timberwolves owner Marc Lore spoke about entrepreneurship at the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management Friday.

Legendary former college football coach Lou Holtz, who coached the Gophers in 1984 and 1985, was just inducted into the Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans, the nonprofit educational organization that honors the achievements of outstanding individuals and encourages youth to pursue their ambitions through higher education.

For over 75 years the Horatio Alger Award has been awarded “to esteemed individuals who have succeeded despite facing adversities, and who have remained committed to education and charitable efforts in their communities.” Holtz, the son of a bus driver during the Great Depression, got his first job at nine-years-old as a paper boy and went to become one of college football’s most famous coaches including at Notre Dame where he won a national championship.

Two days after the football Golden Gophers open at home on August 31 against Nebraska, the North Dakota State Bison will take on Eastern Washington in the first college football game ever at U.S. Bank Stadium. Tickets for the September 2 game went on sale Friday.

NDSU has nearly 15,000 alumni in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area and 26,000 across the state of Minnesota. The Bison drew 34,544 fans to their 2019 season opener against Butler at Target Field. North Dakota State claims about 26,000 alums in Minnesota, including 15 in Minneapolis-St. Paul.

St. Thomas, with the nation’s longest home game winning streak at 26, opens its season September 2 against Black Hills State. The Pioneer league champion Tommies also have nonconference games September 9 at South Dakota and September 16 at Harvard.

A college basketball source told Sports Headliners coveted point guard Andrew Rohde, transferring from St. Thomas, may enroll at Gonzaga.

The Twin Cities and state of Minnesota have long ranked at or near the top for most interest per capita in fantasy football. That obsession in speculating how players and teams preform will carry over if legalized sports wagering is enacted in the state. With about six weeks to the close of the current state legislative session, a bill approving sports betting could pass.

Minnesota native Bill Herzog was a basketball official for 63 years including Big Ten games from 1976 until 1988. Herzog, a Florida resident for 30 years now, worked high school games in that state until 2019. Sports Headliners asked his opinion awhile ago of college basketball officiating this year.

“In general, I think the officiating I have seen this year has been very good,” Herzog said via email. “As an ex official, I look to see if they are using proper floor mechanics and very seldom do I see them out of position. This is important because if you are not in proper position, you don’t have a very good chance to make the right call.

“There are still those marginal calls that can always be questioned. That’s basketball and those calls were there 40 years ago and will always be a part of the game. But in general, I think the officiating that I have seen would grade out at A-. …

“One thing has been very evident this year is that I have not seen many, if not any, overweight officials. That’s a good thing and in general the total staff seems to be young and vibrant, which was not the case when I was working where officials just seemed to hang on forever.”

College officials can make their livelihoods from officiating over a five- month period, working several games per week. Herzog’s understanding is the Big Ten pays $4,000 per game. “Seems like a lot but they have to pay their own travel, hotel and meals with that fee,” Herzog wrote. “I am assuming that the other major conferences pay the same.”

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