Minnesota Wild vice president of communications and broadcasting Bill Robertson is intrigued about a possible outdoor NHL game in Minnesota, but made it clear nothing is formally being planned or negotiated now with the NHL or local organizations. “Certainly we are exploring options and will look at that in the future,” he said. “The venue would need to be determined and we would work with the NHL on that project as well, but certainly it has peaked our interest. …” The prospect of such a game here is enhanced by yesterday’s outdoor game in Buffalo between the Sabres and Pittsburgh, and also by the future availability of new outdoor stadiums for the Gophers and Twins. Joel Maturi, Minnesota athletic director, told Sports Headliners via e-mail that his department will consider an outdoor game involving the Gophers and “would consider renting the stadium to the Wild if they are interested.” Dave St. Peter, Twins president, said via e-mail that his organization would consider an outdoor hockey game but that the organization does need to be comfortable with placing a hockey rink on the baseball stadium’s natural grass surface. The new Gopher stadium will have an artificial playing surface.
It will be awhile before the puzzlement ends over the four year, $48 million contract Seattle awarded to free agent Carlos Silva, the former Twins starter. A Twins source, not pitching coach Rick Anderson, said it wasn’t even certain that Silva would make the team coming out of spring training earlier this year. Silva was 13-14 with a 4.19 ERA last season. The year before he was 11-15 with a 5.94 ERA, giving up 38 home runs in about 180 innings.
Attention Gopher basketball fans: hope you have access to the Big Ten Network. The much anticipated conference opener with Michigan State at East Lansing on Saturday night is only available on the Big Ten Network.
Isaiah Dahlman, the former Minnesota Mr. Basketball, has played in eight games, starting none for Michigan State. The 6-6 sophomore from Braham is averaging 1.3 points per game. He started eight games last season and averaged 6.1 points.
Former Gophers basketball assistant coach Jesse Evans agreed to a somewhat puzzling leave of absence last week from his job as head coach at the University of San Francisco. The cause isn’t clear and neither is his return. Evans has had three consecutive losing seasons and his interim successor is legendary coach Eddie Sutton, although there’s speculation he may coach the Dons beyond this season.
The 12th annual Gatorade Timberwolves Shootout is Saturday at Target Center and will include over 20 players expected to play Division I basketball. Players of note include Rivals.com No. 1 point guard Jrue Holiday from Campbell Hall High School (California), plus Demarcus Cousins of LeFlore High School (Alabama) and Joe Jackson from White Station High School (Tennessee). The event will feature five of Minnesota’s top boys teams, plus defending Class 4A girls state champion St. Paul Central, all playing against teams from various parts of the country. Tickets for all six games are available for $10 at the Target Center box office on Saturday. A ticket purchase also includes a free ticket to a future Timberwolves game.
Longar Longar, the center from Rochester, scored 22 points for Oklahoma as the Sooners beat nationally ranked West Virginia in Morgantown last Saturday. The 6-11 senior averages 13.4 points per game.
Sporting goods retailers across the country sold more Boston Celtics logoed merchandise than any other NBA team during the four weeks leading up to December 23, according to a story on Espn.com. Former Timberwolf Kevin Garnett’s No. 5 Boston jersey is one of the most popular in the NBA.
Greg Jones, from Cincinnati, was a favored recruit in 2006 when Glen Mason was coaching at Minnesota and he might have become a Gopher. Instead, he’s at Michigan State where the linebacker led the Spartans in tackles during the season and made two freshman all-American teams, Rivals.com and Scout.com.