Timberwolves basketball. Are there any words in the Twin Cities sports market that have inspired more “meh?” Well, I decided it was time to get out of that mindset and try to look for positive things to talk about. Granted, Minnesota sports teams don’t make it easy to find optimism, but it’s got to be worth trying, right?
One of the most positive things I can think of off the floor is Glen Taylor has a sale agreement in place for the team. Reports says Alex Rodriguez and Marc Lore are taking a little bit more of a hands-on approach to running Timberwolves basketball. Even though Taylor is said to still have the final say, it’s good to know that new ideas are forthcoming for the franchise.
I’m actually paying a little attention this year to the upcoming Timberwolves basketball season. Enjoying a bit of optimism.
The new schedule is out, and as I look at the returning players from last year, I’m finding a little more interest than I have in years. The starting five next year might actually be pretty decent. Look, I’m not predicting a march to the NBA finals, nor am I even predicting a playoff spot. I’d be happy with a legitimate run at a .500 win-loss mark. That’s how low my expectations are for Minnesota basketball after the last 20-plus years.
When the Timberwolves run this lineup next season it’s gonna be spooky
D’Angelo Russell Patrick Beverley Malik Beasley Anthony Edwards Karl-Anthony Towns
This starting lineup has a little more promise than we’ve seen in years.
I haven’t had much chance to research the young man the Wolves drafted out of Europe last year, but I am interested to see what the kid can bring to Timberwolves basketball. Of course, this is the one kid that I’m really excited to watch play ball next season.
I wasn’t happy they drafted Anthony Edwards at number one overall. Couldn’t be happier to admit I was wrong and am starting to love this kid.
So, to find out more about the upcoming season, I tracked down Evan with The Daily Wolves fan page on Twitter. We had a lot of basketball notes to get through.
Blogging. What’s it all about? Every time I sit down to
write a blog post, I freeze. Writer’s block is not something that happens to me
very often, but in this case, I’m not sure what’s interesting enough in my life
and the lives of others around me to write about.
Blogging about sports is a good place to start. Watching the Timberwolves play the Miami Heat and realizing just what a dull and uninteresting franchise they are. Notice I didn’t use the words “professional sports” in front of the word “franchise.” I’m honestly not sure they qualify. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a team revamp virtually their entire roster and not reap any kind of rewards.
Is Karl-Anthony Towns the right guy to lead the Timberwolves for the next several years? Great offense. LOUSY defense. Doesn’t appear to think he commits fouls at all.. and hurts the team with his constant bellyaching. (Photo from onlinegambling.com)
I suppose I need to give them time. We’ve already given them
decades and gotten a couple of good seasons for all of our patience. Where have
you gone, KG? Can I ask an honest question? As good as the big KAT is, IS he
the right guy to lead this franchise into the future? Fantastic offensive
talent. Lousy and disinterested on the defensive end. This is a team that
cannot play a lick of defense. Great to score 137 points, unless you give up
140 to the opposition. It’s still a loss.
The NFL Combine is in full swing and I couldn’t be more blasé to the whole thing. Why am I so uninspired about the Vikings and their potential future draft choices? What direction is this franchise going in and how are they going to disappoint their fans next? I mentioned this in an earlier post, but I think it bears repeating; WHY do you want to be a running team first and spend so damn much on a quarterback and two wide receivers? I’m getting a bit of a mixed message here.
Still trying to figure out the direction of this franchise, especially with the head coach and general manager going into the last year of their contracts. (Photo from bleacherreport.com)
By the way, isn’t the NFL a passing league now? And if that’s
the case, does Zimmer’s insistence on running the ball mean the game has passed
him by a little bit? Not saying it has or it hasn’t. Just reading the tea
leaves here.
On to other topics. What’s up with the coronavirus outbreak? Have you seen the hysteria surrounding the “Pandemic?” I’ve been looking behind the headlines and am finding out that the coronavirus fatality rate appears to be three percent. My South Dakota/Minnesota math tells me that 97 percent of the people who are infected appear to actually survive? If that is the case, WHY are we hearing about a “global epidemic” in every major news outlet, making it sound like the second coming of the plague? What don’t I know about this?
Why am I still on social media? I was just perusing a short time ago and couldn’t believe how much the current president is being skewered over the coronavirus. And before you get snippy, I didn’t vote for him. If I blamed presidents I didn’t vote for as much as the current political left does, NOTHING would get done. Ever. Didn’t vote for Clinton either. I’d give my kingdom for a reliable third-party candidate or possibly a middle-of-the-road Democrat. The current list of Democratic presidential candidates are all bat-crap crazy. Not sure the incumbent is a great option either.
I really enjoyed social media when it was first ramping up.
After all, I’d just left full-time media for the first time in my adult life
and it was my only outlet to keep doing what I loved. I really don’t enjoy it
much anymore. Have we as a society ALWAYS been this spiteful and vindictive? Is
social media just a convenient outlet for all that vitriol we’ve been saving
up? Frankly, the behavior of grown adults on social media is the same thing we
all remember growing up during the turbulent teenage years.
Well, there you go. Almost 700 words later and I guess the writer’s block is gone? I do welcome comments when I’m done blogging. You don’t have to agree with me. Just don’t be a jerk about it. Let’s be adults and educate each other about the things we don’t know. Be willing to listen to other people’s point of view once in a while. You and I both might learn something. Think I’ll try this blogging thing again really soon.
Bethel basketball took on St. John’s in a Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference men’s basketball matchup on Saturday afternoon. What a doozy. Bethel came into the game with 16 wins on the season while the Johnnies had 22 wins at tipoff. Both teams put on quite a show for a packed house at the Robertson Center.
I don’t know for sure if the team’s were nervous going into the game but they played like it early on. They both had already qualified for the MIAC playoffs which began the following week. But, the Johnnies and the Royals put up a lot of shots in the first half and I lost count halfway through the period as to the number of bunnies that both teams missed under their respective baskets. St. John’s led a low-scoring game, 26-25 at the half.
The tempo and the number of made baskets picked up dramatically in the second half. The Johnnies outscored the Royals by six points (47-41) after halftime, thanks to a combination of deadly three-point shooting, key free throws, and a couple of iffy officiating calls very late in the game. Irregardless of whether you thought the calls were good or not, St. John’s capitalized and came out of there with a hard-fought MIAC win.
Here’s a file photo from a recent Bethel University men’s basketball game. I saw the Royals drop a hard-fought game to St. John’s on Saturday, 73-66. It was one of the more entertaining Bethel basketball games I’ve seen in a long time. (File photo from Bethel basketball website.)
Physical strength in the post played a big factor in the St. John’s win. Johnnie’s center Zach Hanson scored a game-high 19 points (8 of 17 shooting) on the block, with Bethel unable to stop his running hook shots in the lane. The big Johnnie completed a double-double with 10 rebounds. Colton Codute added 17 points and Jubie Alade, one of the smoother guards you’ll see in the MIAC, added 12 points.
Bethel basketball senior guard Jack Jenson likely needed an oxygen mask after the game. He played 38 of the 40 minutes in the game, including all 20 minutes of the second half. Jenson finished as the top scorer for Bethel with 14 points, while forwards Isaiah Carver-Bagley and Chandler Wellman each scored 13 points.
Three-point shooting along with free throws were likely the difference in the game. Bethel outshot St. John’s overall, but the Johnnies held a nine-point advantage outside the arc, making 6 treys (18 points) to just three (9 points) from long range for Bethel basketball.
Free throws were also a big advantage for St. John’s, much to the irritation of Bethel fans on hand. St. John’s was 15 of 21 at the stripe while the Royals made just nine of 14 tries.
The one place the Royals had more success on offense was in the paint, outscoring the Johnnies 48-36. In this case, it was outside shooting that made the difference in the game for both teams.
Both teams are getting set to open up the MIAC playoffs during the week ahead.
Minnesota sports fans, the long-suffering bunch that we are, apparently have to suffer through another rough winter season of mediocrity. Actually, that word doesn’t apply to the “professional” basketball team. That’s just one big bucket of suck.
The Minnesota Wild have a lot of work to do to return to a team that can make a run in the Stanley Cup playoffs.
Wild hockey. It’s not fantastic. Watching the Bruins school the Minnesota “professional” hockey team 4-0 after two periods of play. I shudder to think how much further ahead Boston would be if the Wild hadn’t blocked 10 shots through two periods. This team cannot score goals consistently enough to win.
But how do you go about finding good offense to add to the
roster with the salary cap situation and two contracts that are taking up more
of that cap than they should? Minnesota sports STARTS with hockey. We call
ourselves the “State of Hockey” for a reason, right?
What is it with Minnesota sports? The Wild are stuck in neutral and multiple games away from the playoffs. The Timberwolves aren’t even a blip on the sports radar in the Twin Cities. Oh my goodness, are they bad.
The Minnesota Timberwolves have a long way to go to be mildly interesting to watch. They’re not even a blip on the Twin Cities’ sports scene these days.
I know Gersson Rojas and Ryan Saunders have a plan that
involves a lot of threes. It’s an offense tailored to the modern NBA game. But
they don’t have players talented enough to play that system well. Isn’t that
like trying to force a square peg through a round hole? As a coach, don’t you
want to at least somewhat build your offense based on the skillset of your
current roster?
Minnesota sports confuse me, especially when it comes to the
professional football team. An 11-win season and the second round of the NFL
playoffs look good on paper. They beat precisely one team with a winning record,
and we were all impressed with that win in New Orleans. But then you don’t put
up any kind of a fight in San Francisco? It took me back to the Philadelphia
fiasco and the day the Vikings laid one of their biggest eggs in a long line of
said eggs. They didn’t show up at all when they had a chance to be the first
team in the NFL to HOST a Super Bowl in their home stadium.
I’d say there’s a pattern forming in which the Vikings aren’t prepared for their biggest games. Is that coaching or is that on the players?
The Minnesota Vikings confuse me. You want to run the ball but you paid the most offensive money to a quarterback who can’t run and two wide receivers? Mixed messages here.
I’m starting to sour on the purple. So, Mike Zimmer wants to
run the ball? Fine. Then WHY did you invest $84 million in a quarterback who
breaks when a defensive lineman gets within ten yards and put him behind an O
line that can’t block elite pass rushers? Why did we invest around $30 million
in two wide receivers? I’m seeing some mixed messages there. You tailor your
offense to play off the strengths of your roster, right?
Maybe it’s just me. Man, I used to schedule my Sundays around Vikings games. Now it’s kind of blasé. I’m sure I’ll keep watching but with much less interest than ever before. If you believe what you see on social media (be careful about that), I’m starting to wonder if the NFL might be looking for some new fans within 5 to 10 years?
Things like this are why I’m more interested in watching
college sports than a professional event. They’re still kids out there having
fun. The atmosphere is more upbeat as well.
Maybe I’m just mellowing in my middle age. Sports aren’t quite the be-all, end-all that they used to be. Is that normal as fans age?
SEC Showcase. Just a cool name for a great day of watching high school basketball. The first-ever Southeast Conference Showcase in Rochester, Minnesota, featured a full slate of basketball games featuring every team in the league. I went down to Rochester from the Twin Cities to specifically take in the Kingsland vs. Mabel-Canton boys’ and girls basketball games.
Kingsland won the girls’ game 53-43. The Kingsland boys made it a sweep, beating the M-C boys 53-49.
Here’s a few video highlights from both games, with the articles and pictures down below.
SEC ShowcaseGirls’ Game
The Knights came out firing early in the game and ran off 11-straight points to start the game before Mabel-Canton would score their first points. All-SEC standout Payton Danielson gave the Cougars their first two baskets of the game, the first coming with 13:38 left in the first half.
The Kingsland and Mabel-Conference game featured a couple of solid guards. All-conference guard Payton Danielson of Mabel-Canton (in blue) brings the ball up the floor, where Alyssa Link of Kingsland awaits to play defense. (Photo by Chad Smith)
The Cougars would knock that Kingsland lead down to 15-11
with 9:18 left in the period. M-C stretched its scoring run to 15-8 with five
minutes to go in the half. The Knights kept their lead around four points over
the final minutes of the first half, leading 21-17 with four minutes to go.
Kingsland would head into the halftime locker room with a 26-22 lead. However, most of the half belonged to Mabel-Canton, who outscored the Knights 22-15 after being down 11-0 early in the game.
The Kingsland girls came out firing in the second half, going on a 10-4 run to take a 36-26 lead six minutes into the second half. The Knights stretched their scoring run to 15-6. Leading by double-digits at 41-30 with 10 minutes on the clock. But Mabel-Canton still wouldn’t go away.
Lauren Wyffels of Mabel-Canton looks to inbound the basketball during their matchup with Kingsland at the SEC Showcase in Rochester. The Knights won the game 53-43. (Photo by Chad Smith)
The Cougars whittled the Kingsland lead down to four points
(42-38) with 4:35 left. It was 42-40 Kingsland when MaKenzie Kelly of
Mabel-Canton hit a free throw to tie the game at 42-all with 3:34 left.
However, Alyssa Link of Kingsland answered with a big three-point basket.
It was 46-42 Knights with 2:15 to go. Link hit a couple of
big free throws late to make it a 50-42 Knights’ lead with 25 seconds left.
Anika Reiland hit free throws to stretch the Kingsland lead to 53-42 with five
seconds left. A Danielson free throw for M-C made it a 53-43 final.
Link, who looks completely healthy and is playing without a
brace after recovering from a serious knee injury last season, led the team
with a double-double, getting a team-best 15 points and pulling down 11 boards.
She had three big three-pointers and went three of four at the free-throw line
in the second half, coming up with big points in clutch time. But she had help
on the perimeter as well.
Sam Wernimont finished with 13 points, hitting three shots
from outside the arc in the first half. Meredith Farlinger provided scoring in
the paint, finishing with another double-double of 12 points and 14 rebounds.
Free throws were huge for Kingsland in the second half, when
they made 12 of their 16 attempts (75%). It was a marked improvement from the
first half when the Knights were just three of 10 at the stripe.
On the defensive end of the floor, Kingsland finished with
six steals (Wernimont 2, Audrey Webster 2) and nine blocked shots (Farlinger
4).
SECBoys’ Game
The SEC Showcase game tipped off in the Mayo Civic Center and points were slow in coming for both teams. The Knights trailed just 4-3 with five-and-a-half minutes off the first-half clock. Just over two minutes later, Brayden Gjere of Mabel-Canton grabbed an offensive rebound and landed a put-back shot to give the Cougars an 8-7 lead with 12:16 to go in the first half.
The Kingsland Knights boys’ basketball team is shown here warming up for their SEC Showcase matchup with Mabel-Canton in the Mayo Civic Arena, right in downtown Rochester. The Knights won the game 53-49. (Photo by Chad Smith)
The Knights trailed 10-9 when Luke Howard drained a
three-pointer to make it a 12-10 Knights’ lead with 7:23 left in the half.
However, the Cougars’ Reid Crawford answered with a trey of his own to give MC
the lead back at 15-14 with six minutes on the clock.
Both teams were settling into the neutral court and were
finding the range more consistently on their jump shots. As the tempo picked
up, another Luke Howard trey made it 22-15 Kingsland at 3:44 to go in the half.
He attempted another three as the first half buzzer sounded and was fouled. He
dropped in one of three free throws to make it a 25-19 Kingsland lead at the
half.
Mabel-Canton came out swinging in the second half with a 7-0
scoring run to take a one-point lead (26-25) with 16 minutes left in the game.
An offensive rebound and made basket by Reed Merkel broke the streak and gave
the lead back to the Knights, 27-26 with 15 minutes left.
The lead would go back and forth for the rest of the game. Kaden Rath hit a jumper to tie the game at 37 with just over eight minutes left. Another Howard three-pointer and a steal and layup from Nick Eickhoff made it 42-39 Kingsland with 7:15 on the clock.
Braydin Gjere (#10) of Mabel-Canton looks for an open teammate as Kaden Rath (#2) as his Kingsland teammates play defense during their SEC Showcase game in Rochester on Saturday, Dec. 21. (Photo by Chad Smith)
As the game wound down, Kingsland started showing a
full-court press. The Knights had shown a half-court trap before that and had
some success forcing Mabel-Canton mistakes with the basketball.
Walker Erdman nailed one of two free throws to tie the game
at 44. The teams traded baskets and tied the game at 46 all, when Howard hit
the biggest three of the game off a Mabel-Canton turnover and Kingsland was
back on top, 49-46 with 1:21 to go.
The Cougars’ Reid Crawford line up a three-point try that
rolled all the way around the rim and fell away. The Knights grabbed the
rebound and Erdman hit two free throws to make it a two-possession game at
51-46. However, Crawford came back the other way and drained a three to cut the
Kingsland lead to just two points, 51-49 with only 4.7 seconds left.
Mabel-Canton tried hard to swipe the inbound pass and was
forced to foul. Two free throws from Howard sealed the game and a Knights’ win,
53-49.
Howard and Erdman tied for the team lead in scoring, each
finishing with 14 points. Howard was two rebounds from a double-double,
grabbing eight missed shots and finishing with two steals. Erdman also grabbed
eight rebounds and hit three of five free throws. Eickhoff chipped in 12 points
on five of 11 shooting.
The team hit 19 of its 53 shots (35%) from the field. They
were most effective down under the basket, making 13 of 27 shots (48%) from
two-point range. The Knights did make enough free throws to win the game, but
they could have given themselves a little more breathing room late. Kingsland
was just nine of 18 from the stripe.
They finished with 32 rebounds, 12 offensive.
Defensively, the Knights came up with seven steals and four blocked
shots.
Minnesota Gopher basketball can be a polarizing discussion among their fans. The team finished the 2018-2019 men’s campaign with a 22-14 record. While there are dozens of colleges and universities that would be thrilled with 22 wins and a victory in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, not all Gopher fans were pleased with the outcome. Mike Grimm is the 13-year radio voice of the Golden Gophers, who made a recent appearance on the Minnesota Sports Weekly podcast. He says it’s important to keep a little perspective when fans look at a basketball season.
“I think it’s all how you look at it,” said Grimm. “It’s hard to say it was a disappointment. I’ve seen people say that on social media and I think they’re wrong. It’s not worth getting into a disagreement with someone if they don’t have the time or patience to look at the history of Minnesota Gopher basketball. We don’t have the history here as a UCLA does.
“This program has only appeared in 14 NCAA tournament, with two of those appearances in the last three years,” he added. “Anyone who suggests they should be ashamed of a season in which they made an NCAA Tournament and won a game for the second time in 20 years is being silly. That’s just dumb.”
There’s no such thing as a perfect college basketball season. However, Mike Grimm, radio voice of Minnesota Gopher basketball, says the 2018-2019 campaign was pretty good, especially when you look at the history of men’s basketball at the University of Minnesota. (Photo from krocam.)
Grimm says if people really want to nitpick, they can. The
Gophers did let leads slip away in a few games and they lost a few they
probably shouldn’t have. However, they also beat Purdue twice and beat the
Badgers IN Wisconsin for the first time in over a decade. They knocked off the
PAC-12 champion Washington Huskies to win the Vancouver Showcase.
“There were a lot of good things that happened,” Grimm said.
“Remember, this was one of the toughest Big Ten seasons, top-to-bottom. The
Gophers didn’t have a bunch of easy wins anywhere on this season’s schedule. The
Gophers had to play a total of nine games out of a possible ten against the top
five teams in the conference.
“There’s really no reason to sit and argue about it,” he added. “If you want to call it a disappointment, then you haven’t done enough research or you’re just being lazy about it.”
One of the highlights from last season for the Gopher men’s basketball squad was beating Purdue twice in the regular season, as well as a third time in the Big Ten Tournament.
He’s quick to say there were things that could have been done better. However, to say a coach should be fired after leading a team to a win in the NCAA Tournament is “ludicrous.” Grimm took it a step further, saying people who think Minnesota Gopher basketball shouldn’t be proud of this past season is “stupid, really.”
One of the bigger issues when it comes to the Gophers and
social media was a sometimes-heated discussion over the contract extension given
to Richard Pitino. The agreement will keep Pitino at the University of
Minnesota for a total of another five years. It’s the third contract extension
for the coach since joining the U back in 2013.
“There are some benefits to doing it now, especially when it
comes to recruiting,” he said. “But I know it’s hard to forget the
disappointment of the previous season. At one point, that team was 14-3 overall
and ranked at No. 11 in the country. Then, the you-know-what hit the fan.”
That team went 2-14 the rest of the way as the wheels fell
completely off the wagon. There were so many injuries to contend with, and then
the suspension and expulsion of Reggie Lynch added a huge distraction to the
season. “I’m not saying what’s right or what’s wrong,” Grimm added, “but there
are probably schools where Reggie Lynch stays on the team.” However, there’s no
question it’s a university policy and an important issue.”
The main thing about the Lynch situation Grimm wants to get
across is it definitely played a role in the abysmal end to the season. Then,
there were injuries to several players, including Amir Coffey, Dupree McBrayer,
and Eric Curry, to deal with. That dragged everything down to a 2-14 record to
end the season and any momentum from the NCAA appearance the prior season was
lost.
“If he were sitting on three-straight tournament berths, which
likely would have been the case if the wheels didn’t fall off last season, I
don’t think too many people would be second-guessing,” Grimm said. “I know
people cite the 40-70 Big Ten record, but it’s important to remember that this
conference is tough every season. And, if you have two down seasons of 4-14 and
2-16 in the conference, it’s going to be hard to improve your record, even
during successful seasons.
“The extension is also really good for recruiting,” Grimm
said. “I know people want to dismiss it and say, ‘kids aren’t that dumb,’ but
it does make a difference. Everything makes a difference.”
Grimm was frank in saying that if the school does want out
of the deal with Pitino, it’ll actually cost the school less money next year
than it would have without the extension. “I don’t know why people lost their
minds over it,” he pointed out. “There are just some people that thrive on
negativity in this market.
There are things you can nitpick when it comes to Pitino as
far as in-game strategies and substitution patterns. However, that’s something fans
can do with any coach. But Grimm said you can take that too far.
“To sound off about contract extensions and ask why they
didn’t even have a news conference is crazy. There are certain people that love
to be negative and won’t give anyone the benefit of the doubt. It’s the world
we live in, and it’s an everywhere-thing, not just a Minnesota-thing.
Negativity sells and people seem to love it.”
