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Losing Flip Saunders: A Fan's Perspective

 

For various boring reasons, it has been many years since I have actually posted a blog. My writing is rather rusty, and my grammar may not be up to par, but the loss of Flip Saunders was something that I felt compelled to blog about, so here goes…

 

It felt like a punch in the gut. I had avoided the internet all day since I was watching football later on my Tivo, so I was feeling fairly chipper about the Vikings comeback win in Detroit on October 25, 2015, when I picked up my phone to read the alerts I had missed during my self-imposed media blackout. “Timberwolves Coach Flip Saunders dead at 60” and numerous variations of the same message appeared as notifications from all of my sports and news apps. I felt sick inside. The signs had all been there for awhile, if I’d wanted to read them: Sam Mitchell being named interim coach for a few months and then for the whole season, before that season even started; Glen Taylor saying he was in touch with the family every day (but not Flip), then saying that it was really serious; Flip’s close friend/Michigan St. men’s basketball coach Tom Izzo getting emotional after talking about Saunders during Big Ten Media Day, saying he hadn’t talked to him in nearly 2 months, but he had talked to his family; Star Tribune writer Jerry Zgoda’s web chat citing sources saying that this was possibly a life threatening situation. I should’ve seen this coming, but I didn’t, or at least I didn’t want to, and I was not alone.

 

Flip was 60, which of course, isn’t that old, with the energy of a 20-year-old, seemingly in the shape of a 30-year-old, aside from this “treatable and curable” Hodgkin’s Lymphoma diagnosis that he was given in June 2015, which we found out about two months later in August. Flip had just lost his 93-year-old dad Walter Saunders in May (the man who continued to wear Timberwolves clothing even as his son sent him gear from the Pistons and then the Wizards); it couldn’t be Flip’s turn to go already. Flip had come back in 2013 to rescue his former franchise, the Minnesota Timberwolves, in his adopted home state, and had a huge impact in just 2 years, on player personnel, practice facilities, work culture and fan excitement, making his mark in every facet of the organization as the Head Coach/President of Basketball Operations/Partial Owner. There was no way he could be gone this fast, before getting to see his plans come to fruition. But it was written there in black and white, over and over and over; CNN, ESPN, AP News, Yahoo Sports, Score, USA Today, etc. I opened Twitter and immediately saw messages and thoughts from all over the world of basketball, and all throughout Minnesota. As hard as it was to believe, and as much as I didn’t want to believe, it was true.

 

Like most Minnesotans, I didn’t actually know Flip Saunders. I had “met” him once 16 or 17 years ago while I was working at the Ridgedale/Minnetonka Best Buy, when he asked me to help him find a DVD. I wished his team good luck, and he graciously thanked me. That was it. But like most Minnesotans, I loved Flip Saunders. How can we have strong feelings about someone we don’t even know? While I am no expert, I have taken a number of psychology classes, and have read countless behavioral articles over the years, which have taught me, well…nothing. It seems as if there are more theories to explain this than there are stars in the sky, but there is no logical reason for us to feel an attachment to a person we have never truly interacted with, and have only watched from our couches or bleachers, but logic has nothing to do with it. Perhaps it is because sports give us something to be passionate about without having many “real world” implications. With passion and emotion comes a form of attachment, which is manifested in our love of players (and for those of us too young to have seen him play, our love of a coach). But really, what does it matter why we feel this way? We just do. It might not be logical, but I know I am not the only Minnesota sports fan who feels genuine sadness about the loss of someone that had no direct involvement in my life. Flip was “our” guy. He might not have been from Minnesota, yet he was a quintessential Minnesotan: loyal, kind, hard-working, generous, friendly, humble, and of course [Minnesota] nice. He had been a Minnesotan by choice since he was 18-years-old, even after his then close friend and former Minnesota Gophers teammate Kevin McHale fired him just months after Flip took the Timberwolves to their first (and still only) Western Conference Finals. He could’ve moved elsewhere as he held jobs in Detroit, Washington & Bristol, Connecticut, but he chose to keep his family base in his adopted home state, telling his ESPN colleagues who wondered why he stayed in the state so long after he had been fired by the Timberwolves “Well, you don’t really understand unless you’re from Minnesota.You don’t really get it. Even when it snows on May 3 you don’t really get it.And the loyalty and the passion that the people have here is what always drives me back.” We finally got him back here to save our basketball team from the destruction that began the year he left with the sour attitudes and unhappy contract situations of certain players, and the even more hopeless scenario that developed during the dubious tenure of David Kahn. As Star Tribune columnist Patrick Reusse wrote last week, Flip was “our point guard.”

 

Perhaps I am wrong, but I got the sense that the majority of Minnesota Timberwolves fans also trusted Flip Saunders to resurrect our team. We may have questioned drafting a controversial player like Shabazz Muhammad, but we trusted Flip’s judgment, maybe because he didn’t just give the party line about Shabazz being the player they wanted all along – he admitted that he had his own doubts about the former high school superstar who by this time was best known for his selfish style of play at UCLA and lying about his age. Unlike the “throwing darts at the wall” type of personnel management of the David Kahn era (Jonny Flynn over Steph Curry? Ugh…), Flip seemed to have a plan, and we believe in Flip, and believe that Flip knows what he is doing, and that Flip cares. Then when Flip managed to turn a disgruntled Kevin Love into 2014 #1 overall pick Andrew Wiggins, we felt like the tide was turning. He later convinced Timberwolves legend and future NBA Hall of Famer Kevin Garnett to waive his no-trade clause and come back to the team where he grew up, to be a mentor to the young players, and a role model who has won it all, and knows what it takes to be a champion. (After all, “Anything is possibbbbbbllllllleeeee!!!!”).

 

When Minnesota finally won the NBA Draft Lottery this year for the first time in franchise history, despite being in position to win countless times in the past (while never so much as even moving up one spot), it seemed like the curse was lifted. As he drafted Karl-Anthony Towns #1, a player with seemingly unlimited upside whose interviews showed the maturity of someone twice his age, and then negotiated a trade to bring hometown star Tyus Jones back to a Minnesota team after one year in Durham, NC, running the Duke Blue Devils offense and being named the Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four in their successful championship run, it truly seemed like things were going our way. Perhaps Target Center wasn’t built on Indian burial grounds after all, as many fans have jokingly suggested (and perhaps some conspiracy theorists thought was actually true), looking for some explanation for the continual absence of any good luck, and an all too steady stream of bad luck that seemed to follow the team. When we found out that Flip was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, it just seemed like a minor speed bump, as doctors described it as a very treatable and very curable cancer. Plus he had already been getting treatments at Mayo Clinic for nearly 2 months, all while continuing to run the team without any noticeable difficulty. A cancer with a 5 year survival rate of 85-95% (per various articles posted in the past 9 days) was certainly not going to take out a guy like Flip Saunders just months after his diagnosis, especially not now, after the Murphy’s Law scenarios that perpetually dragged down the Wolves had finally been defeated. We had heard Flip tell the media during spring that the fact that Kevin Garnett had not done everything possible to try to play in the last couple games on the schedule, was a good sign that KG was planning to return for his 21^st season. We never imagined that Flip would be the one that we would never again see on the Timberwolves bench.

 

Yet here we are, just 2 months after learning of this very beatable cancer battle that Flip was fighting, and he is already gone. It just doesn’t seem fair to Minnesota sports fans. And more importantly, it doesn’t seem fair to his family and his friends…and Flip’s “friends” list seemed to include anyone who was able to spend any significant time with him, as everyone who knew him, loved him. The tributes all over social and traditional media show just how much Flip had positively impacted everyone that was a part of his life for any length of time. I wish we had been able to hear so many of these stories about him before he passed away. I never knew he did magic tricks, or loved watching infomercials and home shopping networks, calling his friends in the middle of the night to talk about what new gadget he had just ordered. I knew he liked to do nice things for people, but I never knew the extent of it until all the stories started rolling in over the last 9 days: Timberwolves head coach (the second time around) Flip Saunders giving a little Twolves bib to Twin Cities AP journalist Jon Krawczynski for his newborn daughter, Timberwolves President/partial owner Flip Saunders buying Girl Scout Cookies for fans outside Target Center after a game, Timberwolves Head Coach (the first time around) Flip Saunders getting a magic tricks coloring book for the young children of his then player Sam Mitchell, 24-year-old Golden Valley Lutheran College Men’s Basketball Head Coach Flip Saunders going to shoot hoops at the playground with kids in his Bloomington, MN neighborhood after they relentlessly tried to make him notice them “shooting” a basketball at a light post outside his house (as told in separate stories by those former kids Mike McCollow, a basketball coach who was once an assistant on Sam Mitchell’s Toronto Raptors team, and Steve Rushin, a long time sports writer). I know how much it means to me when people do something “little” for me that they didn’t have to do and I tend to remember those things, even as other memories fade away. It sounds like Flip tried to do that for as many people as he possibly could, which merely reaffirms that he was the special person described by all those who were close to him.

 

As fans, we obviously can’t mourn for him in the same way as people who truly knew him, but that does not mean that we don’t have the right to feel sadness about losing him, or to already miss his impact on our lives as followers of Minnesota sports. Only time will tell if his dreams for this team will come true without him here to guide them, and we’ll never know how things would’ve turned out with him at the helm. Those are the types of “what if?” questions that life never answers for us. What we do know, however, is that having Flip back in our lives, even if it was only through a TV or from an arena seat, made us believe that perhaps this franchise is not destined to fall apart at the seams anytime a small thread is loose. Flip believed that things were moving in the right direction, and we believed in Flip, giving us a hope that Timberwolves fans have not experienced since, well, the last time Flip was working in Minnesota. Rest in Peace Flip Saunders. Even those of us who were not lucky enough to truly know you, will miss having you in our lives.

 

Starring in the Role of Justin Morneau's Cosmic Killjoy - Corey Koskie??

It has been many months since I last entered any thoughts in this blog. It's not for lack of things to write about; it's due to that pesky post-concussion stuff. When I choose to use the brain power to write in the blog, it tends to mean I'm not able to do other things I'd like to (or need to) do, so I dialed it back to rest the head, and now perhaps I can ease into it again, a little at a time. So I figured, what more appropriate subject to return with, than Justin Morneau's concussion!

Morneau has been working out again, trying to get back into shape after not playing in a game since suffering a concussion/mild traumatic brain injury (the definition of a concussion is to have an mTBI) on July 7 in Toronto, and is hoping to do a rehab stint soon. I haven't read an update in awhile, so I checked out Joe Christensen's column in the Star Tribune on Saturday. It all sounded very good, but I'm struggling with one particular comment from a quote. Christensen mentions that Morneau has received advice from former Twin Corey Koskie, whose career was ended by concussions, and Canucks defenseman Willie Mitchell, who missed half of last season with a concussion. Twins manager Ron Gardenhire's comments about this are what bother me. "You talk to players that ended their careers with concussions -- I don't think you're going to get a lot of positives out of them, know what I mean? They have a lot of knowledge, but we go with what our doctors say. And our doctors say Justin Morneau will be the one to tell us [he's ready] and not anyone else."

Ok, so basically he thinks Koskie & Mitchell will tell Morneau that he's doomed, it won't heal, and don't play? I would be willing to bet my non-existent salary, that they are giving him advice to help ensure that he continues to have a long & successful career, rather than having his season or heaven forbid, his career, come to a close from the brain injury. Koskie & Mitchell both had multiple mismanaged concussions, which very likely contributed to their long-term issues. But I'm quite certain neither of them will be trying to keep Morneau from playing, or talk him into staying on the couch to watch soap operas, if he is feeling good and healed!

To clarify, it appears that both the Twins and Morneau have handled this concussion properly since it occured, so I have no complaint with the athletic training staff; my only issue is with the sentiment behind Gardy's comment. Since concussions don't show up on scans, blood tests, x-rays, etc. (the brain damage from concussions can be found in an autopsy, but that would seem to be a rather drastic step...), Gardy is correct that Justin is the only one who can truly tell the Twins when he's ready. Surveys recently have shown that in professional & college sports, however, players tend to be less than truthful about their symptoms, because they want to play, ignoring the potential long-term (and short-term) results. I'm guessing Koskie is telling him to be honest, and not to say he's fine if he's still having issues, but if he's doing well with the workouts, then keep going and get back on the field. What could be more encouraging to Justin, than to have someone who has seen the worst side of the concussion effects, tell him that based on him being symptom-free during his workouts, his brain is in a great place, and he won't need to worry about Koskie's situation happening to him?

With all the work Koskie has been doing with schools & organizations about concussions, his goal has been to help kids, parents & coaches get the young athletes back on the field in the right way, so once they return, they can stay active, and don't suffer further consequences. I'm quite certain Gardy doesn't want Morneau to come back simply because he is anxious to play, or "chomping at the bit" only to have a minor head hit on a play at 1st or whiplash while diving for a ball become a career-threatening injury. He wants him to come back at full strength, and to be able to stay back. However, just because Koskie's career ended due to concussions, doesn't mean he would tell Justin the same thing will happen to him, anymore than Gardy would tell players they'll never be able to become consistent .300 hitters, just because hitting is what he struggled with most in his pro career.

My life has been drastically changed because of my concussions, and I wish with everything in me that I had listened when my sister told me to stop working (& reading, writing, texting, analyzing etc.) until my symptoms were gone. Instead, I kept pushing through it for over a month, and got worse with each day. Had I listened right away, I may have only missed a few weeks of work and then been back to normal (though we'll never know for sure). That being said, if Morneau was asking me for advice (which seems about as likely as me winning the lottery), I wouldn't tell him to not play, or say that his life was going to be ruined now. I'd say to listen to what his body and brain are telling him. I'm guessing it's insulting to Koskie that Gardy seems to think he won't be positive about the situation. As someone who has dealt with that issue, I guarantee he would be thrilled to see a healthy Morneau back on the field, winning games for the Twins.

So if Justin Morneau still has headaches, or that "not right" feeling he described before, then he should wait until those are gone, no matter how boring it is. However, if he no longer has any of the concussion symptoms while working out, throwing, hitting in the cage & doing the regular stuff of life, then by all means, he should be on track to get to a rehab assignment soon, and join the team when he's in baseball shape & back up to speed!

Which Conferences are Doing the Best in March Madness So Far?/My Dream Final Four

The original 65 teams from Selection Sunday have now been shaved down to just the Sweet 16. Which conferences have the most representatives and which ones are doing the most with what they have?

From the, um, mighty Big 6 "BCS" conferences:
Big Ten - 3 of their 5 NCAA teams are in the Sweet 16 (#5 seed Mich St., #2 seed Ohio St. & #4 seed Purdue), and people laughed when I said the Big Ten would look like the best overall conference in the tourney, though I was expecting Purdue to be out by now and Wisconsin to still be alive.
SEC - 2 of 4 (#6 Tennessee & #1 Kentucky)
Big 12 - 2 of 7 (#2 Kansas St & #3 Baylor)
Big East - 2 of 8 (#1 Syracuse & #2 West Virginia)...Anyone remember one week ago when the Big East was supposedly the most powerful conference of all? Those were the days!
Pac 10 - 1 of 2 (#11 Washington) - they were supposedly by far the worst conference, but look better than the "strong" ones since they advanced 50% of their entries and they had a much worse starting point for their two teams than the other big guys.
ACC - 1 of 6 (#1 Duke) - I bet my ACC-loving buddy Jeff Kelberg would not have imagined that the ACC would have the same number of Sweet 16 teams as the Valley, Horizon, Pac-10, A10, Ivy & WCC...

So the ACC has the worst percentage advancing to the 2nd weekend, but considering the Big East was touted as the best conference by far, they definitely look the worst!

Now for the "little" guys:
Missouri Valley - 1 of 1 (#9 Northern Iowa)
Horizon League - 1 of 1 (#5 Butler)
Ivy League - 1 of 1 (#12 Cornell - the "Cinderella" that looks more like a good team with a bad seed!)
West Coast Conference - 1 of 2 (#10 St. Mary's - never thought over the last 10+ years that if only 1 WCC team was in the Sweet 16, it wouldn't be Gonzaga!)
Atlantic 10 - 1 of 3 (#6 Xavier)

11 different conferences are represented in the Sweet 16, which I'm guessing has to be a record, but I can't say for sure. If it is though, I imagine we'll hear about a few times on ESPN & CBS in the next 5 days or so. Only other conferences with more than 1 bid that didn't have anyone advance are the Mountain West (0 for 4), Conference USA (0 for 2) and the WAC (0 for 2).

Three #1 seeds are still alive, as well as three #2s, but only one #3 seed and one #4 seed remain. If you are a fan of the underdog (as I am) you have to love this year!

Shockingly, my brackets are actually still in good shape, since I had Kansas, Villanova, Georgetown, New Mexico, Pittsburgh, Wisconsin, Maryland & Vandy losing between Round One and the Sweet 16 (except Kansas which I had losing in the Elite 8). So if I'm following my brackets, I'd want a Final Four of Ohio St., Kansas St., Kentucky and Baylor, with the Buckeyes beating the Kentucky version of the Wildcats for the championship.

However, since this is the tournament where anything can happen, this is my dream for the next two weekends:
Sweet 16 -
Northern Iowa def. Michigan St. (I like Tom Izzo, but I have to pick the cute little school that is just a few hours away)
Ohio St. def Tenn (gotta pick the Big Ten if neither one is a "mid-major" school)
Butler def. Syracuse (The Bulldogs #5 seed is the best seed of any the remaining small conference schools)
Xavier def. Kansas St. (Might as well support the Jesuit schools since my sister teaches at LMU & I love the Zags)
Cornell def. Kentucky (Perhaps the worst seeding of a tournament team in 10+ years)
Washington def. West Virginia (Both big conferences, but I'll take an #11 over a #2)
Purdue def. Duke (Considering many people, including myself, had the Boilermakers losing in the first round to Siena without Robbie Hummel, they are pretty much an underdog story; plus I hate Duke)
St. Mary's def. Baylor (even though many other Zags fans can't cheer for their big conference rival, I will, while wearing my St. Mary's sweatshirt which I only purchase a couple years ago because I was looking everywhere for the soft, comfy adidas 3-stripes on the arm hoody sweatshirts, and they had one, with colors that match all my Twins, Gonzaga & Loyola Marymount clothing!)

Elite 8 -
Northern Iowa def. Ohio St.
Butler def. Xavier (who wouldn't want to see Butler in the Final Four at home in Indianapolis? It could be a real life Hoosiers story!)
Cornell def. Washington
St. Mary's def. Purdue

Final 4 -
Northern Iowa def. Butler (I just said I wanted Butler in the Final Four; didn't say they needed to win it. Gotta cheer for the 2 Tartan High School Kids, Asst. Coach Ben Johnson formerly of the Gophers & DeLaSalle high school & North Dakota native Ben Jacobson, who could be a good choice for the Gophers if the unfortunate Tubby rumors come true).
St. Mary's def. Cornell (Cornell's Ryan Wittman is a Minnesota kid, but I pull for St. Mary's normally outside of West Coast Conference games, plus that's another excuse to wear the aforementioned sweatshirt)

Championship Game -
St. Mary's def. Northern Iowa (as Omar Samhan suddenly becomes a lottery draft pick in the NBA after not even being on most team's list of players to watch...and then Coach Randy Bennett likely leaves for the Oregon spot once Mark Few and Tubby Smith turn it down, causing the Aussies on the team to go back Down Under and St. Mary's fades into oblivion the year after their National Championship, kinda like that school in Chapel Hill, North Carolina)

Not exactly realistic, but it would just be my dream picks from who is left, and who could have imagined everything that's happened so far? Either way, I think there will be another fun weekend of basketball starting Thursday night! Now I hopefully I have a few days to relieve my Tivo Stress...

Who is to Blame?

Gerard Kemkers is not exactly a household name, perhaps even in his own home. I'm not sure many of the speed-skating fanatics in the Netherlands knew too mach about Kemkers, the coach of superstar Sven Kramer...at least how much they knew of him prior to Tuesday (2/23) afternoon in Vancouver.

While Sven Kramer glided his way to gold in the 5000m race last week, we got a glimpse of just how much the Netherlands love their speed skating. We learned that a power company offered a 50 euro discount on quarterly bills if Kramer won a gold medal. That makes America's love of football look like a mere childhood crush. Going into Tuesday's 10,000m race, it was clear the country would be glued to their TVs close to midnight in Amsterdam, to watch Kramer in the race he hasn't lost since 2007 (yes, there are places that show the Olympics live all day; come to think of it, that's basically everywhere but the US).

This distance once again looked like it should be named the "Sven Kramer Challenge" as the only real competition was for 2nd place. Kramer was skating in the last pair and had a solid 6 second lead with only a few laps left, when he came to the transition area where the skaters switch between the inside and outside lane on each lap. Kramer was heading for outside lane when he hesitated and suddenly jumped over the orange cone to the inside lane.

He proceeded to keep cruising around the ice, finishing 7.57 seconds ahead of his closest competitor. As the crowd went nuts, he flashed his winning smile and pumped his fist, until Coach Kemkers came up next to him to say something, and suddenly Sven was throwing his glasses, yelling & looking nothing like a man who had just claimed his 2nd gold medal of the Vancouver games.

The voice of the arena announcer began to explain some sort of issue, which the NBC commentators passed along to confused viewers like me. In a 25 lap race, the skater should not end in the same lane where he began, yet Kramer had started and ended on the inside lane. This means he missed a lane change and was automatically disqualified. Speed skating analyst (and former athlete bringing us heartbreak and then triumph) Dan Jansen said he had seen this happen before, but never by the top skaters, and never in the Olympics. I just sat on the couch wondering how a skater of his caliber could forget to make a lane change. I got my answer during NBC's primetime broadcast (I could've looked it up earlier online, but that would've lead to finding out who won the Men's Giant Slalom race that NBC wasn't showing until later, so I yet again avoided the Internet).

Video shows that as Sven Kramer was prepared to move to the outside lane, his coach Gerard Kemkers emphatically pointed toward the inside lane. Kramer had to decide in a split-second whether to go with his gut, or listen to his coach. Unfortunately, he made the wrong decision (and ultimately a costly decision, literally, with that medal being worth nearly $500,000 US dollars from his sponsors).

So whose fault is it? Some of the media and other athletes say the blame lies squarely on Sven Kramer's shoulders, since he is the world-class athlete, solely responsible for his performance on the ice. While this is technically true, I'd have to put the majority of the blame on the coach (who, as Bob Costas mentioned, might want to look into witness protection).

By this point in the race, Sven Kramer had been skating about as fast as I drive my car, for about 10 minutes. He thought he knew where he was supposed to go, but his coach, the man entrusted with making sure he did everything possible the last 4 years to prepare for these races, was telling him something different. Kramer is an amazing athlete, but even bionic men get tired, which can make the mind tired. Coach Kemkers had been on the sidelines watching, just skating back and forth a few times. Surely he wouldn't have a mental lapse in a moment as important as this, would he? As he watches Kramer move toward the outside lane, he wouldn't adamantly point inside unless he was 100% sure he was right, would he?

As both a former coach and athlete (albeit at the somewhat smaller stage of the high school level), I'd have to place the majority of the blame on Gerard Kemkers. The coach can't mislead his athlete like that, even if it is obviously unintentional. Certainly, he wasn't trying to sabotage Kramer's top event, and Kemkers definitely looked rather inconsolable later, but he was the one pointing his athlete toward the wrong lane.

Of course everybody makes mistakes, but regardless of magnitude and regret, they are still responsible. Yes, Kramer could've continued in the direction he was heading, and yes, he does have to take some responsibility as well, but every athlete is taught from day one to listen to their coaches and to follow their directions (which Kramer did quite literally in this case). Dan Jansen later added that while he had seen skaters forget to change lanes, he had never before seen a coach point his skater in the wrong direction, so it would've seemed improbable to Kramer that Kemkers could be giving him bad advice.

That being said, it would be honorable if Kramer would publicly put the blame on himself and apologize for his (understandable) tantrum after the race. Kemkers would still know he made a huge mistake, as would everyone else watching, but it would be a classy move by Kramer nonetheless, and show that he is also a champion off the ice, which could end up being meaning more to both of them in the long run.

Mass Failure of College Basketball Coaches Previously and Erroneously Thought to be Good

Many college hoops fans & members of the media, especially those living in the Twin Cities, had high expectations for the Minnesota Golden Gopher Men’s Basketball Team. After all, they made the NCAA tournament last year with essentially the same line-up, and they’re led by National Championship winning Coach Tubby Smith. The fact that they are 5-7 in conference (14-10 overall) means those Tourney hopes are essentially out the window, barring 5 or 6 wins in the final 6 games (vs. Wisconsin, vs. Indiana, vs. Purdue, at Illinois, at Michigan, vs. Iowa) or a victory in the Big Ten Tournament which comes with an automatic bid. Stranger things have happened, but clearly this season has been a disappointment, and there’s no one to blame other than the coach, right? After all, good coaches are able to rally the troops even when the top two recruits never play a game and the best defensive player on the team/starting point guard is out for the 2nd half of the conference season due to grades, right? A coach with 1 National Championship, 3 Elite Eights and 5 Sweet Sixteens, who had a string of 14 straight NCAA tournament appearances with three different teams (Tulsa, Georgia & Kentucky) broken in his first year at Minnesota, clearly isn’t as good as his career record if he can’t get this team back to March Madness. If this is the case, as so many local writers & fans have said, there are a lot of bad coaches out there this season that used to masquerade as legends & leaders of the game!

UCLA is 11-13 this year, with a 6-6 record in the very “down” Pac-10 conference. They lost to Cal State Fullerton, to Dan Monson’s Long Beach St and were absolutely annihilated by Portland, who later lost by 30+ points to Idaho. Ben Howland used to be a good coach, back when UCLA went to 3 straight Final Fours in 2006-2008; or those two Sweet Sixteen trips for Pittsburgh, which landed him the Bruins job. Heck, he can’t win this year even though they only made Nikola Dragovic sit out a couple games when he was charged with felony assault. His trial has been pushed to March 15, and unlike the Gophers’ Trevor Mbakwe, Dragovic doesn’t have any witnesses saying he wasn’t even in the state where the assault occurred. UCLA clearly knew they were down on talent this year, due to multiple early entries into the NBA the past few seasons (Kevin Love, Jrue Holiday & Russell Westbrook, just to name a few) so little things like a felony assault didn’t bother them, but still they can’t seem to win. I guess Ben Howland just isn’t a good coach anymore.

Remember a few years ago, when the Florida Gators celebrated the first back-to-back men’s college basketball championships in nearly 15 years? Billy Donovan was a hot coach then, being offered the Orlando Magic NBA head coaching spot, accepting it, and then changing his mind & returning to Florida. His team is 17-8 this year, which sounds good, but is a bit deceiving. Their win over Michigan St is nice, but the loss to South Alabama and no other significant non-conference wins has them on the outside looking in for March Madness. Nick Calathes clearly left college a year or two early, and prior to that, it apparently hurts to lose all 5 starters from your National Championship team. If they fail to make a late run, this will be two years in a row in the NIT. I guess in Billy the Kid’s old age (he is at close to the nursing home entry level at the age of 44) he has forgotten how to coach, because we’ve heard around here that these things must be overcome by enthusiasm and leadership of the head coach. 3 Final Fours (2 championships & 1 runner-up) and a Sweet Sixteen just aren’t worth what they used to be…)

Jim Calhoun’s normally strong UConn team has really struggled this season. Their overall record is 15-11, but they are only 5-8 in the Big East conference, which won’t get them into the big dance. Connecticut has losses against strong teams like Duke, Kentucky, Georgetown & Syracuse, but has also struggled against weaker teams such as Michigan, Providence, and a suddenly down Louisville (come to think of it, Rick Pitino is another coach I could feature for this blog). Their only wins this season against likely tournament teams are vs. Texas, who has been free-falling for weeks, Villanova and…William & Mary. Pretty bad if William & Mary is one of your teams’ 3 marquee wins! But this one is really hard to figure; the Huskies troubles started with Jim Calhoun on the bench, but even when he took an extended medical leave, they weren’t able to bounce back from the clearly weak coaching they had been getting from the man with 2 National Championships, 1 other Final Four, 5 Elite Eights & 4 Sweet Sixteens (with a grand total of 21 NCAA tournament appearances as a head coach). It must be really bad leadership to continue to affect a team even when he wasn’t there anymore!

It seems like only yesterday that everyone thought Roy Williams knew how to coach basketball, like, perhaps, last April, when he was celebrating a National Championship victory for North Carolina. Now, he is talking about his therapist visits to discuss his feelings about this season being a catastrophe, as the Tar Heels hold a 3-8 record in ACC games, and have conference losses this season to Clemson, Georgia Tech, Wake Forest, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Maryland & Duke including a stretch of 7 losses in 8 games. They also were witness to the College of Charleston fans rushing the court after an “upset” over UNC. At least Charleston is leading the Southern Conference now that Stephen Curry left Davidson to take his game to a higher level, so perhaps that isn’t a bad loss…but a team that started the season ranked #4 in the ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll, isn’t supposed to be miles away from even being on the bubble. Never mind the players they lost after last year’s championship; Roy Williams simply is not able to motivate this team to victory, as he has stated that the methods that worked with previous teams, just aren’t getting through to this team. Those methods clearly must be inadequate, as they only got him 2 National Championships & 5 other Final Four appearances between North Carolina & Kansas, plus 2 Elite Eights and 4 Sweet Sixteens.


If you haven’t yet caught the sarcasm dripping from these words, then I clearly am not doing any better with my writing than those 5 are with coaching, and I don’t even have any championships on my non-existent writing record. Perhaps, rather than jumping on the “Tubby is a bad coach this year” bandwagon, some other reasons for the disappointing (yet perhaps not underachieving) season should be considered, such as the missing recruits/players, struggles making shots in close games, an inability to get steals or make crisp & accurate passes without Al Nolen on the floor, a less impressive performance by the Top 10 team they beat a few games after Minnesota played them and numerous others that I may explore in future days if my brain cooperates.

Of course a coach has an impact on how a team is performing, and they have to take some responsibility even if they are doing everything “right” and it isn’t working, but to act as if Tubby has lost his touch, and start discussing if he can win & recruit here in the future, is almost as absurd as the Vikings naming Les Steckel as a head coach in the 80’s or Mike Lynn trading 321 draft picks for an aging Hershel Walker. Perhaps we have forgotten this team was 9-22 in 2006-07, that the ’07-08 NIT appearance was considered a “victory” for the program and that the ’08-09 team was never actually expected to be an NCAA tournament team until that big upset of Louisville.

I suspect this would be a much different season if Trevor Mbakwe & the 5 star top ranked recruit in the Big Ten, Royce White had ever stepped foot on the floor, even if Al Nolen still didn’t do his homework. But I guess that’s a scenario that is only happening in a parallel universe along with Brett Favre running for 4 yards and Ryan Longwell kicking a FG to go to the Super Bowl.

Nick Punto Day - Why I love Nick Punto!

Today is Nick Punto Day for Twins bloggers, as created by Andrew Kneeland of the Twins Target blog. I have been looking forward to this day because Nick Punto is one of my favorite members of the Minnesota Twins. Seriously. No, I don’t think he’s one of the best players on the team, and I’m certainly not interested in debating his value with any Nick Punto haters. I know you’re out there, and I know you’d love to tell me why he shouldn’t ever play, but I don’t care, so feel free to write your own blog about why he doesn’t belong in the major leagues, but don’t rain on my parade. This is just me explaining why I love Nick Punto!

I wrote last year about why Punto played as often as he does if you want to look at statistics, but this blog is kind of like explaining why I love my big comfy soft Adidas sweatshirts or my perfect fitting Twins Enterprise Twins hats (Twins Enterprise has nothing to do with the Minnesota Twins, but it’s only “fitting” that they make my favorite hats). Punto is obviously not the best player on the team, and my favorite clothing items are not straight off the fashion runways. I just really enjoy Nick Punto, just like I enjoy my most comfortable clothes! Punto isn’t my first choice for who I’d want to bat with the game on the line in the 9^th inning, just as I wouldn’t wear my favorite sweatshirt/cap combo to meet with a publisher about getting my new book into print (not that I have written a book, started a book or thought about starting a book…). Nicky is just a player that I know will make my evening more comfortable overall!

-Just to clarify, earlier tonight, long after I started writing this blog, I saw that Kbrobaseball had her Punto blog title comparing him to a “good ol’ pair of shoes.” I swear I did not steal her idea, as I had been planning this line of thought since hearing about Nick Punto Blog Day. Apparently this merely means that Punto has this kind of effect on some of his fans!-

Nobody hustles and goes all out quite like Punto does on every play, both on offense and defense. I am not at all a fan of him diving into first base, except in those rare occasions where it is necessary to avoid a tag. Even though physics says that’s not the fastest way to reach the base, he believes that it is until someone can prove him wrong. While he knows he’s putting himself at risk of injury, he does it because he wants to do whatever he can to get on base. His logic may be faulty in this case, but I still can’t be mad about the effort. He only has one gear: going all out all the time.

The Twins are always known for solid consistency on routine grounders, and the ability to make the spectacular plays as well. Of all the fantastic defenders the Twins have had in the last handful of years, I would put Nick Punto’s collection of Web Gems (even if they weren’t all on Baseball Tonight) up against anyone else on the team, or almost any other team for that matter. Torii Hunter has obviously had some of the most amazing catches in Twins history, so he would have to be at the top of that list, but I would still argue that Nick would be right there with him.

There are two Twins plays of the last 5 years that stand out in my mind above all others, in terms of the quality of the play (and I know once I write these, I will think of 30 other ones that should be at the top as well, but such is life). One was Torii Hunter in the 5^th inning (I think) of a game in which Johan Santana had a no-hitter going at the time. The ball was hit to left-center field, and seemed to be at a trajectory that would be impossible to even reach in time to cut off on a bounce, let alone to snatch out of the air. The cameras didn’t even show anyone in the area as the baseball shot out toward the direction of the fence. All of the sudden, there was Torii Hunter flying across the field turf, channeling his inner Usain Bolt (even if we didn’t know who Bolt was yet), propelling off the ground horizontally toward the ball and somehow capturing it in the leather pocket of his glove, followed by a good 2-3 somersault/rolls toward the warning track. I can still hear Twins television play-by-play announcer Dick Bremer saying the following lines as his excitement and volume level increased with each word: “He didn’t catch that did he?!?! He didn’t catch that did he?!?! He sure did!!” The catch itself may have been routine for Torii, but actually getting to the ball way out of his range combined with making the catch; that is what made it amazing.

The other play that is at the top of my own personal web gem list is what I titled The Nick Punto Superman play at 2^nd base, for my own personal DVD highlights. It was in Yankee Stadium a few years ago. I don’t remember if it was a bunt, or just a roller slowing up in the grass, but I know there was no chance it was going to be anything other than an infield hit. Punto got up to the ball, but the angle at which it was rolling vs. the direction he was coming from = no chance in the world of physics to get the ball to 1^st base accurately, let alone before the runner reached safely. He grabbed the ball barehanded, and had his whole body off the ground, almost as if he was lying down and had started levitating in a perfect Superman type pose. The fact that he was in the air should’ve eliminated any ability to put some torque on the toss, since the arm is only one component in getting power behind a throw. Yet somehow, he was able to take the energy from pushing his legs off the ground for the dive, and move it along to his arm, which was hanging below his body between his torso & the grass, to get something on the throw to first. As for accuracy, I have no idea how it got where it was supposed to go. Throwing across your body very rarely works out well for even the strongest and most accurate of arms (ask Brett Favre or Peyton Manning about that…), especially when you are suspended in the air. Yet little Nicky Punto got that throw to 1^st base in time for the out. The play continues to amaze me just thinking about. Even more amazing to me is that he made almost the identical play in 2009, in the exact same borough of New York, albeit on the opposite side of the street. The pretty much cemented that fact that it wasn’t a lucky play!

I would need to write that book I mentioned previously in order to describe all my favorite defensive plays from Nick Punto over the years (and I would need a Lord of the Rings size series to cover all the plays by every Twin that I’ve enjoyed through time), but that play at Yankee Stadium just embodies who he is out on the field. He never believes that a play is impossible and he will always give it his all. I’ve often wondered what would happen if the effort and attitude of players like Nick Punto & Mike Redmond was combined with the talent of a Milton Bradley. That would be one unstoppable ball player.

I still can’t quite understand why Punto only seems to be able to swing the bat well in even numbered years, but that means we should be in for a good season for him, regardless of what different position he heads out to each game. I just know I can rely on him to play hard, and to care about what he is doing, no matter what the situation. No one can control their talent; sure, they can work hard on skills and practice consistently, but talent is a gift. Effort and dedication is what can be controlled, and I think that must be why Nick Punto is one of my favorite Twins of the past decade. My favorite sweatshirts & cap certainly have been there for me repeatedly, never failing to be comfortable, even when they felt perhaps they needed a break. So as sappy & sugary as this superfluous post may be, this is why I love Nick Punto!

(1st Photo taken by Liz Strand, 09/21/07. 2nd Photo taken by Kathy Willens, 07/04/07)

The Vikings Must Win, for the Sake of My Mental Health

I'm not exactly a happy (sports) camper right now. My Zags won their Thu & Sat games vs Pepperdine & Loyola Marymount, but completely forgot their defense on the team plane, after putting it to good use in Portland, Moraga & San Diego. Had they been playing any team with something resembling a winning record, they would've been tagged for a loss. I believe LMU had 5 key players injured, yet it was tied at the half, and close until the last 5 min or so. But hey, they got the wins, which gives them 8 in a row. Undoubtedly their RPI will fall, but they'll keep their spot in the top #10-12 in the rankings.

I was also disappointed by the Timberwolves ending on Friday night. Trailing by 3 with under 6 seconds left, rookie Jonny Flynn drove to the hoop, got the lay-up as well as a foul call. Flynn never gets foul calls! This is a frequent topic during the broadcasts. He calmy swished the FT, and the New Orleans Hornets called a timeout with 3 seconds remaining. As assistant coach Tim Floyd handed out money to college recruits and the two NBA teams took the floor for the pivotal last possession of regulation, Minneapolis local station KSTC-45 promptly cut to a furniture commercial.

I was not born for the Heidi game 40+ yrs ago, when the AFL championship between the Raiders & Jets was cut off for the start of the movie Heidi, with 65 seconds left and the Jets leading by 3 points, but I read all about it as kid wearing my purple Tommy Kramer jersey. While angry football fans flooded the network switchboards, only those in the stadium were able to watch Oakland somehow score 2 touchdowns in one minute, to win by 11! Not long after that, football television contracts included provisions that games would be broadcast in full, regardless of time.

Ok, so the Hornets-T-Wolves is not exactly the AFL Championship, and the number of viewers affected was slightly smaller, but it was still frustrating as I yelled at the TV screen, until the commercial ended and video of Hornets players celebrating appeared on my screen. Apparently they hit a shot...

My mother had the perfect response to this Hornets win though, stating that it was good that New Orleans won, since that was the only win that city would get this weekend. Atta girl mom!

In honor of today's annual Hockey Day Minnesota, where FSNorth shows wall-to-wall hockey games, including outdoor high school challenges, the Gopher men's hockey team made sure outstate Minnesota had more to cheer about. After a few winning weekends to get back on track, including a solid 3 pts (out of 4 possible) last weekend vs. North Dakota, Minnesota followed that up by letting St. Cloud sweep them in a home-and-home series, 4-3 in St. Cloud on Friday (the Huskies built leads of 3-0 & 4-1) and 4-1 on their home ice. Impressive...

Finally, Tubby's boys took the floor Saturday morning, for a huge game against #7 Michigan State. This was a "not quite a must win but pretty much a really need to win due to the pathetic loss at the currently not good Indiana Hoosiers" game that looked more difficult with the news that junior starting point guard Al Nolen would be out due to academic suspension, which could extend the rest of the season. Devoe Joseph started in his place, and he is a better offensive player, but Nolen definitely is the stronger defensive presence. Considering this, I just hoped the little yellow rodents could stay in the game. Maybe I should've wished for more...

Minnesota took control, with a commanding 8 point lead at the half, and 2nd half advantages of 13 or 14 points (I'm doing this insomniac blog without any stat sheets). Devoe Joseph filled in very nicely, as a scoring presence, and dishing out a good number of assists (I know he had 7 midway through the 2nd half). Unfortunately, Michigan St made the run every good team makes to try to get back in it, and that would've been a great time to have a stopper like Al Nolen on the floor, especially since he's one of the only guys quick enough to try to keep up with Spartans PG Kalin Lucas. Michigan St found a way to tie it late, and of course, Kalin Lucas was the gut who got open enough to hit a 3 pointer with 1:29 left to take a 3 point lead.

Senior Damian Johnson was able to cut it to 1 point, and the Gophers played shutdown defense to get the ball back with about 17 seconds left. Lawrence Westbrook took a shot with close to 5 ticks remaining (remember; no stat sheets), and even though CBS' Seth Davis tweeted that there sure was a lot of contact on his shot, it would've been rather surprising to hear a whistle at that point in a game, for better or worse. Westbrook's shot just sorta floated straight up, and a few Gophers tried to tip it to the net, but luck wasn't on their side and time expired with the scoreboard showing a Michigan State win.

In terms of sports losses, this hit me pretty hard. Knowing they had the game under control and lost it, keeping themselves on the outside of the NCAA tourney bubble with only a few more chances to beat a team "better" than they are, was quite a bummer.

So as you can clearly see, I am so due for a big win that sends me leaping off the couch for joy (that would be a roughly 1-1.5 inch leap), and I'm guessing many other Minnesota sports fans feel the same. So Dear Vikings, please take this opportunity to ensure that no one in purple & gold takes the field for the Pro Bowl next week, as you would be preparing for a much more important game in Miami! My mental health & well-being is counting on you! (Who knows...I might even fall asleep before morning if they win!)

Posted via email from trueliz's posterous