Looking at the Minnesota Twins and Vikings, the immediate future looks pretty dim. However, expanding to the basketball’s Timberwolves and Gophers, the outlook is more promising. The Gopher football team’s future is uncertain.
Jerry Kill’s football team has won four games and while Kill belongs to the Glen Mason school of scheduling, they did win. The team is off to a good start and while the opponents the Gophers have beaten barely qualify as bowl-eligible wins, the team still has a chance for a Bowl game. While we don’t know if they have a good team or not, the Gophers have been winning, which is certainly better than losing to South Dakota State or one of North Dakota’s Universities.
The other well known Minnesota football team is in the second year of rebuilding, whether they want to admit it or not. It appears that from looking at the draft choices, they are going about it in the right way; they are using their first round choice to draft an offensive lineman to protect their quarterback of the future, Christian Ponder.
The team is off to a slow start, losing to another rebuilding team by a field goal. This was one of the games they hoped to win. Now they will have to have an upset to reach my prediction of five wins on their way to next year.
I have hopes for the Vikings’ future, in part because they now have a single head of the organization rather than the triumvirate they had previously. I also believe that the Wilfs will want to put a good team in their new stadium to take full advantage of Zigiville.
The Timberwolves are still in the rebuilding mode, but they have a star in Kevin Love and a legitimate NBA center in Nikola Pekovic. The team has gotten rid of underachieving deadwood. And, if coach Rick Adelman can keep playmaker Ricky Rubio on the floor, the Timberwolves should make their way to the playoffs.
Let’s look at Tubby Smith’s Minnesota Gopher basketball team. I think it’s fair to say Smith’s teams have been a disappointment to date. They have not performed well. Perhaps the most discouraging was watching the lack of player improvement from year to year.
Blake Hoffarber did not get much better during his four years at Minnesota. While I admire his coming to his home university, he may have been better off at Duke or North Carolina where Mike Krzyzewski or Roy Williams would have taken greater advantage of his shooting skills.
He would have gotten much more exposure and NBA scouts would have had more opportunities to admire his ability. He also would have done well financially if he had gone in the draft. He is now playing for a French team in a European league.
Another disappointment was Ralph Sampson lll. After getting off to a solid start as a freshman, Sampson continued to play at the same level and he too was not taken in the NBA draft. It seems unlikely that a 6'11" player with Sampson’s ability would not be one of the 60 players chosen during the two rounds of the draft, but it happened. Perhaps he was passed over because of his lack of passion. You would think that somebody could have instilled that in him during his four years at Minnesota. That somebody is normally the coach.
With Mbakwe coming back and a solid core returning from last year, this is the season that good things are expected from Tubby. Let’s hope Smith lives up to his reputation and salary.
