Game Reset

I've always wondered why those updates in the middle of a sports game were called resets. Basically they're just game summary's that get you up to speed on the current situation. Well, that's a perfect title for this article. There's been several things happening in Minnesota sports that I haven't blogged about yet, and it's time that I made my voice heard (if only by our audience of three).

Gophers

• Joel Maturi might get my vote for Man of the Year right now. He's had an astounding start to 2007. He had the intestinal fortitude to can Glen Mason after the Texas Tech embarrassment. Then he had the wherewithal to bide his time, and hire replacement coaches for each of the two vacancies in basketball and football. Everything was done on his terms. And I'm very happy with the results. Kudos, Mr. Maturi.

• Starting with the football team, I can hardly contain my enthusiasm about the hiring of Tim Brewster. Right guy, right time for this team. The questions about whether a TE coach can handle head coaching duties still need to be answered, but Brewster was smart and got a good OC and a good DC to help lift the burden off of his shoulders in those areas. He's also smart enough to delegate those duties to the new hires. His job will be organization, promotion of the program, and - most importantly - recruiting. In his short time as head coach, he's already lured his son, Clint, a legitimate blue chip QB prospect, to the program. My only plea right now is this: Coach Brewster, by all means, red-shirt the boy, and recruit some talent next year to support him.

• Tubby Smith was absolutely the perfect hire for the Men's B-Ball program. Dan Monson failed as an up-and-comer, which was not entirely his own fault. What the U needed now, though, was something to legitimize the program, and Tubby gives it instant credibility (I really never thought I would be typing that phrase...can somebody named Tubby give anything credibility? Well, maybe a children's show). He's on the back end of his career, so we know that he won't be using this job as a stepping stone for bigger and better things. I've already blogged about my concerns with his on-the-court coaching style, but really, the record speaks for itself, and it's hard to finder a bigger program out there than UK. To top it all off, in his one week on the job, he already has a McDonald's All-American, Jai Lucas (John Lucas' son), potentially interested in becoming a rodent. Fantastic!

• I couldn't be happier that the Gophers' hockey team lost before it had a chance to make another run at a national championship. And then the team that beat them was none other than the University of North Dakota Fighting Sioux. As someone who basically grew up across the street from the hockey arena in Grand Forks, here's a big WOOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO for the Sioux. P.S. Don't ever change your nickname...but that's another column.
  

Timberwolves

From eternal optimism to eternal pessimism, I bring you the current state of the Minnesota Timberwolves. Yuck. That 25-point shame ridden defeat at the hands of Seattle (who was minus Ray Allen, btw) pretty much sums it all up. I would say that I've never been more confident that we should move Garnett in the off-season and try to build around young talent, but I'm absolutely terrified that McHale would screw it up. This team needs some serious house cleaning, and unless Glen Taylor wakes up and realizes that his franchise has lost all favor in the eyes of its fans, it needs to start with ownership. Truly a depressing blot on the Minnesota sports map.

Wild

I'm actually going to try to write something meaningful about a team I know almost nothing about and a sport that I don't know anything about. The Wild have been putting something together that realistically has a chance at being something special. Marian Gaborik has been nearly unstoppable in the 2nd half, now that he's healthy. Pavel Demitra has been the offensive catalyst that the Wild lacked last season. To top it all off, the team has its choice of three goaltenders to use that have all been solid or better. I expect big things from them come playoff time.

Twins

Once again, Terry Ryan and Ron Gardenhire have decided to start the season off with a degree of difficulty, as Carlos Silva, Ramon Ortiz, and Sidney Ponson will make up 60% of the starting rotation. Last year, the team managed to come back after being offensively sunk by Tony Batista and Juan Castro, so this season the Twins are going to see if they can mess with the pitching staff before they go with the better alternatives in Matt Garza, Glen Perkins, and Kevin Slowey. Also, Chris Heintz unbelievably made the team as a third catcher, displacing two useful players who have hence been claimed by the Arizona Diamondbacks: Alex Romero & J.D. Durbin. I really think that it was worth a shot to let Durbin pitch in low-leverage situations out of the bullpen, as he was out of options and could not be returned to the minors without being exposed to waivers. A few good appearances, and they probably could have traded him for a low-level prospect at least. Instead, Ryan decided to lose something for nothing. If they didn't have such a successful track record, I would be really frustrated about this.

Vikings

For a team that really, REALLY struggled last season, so far we've upgraded by signing Visanthe Shiancoe (pronounced Shank-O), Vinny Ciurciu (pronounce Church-OOO), and Bobby Wade (pronounced Uff Da). Yeah...so, how does this make the Vikes better? It doesn't. The Houston Texans cashed in on the Matt Schaub sweepstakes with a deal that would've been completely reasonable for the Vikings to make. If they believe that Tarvaris Jackson is really their guy, then I'm fine with not making the Schaub deal. But he's not ready, and it's foolish to think that either he or Brooks Bollinger will do anything but lose as the starter for this team. I'm now in favor of at least giving David Carr a look too see if he can be a stop-gap until the kid is ready. Remember, Carr at one point in time had enough talent to be selected as the #1 player in the draft (please don't bother with the Ryan Leaf comments, I'm well aware of this). Carr has had some mildly successful seasons as a starting QB, and might be able to improve considering that the one strength this team does have is offensive line. With that said, who's he going to throw to, if he does sign?

Well, that pretty much covers it. Thanks for stopping by.