Today one of the lead stories on ESPN's NBA coverage is an article entitled What We're Most Excited About In '11-12

The article interviews 5 national NBA bloggers and asks them what they are looking forward to most for the 2011-2012 NBA season.  The surprising result?  4 of the 5 bloggers identified themes regarding the Timberwolves with 3 of the 5 specifically mentioning the Wolves as 1 of their top 5 stories.

Brandon Jackson of Celtics Hub mentions Rookies including Derrick Williams & Ricky Rubio as the #5 thing he's looking forward to.

Kevin Arnovitz of ESPN says "the Wolves have the potential to be a place you land on a busy League Pass night." as he discusses them as his #4 thing he's looking forward to.

Rob Peterson of Hardwood Paroxysm mentions "Love ... should be the focal point of Adelman's offense and the fulcrum for what could be an exciting young team." and lists the Wolves as his #3 storylilne

Zach Harper of Daily Dime Live says "First time in a long time the Wolves could matter for good reasons." and lists the team as the #1 thing he is looking forward to.

I have no idea if the team is going to do much this year but it's quite interesting that so many national NBA writers are taking notice and actually "excited" about the Wolves for the coming year.

John Hollinger writes for ESPN and has a statistical tool for evaluating potential college players who are coming out in the draft called the Draft Rater.  This is in addition to the statistical work he does with existing NBA players to evaluate based on their Player Efficiency Rating. 

I recall last year that he had Kevin Love rated very highly (as well as Mayo ranked down somewhat).  There are many examples of how this tool identified players who should have been drafted higher.  You can get some interesting info on his tool and opinions by reading today's chat on ESPN - Hollinger Chat

His work is part of ESPN Insider but I found another NBA Blog (The Knicks Blog) that posted a good story about the Draft Rater and listed the top 12 players in Hollinger's tool for the upcoming draft.  They are -

Top 12 Player According to Hollinger’s Device:

1. Ty Lawson, 2. Blake Griffin, 3. Ty Evans, 4. Austin Daye, 5. Steph Curry, 6. Nick Calathes, 7. Dejuan Blair, 8. Danny Green, 9. Flynn, 10. James Harden, 11. Hasheem Thabeet, 12. Earl Clark

Knick's Blog - Draft Rater

I found it interesting that Lawson was #1 and that he's not on anyone's radar for the top 10. 

Should be worth a little debate on those rated higher than current mock's and those who are projected lower (10/11) or missing altogether (Derozen/Holiday).

It was announced this morning that Minnesota Gopher junior forward, Ryan Stoa, has signed a 2 year contract with the Colorado Avalanche and will forego his senior season at Minnesota.

The contract will pay him $850k per season if he makes the team and $65k per season if he's in the minors.

For the 2008-09 season, Stoa led the team in both goals (24) and points (46). 

It was widely expected that Stoa would not return for his senior season since he had missed a season as a medical redshirt and most knowledgeable fans realize he is ready to take the next step beyond college hockey.

Good luck Ryan - hope to see you play in Colorado yet this season!

Stoa Signs with Colorado

Hi,

I am pursuing my MBA at St Thomas University and am enrolled in Sports & Entertainment Marketing this term.  Our project is to develop a sales & marketing plan with the Minnesota Timberwolves.  Our group has put together the following offer:

Timberwolves vs. Detroit Pistons

Wednesday January 28th - 7pm game

The offer we’ve negotiated for is –

Lower Level - $50 ticket for $35 each

Upper Level - $20 ticket for $10 each

This offer has 2 positive components.

1.       You don’t have to buy 20+ seats to get the group rate.  You can buy as few as 1 seat and get this rate.

2.       The $10 price is lower than even the normal group rate of $15 for upper level tickets

This seat chart show you were the $50/$20 seats are located - http://www.nba.com/timberwolves/tickets/arena.html

To order you can go here - https://oss.ticketmaster.com/html/go.htmI?l=EN&t=timberwolves&o=5763243&g=1178

·         If you have a group and want to sit together put all the tickets on 1 order form.  If you have a group of 20+ you should submit your group name to Erica Noah (e-mail below) to be displayed on the scoreboard during the game and the group leader will receive a Timberwolves gift bag.

·         Please use the Special Offer Code: USTG2 in order to access the special ticket offer.

·         New users will then be prompted to set up an account (on the right-hand side).

·         All tickets must be purchased with a valid credit card.

·         Tickets will be emailed to the account holder directly.

·         **If you do not receive your tickets within 30 minutes please email noah@timberwolves.com or call Erica Noah at 612-673-8341.

PS - I got approval from Stop-n-Pop to post this

(promoted by PJS .... thanks for the preview!)

The newly #1 ranked Minnesota Men's Hockey team faces off this weekend at #10 ranked Denver University.  For the past 4 weekends the Gophers have tied the first game of the series and then won the second game giving them 3 points each time.  This weekend's games are -

• Friday 8:37pm - FSN
• Saturday 8:07pm - FSN

The Gophers lead the all-time series against DU 90-63-12 but went 0-4-1 against them last year which included a loss to Denver in the WCHA Playoffs Championship game.

• The Star Tribune preview makes note of the recent trend of tie-win to point out that the Gophers aren't perfect - Gophers Hardly Perfect
• The always interesting WCHA Blog over on USCHO has a short blurb on UM Goalie Alex Kangas winning the Co-Defensive Player of the Week last week with his first collegiate shutout.  The 2 writers go with predictions of UM sweep and split - USCHO - WCHA Weekend Preview
• After a disappointing sweep at the hands of SCSU last weekend Denver coach George Gwozdecky talked about his teams consistency as part of a Lets Go DU Blog interview - Gwozdecky Interview

In other non-DU related news:

• The Gophers signed 6 future hockey players to LOI's during the early signing period.  Information on them as well as some details on the potential of having Bemidji State enter the WCHA can be found on Roman Augustoviz's Star Tribune Blog - The New Gophers Are ...
• Finally the WCHA Blog does a good job of reporting on the ongoing saga at Wisconsin with their decommitments.  Brock Montpetit refused to sign his LOI making him the 4th player to back out to the Badgers after giving a verbal commitment.  The discussion continues about how coach Mike Eaves "over recruits" and the resulting fall out - Wisconsin Decommit #4

While it might be prudent to predict a tie-win again I have a feeling the Gophers will lose at least 1 game this weekend in the mile high air of Denver.  Since they seem to play better on the back half of the weekend I'll go with a Friday loss followed by a Saturday win.

According to this story on Gopher Illustraded MarQueis Gray, the highly regarded 4 star QB from Indiana, has passed his ACT and will be joining the Gophers for the 2009 season.

Gray joined the team over the summer and spent the summer months working out with the team. He was even allowed to practice with the team when fall camp opened for a few weeks. However, midway through camp he learned that there was an issue with the NCAA Clearinghouse and he would need to return home.

The future Gopher quarterback would have to re-take his ACT test and earn another qualifying score. Gray did not complain and released a statement through the University of Minnesota indicating that he would indeed take care of the issue. "I'm confident that I can clear up my situation this fall and I'm excited to re-join my teammates at Minnesota," Gray said.

GI.com learned this morning that Gray has indeed taken care of the matter. He learned early this morning that he earned a passing score on the ACT test he took on October 11th.

Story - Gray Story Link

Our WCHA leading Gopher hockey team (3-0-1, 7 pts) continue their conference schedule this weekend against the Minnesota State - Mankato team.  Friday's game (7pm - FSN) will be played at Mariucci Arena and Saturday's game will be played at Xcel Energy Center (7:30pm - FSN).  The Saturday game is the 2nd game in a doubleheader featuring Minnesota teams as MN-Duluth plays St. Cloud State at 4pm.  The team is off to a great start and this weekend could go a long way toward telling us whether they will be a conference champion contender.  Mankato comes into the weekend with a 3-1 overall record (1-1 in the WCHA).  They really should have swept North Dakota but let the Saturday game get away after leading.

Gopher Puck Live does a good job of previewing the games against MSU-M - GPL Mankato Preview

Zach Harrison of MSU-M did score a natrual hat trick of short handed goals against North Dakota.  This rarity got his stick taken away and a write up in Deadspin - They Took His Stick

The Gophers have moved up to #5 in the national polls - http://www.uscho.com/rankings/

In the USCHO WCHA weekend preview we hear about the crackdown in penalties, the preview of the MN Hockey Showcase and their prediction of a Gopher sweep - This Week in the WCHA

Finally, Bob Sansevere of the Pioneer Press, has an interview in today's paper with coach Don Lucia.  While I didn't like Bob's questions I did like getting some insight into what the coach is thinking - Don Lucia Interview

There's an article in today's Indianapolis Star about Purdue having 2 trick plays ready to spring against us on Saturday -

Tiller said "So my instructions to our staff on Sunday were, from this point forward, I want to see, when the game plan is presented, two deceptives. Now, I'm not guaranteeing you they're going to get called, but we're going to have them as a possibility."

Are they using reverse psychology to make us "think" they are going to pull out a trick play at any moment?  Seems like an odd topic otherwise to talk about beforehand.

Boilers Hoping To Keep Foes Guessing

When highly recruited defenseman Jake Gardiner chose to attend the University of Wisconsin (freshman this fall) there was speculation that his younger brother, Max Gardiner, would follow in his footsteps and become a Badger.

Instead Max gave a verbal commitment this week to attend the University of Minnesota starting in either 2010 or 2011.  The 6'3" forward will be a Junior for Minnetonka HS this winter and is considered one of the elite HS players for the 2010 class.

Max Gardiner Not Following Brother

 There have been a number of updates regarding the Gopher Hockey team this week that I thought I'd share -

• The Gophers received another commitment for the 2010 team.  This time it was St. Thomas Academy forward Christian Isackson.  He chose Minnesota over Wisconsin and North Dakota - Isackson Commits to Gophers
• With their sweep of St Cloud last week the Gophers have moved up from #9 to #7 in the USCHO/CBS rankings - Gophers at #7
• Robb Stauber, one of the Gopher greats and former Hobey Baker winner, resigned this week after spending 9 years as the volunteer goalie coach - Stauber Resigns
• Cardinal on GPL has a good preview of the upcoming weekend against Wisconsin - Wisconsin Series Preview
• Badger Beat has a number of stories from a Wisconsin viewpoint including co-Captain Ben Street being out for 3+ months with an injury and lamenting the worst hockey start (0-4) in more than 70 years - Badger Beat Stories
• There was a nice story in the Star Tribune regarding former Gopher Thomas Vanek and how he's being used more frequently on special teams - Vanek Answers Challenge

Speaking of Gophers in the NHL here's a list of scoring leaders -

The Minnesota Gophers Men's Hockey team opens their regular season tonight in a home and home weekend series with St. Cloud State.  SCSU comes into the game at 2-0 winning 2 cupcake games last weekend.

The big questions for the Gophers are how will the 12 freshman perform, can they score goals and can goalie Alex Kangas carry over his great finish from last year into this year.

Both games will be carried live on FSN or on WCCO radio and are 7pm starts.  There are a number of previews you might want to read to get ready for tonight's opener -

• Gopher Puck Live gives a very good overview of what to watch for this weekend - GPL Preview
• The Star Tribune concentrates on profiling St. Cloud State as well as featuring information on why the Gopher freshman chose to come to Minnesota.  There's also a very odd comparison of freshman's actual height & weight as compared to the media guide - StarTribune Preview
• The Pioneer Press concentrates most of its time on profiling goaltender Alex Kangas who, as mentioned, will play a pivotal role in the success of this years team - Pioneer Press Preview
• Finally, USCHO has a piece that covers all of the games this weekend that are a part of the WCHA including last weeks results and players of the week, matchups and predictions - USCHO Preview

Go Gophers!

Myron Metcalf of the StarTribune has started a brand new Gopher Basketball Blog with a first entry - http://ww3.startribune.com/blogs/gophersbb/   I'm guessing that GN & PJS will find themselves linking to Myron on a regular basis.

While the football team continues to surprise and delight us many of us are looking forward to what is ahead for Tubby Smith's Gopher team this winter.  As everyone knows, Tubby brought in 5 very highly recruited players which should increase the talent level across the board.  The least well known of these 5 was Paul Carter - a JC transfer that comes in as a Sophomore.  Word has been trickling out that Paul may be a strong contributor and then this entry was posted in Myron's first blog post -

Tubby Smith told me that Paul Carter may be the star of his first recruiting class as Gophers head coach. When I talked to him Monday, he said that Carter’s such a multitalented player that he expects him to have an immediate impact. He’s definitely versatile.

Go check out Myron's blog for additional information, and as his first story says, bookmark it!

Another fantastic scoop by GopherLady on Gopherhole.  Nadine Babu continues to get great interviews.  Can't wait to read the 2nd part of the interview regarding his views about where the Gophers stand.

Bryce McNeal is a Rivals 4 star WR and the 86th overall ranked player in the class of 2009.  In addition to still isting Michigan as a potential location he is considering Minnesota, Florida, Colorado and California and plans to take visits to each of these schools.

Interview link - Bryce McNeal Decommits

The Gopher Hockey team kicks off play for the 2008-09 season tonight with an exhibition game against the University of British Columbia.  The Thunderbirds have already lost to Alaska - Anchorage and St. Cloud State in exhibition games. 

You can read the Star Tribune Preview Here which focuses on the return of Ryan Stoa from a knee injury that cost him all but 1+ games last year - Stoa Returns to Ice Feeling Like Freshman

The Pioneer Press also previews the game with a focus on the new officiating rules that are a part of college hockey for the coming year which include having 2 referees for each game - Gophers Hockey Season Opens

In other Gopher News -

• Inside College Hockey has their Recruiting Rankings for incoming Freshman.  They rank the Gopher's Jordan Schroeder as the Top Forward, Aaron Ness as the Top Defenseman and the Gophers class as #2 overall - INCH Rankings
• The Star Tribune discusses changes to Mariucci Arena as well as the naming of Justin Bostrom and Ryan Flynn as Assistant Captains - Star Trib - Media Day Article
• College Hockey News is out with its WCHA Preview.  They pick the Gophers to finish 5th - CHN Preview 

The NHL season has also started and 9 former Gophers are playing in the NHL this year - Gophers in NHL

• Alex Goligoski got his first NHL goal scoring the teams only goal in Pittsburgh's 3-1 loss to Ottawa last Sunday in Stockholm, Sweden - Penguins Lose
• Blake Wheeler got his first career goal in his first NHL game scoring in the first period of the Boston Bruins 5-4 win over Phoenix last night.  In that game former Gophers Phil Kessel and Jordan Leopold also scored their first goals of the season.  "Blake Wheeler provided a spark for the Bruins in his first NHL game, scoring a goal in the first period.  "It was a dream come true and you couldn't write it any better," the rookie said." - Game Story

We are now 14 days away from the start of the University of Minnesota Men's Hockey season for 2008-09.  For those of us who's first love is hockey it's time to start getting up to date on what to expect for the Gopher Hockey team.

The 2007-08 season was certainly an up and down time for hockey fans.  The Gophers got off to a slow start, saw the distraction of Kyle Okposo leave mid-season and then made a great run at the end.  Along the way, the Gophers had a disappointing 7th place finish in the WCHA regular season but a tremendous run to the championship game in the WCHA playoffs.  With their tradtional tough schedule and strong finish they qualified for the NCAA playoffs only to get knocked out in the first round by eventual champion, Boston College.

The 2008-09 team will be led by Sophomore goalie sensation, Alex Kangas, who emerged during last year to be a huge difference maker in that late run through the playoffs.  They are going to need him to be good again as this team is extremely young and lost the largest amount of scoring in the WCHA:

In order of most goals lost in all games, as a percentage, with the number of total goals lost and the total number scored in parenthesis:

1. Minnesota – 53.2% (58 of 109)
2. Michigan Tech – 52.6% (41 of 78)
3. St. Cloud State – 35.6% (42 of 118)
4. North Dakota – 24.8% (32 of 129)
5. Wisconsin – 23.7% (27 of 114)
6. Colorado College – 23.5% (32 of 136)
7. Denver – 22.4% (26 of 116)
8. Minnesota Duluth – 20.3% (15 of 74)
9. Alaska Anchorage – 19.8% (16 of 81)
10. Minnesota State – 17.9%( 19 of 106)
source (http://www.gopherpucklive.com/)

The gophers are going to need to see production from their class of 12 freshman and 6 sophomores to make up for the lack of senior leadership (only 2 on the team - Justin Bostrom & RJ Anderson).  This means the team may struggle a bit early in the season.

Early season rankings seem to have the Gophers all over the place:

• As posted before, USA Today's national poll has the Gophers 9th in the country - http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/hockey/usatmen.htm
• The WCHA coach's poll has the Gophers tied for 4th with Wisconsin - http://www.grandforksherald.com/articles/index.cfm?id=88117&section=Sports
• The WCHA media poll has the Gophers finishing 7th again in the conference - http://www.madison.com/tct/blogs/icehouse//index.php?ntid=307300
• Finally, the WCHA Hockey Blog has picked the Gophers to finish in 3rd - http://westerncollegehockey.blogspot.com/2008/09/wcha-season-preview.html

Because of the large number of freshman I would hope that you'd see a WCHA first round home playoff series and an NCAA bid.  I would not expect to see the Gophers be in the hunt for the WCHA regular season title.

While losing was painful I do find great enjoyment in reading the Buckyville & Badgernation message boards.  Here are just a few of the message threads -

• Worst day in history of Wisconsin sports
• My lowest point as a Badger fan to date
• Most inexcusable loss
• General complaining thread
• Why I think this loss will be felt for years

Anyway, go enjoy a little joy at the expense of our friends to the East.

http://forums.scout.com/mb.aspx?s=193&f=2560

http://buckyville.yuku.com/forums/1/t/Badger-Football-Board.html

So I've been thinking about trying to get season tickets in 2009 at the new stadium.  With the great start this year and the risk of not getting seats if I wait I decided to call the Gopher Ticket Office today to check into buying tickets for this year to get guaranteed access to the stadium.  I figured that even though I'd still pay the full $250/ticket price for 4 games it might be worth it now that they look like a more fun team to watch.  Plus, if I did get into TCF I wanted to make sure to have a seat that can see that beautiful new scoreboard.

The problem - they told me the best seats yet available for new season ticket holders is Section 203 - Row 31 - yes, that's the very top row in the corner of the end zone.  It's my own fault for waiting until now - I'm sure the problem is that they've sold out the rest of the stadium for Iowa single game tickets.  Still, those seats are absolutely terrible.

So, I couldn't do it.  Guess I'll take my chances next year. 

Great news for those of us in the south metro or SE Minnesota.

Charter Communications and the Big Ten Network have reached agreement to place the BTN on Charter's expanded basic tier.  The press release included this quote -

Big Ten Network and Charter are currently working together in an attempt to ensure that the majority of these same systems can launch the network on its expanded basic level of service in time for Saturday's Big Ten college football openers.

Looks like we'll even be able to watch the game against Northern Illinois if things work out right!