MinnesotaSportsScene.com

Timberwolves rookie forward Kevin Love has a lot of learning to do, and if coach Randy Wittman has his way, it will be defense that Love, and the rest of the team, learn first. In year two of the post-Garnett era, Wittman is again preaching defense to a team still looking to find an identity the way real estate lovers are looking for Outer Banks rentals.

Part of the identity issue was solved last season when Al Jefferson, the cornerstone of the trade that sent Garnett to Boston, asserted himself as the team’s top big man, posting better numbers than Garnett most of the season, despite being on a losing team while Garnett rode the Celtics to his first NBA Title.

Love will be part of the mix this year, but whether he plays starter minutes alongside Jefferson or comes in off the bench alongside Jason Collins remains to be seen.

Whether Brad Childress, whose tenure with the Vikings is on a pulse oximeter, gets to finish out this season as the head coach of the Minnesota Vikings, or becomes the next coach to be fired mid-season, is a tale that may be told over the next three games. Currently a very disappointing 1-3, the Vikings face crucial opponents, starting tonight.

First, on Monday Night Football tonight, the Vikes will have a showdown with the New Orleans Saints, a game they ought to win. After that, there will be key division match-ups against NFC North foes Detroit and Chicago.

If Childress secures all three wins, he’ll survive the season, at least, leading the Vikings into their bye week with a 4-3 record. He’ll probably survive if he drops one of those games.

However, if Childress loses two of the next three games, or worse, loses all three, we may see a coaching change going into the bye week. And it will be long overdue.

If owner Zygi Wilf does decide to release Childress during the bye, look for assistant head coach and defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier to be named to the interim spot, with a strong chance to retain the job once the season’s over, if he can turn things around. If Frazier can’t turn things around, expect Wilf to clean house and start over fresh in January.

You heard it here first.

Minnesota Gophers receiver Eric Decker is making maroon-and-gold fans forget all about the one that got away, Cretin Durham Hall grad Michael Floyd, now with Notre Dame. That’s because Decker currently leads all Division I receivers with 696 receiving yards through six games; he’s also third in the nation in catches, with 50.

By comparison, Floyd has only 21 catches for 333 yards over five games.

So forget all those Fenphedra-popping wannabes; Decker is the real thing for the Gophers and is a big part of elevating the team from a one-win train wreck last season to a 5-1 phenom this season.

While the Big 10 schedule is sure to take its toll on the Gophers and add a few more losses, one more win will make the Gophers technically bowl-eligible, and two more wins in the Big 10 will seal the Gophers for a post-season bowl bid.

Considering where the team was last season, anything beyond seven wins is gravy!

Well, Tubby Smith can now relax and not worry so much about that term life insurance quote rate; he’s pulled off what previous coach Dan Monson never managed during his tender and that’s getting the top two Minnesota recruits in the state to stay at home and play for the Gophers.

Rodney Williams Jr. finally gave Minnesota and Coach Tubby his oral commitment recently, joining his lifelong pal Royce White in the maroon and gold as part of the 2009 recruiting class. Williams Jr. and White are both Top 50 recruits according to most scouting services, and while White is clearly the better of the two, having them both is a huge recruiting coup by Tubby and his staff.

Williams and White are joined in the 2009 recruiting class by California pure point guard Justin Cobbs, and with Williams on board, Coach Smith may lay low on his 2009 recruiting class until spring, when most of his top power forward targets are expected to make their decisions. One possible target is Trevor Mbakwe, currently attending Miami Dade Community College; he’s a big man that could certainly help the Gophers, especially if they start losing some of Tubby’s recruits to early NBA Draft entries. That is a risk with current freshmen recruits in the class of 2008, like Colton Iverson, Paul Carter and Ralph Sampson III.

Even before the Gophers add a power forward, though, the commits from this trio should be enough to get Tubby a top-20 recruiting class ranking once again.

With success coming mostly on the ground and a powerful 1-2 punch at running back, most people from Minnesota would expect a game description like that to apply to a Vikings victory; but instead, it was the textbook description of how the Tennessee Titans dismantled the Vikes 30-17 on Sunday.

In a daytime game with no need for Maxim lighting, Titans RB Chris Johnson had two scores and his running back partner LedDale White had an additional score on the way to a dominating victory over the purple-and-gold.

Meanwhile, Adrian Peterson scored twice but could not create a win on his own for the Vikings, who are now 1-3 on the season and 0-1 in the NFC North Division.

Tragedy struck close to home for Gophers men’s basketball coach Tubby Smith on Sunday; his nephew, William Smith, 19, a Becker College student in Scotland, MD, was stabbed once in the chest following a fight at an off-campus apartment. He died shortly thereafter.

“We lost a special young man last night,” Tubby Smith said in a statement released by Minnesota. “The grieving process will take some time for my brother and his family, but I know that they appreciate and will need all the support.”

An autopsy was scheduled for today (Monday) and the results have not yet been announced; the murder weapon was recovered at the scene and no arrests have been made yet, though Maryland police are believed to be hard at work on the case.

This is never the kind of news that’s fun to report; our prayers go to all of the Smith family during their tragic loss. Hopefully this blog can soon return to it’s usual sports frivolity and occasional wacky off-topic references to things like sweet potato pie.

California point guard Justin Cobbs committed to the Minnesota Gophers on Sunday, delivering coach Tubby Smith the first pure point guard of his stint in Minnesota. Cobbs is considered a three-star prospect by most experts, but has been highly recruited and made his decision while visiting the campus at the same time as another prime Gophers target, Rodney Williams Jr., a forward who ranks Top 50 nationally but hasn’t announced his decision yet.

Cobbs joins a 2009 recruiting class that already includes a Top 20 talent, Royce White, who committed last spring to the Gophers. If Tubby can land Williams Jr. and add a decent big man, he’ll be well on his way to having one of the top recruiting classes nationally, and maybe the top class in the Big 10, for a second year in a row, which would be a Gophers feat worth its weight in unlocked cell phones.

Well, the Minnesota Vikings finally came up with their first win of the season, but it took until game three, and a QB change, to secure it. The win game against the acne treatments-needing, so-called “Cardiac Cats,” the Carolina Panthers, who the Vikes have done very well against over the years since Carolina entered the league.

The 20-10 victory may not seem like a lot to write home about, but at least it wasn’t a loss. MinnesotaSportsScene.com was among the first to question whether T-Jack had the drive to be a starting QB, and the answer, finally, seems to be, “Nope.” We don’t revel in being right, this time.

Still, when a 37-year-old journeyman signal caller like Gus Frerotte can outperform you, something’s wrong. And that’s what happened Sunday as Frerotte led Minnesota to a long-awaited first win of the season.

Star RB Adrian Peterson carried only 17 times for 77 yards, but it was enough to help the passing game while Peterson doesn’t overwork his ailing hammy. The important thing, again, is it was a win.

On Monday night, I took in the Vikings-Packers game at Joe Senser’s Sports Pub in Bloomington, and the atmosphere was nearly perfect, except for a number of obnoxious Packers fans who couldn’t win gracefully. There were plenty of promotional products available for the game, and my only real complaint is the waitress who didn’t want to give us the Monday Night Football special at 6:30 PM, even though the game was already underway.

As for the game itself, it was nice to see the Viking keep it close on a road game, during the first game of the season, but there were several worrisome signs. Most importantly was the one-dimensional nature of the offense.

OK, we all know T-Jack is playing hobbled; but if he can’t throw at all right now, sit him down until he heals and let our backups do the job for a game or two. What I saw was a quarterback who was hurried (thanks to O-line deficiencies), and started throwing dumb passes.

Also, we went away from the running game too soon in the second half and, considering that it’s the only facet of our offense that works right now, that worries me. It’s a bit too early in the season to start calling for the heads of T-Jack and B-Chill on a platter, but this is a team that could easily start 0-2 now, and that would be a shot in the tender bits for the rest of the season.

Either T-Jack needs to find his rhythm and get on track, or he needs to sit until he’s healed enough to play well. And if Brad Childress finishes this season still winless against the Pack, you can bet MinnesotaSportsScene.com will be leading the call for a new head coach. Three seasons of pointlessness is more than enough - if that’s what this becomes.

Even the best diet pill in the world won’t be enough to keep the purple and gold at bay tonight in Green Bay; with the early season match-up, there really is no weather advantage for the Packers tonight.

So unless there’s a huge windstorm or rain or something, tonight will be a match-up of talent, pure and simple. While Green Bay may have an edge on linebackers and receivers, it’s hard to imagine the Vikings not having the edge at every other position, or close to it.

All X-factors being equal, I’d say tonight the Vikings will win, but it’ll be close. Look for it to be in the neighborhood of a 31-27 Vikings win.

I’m itching for the start of the Vikings-Packers game tonight and one of the biggest questions on my mind is whether Adrian Peterson can be great again this year. Certainly, despite missing four games last season, he has already established himself as possibly one of the best runners ever to wear the purple and gold.

The question is, can he avoid the sophomore slump? Can he improve on what he did last season? With the healing that’s gone on in his knee in the off-season, I’d venture to say it’s possible, even plausible. Only time will tell and kickoff’s in about 12 hours. No time left for those Caribbean cruises. It’s football time, baby!

Cancel the reservations for Las Vegas hotels, the party this Monday Night is on the gridiron! The Minnesota Vikings will open their season tonight against the Green Bay Packers, and for the first time in 16 seasons, the Pack will be without Brett Favre under center.

Since the Vikings have a refurbished pass rush threat with NFL sack leader Jared Allen on the same D-line as the Williams Wall, the purple certainly aren’t going to make the debut of Favre’s successor, Aaron Rodgers, an easy night.

Right now, Tavaris Jackson has more game experience and more wins on his belt that Rodgers as a pro, and with Adrian Peterson in the backfield for the Vikes, and Bernard Berrian competently catching passes, it’s our hope that tonight’s game will be a blow-out favoring the purple.

Of course, historically the series has usually been close; but we’re entering a new era, and on paper, the Vikes look solid for the win. Of course, the X-Factor in all of this is the Green Bay defense, which tried to end Adrian Peterson’s career last season and will likely be cheap-shot artists again tonight, which is why we chose our nickname for them: Murderer’s Row.

Somehow, though, I have a feeling the Green Bay Assassins will miss their target tonight.