MinnesotaSportsScene.com

Parting from the pro ranks for a moment, Minnesotans just received a great New Year’s gift: Gophers football coach Glen Mason has been fired by U of M athletic director Joel Maturi. It could have come earlier, but at least it finally happened.

Mason has been mostly uninspiring since joining the Gophers; sure, he had some good seasons, but has made a career here out of celebrating making it to minor bowl games. Heck, the Music City Bowl has almost been an automatic bid for Gophers pigskin fans in the last few years.

But Saturday’s loss in the lowly Insight Bowl was the last straw. Losing 44-41 after leading 38-7 is just inexcusable. Now, much like with the Gophers hoops position, the U of M is in a position to lure a deserving coach to the Gophers who might actually do more than stay just above .500. The speculation will be fun, in terms of who might get the job, and in the process we’ll learn whether Joel Maturi deserves to be next on the chopping block.

I’m not a big fan of former Vikings Coach Mike Tice. He muddied up the team’s image almost beyond repair and was never going to bring us deep into the playoffs. But with Tice’s offensive coordinator, Scott Linehan, in charge, at least the Vikings could score points.

Now, this week, we end our season against a Linehan-coached offense in the St. Louis Rams. Poetic justice? Well, Linehan’s teams is only one victory ahead of us, so it’s not like he’s a genius. But let’s face facts: this year the Vikings offense has performed like someone’s been slipping them Hoodia diet pills or something.

Brad Johnson can’t pass worth beans, and he has no one worth throwing to, for the most part. Chester Taylor may have reached 1,000 yards, but the running game has seriously underperformed, even so. While we have great run defense this year, we have an offense and a secondary that will need major reconstructive surgery prior to the 2007 season.

Over one-fourth of the way through the season and once again the Minnesota Timberwolves are struggling with a below-.500 record. Worse yet, attendance is down. And all over the Web, radio and TV, folks are talking about the problem and pinning the blame on Kevin.

But the Kevin they’re point at is not the inept general manager of the Wolves, who has traded solid players for junk players while giving away two years’ worth of number-one draft picks, which will haunt the franchise for years to come. Nope, the Kevin whose departure folks are saying would help the Wolves is The Big Ticket, Kevin Garnett.

Umm, are the folks suggesting this the same ones who said the Vikes should get rid of both Randy Moss and Daunte Culpepper? What are Minnesota sports fans and commentators smoking?

Sure, it’s an enticing idea: trade KG to the Chicago Bulls in exchange for a solid player or two, a couple players with contracts ending at the end of the year, and two number-one draft picks. The Iverson trade makes it clear that such an asking price for KG would be realistic, and there might even be some benefit in it for the Bulls, who have plenty of young talent but need a veteran leader like Garnett.

But let’s get real: does anyone really expect that the other Kevin… Mr. McHale… has the GM savvy to pull off a trade like this without the Wolves getting taken to the cleaners yet again? I personally have no faith in Mr. McHale to do anything but screw it up. With him in charge, we’d probably be the ones giving up two number-one picks, not Chicago.

So, until Kevin McHale is shown the door, Kevin Garnett should stay right where he is. Here in Minnesota, with the Wolves.

I have long been a fan of Minnesota sports, primarily the Vikings and the Timberwolves, as well as, to a lesser degree, Gophers hoops and Gophers gridiron.

Sure, I sometimes think about the Wild and the Twins, but mainly I’m a gridiron and hoops fan. I’ve polluted my main political blog with sports talk for long enough. From now on, this is where I’ll post my sports ramblings.

Welcome aboard!