MinnesotaSportsScene.com

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It’s not just a rebuilding job, it’s a fire sale!

The Minnesota Timberwolves traded aging malcontents C Mark Blount and SG Ricky Davis to the Miami Heat on Thursday in exchange for Michael Doleac, Antoine Walker, Wayne Simien, a conditional first-round draft pick… oh, and a dozen organic eggs! That was the clincher for me, right there.

I can’t really blame GM Kevin McHale for wanting to bust up the franchise and start from scratch. Certainly it will prove to be less frustrating than the direction the Wolves have been headed the last couple years, which was nowhere. While Kevin Garnett was a great “face of the franchise for a dozen years, the team was missing the playoffs by a wide margin anyway. As coach Don Nelson once said when busting up the Dallas Mavericks of the 1990s, “I can lose with this bunch of guys as well as the old bunch.”

Let’s hope this “bust up and rebuild” job goes as well for the Wolves as that one did for the Mavericks, who are now one of the more powerful teams in the Western Conference. Certainly, there are some great building blocks.

One is PF Al Jefferson, the player who made sending Garnett to Boston possible through his inclusion in the deal. He plays like a young Garnett, and while he might not peak quite at that level, it’s clear he’s good. And young.

Draft pick Corey Brewer is also a great prospect and brings a reputation for steel defense with him; that’s a quality that could be accused of almost none of the former Timberwolves now departed for other teams. And again, he’s young.

Randy Foye, last year’s draft pick, looks like a keeper, too.

Other guys look promising but I’d need to see more of them to get an idea of whether they’ll pan out. Folks like Gerald Green and Ryan Gomes do look promising, though, and that’s more than can be said of most of last year’s Timberwolves squad.

Another nice bit: McHale’s slowly collecting a nice batch of first-round draft picks for the future. If some of these guys don’t work out, don’t worry, just keep drafting. It’s an approach that’s a couple of years overdue. If we’d adopted it last year, we’d have Tyrus Thomas and some other nice Bulls on our squad, rather than Jefferson and company.

Still, it’s nice to see the team admitting it’s time to rebuild. Maybe this time, they’ll build it right.

The Tubby Smith-coached Minnesota Golden Gophers just earned an S/I-worth front court!

Of course, I’m not talking about Sports Illustrated… yet. I’m talking about the outstanding recruiting job done by first-year Gophers mens basketball head coach Tubby Smith. Yes, THAT Tubby Smith. The Kentucky coaching legend the Wildcats decided last spring wasn’t a good enough recruiter for them anymore, and who heckled him as “Ten-Loss Tubby.”

Who’s laughing now? Coach Smith on Thursday received an oral commit from Ralph Sampson III, son of the legendary NBA center Ralph Sampson Jr. While Jr. stood 7′4″, his son, a high school senior, already stands 6′11″ and is still growing. The other two schools Sampson III had on his “Final Three” list? Georgia Tech and … Kentucky.

How’s that new head coach working out for you now, Wildcats fans?

With the addition of Sampson III, Smith, who has also landed Colton Iverson, a native of South Dakota, as well as junior college prospects Paul Carter and Devron Bostick with one and perhaps two more spots to fill for the 2008 recruiting class, has virtually guaranteed the Gophers a spot in the Top 10 recruiting classes of the year, as well as robbed Kentucky of a kid they probably would have had on their squad had they kept Tubby around.

Smith is obviously the best hire Minnesota could have made. With Dan Monson still in place, they wouldn’t even be shaking hands with Sampson while passing in the airport; now, they’re getting ready to suit him up in maroon and gold next season.

A few months ago, with an aging Garnett and no one of similar caliber for him to play next to, the Wolves seemed like a losing team without a future. Now, they’re a losing team with virtually nothing but a future.

Break out the espresso machines for the season, folks, it’s gonna be a long one, even if a bit more exciting. Gone are all but three players who were on the Timberwolves roster two seasons ago; some of the last veterans were shipped off to the Miami Heat today as suddenly trade-hungry GM Kevin McHale dealt the unmotivated, unproductive veteran duo of Ricky Davis and Mark Blount to the Miami Heat in exchange for three players (Antoine Walker, Michael Doleac and Wayne Simien), only one of whom they may keep, as well as a conditional first-round draft pick.

It’s a great move by the organization; the team was going to lose anyway, but at least they’re being blatant about rebuilding. And in the process, the Wolves roster, which seemed ancient a few months ago, is looking younger and more promising all the time. While perhaps not all of these project players will work out, between the young guys and the draft picks McHale is acquiring, there will be room for a few to fall by the wayside while the cream rises to the top.

Get ready for Wolves basketball to be fun again, even if winning isn’t exactly frequent.

Gophers fans, get a plasma TV and a plasma stand ready, because your Gophers are about to get a whole lot bigger. Sure, the excitement won’t start for another season yet, but new coach Tubby Smith has pulled it off! According to several media sources, Ralph Sampson III, who had previously narrowed down his choices to Georgia Tech, Kentucky and Minnesota, has selected Tubby Smith and the Gophers as his post-high school destination of choice - at least for a season or two before “graduating” to the NBA.

Ralph Sampson III, son of the former NBA great, stands 6′11″ as a high school senior and is ranked as a Hot 100 recruit by most scouting sources. Sampson will join South Dakota native Colton Iverson to play the post with beginning in November 2008. Iverson is a Top 150 recruit according to most scouting sources.

Sampson is the crown jewel so far in Coach Smith’s rookie recruiting season for the Gophers mens basketball team. In addition to Sampson and Iverson, he has so far junior college prospects Paul Carter and Devron Bostick. Sampson’s decision to give the Gophers his verbal was confirmed by his high school coach, Steven Bombard.

While it is only an oral commitment at this time, it is a promising sign for Coach Smith’s first season in maroon and gold. If the Gophers were still under the leadership of a lesser coach, they would not have even been able to shake hands with Sampson, let alone welcome him as Minnesota’s most recent verbal commit.

Local press, of course, will be wringing their hands until national letter of intent day more or less seals the deal. Way to recruit, Tubby! Take that, Kentucky!

Get the adult diapers ready; the Gophers football team has lost again, this time by 40-20 to Indiana. This time, it wasn’t close, they weren’t competitive and there are few excuses for the loss. The defeat drops Minnesota to 1-5 overall, 0-3 in the Big 10.

And suddenly the same local media folks who made sure Glen Mason was run out of town on a rail for never reached more than a low-tier bowl game are pining for “the good ol’ days” of Mason’s reign.

It’s all a bit disingenuous; these are the growing pains that come with any major overhaul of a university coaching staff. Let’s just grit our teeth, bear it and hope that excellent recruiting skills can eventually transform into more wins, or whether coach Brewster should have been Minnesota’s new tight end coach, rather than its head coach.

Gophers mens hoops coach Tubby Smith hasn’t resorted to offering his recruits fancy Skagen watches to get them to commit to Minnesota just yet, and from the look of things, he doesn’t need to.

This past weekend, Smith secured a verbal commitment from SG prospect Devron Bostick from Southwestern Illinois Community College, a 6′5″, 215# sophomore, who averaged 19.5 points last season. Bostick was being recruited by Arkansas, Tennessee and Washington State and is a nice get, although Tubby’s most important target has yet to commit anywhere.

Some reports are emerging that Ralph Sampson III is leaning the Gophers way, but Georgia Tech and Kentucky, both schools where Tubby used to coach remain in contention for the son of the former NBA great.

If coach Smith can land Sampson and a solid PG, he’ll round out his first year in maroon and gold with one of the best recruiting seasons in recent memory.