MinnesotaSportsScene.com

We all knew that the Minnesota Gophers were better under Tubby Smith this season. We also all knew that the Gophers were playing a Dan Monson-style soft schedule this year in the nonconference portion of their schedule. We all used our custom pens to mark down an asterisk next to the now 10-2 record so far this season, to remind ourselves we have a way to go yet.

In part, that’s why the Duel In the Desert tournament was important for the Gophers, who breezed through the first two rounds against vastly inferior opponents. But on Sunday, when the Gopher’s finally ran up against a decent UNLV team, the Runnin’ Rebels ran roughshod over the team, exposing its weaknesses for the first time this season since the team lost to Florida State.

This loss was worse. At 81-64, the 17-point loss was a far bigger deficit to lose by than the Florida State loss, and proved the Gophers need next year’s recruiting class, ranked tops in the Big 10 by several recruiting analysts, in order to start turning things around not just in the pre-conference part of the season, but during Big 10 and post-season play.

With the loss to UNLV, the Gophers drop to 10-2 with the Big 10 portion of their schedule ready to begin soon.

“This will help us a lot,” Coach Smith said in a post-game press conference. “We’ve haven’t seen a game like this since Florida State. Now they’ll see the things we’ve been trying to get them to understand.”

Bill Clinton won the presidency with a four word motto that helped him stay on message: It’s the economy, stupid.

Perhaps when addressing the problems that remain with the Vikings this off-season, Coach Brad Childress would do well to adopt a similar catch-phrase: It’s the receivers, stupid! When going out on the free agent market for body shop supplies, that’s what we need to stock up on most on offense, not a new quarterback.

That will change once the Vikings rid themselves of receiving cancer, former first-round draft pick WR Troy Williamson and sign a key receiver or two who can actually catch the ball. The problem is not so much in inexperienced QB Tavaris Jackson as it is a dearth of talent in the receiving corps.

Sidney Rice looks like a keeper, and Bobby Wade’s not bad; we just need one or two more decent receivers to back them up, since Robert Ferguson is not a long-term fix. Wade finished the season with 54 receptions, Ferguson and Rice with 32 and 21 respectively. Williamson had only 18. Time for him to go, especially after two yet drops that could have been difference-makers against Denver.

Not even heroic QB Tom Brady would be able to win with this year’s group of sad-sack receivers.

Even though the Vikings missed the playoffs on Sunday, dropping to 8-8 after an overtime fumble gave Denver the ball deep in their own territory following an amazing Vikings comeback i the last seven minutes of the fourth quarter to tie the game up, rookie running back Adrian Peterson will probably still be named NFL rookie of the year.

He finished the season with 12 rushing touchdowns, one receiving touchdown, 1,342 rushing yards, and 268 receiving yards for a grand total of 13 touchdowns and 1,610 yards combined. Of course, that’s not counting his special teams yardage. Not bad for a player who missed two games, because that’s a 14-game total.

So why was his team only 8-8 and missing the playoffs? In my opinion, it call comes down to using Adrian Peterson correctly. In some games, Coach Childress utilized Peterson a lot and in others games, the number of carries Peterson saw was slimmed down by hoodia diet pills to next-to-nothing.

Here’s the hard facts: In games where Peterson was allowed at least 15 carries or more, Minnesota went 5-3. In games where he carried the ball fewer than 15 times, Minnesota only went 1-5. So it’s clear that while running Peterson 15 times or more doesn’t guarantee victory, running him fewer times almost certainly guarantees a loss.

The Minnesota Vikings may be back in the playoff picture, but one of the toughest games remaining on their schedule will be played tonight, on Monday Night Football on ESPN, as the Vikings face off with division rival, the Chicago Bears. It’s no secret that the Vikings have played poorly against their NFC North competitors this season, but for the 7-6 Vikings to stay on track for a playoff spot, they must defeat the Bears at the Metrodome.

Fortunately, this is not the Bears team that the Vikings faced earlier this season. QB Kyle Orton will be at the helm, facing off against a decent Vikings defense. And with the Vikings finally having found a passable passing game and discovering their real identity this season as a wham-bam running team, the faceoff should not be a repeat of their last disappointing showing against the Bears early this season at Soldier field.

Tonight’s one of the biggest nights of the regular season for the Vikings: time to put away the skinceuticals and put on their game faces! Time to make sure it’s the Bears who will be massacred on Monday Niight, and not the other way around.

Losing is never fun, but sometimes a taste of a fine wine can ease some of the pain involved in suffering a loss. Perhaps the Minnesota Timberwolves need to look into a wine of the month club membership this year. With their season about a quarter of the way done, the Wolves stand at 3-17 overall; that’s pretty bad, especially for a team with plenty of young talent.

The Gold Medal Wine Club of California would be a good choice for the Wolves. They offer four membership packages. For less expensive tastes, there is the Gold level of membership. Above that, more exclusive wines can be obtained through the Platinum or Diamond-level clubs, though of course the monthly cost of membership goes up accordingly. For those who want a sampling with an international flair, they also offer an international club that goes beyond the borders of California and the US to offer wine aficionados the chance to sample some of the world’s best wines from some of the smaller, more exclusive “hidden treasure” vineyards around.

Who needs to travel around the world or even to the local wine dealer when you can let the experts make great choices for you? That’s what the Gold Medal Wine Club of California is all about … taking you on a journey through the best vienyards throughout California and around the world, from the comfort of your own home.

The hits just keep on coming for the Minnesota Timberwolves. And not in a good way.

On Tuesday, the Wolves found out top PG Randy Foye, who hasn’t played in a single regular-season game this season, will be out for at least another three to four weeks. The news came down following a checkup Foye had in which he hoped to be cleared to make his return.

Instead, his left knee is healing slower than expected, Foye discovered, thus the delay.

“The thought is that he’s going to ramp up his workouts a little bit more and try to do more things, but some healing needs to go on still,” Wolves GM Jim Stack told TwinCities.com. “I think Randy, because he’s a competitor, there’s a little bit of a frustration level. But I think he understands that we don’t want this to be something that’s going to be chronic down the line.”

Basketball is certainly a more enjoyable career path than selling vacuum cleaners, but I’m sure Foye would rather be selling vacuum cleaners than sitting on the sidelines, watching his teammates lose game after game by single-digit loss margins more often than not, and knowing that were he in the lineup, a few of those might have had better chances to be wins rather than close losses.

Speaking of close losses, the Wolves dropped another game Tuesday night as the second in back-to-back games Monday and Tuesday; the Philadelphia 76ers beat Minnesota, 98-94.

Former Kentucky men’s basketball coach Tubby Smith has been working for nine months now without a signed contract, but on Monday that situation was finally rectified. According to various sources on the Internet, as well as the local papers, Smith’s final-draft contract will pay him an average of $1.75M per season, with performance incentives potentially boosting that total.

The deal runs for seven years, through spring 2014, and will pay a base salary of $600,00, plus supplemental compensation at $1.15 million annually, which is where the $1.75M figure comes from. However, there is a lot of other ways for Smith to boost his pay. He’ll also receive $50,000 annually for running summer hoops camps.

Here is a list of his incentives and performance-based bonuses:

• For the national championship: $500,000.
• Final Four: $250,000.
• Elite Eight: $75,000.
• Sweet 16: $50,000.
• NCAA tournament berth: $100,000.
• Big Ten regular-season title: $250,000.
• Big Ten second place: $100,000.
• Big Ten tournament title: $100,000.
• Academic APR greater than 950: $100,000.
• Academic APR greater than 940: $50,000.
• Academic APR greater than 930: $25,000.
• If the four-year average of the six-year graduation rate determined by the university is equal to or higher than 50%: $100,000.

It’s a rich contract, to be sure. Of course, this is exactly the sort of contract a university has to pay for a top-flight coach. If Coach Smith can lead the Gophers to the post season on a regular basis, I’d encourage the Gophers to even pay for Tubby’s auto accessories if that’s what it took. Go Tubby! Go Gophers!

Something all Minnesotans, sports fans or otherwise, tend to appreciate are environmental products, and GreenandMore.com certainly is a decent source for hundreds of eco-friendly products, whether you live up on the greenery of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, or the metropolitan streets of Minneapolis and Saint Paul.

One of the annoying aspects of some “pro-green” advocates like Algore and his loyal zittoheads is that they don’t live in accordance with the values they promote, but that’s not the case with GreenandMore.com. That’s because the company actually does live out their mission, following green-friendly practices on-site, including doing things like forswearing the use of plasticware, using recycled office products, shipping items only in 100-percent recycled cardboard boxes and other nifty gestures.

The company also had a handy “green learning” center with all the latest data from trustworthy sources like the EPA and the US Department of Energy. That’s important because many companies get their information from fringe groups who tend to exaggerate the real numbers; but with GreenandMore.com, you can trust that you’re getting information from reliable sources, not advocates.

If you like blogging, you should also check our their GreenMusings blog, a community and staff blog where employees and customers share their “save the planet” stories and photos. It’s a great way to get to know the company better before investing your hard-earned greenbacks in their products.

Personally, I’ve never been an environmentalist of the Algore zittohead variety; it’s not my religion or anything. But I’ve always thought there is value in being responsible with the resources G-d has provided us in this world, so there’s still a place for companies like GreenandMore.com in the lives of folks who maybe don’t buy into Chicken Little theories like global warming, but do care about keeping the world we live in neat, clean and hopefully leaving in it better shape than we found it in.

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Wins have been rare for the new-look Minnesota Timberwolves this season, and going into Saturday’s game against Phoenix, few folks were expecting the third win of the season to come at that moment. Yet that is exactly what has happened.

C/PF Al Jefferson played up to his “young KG” billing, scoring 32 points and racking up an amazing 20 rebounds on the night while matched up primarily against Amare Stoudamire; Garnett himself rarely played better. Jefferson matched a career high on points and set a season-high on rebounds en route to the win.

With assistant Jerry Sichting handling the business performance management in the absence of head coach Randy Wittman, still recovering from back surgery, Sichting captained the Wolves to their first win under his direction and an NBA-low third win on the season so far.

One more bit of good news is that the Wolves could get Randy Foye back into their lineup, possibly as soon as Monday; Foye is the team’s preferred starting point guard, but he has missed the entire regular season so far rehabbing a pre-season injury. His role has been filled primarily by Sebastian Telfair with occassional help from Marko Jaric.

This isn’t the way to win any designer inspired jewelry like an NBA Title ring. On a last-second shot from Atlanta Hawk Joe Johnson, the Minnesota Timberwolves lost their fifth straight game tonight, and their 15th loss of Minnesota’s first season without Kevin Garnett. For the season, the Wolves stand at 2-15.

The 90-89 loss clinches Minnesota as the worst team in the NBA to this point in the season. In fact, it’s not even close; Miami and Seattle both have only four wins apiece. The Wolves lead the league in losing by a two-game margin.

Still, it’s not as if this year’s squad isn’t scrappy or doesn’t put forth effort; lately it’s more a matter of the roster being beaten, battered and bruised. Craig Smith led the Wolves with 20 points and rookie Corey Brewer was tops in rebounds at 18; but the team is playing without Randy Foye, who’s missed the whole season so far, and Theo Ratliff, who’s out for a while as well; and both Marko Jaric and Antoine Walker are walking wounded, trying to play through various afflictions.

Heck, even Coach Randy Wittman was absent, missing his second game following back surgery as assistant Jerry Sichting takes his place in the interim.

If the Wolves were all healthy, including their coach, they might not be a playoff team, but they’d be at least 2-4 games better than they are. It’s far too early in the season to worry about lottery balls; let’s hope the team heals up and starts making some of their own last-second shots to win games, rather than their opponents coming out on top.

The Minnesota Gophers men’s basketball class for 2007 just keeps looking better and better with each passing day.

Although MinnesotaSportsScene.com was on extended Thanksgiving break - made longer by some ongoing computer problems - just before turkey day, the best point guard in all of Canada agreed to sign a tender with Coach Tubby as highly-recruited Devoe Joseph chose Coach Smith and the Minnesota maroon and gold over all other contenders for his services.

Joseph, rated by most scouting firms as the best point guard north of the border, joins a recruiting class that already was ranked about Smith’s old haunt, the University of Kentucky, by most draft analysts. Prior to Joseph’s signing, the Gopher’s first recruiting class under Tubby Smith already ranked in the Top 10 nationally and the second in the Big 10. With Joseph, the Gophers are now estimated to stand at seven in the nation and tops in the Big 10 by most major scouting services, including, Hoops Scoop Online.

Joseph joins Paul Carter, Devron Bostick, Colton Iverson and Ralph Sampson III as Tubby’s first class for the Gophers. With five scholarships filled, Smith has only one more to full, though he has recruitng an entire starting roster already. Could his first Gophers class rival the legendary Michigan “Fab Five” of the early 1990s? With names as part of that Wolverine time like Chris Webber and Juwan Howard still playing in the NBA, only a LOT of time will tell.

But for now, get out your air horns! Power them with Ingersoll Rand air tools if you need to! Shout for victory, because Golden Gophbers men’s basketball will soon start being world-class again!