MinnesotaSportsScene.com

ESPN.com is batting about the latest possible trade rumor in the NBA: that Miami is so taken with O.J. Mayo, they may be willing to work out a trade with Minnesota to swap the second pick for Minnesota’s third pick in the draft, which would allow Miami to take Mayo and give the Wolves a chance to draft 6-9 big man Michael Beasley.

Another possibility could be that Miami would draft Beasley and Minnesota could draft Mayo, with the intent to work out a trade on draft night, after both selections have been made. Mayo, who is more of a combo guard in the mold of Randy Foye, would be a welcome addition, but Beasley is a legit big man who could take some pressure off Wolves ace Al Jefferson in the front court.

While the cost of such a trade would help determine the Wolves’ willingness to swap picks with Miami, it’s hard to imagine the Wolves wouldn’t want a shot at Beasley, though they haven’t exactly resorted to GPS tracking in anticipation of this rumor becoming reality just yet.

Also, there’s still no guarantee Chicago will draft Memphis PG Derrick Rose, and may opt for Beasley instead, which would throw the whole trade scenario into chaos.

Tubby Smith’s University of Minnesota Gophers men’s basketball team still ranks high following a spring signing period in which no additional talent was added. Maintaining a high ranking while other Big 10 and top national schools added players is a testimony to the quality of the five recruits Smith put together last fall.

HoopScoopOnline ranks the Gophers the highest, at 13 nationally and second in the Big 10. Rivals.com ranks the Gophs 23 nationally and third in the Big 10. Scout.com ranks Minnesota at 26 nationally and third in the Big 10. That’s not much slippage, especially considering the job Tom Crean has done at Indiana, recruiting top talent in the spring period, including Verdell Jones III, the talented pure point guard who narrowed his choices down the Minnesota, Indiana or Kentucky before settling on the Hoosiers due to the greatest opportunity for starting minutes.

A late rumor, however, is that Smith may exercise one more 2008 scholarship after all, rather than saving it for the class of 2009. No, he’s not going after Kentucky transfers PG Derrick Jasper or seven foot center Mike Williams - even though both might make nice additions. Instead, rumor has it Jones is eye-balling California SG Malik Story. At 6-5, Story is a solid shooter, boasts an NBA-archetype body, knows how to play defense and possesses a solid basketball IQ.

However, Story has been all over the place, playing at three different high schools in Virginia and California over his high school career, and word is he has some off-the-court and academic concerns. Still, Story is a big enough talent that Smith might be willing to take a chance on him, rather than reserving an extra scholarship for the Class of 09.

Whether the Gophers add Story to the Class of 08 or not, though, it appears that next year’s team will be a much more talented group, ready to shake everyone’s home theater sconces with some impressive play; and considering the Gophers were already close to being a 20-win team under Coach Smith with the leftovers from Coach Monson’s worst-ever Gophers team, it appears the Gophers might just be ready for the Big Dance next season, if not quite stocked yet for a run at the Big 10 championship.

After dealing or releasing or deciding not to re-sign three of their top talents, expectations for the Twins this year were not high. That’s good, because at 21-22, they’re playing just below .500 ball.

The shocking bit is out of their control; at 23-20, the AL Central-leading Chicago White Sox are only two games ahead of third-place Minnesota, well within reach, still.

Instead of polishing up your golf clubs, though, it might be wise to keep on eye on these guys. This team still has talent on it, even if the starting pitching rotation isn’t as star-studded as it once was.

Gophers 2009 basketball recruit Royce White just proved to be a better “get” than coach Tubby Smith may have thought when he landed White’s verbal commit last month. According to the latest Rivals.com poll of the top 150 prospects in the 2009 class, White moved up several notches to 18 overall.

White’s pal, Rodney Williams, Jr., also move up in the poll, to the 28 spot. Williams is considered a strong Gophers target, especially since he is White’s summer league teammate in the Howard Pulley tourney. Glen Rice Jr. and Daniel Miller, two kids from Georgia, have also been offered scholarships by the Gophers. Rice is another Top 100 prospect and could provide some insurance at guard if Williams doesn’t sign with Minnesota. Miller’s not Top 100, but has good numbers and is said to have impressed Tubby Smith, who knows a thing or two.

Georgia has been a strong target state, recruiting-wise, for coach Smith, who landed 2008 post player Ralph Sampson III from the Peach State. Must be offering them Kohler faucets in their dorm rooms or something! (Not really… I just like Kohler faucets.)

It may not be happening as quickly as some might like, but it appears Fred Hoiberg, the former Minnesota Timberwolf forced into retirement by a heart condition, who has become involved in the front office of the Wolves, is still being groomed to take over Kevin McHale’s role when he finally decides to step away from the team. When that will be, no one is sure, but Hoiberg is the heir apparant.

“We’re getting him involved in all parts, and this coming year, we’ll get him some more responsibilities,” owner Glen Taylor told TwinCities.com columnist Charley Walters recently.

Let me be your travel guide to at least one degree, Fred: despite the tendencies of your predecessor, there are a lot of other teams to make deals with other than the Boston Celtics.

On a related note, if the Celtics win it all this year, I nominate the man most responsible for Boston’s return to glory, Minnesota GM/team VP Kevin McHale, as the NBA GM of the year.

New Gophers recruit Royce White, himself ranked 32 in the nation by Rivals.com, commited to Tubby Smith’s Gophers recruiting class of 2009 a couple weeks ago, and is convinced that he can be a big factor in getting lifelong friend and fellow Top 100 recruit, Rodney Williams Jr., to also select the Gophers. Williams is ranked 43 overall by Rivals.com.

While many folks were wowed by Tubby’s Fab Five recruiting class for 2008, if he can add Williams along with White to his 2009 recruiting class, Minnesota could easily see the 2009 class surpass Tubby’s 2008 recruiting class. Although coach Smith’s 2008 class ranks no lower than Top 15 nationally, and is ranked Top 10 by some services, none of his recruits rank higher than 100 individually.

With Royce already in the bag for 2009 and Williams a strong prospect to join him, the 2009 class would easily boast two Top 50 recruits, making it an even stronger recruiting class with those two players alone. The biggest risk with White and Williams are the academic concerns they pose; White seems to have dealt with his issues, but Williams needs a strong senior year academically to secure his academic eligibility for the Gophers.

Here’s hoping the pair will overcome the academic challenges and secure their future in the maroon and gold, rather than the alternative, which could be hawking the best acne treatment in commercials, or something like that, which certainly isn’t a goal anyone wants to see them reduced to.

As we all know by now, heavily recruiting pure PG Verdell Jones III last Monday chose playing time over playing for one of the most prestigious coaches in all of college basketball, when he selected Indiana and Tom Crean over Minnesota and Tubby Smith.

The loss of Jones is by no means a tragedy for Smith, who will simply move the scholarship he’d reserved for Jones to his recruiting class of 2009. After all, his class of 2008 is already in the Top 10 of the nation in most polls, and with five recruits already signed, it’s not as great a loss as it might have been were it not for the presence of the five recruits Tubby already had nailed down.

The Gophers recruit class of 2009 is already off to a top-notch start when Smith signed Royce White, a Top 100 prospect, who gave his early verbal commit a couple weeks ago. Adding an extra available scholarship to the pool of players who will come in with White could help Smith secure yet another Top 10 recruting class, which would make a 2009 recruit a best buy compared to adding a sixth or seventh player coming in at the same time as Tubby’s Fab Five class next fall.

Minnesota Gophers football coach Tim Brewster is already looking ahead to 2009; not that this season doesn’t matter - it does, a lot - but he’s already secured an oral commit out of Houston Cypress Ridge RB Hasan Lipscomb, who Rivals.com rates as a four-star prospect and one of the top 250 juniors in the nation.

While he may live where cell phone repeater aren’t needed in the Houston area, Lipscomb comes from an area like that; he moved from New Orleans to Texas following Hurricane Katrina.

Rushing for 1600 last season as a junior, Lipscomb may be the first back to commit to the Gophers under Brewster that has the potential to make Gophers fans reminisce a bit less about the glory days of Lawrence Maroney and Marion Barber III sharing the same maroon-and-gold uniforms for a couple seasons.

We’ll know early Monday evening, just in time for the local news, whether Verdell Jones III will be a Gopher or a Hoosier next year. The true point guard who has been heavily pursued by coach Tubby Smith is scheduled to make his announcement at 5 PM on Monday at Jupiter’s Pizzeria in Champaign, IL.

While Jones prepares to leave behind high school and all its inconveniences like acne treatments and girls who would rather date college guys, it appears playing time may be a factor in Jones’ decision. He spent time during his second visit last April how he’d fit into a rotation at guard that already included Al Nolan Jr., Blake Hoffarber, Lawrence Westbrook and fellow 2008-09 recruit Devoe Joseph.

While Jones is a true, pass-first point guard and therefore would be a key part of that mix, if he ends up selecting Indiana instead, it will be only because of playing time, as Jones clearly wouldn’t mind playing for a coaching legend like Smith.

The huge trade that brought Kansas City DE Jared Allen to the Minnesota Vikings made losing that first and two third-round draft picks far less critical. If Allen can stay clean and model his Vikings career after Cris Carter, who also came to the team with substance abuse problems and turned his life and career around, then he could add that last missing element to Minnesota’s defense that makes the difference between 8-8 seasons and missing the playoffs, versus a playoff-bound team.

Fans of the Vikings will certainly now have a new weapon to enjoy when playing Madden 09 on their PS3; Allen led the NFL in sacks last season with 15.5, more than the Vikings’ entire defensive line accumulated last season.

It won’t tax the Dell memory of regular readers of this blog to recall that Minnesota Gophers basketball head coach Tubby Smith is in hot pursuit of Champaign, Ill., point guard Verdell Jones, who is also being courted by Indiana, Arizona and Kentucky.

Well, even though Indiana might be the school most likely to give Jones immediate starting minutes, rumor has it that Tubby’s rep may land the Gophers yet another top recruit, bringing his class of 2008-09 to a bumper crop of six players. Already ranked as a Top 15 recruiting class nationally, the addition of Jones would push Smith’s first recruiting class for Minnesota solidly into Top 10 status, perhaps as high as Top 5.

Technically, the Gophers have a seventh scholarship available that would have gone to California recrtuit Krys Faber, but when he chose DePaul over Minnesota, word is Smith decided to save that scholarship for his recruiting class of 2009-10. The first recruit he signed for that class is Top 100 prospect Royce White, a Minnesota native.