Posted June 6, 2008    

• Glen Taylor

• Nick Blackburn

• Kevin Garnett

• Darren Sharper

• Mike Hastings

Taylor More Confident Now About Drafting 

Glen Taylor, who has owned the Timberwolves since 1995, told Sports Headliners on Wednesday he has more confidence in the organization’s drafting expertise now than ever before.  Taylor and staff are preparing for the June 26 NBA draft when the Wolves will have the No. 3 overall pick. 

The Wolves finished last season at 22-60 record, tied with Memphis for the third worst record in the NBA.  The team has missed the playoffs four consecutive seasons.  Part of the performance can be traced to the annual NBA draft where examples include the disastrous drafting of high schooler Ndud Ebi (2003), questionable pick of Rashad McCants (2005) and wait-and-see selection of Randy Foye (2006).   

When past drafts were mentioned to Taylor, he brought up choosing star players Kevin Garnett (1995) and Wally Szczerbiak (1999), two picks that go further back than the above listed threesome.  “Some of them (drafts) have not gone as good as you hoped and some of them have gone better than you hoped,” Taylor said. 

Why more confidence about the upcoming draft that also gives the Wolves two second round selections?  Taylor said the organization’s drafting process is improved by adding staff, having more personnel involved in the decision making, increased scouting, more focus in Europe, and also evaluating players with tests.  “We’re doing more testing to try to understand the person’s personality, and the competitiveness, and all their culture things through these tests, so we’re expanding that,” Taylor said.  “Hopefully, that will just provide us more information.” 

Comparing the draft process to his other businesses, Taylor emphasized the importance of opinions from different sources.  He values knowing that people sometimes see different skills in players, or how those individuals will contribute to the overall team. 

Taylor clearly likes the draft process in place and is looking for improved results.  “I just feel better that we will just increase our odds (of success),” he said.  “There’s no guarantee but I think we’ll increase our odds. …” 

For much of the Taylor-Wolves era, vice president of basketball operations Kevin McHale operated more autonomously in making draft decisions.  Now McHale has increased staff and opinion from others, plus more information readily available to him.  Taylor thinks that will be helpful to McHale.  Taylor wants others to “challenge him and look at alternatives.” 

Those alternatives, Taylor said, could include trading the first round pick.  What if with all the choices regarding who to draft, or whether to make a trade, the Wolves have so many voices that there is no unanimity? “If that should happen, I will certainly sit down with the staff and help resolve it,” Taylor said.   

 

Glen Taylor

Wally Szczerbiak
 

Blackburn Success: Using More Pitches 

The Twins' Nick Blackburn is expected to take his regular turn in the starting pitching rotation tonight despite being struck in the face by a line drive on Sunday. Blackburn, who at 26 became a major league starter for the first time this year, doesn’t discourage easily. 

The Twins Web site reported earlier in the week that swelling on Blackburn's face had been reduced and headaches subsided from the ball hit by New York’s Bobby Abreu.  Blackburn is second on the team in wins with a 4-3 record and his 3.32 ERA is best among starters. 

On a rebuilt starting pitching staff the right-handed Blackburn has been a major contributor.  Late last season he made it to the big leagues for the first time, pitching in six games as a reliever.  His stats included 19 hits in 11.2 innings, with a 0-2 record and a 7.71 ERA. 

The difference since last year?  “I am just using all my pitches now,” Blackburn told Sports Headliners.  “I am finally starting to pitch instead of just going up there and trying to throw fast balls to get all outs.  I am using breaking balls and changeups and stuff, and finally just actually learning what a pitcher really is.” 

Blackburn wants to be more consistent the rest of the season in keeping the ball down to hitters, below the knees.  “That’s been the biggest challenge for me,” he said. “I think it’s probably a challenge for all pitchers.  I’ve got the confidence I think that it takes to pitch up here.  I think I am starting to realize I can compete up here and get guys out.  It’s just going to be the every day consistency of going out there and doing what I have to do and making the pitches I have to make.” 

Umpires can vary in defining a strike zone but Blackburn, who is not a strikeout pitcher and gets ground ball outs from batters, said he won’t let the way a game is called bother him.  “I am not ever going to let an umpire take me out of a game because his zone is tight or whatever," Blackburn said.  "So…I just come after the hitters and I try to put it in the strike zone so they can hit and put it in play and get ground balls. That’s my biggest thought going into the game.”

 

Nick Blackburn is second on the staff in wins and his ERA is best among Twins starting pitchers.

  "I am finally starting to pitch instead of just going up there and trying to throw fast balls to get outs."
Nick Blackburn
 

Worth Noting 

Chris McCosky of the Detroit News didn’t hold back in a recent article that contrasted Boston’s Kevin Garnett and rival Detroit power forward Rasheed Wallace, http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080602/SPORTS0102/806020370/1004/SPORTS.   “Off the court, Garnett can be a jerk,” McCosky wrote.  “He is rude to ball boys and locker room attendants.  He gets himself so intensely wound before games, he's even a jerk to his teammates at times. But on the court, Garnett is the perfect teammate. He plays hard every second he's on the floor. …

“Wallace off the court is one of the warmest and funniest guys in the league. There isn't a ball boy or locker room attendant that he hasn't tipped lavishly. … But on the court, Wallace can be a jerk. There are times, because he is so ridiculously skilled, he just gets bored and lax. He doesn't always agree with the game plan, but instead of arguing about it before the game, he sometimes tries to rebel against it during the game.”

Former Gopher player and Timberwolves coach Flip Saunders, fired earlier this week as Detroit coach, will have another NBA job if he wants one.  It doesn’t take too much imagination to think that Saunders, 53, may one day coach the Wolves again, or even succeed Tubby Smith as Gopher coach. 

Major league baseball is proud of its superior attendance for interleague play but an article in the No. 35 Baseball Research Journal pointed out certain advantages about the American League-National League games.  Generally, interleague games have been played when school is out and weather is warm, plus a majority of games have been scheduled on weekends, according to the Journal article that analyzed data from 1997-2006. 

Twins second baseman Alexi Casilla has reached base via hit or walk in 15 of his last 17 games.  He has hit safely in 13 of 14 games and extended his hit-streak to eight games yesterday in the team’s 3-2 loss to Baltimore.  He is hitting .343 (24-for-70) and he has either scored a run or drove in a run in 15 of his 20 games played in 2008.  He had three hits yesterday.

Kevin Gorg, who has been part of the FSN North broadcast team on Minnesota Wild games, will be appearing on several of the network’s Twins telecasts.  Gorg said his role will be providing “behind the scenes” reporting such as selling beer at the Metrodome.  For that assignment Gorg will become a vendor.  

Twenty current and former NFL players, including the Vikings’ Darren Sharper, will participate in the annual NFL Broadcast Boot Camp at NFL Films in Mt. Laurel, New Jersey. The activity, from June 16-19, will be directed by the NFL Broadcasting Department and cover a wide range of topics with instructors from each of the NFL’s broadcasting partners – CBS, ESPN, FOX, NBC, NFL Network, Sirius Satellite Radio, Westwood One Radio, plus local radio and TV.  The training will include hands-on work in areas such as tape study, editing, show preparation, radio production, control room operation, studio preparation, production meetings, field reporting and game preparation. 

Gopher hockey coach Don Lucia talking last week about his new assistant Mike Hastings who is the winningest coach in United States Hockey League history and in 14 seasons led Omaha to a 529-210-56 record: “After a month-long search and talking to numerous people, I believe Mike Hastings is the right fit for Gopher hockey. He is a former defenseman who has established himself by winning over 70 percent of his games over the last 14 years in the USHL. Mike has recruiting contacts all over North America, but his ties with the USHL will prove invaluable to our program.”  

The Gopher women’s track and field team has four student-athletes, Heather Dorniden, Liz Podominick, Jamie Cheever and Alicia Rue, on the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District V teams as voted upon by the nation’s sports information directors. Dorniden, Podominick and Cheever are first team honorees while Rue is second team.  Minnesota’s four selections was best among Big Ten Conference teams.

Kevin Garnett

Flip Saunders

Mike Hastings