Pot Shots '16, Volume 2

English: USA Training session for players on the USA National team and USA Select team, beginning training in preparation for the FIBA World Championship. Training took place 14-18 April, culminating in a red-white scrimmage on 18 April at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum in the XL Center, Hartford Connecticut (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The new athletic director at the University of Minnesota is Mark Coyle, who held the same position for a few months at Syracuse University (and the folks there are pretty hot about it, from what we hear).  He replaces interim AD Beth Goetz, who replaced disgraced AD Norwood Teague.  In a job that will earn him more money than either Governor Mark Dayton or University president Eric Kaler, Coyle will be asked to (A) extricate the department from the excesses of the Teague administration, (B) reassess the contributions of men's basketball coach Richard Pitino (more on him in a moment), men's hockey coach Don Lucia and football coach Tracy Claeys, and (C) refute the notion that the Gophers are a third-rate athletic power that couldn't get out of its own way (though the women's hockey team did win another national title).  Other than that, good luck to Mr. Coyle.  You'll need it.

Richard Pitino helms what is currently one of the worst men's college basketball programs in America, made even worse by the absence of several of his players due to injuries, suspensions and brushes with the law.  Now we learn that Pitino has been exceeding his budget for using the university's private jets.  The 'U' would love to get rid of Pitino right now, except he's got a $7 million buyout clause and the freshman class he's got coming up for next season might improve the Gophers' fortunes a little bit--provided they walk the straight and narrow.  Meanwhile, down at the University of Louisville, his father Rick Pitino is having problems of his own with the men's basketball team he coaches, which allegedly involves prostitutes and strippers.  Like father, like son?

Having won three of the last five WNBA championships, what does the Minnesota Lynx do for an encore?  All the stars are back:  Maya Moore, Seimone Augustus, Lindsay Whalen, Sylvia Fowles, and the return of Janel McCarville after a year off.  But another title depends on how healthy the Lynx are after the long Olympic break (Moore, Augustus, Whelan and Fowles are all Rio-bound), competition from such teams as the Phoenix Mercury (with Brittney Griner and the return of Diana Taurasi) and Los Angeles Sparks (Candace Parker), and from fresh-out-of-college stars like Breanna Stewart (Seattle Storm) and Rachel Banham (Connecticut Sun).  With all that, it is going to be very difficult for the Lynx to repeat as champions.  Even though it is an odd-numbered year, they should still have one more run in them.

With an 8-26 record through May 13, the Minnesota Twins have started their season as one of the worst teams in Major League Baseball.  Nobody has a good explanation for what happened to a team that some thought might contend for a playoff spot.  Instead, the Twins have been all but eliminated by Kentucky Derby Day.  At this point, even Nyquist, the horse that won the Derby, has a brighter future than the Twins.

Wild and Wolves: Coaching Experience Wanted

English: Bruce Boudreau during warmups of Game 2 of the Washington Capitals vs Pittsburgh Penguins 2009 Stanley Cup Conference Semifinals. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Head coach Tom Thibodeau of the Chicago Bulls looks on from the sideline against the Washington Wizards at the Verizon Center in Washington on February 28, 2011 in Washington, DC. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Two of Minnesota's pro sports franchises, the NHL Wild and NBA Timberwolves, have come to the conclusion that experience is the best teacher, deciding to hire men who have already had success coaching in the NHL and NBA to see if they could fix whatever ails those teams.

The Wild hired Bruce Boudreau, who until recently led the Anaheim Ducks and Washington Capitals to consecutive division titles and Stanley Cup playoff appearances.  But his teams have had a tendency to lose the seventh game of a playoff round, which is why the Ducks ended up letting him go.

Boudreau replaces John Torchetti, the interim coach who was part of a long line of assistants and minor league coaches the Wild promoted to the top job with mixed success.  The last coach the Wild had with previous NHL experience was their first one, Jacques Lemaire.  He had won Stanley Cups as a player with the Montreal Canadiens, and as a coach with the New Jersey Devils.  The defensive style he imposed on the team served the Wild well in their beginning years, including a 2003 playoff run that ended when they lost the Western Conference title to the Ducks.

Boudreau will be asked to lead a team that, for all the big-money players on their roster signed to long-term contracts, have been underachievers who barely made the playoffs this past season.  The fact that the Wild lasted six games before losing to the Dallas Stars in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs, when everyone thought they'd be gone in four or five games, should be considered an accomplishment.

The Timberwolves have had coaches with previous NBA experience before (Bill Musselman, Rick Adelman and Sam Mitchell come to mind), but they were all pretty much asked to keep a team with inferior talent afloat.

The situation is much different now with the arrival of Tom Thibodeau as the new Wolves coach and chief of basketball operations.  Thibodeau, who replaces Mitchell, previously led the Chicago Bulls to consecutive NBA playoff appearances before being let go in a dispute with management.

Here Thibodeau gets to coach a team that basketball experts think is on the rise with young talent like Anthony Wiggins and Karl-Anthony Towns, yet hasn't made the playoffs in more than a decade.  All he has to do is to not run his players into the ground, which is something he was accused of doing when he was with the Bulls.

Do the Wild and Wolves really think experienced hands like Bruce Boudreau and Tom Thibodeau will help take them to where they want to go?  They'd better hope so.  They've tried everything else.  And unlike real teachers, pro coaches don't have tenure.