Vikings: What’s the right move at left tackle? C3

ø Girls’ hockey: Breck star is Metro Player of Year. C8

Winner, Top 10 Sports section in the nationAwarded by the Associated Press Sports Editors (2016)

SPORTSS TA R T R I B U N E . C O M / S P O R T S • S E C T I O N C

W I L D V S . C H I C A G OTuesday: 7 p.m. (FSN, NBCSN)

C H I P S C O G G I N S

This time a year ago, a healthy percentage of the Twin Cities sporting public rooted for two outcomes: Rich-ard Pitino to be fired and Chuck Fletcher to overhaul the Wild roster.

Pitino’s squad had suffered through 14 consecutive losses in what became the worst season in Gophers men’s basketball history. The Wild bottomed out and got coach Mike Yeo fired with a ros-ter that looked incapable of

accomplishing much beyond sneaking into the playoffs.

We now know differently. Robust turnarounds by both teams this season provide valuable lessons.

The Gophers have shown that talent matters. The Wild has shown that coaching matters. And both demon-strate that patience isn’t nec-essarily a cop-out to avoid tough decisions. Sometimes, it’s just the right choice.

Pitino knows what he’s doing as coach, and Fletch-er’s roster looks good enough to contend for the Stanley Cup with Bruce Boudreau as coach.

And no, that shouldn’t be dismissed as fake news.

Patience often runs counter to our emotional involvement with sports teams. In times of crisis — heck, even prosperity — we demand changes to hap-pen yesterday. That’s just the nature of sports.

The explosion of social media has stripped away seven layers of our collec-tive patience. The ability to communicate with others in real time — like, say, the third quarter of a Timber-wolves meltdown — creates a groundswell of anger and mockery.

As Pitino and Fletcher show, patience can be underrated

By PHIL MILLER • phil.miller@startribune.com

FORT MYERS, FLA. – Ryan O’Rourke was driving the Massachusetts Turnpike, heading to Boston a couple of months ago, while having a phone conversation about his pitching motion. What he heard was so insightful, O’Rourke said, “I had to pull over at a rest stop, just so I could focus. That conversation changed my world.”

Kyle Gibson sat in a gym with Twins strength coach Perry Castellano in Plant City, Fla., last Decem-ber, skeptically absorbing a presentation about how he could rid his back and shoulder of the nagging soreness that afflicted him throughout the most dis-appointing season of his professional career. Four

hours later, Gibson said, “it’s like it all vanished. It was unbelievable. I said, ‘Wow, this is the real deal.’ ”

If they sound like product endorsers, well, maybe someday they will be. But for now, the Twins right-handers are simply veteran pitchers searching for new ways to find health and success, and open-minded about where they might find them. Which is why O’Rourke now heaves a set of weighted balls as part of his training, and Gibson perches a giant yellow ball on his shoulder while he warms up.

“It wasn’t easy at first, because there’s a lot of mod-ern thinking about the throwing motion and I’m more of a traditional baseball guy,” Gibson said. “I had to open up a little bit to accept new ways of thinking. And I’m glad I did.”

PITCHERS’ TRAINING TOSSES TRADITION

Gophers could have shot at top-four seed in Big Ten.

By MARCUS FULLER marcus.fuller@startribune.com

A five-game winning streak puts the Gophers men’s bas-ketball team in the best posi-tion in more than a decade to finish with a Big Ten record above .500.

That hasn’t happened since the 2004-05 season, when the Gophers went 10-6, earning a fifth seed in the Big Ten tour-nament — the highest seed for the U since the conference tournament began in 1998.

It’s not likely the Gophers will go undefeated the rest of the regular season, especially with road games left Wednes-day at Maryland and March 5 at Wisconsin. But finishing 11-7 or 10-8 in the conference is realis-tic, which would mean a shot at a top-four seed and double bye in the Big Ten tournament March 8-12 in Washington .

Gophers coach Richard Pitino was asked last week-end about whether he looks religiously at the NCAA tour-nament projections. This was a day before his team’s 83-78 overtime victory Sunday against Michigan.

“I don’t look at us like we’re on the bubble,” said Pitino, whose team is now 20-7 and 8-6 in the Big Ten. “That mind-set is strange to me. We don’t think that way. We’ve got five games left. We got the Big Ten tournament. We’ve got a great RPI [No. 22]. We got a great

Surging U looks good for March

Team went 6-1-1 while trying new combinations.

By MICHAEL RUSSO mrusso@startribune.com

A month’s worth of lineup tinkering might have had the desired effect.

It’s not often that a team — or, to be accurate, it’s not often the Wild specifically — is so secure with its position in the standings that it can enter into a few weeks’ worth of experi-mentation two months before the playoffs.

But that’s what coach Bruce Boudreau and General Manager Chuck Fletcher did this past month while moving Charlie Coyle back and forth from right wing and center, flipping Erik Haula between third- and fourth-line center, giving young-sters Alex Tuch, Gustav Olofs-son and Mike Reilly looks and kicking fourth-line center Tyler Graovac, as it turned out Mon-day, temporarily to the curb.

Since Tuch’s NHL debut Feb. 4 in Vancouver signaled the start of the lineup exam-ining, the Wild is 6-1-1 and has strengthened its cushion atop the Western Conference standings.

Heading into Tuesday’s game against the Chicago Blackhawks — the Wild’s last game before players leave for their five-day “bye” — the Wild is seven points ahead of Chicago for the Central Divi-sion title and seven points up on Chicago and San Jose in the West.

Tuesday’s lineup will look different again. Based on Monday’s practice, Coyle will move back to right wing next to Nino Niederreiter and Eric Staal, Haula will move back to third-line center between Zach Parise and Jason Pom-inville, and Graovac, a week after the team placed him on waivers because it wasn’t happy with his play or the fourth line’s, was recalled

Wild likes results of its recent tinkering

AARON LAVINSKY • aaron.lavinsky@startribune.comTwins pitcher Kyle Gibson said his new training program might look odd but already is having positive results.

Kyle Gibson and others are giving cutting-edge methods a try

Star Tribune photos by ANTHONY SOUFFLÉ (Pitino) and ELIZABETH FLORES (Fletcher)PAT I E N C E PAY S : Richard Pitino, left, has guided a Gophers turnaround from 8-23 to 20-7. General Manager Chuck Fletcher’s Wild team sits atop the Western Conference.

Alex Tuch showed he’s still a work in progress

Tyler Grao-vac is back after a stint in Iowa

“The hitters will tell me if it’s working. But if it keeps me feeling good on the mound, I’m pretty confi dent I’m going to see some results.”Twins pitcher Kyle Gibson, who missed a month and a half last season because of back and shoulder issues, on his new conditioning program.

See TWINS on C4 Ø

See WILD on C5 Ø

See SCOGGINS on C5 Ø

FIGHT FOR FOURThe top four teams in the Big Ten regular-season standings secure a double bye in the conference tournament. With four games to go, here’s what’s left on the leading contenders’ schedules:

Purdue (11-3): at Penn State, Michigan and Wisconsin; home vs. IndianaWisconsin (11-3): at Ohio State and Michigan State; home vs. Iowa, GophersMaryland (10-4): at Rutgers; home vs. Gophers, Iowa and Michigan StateNorthwestern (9-5): at Illinois and Indiana; home vs. Michi-gan and PurdueGophers (8-6): at Maryland and Wisconsin; home vs. Penn State and NebraskaMichigan State (8-6): at Illi-nois and Maryland; home vs. Nebraska and Wisconsin

See GOPHERS on C3 Ø

ZSW [C M Y K] C1 Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2017

T U E S DAY, F E B R U A RY 2 1 , 2 0 1 7

612-341-4131www.ticketkingonline.com

VOICES

By MICHAEL RAND mrand@startribune.com

The Sacramento Kings finally did it. After years of speculation as to whether the Kings would trade DeMar-cus Cousins, it happened. One of the most dominant big men in the NBA fetched this in return from the New Orleans Pelicans:

Buddy Hield, 2017 first- and second-round picks, and guards Tyreke Evans and Langston Galloway.

Even if we strip away the idea that Cousins seems like a royal pain in the butt and is an impending free agent, the immediate reaction to this deal from a Sacramento perspective has to be “yuck.”

It didn’t help when Vlade Divac, the man who made the deal for Sac-ramento, said Monday that he had a better offer two days earlier.

What?It is the classic “three quarters for a

dollar” trade often described by sports personality Bill Simmons. There is not a discernible star among the play-ers going back to the Kings, and the first-round pick is top-three protected. The Pelicans get the potential for an overwhelming frontcourt for the next decade, if they can re-sign Cousins and pair him with Anthony Davis. The Kings get … another decade in the lottery?

The deal was also a reminder of how well the late Flip Saunders did three years ago in dealing Kevin Love.

The situation with Cousins is not identical to the one with Love, of course. Love had a full year left on his contract when he was dealt, and even though he had worn out his welcome in Minnesota he did not carry anywhere near Cousins’ baggage.

But Love had boxed the Wolves into enough of a corner that they pretty much HAD to trade him at some point. Otherwise he was definitely going to walk in free agency. And as players, I would put Love at the time of his trade and Cousins right now on equal foot-ing.

Smartly, Saunders played from as much of a position of strength as pos-sible. He didn’t wait until the trading deadline in the final year of Love’s deal; rather, he dealt him the previous offseason. That kept him from having to panic or take a “here’s the best we can do” kind of trade (or, you know, a “here’s literally the worst we can do” trade).

That allowed Saunders to take advantage of some good timing — LeB-ron James returning to Cleveland and coveting a young veteran like Love to

complete a Big Three along with Kyrie Irving — and cash in on a trade in which No. 1 overall pick Andrew Wiggins was the centerpiece.

Wiggins is hardly a perfect or com-plete player, but that was a dollar-for-dollar trade. Love’s time in Cleveland has been far from ideal, but he helped the Cavaliers win a title last season and was an All-Star this year before getting temporarily shelved by an injury. Wig-gins headed into the break with back-to-back 40-point games and is clearly a key to the Wolves’ future.

You can’t say the same about any-one the Kings got in return. Maybe the first-round pick will materialize into something big. Maybe Hield’s ceiling is higher than it appears to be right now.

Or maybe this trade is exactly what it looks like: another blunder by the Kings.

The Kings being the Kings

TALKER THE NBA’S BIG TRADE

TONY DEJAK • Associated PressWhen Andrew Wiggins, right, and Kevin Love traded places, an established star was swapped for a potential one. No such equality is in play on the Cousins deal.

STEVE YEATER • Associated PressThat’s DeMarcus Cousins getting in the way of now-teammate Anthony Davis. Cousins might be a barrier in other ways.

RANDBALL

I’m the first to admit enjoying some good-natured (usually) fun when it comes to teasing Packers fans. But here we have an alto-gether different type of Packers story. One that is … nice? Heart-warming? Touching?

Yes, all of those things.See, the family of longtime

Packers fan Bill Snyder decided against a traditional obituary when he died recently. Instead, they took out an ad in Sunday’s Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel in which they shared stories that mostly revolved around their dad’s love of the Packers.

They specifically thanked sev-eral Packers players, including Brett Favre for “giving dad the single happiest moment of his life: 1997 Super Bowl, 54-yard pass to Andre Rison, touchdown. Our dad vaulted from his chair, fell to his knees, screamed to the heavens. In an instant, 30 years of belief were paid back in full.”

It’s just a really nice tribute to a guy and his love of football.

Read Michael Rand’s blog at startribune.com/randball. michael.rand@startribune.com.

Family ad pays tribute to fan dad

TIPSHEET

K N O W T H I SVikings Sundays, in particular, would get a lot more interesting if liquor sales on that day pass the full Legislature.

WAT C H T H I SThis is your last chance to watch the Wild until next week and maybe Chicago’s last real chance to put heat on Min-nesota in the divi-sion race. Black-hawks at Wild, 7 p.m., FSN.

R A N D O M FA N D O M“I was disap-pointed when the desperation three-pointer went in for Michigan, but the Gophers have played this type of game most of the second half of the season, and I think that gives us an edge in close games and over-time. It did again tonight.”“md56482” commenting on startribune.com.

T W E E T E D“Wow. Just hear-ing about the passing of Rod Simons this morn-ing down here at Spring Training. A great man with an amazing heart. RIP Rod.”— Twins second baseman Brian Dozier.@BrianDozier

Jason Pominville has 19 points in the past 15 games.

Devan Dubnyk is 8-0 in the regular season with the Wild vs. Chicago.

Pitchers during live batting practice have the option of using a protective screen — called an L-screen — to shield them from batted balls hit back up the mid-dle.

In two days, I have seen just one pitcher, Michael Tonkin, use a screen. I talked to some pitchers about it. Some said it was a comfort issue. Some felt it gave a false sense of security.

All it is going to take is one line drive back up the middle to change these opinions.

Part of this might be pitch-ing coach Neil Allen’s challenge to throw more quality strikes in camp. Perhaps pitchers are locked in more than normal at this time of year. I just don’t think it is worth the risk.

I checked with one of the beat writers for the Red Sox. Their pitchers also have the option of using the screen — and ALL have used the screen.

LA VELLE E. NEAL III

F R O M O U R B L O G S T W I N S I N S I D E R

Should more Twins pitchers use screens?

BRIEFLY

Former Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes winner Char-ismatic, whose bid for the Triple Crown ended with a dramatic leg injury as he neared the finish line in the Belmont Stakes, has died at a thoroughbred retire-ment farm in Kentucky.

The striking chestnut horse that won the first two legs of the Triple Crown in 1999 was found dead in his stall Sun-day at Old Friends farm near Georgetown, Ky., the farm said.

“Right now, everyone is pretty much inconsolable,” Old Friends President Michael Blowen said. “He was a really tough horse, and he deserved a much longer retirement. ... Everyone at Old Friends takes solace from the few great months that this great cham-pion gave us.”

The stallion ate all his food Saturday and looked fine, Blowen said Monday. The cause of death is unknown, and a full necropsy was being done. The farm said Charis-matic was 21.

Charismatic arrived at Old Friends last December after a long stud career in Japan.

“He connected with people that would come here and tell us stories about what that horse meant to them,” Blowen said.

S K I I N G

Birkie adjustingWarm weather is forcing

organizers to change the route of Saturday’s American Birke-beiner ski race in northwest-ern Wisconsin.

The race will not finish in downtown Hayward this year, because racers can’t cross Lake Hayward to get there. The new route and finish line will be announced Tuesday.

The American Birkebeiner is North America’s largest cross-country ski race .

A R O U N D T H E H O R N NFL: Miami agreed to trade

left tackle Branden Albert and a late-round draft pick in 2018 to Jacksonville for tight end Julius Thomas and a late-round pick in 2017, the Orlando Sun Sen-tinel reported, citing unidenti-fied sources. The trade can’t be made official until March 9.

College wrestling: Kevin Dresser, who built Virginia Tech into an ACC wrestling power, was hired to coach Iowa State, in his home state.

Football: Alabama hired New England Patriots assistant Brian Daboll as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach.

NEWS SERVICES

Triple Crown contender Charismatic dies suddenly

By TOD LEONARD San Diego Union Tribune

Candice Wiggins had what many would consider a dream career in the WNBA: No. 3 overall draft pick out of Stanford in 2008 becomes Sixth Woman of the Year as a rookie and wins the 2011 title with the Lynx.

That success, Wiggins says now, hid a darker reality.

“It wasn’t like my dreams came true in the WNBA. It was quite the opposite,” said Wiggins, who retired in March at age 30 after an eight-year career with four teams.

Wiggins asserts she was targeted for harassment from the time she was drafted by the Lynx because she is het-erosexual and was nationally popular.

“Me being heterosexual and straight and being vocal in my iden-tity as a straight woman was huge,” Wiggins said. “I would say 98 percent of the women in the WNBA are gay.”

Referring to her rookie season, Wiggins said: “People were deliber-ately trying to hurt me all of the time. … The message was: ‘We want you to know we don’t like you.’ ”

She played her final three seasons for three different teams — Tulsa, Los Angeles and New York.

“There were horrible things hap-pening to me every day,” she said.

Wiggins called the WNBA “depressing.”

“It’s not watched,” she said. “Our value is diminished. ”

Ex-Lynx player criticizes league

WNBA

By TIM REYNOLDS Associated Press

NEW ORLEANS – Jahlil Okafor viewed New Orleans during All-Star weekend with a different lens than usual, since he thought there was a chance it may have been his next home.

That’s life in the rumor mill.Welcome to trade season, already

underway in earnest and certain to remain so until Thursday afternoon’s deadline. All-Star DeMarcus Cousins is changing his address from Sacramento to New Orleans, Serge Ibaka was sent last week from Orlando to Toronto — and the next few days will likely see Carmelo Anthony, Jimmy Butler, Taj Gibson, Reggie Jackson and many more all discussed by various teams.

“Here we go again,” said Okafor, the Philadelphia 76ers forward who missed two games before the break amid looming trade speculation.

The New Orleans Pelicans acquired Cousins in a five-player, two-draft-pick deal with the Kings late Sunday night, the same night the center was playing in the All-Star Game in their arena.

The Kings dealt one of the most tal-ented but temperamental big men in the game along with Omri Casspi to New Orleans for Tyreke Evans, 2016 first-round draft pick Buddy Hield, Langston Gallo-way and first- and second-round draft picks this summer.

The Cousins move would be huge for New Orleans — if they can convince him to sign an extension this summer.

With Cousins now moved, the next

huge domino to fall may be Anthony, who has a no-trade clause but is going through times trying enough with the New York Knicks that he may be persuaded to drop that clause.

Trade jostling heating up NBA

The Timberwolves are among several teams that have talked to New York about acquiring point guard Derrick Rose before Thurs-day’s trade deadline, ESPN.com reported Monday night.

Rose played for Wolves coach Tom Thibodeau in Chicago for five seasons, and his contract with this season’s $21.3 million salary expires this summer.

The Wolves’ most likely trade piece in any deal before Thursday’s 2 p.m. Central deadline is point guard Ricky Rubio, whose agents tried to orchestrate a trade to New York when Rubio was drafted fifth overall in June 2009.

If obtained in a trade involving Rubio, Rose would be the starting point guard for the rest of the sea-son before rookie Kris Dunn takes the starting job next season. If Rose is acquired for his expiring salary, the Wolves would clear an extra $29 million for the next two seasons off their salary cap.

JERRY ZGODA

Report links Wolves and point guard Rose

ZSW [C M Y K] C2 Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2017

C2 • S TA R T R I B U N E S P O R T S T U E S DAY, F E B R U A RY 2 1 , 2 0 1 7

The veteran is a pending free agent who missed 14 games last year.

By ANDREW KRAMMER andrew.krammer@startribune.com

The Vikings’ $11 million investment in inconsistent left tackle Matt Kalil last spring was not without risks. Still, coach Mike Zimmer liked the early results from a preseason spent tweaking Kalil’s foot-work in pass protection.

Then Kalil injured a hip in practice, starting the left tackle who’d never missed a snap down a path leading to sur-gery and 14 games on injured reserve. The Vikings’ hefty bet on Kalil, via last year’s expen-sive fifth-year option on his rookie contract, fell flat in an attempt to make one more evaluation on him.

Now the Vikings have a hole at left tackle with no heir apparent on the 2017 roster. So where does that leave Kalil, a pending free agent with a his-tory of knee issues? And where does it leave the Vikings?

An improved running game and a more explosive passing game top the Vikings’ priority list on offense, coordinator Pat Shurmur said last week at the team’s WinterFest in Prior Lake. How the Vikings achieve that undoubtedly will start along last year’s tattered offen-

sive line. Shurmur declined to get into specifics about Kalil.

“Certainly anything you do on offense starts up front,” Shurmur said. “So obviously there will be changes at all the position groups.”

What’s clear is the Vikings’ need at tackle is dire.

They face a draft with little fanfare at the position, and the reality is that proven left tack-les don’t often become avail-able in free agency.

Cincinnati’s Andrew Whit-worth, ahead of his age-35 sea-son, looks as if he’s the market’s top option, should he even reach free agency as the Bengals reportedly sought to discuss a new deal with him recently. Denver’s Russell Okung is another veteran under contract who could be made available in March. Miami’s Brandon Albert was in that category, but the Dol-phins agreed to trade him to Jacksonville on Monday. Trades can’t be made official until the new league year begins March 9.

The Vikings have had a pro-pensity under General Man-ager Rick Spielman to bet on the known over the unknown by keeping many deals — whether lucrative extensions or prove-it contracts — for their own players.

What that means for Kalil’s future in Minnesota is uncer-tain, but a possible return might not be as far - fetched as it once seemed.

Vikings need a left tackle, but will it be Kalil?

COLLEGE BASKETBALL

PENDING FREE-AGENT LEFT TACKLES

Andrew Whitworth (Bengals), age 35: Even though Whitworth turned 35 in December, the Bengals tackle is coming off perhaps his best seasons in the past two years, which include two Pro Bowls and a first-team All-Pro selection. Whitworth hasn’t missed a game since 2013 and has sat out only eight games in his 11-year career.

Riley Reiff (Lions), 28: A lackluster left tackle market could have some thinking about Reiff moving back to where he started 47 of 48 games for the Lions from 2013 to 2015. Detroit moved Reiff to right tackle last season fol-lowing the first-round selection of Taylor Decker. Reiff has missed only three starts in the past four seasons .

Ty Nsekhe (Redskins), 31: The Vikings saw firsthand Nsekhe’s play at left tackle when Everson Griffen went without a sack in their Nov. 13 meeting. Nsekhe, a 31-year-old journeyman, has only six career starts, but he made a strong case in four of them last season dur-ing Trent Williams’ suspension. Nsekhe was active for 16 games last season while dealing with a nagging ankle injury.

Kelvin Beachum (Jaguars), 27: Unlike he did against Nsekhe, the Vikings’ Griffen had little trouble breezing past Beachum in Jacksonville last season. The game exem-plified a down season for Beachum, a former seventh-round pick by the Steelers. He’s just a year removed from a torn ACL, which ended his run as a starter in Pittsburgh, and could be worth a look for the tackle-needy Vikings.

Ryan Clady (Jets), 30: The former All-Pro left tackle for the Broncos has had tough luck the past four seasons, starting 16 games only once. Clady appeared in nine games with the Jets before a torn rotator cuff landed him on injured reserve. The Jets declined Clady’s 2017 option, so he’s a free agent. Clady has missed 37 games because of foot , ACL and shoulder injuries the past four seasons.

Also: William Beatty (Giants), Ben Ijalana (Jets), Bradley Sowell (Seahawks).

NFL

M O N D AY

MENTOP 25#12 West Virginia 77, Texas 62Miami 54, #18 Virginia 48, OT#19 Florida St. 104, Boston Coll. 72EASTMd.-East. Shore 106, N.C. A&T 95, 3OTMorgan St. 65, Delaware St. 54SOUTHAlcorn St. 74, Alabama A&M 59Bethune-Cookman 75, Norfolk St. 65Coast. Carolina 81, S. Alabama 77, OTCoppin St. 84, Savannah St. 83Georgia St. 67, Texas State 51Hampton 76, Florida A&M 69NC Central 66, Howard 59Southern U. 79, Alabama St. 73Texas-Arlington 81, Georgia So. 71Troy 76, Appalachian St. 66SOUTHWESTIowa St. 82, Texas Tech 80, OTPrairie View 73, Ark.-Pine Bluff 55Texas Southern 92, MVSU 61

WOMENBIG TEN Conf. Overall W L W LMaryland 14 1 26 2Ohio State 14 1 24 5Michigan 10 4 21 7Penn State 8 6 18 8Indiana 8 6 18 9Michigan St. 8 6 18 9Purdue 8 6 17 11Northwestern 7 7 18 9Iowa 7 7 16 11Gophers 5 9 14 13Illinois 3 11 8 19Rutgers 3 11 6 21Wisconsin 2 12 7 20Nebraska 2 12 6 20#12 Ohio State 98, #2 Maryland 87OTHER TOP 25#4 Baylor 70, #6 Texas 67

T U E S D AY

MENBIG TEN Conf. Overall W L W LPurdue 11 3 22 5Wisconsin 11 3 22 5Maryland 10 4 22 5Northwestern 9 5 20 7Gophers 8 6 20 7Michigan St. 8 6 16 11Michigan 7 7 17 10Iowa 6 8 14 13Penn State 6 8 14 13Nebraska 6 8 12 14Illinois 5 9 15 12Indiana 5 9 15 12Ohio State 5 10 15 13Rutgers 2 13 13 15#14 Purdue at Penn State, 5 pmNorthwestern at Illinois, 7 pmIndiana at Iowa, 8 pmTOP 25Oklahoma at #9 Baylor, 6 pm#11 Kentucky at Missouri, 8 pmSouth Carolina at #13 Florida, 6 pmEvansville at #25 Wichita St., 7 pm

WOMENTOP 25#16 Oklahoma at Kansas State, 7 pm

T O U R N A M E N T S

MIAC • MENQuarterfi nals • Tuesday • 7 pm#6 Augsburg at #3 Carleton#5 Hamline at #4 St. John’sSemifi nals • Thursday • 7 pmLow. remaining seed at #1 St. ThomasHighest remaining seed at #2 BethelChampionship • Saturday • 7 pmAt highest remaining seed

MIAC • WOMENQuarterfi nals • Wednesday • 7 pm#6 Augsburg at #3 Bethel#5 St. Catherine at #4 St. BenedictSemifi nals • Friday • 7 pmLow. remaining seed at #1 St. ThomasHigh. remaining seed at #2 GustavusChampionship • Feb. 26 • 1 pmAt highest remaining seed

NSIC • MENFirst round • WednesdayS5 Sioux Falls at N4 Minot St., 7 pmN6 Bemidji St. at S3 Augustana, 8 pmN5 Mary (N.D.) at S4 MSU Mank., 7 pmS8 CSP at N1 MSU Moorhead, 8 pmN7 Minn.-Crook. at S2 Upper Iowa, 7 pmS6 Wayne St. at N3 St. Cloud State, 7 pmS7 Winona St. at N2 Northern St., 8 pmN8 Minn. Duluth at S1 SW Minn. St., 7 pmQuarterfi nals • Feb. 26 • Sioux FallsGame times TBASemifi nals • Feb. 27 • Sioux FallsQuarterfi nal winners, 5:30 and 8 pmChampionship • Feb. 28 • Sioux FallsSemifi nal winners, 7:30 pm

NSIC • WOMENFirst round • WednesdayS8 SW Minn. St. at N1 MSU Moor., 6 pmS5 Winona St. at N4 Mary (N.D.), TBAN7 Bemidji St. at S2 Wayne St., 7 pmS7 Up. Iowa at N2 Northern St., 6 pmN5 St. Cloud St. at S4 Sioux Falls, 7 pmS6 MSU Mankato at N3 UMD, 7 pmN6 Minn.-Crookston at S3 CSP, 7 pmN8 Minot St. at S1 Augustana, 6 pmQuarterfi nals • Saturday • Sioux FallsGame times TBASemifi nals • Feb. 27 • Sioux FallsQuarterfi nal winners, noon and 2:30 pmChampionship • Feb. 28 • Sioux FallsSemifi nal winners, 5 pm

UMAC • MENQuarterfi nal • MondayMinn.-Morris at NorthlandSemifi nals • Wednesday • 7:30 pmSt. Scholastica at Bethany LutheranQuarterfi nal winner at N’western (SP)Championship • Saturday • 7:30 pmAt highest remaining seed

UMAC • WOMENQuarterfi nal • MondayMartin Luther at Bethany LutheranSemifi nals • Wednesday • 7:30 pmNorthwestern (SP) at Minn.-MorrisQuarterfi nal winner at Wis.-SuperiorChampionship • Saturday • Time TBAAt highest remaining seed

The top 25 teams in the AP college basketball polls, with fi rst-place votes in parentheses, records through Sunday, total points based on 25 points for a fi rst place vote through one point for a 25th place vote and previ-ous ranking:

MEN Record Pts Prv 1. Gonzaga (59) 28-0 1618 1 2. Villanova (5) 26-2 1556 2 3. Kansas (1) 24-3 1503 3 4. Arizona 25-3 1356 5 5. UCLA 24-3 1316 6 6. Oregon 24-4 1297 7 7. Louisville 22-5 1267 8 8. North Carolina 23-5 1138 10 9. Baylor 22-5 1108 4 10. Duke 22-5 1014 12 11. Kentucky 22-5 943 13 12. West Virginia 21-6 908 9 13. Florida 22-5 822 15 14. Purdue 22-5 807 16 15. Cincinnati 24-3 733 18 16. Wisconsin 22-5 713 11 17. SMU 24-4 554 19 18. Virginia 18-8 427 14 19. Florida State 21-6 419 17 20. Saint Mary’s 24-3 375 22 21. Notre Dame 21-7 322 25 22. Butler 21-6 295 24 23. Creighton 22-5 178 20 24. Maryland 22-5 159 23 25. Wichita State 25-4 153 — Others receiving votes: VCU 39, Northwestern 25, Iowa State 22, South Carolina 12, Southern Cal 10, Dayton 9, Middle Tennessee 8, Okla-homa State 7, Gophers 5, Miami 2, Monmouth (N.J.) 2, Michigan 1, Ver-mont 1, Virginia Tech 1.

WOMEN Record Pts Prv 1. UConn (33) 26-0 825 1 2. Maryland 26-1 788 2 3. Mississippi State 27-1 755 3 4. Baylor 25-2 731 4 5. Notre Dame 25-3 682 7 6. Texas 21-5 608 8 7. South Carolina 22-4 602 6 8 (tie). Florida State 24-4 583 4 8 (tie). Stanford 24-4 583 10 10. Oregon State 25-3 528 11 11. Washington 25-4 494 9 12. Ohio State 23-5 469 12 13. Duke 24-4 467 13 14. Louisville 23-6 414 14 15. UCLA 20-7 350 18 16. Oklahoma 21-6 340 19 17. Miami 19-7 274 16 18. N.C. State 20-7 232 15 19. DePaul 22-6 208 17 20. Syracuse 18-9 162 21 21. Drake 22-4 123 25 22. Kentucky 19-8 110 — 23. Temple 21-5 99 — 24. Missouri 19-9 62 — 25. Michigan 21-7 53 20 Others receiving votes: Kansas State 45, Texas A&M 45, Creighton 32, South Florida 27, Tennessee 9, Belmont 7, Green Bay 4, West Vir-ginia 4, Arizona State 3, Colorado State 2, Tulane 2, LSU 1, Marquette 1, Wright State 1.

TOP 25 POLLS

RESULTS

strength of schedule [No. 16]. We’re excited about where we’re at.”

What the Gophers are focus-ing on, though, is a top-four seed in the Big Ten tournament. A first step toward that would be to pull off an upset Wednesday against the No. 24 Terrapins (22-5, 10-4) in College Park, Md. That isn’t so far-fetched.

The Gophers are 4-4 in Big Ten road games this season, tied for the most conference victo-ries away from home since 2005. They lost 85-78 against Maryland on Jan. 28 at Williams Arena, but they did so after squander-ing a 12-point lead. The Terra-pins are in the Big Ten title hunt with Wisconsin and Purdue, but they’ve proven to be vulnerable at home. Nebraska beat Mary-land 67-65 on Jan. 1 at the Xfinity Center.

If Pitino’s team sees its winning streak end Wednesday, it would need to finish the home schedule at least with wins against Penn State and Nebraska to stay on track for a top-four seed.

The Nittany Lions will be looking to sweep the Gophers for the second straight season. The Cornhuskers have won four of the past five meetings with Minnesota. These are the two most winnable conference games left for Pitino. But they’re certainly not a given, consider-ing the history and how unpre-dictable the Big Ten has been this season.

Let’s just say Minnesota won at least three of the next four games, maybe even at Wiscon-sin for the first time since 2009.

The Gophers would finish 11-7 in the Big Ten and 22-8 overall. That probably would be a top-six seed or higher in the NCAA tournament. But not necessarily a top-four seed in the Big Ten tournament.

Minnesota still would need to finish with a better Big Ten

record than Michigan State and the same or better conference record than Northwestern. The Spartans own the tiebreaker over the Gophers after a season sweep. But the Gophers have the tie-breaker over the Wildcats after winning their only meeting.

There’s a scenario where the Gophers can even go 2-2 in the last four and still earn a No. 4 Big Ten tourney seed. That’s only if Michigan State and Northwestern

either both lose their last four or three of their last four games. Seems unlikely.

Tournament projections from ESPN.com, CBSSports.com and several others have the Gophers ranging from a No. 6 to No. 8 seed.

“I don’t have Minnesota on the bubble,” CBSSports.com’s Jerry Palm said Monday. “I’m not wor-ried about Minnesota. Ask me if they lose the next three.”

Gophers look good heading into Marchø GOPHERS from C1

Bracket projections have U seeded from No. 6 to No. 8Over the next few weeks, Gophers men’s bas-

ketball fans will watch the postseason fortunes of their team rise and fall based on how well they play — and the successes and failures of other teams around the country.

The inexact science of “bracketology” has developed over time with college basketball experts doing their best job of predicting what the 68-team NCAA tournament field will look like.

In recent years, except for the truly awful ones, the exercise involving Minnesota has been whether the Gophers will make the field.

This year’s success — a 20-7 record and five consecutive victories to push them to fifth place in the Big Ten — has focused the discussion on where they’ll be seeded.

Here’s a quick guide to some of the best-known bracketologists, and a couple of links to supporting data.

• The ESPN site featuring Joe Lunardi has Minnesota as a No. 8 seed and playing Wichita State in the opening round. The disadvantage of being a No. 8 or 9 seed is that the winner of that game is almost certain to play the region’s No. 1 seed in the second round. In Lunardi’s view, at

present, that would be Kansas.• At CBSsports.com, Jerry Palm has the

Gophers as a No. 6 seed, which means they would face the winner of a play-in game between two No. 11 seeds.

• The USA Today bracketology site also has Minnesota as a No. 6 seed, playing the winner of a play-in game between Syracuse and Tennessee.

• The SB Nation site, run by @ChrisDob-bertean, has the Gophers as the 25th-best team overall, placing them as a No. 7 seed.

• Another site that does predictions and rank-ings for all sports — teamrankings.com — also has the Gophers as a No. 7 seed and gives them a 96 percent chance of being in the tournament field.

One of the tools used in figuring and updating the bracketology sites is the Ratings Percentage Index, in which Minnesota ranks 23rd,

These rankings typically get updated Mon-day, which means there are only two more sets until the NCAA tournament field is announced on March 12. In other words, it’s a good time to start paying attention.

HOWARD SINKER

ROUNDUP

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Kelsey Mitchell scored 31 points and No. 12 Ohio State used a siz-zling start to upset second-ranked Maryland 98-87 on Monday night.

The Buckeyes (24-5, 14-1 Big Ten) scored 35 points in the first 10 minutes on 14-for-18 shooting, led by nine at the half and held on as Maryland (26-2, 14-1) rallied in second half.

The victory had Ohio State for-ward Shayla Cooper, who scored 20 points, waxing lyrical afterward.

“When the ball is moving like that, it’s so beautiful,” she said. “It’s like an orchestra out there. It’s just like soft jazz music. It’s just so beautiful, and everyone was feel-ing it. It’s just a beautiful sight.”

Men No. 12 West Virginia 77, Texas 62: After West Virginia coach Bob Huggins dropped to his knees and clutched his chest in a scary

moment before halftime, Jevon Carter finished with 24 points to lead the Mountaineers over Texas (10-18, 4-11 Big 12). Lamont West had 23 points, helping WVU (22-6, 10-5) shake off a slow start. Huggins, 63, returned to coach in the second half. After the game, he said his defibrillator went off and that he got lightheaded from standing up too fast. Miami 54, No. 18 Virginia 48 (OT): Bruce Brown made a three-pointer with 23.8 seconds left in overtime and the visiting Hur-ricanes (19-8, 9-6 Atlantic Coast Conference) dealt the Cavaliers (18-9, 8-7) their fourth straight loss.

NotesTerps lose center: Maryland cen-ter Michal Cekovsky will miss the rest of the Terrapins’ season because of a fractured left ankle suffered in Sunday’s 71-60 loss to Wisconsin. Maryland will host the Gophers on Wednesday.

Buckeyes women top No. 2 Terps

ZSW [C M Y K] C3 Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2017

T U E S DAY, F E B R U A RY 2 1 , 2 0 1 7 S P O R T S S TA R T R I B U N E • C3

Legal Notices17-105558

NOTICE OF MORTGAGE

FORECLOSURE SALE

THE RIGHT TO VERIFICATION OFTHE DEBT AND IDENTITY OF THEORIGINAL CREDITOR WITHIN THETIME PROVIDED BY LAW IS NOT AF-FECTED BY THIS ACTION.NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN, that de-fault has occurred in the condi-tions of the following describedmortgage:DATE OF MORTGAGE: March 29,2010ORIGINAL PRINCIPAL AMOUNT OFMORTGAGE: $171,804.00MORTGAGOR(S): Ryan K Anton, asingle manMORTGAGEE: Mortgage ElectronicRegistration Systems, Inc.TRANSACTION AGENT: MortgageElectronic Registration Systems,Inc.MIN#: 1006520-0000024385-6LENDER OR BROKER AND MORT-GAGE ORIGINATOR STATED ON THEMORTGAGE: PHH Home Loans, LLCSERVICER: Nationstar MortgageLLCDATE AND PLACE OF FILING: FiledApril 13, 2010, Ramsey County Reg-istrar of Titles, as Document Num-ber 2106448ASSIGNMENTS OF MORTGAGE: As-signed to:Nationstar MortgageLLCLEGAL DESCRIPTION OF PROPERTY:Lot 15, Block 34, Ramaley’s ParkREGISTERED PROPERTYPROPERTY ADDRESS: 1888Hinckley St, White Bear Lake, MN55110PROPERTY IDENTIFICATION NUM-BER: 23.30.22.22.0126 COT# 579965COUNTY IN WHICH PROPERTY ISLOCATED: RamseyTHE AMOUNT CLAIMED TO BE DUEON THE MORTGAGE ON THE DATEOF THE NOTICE: $136,514.00THAT all pre-foreclosure require-ments have been complied with;that no action or proceeding hasbeen instituted at law or other-wise to recover the debt securedby said mortgage, or any partthereof;PURSUANT, to the power of salecontained in said mortgage, theabove described property will besold by the Sheriff of said countyas follows:DATE AND TIME OF SALE: April 13,2017, 10:00amPLACE OF SALE: Sheriff’s Main Of-fice, The Lowry Building/City HallAnnex, 25 West 4th St., Suite 150,St. Paul, MN 55102 to pay the debtsecured by said mortgage andtaxes, if any, on said premises andthe costs and disbursements, in-cluding attorneys fees allowed bylaw, subject to redemption within6 months from the date of saidsale by the mortgagor(s) the per-sonal representatives or assigns.TIME AND DATE TO VACATE PROP-ERTY: If the real estate is anowner-occupied, single-familydwelling, unless otherwise provid-ed by law, the date on or beforewhich the mortgagor(s) must va-cate the property, if the mortgageis not reinstated under section 580.30 or the property is not re-deemed under section 580.23, is11:59 p.m. on October 13, 2017, orthe next business day if October13, 2017 falls on a Saturday, Sun-day or legal holiday."THE TIME ALLOWED BY LAW FORREDEMPTION BY THE MORTGA-GOR, THE MORTGAGOR’S PERSON-AL REPRESENTATIVES OR ASSIGNS,MAY BE REDUCED TO FIVE WEEKSIF A JUDICIAL ORDER IS ENTEREDUNDER MINNESOTA STATUTESSECTION 582.032 DETERMINING,AMONG OTHER THINGS, THAT THEMORTGAGED PREMISES ARE IM-PROVED WITH A RESIDENTIALDWELLING OF LESS THAN 5 UNITS,ARE NOT PROPERTY USED FOR AG-RICULTURAL PRODUCTION, ANDARE ABANDONED.Dated: February 14, 2017Nationstar Mortgage LLCAssignee of MortgageeSHAPIRO & ZIELKE, LLPBY Lawrence P. Zielke - 152559Diane F. Mach - 273788Melissa L. B. Porter - 0337778Randolph W. Dawdy - 2160XGary J. Evers - 0134764Tracy J. Halliday - 034610XAttorneys for Mortgagee12550 West Frontage Road, Suite200 Burnsville, MN 55337(952) 831-4060THIS IS A COMMUNICATION FROMA DEBT COLLECTOR2/21, 2/28, 3/7, 3/14, 3/21, 3/28/17Star Tribune

Legal Notices

CLASSIFIEDSSTARTRIBUNE.COM/CLASSIFIEDS • 612.673.7000 • 800.927.9233

16-105291

NOTICE OF MORTGAGE

FORECLOSURE SALE

THE RIGHT TO VERIFICATION OFTHE DEBT AND IDENTITY OF THEORIGINAL CREDITOR WITHIN THETIME PROVIDED BY LAW IS NOT AF-FECTED BY THIS ACTION.NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN, that de-fault has occurred in the condi-tions of the following describedmortgage:DATE OF MORTGAGE: August 2,2004ORIGINAL PRINCIPAL AMOUNT OFMORTGAGE: $154,000.00MORTGAGOR(S): Robert L. Fosterand Rosanne J. Foster, husbandand wifeMORTGAGEE: Mortgage ElectronicRegistration Systems, Inc.TRANSACTION AGENT: MortgageElectronic Registration Systems,Inc.MIN#: 100026600064386795LENDER OR BROKER AND MORT-GAGE ORIGINATOR STATED ON THEMORTGAGE: Adelphi MortgageCorporationSERVICER: CitiMortgage, Inc.DATE AND PLACE OF FILING: FiledNovember 9, 2004, Hennepin Coun-ty Recorder, as Document Number8472405ASSIGNMENTS OF MORTGAGE: As-signed to: CitiMortgage, Inc.LEGAL DESCRIPTION OF PROPERTY:Lot 7, Block 4, Menage’s Supple-ment to East Side Addition to Min-neapolisPROPERTY ADDRESS: 2726 Polk StNE, Minneapolis, MN 55418PROPERTY IDENTIFICATION NUM-BER: 12.029.24.22.0095COUNTY IN WHICH PROPERTY ISLOCATED: HennepinTHE AMOUNT CLAIMED TO BE DUEON THE MORTGAGE ON THE DATEOF THE NOTICE: $80,789.11THAT all pre-foreclosure require-ments have been complied with;that no action or proceeding hasbeen instituted at law or other-wise to recover the debt securedby said mortgage, or any partthereof;PURSUANT, to the power of salecontained in said mortgage, theabove described property will besold by the Sheriff of said countyas follows:DATE AND TIME OF SALE: March 7,2017, 10:00amPLACE OF SALE: Sheriff’s Main Of-fice, Civil Division, Room 30, Court-house, 350 South Fifth St., Minne-apolis, MN 55487 to pay the debtsecured by said mortgage andtaxes, if any, on said premises andthe costs and disbursements, in-cluding attorneys fees allowed bylaw, subject to redemption within12 months from the date of saidsale by the mortgagor(s) the per-sonal representatives or assigns.TIME AND DATE TO VACATE PROP-ERTY: If the real estate is anowner-occupied, single-familydwelling, unless otherwise provid-ed by law, the date on or beforewhich the mortgagor(s) must va-cate the property, if the mortgageis not reinstated under section 580.30 or the property is not re-deemed under section 580.23, is11:59 p.m. on March 7, 2018, or thenext business day if March 7, 2018falls on a Saturday, Sunday or le-gal holiday."THE TIME ALLOWED BY LAW FORREDEMPTION BY THE MORTGAGOR,THE MORTGAGOR’S PERSONALREPRESENTATIVES OR ASSIGNS,MAY BE REDUCED TO FIVE WEEKSIF A JUDICIAL ORDER IS ENTEREDUNDER MINNESOTA STATUTES SEC-TION 582.032 DETERMINING,AMONG OTHER THINGS, THAT THEMORTGAGED PREMISES ARE IM-PROVED WITH A RESIDENTIALDWELLING OF LESS THAN 5 UNITS,ARE NOT PROPERTY USED FOR AG-RICULTURAL PRODUCTION, ANDARE ABANDONED.Dated: January 13, 2017CitiMortgage, Inc.Assignee of MortgageeSHAPIRO & ZIELKE, LLPBY Lawrence P. Zielke - 152559Diane F. Mach - 273788Melissa L. B. Porter - 0337778Randolph W. Dawdy - 2160XGary J. Evers - 0134764Tracy J. Halliday - 034610XAttorneys for Mortgagee12550 West Frontage Road,Suite 200Burnsville, MN 55337(952) 831-4060THIS IS A COMMUNICATION FROMA DEBT COLLECTOR1/17, 1/24, 1/31, 2/7, 2/14, 2/21/17Star Tribune

MLBTWINS TRAINING CAMP

Twins ponder Polanco’s past

FORT MYERS, FLA. – The last time Jorge Polanco played shortstop in the minors was 2015, spending 83 games there at Class AA Chattanooga and 19 games at Class AAA Rochester. He did not play a lick there for the Red Wings in 2016.

The Twins, however, ended up using Polanco at shortstop during the second half of the season, and he is expected to be the starter there in spring games.

It led to a question for manager Paul Molitor on Monday: Why didn’t Polanco play shortstop at Rochester last season?

Molitor responded bluntly. “I wish I had a better explana-tion for you,” he said. “But I think myself, a lot of other people, realized we didn’t handle it the right way.”

Polanco’s case has been somewhat complicated. Signed as a shortstop out of the Dominican Republic in 2009, some Twins evaluators felt he was better suited at sec-ond base as he moved up the system. But Polanco would change their minds with bursts of strong play at short.

Polanco entered 2016 as Rochester’s second baseman. The Twins usually move their infielders around in the minors, but that didn’t happen with Polanco. Mean-while, the Twins went from having Eduardo Escobar at short to Eduardo Nunez. When Nunez was traded to San Francisco in July, the Twins needed a shortstop. They went with Polanco despite giving him no time at short at Rochester.

“It’s not the first time that we’ve had situations where guys have come up here and end up playing where we haven’t exposed them enough,” Molitor said. “[For-mer General Manager] Terry [Ryan] was always about playing guys around down there, and either managers get caught up in winning or we don’t have enough fore-sight to what possibly could happen. Sometimes you are going to miss them. That one probably maybe seemed a little more obvious that we should have had covered. Unless [Brian] Dozier got traded.

“Part of it, too, was that a lot of people in our evalu-ation, some people weren’t convinced that he was ever going to play a game in the big leagues at shortstop. Part of the reason to try to make him the best second baseman possible. Things happen.”

Polanco’s offensive poten-tial — he batted .288 with four homers and 27 RBI in 68 games with the Twins — makes a strong case for the switch hitter to remain in the lineup at short. He also committed 15 errors, and his arm is considered aver-age. But the Twins appear committed to giving Polanco time to polish his skills there. Which looks like something that should have been han-dled at Rochester.

Etc.• Players association

chief Tony Clark will make his annual appearance at camp Tuesday when he addresses the players fol-lowing their workout.

L E T ’ S M E E TZack Granite, outfielderAge: 242016 stats: Batted .295 with four homers and 51 RBI in 127 games at Class AA Chattanooga .Acquired: Selected in the 14th round of the 2013 draft.Role: Has a chance to start the season at Class AAA Rochester.Did you know? Last year’s Twins Minor League Player of the Year, Granite is from Staten Island, N.Y., and hit .299 in 156 career games at Seton Hall.

La VELLE E. NEAL III

DAY@CAMPDaily dispatch from Fort Myers

Two years ago Alex Rodri-guez still was very much at war with the Yankees, holding his first meeting of the spring with reporters on the sidewalk in front of the club’s minor league complex.

Two springs later A-Rod is due in camp, starting on Tues-day, for the start of a three-day stint as a guest instructor.

“He’ll work with our play-ers, to extend the knowledge that he has about how to play the game and talk to the young kids, some of the expectations,” manager Joe Girardi said. “How to deal with it, how to deal with different positions. How to hit in the middle of the order. All the things that Alex did well, those are things we want him to offer insight to our younger players. And to the older players as well.”

Recently retired Nick Swisher was in camp Monday as a guest instructor.

Cueto delayedJohnny Cueto remains in

his native Dominican Repub-lic helping his ailing father a week after pitchers and catch-ers reported to spring training. The Giants plan to reach out to him to see how he is doing and whether he thinks he will pitch for his country in the World Baseball Classic.

NEWS SERVICES

A-Rod has a role, for moment, as instructor

LEAGUE NOTES

Edwin Encarnacion has elevated the Indians to AL Central’s favorite.

By TOM WITHERS • Associated Press

GOODYEAR, ARIZ. – As fans lining the chain-link fence next to Cleveland’s main practice field jockeyed for better position to snatch an autograph or selfie with the team’s newest star, Edwin Encarnacion showed no emotion.

With his glove balanced on his head, Encarnacion signed baseballs, bats, cards and whatever else was thrust in front of him. He didn’t seem to be enjoying him-self and appeared disinterested, distant.

That’s when one fan pleaded for a little more.

“Hey,” he told Encarnacion. “You know you can smile. You’re with Cleveland now.”

On cue, Encarnacion beamed a smile that brightened an otherwise gray day in the desert.

There are a lot of toothy grins on display these days with the Indians, whose signing of Encarnacion to a three-year, $60 million contract — the richest in team history — as a free agent this winter gives the AL cham-pions a middle-of-the-order slugger.

After eight seasons in Toronto, Encar-nacion has a new home — and an unex-pected one. He chose the Indians from several teams because of their potential to be playing again deep into October.

“I made the decision to come here, because here I have the opportunity to win the World Series,” said Encarnacion, whose 193 homers over the past five sea-sons are the second-most in the majors. “This team, they look great and I think they have great, young talented players here. We have a lot of opportunity to be in the World Series again and win it.”

Encarnacion’s arrival cements the Indians as the team to beat.

He fits perfectly into a stacked lineup that will include young stars Francisco Lindor and Jason Kipnis and could have back Michael Brantley after the former

All-Star outfielder played in only 11 games last season.

One thing is certain: Manager Terry Francona knows who will be batting cleanup.

“You put a bat in the middle that you’re not penciling in, you’re putting it in ink,” Francona said.

But while the three-time All-Star has established himself as one of baseball’s most feared hitters, Encarnacion doesn’t flaunt his status or celebrity. He’s happy being one of the guys.

Nothing flashy, just driven.“I’m not sure shy is the right word,”

General Manager Mike Chernoff said in describing Encarnacion. “I think reserved. He definitely has a presence. That has been clear since the minute he got here. But I think he’s much more of a quiet, lead-by-example type of guy. We did a lot of work on him in the offseason with our scouts and reaching out to con-tacts. And everybody said on all fronts that he is a leader, but he doesn’t do it in that kind of loud, vocal way.”

Indians get slugger – and a target

ROSS D. FRANKLIN • Associated PressEdwin Encarnacion’s arrival in Cleveland has prompted smiles from fans and teammates and, when coaxed, even from himself as postseason hopes grow.

The Twins will be, too, if the nontraditional techniques pro-duce more strikes, fewer runs and healthier pitchers. Pitching coach Neil Allen observed Gibson’s meth-ods over the weekend, and was as excited about his pitchers’ passion as his workout.

“If it makes him feel better about who he is and what he can do, if he shows consistency with it, I’m all for it. He’s feeling really good about his pitching, and that’s what we want,” Allen said. “If he feels it’s going to help him, how can I stand in the way?”

For Gibson, it’s more than a new way of thinking — it’s an entirely new way of delivering the baseball, about as fundamental a change as a pitcher can make. But the 29-year-old former first-rounder decided he had to do something drastic after muddling through a discouraging season that included a month and a half on the disabled list, only six quality starts out of 25, a 5.07 ERA, and discom-fort in his back and shoulder that wouldn’t go away. He didn’t make a start all season without anti-inflam-matory medication, Gibson said, and he was tired of the constant soreness.

“I was like, OK, I have a choice to

make here: Get through spring train-ing, take anti-inflammatories and just try to get through it again, banging my head against the wall,” he said. “Or try something different to pre-pare for camp. If it doesn’t work out, what have I lost? I’m still getting my arm ready. And it turned out, it was awesome.”

A former college pitching coach at Missouri directed Gibson to Randy Sullivan, who operates the Florida Baseball Ranch, a facil-ity dedicated to keeping pitchers’ arms healthy. Sullivan, a licensed physical therapist, spent an after-noon explaining his techniques to Gibson and Castellano, and putting the pitcher through some demon-stration exercises.

The drills are meant to retrain Gib-son and alter his throwing motion, so he holds the ball more upright, at an angle of less than 90 degrees, which enables him to reach his release point more directly. That, combined with a de-emphasis on extending his arm after releasing the ball, has dramati-cally reduced the amount of stress on his pitching shoulder.

And so almost every morning before training camp workouts, Gib-son goes through a series of unusual

throwing exercises, using a balloon-sized rubber ball, an oversized glove that looks like a stocking cap cover-ing his right hand, and a set of hard-balls of varying weights. Keeping pressure on the large ball insures his arm doesn’t extend outward too far. The ball he releases into the giant glove acclimates his shoulder to a shorter post-release extension.

“I know how it looks. I hear about it from the guys,” Gibson said. “It’s not easy, because I’ve pitched the same way for 20 years. But I can feel a huge difference in my shoulder and my back.”

So can O’Rourke, who signed on with Driveline Baseball, another performance academy located just south of Seattle that he first learned about on Twitter. He used a simpli-fied weighted-ball workout last year and said it kept his arm strong. So over the winter, at the suggestion of a teammate on his Venezulan League team, he called Driveline founder Kyle Boddy, who has worked with several major leaguers.

“He blew my mind with how he explained his program. He taught me to ‘think backward’ about how I pitch,” said O’Rourke, who became so dedicated to the workouts, he

forced himself to make time for them during a vacation to Las Vegas. “I’m looking for health, to be able to pitch as well on Saturday as I did on Friday. I look at my mechanics from a year ago, I’m much more behind the ball now.”

Of course, neither of the forward-thinking pitchers has faced a hitter yet, as Gibson conceded. “The hitters will tell me if it’s working,” he said. “But if it keeps me feeling good on the mound, I’m pretty confident I’m going to see some results.”

He’s pretty sure the Twins are onboard with his program, too. The first time he met Twins chief base-ball officer Derek Falvey, Gibson said, he was doing his specialized workout and Falvey walked over and said, “Did you get that ball from Randy Sulli-van?”

Allen isn’t ready to pass out weighted balls and rubber balloons to the rest of the staff yet. But he’s far less skeptical than he was a week ago.

“In all honesty, until we see the results, it’s mostly a psychologi-cal [tool],” Allen said. “But I know there is science behind it. If these guys find something that works for them, by all means, I’m going to sup-port them.”

TRAINING TOSSES TRADITIONø TWINS from C1

AARON LAVINSKY • aaron.lavinsky@startribune.comTwins pitcher Kyle Gibson threw a pitch during workouts Friday in Fort Myers, Fla. Since trying a new training regimen, he has been feeling stronger with no pain.

ZSW [C M Y K] C4 Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2017

C4 • S TA R T R I B U N E S P O R T S T U E S DAY, F E B R U A RY 2 1 , 2 0 1 7

Day after day, loss after loss, until the flurry becomes a vitriolic blizzard.

As someone tasked with offering opinions, I often wrestle with finding bal-ance between patience and accountability in our 140-character reality. Where is that line between under-standing that teams deserve time to build vs. recogniz-ing incompetence or show-ing blind faith that success eventually will come?

Nobody wants to be taken for a sucker.

In response to Fletcher firing Yeo last season, this paragraph appeared in the Star Tribune:

Fletcher also constructed a roster littered with bad contracts, underperforming veterans, underachieving youngsters, no natural goal scorers and an alarming lack of leadership.

The author’s first name rhymes with dip.

Was that summation accurate in the heat of the moment? Possibly. But calls for Fletcher to overhaul his roster seem foolish in hind-sight when watching basi-cally the same roster thrive with Boudreau in charge.

Fletcher stuck to his belief that younger play-ers had not yet reached their full potential and that staying the course with a proven coach was prudent.

Granted, making trades can be difficult, especially with veterans holding no - trade clauses. But the belief here is that other teams were interested in a few of the Wild’s young defense-man but that Fletcher opted to give Hall of Famer Scott Stevens a chance to work with them first before mak-ing any moves. His patience is being rewarded.

Same thing with the Gophers and Pitino, who walked on thin ice after an eight-win season and embarrassing off-the-court

incidents involving his play-ers.

University President Eric Kaler sternly put Pitino on notice during athletic director Mark Coyle’s intro-ductory news conference. Board of Regents Chairman Dean Johnson also basically acknowledged that Pitino’s massive buyout saved his job.

“Seven million is a good chunk of change, no doubt about it,” Johnson said last March. “Does it weigh into the equation? I would guess it does.”

Calls for Pitino’s firing were shortsighted. Sure, he made mistakes, but he deserved a chance to coach his recruits. He deserved more than three seasons to prove himself.

The Gophers didn’t have legitimate Big Ten talent last season. Now they do, and they’ve won 20 games and appear destined to make the NCAA tournament. Pitino’s team could take another siz-able step next season.

Patience matters. Doesn’t always guarantee positive outcomes, but sometimes a long view provides perspec-tive when the current situa-tion looks bleak.

Speaking of having patience tested, the Twins claim first prize. Their slogan should be, “Twins baseball. Stick with us, folks.” The organization has pretty much exhausted its allotment of blind faith.

Now they want more patience. A new regime has taken over. The main nucleus of talent still is fairly young. Another losing season seems inevitable.

Does showing continued patience make us suckers? Maybe. Or maybe the new regime has the right plan to pull the organization out of this abyss.

We probably won’t know the answer for some time. Patience required.

Chip Scoggins chip.scoggins@startribune.com

Pitino, Fletcher show the value of patienceø SCOGGINS from C1

NHL

to center Chris Stewart and Jordan Schroeder.

Boudreau made the deci-sion specifically for the Chi-cago game.

Boudreau admitted that trusting Tuch to only play 12 shifts totaling 7 minutes, 33 seconds Saturday against Nashville wasn’t good for anybody. And, against Chi-cago’s top two lines centered by Artem Anisimov and Jona-than Toews, Boudreau wants two defensive-minded centers to play regular shifts in shut-down roles.

“[Haula’s] played really well recently. I’d certainly like to get him more ice time,” Boudreau said.

So in order to play Haula a regular shift, Graovac was recalled. But because the lineup experimenting showed Tuch still has developing to do and that Boudreau doesn’t exactly love Graovac’s game, Fletcher likely will seek a for-ward before the March 1 trade deadline.

If it’s a top-nine winger, Boudreau could move Coyle back to third-line center and Haula to fourth-line center. If it’s a center, Boudreau could keep Coyle at wing and decide which pivot spot Haula plays depending on the acquisition.

The lineup experimenta-tion, Boudreau said, was a success.

“It allows you to know you can put guys in different spots when needed,” he said. “Guys get to learn how to play with each guy. It’s not a shock to them all of a sudden. We know Coyle can play center. Now that gives us options of whatever we want to do. We’ve got guys we can put left wing, right wing.

“We’re pretty good with the versatility all over the place.”

On the blue line, the Wild loves what it’s seeing from Olofsson, who logged 19 ½ min-utes against Nashville with left-shot defenseman Jonas Brodin on his right. Boudreau was

pleasantly surprised how well Brodin played Saturday despite missing 14 games because of a broken finger .

Olofsson deepens the blue line. At Monday’s practice, Marco Scandella and Matt Dumba made up the third pair, although the medical staff will decide Tuesday whether Dumba returns from a knee injury. That would mean right-shot defensemen Christian Folin and Nate Prosser will be scratched Tuesday, and it would give Fletcher options if he wants to trade a defenseman.

As for Graovac, who may be assigned to Iowa with Olofsson during the bye week to save salary cap space,

Boudreau hopes the short stint in Iowa motivates him to play better.

“We sat out Schroeder two games ago, and he’s come back and played two really strong games,” Boudreau said. “So getting sent down and being recalled, hopefully that will push a button for him to play like he did for the first 10 games when he was up.”

Graovac was shocked to be put on waivers.

“There wasn’t much rea-son for it. There wasn’t much feedback, to be honest,” Grao-vac said. “I was kind of left a little bit in the dark. … Obvi-ously I want to go out there and prove to him that he can trust

me in situations I’m put in . … I don’t know if this is part of the process or not. I know Bruce is very old-school in a way. He’s told me as a younger guy that they all go through this. My main goal right now is to be the best player I can be. I’m definitely going to be a little more aggressive [Tuesday].”

Boudreau said he’ll talk to Graovac, but “I shouldn’t have to talk to him about anything. If I’m a guy getting called up I want to be good in all three zones, I want to be physical, I want to score, I want to do it all. I’m sure he wants to prove a point that he belongs here full time. That’s what we’re hop-ing for.”

Tinkering served purpose for Wildø WILD from C1

W E S T E R N C O N F E R E N C E

CENTRAL GP W L OT PTS GF GA HOME AWAY DIVWild 58 39 13 6 84 195 133 21-7-1 18-6-5 14-4-3Chicago 59 36 18 5 77 172 151 18-8-4 18-10-1 13-8-1St. Louis 60 31 24 5 67 170 173 18-10-4 13-14-1 9-9-2Nashville 58 28 22 8 64 164 159 16-7-6 12-15-2 12-9-1Winnipeg 62 28 29 5 61 180 194 14-14-1 14-15-4 14-7-1Dallas 60 23 27 10 56 165 193 16-9-6 7-18-4 8-14-4Colorado 57 16 38 3 35 113 190 7-19-2 9-19-1 6-13-0

PACIFIC GP W L OT PTS GF GA HOME AWAY DIVSan Jose 60 35 18 7 77 166 144 18-7-4 17-11-3 11-7-3Edmonton 59 32 19 8 72 171 152 15-10-3 17-9-5 12-4-3Anaheim 61 31 20 10 72 156 154 18-7-3 13-13-7 12-4-4Calgary 59 29 26 4 62 153 167 15-14-0 14-12-4 9-9-3Los Angeles 58 28 26 4 60 143 145 15-10-1 13-16-3 8-8-0Vancouver 60 26 28 6 58 142 172 18-9-3 8-19-3 9-7-1Arizona 58 21 30 7 49 140 183 13-14-3 8-16-4 9-12-5

E A S T E R N C O N F E R E N C E

ATLANTIC GP W L OT PTS GF GA HOME AWAY DIVMontreal 59 31 20 8 70 166 153 18-8-4 13-12-4 11-3-5Ottawa 57 31 20 6 68 156 152 16-10-6 15-10-0 9-9-1Florida 58 28 20 10 66 149 162 14-10-3 14-10-7 9-7-5Boston 59 30 23 6 66 159 156 15-13-0 15-10-6 15-6-1Toronto 58 27 20 11 65 181 173 14-10-4 13-10-7 12-6-2Buffalo 60 26 24 10 62 147 168 15-11-4 11-13-6 9-10-3Tampa Bay 58 26 24 8 60 160 166 14-10-2 12-14-6 9-5-3Detroit 59 24 25 10 58 149 175 12-13-5 12-12-5 6-9-5

METROPOLITAN GP W L OT PTS GF GA HOME AWAY DIVWashington 58 39 12 7 85 195 126 24-5-1 15-7-6 11-7-5Pittsburgh 58 36 14 8 80 204 165 24-4-3 12-10-5 13-5-1Columbus 58 37 16 5 79 187 143 21-9-1 16-7-4 10-6-1N.Y. Rangers 58 38 19 1 77 196 152 19-11-1 19-8-0 12-8-0N.Y. Islanders 58 27 21 10 64 174 174 20-8-6 7-13-4 9-7-4Philadelphia 59 28 24 7 63 154 179 17-9-4 11-15-3 6-8-1New Jersey 59 25 24 10 60 138 170 13-11-4 12-13-6 8-6-2Carolina 55 24 23 8 56 141 162 17-7-2 7-16-6 6-12-2

MONDAYArizona 3, Anaheim 2Florida 2, St. Louis 1

SUNDAYAnaheim 1, Los Angeles 0Boston 2, San Jose 1, OTChicago 5, Buffalo 1Detroit 5, Pittsburgh 2Nashville 4, Columbus 3N.Y. Islanders 6, New Jersey 4N.Y. Rangers 2, Washington 1Philadelphia 3, Vancouver 2Tampa Bay 3, Colorado 2, OTToronto 4, Carolina 0Winnipeg 3, Ottawa 2

TUESDAYChicago at Wild, 7 pmMontreal at N.Y. Rangers, 6 pmOttawa at New Jersey, 6 pmPittsburgh at Carolina, 6 pmEdmonton at Tampa Bay, 6:30 pmN.Y. Islanders at Detroit, 6:30 pmWinnipeg at Toronto, 6:30 pmCalgary at Nashville, 7 pmLos Angeles at Colorado, 8 pm

WEDNESDAYEdmonton at Florida, 6:30 pmWashington at Phil., 7 pmBoston at Anaheim, 9:30 pm

STANDINGS ROUNDUP

FLORIDA 2, ST. LOUIS 1Florida......................................................................................1 0 1—2St. Louis ...................................................................................0 0 1—1First: 1. Fla—Marchessault 17 (Bjugstad), 10:40.Second: None.Third: 2. StL—Brodziak 7 (Upshall, Reaves), 2:54. 3. Fla—Trocheck 21 (Smith, Pysyk), 19:55.Shots: Florida 8-8-17—33. St. Louis 12-3-12—27. Power-plays: Flor-ida 0 of 1; St. Louis 0 of 2. Goalies: Florida, Reimer 12-6-4 (27-26). St. Louis, Allen 22-16-3 (33-31). A: 19,239 (19,150). T: 2:25. Ref-erees: Tom Kowal, Ian Walsh. Linesmen: Lonnie Cameron, Ry-an Gibbons.

ARIZONA 3, ANAHEIM 2Anaheim ..................................................................................0 1 1—2Arizona ....................................................................................3 0 0—3First: 1. Arizona—Dvorak 10 (Perlini, Doan), 2:02. 2. Arizona—Chychrun 4 (White, Rieder), 4:46. 3. Arizona—Vrbata 12 (Schenn, Domi), 14:50.Second: 4. Ana—Getzlaf 10 (Manson, Ritchie), 12:26.Third: 5. Ana—Getzlaf 11 (Fowler, Vatanen), 19:33.Shots: Anaheim 10-15-11—36. Arizona 6-7-7—20. Power-plays: Anaheim 0 of 2; Arizona 0 of 3. Goalies: Anaheim, Bernier 8-5-2 (6-3), Gibson 23-15-8 (14-14). Arizona, Smith 16-16-6 (28-27), Lang-hamer 0-0-0 (8-7). A: 14,554 (17,125). T: 2:28. Referees: Chris Lee, Kendrick Nicholson. Linesmen: David Brisebois, Mark Wheler.

SUMMARIES

WILD GAMEDAY7 p.m. vs. Chicago • Xcel Energy Center • FSN, NBCSN, 100.3-FM

A visit from the Blackhawks, then a five-day byePreview: A victory would give the Wild the most wins and points in the NHL. The Wild

can become the first team with 40 wins and 86 points, which would be one short of last season’s 82-game total. The Wild, 4-1-1 on its eight-game homestand, plays for the final time before entering its five-day bye. The Wild has a nine-game point streak (8-0-1) against Chicago, but the lone loss came in overtime Feb. 8 in St. Paul.

Players to watch: Wild G Devan Dubnyk is 8-0 with a .949 save percentage in the regular season against the Blackhawks with Minnesota. RW Jason Pominville has 19 points in the past 15 games. Since becoming a line Nov. 25, Jason Zucker-Mikko Koivu-Mikael Granlund have a combined 43 goals, 67 assists and 110 points and are plus-84. Blackhawks RW Patrick Kane, who led the NHL in scoring last season, is tied for fifth with 60 points. He has 15 goals and 33 points in 38 games vs. Minnesota. C Artem Anisimov and RW Marian Hossa are tied for the team lead with 21 goals.

Numbers: The Wild leads the NHL with six players with at least 40 points. … Minnesota’s plus-62 goal differential ranks second in the NHL and is nearly triple the next-best goal dif-ferential in the Western Conference (San Jose, plus-22). … The Wild also leads the Western Conference with 195 goals scored and 3.36 goals per game.

Injuries: Wild D Matt Dumba (knee) is questionable.MICHAEL RUSSO

JEFF WHEELER • jeff.wheeler@startribune.comLook for the Wild to use center Erik Haula on the third line instead of the fourth, as has been the case recently. “I’d certainly like to get him more ice time,’’ coach Bruce Boudreau said.

Vincent Trocheck scored with 4.8 sec-onds left in the third period, giving the Pan-thers a 2-1 victory over the Blues on Monday night in St. Louis. Florida has won five in a row, all on the road, and eight of nine overall. Arizona 3, Anaheim 2: Christian Dvorak, Jakob Chychrun and Radim Vrbata scored first-period goals for the host Coyotes.Notes: The Flames acquired defenseman Michael Stone from the Coyotes for two draft picks. … The NHL suspended Jets defenseman Jacob Trouba for two games for an illegal check to the head of Senators forward Mark Stone.

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B A S K E T B A L LNBA STANDINGSWESTERN CONFERENCENorthwest W L Pct GBUtah 35 22 .614 —Oklahoma City 32 25 .561 3Denver 25 31 .446 9½Portland 23 33 .411 11½Wolves 22 35 .386 13Southwest W L Pct GBSan Antonio 43 13 .768 —Houston 40 18 .690 4Memphis 34 24 .586 10New Orleans 23 34 .404 20½Dallas 22 34 .393 21Pacifi c W L Pct GBGolden State 47 9 .839 —L.A. Clippers 35 21 .625 12Sacramento 24 33 .421 23½L.A. Lakers 19 39 .328 29Phoenix 18 39 .316 29½EASTERN CONFERENCEAtlantic W L Pct GBBoston 37 20 .649 —Toronto 33 24 .579 4New York 23 34 .404 14Philadelphia 21 35 .375 15½Brooklyn 9 47 .161 27½Southeast W L Pct GBWashington 34 21 .618 —Atlanta 32 24 .571 2½Miami 25 32 .439 10Charlotte 24 32 .429 10½Orlando 21 37 .362 14½Central W L Pct GBCleveland 39 16 .709 —Indiana 29 28 .509 11Chicago 28 29 .491 12Detroit 27 30 .474 13Milwaukee 25 30 .455 14RESULT SUNDAYAll-Star Game • New OrleansWest 192, East 182MONDAY - WEDNESDAYNo games scheduledGAMES THURSDAYPortland at Orlando, 6 pmCharlotte at Detroit, 6:30 pmHouston at New Orleans, 7 pmNew York at Cleveland, 7 pmDenver at Sacramento, 9:30 pmL.A. Clippers at Golden State, 9:30 pm

H O C K E YWILD STATISTICS(Through Monday)Player GP G A TP +/- PIMGranlund ..........58 17 36 53 31 6Staal .................58 17 28 45 8 20Coyle ................58 14 30 44 14 34Koivu ................57 17 27 44 32 22Niederreiter ....58 19 24 43 21 37Zucker ..............58 18 23 41 34 26Pominville .......58 10 27 37 2 4Suter ................58 8 25 33 35 22Spurgeon .........54 8 20 28 33 18Parise ...............49 13 14 27 -4 28Dumba .............54 7 17 24 24 43Haula ...............48 12 8 20 9 20Brodin ..............44 3 13 16 3 16Stewart ............58 11 3 14 -1 79Schroeder ........25 3 6 9 5 0Folin .................41 2 5 7 6 22Scandella .........47 2 5 7 5 23Graovac ...........45 6 0 6 4 6Eriksson Ek .......9 2 3 5 2 2Prosser ............27 0 4 4 -2 4Dalpe .................9 1 2 3 0 9Olofsson ...........7 0 2 2 0 0Bertschy ...........5 0 1 1 0 4Gabriel .............13 0 1 1 0 29Pulkkinen..........9 1 0 1 -1 2Reilly ................17 1 0 1 1 2Cannone ...........3 0 0 0 0 0Mitchell ...........11 0 0 0 -1 0Tuch ..................6 0 0 0 -3 0Totals ...............58 192 325 517 0 506Opponents.......58 131 234 365 0 517GOALIES W L OT SO SV% GAADubnyk ............32 10 3 5 .934 1.97Kuemper ...........7 3 3 0 .910 3.05Totals ...............39 13 6 5 .927 2.24Opponents.......19 33 6 3 .891 3.24

CHICAGO STATISTICS(Through Monday)Player GP G A TP +/- PIMKane .................59 20 40 60 7 28 Panarin ............59 19 34 53 14 21 Anisimov..........55 21 20 41 10 30 Keith.................59 5 36 41 10 14 Toews ...............50 12 25 37 2 23 Hossa ...............53 21 14 35 8 6 Panik ................59 15 14 29 2 28 Seabrook .........57 3 25 28 -5 14 Hartman ..........54 14 10 24 9 53 Campbell .........57 4 10 14 13 18 Hinostroza .......47 6 8 14 0 17 Hjalmarsson ....58 5 9 14 11 14 Kruger ..............47 2 10 12 5 24 Schmaltz .........40 4 7 11 2 2 Kero ..................24 4 5 9 10 2 Van Riemsdyk .35 3 6 9 12 8 Kempny ...........40 2 6 8 0 22 Rasmussen ......55 4 4 8 -1 10 Motte ...............33 4 3 7 2 14 Forsling ............36 2 3 5 4 4 Desjardins .......34 0 1 1 -5 15 Rozsival ...........14 0 1 1 -2 6 Abbott ...............1 0 0 0 0 0 Tootoo ..............36 0 0 0 -4 21 Totals ...............59 170 291 461 0 410 Opponents.......59 150 251 401 0 460 GOALIES W L OT SO SV% GAACrawford .........22 13 3 2 .917 2.56Darling .............14 5 2 2 .928 2.19Totals ...............36 18 5 4 .918 2.52Opponents.......23 26 10 4 .904 2.85

COLLEGE • MEN DIVISION I POLLThe top 20 teams in the NCAA Division I men’s ice hockey poll, compiled by U.S. College Hockey Online. Record Pts Pvs 1. Denver (33) 22-6-4 981 2 2. Minn. Duluth (14) 19-5-6 954 1 3. Harvard (3) 20-5-2 913 3 4. Gophers 20-8-2 831 5 5. Mass.-Lowell 20-9-3 734 6 6. Boston University 20-9-3 733 4 7. Union 22-8-2 709 7 8. Western Michigan 18-8-4 695 8 9. Cornell 17-6-4 555 12 10. Providence 18-9-5 498 10 11. Penn State 18-8-2 454 9 12. Ohio State 16-8-6 447 14 13. Notre Dame 18-9-5 412 15 14. Boston College 18-12-4 388 11 15. Vermont 17-10-5 289 16 16. North Dakota 15-13-3 262 13 17. Air Force 21-8-5 170 19 18. St. Cloud State 15-14-1 154 18 19. Wisconsin 17-10-1 136 20 20. St. Lawrence 15-10-7 74 17

BIG TEN W L T SW Pts GF GAGophers 11 3 0 0 33 62 46Wisconsin 10 4 0 0 30 58 43Ohio State 7 6 1 1 23 55 49Penn State 7 6 1 0 22 51 46Michigan 2 10 2 2 10 37 62Michigan St. 2 10 2 0 8 35 52Overall: Gophers 20-8-2, Wisconsin 17-10-1, Ohio State 16-8-6, Penn State 18-8-2, Michigan 9-16-3, Michigan St. 6-19-3.GAMES FRIDAYWisconsin at Gophers, 7 pmMichigan at Ohio State, 6:05 pmPenn State at Michigan St., 6:05 pm

NCHC W L T SW Pts GF GADenver 14 3 3 2 47 64 35Minn. Duluth 13 4 3 3 45 66 40W. Michigan 11 8 1 1 35 61 61St. Cloud State 9 10 1 0 28 53 54Omaha 8 10 2 0 26 65 76North Dakota 8 11 1 1 26 55 52Miami (Ohio) 5 11 4 2 21 47 65Colorado Coll. 3 14 3 0 12 35 63Overall: Denver 22-6-4, Minn. Duluth 19-5-6, W. Michigan 18-8-4, St. Cloud State 15-14-1, Omaha 15-12-5, North Dakota 15-13-3, Miami (Ohio) 9-15-6, Colorado College 7-20-3.GAME THURSDAYMiami (Ohio) at Minn. Duluth, 7:07 pmGAMES FRIDAYMiami (Ohio) at Minn. Duluth, 7:07 pmOmaha at North Dakota, 7:37 pmW. Michigan at Colorado Coll., 8:37 pmSt. Cloud State at Denver, 9:05 pm

WCHA W L T SW Pts GF GABemidji St. 19 5 2 2 61 68 41Michigan Tech 14 6 6 3 51 74 52MSU Mankato 14 8 4 2 48 86 65Bowling Green 12 13 1 1 38 70 65Ferris St. 11 12 3 2 38 71 69Alaska 9 13 4 3 34 61 80Lake Superior St. 8 12 6 3 33 73 80N. Michigan 9 14 3 1 31 62 69Ala.-Huntsville 9 14 3 0 30 68 86Anchorage 6 14 6 2 26 48 74Overall: Bemidji St. 19-12-3, Michigan Tech 17-12-7, MSU Mankato 18-10-4, Bowling Green 15-17-2, Ferris St. 12-17-4, Alaska 10-18-4, Lake Superior St. 11-15-6, N. Michigan 11-19-4, Ala.-Hunts-ville 9-20-3, Anchorage 7-19-6.GAMES FRIDAYAla.-Huntsville at Bowl. Green, 6:07 pmMichigan Tech at N. Michigan, 6:07 pmFerris St. at Lake Superior St., 6:37 pmMSU Mankato at Bemijdi St., 7:07 pmAlaska at Anchorage, 10:07 pm

ATLANTIC HOCKEY W L T Pts GF GA Canisius 17 4 6 40 86 53 Air Force 18 5 3 39 84 53 Army 15 9 2 32 75 53 Robert Morris 13 10 3 29 75 70 Mercyhurst 11 11 4 26 81 72 Holy Cross 10 10 6 26 71 72 Bentley 10 11 5 25 72 75 RIT 12 15 0 24 83 78 Sacred Heart 9 14 3 21 64 80 American Int’l. 6 14 6 18 60 89 Niagara 3 21 2 8 52 108 Overall: Canisius 18-10-7, Air Force 21-8-5, Army 16-11-4, Robert Morris 17-11-4, Mercyhurst 12-16-4, Holy Cross 13-13-6, Bentley 11-15-6, RIT 12-20-1, Sa-cred Heart 11-16-5, American Int’l 7-18-7, Niagara 3-26-3GAMES THURSDAYArmy at American Int’l, 6:05 pm Mercyhurst at Canisius, 6:35 pm GAMES FRIDAYHoly Cross at Bentley, 6:05 pm Sacred Heart at Air Force, 7:05 pm

ECAC W L T Pts GF GA Union (NY) 15 4 1 31 80 50 Harvard 14 4 2 30 75 43 Cornell 12 4 4 28 65 48 St. Lawrence 11 5 4 26 53 34 Quinnipiac 11 8 1 23 62 52 Clarkson 9 8 3 21 60 54 Yale 7 9 4 18 59 60 Dartmouth 7 11 2 16 51 69 Colgate 6 11 3 15 35 55 Princeton 6 11 3 15 52 72 RPI 5 15 0 10 49 72 Brown 3 16 1 7 44 76 Overall: Union (NY) 22-8-2, Harvard 20-5-2, Cornell 17-6-4, St. Lawrence 15-10-7, Quinnipiac 17-13-2, Clarkson 14-13-5, Yale 11-11-5, Dartmouth 10-14-3, Col-gate 8-18-6, Princeton 11-13-3, RPI 7-25-1, Brown 4-21-2.GAMES FRIDAYRPI at Cornell, 6 pm Clarkson at Harvard, 6 pm Brown at Princeton, 6 pm Yale at Quinnipiac, 6 pm Union (N.Y.) at Colgate, 6:05 pm St. Lawrence at Dartmouth, 6:05 pm

HOCKEY EAST W L T Pts GF GA Boston College 13 4 3 29 72 49 Boston U. 12 5 3 27 59 43 Notre Dame 11 5 4 26 63 46 UMass-Lowell 12 7 1 25 69 49 Providence 10 7 3 23 58 54 Vermont 9 7 4 22 56 59 Merrimack 7 7 6 20 53 55 Northeastern 8 9 3 19 64 62 New Hampshire 7 9 4 18 64 68 UConn 6 10 4 16 46 56 Maine 4 14 2 10 48 70 UMass 2 17 1 5 39 80 Overall: Boston Volley 18-12-4, Boston U. 20-9-3, Notre Dame 18-9-5, UMass-Low-ell 20-9-3, Providence 18-9-5, Vermont 17-10-5, Merrimack 13-13-6, Northeast-ern 15-12-5, New Hampshire 12-15-5, UConn 10-14-8, Maine 10-18-4, UMass 5-25-2.GAME THURSDAYUMass-Lowell at Boston Coll., 6 pmGAMES FRIDAYNotre Dame at Boston U., 5:05 pm Providence at UMass, 6 pm UConn at New Hampshire, 6 pm Merrimack at Vermont, 6:05 pm Northeastern at Maine, 6:30 pm Boston Coll. at UMass-Lowell, 7:30 pm

COLLEGE • WOMENWCHA PLAYOFFSQuarterfi nals • Best-of-3Bemidji St. at GophersG1: Friday, 6:07 pmG2: Saturday, 4:07 pmG3: Sunday, 4:07 pm (if nec.)St. Cloud State at Minn. DuluthG1: Thursday, 3:07 pmG2: Friday, 3:07 pmG3: Sunday, 3:07 pm (if nec.)MSU Mankato at WisconsinG1: Friday, 7:07 pmG2: Saturday, 4:07 pmG3: Sunday, 3:07 pm (if nec.)Ohio State at North DakotaG1: Friday, 2:07 pmG2: Saturday, 2:07 pmG3: Sunday, 2:07 pm (if nec.)

T E N N I SPRO • MENDELRAY BEACH OPEN First round • Delray Beach, Fla.• S. Querrey (4) def. D. Sela, 6-2, 2-1 ret. • K. Edmund (8) def. A. Mannarino, 6-3, 6-0. • Y. Nishioka def. K. Coppejans, 6-3, 6-3. • Y. Lu def. B. Fratangelo, 4-6, 7-5, 6-4. WORLD TOUR OPEN 13 MARSEILLEFirst Round • Marseille, France• M. Youzhny def. S. Tsitsipas, 6-1, 4-6, 7-5. • M. Jaziri def. A. Kuznetsov, 6-3, 6-3. • G. Simon (7) def. K. Khachanov, 4-6, 7-5, 6-3.

PRO • WOMENDUBAI DUTY FREE CHAMPIONSHIPSFirst round • Dubai, United Arab Emirates• M. Puig def. Y. Shvedova, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4. • C. Bellis def. Y. Putintseva (17), 6-1, 7-5. • E. Mertens def. T. Pironkova, 6-3, 6-2. • P. Shuai def. L. Tsurenko, 6-1, 6-1. • M. Doi def. M. Brengle, 6-2, 6-7 (7), 6-3. • K. Bondarenko def. A. Sabalenka, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3. • K. Mladenovic def. K. Siniakova, 6-3, 6-3. • L. Davis def. M. Minella, 2-6, 6-2, 6-1. • A. Konjuh def. Z. Shuai, 6-0, 6-1. • C. McHale def. K. Bertens (13), 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-4. • C. Wozniacki (10) def. D. Kasatkina, 6-2, 7-5. • A. Riske def. C. Vandeweghe (11), 6-4, 6-4. HUNGARIAN LADIES OPENFirst round • Budapest, Hungary• D. Vekic def. E. Alexandrova, 6-3, 7-5. • A. Beck (8) def. J. Cepelova, 6-2, 6-2. • P. Parmentier (6) def. K. Kozlova, 7-6 (3), 7-6 (2). • H. Su-wei def. S.S. Tormo, 2-6, 6-3, 6-1. • L. Safarova (2) def. M. Linette, 6-0, 5-7, 7-6 (4).

T R A N S A C T I O N SBASEBALLAMERICAN LEAGUENew York: Signed LHP Jon Niese to a mi-nor league contract.

BASKETBALLNATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATIONNew Orleans: Acquired C DeMarcus Cousins and F Omri Casspi from Sac-ramento for G Tyreke Evans, G Buddy Hield, G-F Langston Galloway and 2017 fi rst- and second-round draft picks.

FOOTBALLNATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUEJacksonville: Released DL Jared Odrick.

HOCKEYNATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUENHL: Suspended Winnipeg D Jacob Trou-ba r two games for an illegal check to the head of Ottawa F Mark Stone during a Feb. 19 game. Calgary: Acquired D Michael Stone from Arizona for a 2017 third-round draft pick and a conditional 2018 fi fth-round draft pick.

AWARDSMIAC: Named the following athletes of the week: Bethel’s Bridgeport Tusler (men’s basketball), Augsburg’s Tami-ra McLemore (women’s basketball), St. Thomas’ Johnny Panvica (men’s hock-ey) and St. Thomas’ Kathryn Larson (women’s hockey).NSIC: Named the following athletes of the week: Minn.-Crookston’s Harrison Cleary (men’s basketball North Divi-sion), Augustana’s Mike Busack (men’s basketball South Divison), Northern State’s Miranda Ristau (women’s bas-ketball North Division), Concordia’s An-na Schmitt (women’s basketball South Division) and Augustana’s Ben Good-win (wrestling).

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11 amBTN

GOPHERS MEN’S HOCKEY • 612-624-8080

WIS.7 pm

FSN PLUS

WIS.7 pm

FSN PLUS

GOPHERS WOMEN’S HOCKEY • 612-624-8080

BEMIDJI STATE

6:07 pm

BEMIDJI STATE

4:07 pm

BEMIDJI STATE

4:07 pm(if nec.)

OTHER SPORTSGOPHERSBaseball: Friday vs. Seattle U., 6:30 p.m. Saturday vs. Seattle U., 6 p.m. Sunday vs. Seattle U., 1 p.m.Women’s golf: Monday-next Wednesday at Hurricane Invitational, Coral Gables, Fla.Men’s gymnastics: Saturday vs. Stanford, Japan and Canada at Palo Alto, Calif, 6 p.m.Women’s gymnastics: Sunday vs. Gustavus, Hamline and Winona State, 2 p.m.Softball: Friday vs. UC Davis (1:30 p.m.) and Fresno State (7:30 p.m.) at Fresno, Calif. Saturday vs. UC Davis (11 a.m.) and Cal Poly (1:30 p.m.) at Fresno, Calif. Sunday vs. Idaho State at Fresno, Calif., 11 a.m.Men’s swimming and diving: Wednesday-Saturday at Big Ten Championships, Columbus, OhioMen’s tennis: Friday vs. Oklahoma St., 6 p.m.Women’s tennis: Wednesday at Mississippi State, 2 p.m. Saturday vs. Marquette (11 am.) and Milwaukee (6 p.m.) at Milwaukee, Wis.Men’s and women’s track and field: Friday-Saturday Big Ten Championships at Geneva, Ohio

ON THE AIR TUESDAYBASKETBALL TIME TV RADIOCollege men: Purdue at Penn State 5 p.m. BTNCollege men: Rhode Island at La Salle 5 p.m. CBSSNCollege men: South Carolina at Florida 6 p.m. ESPNCollege men: Oklahoma at Baylor 6 p.m. ESPN2College men: Clemson at Virginia Tech 6 p.m. ESPNUCollege men: Auburn at LSU 6 p.m. SECNCollege men: Northwestern at Illinois 7 p.m. BTNCollege men: Davidson at Richmond 7 p.m. CBSSNCollege men: St. John’s at Marquette 7 p.m. FS1College men: Indiana at Iowa 8 p.m. ESPNCollege men: Mississippi at Miss. State 8 p.m. ESPN2College men: E. Carolina at Tulane 8 p.m. ESPNUCollege men: Kentucky at Missouri 8 p.m. SECNCollege men: Colorado St. at New Mexico 9 p.m. CBSSN

BOXINGMiguel Flores vs. Dat Nguyen 9 p.m. FS1

HOCKEYNHL: Chicago at Wild 7 p.m. FSN, NBCSN 100.3-FM

SOCCERUEFA: Manchester City vs. Monaco 1:30 p.m. FS1

SCOREBOARD

PREP ATHLETES OF THE WEEK

X AV I E R M A N S F I E L DSpring Lake Park/St. Anthony • Nordic skiing

Mansfield capped a season in which he was the state’s No. 1-ranked Nordic skier all year by winning the individual championship at the state meet at Giants Ridge in Biwabik last week. He was third after the skate-style portion of the race

but made up a 20-second deficit in the classic-style second leg. He finished with a combined pursuit time of 28:23.2, nine sec-onds ahead of runner-up Patrick Acton of Eagan. Minneapolis Southwest senior William Foss Kerker was third.

The three are close friends and teammates on the Loppet Nordic Ski team, which trains out of Minneapolis. The three even formed a relay team that won a national title last year.

“All year, I knew it was going to be the three of us fighting it out,” Mansfield said.

They are so close that contact between Mansfield and Kerker midway through the race, which resulted in Kerker falling, was brushed off by Kerker as “just racing.” Mansfield admitted he made a mistake, taking a wrong track. “I went to the middle track when I should have stayed left,” he said. “But we all race hard. We’re good friends, but we all want to win.”

He’s No. 1, from start to finishK E N D A L L C O L E YSt. Louis Park • basketballThe eighth-grade guard had the best game of her high school career on the seventh anniversary of her mother’s death, scoring 27

points — making seven of 11 three-point shots — and blocking three shots in a 72-66 victory over Bloomington Jeffer-son.

A L L I S O N E I D EChristian Life • basketballThe junior point guard had 45 points (including her 1,000th career point), 17 assists and 12 steals in vic-tories over Hope Academy

and Nova Classical. She led the Hawks to another undefeated Twin Cities Athletic Conference season (14-0).

B R E N N A N H AW K I N SMpls. Southwest • basketballThe senior forward had 29 points, nine rebounds and nine assists, keeping the Lakers close for most of the game in a 72-58 loss

to Class 1A, No. 1 Minneapolis North. He had 26 points, 18 rebounds and seven assists in an 84-67 victory over Minne-apolis South.

D A N N Y M A G N U S O NCretin-Derham Hall • hockeyAfter scoring only three goals through the first 23 games of the season, the sophomore defenseman scored five in a two-game stretch last week.

He had two and an assist in a 7-3 victory over Forest Lake and a hat trick in a 6-5 vic-tory over Holy Angels.

S E B A S S W I G G U MApple Valley • wrestlingThe Eagles fought off Shakopee and extended their streak of state tourna-ment appearances to 35 with a 28-19 victory in the

Class 3A, Section 2 final. The sophomore 132-pounder had the match’s key victory, upsetting three-time defending state champ Brent Jones 7-5 in overtime.

M A L L O R Y T I D O N ANorthfield • hockeyTidona, a junior, could not have been better in helping the Raiders to the Class 1A, Section 1 title. She shut out all three opponents she

faced, including a 27-save effort in a 2-0 victory over Red Wing in the final.

JIM PAULSEN

PREP RESULTS/SCHEDULES

M O N D AY

BASKETBALL • BOYSMETROPOLITAN AREA• Fridley 70, River Falls, Wis. 53 MINNESOTA• Alden-Conger 56, Mabel-Canton 54, OT• Goodridge/G-G 55, Kittson C.C 45 • Lakeview Acad. 83, Northland 60 • New Richland-H-E-G 72, Maple River 43 • Nicollet 80, G-F-W 54 • Randolph 59, Medford 40 • Royalton 51, St. John’s Prep 49 • St. Charles 73, Wabasha-Kellogg 71 • Truman/ML 85, Sleepy Eye SM’s 80

BASKETBALL • GIRLSWRIGHT COUNTY• New London-Spicer 70, Annandale 61 METROPOLITAN AREA• Eden Valley-Wat. at Howard Lake-W-W• Mountain Iron-Buhl 68, Mayer Luth. 55• Southwest Christian at Belle Plaine, ccd.MINNESOTA• Badger-G-MR 67, Sacred Heart 63• Cedar Mountain/Comf. 64, Nicollet 50• Clearbrook-Gonvick 72, Laporte 31• Ely 73, Silver Bay 40 • G-F-W 75, Wabasso 67• Hills-Beaver Creek 58, Adrian 43• Kasson-Mantorville 64, Hayfi eld 43 • Lac qui Parle Valley 52, Tracy-MB 50, OT• Mankato Loyola 73, Bethlehem Acad. 48 • Maple River 55, United S.C. 51 • Murray C.C. 46, Mountain Lake Area 44• New Ulm Cath. 50, Lake Crystal-WM 35• Northern Freeze 48, Goodridge/G-G 37• Stephen-Argyle 58, Crookston 54• Waseca 57, St. Clair 38• Wheaton/H-N 64, Clinton-G-B 21

S TAT E T O U R N A M E N T S

GYMNASTICSAt University of Minnesota Sports PavilionCLASS 2A• Team competition: Cambridge-Isan-ti, East Ridge, Lakeville North, Ma-ple Grove, Minnetonka, Owatonna, St. Cloud Tech, Stillwater; Friday, 6 pm• Individual competition: Saturday, 6 pm

CLASS 1A• Team competition: Austin, Becker, De-troit Lakes, Mahtomedi, Mankato West, Melrose, Watertown-Mayer/Mound We-stonka, Worthington; Friday, 11 am• Individual competition: Saturday, 11 am

HOCKEY • GIRLSCLASS 2AAt Xcel Energy Center unless notedThursday • Quarterfi nals• Blaine (22-3-2) vs. Roseau (19-8-1), 11 am• Eastview (16-10-2) vs. Hill-Murray (23-4-1), 1 pm• Edina (25-1-1) vs. Farmington (16-11-2), 6 pm• Eden Prairie (19-6-2) vs. Forest Lake (20-6-2), 8 pmFriday • Consolation semifi nalsAt Ridder Arena• Blaine/Roseau loser vs. Eastview/Hill-Murray loser, 10 am• Edina/Farmington loser vs. Eden Prai-rie/Forest Lake loser, noon

Semifi nals• Blaine/Roseau winner vs. Eastview/Hill-Murray winner, 6 pm• Edina/Farmington winner vs. Eden Prairie/Forest Lake winner, 8 pmSaturday • Fifth placeAt Ridder Arena• Consolation semifi nal winners, noonThird place• Semifi nal losers, 3 pmChampionship• Semifi nal winners, 7 pm

CLASS 1AAt Xcel Energy Center unless notedWednesday • Quarterfi nals• Mankato East/Loyola (17-9-1) vs. St. Paul United (19-6-2), 11 am• Hibbing/Chisholm (17-10-1) vs. War-road (17-8-2), 1 pm• Alexandria (14-12-1) vs. Blake (24-2-1), 6 pm• Mound Westonka (21-6-0) vs. North-fi eld (19-6-3), 8 pmThursday • Consolation semifi nalsAt Ridder Arena• Mankato East-Loyola/St. Paul United loser vs. Hibbing-Chisholm/Warroad loser, 10 am• Alexandria/Blake loser vs. Mound We-stonka/Northfi eld loser, noonFriday • Semifi nals• Mankato East-Loyola/St. Paul United winner vs. Hibbing-Chisholm/Warroad winner, 11 am• Alexandria/Blake winner vs. Mound Westonka/Northfi eld winner, 1 pmSaturday • Fifth placeAt Ridder Arena• Consolation semifi nal winners, 10 amThird place• Semifi nal losers, 9 amChampionship• Semifi nal winners, 4 pm

S U M M A R I E S

BASKETBALL • BOYSFridley 67, River Falls 53River Falls 27 26-53Fridley 28 39-67River Falls: Knotek 22, Avestruz 8, Bail-largeon 7, Tirrel 6, Spafford 6, Feyerei-sen 2, Flood 2. Fridley: Cunningham 15, Nelsen 15, Crandall 9, Reeves 9, Soto 9, Armstrong 4, David 3, Pal 2, Sopa 1.

BASKETBALL • GIRLSEden Valley-Wat. 68, Howard Lake-W-W 39Eden Valley-Watkins 41 27-68Howard Lake-W-W 16 23-39Eden Valley-Watkins: Jansen 16, Kuech-le 12, Stommes 11, Schultz 10, Stang 7, Kuechle 4, Geislinger 3, Brutger 2, Mo-litor 2, Schleper 1. Howard Lake-Wa-verly-Winsted: Streich 12, Fesenmaier 10, Decker 6, Marschel 4, Luchsinger 4, Schumann 3.

Mountain Iron-Buhl 68, Mayer Luth. 55Mountain Iron-Buhl 31 37-68Mayer Lutheran 37 18-55Mountain Iron-Buhl: Burke 24, Mason 20, Buffetta 7, Savela 5, Negen 5, Over-bye 4, Dagen 2, Overbye 1. Mayer Luther-an: Gustin 17, Chmielewski 14, Hucky 11, Flucas 8, Quiram 2, Klaustermei-er 2, Jopp 1.

UMAC: Named the following athletes of the week: Bethany Lutheran’s Bran-dyn Frelix (men’s basketball), Martin Luther’s Jade St. Germaine (women’s basketball), Minn.-Morris’ Justin Terry (men’s indoor track); Wis.-Superior’s C.J. Pillath (men’s indoor fi eld); North-western’s Jane Hulterstrom (women’s indoor track), St. Scholastica’s Hannah Russert (women’s indoor fi eld), North-western’s C.J. Lloyd (men’s tennis) and Northwestern’s Karen Moe (women’s tennis).WCHA: Named the following men’s players of the week: Ferris State’s Co-rey Mackin (offensive), MSU Mankato’s Deniel Brickley (defensive) and MSU Mankato’s Nicholas Rivera (rookie).

T O D AY ’ S L I N E

NHLFAVORITE .............LINE .......... UNDERDOG TUESDAYWILD ...............-130/+120 ...........ChicagoNY RANGERS ..-137/+127 ......... MontrealPittsburgh ......-125/+115 .......CAROLINANEW JERSEY ... -108/-102 ............ OttawaDETROIT ......... -105/-105 ... NY IslandersTORONTO .......-140/+130 .........WinnipegTAMPA BAY ....-118/+108 ....... EdmontonNASHVILLE .....-152/+142 ............CalgaryLos Angeles ....-181/+166 ..... COLORADO

COLLEGE BASKETBALLFAVORITE .............LINE .......... UNDERDOG TUESDAYRhode Island ..........3 .................LA SALLE Purdue ....................7 .................. PENN ST BAYLOR ..................11 .............. Oklahoma VIRGINIA TECH ......2 ..................Clemson Auburn .................. 2½ ........................ LSU FLORIDA .................10 ...... South Carolina CENT. MICHIGAN ...3 .................N. Illinois TOLEDO................. 5½ ..........W. Michigan BUFFALO .................7 .....................Kent St Ohio ...................... 5½ .......MIAMI (OHIO) BALL ST................. 3½ ...........E. Michigan Cleveland St ...........1 ..................DETROIT N. KENTUCKY .........3 .................Wright St OAKLAND............. 13½ .... Youngstown St DAYTON ............... 11½ .....George Mason VALPARAISO .........15 ............. Milwaukee Green Bay ............. 1½ ....... ILL.-CHICAGO WICHITA ST ......... 19½ .............Evansville RICHMOND ........... 1½ ............... Davidson GEORGIA TECH .... 5½ ................NC State MARQUETTE ..........11 ................St. John’s Northwestern ....... 2½ ................ ILLINOIS IOWA .......................1 .................... Indiana Kentucky ............. 16½ .............MISSOURI MISSISSIPPI ST ......2 ..............Mississippi Akron ......................6 ....BOWLING GREEN TULANE ...................1 .......... East Carolina NEW MEXICO ....... 3½ ...........Colorado St

Note: Home teams are in CAPS.

MINNESOTA SCENE

STAFF REPORTS

Rod Simons, a Twin Cities broadcast journalist and for-mer sports anchor at KSTP television, died Monday in Fort Myers, Fla., where he was covering Twins spring train-ing. He was 56.

“Sad day in Fort Myers,” Twins President Dave St. Peter

said on Twitter. “RIP Rod. God bless your family. You were ALWAYS a positive light in an often negative world. Defini-tion of class.”

Twins second baseman Brian Dozier tweeted, “Just hearing about the passing of Rod Simons this morning down here at spring training. A great man with an amazing heart.”

Twins pitcher Glen Perkins tweeted: “I’ve k n ow n Ro d Simons since he came to my parents house on draft day in 2004. He was a

great man. Rest in Peace my friend.”

Simons, owner of Rod Simons Media Communica-tions, ran Game On! TV, which featured freelance television reporting and was a contribu-tor to the Twins broadcasting station, 96.3-FM.

He was a sports anchor for KSTP from 2003-08 after working for television stations in Seattle and Portland, Ore. He was active with the Gift Of Adoption fundraisers and golf tournaments.

Simons is survived by his wife, Pamela, and daughter, Annie.

“Absolutely crushed to hear about @rodsimons,” Vikings executive director of com-munications Jeff Anderson tweeted. “Always an incred-ible energy and smile. I’m heartbroken for his wife and daughter.”

Etc.• The Big Ten suspended

Gophers hockey forward Joey Marooney for one game for his hit Saturday on a Penn State player. Marooney, who received a major penalty for boarding and a game mis-conduct, must sit out Friday’s game against Wisconsin.

• The Gophers, who swept Penn State on the road over the weekend, moved up one spot to No. 4 in the U.S. Col-lege Hockey Online men’s poll. Denver supplanted Minne-sota Duluth as the No. 1 team. Harvard remained No. 3.

• The Gophers women remained No. 4 in the USCHO poll after two ties against No. 1 Wisconsin. Minnesota Duluth is No. 2, followed by Clarkson.

• Gophers pitcher Sara Groe-newegen was named Big Ten pitcher of the week and Ken-dyl Lindaman was selected co-freshman of the week.

In two victories over Notre Dame and one over North Caro-lina State in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge, Groenwegen had a 0.47 ERA with 25 strikeouts. Lindaman posted a .400 batting average with two home runs and a 1.000 slugging percentage.

Ex-KSTP anchor Simons dies at spring training

Game On! TVSimons

ZSW [C M Y K] C7 Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2017

T U E S DAY, F E B R U A RY 2 1 , 2 0 1 7 S P O R T S S TA R T R I B U N E • C7

Photos by JERRY HOLT • jerry.holt@startribune.comAll-Metro hockey girls team, from left: Grace Zumwinkle, Breck (Metro Player of the Year); Emily Oden, Edina; Taylor Wente, Maple Grove; Grace Bowlby, Edina; Emily Brown, Blaine; Coco Francis, Maple Grove. Four of the All-Metro players have committed to play for the Gophers.

PREPSALL-METRO GIRLS’ HOCKEY

FIRST TEAM

G R A C E B O W L B Y Edina, defense, seniorCatalyst for Edina team that lost only one regular-season game. Breathtaking skater who controls the game’s tempo. Provided 11 goals and 18 assists while consistently shutting down top forwards. Committed to Wisconsin.

E M I LY B R O W N Blaine, defense, seniorRepeat first-team selection showed great offensive prow-ess (14 goals, 27 assists) and fueled Blaine’s state tourna-ment run. Equally adept at getting the less-glamorous work done in front of her own net. Committed to Minnesota.

C O C O F R A N C I S Maple Grove, goaltender, seniorNever rattled and instills confidence in her teammates. Went 13-2 for the Crimson with a 1.12 goals-against average. Great puck control. Stopped 94 percent of shots faced and posted four shut-outs. Committed to Union.

E M I LY O D E N Edina, forward, juniorPowerhouse player who stands out among the Hor-nets’ five forwards bound for Division I. Potent blend of strength, speed and skill, with a drive to make plays. Scored 23 goals and added 15 assists. Committed to Minnesota.

TAY L O R W E N T E Maple Grove, forward, seniorA player as dynamic as she is complete. Excels at hockey’s nuances. A leader who made teammates better and earned their respect . Finished with 26 goals and 27 assists. Commit-ted to Minnesota.

G R A C E Z U M W I N K L E Breck, forward, seniorStar Tribune Metro Player of the Year. Booming slapshot clocked upward of 80 miles per hour. Tallied hat tricks in nine games, then often asked coaches afterward how she could improve. Led the Mus-tangs with 42 goals and added 16 assists. Won a gold medal with Oden, Wente and seven other Minnesota high school players with Team USA at the Under-18 women’s world championship in January. Committed to Minnesota.

DAVID LA VAQUE

S E C O N D T E A M ForwardsAbigail Boreen, Hill-Murray, junior: Elevated her game to provide scoring punch (31 goals, 30 assists).Anneke Linser, Centennial, junior: Delivered the puck in the right areas (41 assists) and finished (22 goals), too.Naomi Rogge, Eden Prai-rie, senior: Scored 35 goals, including the game-winner in double overtime of the section final.

DefenseTina Kampa, Maple Grove, senior: Puck seems taped to her stick. Power-play quarter-back with 29 assists.Madeline Wethington, Blake, sophomore: Aggres-sive defender with all the tools. Scored 10 goals for defending Class 1A champ .

GoalieBreanna Blesi, Maple Grove, senior: Finished with five shutouts, stopped 94 percent of shots faced.

T H I R D T E A MForwards: Maddy Fiedler, Chaska/Chanhassen, senior; Gabbie Hughes, Centennial, junior; Paetyn Levis, Rogers, junior

Defense: Hannah Schultz, Spring Lake Park/Coon Rapids, senior; Taylor Wemple, Hill-Murray, senior

Goalie: Calla Frank, White Bear Lake, sophomore

H O W T H E T E A M WA S S E L E C T E DThe Star Tribune’s All-Metro teams and Metro Player of the Year were chosen based on nominations from metro-area coaches, conversations with a panel of coaches and staff observations.

First play on your highlight reel? Preferred pregame meal? On the women’s Frozen Four getting televised.

Grace Bowlby

We were down to Breck 4-1 in the second period. I scored the tying goal with about a minute left in the third to bring it to overtime and we ended up winning.

Bagel with eggs, cheese and bacon. Also, a smoothie.

Makes watching the games easier, and I’m excited to tune in.

Emily Brown

Scoring twice against Hill-Murray. My second one tied the game up with only a few minutes left.

Jimmy John’s B.L.T. and an Edible Arrangements smoothie.

It’s really exciting to see the women’s game grow.

Coco Francis

Against Wayzata I blocked a back-hand with my glove but the puck popped over my shoulder and I dove to cover it right before the goal line.

Jimmy John’s sandwich and a Glacier Cherry Gatorade.

Younger girls will be able to watch great female players and be inspired to grow up and be like them.

Emily Oden

We were killing off a penalty against Centennial. I got the puck at the top of the circle and sent a slapshot upper left for a goal.

Chicken with a side salad and a baked potato.

It demonstrates to the youth that women’s sports are also important.

Taylor Wente

Two shorthanded goals on the same shift against Eagan.

Subway Italian B.M.T. More fans will come out and support their local teams after watching.

Grace Zumwinkle

Hat trick against Edina or scoring five goals against Centennial.

Jimmy John’s and Starbucks. It will be awesome to see championship hockey showcased on a national stage.

DAVID La VAQUE

By DAVID La VAQUE david.lavaque@startribune.com

Grace Zumwinkle, the middle of three sisters, brought hockey into the home first.

Then a kindergartner, her pio-neer spirit endured even after a less-than-promising debut on skates.

“I was the worst one out there, by far,” Zumwinkle recalled with a laugh. “The other kids skated circles around me. But when I got off the ice, I told my parents, ‘I’m the best one out there!’ ”

Mike Zumwinkle said he told his daughter, ‘Grace, if you think you are then you are.’ ”

There’s no longer a doubt. Zumwinkle capped a five-year varsity career at Breck by being selected the Star Tribune Metro Player of the Year. A slapshot clocked upward of 80 miles per hour, strong skating and hockey sense translated into 42 goals and 16 assists and solidified her place as a key figure in the evolution of girls’ hockey.

The three-sport star has played in the state golf tournament and won a pair of doubles state titles in tennis.

But hockey is her future. Zumwinkle committed to Minnesota.

Her credo — train like you’re No. 2, play like you’re No. 1 — is as close as she comes to arrogance. Playing for a Class 1A program, Zumwinkle tallied six of her nine hat tricks against Class 2A oppo-nents. Though she could have, she never declared her dominance like she did as a little girl.

“She’d get three goals or more in a game and ask me, ‘What can I do better?’ ” Mustangs coach Ronda Engelhardt said. “Her work ethic sets her apart, and that’s what has led to her having a phenomenal year.”

In her first two games, her shot was one part Paul Kariya, one part Paul Bunyan. Against Centennial, five total goals, one goalie’s mask

dented. Against Benilde-St. Mar-garet’s, one goal, a busted shin guard and a broken goalie’s skate.

She stayed on a roll. Zumwinkle tallied a hat trick in a loss against Edina, the No. 1 seed in this week’s Class 2A state tournament. She later added a goal and an assist when the Mustangs defeated the Hornets in a shootout at the Edina Walser Tournament.

The game counted as a tie, but it served as another example of Zumwinkle playing a key role to keep Breck among the metro area’s best teams regardless of class. She emerged as a captain for a young team and carried the Mustangs to a 5-4 section title loss against Blake.

All five of Zumwinkle’s five varsity seasons ended the same — a loss to rival Blake with a trip to state on the line. Yet she and senior teammate Kendall William-son skated over to the elated Bears players and offered encourage-ment to go defend their state title.

“It’s unfortunate she didn’t get into the state tournament, but she leaves as one of the top players ever in girls’ high school hockey,” Engelhardt said.

HARD-SHOOTING STAR HARD-DRIVEN TO WIN

PLAYER OF THE YEAR GRACE ZUMWINKLE, BRECK

Armed with an 80-mph rocket, she’s earned every bit of her status as the metro’s best

Grace Zumwinkle, a senior at Breck, is the Star Tribune’s Metro Player of the Year. Her five varsity seasons ended in frustration, but she has had great individual success in her prep career.

ZSW [C M Y K] C8 Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2017

C8 • S TA R T R I B U N E S P O R T S T U E S DAY, F E B R U A RY 2 1 , 2 0 1 7