The free agency period has been very active so far for our Minnesota Vikings. As we predicted the electric, dynamic but high maintenance talent that is Percy Harvin is no longer a Minnesota Viking after he was traded to the Seattle Seahawks for a first and fourth round pick in the 2013 NFL Draft.  Kudos to the Viking front office for corralling a first-round and a fourth-round pick from the Seahawks for a malcontent who has struggled to stay healthy, has had tantrums with players and coaches and was generally becoming a malcontent on the roster.   The trade probably has upset some Vikings and pleased others, much like when the Vikings traded away Randy Moss.  These Vikings are in better shape however leadership-wise. Typically trades don’t happen between teams in the same conference, let alone two teams that both the playoffs in the previous year but Minnesota got the best value...

It’s been a great week for me in the land of the never ending winter. A one on one with the team Prez, saying goodbye to one of the team’s out of sight but never out of mind MVP’s and catching a game that didn’t mean much but said plenty. First, the game. As I write, there are 18 games remaining. The Wolves tangle in Sacramento and then have some formidable opponents ahead including the LA Lakers, OKC, Utah and KG’s return with the Celtics on April 1. I was pleased to see the team step up and win a game they were supposed to win against the Hornets-soon-to-be-Pelicans this week. Several things stood out. In the 2-point win, it was the Wolves first “W” in a one-possession game since beating Denver 108-105 on Dec. 12. They shot 56% from the floor and if you’ve followed them this season, that’s a...

Well, the Gopher Men's basketball team made it to the Big Dance. I thought for sure they'd be left out this year, after the awful finish to the regular season (blowout loss to Purue and a first-round loss to Illinois in the Big Ten Tournament. What saved them is their #1 RPI ranking in the country, a strong 15-1 start and a signature win against then-number-one Indiana at home. So, they make it into the tournament and Tubby Smith gets a bonus. The 20-12, #11 Gophers take on #6 seed UCLA on Friday, March 22nd. A lot of the experts have been picking the Gophers, including the one and only Dick Vitale, to win in a slight upset against the Bruins. The word on the Bruins is that they have some injury problems. Freshman G Jordan Adams was lost for the rest of the post-season last Saturday against Oregon in the...

With a season-changing 12-5 victory over the Washington Stealth (7-5) Saturday night, the Minnesota Swarm (4-7) pulled to within 2.5 games of the West Division leaders with five games left in the season. Goaltender Tyler Carlson was impenetrable in the game, allowing just five goals – the fewest an NLL team has given up all year. “The difference was we actually played a full sixty,” said Carlson. “We didn’t play one quarter here, one quarter there, or shift here. We actually played a full game. And we stayed tight, guys let me see the shots, and that’s exactly what our coaches have been talking about all year, so that’s exactly what we did tonight.” Forwards Callum Crawford and Ryan Benesch were huge contributors in the game as well, setting multiple career milestones. Benesch recorded four points (3g, 1a) to become the Swarm’s all-time goal scorer with 132.  Crawford found the back of the net early and often,...

The National Lacrosse League’s (NLL) Minnesota Swarm (3-7) fell in Calgary 19-15 Friday night after the Roughnecks (6-5) went on a run of five unanswered goals in the second quarter. Minnesota launched its own streak after the halftime break, tallying four of the third period’s final five goals, but it was not quite enough to take down the West Division’s second-seeded Roughnecks. Despite the loss, Swarm players reached a multitude of milestones on the night. Ryan Benesch was all over the floor, scoring seven times (4g, 3a) to reach more than 300 points as a member of the Swarm. In just his fourth season in Minnesota, Benesch is only the third player in franchise history to ever reach the scoring total and is the first left-hander to do so. Callum Crawford was no slouch at Calgary, either, leading the game in scoring with a career-high 10 points. The Ottawa, Ontario native...