Reeling in Minnesota's biggest sports stories.
On Tuesday, the College Football Hall of Fame officially named the members of the 2012 class, which included former Minnesota VIkings quarterback Tommy Kramer. Kramer was a drafted by the Vikings with the 27th overall selection in the first round of the 1977 NFL Draft and was a member of the team until 1989.
Kramer was the drafted out of Rice University and was an All-American in 1976.
Minnesota Timberwolves point guard Ricky Rubio finished a distant second in the NBA Rookie of the Year voting.
Cleveland Cavaliers point guard Kyrie Irving took home the hardware, receiving 117 of 120 possible first-place votes. He had a total of 592 points while Rubio, whose season ended with a torn ACL on March 9, received zero first-place votes but still racked up 170 points.
The 2012 NBA MVP award was officially handed out Saturday, and Miami Heat star forward Lebron James earned the honor for the third time in four seasons. Overall, Minnesota Timberwolves forward Kevin Love finished sixth in the voting processes, which featured Kevin Durant, Chris Paul, Kobe Bryant and Tony Parker voted ahead of him, respectively.
After averaging a career-high 26 points and 13 rebounds per game this season, Love garnered 4 third-place, 6 fourth-place and 20 fifth-place votes. Lebron was the run-away winner collecting 85 first-place votes after averaging 27.1 points, 7.9 rebounds, 6.2 assists and 1.9 steals while shooting 53-percent from the field.
A complete rundown of the 2012 NBA MVP voting results after the jump..
In case you haven't been following along, the Minnesota Swarm are set to face the Edmonton Rush in the West Division Finals tomorrow. Win, and they go to the Champions Cup finals for the first time in team history. While most teams would be locked down on curfews and video sessions, the Swarm have been staying loose.
There was the social media fun at mid week, the discount offered to long suffering Minnesota Sports fans, a captain's practice that included trying to take each other out with field long hardest shot competitions... and now there is this. If ever you wanted to see professional lacrosse players dancing to a Broadway show tune, this is your chance.
Goalie Tyler Carlson and Transition player Jordan MacIntosh were on Fox9 this morning, and participated in the "Friday Dance Off." Carlson was clearly more into it than MacIntosh, who appeared to be intimidated by his teammate's sick moves.
The Minnesota Golden Gophers hired Jerry Kill in an attempt to turn their football program around, hoping for similar results to the ones that Kill got at Northern Illinois and Southern Illinois. While the 2011 season was a rough one for Kill and the Gophers, he's getting some love from the folks at the Sporting News.
Out of 124 coaches at the FBS level of college football, Kill comes in at #64 on their list.
America doesn't know a lot about Kill—most fans outside Big Ten country might recall him as the coach who had a seizure on the sideline last September—but he's had a terrific career. He built Southern Illinois into an FCS power and improved Northern Illinois dramatically. A fellow Big Ten coach calls Kill the most underrated coach in college football, citing his "toughness, recruiting (and) player relations."
That seems like a pretty fair assessment of Coach Kill. Hopefully his ranking will be higher next season if he can continue to get the Gophers on the right path.
How does Kill compare to the other Big Ten coaches, according to The Sporting News? Well, here's where the other conference coaches ranked.
#3 - Urban Meyer, Ohio State
#12 - Bret Bielema, Wisconsin
#13 - Mark Dantonio, Michigan State
#24 - Brady Hoke, Michigan
#33 - Kirk Ferentz, Iowa
#37 - Bo Pelini, Nebraska
#42 - Pat Fitzgerald, Northwestern
#62 - Bill O'Brien, Penn State
#64 - Jerry Kill, Minnesota
#69 - Tim Beckman, Illinois
#92 - Danny Hope, Purdue
#111 - Kevin Wilson, Indiana
The Minnesota Golden Gophers women's basketball team probably doesn't get enough publicity out here on the internet, unfortunately. We're here to hopefully try and change that, however, starting with analysis of their newest recruit.
The Gophers announced on Wednesday that they've received a National Letter of Intent from Sweden's Amanda Zahui B. Zahui B. is a 6-foot-5 center from Stockholm and her last name is Zahui B., which is just pretty awesome. Aside from her obvious size advantage and a fun last name, the Gophers' press release also notes she has quite a bit of overseas experience already.
The Minnesota Gophers are bringing in a local kid to possible their future kicking duties on the football field. Bemidji HS kicker, Kyle Fodness announced his decision to play football for the Gophers on Monday.
Fodness stepped in for his high school's football team after their starting kicker went down with an injury. Interestingly enough, Fodness, a soccer player originally, did not join the team until the midseason because he was battling his own ankle injury.
Breaking news from the "We Didn't See This Coming" department: on Monday afternoon, longtime Vikings kicker Ryan Longwell sent out this cryptic Tweet:
To all in Viking Nation. Can't thank you enough for your cheers over the past 6 years! You've been awesome to me and my family. God Bless!
— Ryan Longwell (@4thandLongwell) May 7, 2012
The Minnesota Vikings stadium issue is a big one, to be certain, but it's kind of difficult to put everything into perspective. Fans of the team did just that on Monday afternoon, however, as they rallied at the state capitol in hopes of getting the legislature to approve a new deal.
Our friends at 1500ESPN have more on the gathering:
Hard hats and football jerseys mingled at the state Capitol as construction workers and Minnesota Vikings fans chanted "Build it!" ahead of a critical vote on a proposed $1 billion stadium.
Gov. Mark Dayton greeted the group Monday and praised their support in the hours before an afternoon debate in the House.
For a better understanding, though, the video Tom Pelissero posted on Twitter shows just how dedicated everyone is.
Football in Minnesota wasn't anything to get excited about last season, but the dawn of a new era is hopefully upon us following the solid draft the Minnesota Vikings put together and the pep talks Jerry Kill has been imparting on the Minnesota Golden Gophers football team.
Kill has obviously said some smart things in the past, but the Gophers head coach dropped one of the best quotes in Minnesota sports history earlier this week during a speaking engagement at Richfield High School.
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