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Former Vikings QB Tommy Kramer Joins College Football Hall Of Fame 2012 Class

2012-05-15T18:53:09Z

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.

During his time at Rice, Kramer threw for more than 6,000 yards and led the nation in 1976 with 3,317 yards, which earned him a total of eight career passing records and six-single season records. Kramer managed all of this with less than desirable talent on his side; the Owls finished with a 12-31-1 record during Kramer's time there.

He will now be the sixth Rice alumni enshrined in the College Hall.

Kramer and the other 16 members of the 2012 class will official join the Hall on December 4 at the 55th annual National Football Foundation Awards dinner in New York later this year.

Ricky Rubio Second In Rookie Of The Year Voting

2012-05-15T15:29:13Z

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.

Kenneth Faried of the Denver Nuggets finished third (129 points), and Kawhi Leonard of the San Antonio Spurs finished fourth (47 points). Josh Selby, who appeared in 28 games and averaged 2.2 points, received one third place vote.

Rubio led all rookies in assists with 8.2 per game and was seventh in points with 10.6. He also averaged 4.2 rebounds and shot better than 80 percent from the free throw line.

For more on the Minnesota Timberwolves, check out Canis Hoopus. You can also check out professional basketball news from around the league over at SB Nation's NBA page.

NBA MVP Award 2012: Kevin Love Finishes 6th In Voting As Lebron James Wins For Third Time

2012-05-12T18:06:57Z

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..

LeBron James, Miami	85	25	9	1	1	1074
Kevin Durant, Oklahoma City	24	83	13	1	0	889
Chris Paul, L.A. Clippers	6	5	32	35	25	385
Kobe Bryant, L.A. Lakers	2	5	30	39	30	352
Tony Parker, San Antonio	4	3	31	31	22	331
Kevin Love, Minnesota	0	0	4	6	20	58
Dwight Howard, Orlando	0	0	1	1	5	13
Rajon Rondo, Boston	0	0	0	2	6	12
Steve Nash, Phoenix	0	0	0	1	4	7
Derrick Rose, Chicago	0	0	1	0	0	5
Dwyane Wade, Miami	0	0	0	1	3	6
Russell Westbrook, OKC	0	0	0	1	1	4
Dirk Nowitzki, Dallas	0	0	0	1	1	4
Tim Duncan, San Antonio	0	0	0	1	0	3
Joe Johnson, Atlanta	0	0	0	0	1	1

For more on Kevin Love and the Minnesota Timberwolves, check out Canis Hoopus. For more on the NBA in general, head over to SB Nation's NBA hub at sbnation.com/NBA.

Video: Minnesota Swarm Dancing to Mama Mia

2012-05-11T20:39:52Z

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.

Jerry Kill Ranked 64th Among 124 FBS Coaches

2012-05-11T16:35:47Z

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

Minnesota Golden Gophers Add A Cool New Name To Women's Basketball Team

2012-05-09T20:09:19Z

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.

Zahui B. will bring size, strength, versatility, athleticism and experience to the Gophers' roster in 2012-13, as she has proven to be one of the best players in Sweden. She has been an integral member of Sweden's national team for the past six years and also plays in the Swedish League with her club team, Telge Basket, made up of the best talent in the country.

Rachel Banham and Zahui B. will hopefully be a really fun combination for years to come. Zahui B. joins Maple Grove's Mikayla Bailey and Eden Prairie natives Jackie Johnson and Shayne Mullaney, all of which signed with the Gophers in November.

Bemidji Kicker Kyle Fodness Chooses Golden Gophers

2012-05-08T18:44:14Z

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.

Gophers officials watched and instructed Fodness during a couple of kicking camps and also viewed videos of Fodness in action.

Those officials were impressed with what they saw and in late April Fodness received a phone call from Gopher coach Jerry Kill.

The report from the Bemidji Pioneer says Fodness will redshirt his freshman year and look to challenge for starting place kicker in 2013.

Bemidji High Football Kyle Fodness Profile - Lakeland News Sports - November 23, 2011.m4v (via LakelandPTV)

You can see more of Fodness' kicking highlights from the 2011 season on his Hudl profile.

To discuss Minnesota Golden Gophers football, head over to SB Nation's The Daily Gopher.

Vikings Cut Classy Kicker Ryan Longwell

2012-05-07T22:28:48Z

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

Just minutes later, Tom Pelissero confirmed what Longwell was alluding to:

Wow. #Vikings have cut Ryan Longwell.
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) May 7, 2012

Pelissero followed up by saying that the parting ways of the Vikings and Longwell "was not in any way mutual", implying that Longwell would have preferred to stay with the team.

To say that the move was completely out of left field would be overstating things a bit--after all, the Vikings drafted kicker Blair Walsh in the 6th round of the draft this past April. But the company line was that Walsh had been drafted to come in and challenge the 15-year veteran for a spot in training camp, not that Longwell was already on his way out. Obviously that wasn't the case.

Longwell has had an amazingly consistent career as a member of the Packers and Vikings, but he did have his struggles in 2011. His field goal percentage was his worst as a Viking, and he rarely recorded touchbacks even though the NFL had moved up kickoffs to the 35 last year. His 633 points as a Viking ranks him third all-time for the franchise behind only Cris Carter (670) and Fred Cox (1365).

On one hand, cutting Longwell in the month of May doesn't make much sense--the Vikings are putting a lot of trust into a rookie kicker that had his own struggles. Walsh has a powerful leg but had accuracy issues his senior year of college. Not giving Longwell a fair chance to retain is spot in training camp comes across as rather short-sighted at first glance.

On the other hand, Longwell was due a lot of money. The 37-year-old was set to make $7 million over the next three years of his contract. That's a lot of money to tie into an aging kicker with

Hopefully the early dismissal from the Vikings will allow Longwell to catch on with another team. He was nothing but class both on and off the field during his entire tenure in Minnesota. If he's not ready to hang up those kicking cleats yet, maybe he can still do it elsewhere.