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Charley Walters: Bill Musselman would love Wolves’ tenacious defense

charley walters, pioneer press
·12 min read

Bill Musselman, the first Minnesota Timberwolves coach in 1989, built his reputation on defense. He called his defense a “Hyperbolic Paraboloid Transitional Floating Zone,” Kevin Wilson said last week.

Wilson played for Musselman at Ashland College in Ohio, then became an assistant to Bill with the Timberwolves.

“At Ashland in the 1968-69 season, we set the college defense record, holding teams to an average of 33.9 points a game,” Wilson said. “It’s still the record. It never will be broken.”

Musselman was so crazed about defense that before games at Ashland, on a chalkboard in the locker room, he would write the number of points he wanted his team to hold the opponent to. If the opposition scored more than that number, they would be required to practice after the game. Some practices started at 10 p.m.

Before one game against Point Park University in Pittsburgh, Musselman wrote “zero” on the chalkboard. He wasn’t joking.

“We didn’t shut them out, but we led 29-5 at halftime,” Wilson recalled.

“Bill would be proud of the Timberwolves’ defense this season,” Wilson said.

But not for Friday night’s 117-90 West semifinal playoff loss to Denver.

—These days, Wilson, 75, runs the academic study hall for athletes at Texas Christian University. Ashland teammate Jimmy Williams, 76, who became a popular assistant with the Gophers, remains in grave health in Tampa, Fla.

—Bill Musselman died at age 59 this month 24 years ago from heart and kidney failure. Son Eric, the high-energy new University of Southern California coach whose teams also play stifling defense, was a Timberwolves assistant to his father in 1990-91.

Eric, a two-time head NBA coach, has watched from afar the current Timberwolves — except for Friday — play a suffocating defense.

“Dad would have loved the way they’re competing,” Musselman, 59, said. “Every possession matters defensively — they have defensive competence. Everyone always talks about competence on offense, but they have a defensive disposition and competence that’s on another level.”

—Eric hasn’t been to Williams Arena since the glory days when his father coached the Gophers to rousing overflow crowds. He was just a youngster then, 7 or 8 years old. Now that USC has joined the Big Ten, he’ll return as coach of the Trojans.

“The schedule hasn’t come out, so I don’t know if we play there or they come here, but we’ll either be there this year or next year,” he said. “It’ll be surreal, absolutely incredible.”

—That was Gersson Rosas, now a vice president for the New York Knicks, when he was president of the Timberwolves, choosing Anthony Edwards, then 19, with the No. 1 pick in the 2020 NBA draft out of Georgia.

“We are excited to add this young talent to our roster and continue his development to make him the best player he can be,” Rosas said at the time.

As a pro, Edwards has improved dramatically. In his one season at Georgia, he shot 40.2 percent from the field and 29.4 percent from three-point range while averaging 19.1 points.

For the Timberwolves this season, the 6-4, 225-pound guard averaged 25.9 points while shooting 46.1 percent from the floor and 35.7 percent with three-pointers.

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—An Edwards rookie trading card purchased for $900 the other day already has increased 35 percent in value.

—That was Edwards driving up in a stainless steel Tesla Cybertruck at Target Center the other day.

—It will be announced that the Timberwolves will play the Philadelphia 76ers in an exhibition game next Oct. 11 in Des Moines, Iowa.

—That was Hastings grad Pat Fraher officiating in the 106-80 Wolves victory over the Nuggets in Game 2 in Denver.

—The multi-year head coaching contract Jason Kidd signed with Dallas last week is good news for Cretin-Derham grad Sean Sweeney, who is Kidd’s top assistant in charge of defense. Meanwhile, Sweeney, who could end up as an assistant for Slovenia in the Paris Olympics this summer, has also been mentioned for the Los Angeles Lakers’ head coaching job.

—The richest person in Minnesota this year is Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor at $2.9 billion, per Forbes, which lists the wealthiest billionaires in every state.

—Joe Mauer, who with brothers Billy and Jake will be inducted into the Mancini’s St. Paul Athletic Hall of Fame on Monday evening at a sold-out Char House banquet, and into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., on July 21, the other day at alma mater Cretin-Derham Hall, wearing a purple Raiders cap, was filmed in an interview for a July 1 induction into the National High School Hall of Fame in Boston.

Mauer will be the NHS Hall of Fame’s first inductee. Also, the other day he was inducted into the Catholic Athletic Association’s Hall of Fame dinner at a 500-ticket sellout.

—When he’s not being inducted into a hall of fame, Mauer and pal Tony Leseman are coaching their 10-year-old daughters in fast-pitch softball.

—A room at the Schenectady, N.Y. Marriott Mohawk Harbor hotel, which is 70 miles from Cooperstown, for the Hall of Fame weekend (July 19-21) costs $1,486.99.

—Dave Winfield has been added to the Hall of Fame Legends game with another ex-Twin, Jim Kaat, on May 25 at Doubleday Field in Cooperstown.

—Saturday was the anniversary of the death of one of the nicest guys you could ever hope to meet, Hall of Famer Harmon Killebrew, who died at age 74 in 2011. He would have been 87 today.

—The Twins have a guy at Double-A Wichita, 6-foot-8, 250-pound Carson McCusker, 25, who last week against the Arkansas Travelers hit three home runs that traveled 432 feet, 439 feet and 504 feet.

—Paul Molitor, Brian Raabe and Rob Fornasiere will honor retiring Gophers baseball coach John Anderson on Tuesday at a Dunkers breakfast at Interlachen Country Club.

Anderson on this, his 43rd season as the Gophers coach: “It’s time — I’ve done my part here. I’ll be 69 in May (Thursday) — I don’t want to die with my spikes on.”

—Frankie Capan of North Oaks is No. 22 on the Korn Ferry money list with $119,564.

—The Minnesota Lynx have 13 nationally-televised WNBA games this season. The Indiana Fever, with rookie Caitlin Clark, has 40 nationally-televised games.

—The University of Connecticut, winner of this year’s NCAA men’s basketball championship, has won six national titles since 1999, which was the season the school was led by Minneapolis North point guard legend Khalid El-Amin.

El-Amin, now 44 and coach at Anoka-Ramsey Community College, the night before the recent championship game gave a motivational speech to UConn players, who then decimated Purdue 75-60 in Glendale, Ariz. He reminded the players of the UConn legacy.

“I told them they had an opportunity to make history,” El-Amin told the Pioneer Press. “We play this game because we want to be remembered, and you all have a chance to do that. Only two other teams ever have gone back to back (championships). This is an opportunity that you have to take advantage of.’

—El-Amin, who teaches physical education at the East African Elementary Magnet School in St. Paul, said his first choice when choosing a college was Minnesota, not UConn. He committed to Minnesota as a high school sophomore.

Clem Haskins was the Minnesota coach.

“I’m from Minnesota, I love the U, I love Clem Haskins — they went to the Final Four in 1996-97,” El-Amin said. “Unfortunately, the majority of those players were going to leave after that year. I want to win, and I didn’t feel we were going to be able to compete for a national championship.

“That was the reason why UConn came into the picture. When I took my (recruiting) visit, I saw we had what it took to reach the Final Four and win a national championship. As far as winning, I think I made the right decision. But Minnesota definitely was my first choice.”

—If El-Amin were playing in college today, his name, image and likeness (NIL) would be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

“I can’t say how much I would have made, but I’m confident I would have been very comfortable, and that would have allowed me to stay all four years in college.” he said. “These guys (today) are making good money, and they should — they’re doing a lot for the university. It’s just a sign of the times. It’s the state of college basketball now — you have to pay the players, and whoever can pay the most will have the opportunity to get the best players.”

—Purdue and Illinois are said to have the Big Ten’s largest men’s basketball NIL budgets, about $2.5 million a year. Insiders say the Gophers’ men’s basketball NIL budget is barely one-fourth of that.

—The University of St. Thomas has started a NIL collective, but only for men’s basketball.

Don’t print that

—Under the circumstances, the Vikings did as well as they could with their two first-round picks in the recent draft — quarterback J.J. McCarthy and edge rusher Dallas Turner — but moving up to do it could cost them in next year’s draft. Currently, the Vikings have only three picks in 2025, and two are in the fifth round. The other is their first-round pick, which could be a top-10.

It does appear the Vikings will get a third-round pick as compensation for losing free agent QB Kirk Cousins to Atlanta. But that’s expected to be late in the round, almost tantamount to a high fourth-round pick.

—Most likely, the Vikings next year will end up trading down in the first-round to recoup a second- or third-round pick.

—There’s whispering that the Vikings have strongly appealed a Falcons tampering charge in the signing of Cousins that’s expected to end up in arbitration.

—In an ideal world, McCarthy would play the whole season in a development year, but placeholder Sam Darnold, 26, with a $10 million, one-year contract, will start the season unless something unexpected occurs.

—Former Vikings first-round safety bust Lewis Cine, because he’s guaranteed $4 million over the next two seasons, is untradeable. It’s likely he’ll get waived in training camp. If a team were to claim him, it would be responsible for the $4 million. After clearing waivers, some team might be willing to sign him as a free agent.

A second-round pick, cornerback Andrew Booth, who is guaranteed $900,000 next season, seems close to being done as a Viking.

—McCarthy, who just turned 21, can expect a four-year contract worth nearly $23 million. Joe Alt, the Totino Grace grad drafted by the Los Angeles Chargers, will get a deal worth nearly $35 million over four years.

—The Vikings, who finished 7-10 last season, have a 75 percent chance of NOT making the playoffs next season, per BetOnline.ag.

—If the Vikings add any veterans at this point, they likely will be just one-year veteran minimum deals.

—Dallas Turner, asked via Instagram his plans for his first purchases since the draft: “I have a couple equity deals going on right now, but probably F1. I’m already invested in F1, but probably a lot more.”

—If Timberwolves President Tim Connelly exercises his contract out-clause after the season, word in basketball circles is that his successor could be ex-Timberwolf Calvin Booth, who is general manager of the Nuggets.

—A little birdie says incoming sophomore Cam Christie’s decision to enter the NCAA transfer portal was made two weeks before the basketball portal deadline. The 6-6 guard can expect a NIL deal of about $75,000 a month over 10 months.

—There’s buzz that ex-Gopher Pharrel Payne will get $40,000 a month over two years in NIL money from Texas A&M, plus use of a new Mercedes automobile. Another Gophers transfer, Elijah Hawkins, reportedly is getting $30,000 from Texas Tech.

—Incoming Gophers guard Caleb Williams, the 6-2 transfer who on Saturday was to graduate from Macalester with a double-major in mathematics and physics, is considering a masters program emphasizing mathematics and business for his final season at Minnesota. He had several transfer opportunities out of the NCAA portal.

“When I was on campus, everybody I talked to was really down to earth, and that made it easy to make a decision,” said Williams, 22, who scored 41 points against the Gophers in an exhibition game last season. “You automatically trust the people you’re talking to — it was a sense of comfort. And, wanting to stay home. It’s a great area and great basketball state.”

A NIL deal isn’t expected to be part of Williams’ transfer.

—The Gophers men’s basketball program is seeking a director of player development. Advertised salary: $42,870.

—Rehabbing Twin Royce Lewis is donning sparkling green cleats during workouts. “I like the color,” he said, adding he still doesn’t know when he’ll be able to return after the quad injury he suffered in the season opener.

—An estimated 100,000 Comcast households have been unable to view Twins games due to its contract dispute with Bally Sports.

“I hate it — it’s immensely disappointing,” inimitable play-by-play voice Cory Provus said. “It’s a shame. I feel terrible — the team went on this historic (12-game) win streak and I feel they got short changed a little bit — (viewers) didn’t get a chance to see the end of it. The timing is terrible. It caught me by surprise, and it caught a lot of people by surprise.”

Any guess on a settlement?

“I have no idea,” he said. “I think the bankruptcy hearing in mid-June is a pretty significant date.”

It won’t be surprising if Twins games end up on a streaming platform.

—Cheapest cost for a four-ticket package to a Lynx game this season is $204.60, per a bookies.com survey. The WNBA’s average for four tickets is $182.49. One of the cheapest, surprisingly, is for the Indiana Fever starring rookie Caitlin Clark: $117.80.

Overheard

—Ex-Vikings QB Tommy Kramer on social media X, recently noting that “none of us” wanted the 1989 trade that brought Herschel Walker to Minnesota, “including the coaches.”

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