Notre Dame AD search list included Maturi

Notre Dame had some interest in Gophers athletic director Joel Maturi as a candidate for its AD vacancy.

A search firm helping Notre Dame looking for a successor to Kevin White, who left the Fighting Irish to become vice president and athletic director at Duke, called Maturi to find out if he had any interest in being considered for the opening.

Maturi didn't want to make a big deal out of it, but it just shows the respect other colleges have for Maturi.

"I'm happy at Minnesota and I'm staying here," Maturi said.

Flip expected Celts' win Flip Saunders, who was fired as coach of the Detroit Pistons despite posting one of the best records in the franchise's history (59-23), said the Celtics beating the Lakers for the NBA title didn't surprise him because of the dominance of the Eastern Conference's best teams -- Boston and Detroit -- over the West's best teams all season.

"If you looked at Boston's record and our record against the top eight teams in the West, both of us I think won 75 percent of our games against those teams," Saunders said. "We were the two best defensive teams in the league, and our kind of defense -- whether it was us or whether it was Boston -- was going to give any team in the West problems."

Saunders said he didn't believe Kevin Garnett played any better than in 2003-04, when he was named league MVP while still with the Wolves.

"Kevin is always Kevin," Saunders said. "He's always going to get out there and play with great passion and get you anywhere from 10 to 20 rebounds a game. He's going to score 20 points and have five assists and key your defense.

"I think he plays the same way that he's always played, whether he was here in Minnesota or whether he was in Boston. I think he just had two other great players [Paul Pierce and Ray Allen] to play along with him."

Plans to take it easy About his own future, Saunders said he is going to take some time off from coaching. He is being paid $4.5 million for the one year left on his contract.

"I'm just going to sit back and kind of relax and reconnect with family and friends, and have an opportunity to fish a little bit, golf a little bit, and just kind of relax," he said.

He could wind up doing some television work.

"When we stop coaching, now we become an expert," Saunders joked. "When you're coaching, you're not an expert. Now I can become an expert.

"Yeah, I'm going to coach again eventually. It's just a matter of where and when and under what circumstances."

Saunders said his firing came as a complete surprise.

"I was surprised because I met with [Pistons General Manager] Joe [Dumars] on Saturday, and at that time he basically had said that it was the best job that I had done in three years," Saunders said. "I did a great job developing the young guys. We won 59 games. We lost to a team that had won 66, had the 10th-best record in NBA history, and we had injuries.

"Chauncey [Billups] got hurt, Rip Hamilton ... both those guys were hurt, and we had injuries and [Dumars] was pleased with everything. Then two days later he wanted to make a change, but that's kind of how our business is. So they move on and I move on."

What is interesting is that Saunders got fired and one of his assistants, former Wolves guard Terry Porter, got a head coaching job with Phoenix.

Maybe for one year, Saunders can become an unpaid volunteer coach for the Gophers' Tubby Smith. Saunders' son, Ryan, is going to be a member of Smith's staff.

Brewster to CC Clint Brewster, son of Gophers football coach Tim Brewster, will enroll at either Pasadena City College or College of the Sequoias, both community colleges in California, after deciding to leave the Gophers program.

Clint Brewster was rated by ESPN.com to be the eighth-best quarterback in the country coming out of high school in 2007. Brewster, who didn't play last year, still will have four years of college eligibility.

As his father said: "It's tough enough to be a quarterback on a college team, but even tougher to be the son of the coach."

Jottings Southern California men's basketball coach Tim Floyd coached Timberwolves assistant general manager Fred Hoiberg at Iowa State. So rest assured Hoiberg and the Wolves are going to get everything they want to know about Trojans star guard O.J. Mayo, whom the Wolves are considering drafting with the third pick in the first round.

Dave Mona, who played a big role in Interlachen Country Club landing the U.S. Women's Open, says, "When the women professional golfers come to Interlachen next week, they will be playing the course from 117 yards longer than when Bobby Jones won the men's U.S. Open in 1930. The women will play the course at 6,789 yards, the longest Open in the history of the event. The men played the Walker Cup [at Interlachen] from a distance of 6,721 yards and the women played the Solheim Cup in 2002 from 6,545 yards."

Let's compare the statistics to date of Twins center fielder Carlos Gomez and Torii Hunter, now in center for the Angels. Gomez, being paid $395,000 this season, is hitting .272 with five home runs, 25 RBI, 43 runs scored, 18 stolen bases and a .306 on-base percentage. Hunter, who is being paid $16.5 million, is hitting .275 with nine home runs, 37 RBI, 38 runs, nine stolen bases and a .338 OBP.

Former Twins pitcher Carlos Silva was 3-0 after four starts this season for the Mariners and had a 2.79 ERA. Since then Silva has lost his past eight decisions. He is now 3-8 with a 5.79 ERA.

Ben Blankenship is transferring to Minnesota from Mississippi State to compete in track and field. Blankenship won the 2007 Class 2A title in the 1,600 meters while competing for Stillwater High School.

Sean King of Cretin-Derham Hall, Jack Szmanda of Wausau (Wis.) Newman, Andy Richardson of Irondale and Micah Hegerle of Kasson-Mantorville will join the Gophers men's track and field program. King was the Class 2A state runner-up in the 100 and 200 earlier this month. Szmanda was the Wisconsin Division 3 champion in the pole vault. Richardson was third in the 800 meters at the Class 2A meet, and his time of 1 minute, 51.06 seconds was the sixth-best in state high school history. Hegerle was the two-time Class 1A champ in the discus, winning with a toss of 185 feet, 6 inches earlier this month.

Sid Hartman can be heard weekdays on WCCO AM-830 at 6:40, 7:40 and 8:40 a.m. and on his Podcast twice a week at www.startribune.com/sidcast. shartman@startribune.com