Frazier makes it clear: Vikings need QB

Leslie Frazier said a good indication of how good the NFC North was this year is that you have the division champion Bears facing the wild-card Packers for the right to go to the Super Bowl.

"Oh man, I'll tell you, that's something else. It just tells you how strong the NFC North must be, for the two top teams in the NFC North to end up playing in the championship game, that would be something else," the Vikings coach said Sunday, before Chicago beat Seattle. "That just tells you we've got a lot of work ahead of us to get back to being NFC North champs. That would be two years in a row you'd have someone from the NFC North playing in the championship game."

The Vikings played the Saints last year in the NFC Championship Game.

Asked about Green Bay's blowout of the top-seeded Falcons on Saturday night, Frazier said: "I watched some of it, and what a game by the Green Bay Packers, to come in there on the road and play the way they played, you have to take your hat off to them. Atlanta is a tough place to play, so just a great job by Green Bay. Aaron Rodgers looked real good yesterday, he played lights out. He's probably the main reason they won that game. He played a great, great game, just really hard for Atlanta to defend them."

The Vikings' three division rivals all appear to be set at quarterback, with Rodgers in Green Bay, Jay Cutler in Chicago and Matthew Stafford in Detroit. "We've got to find a quarterback," Frazier said. "You look at the playoff teams and none of them really have an issue at quarterback, they have their starting quarterback and most likely for years to come. We've got to find us a quarterback that we can build our franchise around, and if we do, it's going to stabilize a lot of things for our team and our organization."

Frazier said he is close to getting his coaching staff set.

"We're getting close to getting some things done," he said. "I feel real good about the direction where we are and hope to have an announcement here really soon.

Frazier said one of the things he is involved in is checking college football players to see who's available in the upcoming draft.

"We're not certain what's going to happen with the rest of [the NFL] after March 1st, but it looks like we'll have a draft," he said, referring to the possibility of a lockout. "We've already started working on the college players and we go down to the Senior Bowl next week, so we'll get a chance to see the college players in person and see who might help us."

Iowa provides test The Iowa men's basketball team came into Williams Arena 0-4 in the Big Ten and had lost by 23 to Purdue and 19 to Northwestern. But the Hawkeyes gave the Gophers a test Sunday.

One of the reasons was that Blake Hoffarber, who scored 26 points against an outstanding Purdue team on Thursday, had an off night Sunday, scoring nine points on 2-for-10 shooting, including 0-for-4 from three-point range.

With every game the Gophers have played this year, it has been apparent how important Trevor Mbakwe is. Against the Hawkeyes, the 6-8 junior wound up scoring 16 points on 5-for-7 shooting from the floor and 6-for-9 from the free-throw line, and more important, he grabbed 12 rebounds.

"He's one of the better big guys in the Big Ten."

Mbakwe said the Gophers' story all year is how they have played in spurts, like they did Sunday when they trailed Iowa in the second half after leading by 11 at the break.

"I think we're getting better at it and we're playing consistent for the most part," Mbakwe said. "This is the Big Ten and every game is going to be tough whether you're home or away. We just have to play consistently, bring the intensity and play with energy in hard times."

Jottings • Looking back to the 2005 NFL draft, the Vikings had seventh choice in the first round and took wide receiver Troy Williamson. They had the 18th pick and took defensive end Erasmus James. Neither one did anything of note for the Vikings. With the 24th pick, the Packers took Rodgers, who had been discussed as a possible No. 1 overall pick but fell after the 49ers took quarterback Alex Smith instead. At the time, the Vikings still had Daunte Culpepper, who in 2004 finished second in NFL MVP voting to Peyton Manning, so the Vikings weren't looking for a quarterback.

• Nick Punto, who spent seven years with the Twins, is still an unsigned free agent, but apparently the Twins don't have any plans to bring the infielder back. "There's been some discussion [about Punto], but we've got [Matt] Tolbert and [Trevor] Plouffe and Luke Hughes," said Twins General Manager Bill Smith, "and I guess we're working through some of that to see what's the best fit for 2011." ... Asked how closer Joe Nathan was doing after missing last year following elbow ligament replacement surgery, Smith said: "Nathan is doing very well. He has thrown off the mound here in the last two weeks, and he's got a daily program down at Tennessee. He's going to come up for TwinsFest in a couple of weeks and we're going to get him to throw one of his bullpen sessions at one of the cages at Target Field."