Sid Hartman: Allen suffering a lot more than last year

Outstanding defensive end Jared Allen will go into today's Vikings game against Atlanta more banged up than he has been all year, suffering both shoulder and knee problems.

There is no doubt that Vikings trainer Eric Sugarman spent more time trying to help Allen heal the past week than at any other time this season.

"This has been a rough one, I'll tell you what," Allen said. "Normally I go through pretty unscathed, but this year I've been banged up a little bit."

Allen, who has 14 1/2 sacks and has earned an appearance in the Pro Bowl in his first season with the Vikings, said that last year with Kansas City, he was fine injury-wise -- "Nothing to report on," he said. But he injured his shoulder against Houston on Nov. 2 and hurt his knee at Detroit on Dec. 7, in part because of what looked like a cheap shot from Detroit tackle Gosder Cherilus.

"Everything's minor," Allen said. "You don't operate at 100 percent unless you're on the first day of training camp. Once training camp comes you're just trying to dial it up to about 90."

Asked how many sacks he might have if he was healthier, he said: "Oh, who knows? The games come and go. I feel like I could have had a couple more in that Arizona game, so maybe I could be up around 17, 18. We'll see."

Certainly, more pressure falls on Allen and the remaining defensive linemen in the final two weeks of the regular season without Pro Bowl defensive tackle Pat Williams, who broke his shoulder at Arizona last week. Williams' injury comes at a time when the Vikings are facing the two best NFL rushing offenses in the league in the Falcons today and the Giants next week. Fred Evans will start for Williams.

Allen will have his hands full today, not only in chasing around Falcons rookie quarterback Matt Ryan but also trying to slow Michael Turner, their great free-agent pickup at running back who is second in the NFL behind the Vikings' Adrian Peterson in rushing.

Great win Well, Tubby Smith shut up some of the critics of the Gophers men's basketball schedule on Saturday, when the team improved to 10-0 this season with its impressive 70-64 victory over ninth-ranked Louisville and Rick Pitino in Glendale, Ariz. This is a victory that will get some attention and surely will carry the Gophers into the top 25 rankings when they are released Monday.

True, Louisville played a game on Thursday night in Cincinnati and had to travel to the Phoenix area with little rest, while at the same time the Gophers had time off for finals after playing South Dakota State on Dec. 10. This was Smith's fourth victory in a row over his mentor, Pitino, one of the great coaches in the game.

It turns out that many of these freshmen and junior-college players are the real thing, and with only two seniors on the team and some outstanding freshmen coming in next year, the future is bright.

This man Smith can coach. This team has gotten better every game and might turn out a lot better than expected. We will learn more on New Year's Eve when the Gophers open conference play by playing host to No. 19 Michigan State, a team that defeated No. 5 Texas on Saturday in Houston.

One very intelligent judge of football talent who didn't want to be quoted was asked how good Falcons rookie QB Ryan can be. He replied, "He has a good chance to be a Hall of Fame quarterback."

Despite the problems in the economy, the Twins have sold more than 1,000 new season tickets. The total represents a 49 percent increase in new season ticket sales over a year ago. Meanwhile, the team is on pace to renew more than 90 percent of existing season tickets. ... Look for the Twins to make a major Target Field-related sponsorship announcement after the first of the year, also related to Target. ... Twins great Bert Blyleven has accepted an invitation to serve as coach for the Netherlands in the World Baseball Classic. Blyleven is a native of the country.

The Vikings have made the first of what could be several donations when they wrote a check of $15,000 to the Elliot Park Neighborhood to give an indication of what they plan to do to help revitalize the area, where they hope the new stadium will be built. "The check is small but it is sympathetic," said Lester Bagley, who is working on the stadium. "We share common visions with Elliot Park neighborhood in terms of the effort to ritalize the area surrounding the Metrodome."

Gophers football coach Tim Brewster believes Sam Maresh, the star Champlin Park linebacker who missed football this year following heart surgery, will take part in spring practice and will be able to play this fall. Last week, Maresh said Mayo Clinic doctors gave him a clean bill of health.

The new building being erected behind the new Gophers football stadium is the Medical Biosciences Building, which perhaps could have been built elsewhere, thus providing about 1,000 additonal parking spots for the Gophers football fans. I believe the purpose for the building is more important than the football stadium, but this was just a thought.

NBAdraft.net currently projects Cole Aldrich as a lottery pick in the 2009 draft, going at No. 13 to the New York Knicks, assuming Aldrich left college early to play pro basketball. Aldrich, who played at Bloomington Jefferson, is currently in his sophomore season at Kansas and is averaging 14.1 points and 10.4 rebounds per game. He is one of only 22 players in the NCAA averaging a double-double this season.