Sid Hartman: Teague not shy about dreaming big at U

The University of Minnesota was able to raise $95 million from boosters to help build TCF Bank Stadium for the Gophers football team.

But it was a different story when it came to generating money for a down payment on a new Siebert Field. It took a long time before the Pohlad family contributed $2 million to get the fundraising started. But the money wasn't — and still isn't — available for lights and other features to make the new home for Gophers baseball into a first-class stadium.

Then you have the case of the proposed basketball practice facility that Tubby Smith was promised six years ago when he left Kentucky to take the Gophers job.

Something in the area of less than $10 million needed to be raised to put the shovel in the ground to get a building on the way, a building that certainly would help recruiting. But it didn't happen under Joel Maturi as athletic director, although his replacement, Norwood Teague, is confident it will help now that the university has found a spot to build it on, a spot that would be near the Bierman Building.

Teague, now in his second year on the job, has a plan where he hopes to raise $190 million for Gophers facilities, one that would make the school's athletic facilities go from among the worst in the Big Ten to the best.

Not surprisingly, one of the first things Teague heard from boosters is that they want to see some winners before they contribute.

Teague is confident Gophers men's basketball can win under new coach Richard Pitino. "We've won in basketball in spots in the last 30 years," said the AD. "The situation with the NCAA rule violations back in the late '90s and early 2000s, that definitely put us behind in many ways. But we won then, and besides some of the academic issues, it doesn't seem like we were doing anything wrong, besides what coach [Clem] Haskins got in trouble for on the academic side. I think basketball is very winnable on a national level.

Teague, who has not raised a lot of money since being named Gophers AD, was asked how fundraising here compares with his former job at Virginia Commonwealth.

"I think it is tough anywhere, you just have to get after it and dream big and tell your donors that you're dreaming big and hope that they'll hop on the dream with you," he said. "I guess for lack of a better way of explaining it, people are the same, they want to give to things that they're passionate about and we have to sell that to the Nth degree over the next five, six, seven years."

Teague also said he did not have any second thoughts about releasing such a big figure for his proposal.

"I really wanted to get it out and show what we were doing," he said. "It's a big number, but then again, as I've said in some press reports earlier in the week, Northwestern is doing a $220 million one and they've raised about $50 million. If they can do it, we can. We have some strong prospects out there. We just have to work hard at what we're selling and present it as a great return on an investment.

"If we win on the national level with football and basketball, I'm not sure we can measure the great response we'd receive and the great shot in the arm it would give to the state and the Twin Cities in so many ways, and the university. … We've got multiple years to work on this thing and we're starting to build that case and move forward."

But apparently that attitude has changed. When Morneau's agent asked Twins General Manager Terry Ryan if there was interest in negotiations the answer was no.

That isn't any surprise.

Morneau's six-year, $80 million contract comes to a close at the end of this season, and there always has been a possibility that the first baseman might be traded.

But with Morneau's history of ailments, even though he is healthy today, would a club gamble on his health and give up a top prospect?

I believe the Twins would make a big mistake in not re-signing Morneau. They have so few talented players on the roster, and for a team that looks like it will get close to 100 losses for a third straight year, letting Morneau go would only weaken a weak roster. The last two weeks, Morneau, besides playing great at first base, has started to show some of his power, hitting four home runs after hitting three in his first 72 games this season.

• Chicago's Jahlil Okafor, the No. 1 2014 ESPN 100 recruit in the country for basketball, and Tyus Jones, ranked No. 3 in the same list, told USA Today last week that they will definitely go to college together. "We know the plan, that is all that counts," said Jones, the Apple Valley High School standout. "We're pretty sure of it. I definitely see why people would think we are just talking. So many people have said things like this before, but we are serious." … Howard Pulley ended up going 2-3 at the Nike Peach Jam in South Carolina this past weekend. For the tournament, Jones averaged 21.6 points on 47 percent shooting to go along with 7.6 assists per contest. DeLaSalle standout Travis Reid averaged 22.8 points on 66 percent shooting with 6.8 rebounds per contest.

• Andrei Kirilenko declined the Timberwolves' $10 million option to play here next season and instead signed a two-year contract that is worth $6.36 million total with the Brooklyn Nets. Kirilenko might have been persuaded to take less money because of the chance to play with a team that many believe has a chance to make the NBA Finals after adding former Wolves star Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce from Boston. Still many around the league this week have questioned the nature of the signing, since Kirilenko walked away from so much money after telling the Wovles that he wanted at least two more years at $10 million per season to stay in Minnesota.