UNI keeps building something special

Ben Johnson, a member of two DeLaSalle Class 2A basketball championship teams (1998, '99), started his college career at Northwestern and finished it with the Gophers. He is an assistant basketball coach at Northern Iowa, the team that knocked off No. 1 overall seed Kansas in the NCAA men's basketball tournament.

The Panthers now face Michigan State in the Sweet 16 on Friday.

Johnson, who began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Dayton, coached at University of Texas-Pan American for two seasons and is in his second year at Northern Iowa.

Northern Iowa has another assistant coach with local ties in Kyle Green, who played his high school basketball at Minneapolis Washburn and college ball at Hamline, where he was a three-year starter.

Northern Iowa made the NCAA tournament last year but lost to Purdue 61-56 in the first round.

"Yeah, we should have beat them last year," Johnson said. "We had two field goals that both got blocked with 7 seconds left. They weren't gimmies, but they were makeable field goals."

The Panthers defeated UNLV 69-66 in this year's first round on Ali Farokhmanesh's three-pointer with 4.9 seconds remaining, setting up their showdown with Kansas.

"I thought our guard play, if we made shots, would be solid. And I thought that they were going to have to guard our insides. I think our two big guys are pretty good. We've got the 7-foot kid [Jordan Eglseder], we've got another senior that's 6-8 that can shoot the three and score inside [Adam Koch], so I honestly thought we had a pretty good matchup inside and out.

"Our bigs did a pretty good job, and I think we just did a good job defensively and rebounded the ball and we didn't let [Cole] Aldrich and [Sherron] Collins go nuts."

Northern Iowa and Michigan State will be one of the featured games on Ch. 4 on Friday, starting at 8:40 p.m.

The Spartans will be without their star, Kalin Lucas, who ruptured an Achilles tendon during a second-round victory over Maryland. Chris Allen (right foot) and Delvon Roe (right knee) also have been slowed because of injuries.

"They're a little banged up, but you know those guys are tournament-tested and they've been through this a lot more than we have," Johnson said. "We know them pretty well. I think they're very similar to us and how we play. Obviously they have different pieces and different parts -- they're a little more athletic and they've got more size on the perimeter, but just as far as the skeleton of a team defensively and offensively, we do a lot of similar things.

Johnson said Northern Iowa has developed a great basketball program, led by head coach Ben Jacobson, who was given a new 10-year contract Wednesday.

"We've got a good thing going here," he said. "Our coach does a really good job, and we like the kids that we have at our program that are returning. And we've got some good kids that are coming in, so it's good to be somewhere where you win."

Northern Iowa has two former Tartan guards on their squad in freshman Marc Sonnen and junior Kwadzo Ahelegbe. Ahelegbe starts and plays about 30 minutes per game and Sonnen plays about 11. Johnson said both contributed in the Kansas victory.

Told parents Friday Joe Mauer broke the news Friday to his parents, who spend a lot of time in Fort Myers, that he was going to sign a contract extension with the Twins. The eight-year, $184 million deal wasn't signed until Monday. Mauer no doubt wished his grandpa, Jake, could have been present at Monday's news conference -- Jake recently had undergone some surgery -- but Mauer told him early, too. ... Not only does Mauer come out big in this contract but so does his agent, Ron Shapiro. Agents normally get about 5 percent of the gross of the contract.

Even before the Mauer signing, Twins tickets for the first season at Target Field were selling well.

Jottings Randy Wittman, the former Timberwolves coach and the father of Ryan Wittman, the big Cornell star, has an idea of what his son is going through. "We won the NCAA basketball title at Indiana in 1981, so I have an idea what a great experience it is," Randy said. Cornell, a No. 12 seed, is in the Sweet 16 after beating Temple and Wisconsin and now faces Kentucky. Don't be surprised if Ryan Wittman, if he isn't drafted, winds up playing for the Washington Wizards next year, where Randy is an assistant coach.

Gophers coach Tubby Smith on Northern Iowa's upset of Kansas: "Unbelievable. You know I feel for [Kansas coach] Bill Self because he was in the same type of situation that I was at Kentucky. We lost to UAB [in 2004], we were an overall No. 1 seed in the country, and they beat us in the second game up in Columbus, Ohio."

Harold Thune, who played for the Gophers basketball from 1940-42, and Tom McGrann, who played for the Gophers from 1961-63, will be part of the first class inducted into the South Dakota High School Basketball Hall of Fame in Madison, S.D., on Saturday. Thune, from Murdo, S.D., was a two-year starter for the Gophers. Now 90, he is the father of U.S. Senator John Thune (R-S.D.). McGrann, from Watertown, S.D., was a three-year starter for the Gophers.

Former Wild GM Doug Risebrough has been named part of the management staff, along with Michel Goulet and Doug Messier, for Team Canada for the upcoming 2010 Internation Ice Hockey Federation World Championships in Germany. ... South St. Paul native and former Minn.-Duluth standout Alex Stalock set a new AHL rookie record with his 36th victory for Worchester on Tuesday. ... Former Gopher Jordan Schroeder has two goals and one assist in his first two games for Manitoba of the AHL. The assist was on former Minnesota Duluth defenseman Evan Oberg's game-winning goal against Hamilton on Tuesday night.