Wild, Wolves could learn from the Wilfs

The Timberwolves and Wild are struggling, but there will be at least one happy team ownership group in town Sunday in the Wilf family if the Vikings can beat the Falcons and clinch the NFC North title.

While the Wolves have already broken a club-record losing streak and the Wild has lost six in a row, the Vikings have a chance to advance in the playoffs if they can keep the rest of their team healthy after so many key players have been injured.

And the Wilfs deserve the success, because they have spent the money on players and executives who run the club and put a good team together.

We haven't seen the Wild and the Wolves write those checks that the Wilfs have.

"Everyone is working real hard together, and success -- it comes with the hard work that everyone put in," said Zygi Wilf, who was glad to get even with Arizona, a team that kept the Vikings out of the playoffs five years ago on a fourth-down touchdown pass as time expired. Wilf hopes the pattern repeats itself against Atlanta, a team that kept them out of the Super Bowl following the 1998 season.

"It's great just to see the staff put together plays, and the players really stepping up at this time of the season when it really counts and putting it all together," Wilf said. "What can I say? We need to win the next game and move on and get to win our division."

Wilf thinks the Vikings are winners because he put together a good group of executives and gave them long-term contracts and did the same with the coaching staff. He realizes what it takes to put a winner together and he is willing to have the patience.

"I think that you have to have the right people in your organization," he said. "They were very confident that, for now and for the long term, we were built to be competitive. We're just looking forward to the next game. It's a conference game and we could win our division."

Handling Atlanta Wilf knows the Vikings will have their hands full with a much-improved Falcons team.

"First we'll handle Atlanta and then move onto the Giants. We're just concentrating on Atlanta," Wilf said. "They're a very good team and they did a lot of great moves themselves this year to get a quarterback and a running back and they've done a great job there turning it around. It's great to see two teams ready to go at it, and hopefully we can make sure that we continue winning and beat Atlanta and make the fans really proud of what we're doing here."

"... We always said our goal was to build a team to be championship-caliber level for the long-term. Everybody is playing towards that end and we're just concentrating on the next game and I'm sure good things will follow."

Wilf says he has been sold on coach Brad Childress from the start.

"Once we understood a little bit more about football operations, and understanding that the most important thing is getting the right staff people, the right personnel in the right area of the organization so that we all communicate and put a team on the field," he said.

One thing the Wilfs have proved is they know how to win. And they will continue to make the right moves to make the Vikings better.

Jottings While the Insight Bowl featuring the Gophers against Kansas will be televised on the NFL Network on Dec. 31, to date there is no local broadcast outlet to carry the game. Comcast carries the NFL Network, but subscribers have to pay an extra fee to get the channel. "We are still having discussions with Comcast in order to get the Gophers bowl game more widely distributed in the Twin Cities," said Joe Browne, the NFL's vice president of communications and public affairs. Meanwhile Gophers athletic director Joel Maturi expects a sellout of some 60,000 at the game in Tempe, Ariz., including a good group of fans from both Minnesota and the Phoenix area.

Free-agent reliever Dennys Reyes, who declined arbitration from the Twins, thought he was going to sign with Cincinnati this week but was passed up when the Reds signed another lefthander instead.

The Big Ten will play its first neutral-site baseball tournament since 1994 at Huntington Park in Columbus, Ohio, the home of the Class AAA Clippers, the affiliate of the Indians. ... Corey Frazier, the outstanding defensive back from Eden Prairie and son of Vikings defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier, was impressed with his visit to Minnesota last week and might change his mind about going to Stanford if the Gophers offer him a scholarship.

Three Gophers freshmen were honored by Rivals.com. Running back DeLeon Eskridge of San Francisco, offensive lineman Ryan Orton of Eden Prairie and kick returner of Troy Stoudermire of Dallas were all named Freshmen All-Big Ten by the website. Eskridge led conference freshmen in rushing and was 10th among all rushers, averaging 54.3 yards per game. Stoudermire ranked fourth among kick returners and was the top freshman in that category, averaging 25.2 yards per return. He ranked 34th in the nation in average kick returns.

Evan Kaufmann, a Plymouth native who played four years of hockey for the Gophers and was captain his senior year, has signed a contract with Dusseldorf of the DEL (German Elite League). In 27 games, he has eight goals and 13 assists. ... Brandon Robinson, the former Breck wide receiver was presented with the Scanlan Award, the highest honor given to a Boston College football player. Robinson ranked fourth in the program's history with 138 receptions and his 1,983 career receiving yards rank seventh in that category. The Scanlan Award is given to the senior player who excels on the field, the classroom and the community.

Former Timberwolves first-round draft pick Ndudi Ebi is playing in Italy with Carife Ferrara, and is currently leading his team in rebounds with 6.5 a game and is third in scoring at 10.4 points per game. Ebi was waived by the Timberwolves in 2006.

Former Timberwolves draft pick Chris Richard is playing for the Tulsa 66ers in the NBA D-league. Richard is playing 31.5 minutes per game and averaging 13.8 points and 7.8 rebounds per contest. Richard was selected with the first pick by the 66ers in the 2008 D-League draft. ... Nikola Pekovic, the 22-year-old center the Timberwolves selected with the 31st pick of the 2008 draft, is averaging 12.6 points and 3.3 rebounds in 17.7 minutes per game for the Panathinaikos B.C. basketball team out of Greece.

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