Sid's jottings

JOTTINGS

• There is no better promoter of the game of golf than Hollis Cavner, the executive director of the 3M Open, so you have to be thrilled that the state of Minnesota and the PGA Tour came together to make sure the event will be held at TPC Twin Cities July 23-26. You can bet Cavner will put on an excellent show, even if it's only for television audiences.

• While the NBA is set to resume in July, Spain's top basketball league started this past week. Former Timberwolves forward Anthony Randolph is playing for Real Madrid and scored 11 points in his first game back. Bojan Dubljevic, a 2013 Wolves draft pick whose NBA rights were traded to Portland last year as part of the Jake Layman deal, is playing for Valencia.

• The Gophers and Richard Pitino getting a commitment from Austin's Both Gach to transfer from Utah was huge, and now the next step is getting Gach eligible to play this fall, because the Big Ten is looking like the toughest conference in the country. ESPN ran a preseason ranking that had Iowa fifth, Wisconsin sixth, Michigan State eighth, Ohio State 20th, Rutgers 22nd and Indiana and Michigan just outside of the Top 25.

• The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that Peter Hedstrom, the father of Wisconsin basketball player Joe Hedstrom of Hopkins, has been recovering from a serious bicycling accident that nearly killed him. Peter, who played basketball at St. Olaf, has returned to work part-time from home.

• The Vikings have a family connection this offseason as offensive lineman Jake Lacina, who played at Cretin-Derham Hall and Augustana, signed as a rookie free agent. Jake's father is Corbin Lacina, a Vikings offensive lineman from 1999 to 2002.

• The Twins' $134 million spent on free agency this past offseason ranked seventh in the major leagues behind the Yankees, Nationals, Angels, White Sox, Reds and Phillies.