Joe Mauer, the consummate Minnesota Twin, and wife Maddie are expecting twins.

“Obviously, we’re both really excited and couldn’t be happier,” the Twins all-star and three-time batting champion said Wednesday, Feb. 27. “Everything so far is good.”

Mauer said it’s still too early to know whether the twins will be boys or girls.

University of Minnesota President Eric Kaler was among the sellout crowd of 14,625 that rocked Williams Arena on Tuesday night when the Gophers upset No. 1 Indiana 77-73.

Kaler’s cheering left him in a sweat at game’s end.

“I think I played,” he said. “This was a great win for Gopher basketball, a great win.”

I asked Kaler about the status of Tubby Smith, who is in his sixth season as Gophers men’s basketball coach, is signed through 2017, and has been criticized by fans for his team’s enigmatic play.

“It’s the same as all of our coaches when they’re in season,” Kaler said. “Norwood will take a look at the overall season, we’ll make some decisions and go forward from there. But I don’t like to talk about it during the season — it takes the focus away from the coach and the team.”

Norwood is Norwood Teague, the Gophers’ athletics director whom Kaler hired last summer. Smith, who has a $2.5 million contract buyout, was hired by former AD Joel Maturi.

Among the crowd at Williams Arena on Tuesday was Jim Dutcher, who coached Minnesota to the 1982 Big Ten championship. It was just Dutcher’s second trip to Williams Arena in two years. His last visit was when his title team was honored.

Dutcher, who turns 80 in April and lives in Edina, was at the arena to speak to the Golden Dunkers booster club.

“I’m not here to evaluate the team or Tubby,” said Dutcher, who coached the Gophers for 11 years, then remained as an astute TV analyst for the ensuing 12 years.

Before the game, Dutcher chatted with Gophers assistant Vince Taylor, a former Duke standout whom Dutcher recruited out of high school in Kentucky in 1978.

“This is what you live for, to play against the No. 1 team,” Dutcher told Taylor before the game. Taylor agreed.

Maturi, who was the Gophers’ AD for 10 years, turned 68 this month. He continues to teach a sports management class with 52 students at Minnesota and this spring will teach a couple of classes in China.

Men’s basketball associate head coach at Indiana is Tim Buckley, a Bemidji State grad. Buckley, 49, was a roommate of San Francisco 49ers general manager Trent Baalke at Bemidji State.

Buckley, who went to high school in Aurora, Ill., got to know Indiana head coach Tom Crean when Crean was an assistant at Michigan State and Buckley was an assistant at Ball State.

“You kind of run in the same circles recruiting-wise,” Buckley said. “Also, we would play Big Ten teams in the non-league and they would play MAC teams, so we would compare notes, things like that, and we developed kind of a professional relationship that became a personal relationship.”

When Crean took the head coaching job at Marquette, he hired Buckley, who eventually returned to Ball State as head coach.

Of Crean, Buckley said, “He’s always in pursuit of getting better. I learn something on a daily basis. He teaches you things that make you better and the team better, and he’s really given me a great perspective of how to run a program and how to be successful.”

Former Gophers baseball players Terry Steinbach, Paul Molitor, Glen Perkins, Kyle Knudson and Cole De Vries of the Twins had a group picture taken at spring training in Fort Myers, Fla., wearing their Twins jerseys but with Gophers caps.

Former Gophers fireballer John Gaub from South St. Paul has foregone a nice minor league contract from the St. Louis Cardinals in order to return to school at Minnesota.

Defenseman Matt Dumba, who started the season with the Wild but didn’t get into any games, has 13 goals and 23 assists in 55 games for Red Deer in the Western Hockey League. Mario Lucia, a second-round Wild draft pick, has 10 goals and nine assists in 25 games for Notre Dame. Wild seventh-round pick Louis Nanne, who bypassed his senior high school season at Edina, has 18 goals and 20 assists in 42 games for Penticton.

By the way, Nanne’s father, Marty, the former Gophers hockey player who also is a scout for the Wild, has been named a member of the 2016 Ryder Cup executive committee in sales. The Ryder Cup will be at Hazeltine National in 2016.

It’s a baby girl, Valerie, for Gophers assistant football coach Mike Sherels and wife Emily.

DON’T PRINT THAT

The way it looks now, the Gophers men’s basketball team could be in a No. 7 seed for the NCAA tournament. Before Tuesday’s upset of No. 1 Indiana, Minnesota looked to be a No. 11 seed.

Winning their final three Big Ten regular-season games, beginning Saturday against Penn State at Williams Arena, should push the Gophers to at least a No. 6 seed.

That was men’s basketball coach Tubby Smith making appearances at the Gophers men’s hockey game and wrestling tournament Saturday.

“Trying to get good vibes for our game with Indiana,” Smith told a friend.

Centennial High grad Chris Anderson, 6-4, 225 pounds with a 95-mph fastball at the University of Jacksonville (Fla.), could be a late first-round or early sandwich pick in June’s major league draft. Also a quarterback in high school, Anderson declined a football offer from Wisconsin because the Badgers don’t have a baseball program.

The right-hander, who was drafted by the Chicago Cubs in the 35th round out of high school, has progressed well.

OVERHEARD

Andrei Kirilenko, 6 feet 9, on leading the Timberwolves in dunks: “No big deal; I’m not a dunker. A lot of times I’m just under the basket.”

Charley Walters can be reached at cwalters@pioneerpress.com.