By Steve Schaefer

Listen, I’m sure the Twin Cities are a delightful place to visit – at least in the spring, which I hear comes to Minnesota once every four years – and Joe Mauer is a helluva ballplayer, but this morning, for the first time in my life I actually felt a twinge of envy for those who hail from the Land of 10,000 Lakes. I felt it because they get to see something we Syracuse fans didn’t, Jonny Flynn and Wes Johnson sharing the court.

About 15 months ago that seemed unlikely. Heading into March Syracuse was well on its way to ending a two year tournament drought, but Flynn wasn’t yet a slam-dunk lottery pick and it wasn’t out of the realm of possibility that he would return for his junior year. Then came the 6-OT UConn thriller at MSG and the run to the Sweet Sixteen, and Jonny was as good as gone.

As it turned out that was a good thing, because the departure of Flynn, Eric Devendorf and Paul Harris opened the door for a more balanced Orange attack this year that allowed Andy Rautins to develop into an NBA-caliber player and Wes Johnson to explode onto the national scene. For a year Syracuse fans heard that Johnson – ineligible for a season after transferring from Iowa State – was the best player in practice, and Wes finally got the chance to show it to the Big East and the rest of college basketball.

And now Wes, and his impressive pants, is on the way to the T-Wolves after being picked fourth overall last night. He’ll finally join Flynn in a combination that comes a year later and about 800 miles away from where ‘Cuse fans thought it would.

So yes, I’m jealous of Minnesota. Sure it’s cold, but you’ve got a couple of Orangeman who are used to frigid temperatures to help warm up those winter nights in the Target Center. And it will make for one hell of a scene when the T-Wolves play an exhibition game in the Dome this fall.