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MINNEAPOLIS -- The Minnesota Timberwolves best days came with Flip Saunders on the sideline. Now that the organization is shrouded in uncertainty surrounding the long-term future of star forward Kevin Love, Saunders is returning to the bench to try revive a franchise that hasnt made the playoffs in 10 years. With the teams coaching search complicated by Loves status, the Timberwolves decided the best course of action was to have Saunders, who was hired last season as president of basketball operations, step in for a second stint as coach until the situation stabilized, Saunders said in a text message Thursday. The official announcement will come at a news conference on Friday afternoon. Saunders previously coached the Timberwolves from 1995-2005. He won 411 games in 10 1/2 seasons in Minnesota and guided the Wolves to the only eight playoff appearances in franchise history, including the Western Conference finals in 2004. He has a career record of 638-526 in 16 seasons as an NBA head coach, a career that also includes stops in Detroit, where he coached the Pistons to three straight Eastern Conference finals, and Washington. Saunders is joining a short list in the NBA of coaches who also have final-say executive authority, one that includes newly hired Stan Van Gundy in Detroit, Doc Rivers with the Los Angeles Clippers and, to a certain extent, Gregg Popovich in San Antonio. Saunders will continue to work closely with GM Milt Newton in the front office while handling coaching duties. When Rick Adelman retired at the end of the regular season, he did so in part to try to help the Timberwolves move forward with a plan to show Love, a three-time All-Star who can opt out of his contract next summer, that there was a long-term plan in place for success. But Loves tenuous situation didnt help the search process, with trade rumours serving as a caution sign for several high-profile candidates. Saunders was in the market for a coach with extensive head coaching experience, either in the NBA or at a major college program, one that could command the respect of a young locker room and also handle the media scrutiny that comes with the questions surrounding Love. Names like Tom Izzo, Billy Donovan and Fred Hoiberg came and went without any traction. The Wolves hosted Memphis coach Dave Joerger for an interview two weekends ago, but Grizzlies owner Robert Pera sweetened his contract to keep him around. Sam Mitchell, Lionel Hollins, Scott Skiles and several others received consideration as well. Unable to find what they felt was the right fit for a delicate job, Saunders and owner Glen Taylor met this week to reassess the situation, according to two people with knowledge of the situation who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the team was not publicly discussing the search process. Taylor said when he brought Saunders back as team president that he would not put him back on the bench. He fired Saunders as coach once before, in 2005 when Latrell Sprewell and Sam Cassell, unhappy with their contracts, submarined the follow-up to the teams stirring run to the Western Conference finals. Saunders was also hopeful that he could find someone other than himself to take over the team. But with Loves status preventing them from pursuing the coaches they felt would fit best, the two decided that Saunders should take over for at least this season if not longer. The Timberwolves have not given up on convincing Love to play out this season in Minnesota and re-sign next summer to a contract that can pay him and extra year and about $26.5 million more than any other team. It was not immediately clear what the appointment of Saunders would do for Loves desires to stay or go. The Timberwolves planned to meet with Love to see where he stands now that the head coaching vacancy has been filled. Love has yet to make the playoffs in his six seasons in the league and is believed to be growing impatient with the Wolves, who finished 40-42 and in 10th place in the West this year. Love created a stir when he spent last weekend in Boston, where the Celtics are rumoured to be making a run at trading for the 25-year-old power forward before the June 26 draft. Just how long Saunders will coach remains to be seen. There is the possibility that Saunders will add assistants to his staff who could be groomed to eventually take over. The Wolves were expected to reach out to Mitchell, a former Timberwolves player and Raptors head coach, and David Blatt, who has spearheaded Russias return to Olympic relevance and coaches in Israel, to gauge their interest in joining his staff. Wholesale Panthers Jerseys Womens . Ashton scored a hat trick -- giving him 13 goals in 16 AHL games this season -- to power the Toronto Marlies to a 5-2 victory over the visiting Lake Erie Monsters in AHL action on Sunday. Cheap Panthers Jerseys . 28 with a Vancouver entry for the first time in 10 years and a novel new collective bargaining agreement. http://www.cheappanthersjerseyselite.com/ . LeBron James believes hes a major reason for their early failures. White Panthers Jerseys . Reimer told TSNs Mark Masters on Tuesday that he doesnt know if he will be moved leading up to the March 5 trade deadline but added he wasnt interested in discussing it. "Who knows whats going to happen on the horizon here and right now I dont know if I want to talk about it too much. Black Panthers Jerseys Online . - Mathew Barzal scored 3:47 into overtime as the Seattle Thunderbirds downed the visiting Everett Silvertips 4-3 on Tuesday in Western Hockey League playoff action.LOS ANGELES, Calif. - Nobody wants Game 2 of the Stanley Cup final to come quicker than Dan Girardi. The Rangers defenceman was victimized by a bouncing puck that led to the Kings overtime goal in Game 1 on Wednesday. After the Kings flubbed a three-on-two, the puck found its way to Girardi who had time and space to play it. The other Rangers headed up the ice to start an attack only to have the puck bounce over Girardis stick. The 30-year-old from Welland, Ont., fell to his knees, taking a swipe at the puck in a bid to clear it. It went straight to Kings forward Mike Richards, who fed Justin Williams for the winning overtime goal. "It was gone until this morning, until right now," Girardi said dryly Friday when reporters asked him about the gaffe. "As a player, theres really no worse feeling than that. Obviously in the Stanley Cup finals you dont want to make a play that costs your team. "Obviously (I was) stewing about it a little bit (on the Rangers off-day Thursday) but youve got to move on. Weve got a huge opportunity to get it 1-1 going back to our building." Game 2 is Saturday at Staples Center. Girardi, who plays with Ryan McDonagh on the Rangers top defensive pairing, got plenty of support from his teammates in the wake of the overtime mistake. "Danny was down for a few minutes," said forward Brad Richards. "Everybody kind of picked him up. "Thats a tough bounce. It just happened that that was the overtime goal that the bounce happened. We got a bounce on tthe second goal that went off their D-man (Slava Voynov) in the net.dddddddddddd" McDonagh sits next to Girardi in the locker room and wasted little time going over the play. "Thats how we work through things as a group," said McDonagh. "Me and him are a pretty talkative pairing. No matter what happens, bad play, good play, were talking about it, trying to improve, trying to make sure were on the same page as much as possible. "If it was flip-flopped and it was me, he would have came to me and asked me, What could we have done differently, what could we have done better? Thats the beauty of our pairing and the beauty of him, too. He doesnt soak in the wounds, so to speak, think about the what-ifs. He just tries to correct it, see what he can do better, and were there supporting him." It was clearly appreciated. "Its great to hear the guys rally around you," said Girardi. "That could happen to anyone and everyone would have reacted the same way, doesnt matter who it is. Thats the type of team we are. Everyones got each others back." Several assistant coaches also spoke to Girardi afterwards. Rangers coach Alain Vigneault, meanwhile, kept the incident in perspective "Everybody understands the dynamic of that play," he said. "You know, Dans got to turn the page and move on. "Hes been one of our real solid defencemen, not only in the playoffs and the regular season, but hes a real hard worker, and Im sure that hes focused on the next game now." 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