But since this is expected, I cannot give them more than a -1. They are currently playing up to expectations. If they make it to the Final Four -- well, that's what they should be doing too, but I could bump them up to a 0.
They now host the Regionals. First up is a tricky opponent: Overall 15-seed Oregon, one of only three clubs to have beaten the Golden Gophers. Will that play into the U.'s mental state? If they win that game, they face either defending champs (and overall #7) Nebraska or (overall #10) Kentucky, who ran the table in SEC conference play.
(Aside: I was assuming I could go to these games this Friday and Saturday after work. But the Regional Semifinal between the Cornhuskers and the Wildcats starts at 1; the Gophers-Ducks matchup is tentatively scheduled for 3:30. This story lists the times for all the games this weekend, and I have never seen the game times for tournament volleyball matches at this stage so spread out. To be more specific, I have never seen Sweet Sixteen games played in the early afternoon -- and in my estimation there will be three of them. That might help for TV, but these games will only be shown on ESPNU or the online arm, ESPN3, so ... really? And then the Regional Final will be at 5 Saturday. I'm done with work at 4:30. I don't know if I'm going to make it for the start of that game. Shit, there's a slight chance I won't make that game at all.)
#-2: Gopher women's basketball (Last Week: -5). It's not a stretch to say that what Lindsay Whalen is doing her first year coaching is a miracle. I can't really say that it's been a daunting schedule; for example, they blitzed Air Force in the Fourth Quarter yesterday/Sunday on the Gophers' way to a 67-50 rout. And only one game in this 7-0 start has been on the road. But I have to give this team a lot of dap for Thursday's win over Syracuse in a contest between two Top 20 teams as part of the B1G/ACC Challenge.
The Fourth Quarter alone was worth the price of admission. Minnesota was up 55-48 a minute into the quarter. But Syracuse ripped off a 13-0 run to lead 61-55 with 3 1/2 Minutes to play. The Gophers then responded with a 12-0 run of their own, capped by Kenisha Bell's spin-move lay-up and-one, to assert a 67-61 lead, a lead they would not relinquish. Again, the 20th-ranked Gophers were at home, so a win over the 12th-ranked Orange wasn't out of the question. But the gumption it took to fight back is a great trait for this team to have.
Wednesday afternoon (?) they host Incarnate Word. The team then has its second road test Sunday afternoon versus Boston College.
#-3: Gopher women's hockey (Last Week: -2). Women's college hockey remains lopsided. The club went to New Haven, Conn., and blitzed Yale by a combined 10-2 over a two-game series. This steamrolling should continue this weekend at Ridder, when the U. hosts Robert Morris for a pair. Hmmm, Robert Morris ... that isn't a team that comes around here often. Should I go?
#-4: Gopher wrestling (Last Week: -6). The grapplers participated in the Cliff Keen Invitational, and I said I wouldn't put these guys on this week's survey unless something big happened. Well, something big happened! Congratulations to Gable Stevenson for winning the tournament's Heavyweight Division! Sure, the U. as a whole only finished sixth. But fuck, when's the last time an individual wrestler at the U. won a title, even in an in-season tournament like this?
They have a road dual in, all of places, Fresno St. Saturday night.
#-5: Timberwolves (Last Week: -8). Beat the shell that is the Cavaliers in Cleveland Monday, then played possibly their best game of the season at Target Center Wednesday in shellacking San Antonio by 39, before missing too many shots in a 118-109 loss at home Saturday to Boston. Nevertheless, the Wolves are 7-3 since shipping away Jimmy Butler, and by all accounts, there is a lightness of being that's been felt all throughout the team, as if removing a bully makes everyone feel better. And players are beginning to define their roles better. Karl-Anthony Towns has started to be more vocal, like he's ready and willing to be the #1 option on this ballclub. And Robert Covington and Dario Saric have filled in their roles as 3-and-Ds so well that it's making the other members of the squad step up their games. The West remains highly competitive, but I don't feel so upset that the organization didn't take Houston's offer of four first-round draft picks anymore.
This week, like last week, has a Monday (home versus Houston)/Wednesday (home against Charlotte)/Saturday (at Portland) pattern.
#-6: Gopher men's basketball (Last Week: -1). Saw the games at what is being billed as the U. S. Bank Stadium Classic, which is total bullshit, because 1) this tournament cannot be called a "classic" if this is the first year it's being played and 2) they damn well know they're not going to hold basketball games at this place unless they have to and they only are playing these games now so facilities and the hosting committee can look at what they need to fix for the Final Four, which is being held at the place in April. Fuck, the court they used isn't even theirs; facilities borrowed it from the Sanford Center, which is in Sioux Falls, S.D.
Thoughts about watching basketball games in there, from the Upper Level:
- I heard that the orientation of this court will not be the same for the Final Four. This court was situated on one end of the Vikings playing field (you can see the far, unused end exposed past the bleachers set up on the turf); the court in April, I believe, will be situated right in the middle of the stadium. Why? If you are trying to replicate what's going to happen for the Final Four, wouldn't you want to replicate the entire floor plan?
- Looking at the faint shadows the fell on the court by the flood lights situated around the court, it looks as though I was peering at a pickup game outside. Which is very different from watching a game in Us-Bank in the daytime, when it looks (and feels) like I am in a greenhouse.
- For Saturday's Gophers-Oklahoma St. game, I got a ticket right behind a window right above the vomitorium from where you walk up the stairs to your seats. Now I know what that vertical line on the floor plan on the Ticketmaster website meant. Won't buy tickets there again. And I would change my mind if that window were a magnifying glass, which it is not.
- Both of Saturday's games featured a Summit League team against a Missouri Valley squad. Drake pounced all over North Dakota St., even though both teams were making so many three-pointers to start the Second Half that the public address announcer, who I swear is the one for Minnesota United, annoyed the crap out of me when he said, "FOR THREE!!!" for the umpteenth time. Meanwhile, Northern Iowa, the best of the four schools playing the night, died by the three and got immolated by South Dakota St. by 32. Mike Daum scored a deceptively quiet 24 Points. He has some silky moves, that dude.
- The Cowboys have no right to appropriate neon blue as one of their colors. But I have to say, I liked The Oklahoma City Thunder-inspired uniforms they wore.
They host a chic darkhorse team in the league, Nebraska, on Wednesday. They then revert to non-con tomato cans for the rest of the year with a game versus Arkansas St. Saturday. These games begin a five-game homestand to the end of 2018.
#-7: Gopher men's hockey (Last Week: -9). Two games, exact same result. Tied up at 2 at the end of regulation. No score in single Overtime. Then Ohio St. wins it in Double Overtime. Technically these Goofers get a point. But this probably is the series where their chances of reaching the NCAA Tournament goes kaput -- especially considering that both defeats (and they are defeats) came at home. Oh, well, Bob Motzko's in his first year.
At Michigan for two this weekend.
#-8: Whitecaps (Re-Entry!). Last year I was abjectly against -- and pissed off at -- The Las Vegas Golden Knights for being gifted a superteam in its first year and, with that superteam, being one stage short of winning The Stanley Cup. (They're not that good this year, thank Buddha, but if they win the Cup this year ... fine. Hey, they've had a year together!) Well, wouldn't that standard apply to the Minnesota Whitecaps? The National Women's Hockey League didn't rig the expansion team and salary cap rules to give the 'Caps a massive leg up; instead, the team just asked Minnesotans and Golden Gophers to sign for the home team, and many of them did. That's why they got off to their undefeated start. So ... yes, this would also be wrong for the Whitecaps to win The Isobel Cup this year, and the only reason I'm not bent out of shape over that is because they're the home team. Totally plead guilty to that.
This weekend, however, may bring those Isobel Cup dreams to an end. At TRIA, the Boston Pride gave the Whitecaps their first loss ever Saturday, 5-1, and then they gave them their second loss ever Sunday, 7-2. Oof. The 'Caps remain in first place, but the Pride are now just a 1/2-Game behind. And to get their asses kicked at home by a combined 12-3 score? Double oof! I was thinking about going to this weekend's games, but (and kudos to both the Whitecaps and Whitecaps fans) they sold out. I think missing those disasters was good for psyche. I probably would be scarred for life if I witnessed that in person.
By the way, if I need to insult this team, I have decided to call them the Whitecraps, or 'Craps.
Visit Buffalo the last weekend of the year.
#-9: Wild (Last Week: -3). Well, for a team that's flying high, they've been on a tailspin. A totally winless screening week -- defeats to Arizona, Columbus and Toronto -- have slipped them from second in the Central Division to a very familiar spot: The last playoff spot in the Western Conference (one Point ahead of Las Vegas, by the way!). As bad as this is, this is where I and a lot of other fans thought they would be. And frankly, this level of success, and losing streaks like this, causes Head Coaches to be fired by General Managers they didn't hire. And it might not get any better this screening week, as they do the Prairie Province Three-Step -- Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton, all on the road. If the losing streak gets doubled from three to six, Bruce Boudreau may be done this time next week.
#-10: Vikings (Last Week: -4). OK, a lot of people thought the ViQueens would lost to New England yesterday/Sunday, 24-10. But I still insist that if you think the Vikes are a Super Bowl contender (and I know that there are still a lot of delusional people who believe that), they can march into Foxborough and win there.
I caught a part of the game inbetween clearing my deck of snow and sleeping. In a reversal of the team's fortunes, I was very impressed by what the Defense was doing ... at least through the First Half. But then Tom Brady led the Pats on that drive in the Third Quarter and, yeah, I didn't like where this was headed, so I went to bed. You could pin this on the Offense too, but the bottom line is these guys needed a perfect gameplan to win, and they didn't, so everyone's to blame.
Optics is everything. There are a lot of people refusing to push the panic button today after the loss. Have they seen that the Vikings have slipped from a Wild Card playoff spot to being one of the teams "In The Hunt?" If they have, they would be freaking the fuck out -- and they should.
One other thing. Without that horrible loss at home to Buffalo, and that wayward tie in Week 2 in Lambeau, these guys would have been 8-3 -- and tied with Chicago. I'm not saying that they would be vying with the Bears for the division; I truly think that the Bears are a better squad. All I'm saying is that such a record would give the Vikes the cushion they need to weather this tough stretch of games. Slipping from 8-3 to 8-5 after defeats to New England and, next Monday night, Seattle means Minnesota would remain in a playoff spot. Going from 6-4-1 to 6-6-1 means they are fighting for their lives. Big difference. The end of the season may have been decided very early. And beyond all that, what was hyped up as a Super Bowl contender will, at best, limp into the playoffs as a Wild Card team, and this year, they're not getting past The Bastard Cleveland By Way Of Los Angeles By Way Of St. Louis or New Orleans (let alone Chicago) this year.
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