#-1: Gopher men's basketball (Last Week: -5). In a week both quiet and mediocre, Tubby Smith's guys finally (I think) reach the top. The Gophs' 30-point immolation of South Dakota St. gives the team a five-game winning streak. It's all well and good, and the opponents they've run over aren't complete unkowns (St. Joseph's and Northern Illinois) and are Division I, but it's safe to say that you can tell nothing about this team beyond the fact they lost to slightly tougher teams such as Miami and Texas A&M. It's awesome that Blake Hoffarber was named Big Ten Conference Player Of The Week and seemingly has found his shot after losing it last year. But I haven't seen this vaunted depth people keep talking about, and it won't be tested until they start conference play, which is Tuesday at home (for the sixth straight game -- is it a coincidence they've won all those games?) against Penn St.
#-2: Wild (Last Week: -6). They won two and they lost two. The Wild lost and won a game at home and on the road. Perfectly even. Besides getting blown out at Ottawa, nothing stands out. As it stands now, they are in 12th place in the Western Conference, four points from The Team That Was Stolen From Us (and by the way, look at the standings page on the Wild website. They list the teams by conference, not division. It looks wrong, but really, when you think about it, besides figuring out who wins the divisions, this is how it should be listed). No rest for the wicked -- they have three games this week: hosting St. Louis Christmas Post, then back-to-back games at the Southland teams Monday and Tuesday.
#-3: Timberwolves (Last Week: -8). This team also went 2-2, losing and winning both home and away. I put the Wolves lower because, let's face it, this team ain't goin' nowhere. I was at the Sacramento game Friday and was shocked at how thoroughly Tyreke Evans and the Bastard Cincinnati Royals; from what I heard about their comeback from a 35-point deficit to Chicago, their loss was the wake-up call that drove them to play some kick-ass ball. Anyway, I looked through the stat page in the free program you get for every game ... and none of the Woofie Dogs are on the leaderboard for any of the categories. Hey, fuck this season, right? Their last three games of the year are home to Washington Saturday (featuring the homecoming of The Greatest Coach The Franchise Has Ever Known, Flip Saunders), at San Antonio Tuesday, then immediately back to Target Center to face Utah Wednesday, a game I hope to attend.
#-4: Vikings (Last Week: -1). Ah, now begins the collapse. That pathetic 26-7 loss to the Carolina Panthers -- the Carolina Panthers!!! -- was so insulting because I know that when they decide to play, the Vikings would kill that team, but nothing got on track, nothing. The offensive line proved to be a joke, Adrian Peterson looks like a waste of a player, Antoine Winfield was beaten badly on that touchdown to Steve Smith and, worst of all, Brett Favre looked old and, later in the game, desperate in chucking the ball like it was recess.
But then the real fallout began. Favre ratted on Head Coach Brad Childress, saying that he wanted to take him out of the game when they were only trailing 7-6. Tom Powers of the St. Paul Pioneer Press reported that Childress was told he was thrown under the bus by Favre after he took a shower, and then, wearing only a towel, started yelling at his assistant coaches. As with any bit of juicy drama confirmed or even started by the principles, all the other bad news and rumors came out: Pro Football Talk came out with the news that this is the third time Childress wanted to pull Favre from a game, and ex-Packer great and former Favre teammate LeRoy Butler said in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, and I am assuming in a snide way, that Favre is a diva and shouldn't have showed up Childress.
They're both wrong; Favre shouldn't've talked about an argument he said in Wednesday's press conference was behind them, but Childress shouldn't've thought about pulling him from the game. At the very least you change the blocking protection so that there is another guy helping out McKinnie or his replacement, Artis Hicks, so that Julius Peppers doesn't keep bumping uglies with Favre on every goddamn play. But there are two overarching points that should be emphasized. First, this is all moot if they can run the ball, and it's probably the faul of both the line and Peterson that they haven't been able to do that because A.D. hasn't hit 100 yards in the last five games. Also just as important is that Favre's passing production has deflated at precisely the same time as previous years. Many experts have noted that #4's arm seems to be fine for only the first three-quarters of the season; after that, according to the stats, it declines precipitously. He has outright sucked since the Cardinals loss, and I don't think he's going to find his mojo in cold Chicago, a place he famously hates to play. So what happens if he comes out of the gate sucking Monday night. Does Childress have the balls to pull him? Can Peterson in order to keep that scenario speculation?
#-Infinity: Gopher volleyball (Last Week: 0). OK, so like I thought, they lost to Texas. I really didn't want to see them get swept so viciously by Texas, but I was afraid that was going to happen when you have a taller, bigger team. But I still have to state what I said last week: It's weird to be so happy about a team when its season ends short of a championship, but yet I didn't expect this team to go so far. Their Final Four appearance, the Final Four banner that they'll get to unfurl beginning next year, and their #4 ranking in the last AVCA Top 25 poll is something to be proud of. Hopefully this Ashley Wittman girl, the Shakopee senior and Gatorade Player Of The Year in her sport, will be the difference. By the way, congratulations to Hailey Cowles. The Outside Hitter, and not Lauren Gibbemeyer or Tabitha Love, was the only non-finalist named to the Final Four All-Tournament Team.
No comments:
Post a Comment