Positive Numbers: Gopher volleyball (Last Week: 0). There have been few weeks where the program has been this high as these women are now.
Let's go back first to last weekend and the end of the regular season. I was at Friday's four-set win over Ohio St. -- nice victory, but they still have that damn nasty knack of dropping the third set, what's up with that? But then -- oh my fucking God then -- came Saturday's five-set, come-from-behind win over first-place and longtime nemesis Penn St. Looking at the boxscore, despite getting in an 0-2 hole, the Gophers started to right themselves after a disastrous 25-14 first-set defeat. After getting 21 points in the second-set loss, they finally nipped the Nittany Lions in the third, 26-24. They didn't even need to go into extra points in the fourth, winning that one 25-23.
The thrilling final set featured seven lead changes and 14 ties. The two squads virtually played a full fifth set. But when Lauren Gibbemeyer slammed back an overpass off a viciously hot serve, the 23-21 result gave the Gophers their first win over the threepeating champions for the first time in a half-dozen years. I saw the highlight of match point; the scene of the team on the court, kneeling down and huddling together while the crowd roared over this improbably comeback win -- man, it must've been pulsating. Sure wish I was there.
So the team ties with Illinois for second in the Big Ten (Penn St. wins the regular-season crown, again.) After a .500 start in conference play, they finish the season winning nine of ten. Libero Jessica Granquist was named Big Ten Defensive Player Of The Year, and she and Middle Blocker Lauren Gibbemeyer were named to the conference's first team. And they wind up 12th in the last regualr-season AVCA Top 25 poll.
And they are the 10-seed in the NCAA Tournament and get to host the first two rounds at the Sports Pavilion today (Friday) and tomorrow (Saturday) -- and I get to go, whee! (While in the middle of another hellacious snowstorm, but I already bought the tickets, so. ...) The bracket has them in the Seattle Regional, potentially facing in the Sweet 16 a 7-seeded Cal team that garnered some first-place votes in the AVCA Top 25, and then, in the Elite 8, the 2-seed Nebraska Cornhuskers. But it first starts off with North Dakota St.; the Iowa St-Creighton winner would be next. Good luck, ladies!
#0: Wrestling (Re-Entry!). You know, I have no idea when a wrestling season begins. Looking at their schedule, it's possible I should've put the Gopher grapplers on two weeks ago. But they seem to be multi-team meets that may or may not be the equivalent of a non-conference portion of a season. Well, it's too late now.
I started the season for these guys this week because on Saturday they faced three individual schools. And the third-ranked Gophs started the season with three dual wins, including a tight 21-17 win over ninth-ranked Central Michigan. Just like the Minnesota men's basketball program, I want to parcel out special accolades for these guys, so putting them above negative numbers seems right.
They, however, have a very tall task ahead in their next game: second-ranked Oklahoma St. comes to town Sunday afternoon. The program hasn't done so hot lately beating teams ranked above them since their championship years, but this should still be a tight matchup. They then travel to face Nebraska Thursday.
#-1: Gopher women's hockey (Last Week: -2). A very impressive sweep of ninth-ranked Harvard at Ridder last weekend by a combined score of 7-2. They have now won four in a row and five out of their last six, and sit seventh in both women's college hockey polls. The only drawback I see right now is a familiar one: Because they reside in the powerful WCHA, they still sit behind both dynasty program UMD and, at least for this year, Wisconsin. Being third in a beast of a conference sucks. They return to conference play with a pair at Bemidji St., both afternoon games today (Friday) and tomorrow (Saturday).
#-2: Gopher women's basketball (Last Week: -3). A good week, sort of. They lost in all three tournament they were in this year, the last being a 61-59 loss (where they were trailing by a lot more for much of the second half) Friday to San Diego St. in the opening game of the Nugget Classic. (At least they didn't lose a tournament they hosted, unlike both the Best Buy Classic and the Subway Classic. And by the way, how are "classic" can these tournaments be? I've never heard of them, and if I haven't heard of them, how can they be classic?)
The Gophs rebounded to win the third-place game over N.C. St., 71-67, Thanksgiving Saturday. They then followed that up with a 63-58 victory over Virginia Tech last (Thursday) night at Williams as part of the women's ACC/Big Ten Challenge; at least the women won their game. So, as part of a "series" meant to showcase teams from different conferences against each other, the squad is 2-0. The Big Ten should set up a series with, say, the Southland Conference for next year.
But maybe they won't have time to do that since they seem to have scheduled teams from every single conference this year. There is such a thing as the Big Ten/Big 12 Challenge, and they visit Baylor -- second-seeded (?) Baylor, with superstudette Brittney Greiner -- Sunday afternoon. They then come home and face tomato can Southern Thursday.
#-3: Vikings (Last Week: -6). Yes, it's a win. We're happy for interim Head Coach Leslie Frazier for winning his first game and in his first game as a head coach. But from what I've heard about the game and what I saw on the sports segments, this was the ugliest way you can win imaginable. In fact, Washington was a block in the back call -- replays, according to those who saw, are phantom; there was no block in the back -- away from exposing all of these guys as too old or too dumb. But, because of Washington's similar production problems, the win only provokes the question about whether they didn't play like that last Sunday only because they wanted Brad Childress out.
Everybody seems to be injured this week. And the Buffalo Bills come into town this Sunday. Although these guys are 2-9, they have come very close the past few games, culminating with their heartbreaking loss to Pittsburgh at home last week where Steve Johnson dropped a game-winning touchdown pass in overtime and later blamed God. At this point, if they're not going to make it into the playoffs (forget winning the Super Bowl), I really want them to tank so they can secure a high draft pick. They're are a couple of highly touted cornerbacks, and the Vikes could really use some of those.
#-4: Gopher men's hockey (Last Week: -1). A split Thanksgiving Weekend, ugh. On Friday, they lost 5-2 at Mariucci to Michigan St., a team that has a record of 5-6-3. But possibly embarrassed by that loss, they prevented getting swept in the College Hockey Showcase for the first time since the 2000-1 season by upsetting then-eighth-ranked Michigan, 3-1, on Sunday. Goaltender Kent Patterson starred in the loss; Alex Kangas -- the much-maligned Alex Kangas -- got the nod in the win. This thus blows my goalie plan all to hell.
And yet, somehow, the Gophs remain ranked 15th in the nation! They resume WCHA play by visiting MSU-Mankato this weekend.
#-5: Wild (Last Week: -4). Their splash page is an offer to buy tickets; for an organization that up until this season crowed about how they sold out every game, this is a new low. Anyway, they went a pretty miserable 1-3 this week, and they have lost three in a row and five of six. And the three losses weren't even close; the aggregate total is Others 14, Wild 6.
A troubling trend has emerged; this club plays shittily in the second period. Not the first, where you can say they're off to a slow start. Not the third, where you can say they don't know how to finish. The second. What's the deal with that? That sounds so stupid. Does their focus just meander when they can't look back or look forward and see any light? So weird. Anyway, they have three games this week: home to Calgary, at The Team That Was Stolen From Us, then at the Bastard Winnipeg Jets.
#-6: Gopher men's basketball (Last Week: Positive Numbers). And the promising start comes crashing down to a crushing end. The Gophs held a 13-point second-half lead against Virginia on Monday and pissed it away. The Cavaliers actually won going away; keyed by a 20-6 run that wiped out the lead, they defeated Minnesota, 87-79. They are no longer undefeated. And by the way, doesn't it seem like they always lose their game in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge? They have two games this week: home to Cornell Saturday, at St. Joseph's Wednesday.
#-7: Timberwolves (Last Week: -5). Oof -- now this is the Timberwolves franchise we're familiar with. An 0-2 week now runs their losing streak to five games. Worse yet, their margins of defeat are increasing; whereas many recent losses were in the single digits, the Woofie Dogs lost at home to Golden State Saturday by ten, then at Dallas Wednesday by 14. They could lost at San Antonio Friday by 20, then, because it's the second game of a back-to-back and they have to travel back to Target Center, completely lose it and get frogstomped by Cleveland Saturday by 25. And then they can get hosed at New York Monday by 30 and then get the shit kicked out of them by the Bastard Seattle SuperSonics Wednesday by 35 -- even five-point increments, y'all. At least Kevin Love's gettin' some love for being a freakish rebounding white guy.
#-Infinity: Gopher football (Re-Entry!). I feel bad for putting these guys down here. I have a rule that once a team's season ends, unless they've won the title in their sport, they go down here with a -Infinity because they failed. And the gridiron Gophs did fail. But did they?
Although Iowa has been mailing it the back half of the year, I feel good for them for their 27-24 victory. It was tough, but, like their win over Illinois, they came back to go ahead late in the fourth and found a way to seal the game. In this case, Cornerback (and All-Big Ten First Team Kick Returner, according to Phil Steele, he of the legendarily long [and grammatically sloppy] football preview magazines) Troy Stoudermire punched the ball out of the Hawkeyes' Marcus Coker to give Minnesota possession and the ability to run out the clock, which they did. They now possess Floyd of Rosedale for the first time in four years. Congratulations to them!
Now, onto the coaching search. First of all, they say they will declare the winner via facebook and Twitter. I don't know how or even if it'll beat a leak to a reporter, but I think this is an acknowledgement of where disseminating information everybody wants is going. Anyway, there has been a long incubation period for the search, and I'm hearing everybody's in and everybody's out. Round up the usual suspects: Brady Hoke (who seems to be Athletic Director Joel Maturi's favorite), Kevin Sumlin, Troy Calhoun, Dan Chryst, Marc Trestman, Kevin Fedora, Dan Mullen, and even Mike Leach, who today openly campainged for the job. (Sorry Mike, we're afraid you'll lock somebody up in a closet.)
I've got a name: Jeff Horton. Who's he? The Gophers' Offensive Coordinator who was named interim Head Coach after Maturi shitcanned Tim Brewster. Horton, who had coaching stints with, get this, Nevada and UNLV (strange times; nowadays, Nevada would be the better job, but back then Horton left the Wolfpack for more money with the Runnin' Rebels), squeezed out two wins, or one more than Brewster did in seven games with this team. Look, there's a chance that nobody cares about the new stadium and sees that this program is a dead-end job. If that's the perception, and therefore no high-profile or up-and-coming coach wants to be stuck here in the middle of winter, why not go with the guy you already have? I mean, he seems nice. ...
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