Positive Numbers: Gopher men's basketball (Last Week: -2). So I thought Tubby Smith's squad would be exposed once they had to live Williams Arena. No, at least not yet. They ripped off a 3-0 week which included advancing to the finals of the Old Spice Classic in Orlando after coming back to defeat both DePaul and Indiana St. Granted, the Gophers have been impressive in winning early-season tournaments before, only to collapse in Big Ten play and miss the NCAAs altogether; just look at last year. Nonetheless, I am very impressed by this team so far, and they deserve the benefit of the doubt, at least for now. They face Dayton for the title Sunday evening, then come home to the Barn to face Virginia Tech in the annual Big Ten/ACC Challenge game.
#0: Gopher wrestling (Last Week: -5). I also underestimated the Gopher grapplers after their mild upset at Cornell. All the then-fourth-ranked U. did this week was march into State College, Pa. and upset then-#2 and defending national champions Penn St. by a dominating score of 23-14. That's pretty fucking impressive. They rise to third in the polls this week; they host North Dakota St. Sunday afternoon and visit Central Michigan Friday.
#-1: Gopher volleyball (Last Week: -9). Well, at least the team is finishing strongly. They finished with an undefeated 3-0 screening week. They should have; the strongest opponent of the three was Wisconsin (which they swept at the Sports Pavilion), and the other two, Iowa and Indiana, have one conference win a piece.
Since the B1G doesn't have a conference tournament, their regular season ended last (Friday) night. They finish the year 18-11 overall and 11-9 within the conference. Due to a combination of schedule of strength, program reputation and the benefit of a doubt, they're still ranked in the AVCA Top 25 at #19. That should come up when next week's poll comes out, but will they have done enough to earn a seed?
In case you don't know how the volleyball tournament works, the four regional sites (host to the Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight games) are determined years in advance. Because v-ball doesn't make any money, NCAA bylaws mandate that if the host of one of these regionals makes the tournament, the bracket is set up in a way where they would play in their home court should they make it to the third round.
This year's constellation of sites is interesting. The NCAA wanted to spread the tourney beyond the traditional power bases of the West Coast and Midwest by giving Florida and Kentucky regionals. (The other regional is in Hawai'i, and the Rainbow Wahine are ranked third in the AVCA with only one loss; they're going to be prohibitive favorites come regional time.) Kentucky and Florida are, respectively, 16th and 17th in the AVCA, just, respectively, three and two spots above the U. Seeds aren't given strictly by poll spots in the AVCA, but it's going to be interesting to see if any of the other three regional hosts will be given seeds, even though all three sit on the bubble. Would having an unseeded host in the tourney be an embarrassment? And will the tournament committee give the four hosts seeds that will magically fit, i.e. manipulate the seeds so that, say, Hawai'i is 2 (they were behind second-ranked Nebraska, but I just found out they were not just beaten but swept by Purdue), Kentucky is 13, Florida's 14 and Minnesota 16 so it just happens that they avoid seeing each other till the national semifinals? Actually, I think that's the way they have to do it. We'll find out the details on the selection show Sunday at 5 Central.
#-2: Gopher women's hockey (Last Week: -3). Defeated New Hampshire at home Saturday, 6-1. Amanda Kessel scored a hat trick in this game as well as the one against the Wildcats the day before. They are now 8-2 in the Big Ten, 10-2 overall. They've won four in a row, but those games were all at Ridder (score difference in those four games: 24-4). They're on the road for the next four, three of which come in the next seven days: A two-game set at Harvard, then the first of a two-game series at North Dakota.
#-3: Wild (Last Week: -1). They were blitzed at home by Edmonton, the worst team in the league the past few years, 5-2, but with the way their young gunners were scoring, you can see the chemistry of that opponent coming together. They've drafted high enough for so long, at some point we have to see dividends. Well, I saw them last (Friday) night. Those Oilers are going to be very, very good.
I can't hate on the Mild, though (although I guess I just did). That loss ended a five-game winning streak that included a shootout win over St. Louis and a regular win over Nashville. And because they're smack dab in the middle of a Wild six-game homestand, they have a chance to pad or regain their record as the best in the entire National Hockey League. Those games are against Calgary and Tampa Bay (Sunday and Monday), then they take a quick visit north to play at Edmonton Wednesday before coming back to the X and hosting New Jersey Friday.
#-4: Gopher women's basketball (Last Week: -8). Don't get it. They hosted their Subway Classic and trashed Binghamton by 25 and North Dakota St. by 39. But then they take a trip to Moraga, Calif. for the St. Mary's Hilton Tournament and lose in the final two seconds by ... fucking Quinnipiac?! With no wins against teams better than Quinnipiac, Florida St. or South Florida, I can rapidly see how good this team is -- and, by extension, who they're capable of beating and who they're going to get whipped by. And the teams in the latter looks like it's going to be a lot bigger than those in the former. Sheesh. They finish their tournament tonight (Saturday night) vs. Virginia Tech, then play at Wake Forest Thursday.
#-5: Gopher men's hockey (Last Week: -4). A 1-1 week: Beat the hell out of St. Cloud St. at home 5-0, then lose 4-3 to Michigan St. The Goofs have lost their #1 ranking; they are now third, and they could slip further after the back half of this series against the Spartans tonight (Saturday night) and the beginning of a two-game set against MSU-Mankato at Mariucci starting Friday.
#-6: Vikings (Last Week: -7). I'm not as down on the ViQueens' 27-21 loss to the Oakland Raiders as others. In fact, I don't know why people are down on this team as much as they were after they got their asses kicked at Green Bay the week before. The main reason the team lost is turnovers, which happen and shouldn't, but it's fixable. Many of the TO's were interceptions thrown by Christian Ponder, who still is a rookie. Hey, the season's over; let the nOOb figure out how to play in this game. One pick was bad, another (the one in the end zone) was a lack of judgment, but both mistakes are fixable. And even with all that, they were still down only by a touchdown at the end of the game. And there are people acting like they lost by 30.
Now that they're 2-8, I acknowledge the possible that Leslie Frazier is on the hot seat. Results are results, so I can accept the questions over his coaching tenure. I'm still happy he finally replaced Donovan McNabb with Ponder. Man, just let the kid figure it out. They're at Atlanta tomorrow (Sunday) afternoon.
#-7: Gopher football (Last Week: -6). Now see, I'm more down on the Goofs' gridiron team because I thought they would have a better game against Northwestern. In fact, I thought they had a decent chance of beating the Wildcats. But even though MarQueis Gray was able to rip Northwestern on the ground for 147 rushing yards and a TD, they still weren't able to make the game competitive, therefore they have now lost three in a row.
The future isn't looking all that great either, according to this article on the Strib. TCF Bank is now three years old, and predictably, they have lost attendance after the honeymoon because the team blows. They were buoyed this year by opposing crowds for the Iowa, Wisconsin and Nebraska games. They won't be playing here next year, nor any other team that would be able to make a road trip to Minneapolis.
But Illinois has made the trip in the regular season finale/Senior Day game. Illini Head Coach Ron Zook is probably gone, which means the Goofs have a chance to end the year with a win.
#-8: Twins (Re-Entry!). They're here because they lost long-time Closer Joe Nathan, who signed a contract with the Bastard Washington Senators v.2.0. He might not have been worth the money the Twinks needed to pay him if they exercised their team option, but I wasn't ready to give up on him yet.
Last year was the first year coming back from Tommy John surgery. Once Matt Capps imploded and Nathan was given back the closer spot, he pitched pretty well. Moreover, they always say that you have to give pitchers recovering from Tommy John surgery a full year after they begin pitching competitively to see how they are faring. That falls somewhere next year. Finally, you can argue that he was one of the most-familiar faces of the Twins organization, and if this franchise is on the down part of a cycle, and it'll take several years to become good again, I say you need to give reasons for fans to come to the ballpark, and those reasons are the people they grew up rooting for, guys like Michael Cuddyer and Nathan. Well, now the latter's gone and the former is about to go to Philadelphia. The organization is losing the people that emotionally connect to the team. And that's a very bad thing.
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