#-1: Gopher wrestling (Last Week: 0). Crushed North Dakota St. at home 29-9, then destroyed Central Michigan in central Michigan 24-9. I like that a lot, but I think J Robinson and his grapplers are looking forward to a real test tomorrow afternoon: They visit the #1 ranked team in the country, Oklahoma St. They then host Iowa St. Friday night before taking a three-week-long sabbatical.
#-2: Gopher volleyball (Last Week: -1). In a bit of a surprise, the Gophers, who finished the regular season 18-11 overall and 11-9 in the Big Ten, were given the 13th seed in the NCAA Tournament, which meant there was no real danger this team wasn't going to make the playoffs. I thought the NCAA would artificially seed the regional hosts (the U., Florida, Kentucky and Hawai'i), but neither the Gators nor the Wildcats were, even though they were around the top 16 teams in the weekly polls. (And it didn't hurt Kentucky, which swept 16th-seeded Texas A&M today. They get to play in front of their home court.
Anyway, they avoided a big embarrassment when they beat North Dakota St. in three sets last night. But right now they have a taller task: Washington, who is unseeded even though they are higher in the AVCA poll than the Gophs. This very well could be the end. I am furiously trying to finish this right now before the fifth and final set ends. I'd rather not drastically change the ranking of the WMNSS.
#-3: Wild (Last Week: -3). It's early, but I am liking how this team is responding to bad losses. They began the screening week getting shamed at home by Calgary 5-2. They have since ripped off three wins in a row: a victory over a very good Tampa Bay team, a shootout win at Edmonton, then a 4-2 victory over New Jersey back at the X. As this survey goes to press, the Minnesota Wild are the best team in the National Hockey League. However, they embark on a five-game road trip, the first three of which come every other day against Anaheim (which fired their coach and replaced him with Bruce Bodreau, who himself was fired just days before from Washington. Can you really just jump from coaching one team to coaching another? Weird), San Jose and Los Angeles.
#-4: Gopher women's hockey (Last Week: -2). Things were going so well. They swept at Harvard last weekend, then beat North Dakota last night. Outscoring their opponents in their 3-0 week 16-6, and on the road, is impressive. But, as I always insist, let me see them dominate in the NCAA Tournament. That's because, even though the used-to-be Fighting Sioux are the fifth-ranked team in the nation (the U. is second), they are too young a program to give the Goofs problems. And yet tonight they beat the hell out of them 3-0. That breaks a seven-game winning streak.
They are off this screening week. They need it after that woeful performance.
#-5: Gopher men's hockey (Last Week: -5). They left their two-game set at Michigan St. without a win; they managed to tie the Spartans 4-4 Saturday. But in the comfier climes of Mariucci Arena and facing a poorer program in MSU-Mankato, they resumed their winning ways, 4-2 last night. They are playing the Mavericks right now, then will start a two-fer at home against Michigan Tech.
(Aside: A few years ago it looked like this club was going to be known for their frontcourt prowess, with Mbakwe, Rodney Williams, Ralph Sampson III and Colton Iverson manning the post and wings. Well, it looks like it's Williams's team right now, because Mbakwe's done for his whole U. career and Sampson isn't developing to be one one-hundredth the college legend his old man is. Meanwhile, Iverson transferred to Colorado St. in April. The irony is is that he left over playing time. With Mbakwe done, he would have his playing time.)
It is under that dark context that this team has managed to rip off two wins, a tight three-point victory over Virginia Tech in the annual B1G/ACC Challenge Wednesday, then a 15-point ass-kicking this afternoon of my alma mater. (Aside: Man, that was painful to watch, my team. Couldn't shoot, couldn't control the ball, and their free throw-shooting was bad. Plus, from my vantage point, they looked to a man undersized. As Minnesota was expanding their lead, it looked like men playing against boys. And the biggest of those men was Williams:)
Something to look at post-Mbakwe: The scores since his injury look very differently than the ones with him. Is it a fluke, or has Tubby let his players know that they have to buckle down on defense because their main engine has been decommissioned?
They have one game this week: They host Appalachian St. Tuesday.
#-7: Gopher women's basketball (Last Week: -4). They needed a buzzer-beater by Rachel Banham to, like the men's basketball team, eke out a 65-64 win over Virginia Tech in their other game of the St. Mary's Hilton Tournament Saturday. Then on Thursday, in the women's B1G/ACC Challenge, they got their doors blown off at Wake Forest, 82-65.
And then it's going to get even worse: Like the U. wrestling team, they will play the top team in the country tomorrow afternoon. Brittany Greiner and Baylor is the opponent, the game a part of the B1G/Big Ten Challenge. (Can a conference have challenges against more than one conference? I thought that was illegal.) The Bears beat the shit out of the Goofs last year 103-56, and Minnesota has never beaten them (0-3). It'll be the first time the program faces the queens of women's basketball since LSU 12/24/04. After the Bayou Bengals, they host the Air Force Wednesday.
#-8: Vikings (Last Week: -6). I had nothing to do last Sunday, and my body needed rest, so I woke up around noon, just as the ViQueens' game against Atlanta was starting. This week there was a game on at the same time, Buffalo against the Jets. When I wasn't passing out, I was watching that game more. It turned out to be the much better game, but I intended to watch the other game more because I knew that a) the Vikes were going to lose and b) they were going to lose boringly.
And they did, 24-14, in a game they were in only nominally. I've punted on this year and don't think it's the worst thing in the world to finish 2-14. But I really am starting to question the ability of Leslie Frazier to lead this team. A lot of people are already demanding his head; my reservation in this game was the third down play late in the game, the one where Percy Harvin was handed the ball and looked like he broke the plane of the end zone. He was called short, however, and for some reason Frazier did not throw the red flag calling for an official review. And then they were denied on fourth down. That was the game, even though I have a feeling that they were going to lose the game even if the call was reversed.
On Thursday, the team finally did the logical thing and put Donovan McNabb on waivers. The man who said he wouldn't mind being a mentor to Christian Ponder and Joe Webb demanded to be let go. Good luck mentoring a street agent while "not retiring," Mr. McNabb. In exchange, yesterday the Vikes picked up one of their former own, Sage Rosenfels, off waivers. That'll turn things around.
They will get to be the latest victims of Tebowing as Denver comes to the Dome tomorrow.
#-Infinity: Gopher football (Last Week: -7). I always put a team that finishes its season short of a championship here in -Infinity. But I have to note that they ended their season on a good one, a dominating(?!) 27-7 win over Illinois at TCF Bank Stadium that resulted in Illini Head Coach Ron Zook losing his job.
That means the U. finishes 3-9 overall and 2-6 in the conference. They were dreadful early in the season, getting blown out by Michigan and Purdue and upset by lower-division North Dakota St. But the second half of the Nebraska game, the one where they wound up losing 41-14, became a turning point for this team. They played markedly better on both sides of the ball after that, most notably Quarterback MarQueis Gray. And that's how they managed to beat Iowa and Illinois. So for that, I have to give Head Coach Jerry Kill, a man best known in the fall for suffering a scary-looking seizure on the sideline during a game, for getting through to his kids, simplifying the playbook, and turning them into better players.
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