Last weekend, in Stillwater, Okla., they competed in wrestling's version of the Final Four, the National Duals, being held for the first time ever. They avenged their regular season upset loss to Iowa by nipping them in the end, 16-15. Oh, but they weren't done. In front of their home crowd, the U. toppled the #1 team in the country, Oklahoma St., 18-13 to claim the first-ever National Duals title.
It will be downplayed because the NCAA does not officially sanction this event. They should. For the wrestling novice, why isn't this tournament format, where teams play teams head-to-head until there's a winner, the way it's always done? Of course, I say that because the U. won.
Because of that, they are now the top-ranked team in the country. That deserves the highest place the WMNSS can bestow. Now, let's see if they can parlay that through the postseason. The B1G Championships are in West Lafayette, Ind., next weekend.
#0: Gopher women's hockey (Last Week: -2). No alarms and no surprises -- the Gophers roll in their WCHA First Round best-of-three series by sweeping poor St. Cloud St. 6-1 and 6-0. Amanda Kessel, who pestered UMD when I saw them play at Ridder earlier in the season in a #1 vs. #2 matchup, finished off the Huskies with a hat trick (her fourth this season) last night. Next up is the Final Faceoff, aka the conference Final Four. In Duluth on Friday, the Gophers face North Dakota, a team they've split with in their four regular season games and lost to in overtime, 2-1, on the 17th.
#-1: Gopher men's hockey (Last Week: -4). Fucking finally. The team is two points away from winning its first WCHA regular season title in five years after sweeping Nebraska-Omaha by identical 3-2 scores (although the Friday match had to be settled in OT). Kyle Rau scored two goals in Saturday's victory. It's the first time an opponent has swept UNO in Omaha since January 2008. Really??
In more good news, they are moving up in the Pairwise rankings, the only statistic that decides which at-large teams are invited into the NCAA tournament. I wouldn't say they could survive a losing streak, but things are looking really good right now. Of course, winning both the Broadmoor and the McNaughton Cups would be perfect. They finish the regular season next weekend at home against Wisconsin.
#-2: Swarm (Last Week: -3). You know, I wish I had seen this on the news: The Swarm fired head coach Mike Lines Wednesday afternoon. Well, I guess I shouldn't be blaming so much. Knowing a head coach is something that should be basic knowledge for any fan, and I didn't even a person named Mike Lines existed on earth until I just saw the headline, "Swarm wins first game for new coach Joe Sullivan."
The press release did not state a reason why Lines was ousted after a record of 16-22 in two-plus years at the helm. For a team predicted to be the worst in the NLL because of the emphasis on youth on the roster this year, being 3-3 is pretty good. Was the last game, a 12-7 loss to Colorado where they collapsed and gave up five goals at the end of the fourth quarter the final straw? (This is a bad stat: The Smarm have been outscored in the final stanza 29-15 so far this season.) Do the owners really believe they should be able to contend even with all the turnover?
From what I've seen on message boards, circumstances greasing Lines's exit were clear. The team brought on a third assistant. Lines was told by John Arlotta, a member of the owning family, that he cannot fly out and scout prospects, and he was stripped of personnel duties. In short, he had no support upstairs. Coming off a bad loss and facing over a month of away games, the timing seemed right for a coaching change, at least to Arlotta. As you might be able to tell, many Swarm fans don't like Arlotta.
Sullivan was the Assistant General Manager of the Smarm, and he is still the AGM while he coaches from the bench. That may be a signal that this is a temporary move, and that after the season is over Sullivan will resume his front office duties while they find a new coach.
In the meantime, how are the players supposed to react to this? Do they feel the whip coming down from the suites? Because on the road Friday they absolutely hammered 15-7. How can one team double up another in lacrosse? Oh well. That puts them above .500 and in prime contention of sewing up one of the playoff spots that go to all but one team. (By the way, the league then immediately had their All-Star Game in Buffalo last night. The Western Conferenced snapped a four-game losing streak by squeaking past the East, 20-18.)
Play resumes at Calgary Saturday, the first of three games away from the Xcel Energy Center.
#-3: Timberwolves (Last Week: -6). Man, there is something special going on at Target Center, and it's about goddamn time. The Woofs are one Martell Webster dunderheaded decision away from a 3-0 sweep for the screening week:
On the other hand, the other two games also went down to the wire, and it broke the right way. I was at Sunday's contest against Philadelphia. I don't remember the last time I saw most of the upper level filled with people. And it filled my heart to see Target so alive with humanity. And they saw a great game: the 76ers controlling the tempo but the Wolves never quitting, and finally, Kevin Love drives, is able to draw the foul, and sinks both free throws for a 92-91 win.
The win Wednesday over Utah was almost as good. With time winding down and the score tied, Luke Ridnour took the ball, drove down the lane and threw up a rainbow shot that went in just as the buzzer sounded for a 100-98 victory. The three games this week were decided by a total of five points. What that shows is, at least this year, the team is gaining invaluable experience on how to perform in crunch time. That will serve them well as the season winds down ... and as they are fighting for a playoff spot, which I think may very well be in their future.
(Oh, by the way, kudos to Love for winning the three-point contest even though he had to play in tiebreakers in both rounds while none of the other five competitors needed to play more than three rounds, meaning he had a lot more three-point attempts and still won. Ricky Rubio threw a nice lob to Blake Griffin during Friday's rookie/sophomore game. And Derrick Williams in the slam dunk contest? Well, thanks for playing.)
The All-Star Game is tonight; Love will be part of it. The season resumes Tuesday for the Woofie Dogs, who have a stressful four games this week -- and all of them out West, to boot: at the Clippers and Lakers back-to-back (thankfully they play in the same building, so it's like a two-game "roadstand"), then at Phoenix and Portland.
#-4: Wild (Last Week: -Infinity). Well, at least they didn't embarrass themselves on national TV. Being the national game for NBC's "Hockey Day In America" public relations stunt Sunday afternoon, the Mild actually blanked defending champion Boston 2-0. Nicklas Backstrom a career-high 49(?) shots. They then went to Sunrise, Fla. and defeated the Florida Panthers in a shootout Thursday, 3-2, giving the squad their first winning streak in what seems like a decade. Sadly, they then went to Dallas the next night and promptly bent over for The Team That Was Stolen From Us, 4-1. The Bastard North Stars currently hold the longest-active winning streak over another team in their home arena. Good job repping for The State Of Hockey.
Meanwhile, the club traded away defenseman and pain in the ass Marek Zidlicky Friday to New Jersey for three guys and one, maybe two, draft picks. Two of the players are former members of the Mild: Kurtis Foster and Stephane Veilleux. But the real assets are the second round pick they get from the Bastard Colorado Rockies in the 2013 NHL Draft and Restricted Free Agent Forward Nick Palmieri. He is a young gun who was predicted to be a top-six forward in Newark, so like Zidlicky, he is a guy who did not live up to his potential. This doesn't seem like a team fleeced another, but it seems obvious that Zidlicky was being such a loud malcontent that they had to get rid of him. That General Manager Chuck Fletcher got anything of value is a good thing.
In a half-hour the club hosts San Jose and Brent Burns and Martin Havlat, players they traded away over the offseason. They also host Los Angeles before traveling to Montreal and Detroit.
#-5: Gopher baseball (Re-Entry!). Baseball's back. Actually, baseball was back last week, and I just overlooked them, sorry. Also, baseball's back at the Metrodome! Apparently to make up for the program being forced to walk the country like nomads for the first two months of last year because the roof caved in, this weekend marks the first of 27 -- let me repeat: 27 -- consecutive games at the Dome.
With this afternoon's 6-1 loss, the Goofs finished with a split of their four-game series against Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Combined with their 1-2 performance in last week's Big Ten/Big East Challenge, they start the year 3-4 on the year.
I have no idea how they're supposed to do this season.
This begins with a quirk: The U. plays New Mexico St. Thursday afternoon. They then host their annual (well, except for last year) Dairy Queen Classic, which also includes Nebraska (aren't they in the conference now?), West Virginia, and ... New Mexico St. They just snuck in an extra game against the Aggies for shits and giggles? OK. I should see that game, seeing as I visited New Mexico St. once when I was living in El Paso. Saw their football team lose to Oregon St. in 2001 when the Beavers were ranked in the top ten.
#-6: Gopher women's basketball (Last Week: -5). This has been a very, very long survey to compile. (Having an old laptop that is having trouble getting Internet isn't helping.) It's taken so long that this afternoon's games are complete, so I can include them in this week's WMNSS. Unfortunately the lady ballers, this means an 0-2 week, and it was as ugly as feared. They finished the conference schedule on the road against ranked teams, and they got crushed at Ohio St. by 25 Thursday and, this afternoon, they were throttled by Penn St. by 23.
The only saving grace -- for me personally -- is that this increases the possibility that the Goofs won't even make it into the WNIT, thereby allowing me to let go of this team from the WMNSS and thus making it shorter and thus easier to do. But somehow, they snagged the 8-seed and will play the 9-seed, whoever that is, Thursday in the Big Ten Conference Tournament in Indianapolis Thursday.
#-7: Gopher men's basketball (Last Week: -7). Yep, it's just about over for these guys, too. They needed that game against Michigan St. Wednesday night at Williams. And they had the Spartans in their hands for most of the game, and they couldn't seal the fucking deal. The 66-61 loss basically killed any chances they had on making the Big dance. Then, this afternoon, "basically" was killed when Indiana came in and made Tubby Smith and his crew their bitches, 69-50. They have now lost their last five games.
The fact that two good conference teams came into the Barn and won is the killer. How can they get into the NCAA Tournament now, short of running the table in the conference tourney? In fact, this el foldo is remarkably similar to last year's collapse, one which ended with a rejected invitation from one of the three lesser tournaments. Smith turned them down because he didn't want the embarrassment of playing in something less than the NCAAs. It might happen again.
They finish the regular season Tuesday at Wisconsin and Saturday at home against Nebraska. There is a great chance the new Athletic Director at Minnesota comes in and fires both basketball head coaches. This shit just won't cut it.
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