Well, here we are. A 3-1 defeat of Cornell Friday in Duluth, Minn. set up a 1-vs.-2 matchup for the NCAA women's hockey championship against Wisconsin, featuring Brianna Decker, just named as the winner of the Kazmaier Award (women's college hockey's version of the Hobey Baker, or, if you're not from the Midwest, the Heisman Trophy). For them to win, I believe the Goofs have to rely on Amanda Kessel, who scored one of the goals and assisted on the other two in the semifinal victory over the Big Red.
Minnesota went 2-1-1 in the season series against Wisconsin. I still remember in one game, Kessel had this minute-long sting when she was the only player in the Wisconsin offensive zone and, despite having two or three Badgers marking her, she repeatedly was able to keep the puck in and even get a few shots off.
That was a game where they went to a shootout, which Wisky won. Minnesota won two of the other three games, though, so that's something they have on the putative favorite. It'd be great to go to a bar or even Ridder Arena to see this game. Unfortunately, there is no TV broadcast. Shit, there isn't even a radio broadcast for this, which I find incredible to believe. You can watch online through the NCAA (that's free, unlike men's basketball -- man, what a greedy enterprise that has become since the new contract kicked in last year) and the U.'s athletic website will stream a complimentary audiocast online, however.
Maybe I should be more optimistic. But it seems as if they're going to lose the title game, you know? So that's why I have them at -1. Their season ends either way Sunday afternoon; guess you can't ask anything more than that. Well, besides a championship.
#-2: Gopher men's basketball (Last Week: -6). They actually did make the NIT, albeit as a 7-seed, which still is a very dreadful position to be in heading to your postseason.
However, they went into La Salle and came out with a 70-69 win. That's the kind of pressure-cooker situation (however false; after all, this is the bastard NIT) that you didn't see this team thrive in during the regular season. Can they continue to be road warriors? They play at Miami (FL) Monday night.
#-3: Gopher women's basketball (Re-Entry!). Wait, wait, wait ... the Goofs women's b-ball team is the third best team in the survey?
Hell, I thought I wouldn't be talking about this this team until November. But apparently they did reach the postseason. No, not the NCAAs; fuck no. And no, not the Women's NIT. I had absolutely no fucking idea that there is a third women's basketball tournament, something called the Women's Basketball Invitational. It actually began in 2010 -- who fucking knew?
As is the case in the nebulous, shady-sounding world of postseason negotiations that don't involve the NCAA, the U. struck a deal with this WBI. They felt not only like they could make that tournament with a 15-17 record, but they could grab a home game or two because their record would be better than most others in the field. Little did they know that the WNIT would have taken them. Minnesota reserved a spot in the inferior tourney before officials for both the WNIT and WBI decided not to select the team. (I read on a message on the Star Tribune's message board that the players believe Head Coach Pam Borton misled them.) I would be more angry that the athletic department settled for a worse product nobody had heard of, but if it's not the NCAAs, who cares that you ignored the next-best tournament for the third-best tournament?
Anyway, they crushed their first-round opponent, Charleston Southern, 80-51 at Williams Arena Friday night (weren't there some girls' state high school basketball tournament games that were supposed to be played at the Barn then? Did the U. just throw them out?). They are now down to the Elite Eight, and they host Bradley this afternoon at 2. Tickets might still be available.
#-4: Timberwolves (Last Week: -5). The reality of the Woofie Dogs post-Ricky Ricky seems to be settling in. They started their season-long, high school tournament-induced roadtrip well, eking out a 127-124 win in Phoenix. But they've crashed down to earth, falling in overtime to Utah and then losing the 19th-straight contest against The Bastard Minneapolis Lakers. They weren't blown out in either game (six and five, respectively), but they are losses, and you wonder if this club can remain in shouting of the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference.
They finish their road show this week: Sacramento, Golden State, San Antonio and Oklahoma City.
#-5: Swarm (Re-Entry!). Haven't heard from these guys in a long time. They lost at Buffalo Saturday 13-10. Their record now stands at 5-4. They stay away from the Xcel Energy Center for one more week (the NCAA men's hockey tournament West Regional is at the X), so they will visit Washington next Sunday night. Next Sunday? Well, that means that there's no game they're playing this week. They go back off the WMNSS. ...
#-6: Gopher men's hockey (Last Week: -2). Not like this. It doesn't really matter if they won or lost the WCHA conference tournament. These things decide little except bolster the chances that a bubble team can win some more quality games so they can enter the tournament. No one really plays all-out for these games, especially when their spot in the postseason is already assured and especially if, like the Goofs, they are hosting a regional. You're going to play in front of your home crowd; why risk injury to improve on your seeding?
But don't get eliminated like they did Friday night, where hated (and racist) rival North Dakota scores six unanswered goals on them, in their metropolitan area. If you're just going to not try, don't try from the start. Let NoDak score six goals on you from the outset. Don't jump out to a 3-0 lead and then let them not only come back, but turn a lopsided rout one way into a lopsided rout the other way.
I'm really, really disturbed by this WCHA Final Five Semifinal loss. This sudden collapse raises questions in my mind over the squad's toughness, their ability to be resilient, their drive to fend off incredible momentum swings against talented teams that could bury them if they're not careful. I saw the worst of this team at the worst possible moment. And now I don't think they can win the championship anymore.
The announcement of the field of 16 teams will be unveiled at 11 today. According to USCHO.com Senior Writer Jayson Moy, the Goofs are safely ensconced as the eighth-best team in the country and will face Boston University. Juicily enough, if they defeat the Terriers, Moy predicts they'll have a rematch with North Dakota, who currently is considered to be the fourth-best team in the land.
One other thing to all of this. If you saw the game or highlights from it, North Dakota was wearing their "Fighting Sioux" jerseys, with the Native American head logo emblazoned on the front. I guess wearing them in this tourney was OK because it was run by the WCHA, not the NCAA. Not so for the NCAAs, of course. If they show up for their first game wearing the same uniforms they wore this weekend, it looks as if the organization will make the university forfeit. However, the crazy North Dakota Legislature passed a law mandating that the name and logo be used for all the university's athletic teams.
Moy thinks there's a chance North Dakota and the NCAA will allow this controversy to come to a head at the X Saturday afternoon. Would NoDak have the balls to actually go through with making their student-athletes wear the Indian head mascot? If so, will the NCAA then throw the team off the ice and declare their opponents winners? If that happens, will UND fans (already having a reputation of being a rowdy lot, partly because of their circle-the-wagons victim mentality over this bizarre allegiance to an ethnicity nearly all of them don't belong to) riot, something the St. Paul Police Department in 2008 when the Republican National Convention came and soiled the X? Honestly, I can see things going that far. We'll see.
#-7: Gopher baseball (Last Week: -3). A college (albeit Division I) baseball game on a weeknight under a domed stadium, even though the weather outside is unseasonably warm and dry? Yeah, it would have been better outside, but there are much worse ways to spend an evening. That's where I was Tuesday, seeing the Gopher Nine fall apart early and fail to come back against Kansas St., 9-5.
I don't know how good this team was supposed to be, but they are now well behind the 8-ball after going 0-4 this screening week. They have five in a row and currently are 6-9 in a homestand that lasts 27 games and five-plus weeks. They will try and salvage the series win after losing to Cal Poly Saturday. They then have a midweek two-fer versus North Dakota St. before starting a weekend series against The Citadel.
#-8: Wild (Last Week: -4). Lost all three games this week. They are now one of the five worst teams in the NHL. That's the silver lining in all of this: After year upon year of just missing out on the playoffs and thus having being in the shitty limbo state where they can't play for the Stanley Cup but aren't in a position to get a good draft pick, they are going to get someone with some potential. Lord knows they don't have enough talent to "improve" on fifth-worst.
The St. Patrick's Day game against The Bastard Hartford Whalers has to be another pathetic chapter. Up 3-1, they fucked themselves yet again, coughing up four unanswered goals to get wiped out 5-3. Afterward, Head Coach Mike Yeo said, "We're in hell." No shit, Charlie Brown, you should see your team from a consumer's standpoint.
By the way, I sometimes listen to Wild broadcasts on the radio. They have a College Night. The Timberwolves do, too. The Woofie Dogs offers upper-level tickets for $5 and give the first, oh, 1,000 college students the chance to move down to the lower level. The Mild have this deal where college students can buy tickets for -- get this -- the bargain-basement price of $35. Only $35?!?!?! You're fucking kidding me. Never mind the cost, which is prohibitive for a college student to see a team playing where you would have to either drive or ride public transportation for 90 goddamn minutes to get to. The way they're playing now, I wouldn't pay 35 cents to see these shit players.
Home to Vancouver and Calgary, then at Buffalo.
#-Infinity: Gopher wrestling (Re-Entry!). The NCAAs came and went. The Gophers website and the Star Tribune seem to be upbeat about the program's showing in the Championships this weekend: A second-place showing led by Heavyweight champion Tony Nelson, the first to capture a title for the U. after the program missed out on everything in 2011.
I regard this situation glass-half-empty -- in other words, truthfully. What Nelson did is quite impressive. Also note that Nelson finished the year winning his last 25 matches. However, there was another Gopher who was in the championship match and lost: Dylan Ness at 149.
He was defeated by a guy named Frank Molinaro of Penn St., the team that beat the Goofs and won the overall NCAA title. And it was an dicksmack -- 143 to 117 1/2. The Nittany Lions had only one player in individual title contention Saturday morning and they still won going away.
The program may be at a crossroads. On the one hand you can't totally complain about coach J Robinson. He was named Coach of the Year, he probably has an awesome recruiting class coming in, and he can do whatever the hell he wants, even if it ruffles the politically-correct features at the athletic department. On the other hand it's clear that there is a new dynasty in the sport, led by Cael Sanderson, the Iowa St. legend who never lost in his college career and now has won back-to-back. That dynasty tag used to belong to Minnesota. Will they get it back, or has Robinson lost his touch?
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