#0: Gopher men's basketball (Last Week: -8). OK, here's my take on rushing the court/storming the field:
I know that in the back of my mind, such a spontaneous meeting of hundreds of random people running towards each other has to result in injury of some kind. If anybody gets seriously hurt like that and if the media gets wind of it, say goodbye to what is one of the best reasons to attend a college game. But I love it, and I would hate to see this tradition of unbridled alma mater support and youthful energy be banned, even in the name of safety, even if it makes total sense.
Duke Head Coach Mike Krzyzewski, in my opinion, lost his mind in overlooking the pure joy of a good court-storming. But he is right in the main part of his argument: He is worried about the safety of the opposing players. So I am amenable to looking at ways to safeguard those players ... without preventing fans from storming the court when warranted. If it's obvious that the crowd is going to come on to the field of play, let the other team leave well before the final whistle. Don't do what the SEC does and fine schools that allow its fans to get on the court. (The entire fucking conference is a bunch of loudmouth braggarts beating their chests because they won college football's Mythical National Championship seven years in a row, and yet they think they're so "civil" and "forward-thinking" in banishing the only good thing about being a college student. Nice call, SEC.)
So let the fans on the court -- and cross your fingers that no one breaks his or her arm.
Oh yeah: For the first time since 1989, the University of Minnesota has beaten the #1-ranked team in the nation after they upset Indiana. This is what they're capable of at their best, but because we haven't seen their best in a long time, no one thought they had a chance. Tubby Smith scheduled tough enough for the squad to make the NCAA Tournament even if they lost every single game for the rest of the season, but the victory over the Hoosiers has sealed it, as well as given fans hope they could win at least a game.
Furthermore, there was no letdown with this club as they throttled Penn St. on Senior Day. Trevor Mbakwe, playing like the fucking beast he can be at his best, was named Big Ten Player Of The Week for the second time in his career. And finally, this team has overcome its mid-season slump.
I now feel good about their chances at finishing the regular season on a winning streak because their last two games are at Nebraska and Purdue. It is now all about seeding and avoiding injury.
#-1: Gopher women's basketball (Last Week: -6). What the Gopher men ballers did is great, but let's give a bit of dap to the women ballers as well. While their opponent wasn't #1 -- Penn St. was ranked eighth in the country -- I too thought they had no chance they would beat a quality team at home. But they came through with their most impressive win of the season, 89-81. Then they followed that up with a 59-53 victory at Indiana to finish the B1G season, a win that might be as impressive as their Senior Night upset of the Nittany Lions. Because of that, Rachel Banham was named to All-Big Ten Coaches' First Team, the first time a U. player was so lauded since Emily Fox five years ago.
Nevertheless, the NCAAs are still out of the question. The team is 18-12 overall and finished 7-9 in-conference. But they could burnish their WNIT credentials in the B1G Tournament starting Thursday when they face Ohio St. They could beat the Buckeyes for the third time this year.
#-2: Wild (Last Week: -4). Maybe, just maybe, last week was the week where the Minnesota Wild turned the corner -- not just on the season, but for the franchise. And as with all turning points, could it have come in a loss, namely the 3-2 defeat at the clear second-best team in the National Hockey League, the Anaheim Ducks? They outplayed Anaheim, believe it or not, for two period but just came up short.
Meanwhile, they won the other three games they had this screening week. The first one, at home over Calgary, came in overtime, but it's heartening to see that the Wild scored four goals in each of the other two wins, at Phoenix and home to Edmonton. Everybody seems to be contributing, Ryan Suter seems to have righted the ship, and Nicklas Backstrom has played so well that he was named the Third Star Of The Week by the league. But, in my humble opinion, thank Buddha for Zach Parise.
The win over the Oilers vaulted them from a tie for tenth into a six-way tie for fifth in the Western Conference. Through tie-breakers, they would squeak into the Stanley Cup Playoffs with the final spot, edging out -- and this is kind of sweet in a petty way -- the Bastard North Stars.
Three games this week: in Nashville Saturday, then home to Vancouver the next night. But the big one comes tonight, as they visit Chicago in an effort to give the Blackhawks their first legitimate loss of the season and end their record-setting points streak. It would be awesome to finally knock the "0" off that damn team's record, and having a hot team come into Chicago is a great situation in which to do it. And if it's by hated Minnesota, fuck, even better.
#-3: Gopher men's hockey (Last Week: -2). A home split against Denver and they still retain the #2 rank in both college hockey polls. And the U. (as well as North Dakota) are still stalking St. Cloud St. for the WCHA regular season title. The have two points to make up, and two final games in which to make them up: The final WCHA series Minnesota will ever play as part of the conference, at Bemidji St.
#-4: Gopher baseball (Last Week: -3). Split week: Wins at home against North Dakota St. and Utah, losses also at home to Dartmouth and Northern Illinois. Unfortunately attended the first game of the Dairy Queen Classic, where putative ace Tom Windle was shaken down by the Big Green for five runs in the fifth inning to cruise to a 10-3 win. For this game at least I was impressed by the pitcher who replaced Windle, Ty McDevitt: 3 1/3 innings and six strikeouts while allowing only two hits and one earned run.
#-5: Lynx (Re-Entry!). My first true post since the Lynx failed to win a second Women's National Basketball Association title last season, which was the first post since they won the 2011 championship. And in case you didn't notice, the magical nucleus of that team is starting to be dismantled.
But who's coming to the Lynx? An old Minnesota favorite: Janel McCarville, the lone property the team will get as part of a three-team trade with New York and Tulsa. But as part of this transaction, the club said goodbye to restricted agent, long-distance threat and team irritant Candice Wiggins.
Do you like this trade? I don't know if I do. Change is inevitable, and Wiggins was a restricted free agent who probably should be on a team's starting five: That she was the Lynx's sixth man was one of the great luxuries this team indulged in the past several years. What the squad gets back -- possibly -- is the low post presence that Jessica Adair and Amber Harris couldn't quite become, based on the minutes Head Coach Cheryl Reeve gave to starter Taj McWilliams-Franklin. McCarville will be even more important if Mama Taj decides to retire, even though she's had an entire off-season to think about it (which makes me think she'll at least give the next season a half-hearted spin to see if she still likes playing). But she's been out of the league the past two years, choosing instead to recharge her batteries at home in Wisconsin. Either she's rested or rusty; either way she doesn't have any recent stats to track her performance, and that bothers me.
Nevertheless, for fans of the halcyon days of the Minnesota women's basketball program, the reunion of McCarville with Lindsay Whalen (my best memories are the two tournament games where the opposing guard pestering Whalen ran right into a McCarville pick without even seeing her and went down, hard) will trigger waves of nostalgia. And that's what worries me: Was this a move to better the team, was it a salary cap issue, or is the club doing this because they're desperate to sell tickets?
#-6: Swarm (Last Week: -5). Lost at Washington Sunday 11-8. They are now just a half-game ahead of the Colorado Mammoth in avoiding the cellar and being the only team to miss the playoffs. Maybe the Smarm will miss Andrew Suitor, the captain out for the rest of the year.
#-7: Timberwolves (Last Week: -7). I really wanted to give this misbegotten squad a -Infinity for their 0-4 week; they have lost their last six. What really angers me was their role as turds in the pool last week. Tuesday was the night the Gopher men upset Indiana. That same night the Wild won in OT over the Flames. The Woofie Dogs were out west to take on a Phoenix organization in the process of being broken down to pieces. And the team had a lead late until they managed to choke away the game again: 84-83 Suns.
Thursday was the night the Gopher women beat #8 Penn St. at home. The Wild were also playing that night, and they won as well, holding off a late Phoenix charge to defeat The Bastard Winnipeg Jets 4-3. The Wolves could have made this night a perfect three-for-three for Twin Cities teams (the first time in who knows how long that has happened), but they got crushed by a posterizing Kobe Bryant and The Bastard Minneapolis Lakers by 22:
At least the Woofs had the decency to not tease us with a late-game collapse. They continued to give us such decency with subsequent defeats to Portland and Miami. Forget what I hoped for at the beginning of the season, namely a tease to make the playoffs. The injuries have been so bad that now they're fighting off The Bastard Charlotte Hornets and soon-to-be Bastard Sacramento Kings as the worst team in the Western Conference, again. This team, with a record of 20-37 right now, might not win 30 games this year. Fuck, they might now win 25 this year. This week brings home games vs. Washington and Dallas sandwich a road trip to Denver.
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