#0: Timberwolves (Last Week: -3). Pretty sizable news for the Wolves this week. On the bad side is nothing that is all that negative nor unforeseen: Kevin Love, who was still recuperating from broken bones in his right hand, developed scar tissue in his left knee, and all parties have decided it's best to get surgery now and shut him down for the rest of the season, what is left of it. Love continued to say he wanted to come back for the rest of the year, but with only 29 wins and no shot at a playoff spot, why the fuck would he do that? Why the fuckety-fuck would he even want to do that? Was he even serious? I'm starting to think players on non-contending teams who insist they will come back to play the end of a losing season is just bullshitting. He still has to overhaul a reputation of being a diva that he brought on himself shortly after he injured his hand before the start of the year after "doing knuckle push-ups," and he can't even start to heal that rift with Timberwolves fans until he plays. Might as wait until next year, where hopefully he's 100% and playing in games that actually matter.
But on the flipside is an historic milestone, one that the pessimist in me thought would not come this year: Congratulations to Head Coach Rick Adelman on winning his 1,000th game as a National Basketball Association coach, 107-101 over Detroit at Target Center Saturday night. If there is such a thing as a lifer in the NBA coaching ranks, Adelman is it; he has manned teams in Portland, Golden State, Sacramento and Houston before moving on to the Woofs. He began coaching with the Trail Blazers in 1988, and he has only been off the sidelines three seasons since. Adelman may not have yet won an NBA title (he made it to the Finals twice with the Blazers in 1990 and '92, losing, obviously, to Jordan and the Bulls), but short of that, this probably is the best thing you can ask for in an NBA coaching career. For that, I'm going to be generous and give the Woofie Dogs the top spot in this week's WMNSS and a rare non-negative place.
Adelman has brought professionalism to a franchise that sorely needs it. I hope he stays after an incomplete year where arguably his best guy, Love, was gone virtually the whole season. At least this week the team went 2-1 (they also beat playoff-bound Milwaukee in Milwaukee Wednesday), although the Wolves team failed to preserve a late lead at home to Toronto Friday. It's almost over, folks; they play five of their last six games this screening week: At Golden State tonight, followed by roadies against the Clippers and Utah, then home for tilts vs. Phoenix and the Jazz.
#-1: Twins (Last Week: -6). As of Monday morning (I think?) the Twinks were, believe it or not, in first place in the American League Central. Stop the season! We're going to the playoffs!!! OK, that's a pipe dream, but they did go 4-2, taking the last two games at home to win the season-opening series against Detroit and then two-of-three in Baltimore.
The Kansas City Royals' season-opener Monday afternoon, however, was more in tune to what think this team really is. Starter Kevin Correia pitched masterfully until sinking his bullpen into a jam in the eighth, a jam neither Jared Burton nor Casey Fien were able to save Correia from, and the Royals came back to win, 3-1. (The winning pitcher was ex-Angel Ervin Santana, who I think has won his last four games against the Twins and clearly has made this team his bitch.)
Early concern revolves around Joe Mauer, who has yet to smack an RBI and has struck out, like, a dozen times already. KSTP's Chris Long speculates he's hurt and he hasn't told anybody.
This week: They finish up with two more in K.C. (a place I'll be vacationing in in May), then coming back home to The Bullseye for their first interleague matchup of the season (and first in the new every-day-there's-an-interleague game) vs. the New York Mets. And then, on Monday, they host the Jackie Robinson Day game against the Los Angeles Angels Of Anaheim Angels Of Los Angeles Angels Of Anaheim Angels Of. ...
#-2: Gopher baseball (Last Week: -2). One more story to add to my last blog post about trying to get into Sunday's game: Paul Molitor was there. I sat down in on of the real seats just left of home and it was only after some guys said, "He's Paul Molitor" that I look over and, sure enough, just sitting there with bad posture was Molitor, St. Paul native, Milwaukee Brewer legend, Hall of Famer, and one of the key leaders in getting Siebert Field renovated.
It was either at the end of the fifth or sixth inning when I went up to get something from the concession stand, which is now facing the field, which is awesome. (Before I would have to go down the stairs and go to the other side of the wall; concessions then faced away from the diamond and towards the front gate.) I used change to pay for part of my hot dog and Coke. For my regular jeans and pants I put my coins in my right ass pocket. But all this past week I was wearing these carpenters' pants that have all these pockets, and the right ass pocket has a hole in it, so I put my change for these pants in my right leg pocket, which is below the hip pocket.
Unfortunately, I forget that after I hauled out all these coins to pay for my food. So when I went back and sat down, I heard the clinking of metal coins hitting the freshly-hardened concrete of Siebert v.2.0. Molitor's friend told me I had change underneath my seat (even though I was looking down at said coins when he said it), and then Molitor sang, quietly, "There's a whole in the bucket, dear Liza, dear Liza." I don't know if he was joshing me or if deep down he's really a bully. I want to think of Paul Molitor as a nice guy.
OK, to the Gopher baseball team: In their first series in their new on-campus home, they took two of three. Sunday's game might be the best game the Gophers have played all season, a 1-0 victory where D.J. Snelten pitched a complete-game one-hitter, said hit coming in the third where Buckeye Designated Hitter Troy Kuhn's bouncer ticked off Snelten's glove. The result sprang up on me, but I wasn't really paying attention because I thought I got a scorecard when I bought a program. But there wasn't one, so I just followed my Twitter account from my tablet instead. That's when I heard a loud ping and some hollers from the crowd in the sixth when Gopher Second Baseman Tony Skjefte was up to bat. I looked up to see Buckeye Left Fielder Tim Wetzel drift and continue to drift back towards the fences, but it was too far gone. I just caught the first home run ever hit in the new Siebert Field, and it was the only run scored in a fantastically tight contest. (Props, BTW, to Snelten's counterpart, Brian King, who went seven inning and gave up only three hits while striking out two and walking only one.) One final fact: Sunday's game was played in only 1 hour, 37 minutes. It was like Mark Buerhle was pitching against Mark Buerhle.
Unfortunately the weather is wreaking havoc with the sport of baseball again. Wednesday's road game against South Dakota St. was postponed, this afternoon's home game against Winona St. was cancelled, and the team announced that tomorrow's home tilt versus St. John's (of Minnesota, not New York) was postponed during Sunday's game. As far as I know, this weekend's three-game series at Northwestern is still on.
#-3: Swarm (Last Week: -1). Split weekend. Saturday night at the X they tripled Buffalo 21-7. It was the most goals they've scored in franchise history and was their largest margin of victory ever. They then played the next afternoon in Philadelphia and lost to the Wings, 15-13, snapping their win streak at three. Looking at the current standings I don't see all four Eastern Conference teams indicated as making the playoffs, like I thought. It may be a case where only the team with the worst record in the National Lacrosse League is left out of the postseason ... in which case the Smarm (as well as Colorado and Philadelphia) hold a one-game league on the Bandits for the final playoff spot.
There are only two games left in the regular season, and it's a two-Saturday home-and-home against the Mammoth. They play there this week.
#-4: Wild (Last Week: -4). The momentum is gone. Maybe it's the youngsters, who have contributed mightily to the team's surge to the top of the Western Conference the past several weeks, hitting a wall. Or maybe it's Nicklas Backstrom being a bit more fallible than previously thought. But they lost in San Jose and Los Angeles (and badly) before beating the Blue Jackets in Columbus to stop their losing streak at three.
The big news is that the Mild decided to become buyers at the trade deadline, getting Jason Pominville from fire-selling Buffalo for a first-round pick, a second-round pick, and two prospects, one of them being Johan Larsson. Pominville, who was the Sabres' captain, was installed on the top line with Zach Parise and Mikko Koivu to be the workhouse line for the team. Hope it can score.
The Wild, currently sixth in the standings with 46 points, are losing to Chicago. Assuming I can get this survey in on time, this week they have games at home against the Blackhawks, St. Louis and Columbus before hitting the road again, starting with a game in Calgary.
#-5: Gopher men's basketball (Re-Entry!). What do you think about Richard Pitino? I assume Gopher Athletic Director Norwood Teague knows he didn't hire Rick Pitino, right?
I am surprised he didn't get an assistant coach, like Dwayne Stephens of Michigan St. If Shaka Smart or Flip Saunders wouldn't say yes, then that would be the route to take. Instead, Minnesota, like USC, dipped not into the mid-major but the low-major schools to pluck a guy out of obscurity into the Big Ten. OK, maybe not that obscure. He has a dad who just won the men's college basketball championship last night for Louisville (hell of a game, by the way), and he himself was the coach at Florida International. But he was there for only one year. One. And now the university is entrusting him to lead the program back to relevance. Is this going to be a trend, that BcS schools not Indiana, Duke, Carolina, et al. will have to bypass mid-major coaches and dip even lower into the untested pool of coaching ranks to grab their new hire? Do we even know if he's that good of a coach?
#-6: Gopher men's hockey (Last Week: -Infinity). With Erik Haula yesterday, there are now five members of this team that have ditched the school to turn pro. Well deserved, too, after they brought the U. of M. another NCAA championship ... oh, wait.
Look, they completely shit the bed against Yale two weeks ago. And yes, I hear the incoming class is quite good; they always are. But this team was ranked second headed into the NCAA Touranment. We could want them to leave for underachieving, but do you really think what's coming in is going to be better?
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