#0: Gopher wrestling (Last Week: -2). Just realized this after skimming the school's recap of the Gophers' 27-12 destruction of 15th-ranked Iowa St. in Ames Sunday afternoon (and when was the last time the U. beat the Cyclones, let alone on the road?): They finish the regular season with a 14-1 record. If not for a 19-14 ambush at Michigan, this team would be undefeated for the first time I can remember. They are ranked #1 in the country. Dylan Ness, who led Minnesota to their third straight National Duals title the week before and was named Big Ten Wrestler Of The Week for the second week in a row, took the day off against Iowa St. -- and the Gophers still crushed them.
Could they be national champions? That would be sweet.
We'll find out at the NCAAs in about three weeks. Between now and then are the conference championships in Madison, Wisc. a week and a half from now.
#-1: Timberwolves (Last Week: -3). They are several games out of the eighth and final spot in the Western Conference playoffs, and despite the balance of the schedule being slightly easier than the 50-plus the deficit to make up probably is too wide. Nevertheless they surprised the hell out of everyone by starting off the post-All-Star break with a 3-1 week. Two of those wins were on the road, and all three of them against teams better than them -- one of them against a Utah squad that is seeing dividends in its rebuilding program, another against a Phoenix club which was supposed to bottom out this year but instead is rebuilding so fast that they're fighting for that same playoff spot, and the third against Indiana, arguably the best team in the Eastern Conference and possibly even the National Basketball Association.
If it hasn't been affirmed before, this week proved that Kevin Love is hands down the best player on the team, even over Ricky Rubio. He broke a streak (franchise or league? Don't know) of scoring 30+ points per game. And he's basically carrying this team on what probably is a quixotic quest to get to the postseason. He may be burnishing his credentials to score that huge-ass free-agent contract once he leaves the Woofie Dogs, which we all think he'll do. But for at least one week we can all believe that he's doing all he can for us. And that is a shitload.
They finish their five-game roadtrip this screening week with two winnable games, Sacramento and Denver.
#-2: Gopher baseball (Last Week: 0). Welp, the program isn't going to go undefeated this week. In fact, they are currently mired in their first losing streak of the season after dropping the last two games of their three-game series against Creighton in Ft. Myers, Fla. And they had to come back to beat the Bluejays on Friday, scoring six runs in the bottom of the fifth inning after spotting Creighton a 5-1 lead after the top of the third.
I've got nothing else.
This weekend they face their first true road games as they visit Louisiana Tech.
#-3: Swarm (Last Week: -Infinity). Maybe they got paid between Saturday and Sunday, because the Smarm finally got that elusive second victory on the 23rd in Philadelphia. That ended their losing streak at five, which was caboosed the night before, 14-12 to Toronto. Their only two wins on the season are against the Wings, both of them in Philly.
Wow, this is a surprise. I just popped on over to the National Lacrosse League website for the first time all season, and I see that the Swarm was moved this year from the Western to the Eastern Conference. Moreover, I thought this team was buried as the worst team in a nine-team league, but partly by virtue of those pair of wins, they sit only a half-game behind Philadelphia for a playoff spot. And just to be certain, if the eight playoff spots are not strictly halved between the two conferences, the Swarm are also only a half-game behind The Bastard Portland by way of Washington Stealth as well. So I guess things are not all lost!
They're off until March 8, when they complete a three-game swing away from St. Paul by visiting Buffalo.
#-4: Gopher men's basketball (Last Week: -4). Going down to the wire this team is going backwards -- not so good, even if I continue to try and convince myself that not making the Big Dance is OK because this is Richard Pitino's first season.
That 62-49 embarrassment to bottom-dweller Illinois hurts, a lot, basically because they shit that brick in front of Goofers fans at Williams Arena. Their subsequent loss at Ohio St. is almost as painful because they had the lead at halftime and then quit just as the United States men's hockey team did in the bronze medal game against Finland. Both defeats highlighted again the serious weaknesses on this club: Toothless clutch play, inconsistent scoring from their starters, and all those fucking turnovers.
This team had lost six of their eight games at this point. No wonder the bracketologists that publish their field of 68 projections on Mondays put the Goofs as one of the "First Four Out" (which, by the way, is the exact opposite of what they should be called -- they should be called the "Last Four Out" because they should be the one of the last teams you need to consider allowing into the Big Dance, but I digress).
So they needed that victory over Iowa Tuesday night in the worst way. I don't know who this Charles Bugg person is, and finding role players who can step up this late in the season doesn't make me believe the club can rely on him, but nevertheless it was a good win that stanched the bleeding. Up next as a Saturday early evening tilt at Michigan, which (as of this writing) just defeated the Boilermakers at Purdue with the most unique end-of-game inbounds play I've ever seen: A lob to Glenn Robinson III followed by a lay-up with 2.9 seconds left.
#-5: Gopher women's basketball (Last Week: Positive Numbers). I was afraid of this. They have little to nothing after Rachel Banham and Amanda Zahui B., and they got exposed this week with a double drubbing by ranked Purdue (by 21 at home) and Michigan St. (by 14 on the road). Because of that inopportune slide, the only (?) women's college bracketologist on Planet Earth, Charlie Creme, have the U. on the bubble -- just like the men, only the women are on the good side of it, although they are hanging on for dear life as an 11-seed.
Creme has the team in largely on the strength of their schedule. They don't have a bad loss against that touch schedule, although they don't have a good win either. He says that the games that finish their regular season -- home vs. Indiana Thursday and Ohio St. Sunday -- are extremely important. I think he's saying that winning both games makes the Gophs assured as any bubble team of reaching the NCAA Tournament. If so, they may be the weakest NCAA team -- men's or women's, any sport -- I've ever seen. Therefore, such a feat would be, to say the least, remarkable.
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