#-1: Vikings (Last Week: -2). This was a woofer of a week. (Crazy one, too; the Timberwolves started their season this screening week and the Twins finally decided upon a new Manager. Thank goodness the Gopher football team dropped out of the WMNSS because they had a bye last week or this would've been hella insane.) With so many teams getting dinged, I decided to shake it up a little bit. I am going by results less than usual.
But for the top spot, I really had no choice but to give it, albeit tepidly, to the Vikings. They were the only team, after all, to go through the week undefeated. But unlike the rest of the teams in the survey, there was something ... well, resilient to the Vikes' 29-26 win over Washington. They gave up the first ten points of the game but were able to come back against a team that, frankly, isn't good, but for a club that's rebuilding like the Vikings, a victory over a squad like this is a good thing.
The Education of Teddy Bridgewater continues. He was running for his life against blitz-happy Washington (I know he had double-digit hurries because I was paid to count them), but he was still able to pick his spots when he had time and, for the most part hit his receivers. Meanwhile, Matt Asiata scored three touchdowns for the third game in his career. He has ten total. Whodathunkit? He and Jerrick McKinnon have become a low-rent one-two punch in the backfield. With Adrian Peterson having plead out without any jail time (and not knowing what Roger Goddell is going to do now that the opportunity to make an example out of Peterson now falls on the Commissioner of the NFL), the possibility grows that the team is going to have to make a choice between trading Peterson, letting him go, or allowing him to come back, possibly before the end of this season.
What works for this club the most is that the expectations are very low. Every loss is expected; any win is a pleasant surprise. Neither will come this Sunday, for the Vikings get their annual bye.
#-2: Twins (Re-Entry!). Quick story about Paul Molitor, assuming that I haven't already told you on Wailing And Failing. It was the inaugural year of The New Siebert Field (which I guess would be 2013). I'm taking in a game that featured Molitor in some pre-game ceremony. He's sitting by himself in a row right behind home plate, although what looked to be a friend of his was sitting in the row in front. I sit in the section next to him, a few rows down.
After a half-inning was over I get up to stretch. Unbeknownst to me, there was a hole in one of my back pants pockets, probably the right one because that's where I keep all my loose change, and over time the metals rub away the fabric every time I sit on them. As soon as I stand up I hear the clanging of coins falling into the new Siebert concrete. So both Molitor and his friend took the occasion to comment. The guy who wasn't famous said something; Molitor, who was leaning back against his chair with a pop in his hand and his legs draped over the seat in front of him, just started to sing the nursery rhyme, "There's a hole in the bucket, dear Liza, dear Liza. ..."
What I'm trying to say is, Molitor seemed like a jock who liked to beat up nerds like me in high school. So does that color my opinion of Tuesday's press conference naming him the new Manager of the Twinks? Yeah, sort of. But I am more negative of the fact that this provincial franchise once again refuses to go outside the box and instead promotes someone who is One Of Us. He has held unofficial positions with the organization in the past, so there's a familiarity with Molitor that probably endeared him to General Manager Terry Ryan and the Pohlads. Unfortunately for long-suffering fans, that familiarity breeds contempt. Was Torey Lovullo (Bench Coach for the Boston Red Sox) seriously considered? And did the Twinks reach out to Joe Maddon once he resigned as Manager of the Tampa Bay Rays or not?
One other thing: This makes Paul Molitor yet another Manager I remember watching as a player, joining the likes of Don Mattingly, Mike Sciosia, the now-fired Kirk Gibson, the resigned Ron Washington, Mike Metheny and Mike Redmond. Did any of them work their way up from the managerial minor leagues? It seems as if you automatically get to coach in The Show if you played for a long time in the majors. If that's true, I don't like the fact that Molitor hasn't cut his teeth under lesser-leveraged situations. Or maybe that's just me.
#-3: Timberwolves (Re-Entry!). Yes, they have begun the season 1-2. But like the Vikings they are headed by a Coach in his first season. (Yeah, yeah, Flip Saunders has coached this franchise before, but not for a long while, so it's like he's in his first year.) This year does not matter; it's the years after that count.
I was given a ticket to the home opener Thursday, the one against The Bastard Fort Wayne Pistons. And although the players looked out of sorts, you could see the potential there. Ricky Rubio, now one of the more-grizzled veterans on the squad (and coming off signing a four-year extension to stay with the Woofs), is growing into his playmaker role now that Kevin Love and his talent have been shipped off to Cleveland. Still can't nail a jump shot to save his life, but he has the Point Guard duties down cold. He didn't show any flashy passes in the team's 97-91 win, but that's probably because he didn't have Love abandoning his defensive duties as soon as the ball left an opposing player's hands so he could receive the rock after Rubio flings it down the court.
Moreover, I was able to see what the new people did. Thaddeus Young, who I was surprised to learn has been in the league seven years, can score, and I can see the potential of him hooking up with Rubio. And finally there's Andrew Wiggins. He already has the body to play defense, but he also showed flashes of brilliance and downright beastly play on the offensive end. Like a tweeter said, if he can hone in his aggression while on offense, watch out.
The game was close at the half. The Timberwolves were able to make adjustments and led in the third quarter by as much as 17 points. But the Pistons fought their way back and it was tied in the middle of the fourth quarter. Thank God, then, for, of all people, Mo Williams. The erstwhile second banana to LeBron James in his first stint with Cleveland bailed the club out time and again with his midrange jumpers. Dude, this guy can score, and that scoring touch is what the T-Wolves will probably need.
Sure, they lost the season opener at Memphis. And the Chicago Bulls were able to eke out a 106-105 win on Saturday. But the margin of victory came from the second of two free throws from the Bulls' Jimmy Butler, who faked a jumper and induced Wiggins to jump into him and foul. That's called a lesson, rook. The Education of Andrew Wiggins continues tonight (Wednesday night) at Brooklyn, followed by road games against Orlando and LeBron-less Miami.
#-4: Wild (Last Week: -5). The Mild beat San Jose in a shootout, so that's good. And it's always a good day when Minnesota beats The Team That Was Stolen From Us. But Tuesday night brought a chance to see very early in the season how good of a club they could be, for the Pittsburgh Penguins, possibly the best team in the Eastern Conference, finished the team's three-game homestand. And they got their asses kicked, 4-1. The destruction of the buzz surrounding this team is the reason I put them this low, even though they went 2-1.
Moreover, Zach Parise is hurt with, in the maddeningly vague terminology of the NHL, an "upper-body injury." You mean he had his tonsils taken out? This (Wednesday) morning Head Coach Mike Yeo could not say what the extent of Parise's injury is or how long he'll be out. Next man up; let's see how deep the Wild's young talent goes. As the past week was three home games, this week upcoming is three road games: Ottawa, Montreal, New Jersey.
#-5: Gopher men's hockey (Last Week: -4). This is the rare occasion -- maybe even the first occasion ever -- where all Twin Cities professional teams rank above all University of Minnesota teams. Trust me, usually it's the other way around.
The best of the Gophs teams is the penis icers, even though the #1-ranked team in the country got drubbed at St. Cloud St. Halloween Night 4-1 and had to go to overtime before beating the Huskies at Mariucci the next night, 4-3. The OT tally completed a hat trick for the U.'s Justin Kloos, who received the Big Ten's Second Star Of The Week. Somehow, through the Goofs' struggles, they retain the top spot in the USCHO Top 20, even though the first-place votes the squad collected unanimously the week prior has now been dispersed to #2 North Dakota, #3 Boston College, and in a pity vote, #9 (and 6-0-0, and longtime doormat) Michigan Tech.
The U.'s athletics site is crowing about the club's unbeaten streak at home. You can't say they're unbeaten period because of the loss at St. Cloud St., so they shade the streak to exclude road games. Yeah, talk about ignoring the facts. They host Notre Dame for games Friday and Sunday.
#-6: Gopher women's hockey (Last Week: -3). If the men didn't do well, the women did worse. They got swept at home to Bemidji St. OK, technically they didn't lose two games. Halloween Night's game goes down officially as a 2-all tie with a shootout loss, then they got shut out Saturday, 1-0. Since it is the Beavers we're talking about, the vagina icers did lose their #1 spot, finishing runner-up this week to Boston College. They are off this screening week.
#-7: Gopher soccer (Last Week: -1). This is not the momentum I was talking about last week. They lost their regular season finale at Northwestern (which, by the way, qualified for the B1G Tournament as the eight-seed and, this [Wednesday] afternoon was able to upset top-seeded Penn St. 1-0), and, as we speak, is headed to a second overtime in their quarterfinal match against Michigan. If the ten minutes in the second OT go without a score from either team, they got to penalty kicks. And according to women's soccer website All White Kit, they need to beat the Wolverines to retain their faint chances of making the NCAA Tournament. If they somehow win, the semifinals are Friday. And if they somehow make it to Sunday afternoon's final, there's a chance they could win the tourney and grab the conference auto-bid; 4-seed Rutgers also got upset in the quarterfinal, losing to Iowa 1-0.
#-8: Gopher volleyball (Last Week: -6). The cavalcade of disaster for the Goofers volleyball program continues as they lost at Indiana in four sets and got swept in Purdue. If you didn't know, this is a year where Minnesota is supposed to host a regional. And to cut down on expenses, any team that hosts a regional will also host a sub-regional. However, with the Goofs in freefall (they have now lost five-of-six), there's a chance that the NCAA won't be able to even look past their mediocre record and force them to play the first two games of the tourney away from the Sports Pavilion. Would be deserved.
They slouch to Gomorrah this weekend, aka Michigan and Michigan St.
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