#0: Gopher wrestling (Re-Entry!). This has been a true winter of discontent. Since we last spoke, the combined record of the five Twin Cities major men's winter sports team (that would be the Timberwolves, Wild, Gopher men's basketball and hockey, and the Swarm) are a combined 4-23 since December 30. My God, that fucking blows.
So there have been stories done about the good teams in the area that we should root for. Most of those stories center around the women's teams at the U. (basketball and hockey), as they should. But don't forget a men's non-revenue sport that's been a powerhouse for decades now and is reversing the trend of disappointment in this sports town: The University of Minnesota wrestling team. They currently are either #1 or #2 (depending on whether you're looking at dual meets or tournaments -- yeah, I don't know the difference either), and have been all year.
But it hasn't been easy virtually all year. They eked out a four-point win against Oklahoma St., then held on to defeat Northwestern 21-19. This screening week, Chris Dardanes of the Golden Gophers, the top-ranked wrestling at 133 lbs., had to beat the Wolverines' Rossi Bruno, ranked eighth in the class, to give Minnesota the 20-19 come-from-behind victory. Then they roared back from a four-match-to-none, 12-0 deficit to beat Rutgers at Rutgers 23-12. It's been too nip-and-tuck for my taste, but compared to the weeks the other local teams have had, these guys are an easy #1 -- so much so that I'm being charitable when I lift them up to zero bubble.
The team that is #1 where Minnesota is not (and #2 where the Gophers are not) is Iowa, and their dual meet looms at the end of the month. It'll be a momentous match, but at least it'll be at the Sports Pavilion. But before then the Gopher grapplers have a home date against Illinois Sunday afternoon.
#-1: Swarm (Last Week: -2). This past Saturday, January 10, could have gone as The Worst Day In Twin Cities Sports History. It still may. The Mild, Woofie Dogs, Goofer men's b-ball and men's hockey teams all played that day ... and all lost. Wonder if any of the local papers called it Black Saturday, because that would have been a good line.
It looked to be even blacker than my soul when I checked my Twitter feed and saw that the Smarm will losing at Edmonton and badly. At its worst, the Rush was leading late in the third quarter by a score of 9-3, aided by a 5-1 second quarter.
But in what may be The Greatest Comeback In Franchise History (although I think the team website would have said that if it was, but then again this is North American box lacrosse that we're talking about), the Swarm outscored Edmonton -- get this -- 11-1 to not only come back but to coast to a 14-10 win. That these guys did it on the road made this all the more impressive. You may have seen a Minnesota player score a goal with his back turned and while he was falling down on SportsCenter's "Top 10 Plays." That player was Forward Miles Thompson. He's a rookie. And that goal was the game-winning one.
I don't know if this team is good enough to build on this, but it was a hell of a win nevertheless. The Swarm continue its three-game, four-week road trip January 24 against New England, aka The Bastard Philadelphia Wings.
#-2: Gopher women's hockey (Last Week: 0). Swept Wisconsin -- technically, in my mind, at least. They had no trouble dispatching the Badgers Saturday, 4-1. But the game Sunday afternoon was tied at 1 after overtime. By rule, it goes down in the history books as a tie. But points are distributed differently. There is a shootout to determine who gets two points and who gets one. Hannah Brandt was the first player to take her shot, and as it turns out she was the only player who got the puck in the net in the shootout, so that means Minnesota gets a point in the WCHA standings, and in my terms the U. won. (Brandt is the conference Offensive Player Of The Week, probably because of that lone shootout goal.)
They remain second in the polls; unfortunately there is a consensus around Boston College as the top team in the land. This weekend they end their seven-game homestand with a home-and-home series against Minnesota State-Mankato.
#-3: Timberwolves (Last Week: -3). I was at the Woofs' home opener, and I saw, with my own eyes, Mo Williams and his ability to get open and find his shot. So it doesn't totally shock me that he was able to score 52 points, both a franchise record and the highest point total for a player in the NBA this season. And it was something like that, eclipsing the record for most points scored in a game by a Timberwolf set by, of all people, Corey Brewer (51), which finally got this godforsaken squad off the schneid with a 110-101 win at (at!) Indiana, halting their losing streak at 15 games. As many people noted, that Mo Williams has the most points in a single game for this club may be the most Timberwolvesian thing ever. There were also some people who thought that since these guys are losing so much, they might as well set a record and tank the whole way. I understand the logic, but I feel so, so relieved that they finally won a goddamn game.
Not to worry, however; they ran up to this victory with losses to Milwaukee and San Antonio. And I'm sure they're ready to start a fresh new losing streak as they finish their road trip this week against Phoenix, Denver and Charlotte before hosting Dallas on Wednesday.
#-4: Gopher women's basketball (Last Week: Positive Numbers). I was at the Gophers game Sunday afternoon against Maryland and Head Coach Brenda Frese (Oldfield). I was surprised that the robust reaction to her name being announced was mostly positive. I swore that the crowd there (probably bigger than games in the past decade, but still far from a sellout) was going to harass her to tears.
But they didn't. Instead, they got one hell of a game, although in the end the U. lost to the higher-ranked Terrapins, 77-73. There seemed to be a phantom foul call on the hellacious Amanda Zahui B. with a couple ticks left on the clock at the end of the game, but I'm not sure. There was a spell late in the game where the Gophers strung together empty trip after empty trip. But I became a believer in Gophers Head Coach Marlene Stollings after that drought, which put them at a six-point deficit. Using Zahui to grab rebounds off Maryland misses (although the Terps had a decisive advantage in offensive boards), she called up play after play after play to score three straight buckets and tie the game again. Now that's coaching. Oh, and Freshman Carlie Wagner can score from anywhere, and fire off that rock like a hammer from a gun.
Sadly, they didn't have enough gumption to score in the clutch. Also, Maryland had it stroking from The Land Of The Three-Pointers and was better at scrambling. Nevertheless, Stollings was upbeat after the game, saying that her team at least showed they can play with the power in women's college basketball. I guess I can let that admonition of a "moral victory" slide. What I would have preferred her saying was, "We are good enough to know that we had a chance to win this game and we blew it." I would have liked the fighting spirit behind that.
Is this an illusion now that they have lost their first game in conference play? We'll see with a road game tonight (Thursday night) against Ohio St. and a Sunday afternoon tilt versus Indiana.
#-5: Gopher men's basketball (Last Week: -5). OK, now we get into the real deep shit. These final three clubs are all bad, but the U. penis ballers get the most leniency from me because the other two had greater expectations. Not to say that I had no expectation for this program; after all, if you win the Not Invited To Tournament the year before, you're expected to build on that.
There's no way to build on that now. Nor is there a way to even defend the NIT title, not now, after starting B1G play 0-5 with a turnover-filled loss at very vulnerable Michigan and a hole too big to dig out of at Williams Arena against Iowa. Andre Hollins still is in a funk, and their free-throw shooting woes really haunted them late in the defeat to the Hawkeyes, for they blew back-to-back front ends of one-and-ones.
What this squad has going for them is that Richard Pitino is in his second year and is coming off a title, albeit in one that doesn't count. He definitely will get rope for this season, however badly it's going. He'll probably even get next year too, which makes any change with this program highly doubtful. You'll just have to swallow the pain of going through what is now a very tough season. This week: Home to Rutgers, then at Nebraska.
#-6: Gopher men's hockey (Last Week: -1). Of all the teams giving local sports fans such angst, I'm kind of surprised that this squad is getting more scrutiny. It may be the overrated appeal of hockey to Minnesota. But they shouldn't, because there are a lot of things for rubes to rip on about this team. In what has been determined to be a down year for the six-team Big Ten, Minnesota got swept. And they demonstrated the two worst ways of losing in that series at Michigan. On Friday they lost agonizingly in OT; on Saturday they got their dicks blown off before their rally fell short, 7-5.
That means that, at least according to the Bracketology Blog on website USCHO, the Gophers fell from the bottom reaches of the at-large portion of the Pairwise to out of the playoffs. This for a team that was ranked #1 earlier in the season. What in the fuck happened to this team?
This weekend they host another conference team that's fallen on black days, Wisconsin. If they lose these games, pack in the season.
#-Infinity: Wild (Last Week: -4). OK, this team is now really pissing me off. I don't think I have ever felt so much anger towards a team I haven't thrown a -Infinity on whose season hasn't ended yet.
This fucking team has ripped the hearts out of its fans after going winless this week to Chicago, Nashville, Chicago again and Pittsburgh. Granted, those are all good teams. But what's more infuriating is that they were not competitive in any one of those games. In fact, in their latest game, a 7-2 dick-smacking at the Penguins, it looked like they quit. They flat-out quit.
The Mild have now lost six in a row, and have been outscored 29-10 during that losing streak. So what's more alarming, the first number or the second? Experts seem to agree: While there are several young players not scoring and in fact regressing in play, it's the "29" that sticks out like sore thumb. And that mainly involves one huge weakness: Goaltending. Both Nicklas Backstrom and Darcy Kuemper have been absolutely atrocious this year, and both have been yanked from games (the latest being Backstrom with that abortion against Pittsburgh). I find it sort of odd that you can pinpoint woes on a hockey team's game to one specific area, but most people agree, it's the incompetence between the pipes.
To that extent the front office and ownership finally had to do something: They traded a third-round pick to The Bastard Winnipeg Jets in order to acquire a new netminder by the name of Devan Dubnyk. Never heard of this guy, but I guess he had a shitty year last year in Edmonton but was the equal of Mike Smith in Arizona. Regardless of his non-noteworthy stats, he should immediately be put in goal for this week's games: At Buffalo, home to Arizona (Dubnyk's old team) and Columbus, then away to Detroit. All of them winnable games, much easier than the gauntlet thrown at the Mild up till now. But if this doesn't break the losing streak, I don't know what will.
One other thing: This is the kind of week that gets coaches fired. After hearing about the 7-2 ass-kicking, my temper boiled over and I wanted blood. And, naturally, I thought Mike Yeo should be fired. It's not fair, the business of sports. But it seemed as if the players quit, and to me that indicates the Head Coach has lost the locker room, and that's a sure indication you have to make a change.
But it seems as if General Manager Chuck Fletcher and Owner Craig Leipold will not feed into emotion. Instead, they finally addressed what many people seem to think is the problem -- the goaltending. And if the team can finally win a game, if the Mild can live through this (in Hole-speak), maybe Yeo gets to keep his job. And it may also prove that cooler heads will prevail, and that firing a Head Coach during a losing streak may make the fanbase feel better, but it really won't solve the problem.
Interestingly enough, it seems as if many fans side with Yeo and against the goaltending. I think that shows some sophistication from the local hockey populace. If this were any other town, I dare believe that they would be exactly like me and want Yeo gone. Maybe I overestimated the size of the local hockey population and underestimated its hockey Intelligence Quotient.
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