That's important heading into the conference tournament, which takes place this weekend in Columbus. There are four SEC teams in front of the Gophers, the lowest-ranked of which is LSU, which I believe is eighth in all three polls. Say the Gophers play to their 2-seed (behind Michigan) and reach the conference championship final. And let's say that one of the four teams in the SEC (the other three are Florida, Alabama and Auburn) fall short of seed and are eliminated the first couple days of their tournament. The RPI isn't good for the U.; there they rank 15th. But if those two scenarios happen, it is possible (in my novice estimation) that not only will they host a regional (that's a given), they could be one of the top eight teams in college softball, get a national seed, and host a super-regional if they make it out of regionals. That would make this team, already at 46-8, the best team in this program's history. Get to know 'em, Minnesota.
Because of their advanced seed, their first game is Friday against either Rutgers or Iowa.
#-2: Twins (Last Week: -2). First of all, I think I misstated their record last week. It was 4-3, not 3-4. And going from below .500 to above .500 makes the screening week much better than gaining one game. They topped themselves by going 5-1 this week, capping it off with a 13-0 dick-smack of spunky archetypes of Moneyball Oakland Wednesday. The highlight of that game was Eddie Rosario, the first of what looks like a bevy of exciting young prospects finally getting called up to The Show, hit a home run on not only his first at-bat in his major league career but the first pitch.
It's been exactly one month since they began the regular season and the Twins' record is 15-13 -- not gangbusters, but far from woeful like the last four years. The lineup is hitting. The starting rotation does not suck and blow (although Phil Hughes's non-ace-like hurling is worrisome). The relief corps sometimes is shit (it was instrumental in the only loss of the week, 2-1 to The Bastard Philadelphia-by-way-of-Kansas City Athletics Tuesday), but sometimes is quite good (it was instrumental in sealing their 8-7 win over the A's on Monday). And finally it looks like the Pohlads and General Manager Terry Ryan is going to commence with the youth movement that, headed up by Byron Buxton and Miguel Sano, is going to finally turn this franchise around. It truly looks as if the worst days of The Bastard Washington Senators are now behind them.
Saying that, they did rack up that 5-1 week at home. After finishing off their four-game series with Oakland Thursday afternoon, they travel to Cleveland for three over the weekend, then start a three-game series in Detroit starting on Tuesday.
#-3: Gopher baseball (Last Week: -3). Well, the good news is that the didn't hurt their case to finish in the top eight of the B1G this week. They couldn't because the four games they played were against two non-conference opponents. Having said that, they lost all four games: They got swept at home by UC-Irvine (although the middle game on Saturday was close; they lost 6-5 in 12), then traveled to Fargo, N.D. and got beat by North Dakota St. in ten innings, 5-4. The are currently on a five-game losing streak. (Aside: I must say that I really, really wanted to see UC-Irvine play in the series finale Sunday afternoon, like I blogged in last week's WMNSS, but also as I've blogged, my car broke down for good [I think]. Besides, that was a day my parents and I drove to my brother and sister-in-law's new place out in farm country. Thought the game would be washed out because they predicted rain, but it was a brief storm that occurred late in the afternoon, probably well after the game got over.)
So they suck. So there may be some heat behind Manager John Anderson. The big thing to keep in mind is what are the other teams in the conference doing. Apparently Nebraska slipped ahead of the Goofs in the standings; right now the U. stands in ninth place and outside the tournament that would be played in their metro area, one game behind the Cornhuskers. And so they have a hill to climb. And this weekend, the penultimate one in the regular season, they'll have to start climbing that hill against Iowa, which is ranked second in the conference standings. Good luck with that.
#-4: Wild (Last Week: Positive Numbers). Well, the end is near. The Chicago Blackhawks are foiling Minnesota professional hockey once again, goddammit. Two lopsided losses in Chicago followed by an excruciating 1-0 Game 3 loss at the X that pushes the Mild's rollercoaster season to the brink of hockey oblivion.
This is not what I had predicted. This is certainly not what the team wanted, not after many players lost to the Blackhawks two years ago when the Wild were just happen to get there, and then last year when they thought they matched the 'Hawks' play but got bounced in six games (at home, no less) on a lucky bounce off a stanchion. We all thought Minnesota had a better Goalie, but while Devan Dubnyk has played well, Corey Crawford has been that much better. We also thought that the Mild's defense is better, but Chicago's D has outplayed them, mercilessly. But in the end, the Blackhawks have nailed down the formula for Stanely Cup success, and you can boil it down to two steps:
- Draft Patrick Kane.
- Draft Jonathan Toews.
So they now have to become the third or fourth team in NHL history to fight back from 3-0 deficit to win a best-of-seven playoff series. It is possible. Remember, it was last done last year, when the San Jose Sharks held a 3-0 lead in the first round but eventually lost to the Los Angeles Kings ... who, by the way, won the Stanley Cup last year. That's all we fans and the team can hang their hats on.
#-Infinity: Swarm (Last Week: -4). Despite ending the regular season with a 13-12 Overtime victory over the Rochester Knighthawks at the X (courtesy of Transition Jason Noble's first goal of his professional career), the Smarm, which finished the year 6-12, will go through what appears to be a very tumultuous offseason. On Monday, the Owners, John and Andy Arlotta, bleep-canned Head Coach and Associate General Manager Joe Sullivan and Assistant Coaches Aime Caines and Rory McDade. Guess that's what happens when you miss the playoffs for the second year in a row. But for the second year in a row they jettisoned good veteran players, they continue to mine young players in the hopes they can catch lightning in a bottle, and they seem to try to operate this entire organization on the cheap.
You know, upon last season's crash-and-burn (or was it the one before that?) I speculated that the Smarm would actually fold. Now, I think they actually should fold. I don't know if the fanbase is as big as it should be. But the club sucks right now, and they are smack dab in the middle of the country when most of the squads in the National Lacrosse League are in the Northeast United States or Western Canada, so travel costs for them (as well as the Colorado Mammoth) must be astronomical. Plus, the NLL is at an odd nine teams. Maybe it's best for everyone involved to just close up shop.
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