#0: Gopher volleyball (Last Week: -1). Wow ... we have three teams that weren't on the survey last week, and since the winter sports are kicking in right about now, this is the busy season for the WMNSS. Don't have a whole lot of time, I'm afraid, so I'll need to be pithy for each entry.
As they have been lately, the University of Minnesota volleyball program leads the list, this week by virtue of winning all three of their games, and that 3-0 record (along with a 13-match winning streak) compels me to give them at least a 0.
They remain stuck at #4 in the AVCA Top 25, but they still lead the Big Ten over powerhouse Penn St. ... which will come to Dinkytown this Saturday night for a mammoth matchup. I've got to be there. They will also host Maryland Wednesday in a game that was moved up from 7 to 6 so that the Big Ten Network can broadcast the game live.
#-1: Wrestling (Re-Entry!). This is the club I forgot. The U.'s wrestling team began their season at home (at Williams Arena) Saturday night with wins over for-profit Grand Canyon, Virginia and South Dakota St. (Remember that all three duals were on the same day.) That's great, but here's the downside: If you go to InterMat, the leading online wrestling website, you'll see that the U. is ranked in the lower twenties in both Tournament and Dual Meet ranks. I have never seen a J Robinson-coached squad that lightly regarded in my life. And coming on the heels of a season where they ranked first in the polls before petering out late in the season, this is a precipitous downward slide.
They have a trio of dual meets in Troy, N.Y. Sunday for the Northeast Duals. Their foes are North Carolina, Lehigh and N.C. St.
#-2: Vikings (Last Week: 0). How the Vikes are tied with Green Bay for first place in the National Football Conference North may be the most shocking thing that this thing has done in a long time. But their fourth win in a row, Sunday at TCF Bank Stadium over The Bastard Cleveland-By-Way-Of-Los Angeles Rams, was not without a little luck and a lot of critiques. First of all, remember that Rams Had Coach (and enabler of dirty Defensive Coordinator Greg Williams) Jeff Fisher went for two points in the first quarter after his Running Back, Todd Gurley, scored a Touchdown; Gurley was handed the ball and ran right towards a Vikings defender well short of the goal line. If Fisher had just took the Point After Touchdown, St. Louis would have won in regulation.
Instead, the game went into Overtime, where Head Coach Mike Zimmer made the gutsy call (once the Vikings won the coin flip -- another instance of good luck) of eschewing the decision on whether or not to take the ball and instead defended the goal that would have the wind, which was howling this day, behind their backs. Don't know if it made any difference; the Rams went three-and-out, and the Vikings, quarterbacked by Shaun Hill after Teddy Bridgewater was knocked out on a dirty hit by the Rams' Lamarcus Joiner, just handed the ball off to Adrian Peterson. Credit goes to the offensive line; despite the defense knowing exactly what they were going to do, they moved defenders and allowed Peterson to singlehandedly matriculate the ball for a Blair Walsh Field Goal and the 21-18 win.
And Bridgewater has been cleared to be play this Sunday late afternoon on the baseball diamond dirt at Oakland. But even though it was very frightening to see this offense without Bridgewater under center, he still had a lot of trouble connecting with his receivers during the game. And from here on out, Minnesota has the toughest schedule remaining on the year. The Raiders will be a tough game; even though FiveThirtyEight says the Vikes have a 56% chance of winning the game, this Derek Carr QB seems like he's the real deal.
#-3: Twins (Re-Entry!). I like the three surprise moves the organization made in the last 72 hours. And I think most fans are happy that this franchise made any off-season moves at all.
First of all, on Monday, it was revealed that it was the Twins that won the bidding to negotiate with Korean slugger Byung Ho Park. Hitting, let alone getting someone slotted to play at First Base, was not a priority for the team. But it is astonishing, in a positive way, to see this normally parsimonious squad shell out a posting fee of $12.85 million to ensure a one-month window to negotiate with Park on a new contract. Park, who is 29 years old, could be the next Tsuyoshi Nishioka (where the hell is he now?), but Park was wanted by a lot of Major League Baseball teams, and it is great to see the Twinks win a bidding war for once.
Then, on Tuesday, they sent Catcher/Outfielder Chris Herrmann to Arizona in exchange for Daniel Palka, an Outfielder/First Baseman whom I consider to be a low-level prospect. But that Catcher deficit set the stage Wednesday for a bigger trade: Center Fielder Aaron Hicks to the New York Yankees for Catcher John Ryan Murphy. Hicks was once supposed to follow Torii Hunter as The Next Great Center Fielder for the Minnesota Twins. But it was only this year where he developed the plate discipline to prove that he had enough of an all-around game to have some sort of a career in the majors. Turns out General Manager Terry Ryan capitalized on the trade value Hicks also developed as a result of his newfound maturity.
Put all of these moves together and you can see Ryan's master plan: Miguel Sano will in fact be mostly a Left Fielder; Byron Buxton, his ability to hit in the bigs still in major doubt in my mind, will have as many chances he can get as he starts at Center; Murphy may take over as the starting Catcher in a year or two, replacing Kurt Suzuki; and Park will spell/platoon at both First and Designated Hitter with Joe Mauer, assuming that Third Baseman Trevor Plouffe isn't also traded. (If he is, I'm guessing there will be everyday spots for both Park and Mauer.) These moves are mighty intriguing, and I can see the logic behind them. In short, the moves made each of the last three days may herald The Next Great Age for the Minnesota Twins.
#-4: Wild (Last Week: -3). Unfortunately, their perfect record at home ended Thursday, when they lost to the Nashville Predators, 3-2. Fortunately, they rebounded at the X to beat Tampa Bay and Winnipeg. Besides the one goal they scored against the freefalling Lightning, this team is scoring. And Thomas Vanek, much-scrutinized whipping boy, is scoring early this season, including this insane goal where he just fucking de-pantsed Paul Postma:
They have their next four games on the road, partially so the Minnesota State High School League can host the volleyball tournaments at the Xcel Energy Center. They play The Bastard Hartford Whalers, The Team That Was Stolen From Us, and Pittsburgh.
#-5: Timberwolves (Last Week: -4). It's early, but this is kind of weird: So far, they are undefeated on the road (this week they beat Chicago and Atlanta) but winless at home (defeats to Miami and Charlotte). They are, that loss to the Predators notwithstanding, the anti-Wild. But the tandem of Andrew Wiggins and Karl-Anthony Towns is already looking to be a dangerous one for, fingers crossed, years to come.
This will be an extremely busy screening week for the Wolves: At home to the defending NBA Champion Golden State Warriors and at Indiana back-to-back, The Bastard Vancouver Grizzlies Sunday at Target Center; then the Florida Two-Step (Miami and Orlando) back-to-back.
#-6: Gopher men's hockey (Re-Entry!). Split a series at Notre Dame over the weekend. Sophomore Leon Bristedt is the Big Ten Third Star Of The Week for scoring three goals against the Irish in those two games. And that's all I've got. Well, besides that this week they have a home-and-home with Minnesota State-Mankato -- in Mankato Friday, at Mariucci Saturday.
#-7: Gopher football (Last Week: -5). The U. isn't short on drama these days. In yet another surprise, yesterday (Wednesday) morning Interim Head Coach Tracy Claeys had the interim tag ripped off from him, getting a three-year contract in return. It's the culmination of decades of serving under the tutelage of Jerry Kill. Remember, Kill's coterie is rare, if not unique, in that his assistant coaches have followed him wherever he went. I don't know if Claeys and Offensive Coordinator Matt Limegrover ever imagined they would one day have their own team to coach even though that is naturally what coordinators would want to aspire to be. But it's Claeys shot now, on the backs of the equally shocking news that Kill has retired due to his seizures.
I'm torn. First of all, he's 0-2 this season, following up a blown QB sneak to Michigan to a 28-14 decision at Ohio St. He had a 4-3 record in 2013 while filling in for Kill, but in my opinion it didn't look like this team was "rallying" for Coach Kill after he was forced to retire, formidable opposite noted. In other words, I don't know how Claeys gets the full-time job based on performance. And there might be an even more important reason he shouldn't have been given the job full-time: They don't even have a full-time Athletic Director. Shouldn't the real AD hire the football coach? How should the person who becomes the Minnesota AD feel about not being able to hire his or her own coach? That the administration and presumably the President (with ... input from Interim Athletic Director Beth Goets?) hired the coach before the AD and not the other way around invites a host of problems down the line.
However, if I may put words in their mouths, so to speak, I can see why they did it, and I can justify it. This off-season in College Football Nation could see an unprecedented wave of coaching hires because of the number of schools, and high-profile schools (USC, Miami, South Carolina) that are already open. Every athletic department seems to hire these search firms and pay them hundreds of thousands of dollars for these covert interviews before telling the department who to hire. And sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't. It all seems like a merry-go-round that does nothing but waste time and money.
In the meantime, you have this guy, this supposed heir apparent, and he's ... already there. And I guess he treats the employees there well, and he keeps the program out of trouble, and his players will play for him (they haven't been able to win for him, but hey, baby steps). And they not have had to find a football coach to replace Tim Brewster, but they also have recently replaced coaches for the men's and women's basketball programs. I can just see the U. of M. athletic department breathe out a huge sigh and just say, "Fuck it, let's just hire this guy." And I can see it that way. I mean, we have no idea if Tracy Claeys could in fact be a good coach, maybe even better than his mentor. At the very least the department has saved time and money from not going to a search firm and from not hiring a bigger name.
Saturday night they have the final road game of the season against Iowa in the annual fight for Floyd of Rosedale.
#-8: Gopher soccer (Last Week: -6). Before I dread over the U. side, a quick word about the scheduling of the NCAA Tournament. I had forgotten that it's not like college basketball, where each weekend the teams play two rounds. In soccer (at least on the women's side) there are six rounds for the 64 teams in the tourney, but they're played over four weekends in a 1-2-1-2 format.
That seems odd, but it may be a nod towards the fact that women's soccer is not a money-making sport. Soccer is also different from basketball in that seeding an bracket placement is not mostly based on supposed strength of teams but instead is placed, especially in the first round, by geography. I am guessing that is because many teams, particularly the ones from non-BcS conferences, would have to spend a lot of money under a format where four teams go to one of the team's campuses (presumably increasing the chance that there will be teams that have to fly long distances) and spend possibly up to, oh, four days at a hotel. The first round is played at campus sites, so there will be 32 different pitches hosting games for the NCAAs this weekend, which means 32 different spots for all these small schools to find one place close enough to either bus to and back or, if need be, fly in the night before and leave as soon as the match is over. That's my guess why the tournament is going through only one round this weekend instead of two.
At any rate, it might be Minnesota who's going home after this weekend. They host South Dakota St. Friday night at Elizabeth Lyle Robbie Stadium, and Chris Henderson of Hero Sports says this could be an upset, for two reasons. The prevailing reason is the shocking bad form the team's in right now -- winless in their last five, outscored 11-3 in that streak. Nobody seems to be scoring anymore and the backline looks absolutely shredded. The other reason is the Jackrabbits -- well, more like the conference they're representing. The Summit League apparently has punched above their weight class. Also, South Dakota St. is an experienced, upperclassmen-laden team, and that could spell a lot of trouble for a squad that appears to be very disorganized right now.
Game's at 6. Cross your fingers.
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