#0: Gopher volleyball (Last Week: Positive Numbers). OK, so there were no hiccups for the volleyballers as they swept Jackson St. and Marquette at the Sports Pavilion in the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament. (The same cannot be said for Stanford, Texas A&M, or Louisville, the three seeded teams that have been ousted before their time.) But now is where the rubber meets the road. Volleyball tournaments play a lot closer to seed than basketball or hockey tourneys, but obviously the teams that have survived this far are a lot better than Jackson St. and Marquette.
Take, for example, the U.'s upcoming opponent in the Sweet Sixteen, which will be in Des Moines, Ia., tomorrow at 5. It was actually supposed to be Louisville, which, as the 15-seed, was lined up to face the second-seeded Gophers. But they were upset at home in four sets by ... fellow conference member Illinois. They faced each other only once this year. It was at the Sports Pavilion. I think I was there, in fact, to see the Gophers finally rise up and take the last two sets to beat the Illini. Can the Gophers, beat them a second time, or is Illinois lusting for revenge? This is the type of game that really scares me.
Assuming they win, their Elite Eight opponent, which Minnesota will face Saturday in the early evening, will be an intriguing matchup that has shown some weakness. It probably will be seventh-seeded and defending champion Penn St., whose defense and chemistry has not been able to reload as usual. Nevertheless they are the queens of the hill, and you really can't be the man unless you beat the man (so to speak, I know they're women). Or, it could be traditional power Hawai'i, who some say should have been a seeded team. The Rainbow Wahine were the ones that defeated Texas A&M (swept them in fact), so maybe they shouldn't be overlooked either.
Well, no one should be overlooked. But this is as solid a team as Minnesota has ever had. They have the advantage. Now it's up to them to see if they can play true to seed and advance to the Final Four. If not ... well, I've never wanted to throw a team from Positive Numbers down to -Infinity for an inconceivable result like an upset loss, so that's why I hedged my bets and put them at 0.
#-1: Gopher men's hockey (Last Week: -6). I don't know if they've turned the corner yet. But a pair of OT wins against Ohio St. at Mariucci, which ended their losing streak at three games, was absolutely necessary. And it was still possible that they could've dropped both games since they didn't end in regulation. The club was down two goals in the third period, in fact. Their comeback was the first time they have won after trailing in the third (not trailing by two goals ... trailing, period) in more than two seasons. There would not be a more conspicuous sign that this squad, at least this year, sucked if they dropped one or even both games. And they still could be a very awful team. But as of right now they have a 2-0 Big Ten record and are thus tied with Penn St. for the very early conference lead -- with the help of Freshman Forward Tyler Sheehy, who scored three goals over the two-game series and thus was named the B1G's First Star Of The Week.
Their last games of 2015 are a pair of games at Michigan, tomorrow and Saturday evening.
#-2: Wild (Last Week: -4). Won the two home games, lost the road game. Both victories were shutouts; does that mean Devan Dubnyk is back? Did he ever leave? Meanwhile, that defeat was in Overtime; they are now 1-5 in games that last past regulation. (By the way, they have yet to reach a Shootout in a game this year.) So ... does that mean that the team is good again, and everything is cool? Right now, they hold down one of the Wild Card spots. This week they end their three-game road trip with contests vs. Arizona and San Jose before playing Vancouver at the X.
#-3: Gopher women's basketball (Last Week: -2). Got throttled at Duke by 20 as part of the B1G/ACC Challenge Thursday, then trounced Towson at Williams by 19 Sunday. I wish I had more to add to this team than that. They continue their five-game homestand this week with games versus Memphis Saturday (where Rachel Banham will be honored before the game for breaking the program's all-time points mark, set by Lindsay Whalen, who will also be there) and New Mexico Wednesday.
#-4: Timberwolves (Last Week: -3). I remember driving to the mall closest to me the evening when the Minnesota Timberwolves stuck its neck out and drafted the first person out of high school since Moses Malone. Kevin Garnett certainly was a reach, but the Woofie Dogs were so horrible that they had nowhere to go but up. The rest was history, at least for the Boston Celtics.
The next year a young man by the name of Kobe Bryant followed KG's lead. While Garnett had to declare because he was too stupid for college, Bryant was smart enough to go to college but didn't want to because, hey, Garnett proved that any player could be good enough to play in the league and make money, so why waste your time playing in college just for a scholarship? He became even more successful than Garnett, and for one of the glamour franchises in the NBA, The Bastard Minneapolis Lakers. Sure, he may have been the young punk who thought he knew everything the minute he donned the jersey, and he used his muscle to push out Shaquille O'Neal just so he could have the Lakers all to himself, and there is still some shady truths behind that consensual sex/rape in Colorado that he probably will take to his grave. But hey, he's a legend, and he, as well as his forebear, Garnett, will be in the Hall of Fame.
Their teams, and the teams they originally were drafted by, met at Target Center Wednesday evening. It was a tight affair; the Wolves led by as much as six before the Lakers tied it up to force Overtime. And they had a chance to win it in the extra five minutes, but they couldn't sink two shots before the buzzer sounded, giving Minnesota the 123-122 victory. And Garnett and Bryant, two people who I remember were just little shits coming out of high school, are too old now to be any useful on the team when the game really counts, so they both sat from the bench to watch both critical turning points. My God, I'm old.
Anyway, that win prevented a four-game sweep at home; they lost by six to Portland and by four to the Clippers earlier this week. Even the win seemed to take a lot out of the Woofs. There is a ton of talent out there, and yet it seems extremely difficult for those exceptional parts to play together and score and win. It seems very odd to me, because from what see from Andrew Wiggins and Karl-Anthony Towns (not to mention Zach LaVine, who should blossom as soon as Sam Mitchell sticks him at the off-Guard spot permanently), these guys have as much potential as any club in the NBA. So why did these guys just finish 1-2 this screening week?
This week: At Denver and Phoenix, home to the Nuggets (when it's Star Wars Night), then at New York.
#-5: Vikings (Last Week: 0). It can only be the ViQueens where we can go from, "Man, these guys have a chance to do something special!" to "Stupid Vikings are going to blow it again!" over the course of one single game. Now, it was an absolute ass-kicking, 38-7 to Seattle, at home, and they now technically stand second to Green Bay in the NFC North. But a part of me has to pump the brakes. Guys, it's one game. And like Philadelphia beat the Patriots in New England on Sunday, virtually anything can happen in the NFL. Now, do I think the Vikes are going to beat the Cardinals in Arizona? Oh, fuck no, especially since they have, like, half a dozen defensive starters already ruled out for tonight's game. But there is such a sky-is-falling attitude that can only be explained away by being a woebegone franchise.
About Teddy Bridgewater -- this is the game where the honeymoon period between he and the fanbase ended. He had no clutch in the pocket, no toughness he could fall back on in that game, so the only impression fans were left with was all those incomplete passes. One stands out way more than the rest: That really bad one that sailed over his receiver and into the waiting arms of a Seahawks defender. It's only one pass, and I kind of think that the receiver (was it Stefon Diggs?) could have snagged it with a little more effort. But that pass was, once again, a sail-over. Bridgewater continues to have this weird throwing motion where he dips his elbow, thus causing his pass, which isn't that powerful, to lift way over the heads of his receivers. There is at least one pass every game that's thrown way too long; in last Sunday's drubbing, that led to a pick which was parlayed into a long, game-deciding Touchdown pass accurately thrown by Russell Wilson the very next play. Those back-to-back disasters shook the bloom off Bridgewater for good.
So hard was his fall from grace that there are some local rubes who want to trade for, wait for it, Johnny Manziel. Who the fuck are these people, Trump supporters? But those guys just saw Bridgewater throw for less than 200 yards yet again and can finally see a ceiling come into focus. Those guys now prefer Manziel because he hasn't had enough reps and games for anyone to make an accurate assessment on his future. And since they haven't seen Manziel play too often, to these guys his "upside" is much better than that of Bridgewater because they have already seen and determined his "upside." Frankly, anyone who prefers that party-boy jagoff Manziel to Bridgewater needs to shut the fuck up.
#-6: Gopher men's basketball (Last Week: -1). Wow, what a humiliation. I mean, this is, like, Dan Monson Era emasculation. They had both South Dakota and South Dakota St., two mid-major regional schools hailing from the Summit League, coming into The Barn this past week and they lost to both. The loss to the Coyotes (that's South Dakota) Saturday afternoon was a double-Overtime defeat that left the players scratching their heads. Yet it looked as though that knocked the energy out of these Goofers, as they were absolutely embarrassed by the Jackrabbits (that's South Dakota St.) Tuesday evening, 84-70. I mean, I know this team is going to be bad this year, but shit, a 14-point loss at home to two non-BcS clubs? If Richard Pitino doesn't show something this year, he's on the hot seat for next year.
In what may be the most random neutral court game in college basketball history, the U. on Saturday play Oklahoma St. ... in Sioux Falls, S.D. Why there, I don't fucking know. But it looks as though the Cowboys are the home team. After losing to South Dakota teams in Minnesota, maybe having the Minnesota team play in South Dakota will result in a reversal of fortune. On Wednesday they come back to Williams Arena to play Chicago St., where they might be favored.
No comments:
Post a Comment