#-1: Gopher men's hockey (Last Week: -2). Wisconsin is a lightweight again this year, but it was still important that they sweep them in Madison; crushing them by a combined score of 13-2 doesn't hurt. Add slight stumbles to the other two good teams in the B1G, Michigan and Penn St., and the Gophers technically sit atop the conference and would, according to early bracketology projections, be in the 16-team field. (Going by PairWise, they would be one of the final teams out if they didn't snag the automatic bid, however.) What seems even better for the squad is that they currently enjoy a five-game winning streak and have been putting the biscuit in the basket often; they have scored 28 goals during their winning streak.
This week they take a step back from conference play and participate in the third annual North Star College Cup. This year, of the five state top-flight schools, Minnesota-Duluth sits this one out. (As the big school in the state, Minnesota plays every single year.) What I don't get is that the four tournament games will be played at 1 and 4 in the afternoon. No night games? Is there something that's happening in the evening at the X? And are you going to make Minnesota hockey fans pay exorbitant prices to park on the street now that St. Paul has enacted new, longer and more expensive rates? (I should blog about that; that pisses me off.) Oh, they draw Bemidji St. Saturday late afternoon.
#-2: Gopher women's basketball (Last Week: -1). OK, don't look now, but after holding off the Badgers in Wisconsin and coming back to defeat Illinois at The Barn, this U. club is on a four-game winning streak. Their current conference record of 6-3 puts them in a three-way tie for fourth. Now, does that and a 14-6 overall record mean they make it into the field of 64? No, according to Charlie Creme. But it looks as though they have firmly ensconced themselves in the WNIT. Plus, if they can somehow take both very tough games this screening week (at Michigan Sunday, versus Rutgers Thursday), who knows?
#-3: Gopher wrestling (Last Week: -3). OK, I don't know if this is a sign that the team is rounding into form, or even if they've become the proverbial Team You Don't Want To Face come NCAA Tournament time. But I guess I have to be encouraged after the grapplers downed Purdue at the Sports Pavilion Sunday, 23-18. This means they've won back-to-back duals, so ... yay, I guess?
I don't know how the schedule-makers set this bullshit up, but that was their last home conference game of the year. They finish with four in a row on the road, beginning with a certain trouncing tonight at Iowa.
#-4: Timberwolves (Last Week: -4). They can hang their shingle on their 106-101 victory over The Bastard Vancouver Grizzlies Saturday. They're a good team. The Woofs haven't beaten many good teams this year, but they haven't beaten many teams this year, period. Moreover, they kept it close at Cleveland and battled The Bastard Seattle SuperSonics to the end before falling by three.
Some pundits this week have taken stock about the roster. Karl-Anthony Towns appears to have the Rookie Of The Year award locked up, no problems there. Andrew Wiggins is getting a lot more scrutiny; people who think the world could be his believe that he needs to work on his handle next. Some people are marveling at the maturation of Zach LaVine; he's blossoming from a show-off 2 who could win the Slam Dunk Contest for the next decade into a silky shooter who is improving at the point.
And the point is where the Wolves are facing a lot of heat. Ricky Rubio has fallen into a cold-shooting slump, again. Apparently all that time with a shooting coach hasn't given his jump shot the requisite arc that's needed to raise the probability it goes in. And I guess (I haven't watch the Woofs that closely, they're terrible) these bad shooting nights have continued virtually unabated. In fact, I heard there were a couple of shots that Rubio missed during the Thunder game where his defender was, well, not defending him. He totally sagged on him, gave him feet and all the time in the world, practically daring him to shoot. And he, being the only open man on the floor, did, and it was a miss, and the Thunder got the ball, and that's why they won. Guess here is that the fans have finally noticed and are booing Ricky Ricky after every miss.
You know what? I think I've had enough. All this time I say you need to hold onto Rubio for his superior court vision and his underrated defense. But dammit, if he's shooting is so shitty that it's basically 4-on-5 every time the T-Wolves have the ball ... fine, trade him. His assets should allow the organization to see him with as high a value as he's ever going to get. Start Tyus Jones, or use Andre Miller as a stopgap. But if this is the plateau for Rubio, and his liabilities are this deficient, he's just holding the team back. And the fanbase needs to see rapid improvement from this franchise.
This week's a busy one, and it's all on the road: Utah to Portland to Los Angeles against both teams.
#-5: Gopher men's basketball (Last Week: -6). Well, they lost both games this week, extending their losing streak to ten games and keeping them winless in the B1G. But hey, they were both close, so I'm going to throw them a bone and keep them out of the top spot for at least this week. They took Illinois to overtime before dropping the contest 76-71 Saturday, and they hung tough against a ranked, tough Purdue squad Wednesday before losing, 68-64. I should ask that both games were at Williams Arena, so it stands to reason that if the Goofers played these games on their floors, it wouldn't have been nearly as close. But they were at home, and they were close, so I'm going to toss them an attaboy.
Unfortunately the road is where they go this week: Indiana Saturday, Northwestern Thursday. Could they win? Sure. And monkeys could fly out of my butt.
#-6: Wild (Last Week: -5). What happened in Monday's come-from-ahead loss to Arizona encapsulates the dread and pessimism we Twin Cities fans have for our teams. Late in the game, Mild clinging to a 1-0 lead. They get a power play. The Bastard Winnipeg Jets are racing down the Mild defensive zone as the puck shoots in their end. Devyn Dubnyk -- the team's only representative in the All-Star Game, in case you have forgotten -- lollygags in retrieving the puck. Arizona gets it and deposits it in the goal, made wide open because Dubnyk was out of position, and the Coyotes tie the game. On a short-handed goal. Late. So of course they lose in a Shootout.
Coupled with a 4-3 loss in San Jose, where they battled back from a 3-1 deficit only to (and stop me if you've heard this one before) allow a score late, they have now lost seven of their last eight games heading into the All-Star Break. Worst of all, they have slipped out of their Wild Card 1 status all the way down to next-to-last place in the Central Division. This team, and maybe this organization, is in a tailspin.
It might not be fair to pin this all on Dubnyk, although that fuck-up against the Coyotes came at the worst possible time. They just can't score with any regularity. Mike Yeo continues to shuffle the forward lines and still isn't producing any chemistry that results in offense. Mike Pominville, Tomas Vanek, I (and many Wild fans) are looking at you.
But the problem probably runs deeper than that. The franchise has been up against the salary cap the past couple years now, so they have to rely on the young talent, some of whom they signed to long-term contracts, to develop. They haven't, and it's killing this club. Nino Niedereitter. (I'll check the spelling on his last name as soon as he does something good again.) Jason Zucker. Matt Dumba. Mikael Granlund, who I was right about when I said he was too small to be an effective scorer. Basically everyone except Charlie Coyle (who, by the way, was acquired in a trade with San Jose for which Minnesota gave up Brent Burns) has failed to step up. And if they don't shape up now, this will be a colossal failure and a serious reckoning point for the direction of the Minnesota Wild.
They have a three-game road trip after the ASG. This screening week they'll be in the New York area to play the Islanders and Rangers.
No comments:
Post a Comment