#-1: Gopher softball (Last Week: -1). Welp, everything is coming up Milhouse for the Minnesota softball club. Although they didn't play the minimum 15 innings this past weekend at Iowa that closed out the 2016 regular season like I thought (only the Sunday game went the minimum 5, where they routed the Hawkeyes 12-0), they did sweep them. They finish the season winning 11 in a row, a record 19-3 in the Big Ten and 38-12 overall, and the second seed (behind Michigan) heading into this weekend's conference tournament at Penn St. They have a bye for the tourney, which started yesterday (Thursday), so they face Illinois this (Friday) afternoon. (Unlike in baseball, which is double-elimination, the softball tournament is single-elimination. Don't know why it's different; if anything, it should be softball that's double-elim because the games are shorter.)
In the meantime the accolades have come in. Third Baseman Sam Macken, Maddie Houlihan and Sara Groenewegen were all named First-Team All-B1G. Taylor LeMay was named the Catcher for the conference All-Defensive Team. Houlihan, who plays first, was named Big Ten Freshman Of The Year. And Groenewegen was named one of ten finalists for USA Softball Collegiate Player Of The Year for the second year in a row. This could be the greatest team in program history.
Most important of all, the U.'s entry into the NCAA Tournament seems assured. In the meantime, I wonder if there will be a mano-a-mano title game matchup Saturday night between the Gophers and top-seed Michigan, where Groenewegen will go toe-to-toe vs. the Wolverines' Megan Betsa.
#-2: Wild (Re-Entry!). I like the hiring of Bruce Boudreau as new Head Coach of the Mild. When the Anaheim Ducks cut him loose after they choked at home in Game 7 of their first-round playoff series against Nashville, the Mild rightly jumped on that shit like it was going out of style.
The Ducks had a reason to fire Boudreau. They won the Pacific Division this year, and it marks the fourth time he coached a team that lost a Game 7. Doesn't matter -- the Mild aren't really in a position to worry about that in what may be a very fragile part of their life cycle. What they need to lean on now is Boudreau's ability to kick ass throughout the regular season, something that this franchise has not been able to navigate without noticeable headwinds during the Mike Yeo and Todd Richards regimes. If he can get this club a second division title, we'll take a Game 7 loss because that would be progress.
The other thing that Boudreau possesses that this team needs is bluntness. Yeo's downfall was his inability to stand up to Zach Parise and Ryan Suter, who increasingly are becoming divas who don't produce on the ice. Boudreau doesn't mind cussing out any player that deserves. The thinking, the hope, is that he'll stand up to slackers and stupidity. At the very least the fanbase will appreciate that their views may be echoed in the locker room by the Head Coach; right now, the Wild may be the worst team of The Local Big Four (yes, even worse than the Twinks), and I would venture to guess the roster may be the most hated of The Local Big Four.
#-3: Gopher baseball (Last Week: -2). What a difference a week makes. This time last week the Gophers were leading the Big Ten standings. But after losing two-of-three to then-second place Indiana (at home, no less), they are tied with Michigan for second place (one game behind the Hoosiers), only 1 1/2 games ahead of Michigan St. and Nebraska. Only four games separate first from ninth, and remember, only the top eight teams reach the conference tournament. With six games left in the season, there's still a chance that the squad, which started so strong, could slide out of NCAA tournament contention. And it's not a great time to go on the road, even if it is a three-game series this weekend against Purdue, the worst team in the B1G with a conference record of 2-19 and an overall record of 7-39. (Wow, that sucks. I mean, that's, like, Twins bad.) Then on Tuesday they play their final non-conference mid-week game at South Dakota St. Finally, they begin the final series of the year Thursday against Ohio St. at Siebert.
#-Infinity: Twins (Last Week: -3). Lost all five games this screening week. They have lost seven games in a row. They were swept at the White Sox over the weekend and by the Orioles (it was only two games because the third was rained out, but hey, they still did not win a game) at Target over the workweek. It was the seventh time they've been swept this year. It is the second time they've been swept by the White Sox this year. The fucking season is only six weeks old. And they are on pace to go 39-123 -- that's Cleveland Spiders territory.
Gas this team. Now.
This week: In Cleveland, then in Detroit, then they come back home to start a four-game series against Toronto Thursday.
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