#-1: Gopher baseball (Last Week: -1). OK. College baseball bracketology has a long ways to go to get as accurate as the dozens of college basketball bracketologists that pop up every February and March. By virtue of their embarrassing 0-fer on their way out of the Big Ten Conference Baseball Tournament, the regular season champion Gophers slid down to a 3-seed in Jim Shonerd (of Baseball America)'s final bracket. I was not aware until now that it appears as though all 4-seeds in the NCAA baseball tournament are all auto-bid winners of one-bid leagues. Therefore, Shonerd said that the U. was in fact one of the Last Four Teams In ... and, if order means something, they were in fact The Last Team In.
Lo and behold, however, they didn't have to grit their teeth come Selection Memorial Day to make their first postseason appearance in six years. They had a cushion as a 2-seed, where they had been projected before last week. Apparently winning the regular season title helped them a lot, as did their 18-11 true away record. They, however, are part of the four-team regional that is hosted by Texas A&M, which was named the fourth-overall seed in the tourney and finishes the regular season as the #1 ranked team in Baseball America's Top 25 poll. (The Gophers, by the way, drop out of the poll due to the disaster in Omaha.) So conference Player Of The Year Matt Fiedler (the program's first since Luke Appert in '03), All-B1G First Teamers (alongside Fiedler) Austin Athmann and Connor Schaefbauer, and Big Ten Coach Of The Year John Anderson all have their work cut out for them in order to make their first-ever trip to Super Regionals. They face Wake Forest this (Friday) afternoon; the 4-seed, BTW, is Binghamton.
#-2: Twins (Last Week: -2). As bad as their season has become (and they still sport the majors' worst record), I am shocked for the second week in a row about how many wins they got over the screening week. In fact, they're over .500 -- sweeping at Seattle, getting swept at Oakland, then coming home to Target and beating the Bay Rays in the first of four contests. That sweep of the Mariners, who then were leading the American League West Division, boggles the hell out of me, especially, Friday's 7-2 win, where they beat, of all people, Felix Hernandez.
Meanwhile the injuries, or at least the announcement of players going on the Disable List, keep mounting. The most notable of these maybe Pitcher Kyle Gibson, who was going to start last (Thursday) night's game against Tampa but was pulled because of ... something. Phil Hughes, who was demoted to the bullpen because he sucks, was put back into the rotation out of necessity. He didn't figure into the decision, but at least they won. A lack of healthy bodies is also the reason why Byron Buxton is back with the big club. He still has yet to prove that he can hit in the major leagues, but since being busted down to AAA Rochester he has, yet again, torn the cover off the ball. He can still defend with the best of them, but I'm really afraid that his career will be as one of those "AAAA" guys -- players to good for Triple-A but not good enough for The Show. Well, this is one of Buxton's final shots to prove he can play in the MLB.
This is the beginning of a long homestand for the Twinks. After finishing their series against the Bay Rays they have three games against Miami starting on Tuesday, then a weekend trio vs. the Boston Red Sox.
#-Infinity: Gopher wrestling (Re-Entry!). Uh-oh. This might be the reason why J Robinson's grappling crew had an historically horrible year. And it might very well be the storied coach's last at the University of Minnesota.
Last Wednesday, an anonymous wrestler with the team told the Star Tribune that Robinson called a team meeting just before Easter Weekend and said that he knew that some people on the team were selling Xanax. He did not report his suspicions or findings to the U. Instead, he gave the offenders the weekend to give them the pills and, for some strange reason, make them write a one-page essay about why they did it and how did it make them feel to sell the pills. In exchange, this anonymous wrestler said, Robinson would give the drug dealers "amnesty."
Also according to said wrestler, those selling gave their coach some and dumped the rest. Meanwhile, on Tuesday Fox 9 broke the story. That's when U. of M. police stepped in. And on Wednesday, just before starting off on a caravan around the state, brand new Golden Gophers Athletics Director Mark Coyle put Robinson on paid administrative leave, presumably because he now has to review any culpability Robinson has for not immediately reporting his knowledge of this team's drug dealing to authorities.
Robinson has carved out a very interesting fiefdom at Dinkytown. He has won three NCAA titles at the U., the school remains a renowned powerhouse in wrestling, and he basically could call his own shot as to win to leave. That freedom has allowed him some latitude for actions that rubbed some people the wrong way. He, for example, has been a loud opponent of Title IX, and once filed a gender discrimination complaint against the U. in 2004. He even once had a match program printed with his thoughts on what he thought was reverse discrimination. Also, in 2009 the student newspaper the Minnesota Daily ran an exposé detailing a network of Dinkytown-area real estate transactions among former wrestlers and coaches with the program. That could have violated NCAA policies regarding giving extra benefits to recruits and current student-athletes.
Nothing came of the real estate dealings. Nothing really seemed to touch Robinson, who occupied a very special place on campus: Successful enough to do whatever he pleased, yet presiding over an Olympic (read: non-revenue) sport so small that any controversies would fail to draw overwhelming public scrutiny. This might change things. It doesn't help Robinson that he now works for a brand-new AD. And it really doesn't help that he is coming off a shitty season.
There are two things working for him. One, he did his best to quash this in-house -- that may technically be illegal, but this isn't the obvious law-breaking that would turn ardent supporters of the wrestling program against him. Two? Well, does Coyle really think he can find a Head Coach as well regarded as J Robinson to replace J Robinson?
Watch this space.
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