Positive Numbers: Gopher volleyball (Last Week: -1). A very successful screening week for local teams (well, mostly), and that means a quartet of worthy teams for the top spot -- and yet another elevation of the entire list above negative numbers. I'm getting to be a softie, I know, but I have to give credit where it's due.
I have to give the top spot, and thus Positive #'s, to the Gopher volleyball club, who responded to their defeat at Penn St. the week before with a pair of sweeps. The one on Sunday, at home against Northwestern, was not a surprise. The other one was, however, and a big one: At #1 Wisconsin. In fact, it wasn't just a sweep, it was an ass-kicking -- 20-18-14. The steady growth in the margin of victory through the sets is a definite sign of both domination by the U. and demoralization (humiliation?) of the Badgers. That it happened to the top-ranked team in this week's poll makes it even sweeter. And on the road? Oh, it had be glorious to shut up a hostile crowd. There will be a return date at the Pav, for sure, but right now, I can't think of a team that has a better chance of winning the NCAA Tournament than the Gophers.
All I'm worried about now are injuries and an abstract sense they may be "peaking" too early. What comes next, then, may prove to be a great test for the squad. That game against the Badgers started a string of four games on the road. They get it relatively easy this week though -- their only game is a potential trap game Saturday at Michigan St.
#0: Vikings (Last Week: 0). Incredibly impressive. If the Vikes, say, beat New England and Tom Brady at Gillette Stadium instead of crushing Houston at Das Bank v. 2.0, I would have put them in a tie with the U. volleyballers. Nevertheless it was a fantastic performance (at least for the first half) against a Texans club whose quality is extremely hard to read. Sam Bradford continues to impress, even receiving early recommendation from Peter King of Sports Illustrated as Most Valuable Player in the National Football League. He has made many of the receiving corps, perceived until now as a pedestrian group, into a scary arsenal, especially Kyle Randolph and, of all people, Adam Thielen, who is One Of Us.
And what about that other Minnesota kid who's on the team, Marcus Sherels? The Rochester native and Golden Gopher was signed off the street in 2010, and since becoming part of the active roster the next year, all he has been is the quiet Punt Returner who is still capable of popping off a 79-yard Touchdown run that ripped the heart out of the Texans. I don't think there are too many Vikings fans who realize Sherels has been doing this for six years now, which seems to be a lifetime for punt returning. And he doesn't call attention to that, or himself. No, he just puts his head down and does his job, spectacularly and quietly well. He is the consummate football player, and the consummate Minnesotan.
#-1: Gopher soccer (Last Week: -2). I feel really bad for sticking the Minnesota footballers down here, in third place. Don't look now -- don't know how many are looking -- but they have ripped off a three-game winning streak as we're coming down the backstretch of the 2016 women's college soccer season. They crushed Nebraska at Robbie Sunday, 3-0, and then last (Thursday) night they beat Michigan St. in East Lansing, 2-1, on an 80th-minute tally by Sydney Squires.
Soccer bracketology remains in an embryonic state. I don't think the conference standings are a help either; after fighting through a mid-pack morass, the U. is, as of press time, tied atop the B1G with, of all teams, Northwestern. But they've got to be a lock for the NCAA Tournament now, right? In fact, as their #8 ranking on Hero Sports indicates, they could host an Elite Eight game at Robbie. In December. Outside. Man, that brings up memories!
This week they have only one game, but it is on the road vs. one of the better clubs in the Big Ten, Michigan. That game is on Sunday.
#-2: Gopher men's hockey (Re-Entry!). I have a special place in my heart for men's college hockey. (I like women's college hockey too, but there are only, like, 30 varsity teams, so it's a little too small to embrace as cute, if that makes any sense, and it probably doesn't.) If you include Arizona St. (and I have heard their transition to Division I is a rocky and underfunded one), there are currently 60 teams in top-flight college hockey. That, however, may shrink to 58, and the two victims may be Alaska-Anchorage and Alaska-Fairbanks.
Because the state is so dependent on oil, the price of which has been in the tank lately, the state has not been able to fund the University of Alaska school system, and thus its athletic department. The system is facing $50 million in budget cuts, so both hockey teams are now on the table. Right now it's not looking good. In response, this report was published outlining three possibilities to ameliorate that deficit in the athletics programs. There is a chance that all sports programs at both campuses will be forced to downgrade to Division II. There is a chance that all sports programs will be abolished entirely. And there is a third possibility: A sort-of co-op group that combines the Anchorage and Fairbanks hockey programs (and all sports programs) into one team.
I have seen this before, in a way. Alabama-Birmingham had voted to euthanize its football team. But after outrage and the backing of a bunch of rich UAB cats that would rather see low-level football than, say, fund education or something, Blazers football will be back next season. I can see something like that happening here. I really doubt that both teams will just be put down. At any rate, news on this may comes as soon as next month. Stay tuned.
Now to tie this into the Gopher men's hockey team. Because Head Coach Don Lucia (who signed an extension just before the season began through 2019, so I guess he's not going anywhere for a while) started his coaching career in Alaska, he began the U.'s 2016-7 campaign in Anchorage last weekend, crushing the host Seawolves, 6-0, and then doubling up the Nanooks in a neutral-site game, 6-3. Burnsville native Tyler Sheehy is the conference's First Star Of The Week for his two goals and three assists in the two wins.
What now for the Gophers, who finished out of the NCAA Tournament last year? The conference, despite its name, remains a one-bid league and, betraying its size, seen as weaker in college hockey than Hockey East and the National Collegiate Hockey Conference. Coaches think the U., behind potential Hobey Baker Award candidate Justin Kloos and reigning conference Goalie Of The Year (and Anchorage native) Eric Schierhorn will win the league, which is great, but it's likely that, once again, the U. will be the only team carrying the B1G battle flag into The Most Underrated Postseason Event In American Sport. Let's just hope that they regain their lofty position as one of the premier programs in the sport.
#-3: Wild (Re-Entry!). Writers are being charitable when they say the Mild's window is closing. I think it's already closed. What the team is doing now is hoping Bruce Boudreau can draw blood from a stone and get this veteran-laden squad to a sterling regular season record. (He's had a crappy postseason resume, but management isn't worried about that right now.) I don't know -- unless these veterans can go all Cocoon and play like their old selves, I am really scared that this team is very vulnerable to a freefall in the still-competitive Central Division. Losing their first game of the year, 3-2 at St. Louis last (Thursday) night, doesn't help.
This week is the first three home games of the year: Winnipeg Saturday, Los Angeles Tuesday, Toronto (and Auston Matthews, who could not have had a better first professional game ever, so it's all downhill from here) Thursday.
#-4: Gopher football (Last Week: -3). Well, this is getting depressing, and maddeningly typical. Despite a tough defense (and, just as likely, turgid opposing offense), Minnesota was unable to retake Floyd of Rosedale at Das Bank v.1.0 and lost Saturday to Iowa, 14-7. They were leading until the D made one mistake, Akrum Wadley's 54-yard scamper that gave the Hawkeyes the lead for good with 5 1/2 minutes left.
The offense, once again, had a chance to get the club the win. But despite matriculating the ball 70 yards down the field to the Iowa 18, Mitch Leidner couldn't direct the drive to paydirt. That 70-yard rampage was atypical of what was going on in that game. He finished 13-for-33 for 166 yards and a pair of Interceptions. He also got smacked fairly hard on a scramble down the sideline. After the game he was held from press availability, and I have yet to hear word on whether or not he'll play Saturday's game in Maryland. Leidner could be told to sit down, either due to injury or to ineffectiveness. The U. is 0-2 in conference play, and Tracy Claeys's first season leading this team may be his last, especially with Lane Kiffin looking better and better by the day.
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