#0: Gopher volleyball (Last Week: -3). It wasn't so much the competition this screening week that convinced me to not only put the U. volleyballers atop the WMNSS but also put them above negative numbers. Illinois is below .500 in conference play, and Northwestern has won only one game in the B1G and eight overall. I am partly impressed that the Gophs beat both teams on the road -- which, BTW, concludes the road part of their schedule. Even more impressive: Minnesota has not only won their last six matches, but have swept all six matches.
But really I'm putting this club on top and with a #0 because their is a potential for a crackling, and possibly even attention-getting, match coming down the pike for Wednesday, aka Dranksgiving. The way the AVCA Top 25 stands now, the Gophers are ranked second in the nation behind Nebraska, which this week received all 64 first-place votes. And the U. hosts the Cornhuskers at 8 o'clock that evening. I plan on going. In fact, like last year's match against Penn St., I'm ready to pay a scalper a premium price for it.
Two things stand in the way, however, of a 1-vs.-2 matchup at a time slot where there is relatively little competition for the sports fan's eyeballs. The Michigan teams come to the Sports Pavilion this weekend. And even though Michigan St. (who they play today/Friday) and Michigan (their opponent Sunday afternoon) are half a shade worse than Minnesota to these eyes, both squads are good enough to spring an upset in Dinkytown, especially if the Golden Gophers are caught looking ahead to Wednesday. But if this team focuses and powers through -- man, there should be some national media looking at this game. I mean it.
#-1: Gopher men's basketball (Re-Entry!). So far, so good in what probably is a make-or-break year for Richard Pitino as Head Coach. Their first game, a 12-point victory over Louisiana-Lafayette, was the closest of the three wins in their opening week; they also crushed Texas-Arlington and Mount St. Mary's, even though all three of those games were at home.
As bad as Pitino has been at X's and O's, he has (finally at least) recruited well. He has a ballyhooed freshman class, led by Amir Coffey (son of Gopher b-ball legend Richard Coffey, I believe) and Memphian Eric Curry. They'll need it, for Pitino's teams have been a melange of medicore bigs and wings. There hasn't been definitive roles for the players on the floor. Of course, getting really good players to come to Dinkytown might solve a lot of that.
While three wins in a week is mighty impressive, this upcoming week might be a better barometer of how good this team is and how good Pitino can really coach. Tonight, in a game I bought a ticket to at the State Fair, they play St. John's as part of the Gavitt Tipoff Games, the relatively new Big Ten-Big East series. It's the second conference-versus-conference arrangement they have now; the series where they play an opponent from the ACC comes later this month. On Tuesday, in another game I have already bought a ticket to, they play Arkansas. So that's a game vs. a BcS school and one against the Catholic-heavy, basketball-first league. That is a step up in class of opponent. However, both games are at home.
#-2: Gopher women's basketball (Re-Entry!). And what about the Gopher women's b-ball program? They have been able to bring in scores of really good players since their Final Four run -- Amanda Zahui B., Rachel Banham, Carlie Wagner -- but team-wise they have not even made a ripple since the Whalen/McCarville Era. They've been basically a mediocre program that, if you really scrutinize it, has had more postseason appearances than not. But that's not UConn, or Baylor, or Notre Dame. That's not even, oh, N.C. St.
So what now? Marlene Stollings' game plan (and by the way, remember that the Athletic Director who pucked Stollings out of Virginia Commonwealth is no longer there) is to center the offense around Wagner, who came in with a reputation as being a sharpshooter from deep. Banging on the down low like Zahui, or handling the ball and being able to create her own shot from everywhere like Banham, is not her game. So her teammates are just going to find a way to get her the ball when she's open? And what about her defense?
BcS teams have the luxury of starting their seasons easy. That hasn't totally been the case with this club; they started out beat Harvard at Williams and then outlasting VCU in Richmond, so a true road win this early is nice. (I just couldn't put them above their male counterparts; two home wins still beat one road win.) But let's see how they do this week. They host a pair of Catholic schools, Georgetown (this afternoon as part of a jam-packed weekend at the U.) and Seton Hall (Sunday afternoon), then Georgia in the opening round of the Junkanoo Jam in Bimini, the Bahamas.
#-3: Wild (Last Week: -4). So I dragged my tired butt to St. Paul to watch the Bruins game last (Thursday) night for free with my friend. Honestly, it looked like both teams were playing Game, oh, 10 of 82. Both teams, I swear, were pacing themselves now that they're going through the heart of a seven-month work assignment -- 75% intensity, with poor passing and pucks consistently clattering off of sticks.
Boston was the only team to put the puck in the net, twice, and they still got shut out. In the second period, David Backes (who went to my high school) somehow slipped the puck past Devan Dubnyk. But Bruce Boudreau challenged the score, and it turns out that Backes came across the blue line before the puck did. Offsides, no goal. Then, with only 44.5 seconds left to play, Mikael Granlund centered a puck that hit off Boston's Adam McQuaid and past Goaltender Tuukka Rask. I'm so glad I could hear "Let's Go Crazy," the Wild's new goal song, but I and everybody in the arena (including Wild players) that they had very little to do with the game-winning goal, even though it officially goes to Granlund.
That capped off a week where they played every other day. They lost to Philadelphia and beat Ottawa (in Overtime) on the road, then lost to Calgary and beat these Bruins at the X. They continue playing every other day this screening week: Home to Colorado, at The Team That Was Stolen From Us, then hosting both Winnipeg and Pittsburgh.
#-4: Timberwolves (Last Week: -5). The Woofie Dogs also played four games this week, and this squad also went 2-2. But since all four games were at Target Center, that means that they lost to the Clippers and Charlotte at home, and therefore they are ranked lower than the Mild. It's tough to see so much young talent still taking their lumps, but I've got to trust The Process, whatever that is. Nevertheless, this dunk by Karl-Anthony Towns is a taste of what's to come:
This week: At Memphis, home to Boston, at New Orleans.
#-5: Gopher football (Last Week: -1). With the Goofs' close 24-17 loss in Nebraska Saturday, now more than ever I know where this team stands in the B1G. So now, knowing that this team can regularly beat the shitty teams in the league but have little chance of beating programs that are even incrementally better than them, what now? Do we just accept that this is the best it can be? Or do we fire Tracy Claeys with aspirations that they -- we -- can become Ohio St. or Michigan?
Here's the funny thing. With the loss, SI.com has the Gophs now projected to play Stanford (which is falling like a stone, by the way) in the Holiday Bowl Dec. 27. Bowl games are mere exhibitions, but it's not a bad one to go to. The Holiday Bowl has been around a long time, and I don't know if the U. has ever played there. (My alma mater, however, played there last year.) But for the few weeks before, when they were rolling up their record against the pure dregs of the conference, they were projected to play in, of all places, the Outback Bowl. The Outback Bowl! That game is usually played on New Year's Day (although this year it'll be played on Jan. 2)! It's the one in Tampa! It used to be called (and should still be called) the Hall Of Fame Bowl! It's a hell of a bowl! And for, like, three weeks SI.com thought the U. was going to play there, then! Now, a couple years ago they played in the Citrus Bowl in Orlando on New Year's Day. But Jerry Kill actually piloted that team into a solid squad. Well, maybe not great; I think they lost to Missouri. So these bowl placements might be more of a result of conference leverage. Regardless, a team that was a deceptively good 7-2 got busted down from Tampa Bay to San Diego. And they could slide even further, to one of those new-ish bowls whose names are solely the name of the sponsor (instead of an actual bowl name with the sponsor's name shoved in front) if they don't beat an improving Northwestern squad at in the team's final home game of the season.
#-6: Vikings (Last Week: -Infinity). The ViQueens were playing in Washington Sunday afternoon, around the time I volunteered to drive 40 minutes to a bank to be an extra in my friend's film. I was bitching about spending gas to go out there, but I was checking up on the game through Twitter, and I'll tell ya, I think I made the right decision not to watch the game on TV. The early 14-0 hole, then catching up, then leading, then coughing up the lead again ... fuck that. I got released early to hear the end of the game in my car radio. The last gasp the Vikings had to avoid a 26-20 loss ended with back-to-back sacks, the first of which resulted in the Achilles tear (and the end of the season) of free-agent pickup Jake Long. T.J. Clemmings was flipped over to the left side, but on fourth down Washington just overloaded that side to overwhelm the already-underwhelming Clemmings and to bring down Bradford. Hey, you think it would have been smart to throw a Running Back in there for blitz pick-up?
After missing another Extra Point in Sunday's game, Blair Walsh was finally shitcanned in favor of friend Kai Forbarth. This kind of feels like Walsh was made a scapegoat, seeing as all facets of the team's game have collapsed. But if you continue to miss kicks, and Walsh missed four XPs, more than any other Kicker, what can you do? Even those kids in Blaine who made poster for him to cheer him up after he fucked up that Field Goal in the Tundra Bowl last postseason are probably all, "Sorry, Blair -- at this point, I can't help you."
The Vikes host The Bastard Chicago-By-Way-Of-St.-Louis Cardinals, another team that has disappointed. I'll be working that game. I wonder if the team's recent misadventures have depressed ticket prices for what is still a brand-new stadium.
#-Infinity: Gopher soccer (Last Week: 0). Well, it turns out that scheduling the side's first-round NCAA Tournament match at the same time as my alma mater's football game was a blessing disguise. The team I watched on TV sprung the upset; the team that was playing at Robbie Stadium laid an egg and was dismissed from the tourney via upset.
These Goofers, who were so dangerous on the attack, just failed to crack one past N.C. St. Goalkeeper Sydney Wootten. In fact, the Wolfpack wound up outshooting the U., 14-13, including having target practice on them in the first half, 10-2. Tarah Hobbs repelled every Wolfpack howitzer. However, she yielded all four of N.C. St.'s tries in Penalty Kicks after both teams failed to score in regulation and the two 10-minute periods of extra time. On the other side, Josee Stiever and Molly Fielder failed on their PK tries, and so Minnesota was shocked at home, 4-2 in the shootout. It did not help that one of their best players, Senior Simone Kolander, left early in the second half after a scramble in the box and did not return the rest of the game.
This is an extremely bitter pill to swallow. I still don't like penalties, the worst way a sport settles ties (with college football's "Let's not tax the young men -- just put the ball on the 25 and let's go!" tie-breaking procedure). But Saturday night was a case where the more-talented team just was unable to break through against, supposedly, an inferior opponent. From this report from local soccer blog FiftyFive.One it looked like the Wolfpack weren't playing much in form, either, so, I guess it was just "one of those things." Except that it shouldn't have been one of those things.
They finished with their best-ever record of 16-3-4 overall, yet they went one-and-done. So, in my mind, the program's team with the second-best record ever, the one that went 22-4 in 2008, still stands as the U.'s best ever because that team made it to the Sweet 16 (which, by the way, they played at home; I've told this story a million times already, but I was at the game, one in which it was so cold the Coke I bought froze. And visiting Georgetown won the match with ten seconds left to go in the second period of Added Extra Time. Simply heartbreaking). This team had their chance; they were supposed to lose in the Sweet 16 at Stanford. But they failed to do that, so they cannot be looked at too fondly, I'm afraid.
And who knows if they'll ascend to such heights again? This team loses Kolander, Hobbs, Stiever and Defender Rashida Beal to graduation. Who will take their places? Anyone?
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