Positive Numbers: Gopher softball (Re-Entry!). Didn't realize until Friday that the college softball season begins this week. And so far, so very good for the Gophers, who won all five of their games in the Texas Tournament in Austin, capped off late this morning with a 10-2 Mercy Rule win over Maryland in five innings. They also took two against the host Longhorns and beat Colorado St., 5-1, over the weekend.
I have no idea how good this team is supposed to be. They are ranked in the mid-teens. In the conference, Michigan (again) is considered to be the Big Dog. In College Softball Nation, Oklahoma appears to be the best team. All I know is that Sara Groenewegen is a Senior, and so this club has one final year to do something substantial before the program loses Unarguably The Best Softball Player In Golden Gophers History.
Since we live in Minnesota, Minnesota won't be playing in Minnesota for a long time, sunny skies notwithstanding. This weekend they head to Raleigh, N.C. for the annual B1G/ACC Challenge. They play a doubleheader vs. Notre Dame, then play two against host North Carolina St.
#0: Gopher men's basketball (Last Week: -3). Just as this team's season was spiralling out of control, they banished their five-game losing streak with a current three-game winning streak after outlasting Iowa in Double Overtime and then outlasting Rutgers in Piscataway. I'm not sure how big of a tournament threat they'll be now that their offensive woes have hardened into a team weakness. That's why I'm putting the U. softball team in front of these guys, even if this is the softballers' opening week. But for the first time in Richard Pitino's tenure, they should -- should -- be a tournament team, and that is something.
The squad has only one game this screening week: Home to very-much-in-trouble Indiana at The Barn Wednesday.
#-1: Wild (Last Week: -2). Doubled-up The Bastard Atlanta Thrashers in Winnipeg, came home to lose to Chicago at the X in Overtime, the aftermath of which generated some Twitter-based consternation from analyst Jeremy Roenick, then outlasted Tampa Bay in a Shootout. So they still lead the Western Conference (three points clear of Chicago) and at 36-18 they still have the second-best record in the National Hockey League (behind Washington). And Devyn Dubnyk has won 30 games already. In a normal week, this team would be tops in the survey.
They are in the middle of playing six games every other day. Those six games are also at home. (It's part of a seven-game homestand.) It starts this afternoon, where they host Detroit in the NBC Sunday Afternoon game. The other opponents are Anaheim, The Bastard North Stars, and Nashville.
#-2: Gopher men's hockey (Last Week: -1). Split at Ohio St. when they should have won both. Saturday's 6-5 win was notable for a few reasons. First, the U. came back from a 3-0 Buckeye lead. They also tied the game after Ohio St. made it 4-3 and 5-4; Jake Bischoff's PP goal was the only time the U. led all game. The much more notable feat, however, is that all of the Gophers' goals (not just Bischoff's) came on the Power Play. The six goals are a modern-era record; I don't know if a Minnesota club, or any club, has ever scored so many goals solely on the man advantage.
The NCAA Tournament begins in March. Since it's the month before, I think it's finally time to start looking at the PairWise and the projections. As of press time (I won't link to it because it's the page that refreshes with updates), the U. is settled in fifth, behind NCHC squads Minnesota-Duluth and Denver, Boston U., and Harvard. Using the advanced metric KARCH, which regards itself as more indicative of team strength, the Gophers are sixth, behind all of the above teams and Penn St.
Is this team that good -- good enough to fight for the Frozen Four in Chicago? They have a stern test this weekend -- at the Nittany Lions.
#-3: Timberwolves (Last Week: -6). Friend had a free ticket to Friday's match against The Bastard Charlotte Hornets. I don't really know this friend well, but after he volunteered this second ticket a second time on Facebook, I figured none of his other friends wanted it, so I swooped in and saw my first T-Wolves game featuring this bright new nucleus.
And so I saw close-up (great seats, by the way) how frustrating this team is. They got off to a huge lead in the Second Quarter, where at one point they were up by, like, 16 points. But a four-point lead at Halftime quickly turned into a deficit in The Dreaded Third Quarter. My friend and I got to talking a bit in the Second Half, though not as much in the First. I kind of noticed the Pelicans's comeback in the third; my friend suddenly looked up at one point and realized that the game was tied. After that, the fact that the Woofie Dogs simply couldn't make their shots was readily apparent, and by the time New Orleans stretched the lead to as many as 21 points in the Fourth, the club's fate was beyond sealed.
This was a game between two teams that were playing with records of 20-33. Both squads should be better than their records indicate. That dulled some of the shine of the storyline I looked forward to: The matchup between the two most-promising big men in the National Basketball Association, Karl-Anthony Towns vs. Anthony Davis. Both players brought it -- Towns poured in 36 and made all nine of his Free Throws, while Davis countered with 42 on 16-of-22 shooting ... and, of course, the win. But the shitty offense from the rest of the team, combined with the shitty defense from all of the team, remains a baffling mystery. How does a team this talented lose by 16 to a team equally underachieving, with two of their rotation players (Tyreke Evans and Quincy Pondexter) injured, at home?
The screening week was just as weird: They lost by two to medicore Miami, but fought off arguably The Second-Best Team In The Eastern Conference, Toronto, by three. They finish a six-game homestand (a homestand by both winter pro teams at the same time? That shouldn't happen. That depletes security resources) this week this afternoon versus Chicago at 2:30 (OK, I just realized that the Wild play in St. Paul starting at 2 ... two teams in the same area shouldn't be playing at the same time. I don't care if sports leagues don't coordinate, this shouldn't happen, because this is a serious depletion of security resources) and Defending World Champions Cleveland Tuesday.
They play in Denver the next day, come back to play Dallas at Target Friday, then head to Houston Saturday. Wait a second -- back-to-back ... back-to-backs, both of them home-road? And these aren't bus rides across the state line either; they have to go to Denver and then to Houston. Holy shit, this is a horribly unfair part of the schedule!!! Who the fuck made this?!?!?!
#-4: Gopher women's basketball (Last Week: -5). Got crushed at Penn St., 77-66, then immolated Rutgers at Williams, 80-46. (Is this a C. Vivian Stringer-coached Rutgers team?) (Shrug) This week: The make-up game at home Monday vs. Northwestern, which was postponed from Jan. 11 because of the suicide of Wildcats Guard Jordan Hankins. They also visit Michigan St. Thursday.
#-5: Gopher wrestling (Last Week: -4). I don't remember when Brandon Eggum was named Head Coach. But I assume that being named HC means you don't get embarrassed by rival Iowa at home 27-11. I know that the program has a very strong following. But if that following is small, even cult-ish, and if that team isn't even winning ... well, what's it worth?
I found it weird that a Big Ten opponent hasn't played at the Sports Pavilion in half a decade. But such as it is for Ohio St., who travel here to play these Goofers for a dual today.
No comments:
Post a Comment