Positive Numbers: Gopher men's hockey (Last Week: -2). Another extremely competitive survey this screening week; four of the top five teams all went undefeated. By quality of opponent, where they won, and the implications the victories at least nominally mean, I am putting the U. men's hockey team on top.
I'm checking the PairWise; after sweeping Penn St. this weekend, they are now solidly in fourth. However, are the Gophers really the fourth-best team in College Hockey Nation? I don't know. All I can tell is that the U. went into Happy Valley to face what could be the second-best team in the Big Ten and doubled-up the eighth or ninth-best team in the country on Friday, 6-3, then outlasted the Nittany Lions in Overtime Saturday, 4-3. Well, it's more like Rem Pitlick did that to Penn St.; the Freshman from Plymouth tallied a Hat Trick on Friday and scored the OT game-winner Saturday. Surely he'll be the conference's First Star Of The Week.
The fact that they solidly defeated the nearest league competition is a fantastic statement to make. However, points-wise they are still tied atop the B1G with Wisconsin ... their next opponent next weekend at Mariucci. (For some reason the athletic department website has Minnesota facing off against the Royal Credit Union, the sponsors of the two-game series, on the top website banner.) Sweep that series, and not only is the Big Ten regular-season title theirs, a spot in the NCAA Tournament is assured, too.
#0: Gopher softball (Last Week: Positive Numbers). If these Gophers continue to win on the road in these tournaments, there's no reason for them to ever come home! The club has won the first three games of four in the B1G/ACC Challenge this weekend in Raleigh, N.C. They beat Notre Dame, 4-1, Friday as Sara Groenewegen struck out 15; outlasted the Fighting Irish 3-2 in eight innings Saturday as Dani Wagner singled home Ellie Cowger; then, later that day, crushed host N.C. St. 11-0 in five innings. One more game this (Sunday) afternoon and, assuming they win that, they'll be 9-0 to start the year and should rise above their rank of 13th in both college softball polls. They'll try to continue their run with five games next weekend in the Fresno St. Tournament.
#-1: Gopher men's basketball (Last Week: 0). Tom Crean, the Head Coach of Indiana, ripped his team after they got humiliated against Michigan last Sunday. One would expect that to be motivation for their next game. That sucked for the U., because guess who the Hoosiers played next?
Nevertheless, despite an extremely tight back-and-forth, Akeem Springs layed in his own three-point miss with three seconds left to go to get the Gophers a thrilling 75-74 win over Indiana at The Barn. That is now four wins in a row for Minnesota (not to mention possibly killing off the Hoosiers' chances of even making the tournament). Checking out The Bracket Matrix (which was last updated Saturday morning), the Gophers are ensconced as a 7-seed. There are still some weeks left, but it'll take a serious downward spiral to jeopardize Richard Pitino's first entry into the NCAA Tournament at this point.
This team has a busy screening week. This evening they host the B1G Sunday Night game against fellow bubbler Michigan. On Wednesday they visit one of the best teams in the conference, Maryland. And on Saturday afternoon they host Penn St.
#-2: Wild (Last Week: -1). A frustrating blip Tuesday, a 1-0 defeat to potential Western Conference rival Anaheim. But other than that, the Wild are enjoying their long homestand, with wins over Detroit, The Team That Was Stolen From Us, and Nashville. Darcy Kuemper is playing very well while spelling Devan Dubnyk. And Jonas Brodin is back from his broken finger.
As of press time, they are -- get this -- nine points clear of Chicago for the Central Division lead. They are eight points better than San Jose for the Western Conference lead, and now stand only one point behind Washington for the most points in the National Hockey League. Again, the Stanley Cup Playoffs is where it's at. But right now, this team -- this organization -- has never enjoyed a better season.
I was only aware of this now: This year, every team has a five-day mini-break that stretches over a weekend. After they play the Blackhawks at home Tuesday, it's the Wild's turn. Interesting.
#-3: Gopher baseball (Re-Entry!). And hey, college baseball is back! And hey, once again, the University of Minnesota is facing a series of postponements and cancellations! They were supposed to start their season Friday in the first of a three-game set versus Cal-Irvine. But Southern California, as you may know, has been inundated with rain. That probably went into the decision to push back Friday's game to Saturday as part of a doubleheader, and then forced them to cancel that game because, I'm guessing, the rain didn't let up until late in the afternoon.
They were able to get the second game in, or one game in (however you want to see it), and after scoring all their runs in the first three innings, the Gophers held on to a 9-8 win over the Anteaters.
I have the faintest clue about this squad. Looking up the preseason conference voting, it appears as though the U., who I forgot went from winning the regular season title to flaming out in the conference tournament by losing both games, is tabbed for a tie for sixth place. Players of note are Starting Pitcher Lucas Gilbreath and Infielders Micah Coffey and Terrin Vavra.
They have another game against the Zots this (Sunday) afternoon. Then, due to the blessing that is the indoor stadium, they will be able to actually play in the Twin Cities before April Fools' Day. I was looking forward to the day where U.S. Bank Stadium will be able to host their first-ever baseball game, vs. Seattle University. But then I looked at the schedule just now and realized that they are playing the Redhawks this weekend ... when I'll be off to Hong Kong. This begins a string of 13 games being played at Das New And Bigger Bank, and I will likely be out of town for the first eight, the latter three of which comprise the Dairy Queen Classic the following weekend, which I also totally forgot. You know, this is kind of a bummer.
(Oh, as a corollary to all this, there's a good chance that I won't be able to write a WMNSS next week. I have no idea if I'll have any time to write a survey. I have no idea if the people I'm staying with even have a computer. So just to forewarn all of you, not only will the survey skip a week, but Wailing And Failing may even go dark for a good chunk of time as well.)
#-4: Timberwolves (Last Week: -3). Crushed short-handed Chicago at Target, made it close but lost to Cleveland at home, then went to Denver and beat the Nuggets by 13. Andrew Wiggins notched 41 points against the Cavaliers and 40 against Denver, becoming the second Woof to score at least 40 back-to-back. One highlight against the Nuggets is a candidate for Dunk Of The Year.
The best dunks show the dunker pushing back on a defender. Those are the best. That illustrates the power of the dunk, you know?
There are no Wolves in the All-Star Game. In fact, I don't think any player on the team participated in any of the festivities. Too bad; I was hoping to see Zach LaVine three-peat in the Slam Dunk Contest, but he's done for the year. Oh well -- at least the entire team has nine days off. They get back to the swing of things Friday at home vs. Dallas. The next day they have to fly all the way down to Houston.
#-5: Gopher women's basketball (Last Week: -4). I feel kind of bad that I don't have much to say about this club. But after the win over Northwestern at home Monday and a 16-point crushing at Michigan St. Thursday, they sit 14-13 overall. Yeah, so ... yeah. These ladies host Purdue Thursday.
#-6: Gopher wrestling (Last Week: -5). According to this article from Forbes last year, 41 Division I schools have discontinued their wrestling programs since the 1988-9 season, leaving just 76 schools in the top-flight tier of the sport.
Minnesota is one of them. But after the squad's embarrassing 24-20 loss to Ohio St. at the Sports Pavilion Sunday, maybe it's best to just gas this program. I'm serious. They finish 5-4 in Big Ten play, and after the grapplers' dual at Iowa St. this (Sunday) afternoon, they should finish at .500 (6-6) for the year. When was the last time the Goofer wrestling team finished at .500?? Unacceptable.
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