The Weekly Minnesota Sports Survey

#-1: Lynx (Re-Entry!).  So, after that humiliating Game 5 upset loss in the WNBA Finals to the Los Angeles Sparks at home (I still can't forgive myself for wasting money and witnessing that shit in person), they are, unfortunately, put back on the Weekly Minnesota Sports Survey.  And I think they'll be here for a long, long time.  I know I've said that for, like, the past five years.  But this time the decline will really, really happen, you know?  I just can't think that a team that has relied on its starting five for so long won't get old very quickly.  There are only a dozen teams in the WNBA, and that does mean that every team is deep enough to keep good talent stuck in the bottom of the bench.  But shit, the Jynx are old, aren't they?

And through this first week, some cracks are showing.  Maybe.  Despite being evicted from their home -- Target Center has shut down to do the final and most extensive renovations to the arena, so they will be playing at the Xcel Energy Center for the season -- they have started the season 3-0 and thus reign atop the WMNSS.  Nevertheless, Head Coach Cheryl Reeve complained about rebounding in the season-opening, 70-61 victory over Chicago at home Sunday, and Point Guard pressure made for a bad second half as Seimone Augustus had to bury a jumper with about two seconds left to beat the Dallas Wings last (Saturday) evening, 89-87.

I tweeted at a writer at SB Nation site Canis Hoopus.  He or she said that we should wait to see if the team can fix their initial problems.  But the writer does see problems.  Rebounding and the 1 might be those problems.  Let's see if these players can get shit straightened out as this week they have a home-and-home versus Connecticut.  Three days apart.

#-2: Twins (Last Week: 0).  Through all the insightful analysis and in-depth talk about how much better the Twinks are than they were last year, I didn't realize something: This team is in first place in the American League Central Division.  How in the hell did that happen?  Well, getting above average pitching from your #1 through #3 guys helps.  Hitting also helps.  And, finally, this club may have found its staff ace of the future.  In Thursday night's lightly-attended make-up game against the Colorado Rockies (Wednesday's game was rained out), Jose Berrios, who looked overmatched in the majors last year, went 7 2/3 innings and struck out 11 in defeating the Rockies, 2-0.  Maybe the future is bright for this team after all?

Unfortunately these guys went 2-3 this screening week, so I don't know if they still are leading the division.  Weather has made a mess of the schedule.  Thursday was a day-night doubleheader, and after yesterday's (Saturday's) match against Kansas City at Target was rained out, they'll have another double dip, this one a pure doubleheader (where the second game will be played approximately half an hour after the end of the first one, and I think one ticket will let you attend both games) with the Royals this (Sunday) afternoon.  They then strike out for Baltimore for a three-game series starting tomorrow (Monday) before coming home and beginning a trio vs. the Bay Rays of Tampa over the weekend.

#-3: Gopher baseball (Last Week: -2).  Holy shit, what happened to this team?  I know I've said that at least one time before this year, but this is not the time to get upset to inferior squads at home.

But first of all, let's talk about the final regular season series the Nine had, vs. Purdue at Siebert.  Since this was the last series of the year, instead of playing Friday-Saturday-Sunday, it was played Thursday through Saturday.  The two teams were cruising along in the first game ... well, actually the Boilermakers had their way with the Goofs.  But then, in the seventh inning, there was a power outage.  Not at Siebert, at least not technically, but it happened off-site and that took out the power in the ballpark.  So that meant they had to halt the game until the following day.  Moreover, weather was coming in for Saturday, so they decided to play the game scheduled on Saturday also on Friday.  That meant that they played all three games of this series in one fucking day.  OK, maybe that's getting to be dramatic.  But two games and 2+ innings, OK?  And this isn't like the days of old, where scheduled Big Ten doubleheaders would last only seven innings.  These are actual, proper, nine-inning games they had to play two of after completing the first game.  Whew!

Unfortunately they wound up losing the series.  Sleeping on it didn't reverse the U.'s fortunes in Game 1; they lost 5-2.  And then they got pummeled by the Boilers in Game 2, 11-1.  Purdue probably thought they suffered enough, as the Goofs won Game 3 by a score of 9-2.  So now, even though they achieved the 3-seed for the B1G Tourney and finished with records of 15-8 in-conference and 33-19 overall, they have no chits they would get them into the tournament as an at-large invitee -- even after sweeping Rutgers in a Tuesday fly-in doubleheader (6-2 and 6-0), getting trounced in the rubber match against Top 10-ranked Long Beach St. Sunday, 9-1 essentially killed any hopes of that.  So they now have to win the tournament and claim the automatic bid.  That uphill climb begins Wednesday morning against Indiana ... which is hosting the tournament.  (Aside: I thought Target Field had a deal where it and TD Ameritrade Park, home of the College World Series, would trade hosting duties for the conference tournament for the time being.  Was I wrong, or did they redo the deal?  If it's the latter, is it because true attendance for tourney games at Target numbered in the triple digits?)  Uh, good luck extending the season, guys.

#-4: Gopher softball (Last Week: Positive Numbers).  The most pernicious fallout from the NCAA Softball Selection Tournament Committee's decision to reward a 53-win, major conference-double-champion who the coaches put as the #1 team in the country at the end of the regular season with nothing except a road trip to Alabama and a potential second-weekend matchup with the top overall seed in said tourney are the conclusions people will make if they lose.  Minnesota is facing up against a lot of good teams, but now they have to face them on the road and earlier than one would probably presume given their lofty record and credentials.  Given that rigged system, what do you think the narrative from the haters would be if the U. loses to the Gators in the Super Regional, or even to the Crimson Tide in this weekend's Regional?  Oh, the NCAA Committee was right, the Goofers were just paper tigers, they didn't deserve a national seed like they and their fans thought they did, etc.

And you know what?  I would be one of those people sorely disappointed in them.  After all, like Bill Parcells said, at the end of the day, you are what your record says you are.  Guess that makes me a hater, too.  But hey, if you're pissed that you didn't get to play at home, fucking beat the opponents' asses at their place.  If you're a national seed, win like one, goddammit.

Which makes, or made, the inevitable matchup with the #1 seed, Alabama, this weekend so pivotal.  If Minnesota won, they would have proven the NCAA wrong and confirmed the suspicions from many college softball fans that they got fucked over royally.  But if the Tide win, well, it would look as though the Golden Gophers weren't as good as people said they are.  Sure, this is double elimination.  But the #1 seed and the most wins of any team in top-flight college softball leads one to believe that Alabama would be a decisive underdog.

That didn't happen.  It was a tight game yesterday (Saturday), and the game went into extra innings.  But Minnesota failed to bring home runners in the seventh, eighth and ninth innings.  Sara Groenewegen may have hit a batter, then she loaded the bases, and then she issued a game-ending walk in the bottom of the ninth to put the top-ranked team in the country into the losers' bracket.

They were scheduled to play again later in the day against either Louisiana Tech (whom the Gophers beat Friday) or Albany, but instead that game will be played this (Sunday) afternoon.  If they survive that, they have a rematch against Bama shortly thereafter, and if they beat them, there will be one final, winner-take-all contest Monday.  But that loss, though ... I think that's a killer.  These players are good, but after a gut punch like that, I don't think they'll ever recover.  And then the doubters will have a field day.  Including me.  And, I'm afraid, they'll have a great point.