Next week they will be in Austin, Tex., for the Texas Tournament. This tourney is unique in that it will be held on Thursday and Friday, and that the Gophers will play two games on Thursday. Don't know why these games aren't being played Friday and Saturday. But the two games they play on the same day are against Denver and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, and the match on Friday is the huge early-season contest many v-ball fans (not just the ones from Minnesota) await: Texas.
Better yet, while the Twins have gone just 6-4 over their last ten games (feels as though they've been hotter than that), some of their competitors for ALWC2 have fallen off. K.C. may have won Friday and they may still win the series with a victory this afternoon, but they've gone 3-7 in their last ten. Seattle has lost six of ten and the Angels are 5-5. Baltimore has gotten hot, winning eight of their last ten. But right now, Minnesota has some breathing room, leading the Angels for ALWC2 by 1 1/2 games. And don't look now, but because the Yankees have gone 4-6, the Twins are now only a game behind them for ALWC1. Minnesota is closer to ALWC1 than to missing the postseason. Couldn't imagine this ballclub being in this position after they got swept by the Dodgers. Best of all, it feels as though this team has found its personality, and through learning and winning, it feels as though this team likes each other. I don't know where this will lead, but fans, both diehard and casual, should take a second look at this squad and understand that there is something special, something very organic, in the way they're playing. Things are coming up Millhouse for the Twins right now.
And so that is why I thought about putting these guys #1 over the volleyball team. In the end, that loss on Friday is something the v-ballers don't have. And while it's heart-warming to see the Twins play meaningful games in September -- and to believe they have a shot of winning most of them -- the season is long and it isn't over yet. So, in a compromise, I put the Gopher volleyball team first and pushed them all the way up to Positive Numbers. Then I slide the Twins up to 0, because they certainly deserve not to be in negative numbers after the week they had.
Can they continue to put something special together with a three-game series in Tampa Bay starting Labor Night and a return four-game series versus the Royals beginning Thursday?
#-1: Gopher football (Re-Entry!). The team's oars might not have been rowing in the same direction at the same time -- I have a feeling I'm going to drive Head Coach P.J. Fleck's Row The Boat mantra into the bottom of the sea, and there's another analogy -- but a Gopher head football coach won his first game with the U. for the first time since John Gutekunst debuted with a win over Bowling Green in 1986. It wasn't pretty -- 17-7 at TCF Bank Stadium Thursday over Buffalo. They scored a pair of rushing Touchdowns (they outgained the Buffalos on the ground, 169-51) in the First Quarter and only mustered a Field Goal in the fourth. But hey, for a team that is picked by most to finish the bottom half of the Big Ten West, you take the wins where they come. Moreover (and this may be because I'm looking at the Twins) when I saw the team take to the field for introductions, where the players were rocking back and forth at the direction of conductor Fleck before storming the turf, I'm getting the feeling that this club is also playing for each other, and for their HC. I like the energy coming from Fleck. It's a boisterous and youthful as the enthusiasm from Tim Brewster, except that Fleck has a better track record.
Their next test comes on the road late Saturday night, when they face an Oregon St. team that struggled to beat second-division Portland St. in Overtime yesterday.
#-2: Lynx (Last Week: -3). By God, this team is hanging on for dear life. After getting waxed at Los Angeles Sunday, 78-67, it appears as though the Jynx had to win their final three games in order to beat the Sparks for home-court advantage throughout the WNBA Playoffs. Now, that doesn't mean everything, as my attendance in last year's Game 5 of the WNBA Finals at Target Center can attest. But this is basketball, where being in front of your people matters. So yes, it's worth chasing it.
The team bounced back after the loss. They beat the Fever in Indiana, 80-69 Wednesday and eliminated Chicago (and, I think, set the participants for the postseason) Friday when they destroyed the Sky at Xcel, 110-87. But those two games illustrated to me how they've gotten to be so shaky. Sylvia Fowles became the focal point of the Lynx's game this year, and most beat writers believe she's the runaway favorite for Most Valuable Player. But the Point Guard position has been a little-mitigated disaster. I thought Renee Montgomery would be a capable replacement for Lindsay Whalen, yet it looks as though she has been such a defensive liability that Head Coach Cheryl Reeve has give Alexis Jones more playing time. She hasn't been great, but it appears as though Reeve believes she can hold her ground when the other team has the ball.
Really, this shows how important it is to get Whalen back. But I don't know if she's going to appear in this afternoon's season finale against Washington, a game they have to win to ensure home-court for the playoffs. The sooner Whalen comes back, the sooner this team can find its chemistry, and damn the week-long wait that comes with a double-bye.
Oh, one other thing. On Saturday the WNBA and the Lynx announced that the team will host next year's WNBA All-Star Game at Target Center. And my thought was, how have they not hosted it already? They are the most successful franchise the WNBA has right now. They should have hosted one since 2011, when they've started their run of achievement. And it took till now to get one? This is kind of puzzling.
#-3: Gopher soccer (Last Week: -2). With so many teams doing well and reaching some milestones, real or imaginary, the Gopher XI has gotten lost in the shuffle. They did obliterate Iowa St. Sunday, 6-1; Senior Forward Sydney Squires scored four of those Goals and thus received Player Of The Week honors from the B1G, the NCAA and from something called United Soccer Coaches. But they followed that up with a 1-0 loss, their first of the season, to Cal-Santa Barbara in the first game of their Minnesota Classic Friday night. The tally was scored in the 59th Minute by the Gauchos' Amanda Ball after a Handball was called in the box.
They host Providence in the final game of the Minnesota Classic this afternoon. I thought about going, but then I realize that I have yet to see the Lynx play at Xcel Energy Center. It should be the last time they ever play there, since they'll have to vacate the X for Wild games and other events. Plus it's an important game they have to win. Now that I think about it, for those reasons, I think I need to go to the Lynx game.
#-4: Gopher men's basketball (Re-Entry!). A pair off off-season teams (well, one won't be off-season very soon, but they seem to be off-season by the way that they're playing, see below) to finish off the WMNSS. Sophomore Forward/Center Eric Curry was playing a pick-up game and tore up his left knee. And I mean tore up -- his ACL, his MCL, and his meniscus. All three of them, gone. So he's done for the year. I mean, wow. As for the the team's chances -- well, he is a reserve, but all reserves serve important roles so, according to a tweet by some guy named Ryan James, Davante Fitzgerald and Bakary Konate will need to step it up. Curry isn't a starter, but this hurts in more ways than one.
#-5: Vikings (Re-Entry!). I'm throwing these guys in there just so I can throw them under the bus. I know they're just exhibition games, and the scrubs managed to beat San Francisco last week at the gun. But the way the rest of the guys are playing -- the starters giving up a pair of quick Touchdown throws to Brian fucking Hoyer, the second-stringers getting runover by Miami, both games at home -- makes me think bad things are coming for this team. I don't care if people think this is hypocritical or nonsensical; if a team plays well in the preseason, it means nothing, but if a team does not play well, that portends something horrible. And the way these guys played, especially for the dress rehearsal game against the 49ers, these guys aren't just not making the playoffs, they might be fending off the likes of the Niners and the Jets for The Worst Team In The NFL. I'm serious. I didn't think these guys could win more than five games this year. Now, I'll say 3-13, and they're a Sam Bradford injury away (and that offensive line has not gotten any better, I don't care what anyone says) from Case Keenum and 1-15. Book it.
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