#0: Wild (Last Week: -4). Somewhat similar to the University of Minnesota women's basketball team, the Wild took a huge step from the outside to the inside of the playoff picture over the course of a week. Facing a workweek on the road against the three clubs of the New York metropolitan area (that would be the Islanders, New Jersey and the Rangers, in chronological order), followed by a game vs. San Jose at the Xcel Energy Center the day after the Minnesota State High School Girls' Hockey Tournaments ended, the Wild ripped off a 4-0 week, capped off by coming back from a 2-0 deficit to defeat the Sharks last (Sunday) night in Overtime on a Jared Spurgeon one-timer from Jason Zucker.
I'm not exactly sure if there was a key, although I wonder if Chris Stewart being put on waivers Sunday afternoon have anything to do with it. Nevertheless they're playing well right now; note that the victories in the New York area were by two, two and three Goals. And because of their recent good work, they now hold the third spot in the Central Division by three Points. Moreover, although they have to play four games this screening week, they're all winnable: Home to reeling St. Louis (and embattled former Wild Head Coach Mike Yeo) Tuesday, road games vs. Arizona and Colorado (although they are back-to-back Thursday and Friday), then home Sunday to face Detroit.
#-1: Gopher softball (Last Week: -5). Well, that's better. After getting blanked in last weekend's B1G/ACC Challenge, they ran the table over the weekend in the Diamond 9 Citrus Classic in Orlando, albeit against (overall) weaker opponents. Now, they nipped Kentucky Friday afternoon, 2-1, and the Wildcats were ranked, and they beat Duke 5-1 in eight Innings. But the other three foes are non-BcS squads: South Alabama, Bradley and Lehigh. Much easier slate than Florida St. and Notre Dame. Still, five wins are five wins for the just-ranked Gophers, who go to their fourth tournament of the season, the San Diego Classic I (?) in, uh, San Diego. The five western schools they face include UCLA, who is considered to be a title contender, and Long Beach St. and Oregon St., both of whom received votes in last week's poll. So this slate is better than the Diamond 9, but worse than the ACC Challenge.
#-2: Gopher women's hockey (Last Week: -7). They're still flirting with disaster; upsetting Ohio St. in the Semis of next week's WCHA Final Faceoff would make me feel a lot better about them being on the right side of the PairWise. But they did what they had to do in their Quarterfinal sweep of St. Cloud St. at Ridder, crushing the Huskies by scores of 5-1 and 4-1. Now they face a resurgent Buckeyes program Saturday (courtesy of Head Coach Nadine Muzerall, and yes, she is One Of Us), and either Bemidji St. (the five-seed; they upset four-seed Minnesota-Duluth in three games) or top-seed Wisconsin for Sunday's Final. The U. made not make it to the title game, but at least they have the advantage of playing the Final Faceoff at home.
#-3: Twins (Re-Entry!). First Twins appearance in the WMNSS this season, and it's ... not a bad one. So now, they didn't get Yu Darvish, the unicorn signing that would have shown Twins fans and MLB Nation that this club was serious about spending and competing. (Darvish went to the Cubs instead; scuttlebutt says that the Cubs gave Darvish the fifth year that he wanted and the Twinks refused to grant.) But more than a week ago they did make a trade for a Pitcher, albeit one with a not-that-impressive stat sheet: Jake Odorizzi from the Tampa Bay Rays. Now, Odorizzi may not be a needle-mover, but frankly, this organization could use all the non-dead arms they can get. Add in that the only player the Twins had to trade was minor league infield prospect Jermaine Palacios, and you can see how the Bay Rays are in sell-now mode and is willing to be very flexible in trading away anything not nailed down to the Tropicana Field floor.
The Twins made waves -- well, OK, more like ripples -- again Sunday when Logan Morrison signed a one-year deal with the club. He also was with Tampa, and there is some talk that Odorizzi tried to recruit the man called LoMo up to Minnesota. How the Bay Rays didn't even attempt to sign Morrison, who lead the Bay Rays in Home Runs last year, is another sign that they are willing to be the small-market ballclub they always are. Meanwhile I think this is a great signing for Minnesota. You can never get too much pop in the current age of The Three True Outcomes. And although he probably will be the usual Designated Hitter in the lineup, if Miguel Sano, who has been dogged by an allegation of sexual abuse and came into Spring Training overweight, continues to be more of a liability than an asset, you have a mighty bat that should be able to compensate. All this for just $6.5 million. This is great for the team, collusion or no!
#-4: Gopher women's basketball (Last Week: 0). Hmmm. They ruined Illinois' Senior Day yesterday (Sunday) afternoon, 84-75, to finish their regular season at 11-5 and 22-7 overall, just about their best record in a decade. But their own Senior Night was ruined Tuesday by Indiana, 82-70. The U. was without Guard Gadiva Hubbard, one of four players averaging double figures in Points, due to "medical reasons." Carlie Wagner did all she could, pouring in a season-high 34 Points and moving to third place all-time in Golden Gopher women's b-ball history in scoring (trailing only Rachel Banham and Lindsay Whalen), but it wasn't enough to stop the streaking Illini.
The home loss to the Hoosier hurt more than their road win over the Illini, according to ESPN.com's Charlie Creme; in his just released bracketology, the U. went from in to The Fourth-Last Team In. What this club needs to do then is to at least play up to their four-seed, their highest seed in a long time, in the Big Ten Tournament, which, like the men, will finish up the week before Selection Sunday. As the four-seed, they have earned a double-bye and will begin play in the Quarters Friday afternoon vs. either Iowa, Northwestern or Wisconsin.
#-5: Gopher baseball (Re-Entry!). Oh my God, I totally forgot about this team! They started their season last week, and I was going to put them into last week's survey, but I totally forgot!! Sorry, guys!!!
So OK, last week they started their season in Georgia, where they bookended a pair of victories at Kennesaw St. with defeats at Georgia Tech and Georgia St. This week, however, they swept the Snowbird Classic in Pt. Charlotte, Fla., destroying Boston College, Chicago St. and Mount St. Mary's by a combined score of 46-11. Wow.
I just read a blurb Baseball America gave about the Gophers. Once again, Manager John Anderson and crew are not projected to make the NCAA Tournament. The biggest hole is pitching -- all of it, starters and relievers. But the lineup is considered to be potent, as manifested in the outburst over the weekend. So we'll see how good this team is in their annual Dairy Queen Classic -- which, for at least this year, is couched under multi-team series vs. the Pac-12. In other words, this weekend brings the DQ/Big Ten-Pac-12 Challenge, something I have never seen before. The U. and two other B1G clubs, Illinois and Michigan St., will play Arizona, Washington and UCLA over the weekend. This is such a unique situation that I really want to go over to U.S. Bank Stadium and watch a tripleheader!
#-6: Timberwolves (Last Week: -4). They lost at Houston and pulled away from Chicago at Target Center, but that isn't the most important news this week. That, of course, is the meniscus injury to Alpha Dog Jimmy Butler during the loss to The Bastard San Diego Rockets.
First of all, I think this is a big, bad sign that Tom Thibodeau runs his guys way too hard and way too much. (Why he elicits blind faith from several of his former players when many other former players have seen their careers accelerate and then crash in a pile of broken legs is a mystery.) But, of course, this poses an on-court challenge to the team. Without the one proven superstar to lead them until at least the playoffs, will they fall apart? You have to remember that this squad has been so bad that they have been able to acquire first Andrew Wiggins and then Karl-Anthony Towns -- two players so good that they are considered to be superstars-in-waiting. If they are to reach their potential, this is their time to shine. They have to take Butler's example and show everyone that they deserve to be seen as Alpha Dogs too. And they will have to start proving it on the road: This week they go to Sacramento, Portland and Utah.
#-7: Gopher men's basketball (Last Week: -6). Tried to beat a Wisconsin team having an uncharacteristically bad year in Madison Monday, but they couldn't close it out in regulation, and the Badgers outscore the Goofer by ten in Overtime. Then, for Purdue's Senior Day yesterday/Sunday, the top-five-ranked Boilermakers had their way with Minnesota by a score of 84-60. But hey, at least they won their Senior Night game Wednesday, 86-82 over Iowa.
So the University of Minnesota men's team, which was ranked 15th in both preseason polls, finish the regular season 4-14 in-conference and 15-16 overall. They are the 11-seed in the B1G Tournament (being played in Madison Square Garden a year before the conference tournament is usually played) and have to play all five rounds to win the tourney and clinch an automatic birth in the NCAA Tournament. Yeah, it's unheard-of. They will play Rutgers, the worst team in the league, Wednesday evening, then Indiana the next night ... if they get that far.
#-8: Gopher men's hockey (Last Week: -2). OK. They went into Saturday night's tilt at Penn St., the final game of the regular season, needing only a point (a loss in Overtime or via Shootout), in order to host their first-round B1G playoff series. (At this point Notre Dame, in its first year in the Big Ten, has already won the regular season, the #1 seed, and the bye into the Semifinals.) But they couldn't muster even that, losing 5-2 and, with a 5-1 loss the night before, was swept out of Pegula Ice Arena and out of Mariucci for (likely) the rest of the year. They will have to go back into Pegula this weekend, however; the Golden Goofers are the 5-seed and the Nittany Lions are the 4-seed, so they'll do all of this again.
Meanwhile they have fallen into a tie for ninth in the PairWise. That's still on the good side of the bubble, but that can easily cave with a series loss this weekend and bad results everywhere else in College Hockey Nation. And so Head Coach Don Lucia, in his 19th year at the helm in Dinkytown, faces a challenge. In a year where the Frozen Four will be held in the Twin Cities, will his perennially underachieving team continue to underachieve, or will they match the talent shown on paper and start playing well? Seriously, this might be Lucia's final year if they keep losing.
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