Positive Numbers: Gopher volleyball (Last Week: 0). Well, with the U.'s soccer team eliminated, the U's volleyball squad reasserts its place atop the WMNSS by not only continuing its winning streak via a four-Set win at Maryland and a five-Setter at Ohio St. (that is now 19 wins in a row), but with the victory over the Buckeyes, the Golden Gophers have sewn up the Big Ten title. Winning the regular season championship of the best conference in Women's College Volleyball Nation (and it's not close) outright with two Games left to go? Mighty impressive.
We'll see what overall rank the NCAA Selection Committee gives the U. They finish up the season Saturday at Rutgers. But the real match, the one that stands between them and their first perfect Big Ten season ever, comes on Friday, when they play at Penn St. Should be an epic one.
#0 (tie): Gopher women's basketball and Gopher men's basketball (Last Week, respectively: -2 and -3).
I couldn't differentiate between either Dinkytown b-ball squad, and frankly, I'm tired and I have 11 teams to go through, so I don't feel like nit-picking. Both teams are still undefeated after winning both games this screening week, and both had to rally to win one of those games.
We'll start with the Gopher women, who, after throttling New Hampshire last week (and probably on the name recognition of Lindsay Whalen), glommed on to the Top 25. They might move up after crushing Xavier in Cincinnati by 25 on Wednesday, then coming back from a seven-point deficit to start the Fourth Quarter by doubling up San Diego 24-12 to win the game Saturday, 53-48. In both games the team was led by Kenisha Bell, who dropped 18 against the Musketeers and 21 on the Toreros. That victory over USD was the first of a six-game homestand; this screening week they will host Arkansas-Pine Bluff and Cornell.
I was at the Gopher men's basketball game Monday vs. Utah. With the exception of a lull in the middle of the Second Half, the team was in control over the Utes, especially when it comes to rebounding. But I believe that this club goes as far as Jordan Murphy goes. He hauled down 17 boards in the win over the Utes, and when he was on the bench, the team was not as tough or as dynamic. His teammates needed his team-high 14 Points and 7 Rebs late Sunday night when they fell behind Texas A&M late in the Second Half before making six Free Throws and holding the Aggies scoreless in the final two Minutes (the Aggies turning the ball over helped immensely) to win in the Gophers' first game in the Vancouver Showcase, 69-64. Their two other showcase games are on Tuesday and Wednesday versus, respectively, Santa Clara and Washington.
#-2: Gopher women's hockey (Re-Entry!). Swept St. Cloud St., although the Huskies took the club to OT on Saturday before Taylor Heise ended the game with an unassisted Goal three Minutes in. (Minnesota crushed St. Cloud St. Sunday, 7-2.)
This weekend they go to Burlington, Vt., to take part in what is called the Windjammer Classic. They face St. Lawrence Black Friday afternoon, then face either Vermont or Syracuse the next day.
#-3: Timberwolves (Last Week: -Infinity). Well, with the Jimmy Butler saga now fully in the rearview mirror, fans are wondering what the team would look like. And the answer is, pretty good. Well, they ripped off three wins in a row before falling flat on their face Sunday against The Bastard Vancouver Grizzlies at Target Center. Karl-Anthony Towns and Andrew Wiggins can secretly complain about the bullying Butler inflicted on them. But the trade-off for trading him away is that these guys now have to fully live up their max contracts and, you know, fuckin' lead. The three wins are a step in the right direction. But the grind continues nonetheless: Home to Denver Wednesday, at Brooklyn Black Friday afternoon, then right back to Target for a Saturday night date vs. Chicago.
#-4: Gopher men's hockey (Last Week: -5). Because the forecast said that the snow was likely headed south of the Twin Cities (and it did, for the most part), I decided I wanted to see this St. Lawrence club and so I went to the Gopher game on Friday. Honestly, I don't think I've ever seen a team so out of synch. There was a lot of bad individual play -- errant passes out of the offensive zone, a lack of toughness one-on-one, etc. And the Saints, by golly, took advantage of that, racing out to a 3-1 lead.
The Goofers came back to score twice to force Overtime, but a lucky pass in their defensive zone led to a tic-tac-toe which gave St. Lawrence the 4-3 win. I wasn't all that shaken up by the defeat. I liked that there was still enough talent on the squad to score twice in the Third Period. And besides, I always give a mulligan to a Head Coach's first year. But ... shit, St. Lawrence??? I really assumed they would beat them. And you should have seen the furor over this defeat on Twitter, where they're already calling for Bob Motzko's head -- mostly because, and I confess that I overlooked this on the program, St. Lawrence had won only one Game up until Friday. (The pissed-off-ness online contrasts with the scene at Mariucci, where the place was just about half-full, and more than one spectator made audible note of that.) The U. blanked the Saints Saturday, 3-0, but I have to think that this team will be spending a second straight year out of the NCAA Tournament.
The icers, which sit at 3-5-1, resume B1G play when they host Michigan St. for a pair this weekend.
#-5: Wild (Last Week: -4). Well, the Mild probably gave up the third-highest Point total after suffering a hiccup this screening week. Lost two-of-three at home, then got beat at Chicago last (Sunday) night. Not the worst thing in the world, but honestly, this was more of a week I've been expecting from them. Will this slide continue this screening week, where they have only two Games, both at home, against Ottawa (Wednesday) and Winnipeg (Black Friday afternoon)?
#-6: Gopher wrestling (Re-Entry!). Whoops. These guys actually began their season on Nov. 9. I just forgot because, well, they have fallen so solidly into mediocrity that I kind of forgot them. I noticed that on Sunday at Maturi, they got crushed by Oklahoma St., 23-9. They beat the Air Force on the 9th, 33-3, but the Cowboys are more the competition I am used to them facing (and beating), not the Falcons. And that they got their brains kicked in, again, means another irrelevant season for a once-proud program. But hey, at least they're clean.
Host South Dakota St. Sunday.
#-7: Gopher football (Last Week: -1). Northwestern has already clinched the B1G West, the division, if you don't know already, Minnesota's in. (Aside: This bifurcation into divisions is destroying the concept of what a conference is. If you are grouped with the same teams year after year, and play them year after year while you play the other teams sporadically -- well, that means you are not in a league of 14 teams, but in a league of seven. I truly believe that. But expounding on this is best for another day.) I don't think the Wildcats are all that good anyway, but I think with nothing to play for, Northwestern was vulnerable to a game on the road versus a team celebrating Senior Day.
Uh, no dice. There remains a decisive talent gap between the two teams as the Wildcats come into Das Bank v.1.0 and beat the Gophs, 24-14. This despite the heroics of Senior Linebacker Blake Cashman, who made 20 Tackles in the defeat (the most in-conference in a non-Overtime game since Ryan Shazier did it for Ohio St. in 2013, and the most by a Minnesota player since Eli Ward had 22 back in 2002) and was thus named conference Defensive Player Of The Week. Cashman is an impressive story. He started off as a walk-on, and will finish seventh in program history in Tackles For Loss and tied for 13th in Sacks.
Meanwhile, his team remains at only five wins. The squad's final game of the season is at Wisconsin Saturday for Paul Bunyan's Ax. The Badgers are suffering a down year, but is that enough for the Gophers to spring a surprise, get that damn axe for the first time this millennium, and become bowl-eligible. The extension of the season likely rides on that contest.
#-8: Vikings (Re-Entry!). Oh shit, this is not good.
First of all, I have noticed that I don't watch Vikings Games all that much. It's too excruciating to see them lose, and even see them struggle, so, for example, for last (Sunday) night's tilt at Chicago, after the Bears took the lead, I took a shower and then had a late dinner ****e cooked up for me. I was watching the Gopher men's b-ball Game against Texas A&M on ESPN2, so I was kept abreast of the ViQueens Game on the crawl. Glad I didn't turn back to it; although the club showed some life after heading into the half down 14-0, they still succumbed to the upstart Bears, 25-20. They were actually in it, until Kirk Cousins threw a Pick-Six that basically iced the game.
You can see "We'll see you at the Dome in Week 17!" But this one hurts, a lot. Chicago now is up 1 1/2 Games in the National Football Conference North Division, and there is a lot of flotsam and jetsam in the race for the Wild Cards. (Never mind that this team doesn't seem to have the O or the D to get to the Super Bowl, but that's another story.) I've been pondering this in my mind a lot, and I'll just throw it out there. I think that most Super Bowl-winning teams come out of nowhere. They are not teams writers believe from the outset could win. They are, at least just as often, teams just off of a shitty year prior that combined new talent with good luck and an easy schedule to surge into a surprise year. The Philadelphia Eagles followed that blueprint last year. So did the St. Louis Rams when they won their title. It just seems as though the only way most teams can win the Super Bowl is by surprising everyone, getting the jump on them before they know what hit them. The Bears and, to a lesser extent, the Chiefs are following this same blueprint. The Vikes, who some felt would go all the way, are not because they were cursed by expectations.
Guess what I'm saying is, last night was a statement that, despite all the signings and expectations, the Chicago Bears, who no one saw coming, is a better team than the Minnesota Vikings, and now they have a 1 1/2-Game lead to prove it. This team is fucking done.
They host Green Bay, another team with high expectations but may be more embattled than the Vikes, next Sunday night.
#-Infinity: Gopher soccer (Last Week: Positive Numbers). OK, so the side's season came to an end ignominiously Friday night in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, 5-0 to UCLA in Westwood. No shame in that, especially when the Golden Gophers had to rip off three consecutive wins to get a birth in the NCAA Tournament, and then upset Auburn on the road to reach the second weekend. Credit to Head Coach Stephanie Golan and the team, led by B1G Forward Of The Year April Bockin, who played in her last game in the maroon and gold, for a surprising run.
Good luck with the team, which is bringing in ten new recruits, next year. Assuming I can find parking, I'll be able to attend a match or two!
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