#-1: Gopher baseball (Last Week: -3). It is impossible to determine which team should be on top this week. Both the baseballers and softballers lost a midweek non-conference game, but then opened up Big Ten play with a sweep out East.
It is a toss-up, but I'll give this week to the male Nine. Despite losing at Pepperdine 13-12, they swept Penn St. over the weekend. (Friday's game was rain-delayed to make a Sunday Doubleheader.) With their record non-con record -- and a loss to the Waves does not help -- the only way they can make the NCAA Tournament is to have a sterling record in-conference, if not win the conference tourney around Memorial Weekend.
They actually start the home portion of their season against Augsburg Wednesday, in a Game hastily put together. They then host Nebraska for three.
#-2: Gopher softball (Last Week: -2). The softball Nine swept at Maryland over the weekend -- Saturday's 19-5 rout was mercy-ruled after Five Innings -- but I put them lower than the baseball U. because they went to Florida Wednesday and lost to the Gators, 2-0. Kendyl Lindaman, who was once an All-American for the Gophers before transferring to Florida over the winter, went 1-for-3, walked and drove in two against her former team. So not only did an ex-Gopher play well against the Gophers, her new team won. That has to hurt. And so I place this club before the baseball squad.
Like the baseballers, Minnesota finally opens up the home portion of their conference schedule this weekend with a three-game series vs. Purdue.
#-3: Timberwolves (Last Week: -6). Beat Memphis Saturday, but that was after defeats vs. Golden State and Charlotte, and I believe that even with the win over the Grizzlies, the Wolves were officially eliminated Saturday. The team acted as though they were eliminated before then, though, as they shut down Derrick Rose, Jeff Teague, and Robert Covington. And ... eh.
Four games this week, all at Target Center: Clippers, Warriors, Philadelphia (and the return of Jimmy Butler?) and Portland.
#-4: Wild (Last Week: -5). No, this is not going well at all. Despite a surprise 2-1 win at Washington, they lost three other games this screening week, and as such, they now sit two Points outside a playoff spot. Last (Monday) night's loss may have been the worst -- at home (which has been a house of horrors for the Mild all season), to a very good Nashville team, and the only Goal of the Game was given up shorthanded. I have heard there were boos raining down on the Mild after a period, and I don't blame the fans for this shitshow.
At Vegas Friday, at Arizona Sunday. Time is running out on extended this franchise's playoff streak.
#-Infinity (tie): Gopher women's hockey, Gopher men's basketball, Gopher wrestling (Last Week, respectively: 0, -1, Re-Entry!).
A three-way tie for absolute bottom! That means a whole lot of suckage that ended in the same week!! That also means this is the time of the year where the survey finally stops being so doggone crazy!!!
I don't know where to begin, so I'll just, uh, start with the U. lady icers. All year, top-flight women's college hockey was going to boil down to Minnesota and Wisconsin. And after they shut out Cornell 2-0 in Friday's Frozen Four Semi, that preordained showdown with the Badgers was pretty much all set.
But a chill ran down my spine when Wisky crushed defending NCAA champion (and prime nemesis for the Gophers, at least to me) Clarkson, 5-0. And sure enough, that difference in margin of victory foretold Wisconsin (who held the #1 overall seed) beating Our Team, 2-0. No, our club of mostly Minnesotans were largely, I'm afraid, impotent in the wake of a team that has only four Wisconsin natives. There are, in fact, five Minnesotans, and one of them, Wayzata's Sophia Shaver, scored the Game-winning Goal in the First Period.
So being the wire-to-wire second-best team in the nation in your sport doesn't exactly spell a program's fall from grace, a la the Tennessee women's basketball program. But it has now been three years since Minnesota, the state that produces the most hockey talent out of any in the nation, has won an NCAA championship. Just sayin'.
I feel a little bit better for the male ballers, who got blown out by 20 versus Michigan St. in the Round of 32 to end their season Saturday. But I had them falling to Louisville in the First Round Thursday (at least I had the Cardinals in my bracket) and they actually controlled the game and thoroughly handled Louisville, 86-76. Like I said last week, you can thus consider this win, the first in Richard Pitino's stint as Coach of the Gophs, a success. Combine that with another impressive recruiting class coming in (although they are going to lose Jordan Murphy -- bon voyage and thank you for your service, sir), and, yes, Pitino is off the hot seat. I don't know if this is a team on the rise, but they are not falling, at least not this year.
And the wrestlers ... well, they finished eighth, a distant eighth. Another top ten finish that means quite nothing. And once again, no Gopher won his class. The squad's best hope, Gable Steveson, finished third in Heavyweight after losing, again, to Anthony Cassar of Penn St. (who, once again, won the NCAA title) 4-3. And ... (sigh)
It is a toss-up, but I'll give this week to the male Nine. Despite losing at Pepperdine 13-12, they swept Penn St. over the weekend. (Friday's game was rain-delayed to make a Sunday Doubleheader.) With their record non-con record -- and a loss to the Waves does not help -- the only way they can make the NCAA Tournament is to have a sterling record in-conference, if not win the conference tourney around Memorial Weekend.
They actually start the home portion of their season against Augsburg Wednesday, in a Game hastily put together. They then host Nebraska for three.
#-2: Gopher softball (Last Week: -2). The softball Nine swept at Maryland over the weekend -- Saturday's 19-5 rout was mercy-ruled after Five Innings -- but I put them lower than the baseball U. because they went to Florida Wednesday and lost to the Gators, 2-0. Kendyl Lindaman, who was once an All-American for the Gophers before transferring to Florida over the winter, went 1-for-3, walked and drove in two against her former team. So not only did an ex-Gopher play well against the Gophers, her new team won. That has to hurt. And so I place this club before the baseball squad.
Like the baseballers, Minnesota finally opens up the home portion of their conference schedule this weekend with a three-game series vs. Purdue.
#-3: Timberwolves (Last Week: -6). Beat Memphis Saturday, but that was after defeats vs. Golden State and Charlotte, and I believe that even with the win over the Grizzlies, the Wolves were officially eliminated Saturday. The team acted as though they were eliminated before then, though, as they shut down Derrick Rose, Jeff Teague, and Robert Covington. And ... eh.
Four games this week, all at Target Center: Clippers, Warriors, Philadelphia (and the return of Jimmy Butler?) and Portland.
#-4: Wild (Last Week: -5). No, this is not going well at all. Despite a surprise 2-1 win at Washington, they lost three other games this screening week, and as such, they now sit two Points outside a playoff spot. Last (Monday) night's loss may have been the worst -- at home (which has been a house of horrors for the Mild all season), to a very good Nashville team, and the only Goal of the Game was given up shorthanded. I have heard there were boos raining down on the Mild after a period, and I don't blame the fans for this shitshow.
At Vegas Friday, at Arizona Sunday. Time is running out on extended this franchise's playoff streak.
#-Infinity (tie): Gopher women's hockey, Gopher men's basketball, Gopher wrestling (Last Week, respectively: 0, -1, Re-Entry!).
A three-way tie for absolute bottom! That means a whole lot of suckage that ended in the same week!! That also means this is the time of the year where the survey finally stops being so doggone crazy!!!
I don't know where to begin, so I'll just, uh, start with the U. lady icers. All year, top-flight women's college hockey was going to boil down to Minnesota and Wisconsin. And after they shut out Cornell 2-0 in Friday's Frozen Four Semi, that preordained showdown with the Badgers was pretty much all set.
But a chill ran down my spine when Wisky crushed defending NCAA champion (and prime nemesis for the Gophers, at least to me) Clarkson, 5-0. And sure enough, that difference in margin of victory foretold Wisconsin (who held the #1 overall seed) beating Our Team, 2-0. No, our club of mostly Minnesotans were largely, I'm afraid, impotent in the wake of a team that has only four Wisconsin natives. There are, in fact, five Minnesotans, and one of them, Wayzata's Sophia Shaver, scored the Game-winning Goal in the First Period.
So being the wire-to-wire second-best team in the nation in your sport doesn't exactly spell a program's fall from grace, a la the Tennessee women's basketball program. But it has now been three years since Minnesota, the state that produces the most hockey talent out of any in the nation, has won an NCAA championship. Just sayin'.
I feel a little bit better for the male ballers, who got blown out by 20 versus Michigan St. in the Round of 32 to end their season Saturday. But I had them falling to Louisville in the First Round Thursday (at least I had the Cardinals in my bracket) and they actually controlled the game and thoroughly handled Louisville, 86-76. Like I said last week, you can thus consider this win, the first in Richard Pitino's stint as Coach of the Gophs, a success. Combine that with another impressive recruiting class coming in (although they are going to lose Jordan Murphy -- bon voyage and thank you for your service, sir), and, yes, Pitino is off the hot seat. I don't know if this is a team on the rise, but they are not falling, at least not this year.
And the wrestlers ... well, they finished eighth, a distant eighth. Another top ten finish that means quite nothing. And once again, no Gopher won his class. The squad's best hope, Gable Steveson, finished third in Heavyweight after losing, again, to Anthony Cassar of Penn St. (who, once again, won the NCAA title) 4-3. And ... (sigh)
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