Positive Numbers: Gopher women's hockey (Last Week: -1). They did what they both needed and are virtually entitled to do, sweeping their WCHA First Round tournament series over St. Cloud St. at Ridder this weekend by scores of 4-2 and 7-3. (Somehow they fell behind in Game 1, 2-1 [shrug].) The team remain locked at third in the PairWise, so unless I'm doing the math wrong and pure chaos rules this weekend, both at the WCHA Final Faceoff (also being held at Ridder) and in the other conference tournaments, the Gophers are in like Flynn. They're just playing for bragging rights now; they host Ohio St. Saturday, and if they win that, they face either Minnesota-Duluth or top seed Wisconsin in Sunday's final.
#0: United FC (Re-Entry!). I'll be honest: The reason why I bumped up the Gopher female ice hockey team up to Positive Numbers was because of the Loons winning its first-ever season debut after four years in Major League Soccer. That these guys did it on the road, beating the Portland Timbers Sunday night, 3-1, is extremely impressive and something I did not foresee. I wanted to give the club some recognition, even though the Gopher women's hockey team deserved the top spot, so I jerry-rigged the survey to look like this.
They go into the 2020 season with an established back half (besides new Goalie Tyler Miller) but with a largely revamped attack. Kevin Molino and Ethan Finlay are holdovers (and, dare I say it, favorites of Adrian Heath, whose thoughts into personnel were enshrined over the offseason), but now, Robin Lod and new Striker Luis Amarilla are expected to be the tip of the Loons' spear. And that spear struck; Molino's brace sandwiched Amarilla's match-winner, a header from a cross by Finlay. If this is the Offense MNUFC has assembled, maybe my fears that they'll backslide out of the postseason this season are unfounded.
They are at San Jose Saturday. I think the 2018 United FC season began at Portland, at San Jose too, no?
#-1: Gopher softball (Last Week: -2). In the Auburn Tournament in Alabama over the weekend, the U. went 4-1. Included in that are three Mercy-Rule Games and a two-Game sweep of Binghamton. (They also defeated Georgia Southern in six Innings.) They split with the host Tigers, winning 5-4 Friday evening and then losing Saturday afternoon, 5-1. Thus they maintain their 18 ranking
They strike out west for the UCLA/Long Beach Tournament where they will play five different opponents over three days while toggling between Long Beach and Los Angeles. And the Gophers will play both hosts: Long Beach St., and #1 team in the country, UCLA.
#-2: Wild (Last Week: -4). I keep being down on them, but I have to admit that they have played pretty well as of late, especially when Alex Stalock is in goal. They finished 3-1 in the past screening week. Unfortunately, they remain on the outside looking in the playoff picture.
The problem now isn't necessarily Points behind -- it's the number of teams between the Wild and the final playoff spot in the Western Conference. Case in point: Going into Tuesday's/last night's pivotal showdown with Nashville at the X, they were one Point out of the last Wild Card spot. They beat the Predators, 3-1 ... and they remained one Point out of the last Wild Card spot. That's because both The Bastard Atlanta Thrashers and The Bastard Winnipeg Jets were tied with Nashville for that eighth and final playoff birth, and Winnipeg also won Tuesday/last night.
The squad now heads out west for a trio of Games in California -- San Jose, Los Angeles and Anaheim, to be exact. These three teams are all entrenching this year, so it is possible the Wild can sweep all three contests and make headway in the West ... especially if Kevin Fiala remains on a tear.
#-3: Timberwolves (Last Week: -7). Somebody break up the Timberwolves! They won ... and then they won again after not that many losses!! And both victories were on the road!!! They first withstood the Heat in Miami Wednesday, 129-126. Then, after defeats to Orlando and Dallas, they went back out on the road, to New Orleans, and in a comeback beat the Pelicans, 139-134. All of this without Karl-Anthony Towns.
The makings of a team? Maybe. Teams not giving a shit since it's March? Probably.
Right now they're beginning a three-Game homestand by dueling with Chicago. After hosting said Magic and Pelicans, they visit Houston Tuesday.
#-4: Gopher baseball (Last Week: -5). Well, the season is going down the tubes for these Goofers. After starting out the 2020 CambriaCollegeClassic (all one word) with a 4-1 win over North Carolina, they finish the tournament with a 7-3 extra-Inning loss to Duke and an 11-7 loss to N. C. St. (I was planning on going to that Sunday Game vs. the Wolfpack, but now I'm glad I didn't have the time.)
Worse than that, however, is North Dakota St. coming into Das Bank v.2.0 and whipping the U. Tuesday, 7-4. And right now they're dueling with South Dakota St. They could be facing a four-Game losing streak, the last two of which against low-major schools. WTF?
After tonight they have five final home Games at U. S. Bank Stadium. Utah is here for the weekend, then Creighton comes in for a two-Game midweek series.
#-5: Gopher men's hockey (Last Week: -3). They went into the final regular season series, versus Michigan at 3M, in a tie for the lead in the Big Ten. After a pair of losses and garnering only one Point, they finish fourth and host Notre Dame in the first round of the conference tournament. Worse than that, however, is the PairWise rankings, where they are in a tie for 15th but, due to the RPI tiebreaker, would be the Last Team Out. So this will be a dogfight. Assuming they win the series over the Fighting Irish -- no safe bet -- they might still need another victory (presumably against regular-season champ Penn St.) to build up enough bona fides to escape the cut.
#-6: Gopher women's basketball (Last Week: -9). Whelan & Co. finished the year losing six straight, the last of which was a 99-44 home immolation at the hands of her former Head Coach, Brenda (Oldfield) Frese, and Maryland at The Barn. It was the worst loss in program history since 1986.
The only, and I mean only, reason they're not last is because they somehow won their First Round B1G Game against Penn St. today/Wednesday, and in an 85-65 rout. They will probably lose tomorrow/Thursday night vs. Ohio St. In the meantime ...
#-7: Gopher men's basketball (Last Week: -6). ... the male analog lost all three tilts this screening week-plus, and that has virtually doomed their Big Dance chances. The first two defeats were killers -- come-from-ahead defeats that exposed the club's lack of depth and killer instinct. The Wednesday night home loss to Maryland, in which they raced out to a double-digit lead only for the Terrapins to come back, was probably worse because of the nature of the collapse, including missing all three Fronties. The last of which was rebounded by Maryland, and the ensuing three gave the Terps the lead and an eventual 74-73 win.
The Sunday evening loss in Wisconsin was bad, but at least that Game went back-and-forth before the Goofers relented, 71-69. And then tonight/Wednesday night the U. fell behind Indiana early and tried to come back but couldn't, finally giving way on the road, 72-67.
They finish the regular season at home to Nebraska Sunday afternoon.
#0: United FC (Re-Entry!). I'll be honest: The reason why I bumped up the Gopher female ice hockey team up to Positive Numbers was because of the Loons winning its first-ever season debut after four years in Major League Soccer. That these guys did it on the road, beating the Portland Timbers Sunday night, 3-1, is extremely impressive and something I did not foresee. I wanted to give the club some recognition, even though the Gopher women's hockey team deserved the top spot, so I jerry-rigged the survey to look like this.
They go into the 2020 season with an established back half (besides new Goalie Tyler Miller) but with a largely revamped attack. Kevin Molino and Ethan Finlay are holdovers (and, dare I say it, favorites of Adrian Heath, whose thoughts into personnel were enshrined over the offseason), but now, Robin Lod and new Striker Luis Amarilla are expected to be the tip of the Loons' spear. And that spear struck; Molino's brace sandwiched Amarilla's match-winner, a header from a cross by Finlay. If this is the Offense MNUFC has assembled, maybe my fears that they'll backslide out of the postseason this season are unfounded.
They are at San Jose Saturday. I think the 2018 United FC season began at Portland, at San Jose too, no?
#-1: Gopher softball (Last Week: -2). In the Auburn Tournament in Alabama over the weekend, the U. went 4-1. Included in that are three Mercy-Rule Games and a two-Game sweep of Binghamton. (They also defeated Georgia Southern in six Innings.) They split with the host Tigers, winning 5-4 Friday evening and then losing Saturday afternoon, 5-1. Thus they maintain their 18 ranking
They strike out west for the UCLA/Long Beach Tournament where they will play five different opponents over three days while toggling between Long Beach and Los Angeles. And the Gophers will play both hosts: Long Beach St., and #1 team in the country, UCLA.
#-2: Wild (Last Week: -4). I keep being down on them, but I have to admit that they have played pretty well as of late, especially when Alex Stalock is in goal. They finished 3-1 in the past screening week. Unfortunately, they remain on the outside looking in the playoff picture.
The problem now isn't necessarily Points behind -- it's the number of teams between the Wild and the final playoff spot in the Western Conference. Case in point: Going into Tuesday's/last night's pivotal showdown with Nashville at the X, they were one Point out of the last Wild Card spot. They beat the Predators, 3-1 ... and they remained one Point out of the last Wild Card spot. That's because both The Bastard Atlanta Thrashers and The Bastard Winnipeg Jets were tied with Nashville for that eighth and final playoff birth, and Winnipeg also won Tuesday/last night.
The squad now heads out west for a trio of Games in California -- San Jose, Los Angeles and Anaheim, to be exact. These three teams are all entrenching this year, so it is possible the Wild can sweep all three contests and make headway in the West ... especially if Kevin Fiala remains on a tear.
#-3: Timberwolves (Last Week: -7). Somebody break up the Timberwolves! They won ... and then they won again after not that many losses!! And both victories were on the road!!! They first withstood the Heat in Miami Wednesday, 129-126. Then, after defeats to Orlando and Dallas, they went back out on the road, to New Orleans, and in a comeback beat the Pelicans, 139-134. All of this without Karl-Anthony Towns.
The makings of a team? Maybe. Teams not giving a shit since it's March? Probably.
Right now they're beginning a three-Game homestand by dueling with Chicago. After hosting said Magic and Pelicans, they visit Houston Tuesday.
#-4: Gopher baseball (Last Week: -5). Well, the season is going down the tubes for these Goofers. After starting out the 2020 CambriaCollegeClassic (all one word) with a 4-1 win over North Carolina, they finish the tournament with a 7-3 extra-Inning loss to Duke and an 11-7 loss to N. C. St. (I was planning on going to that Sunday Game vs. the Wolfpack, but now I'm glad I didn't have the time.)
Worse than that, however, is North Dakota St. coming into Das Bank v.2.0 and whipping the U. Tuesday, 7-4. And right now they're dueling with South Dakota St. They could be facing a four-Game losing streak, the last two of which against low-major schools. WTF?
After tonight they have five final home Games at U. S. Bank Stadium. Utah is here for the weekend, then Creighton comes in for a two-Game midweek series.
#-5: Gopher men's hockey (Last Week: -3). They went into the final regular season series, versus Michigan at 3M, in a tie for the lead in the Big Ten. After a pair of losses and garnering only one Point, they finish fourth and host Notre Dame in the first round of the conference tournament. Worse than that, however, is the PairWise rankings, where they are in a tie for 15th but, due to the RPI tiebreaker, would be the Last Team Out. So this will be a dogfight. Assuming they win the series over the Fighting Irish -- no safe bet -- they might still need another victory (presumably against regular-season champ Penn St.) to build up enough bona fides to escape the cut.
#-6: Gopher women's basketball (Last Week: -9). Whelan & Co. finished the year losing six straight, the last of which was a 99-44 home immolation at the hands of her former Head Coach, Brenda (Oldfield) Frese, and Maryland at The Barn. It was the worst loss in program history since 1986.
The only, and I mean only, reason they're not last is because they somehow won their First Round B1G Game against Penn St. today/Wednesday, and in an 85-65 rout. They will probably lose tomorrow/Thursday night vs. Ohio St. In the meantime ...
#-7: Gopher men's basketball (Last Week: -6). ... the male analog lost all three tilts this screening week-plus, and that has virtually doomed their Big Dance chances. The first two defeats were killers -- come-from-ahead defeats that exposed the club's lack of depth and killer instinct. The Wednesday night home loss to Maryland, in which they raced out to a double-digit lead only for the Terrapins to come back, was probably worse because of the nature of the collapse, including missing all three Fronties. The last of which was rebounded by Maryland, and the ensuing three gave the Terps the lead and an eventual 74-73 win.
The Sunday evening loss in Wisconsin was bad, but at least that Game went back-and-forth before the Goofers relented, 71-69. And then tonight/Wednesday night the U. fell behind Indiana early and tried to come back but couldn't, finally giving way on the road, 72-67.
They finish the regular season at home to Nebraska Sunday afternoon.
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