Note: This is the last Weekly Minnesota Sports Survey that encompasses all of 2020. As is my policy, come 2021 and the turning of a new Year, the survey will be published a different Day of the Week. I cover all sports teams playing Games January 1 (actually December 31 and maybe December 30, depending on when I publish that Week's WMNSS) to January 7 and I publish on January 8. Since January 8, 2021, falls on a Friday, all surveys for 2021 (at least the ones I remember and am able to do) will be posted on Fridays.
Positive Numbers: Gopher men's basketball (Last Week: -1). OK, color me shocked. I don't know the last time a team posted back-to-back surprises like the U. men's b-ball team did this past week.
First is the Christmas Miracle at The Barn (no, not a barn -- and by the way, it appears as though this is the first time a University of Minnesota varsity team, in any sport, played an official Game on Christmas. That's pretty fucking wild). Fourth-ranked Iowa came to town, and they led 80-73 with 44 Seconds left in the Second Half. The U. somehow were able to score ten Points in those 44 Seconds (actually 39; Marcus Carr's three-ball went in with five Seconds left to tie the Game at 83 at the end of regulation). And then Minnesota dominated Overtime, outscoring the Hawkeyes 19-12 on the strength of four straight three-Point makes by Brandon Johnson to open the scoring in the extra frame for Minnesota.
And then a different kind of win Monday night, also at Williams, against Michigan St., a school that has Minnesota's number. But not on this night: The Spartans made only four of their first 31 shots from the field. And after Carr, who was named a Co-Big Ten Player Of The Week after the Iowa win, sank a three-Pointer at the Halftime gun, they were crushing Sparty 36-16. I was waiting for Michigan St. to make a run in the Second Half, but it never materialized, and the U. just beat the shit out of the then-17th-ranked Spartans, 81-56. The Gophs snap a five-Game losing streak to Sparty. And Michigan St. starts B1G play 0-3 for the first time in 19 Years.
They just beat ranked teams back-to-back for the first time since the 2010 conference tournament. Minnesota entered the Associated Press Top 25 for the first time in just over three Years after the win over the Hawkeyes, and by springing two upsets in arguably the best league in top-flight college basketball, the Gophers are going to skyrocket from their current rank of 21 like an old-school radio hit. If this were a normal Year, they probably would be the talk of the sports town. They'll have to settle for grabbing the top spot in the WMNSS.
Can they keep this going? The gauntlet continues tomorrow/Thursday afternoon at Wisconsin in a New Year's Eve tilt, then a home date versus Ohio St. Sunday afternoon. Sure, they could get killed in these two Games. But I thought they were going to get killed these past two Games. No one expected this team to play this well, and they already have two fantastic victories to sport on their tournament CV. It'd be awesome if they can keep it going.
#0: Timberwolves (Re-Entry!). I feel kind of weird for giving the Woofie Dogs a non-negative number for a 2-2 screening week. But I have such low and sorry expectations for this woebegone squad that I'm shocked how they didn't go 0-4. They're falling back to earth with back-to-back poundings at Staples Center to The Bastard Minneapolis Lakers and The Bastard Buffalo Braves/San Diego Clippers. But let me take you back to the first, oh, four Minutes of the first regular Game of the season, Wednesday at home vs. Detroit. They were getting their doors blown off by, like, 14-4, and I tweeted something to the effect of, "Man, a third of a quarter into the new season and the Wolves already look like shite." But after I took a shower, Minnesota asserted control of the Game and put away a Pistons squad that should be just about as bad as the Wolves are supposed to be, 111-101.
Even more impressive was their win in Salt Lake City Boxing Night over The Bastard New Orleans Jazz, 116-111. This was a Game where the Dogs' Overall #1 draft pick, Anthony Edwards, actually showed a lot of athleticism and moxie. He did his best to distance himself from the perception he is just the second coming of Andrew Wiggins. He made decisions, he made smart decisions, and most importantly, he wasn't afraid of taking it to the rack. If Edwards keeps this up, I might confess I was wrong about him.
Minnesota hosts Washington New Year's Night, and there's a home-and-home with Denver (first home, then away) Sunday and Tuesday.
#-1: Gopher women's basketball (Re-Entry!). I see from time to time that Lindsay Whalen is bringing in these really good classes in this and future Years. But I don't see how she keeps her job. The Gophers got waxed at home by Indiana last Wednesday afternoon, 75-54, and the club is no currently in the throes of a four-Game losing streak. I don't think the teams these Goofs are losing to are world-beaters, either. Are these recruits overblown talent-wise? Or is this a case where they're not developing? There is some serious rot going on with this program, and people need to see some life in it. Will it come Sunday afternoon at Wisconsin?
#-2: Vikings (Last Week: -2). I need to remember this the next time the Vikings really blow, or even the next time they're less than great. I'll look at who the ViQueens' Week 16 opponent is, then I'll make sure I draft that team's best players onto my fantasy football squad. If I'm able to keep them all the way to my leagues' championship Weeks, I can sit back and see my team rack up the Points all the way to fantasy football supremacy!
I'm glad my opponent didn't have Alvin Kamara on his team for my league's title Game (still lost anyway), but in retrospect it seems almost inevitable and even obligatory for a player to run up the score against a shitty Vikings club this time of year. And from the New Orleans Saints' perspective, it was like taking candy from a baby: They have a stud Running Back and the Vikes have a sieve of a Defensive Line, so just keep handing Kamara the ball until Minnesota proves it can stop him. The Vikes never did. And Kamara finished with 155 Yards rushing (a career high in a Game, which seems kind of odd considering he's Alvin Kamara) and fuckin' six Touchdowns. That reminds me of the time the Vikes allowed the Seattle Seahawks' Shaun Alexander to run them over for five TDs ... in the First Half.
Oh, and the Saints crushed the Vikings on Christmas Afternoon 52-33, thereby officially eliminating them from the playoffs. In a season where most people thought they would be in the postseason, they will finish, at best, 7-9 and is a loss in Detroit to the Lions this Sunday afternoon away from (if I'm not missing something) from finishing dead last in the National Football Conference North Division. Everything needs to be overhauled, even though there is no cap flexibility in order to do it. And yet I have heard little to no scuttlebutt on the possibility Mike Zimmer will be fired. Is it a done deal that Zygi Wilf brings him back? The track record (like I said last week, Wilf fired his three Head Coaches before Zim a season after each of them made the playoffs) says no, but the extenuating circumstances surrounding the pandemic and its knock-on effects for the National Football League says otherwise. Could Zimmer be playing for his job on Sunday?
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