#-1: Gopher softball (Last Week: -5). They finished their regular season taking three-of-four at bottom-dweller Penn St. But I was afraid that loss, a 4-1 defeat Sunday afternoon in their series and season finale, would cost Minnesota a spot in the NCAA Tournament. No worries; when the field was announced that evening, the Gophers were in.
But don't get your hopes up; they had a good season considering the pandemic, and their two on-field studs, Natalie DenHartog (unusual camelcase; is that a Dutch name?) and MaKenna (there you go with the camecase again) Partain, were named on Wednesday to the All-Big Ten First Team. But they were drawn into the Regional with the #2 seed in the tourney, blue blood program UCLA. It'll take a miracle to survive Westwood and the weekend. Just sayin'.
They open up tomorrow/Friday night versus Fresno St. Win that and the Gophers give themselves a chance.
#-2: United FC (Last Week: -3). Not saying the four straight defeats to begin the season is out of my mind. And history insists that such a losing streak to begin a Year most likely means that Year is over. But I feel ... ah, quite better now that they've won two in a row.
The lone Goal in Saturday's 1-0 home win over FC Dallas was scored by Robin Lod off a rebound off a Corner Kick. I was listening on the radio, and the Loons were just hammering the Burn/Hoops, especially near the end of the Match. It felt as though Dallas was going to eventually yield a score, and they did:
Lod has had the most remarkable career revision in recent Twin Cities sports history. Remember when the Finn came over and started playing for the XI? He was an inert mess, and people were using his hire as another reason Head Coach Adrian Heath should be out ... well, whenever they weren't wondering how the hell you pronounce his last name. I still don't quite know how to pronounce it. But ever since he opened his stateside account with MNUFC's lone tally in that U. S. Open Cup Final loss at Atlanta, he has become dependable, and in the last season-plus, he has been indispensable, especially late in 2020 when he frequently flummoxed Backlines as a False 9. He might be the Loons' most important player after Bebelo Reynoso.
The league is playing this week. But there are 27 teams in MLS this year, so whenever there are full schedules, one team has to take a bye. This week is Minnesota's bye week. They are back in action on the 29th at Real Salt Lake before an International Break.
#-3: Wild (Last Week: -1). Well, that was fun while it lasted ... which didn't last long. The entire team turned in a sterling performance just so Joel Eriksson Ek can squeeze a deflected shot past Marc-Andre Fleury to take Game 1 of their playoff series against Las Vegas and steal home-ice. Maybe things can be different with this franchise! Maybe we can actually surprise some people this Year!
Nope. Another tight Game 2 turned on a dumb turnover by Marcus Johansson that led to the Game-tying Goal, and then the Game-winning one by The Guy We Gave Up In The Expansion Draft, Alex Tuch. And then comes the killer last/Thursday night; the Wild were up in Game 3 2-0 after one Period, and then the Golden Knights buried them with five straight Goals to take back home-ice and put the Mild in siege mode. There are perks to being a franchise born at Third Base because you can trick yourself into thinking you hit a Triple. Similarly, the Mild are being who they naturally are -- plucky, somewhat overlooked, capable of getting a surprise first punch in, but after that, they'll cave like motherfuckers. Mild motherfuckers at that.
Game 4 is Saturday night and will be shown on NBC around America. Maybe the Mild will show how fucking meek and emasculated this franchise is for the whole country to see. And then I can stick these emasculated fucks at the bottom of next Week's WMNSS.
#-4: Gopher soccer (Re-Entry!). Not following the U. "footballers" that closely during the off-season, so this comes as news straight out of nowhere: Stephanie Golan is leaving her post as Head Coach for the Golden Gophers to take the same job at Missouri. It was announced yesterday/Thursday. This move makes more sense when you're told that Golan is from the St. Louis suburb of St. Charles, Mo.
You know, Golan didn't do a bad job running this program. As listed here, she finished her nine-Year tenure with a record of 92-24-64. She helmed two of probably the three greatest teams in program history. There was the 2016 edition, who went 16-4-3, completed the double (Big Ten regular season and tournament champions), and finished the season ranked eighth in the nation. That team was the one that got upset at home in the First Round of the NCAA Tournament by N. C. St. on Penalty Kicks, but let's just throw that down the memory hole. The 2018 team wasn't better, but it may have accomplished more, believe it or not. They finished seventh in the conference (if I'm not mistaken), then ripped off three straight upsets (without allowing a single Goal in the run of play during the B1G tourney) to claim a miraculous NCAA birth. The Gophers then followed that up with their first pure road tournament victory in their history, a 2-0 upset at Auburn.
Listing all of her accomplishments, you know, Golan did not do a bad job. Sure, it could have been better. Sure, they could have established themselves as an upper-echelon team along the likes of Penn St. and Rutgers. But can you say that Golan should be run out on a rail for that track record? If so, who would you get that would be better? That question may be redundant, if not rhetorical, for U. Athletic Director Mark Coyle will now have to find Golan's replacement.
#-5: Twins (Last Week: -4). If you're not a subscriber to The Athletic, you should be. I have heard faint rumblings that the Internet enterprise is in serious financial trouble, but I hope that's not the case, because the descendant of The National should serve a great, aching need for serious sports journalism. I rely on it for news and analysis on a daily basis, and even though their reporters cape to advertising (it reminds me of hearing reporters on Minnesota and National Public Radio try to hawk free mugs if you donate five bucks a month during pledge drives; I feel sorry for them, and then I change the station) and are now sidling up to online gambling houses, there is a lot of good stuff there -- for my teams, the leagues I follow, and even sports in general.
I wonder if Aaron Gleeman, one of the Athletic writers on the Twins beat, is an asshole in real life. He is so entranced by sabermetrics that if he ever has sons, one of them will grow up to be a serial killer. (That makes sense in my head.) But as cold and creepily dispassionate he is about the souls that play and enjoy baseball, his breakdown of the Twins -- especially when they're, uh, broken down, like this year -- his hard work uncovers profound insights. In particular, he had a story this week whereby he notes that the ballclub went through pretty massive turnover: They said goodbye to almost a dozen players and signed almost a dozen. Gleeman has tracked all the new people who have come in and those who were bade farewell. Of the departed, only one player -- it's the Mets set-up man ... Taylor Rogers? -- is having a good Year. But of all the newcomers, one only player -- Andrelton Simmons, and I don't count him because he has already spent significant time on the Injured List -- is having a good Year. Every other new Twin has been shit.
And that's why they have the worst record in the American League and the second-worst in all of pro baseball (as of press time, only Colorado is worse). And as dreadful as this past screening Week was, going 3-5 is actually an improvement. It feels as though Miguel Sano, who was drowning below the Mendoza Line, is the only reason they've won any Games this past Week. He has erupted for five Home Runs starting with the Game-winning one Saturday against the Athletics. Otherwise, all other aspects to this ballclub have continued to fail. It is getting very late very early for the Twinks, and I don't know how having a long season will help turn things around if the players, to a man, continue to perform worse than Replacement Level.
They're going to be everywhere. They had this lackluster Week at Target Field, then had to fly out to Orange County for yesterday's/Thursday's Doubleheader to make up for Games delayed because the Twinks had to deal with the coronavirus, and now they travel to Cleveland for the weekend before flying back to Minneapolis to host the Orioles for a trio.
#-6: Lynx (Re-Entry!). And now our heretofore solid pro women's basketball team have gone to shit, too. Sure, the WNBA is back ... and the Minnesota Jynx have started a season 0-3 for the first time in The Cheryl Reeve Era. My God, Reeve has not coached Minnesota to an 0-2 start ever, either. But a late Diana Taurasi jumper, a Sabrina Ionescu Triple-Double (the youngest player in WNBA to pull that off) and a 37-Point Seattle Storm Fourth Quarter has put this squad in a hole that might be too deep to get out of. And yes, they're only three Games into the season.
Many people thought that Minnesota was going to improve on their Semifinal appearance from the "Wubble" last Year. Many writers and experts also cautioned us Jynx fans that things may be slow going to start; Napheesa Collier and Kayla McBride, two key pieces to the success of this club, weren't around to start the season because they're still with their overseas teams. That may handicap Minnesota moreso than other teams. But they still have talent that is here (Sylvia Fowles, Crystal Dangerfield, Natalie Achonwa), and they're still winless in the league. At the end of the day, you are what your record says you are. And the Jynx's record says that they're in fact one of the worst teams in the WNBA, even if it is early. Haven't said that about this squad in a long, long time.
This is weird; they have a whole Week off.
#-7: Gopher baseball (Re-Entry!). They have been off the past two Weeks. Officially, the series at home against Ohio St. and the multi-tournament in Happy Valley where they scheduled to tussle with Penn St. and Rutgers have been postponed, but there's no fucking way the U. is going to make up these Games. It also stretches credulity that this program has been dealing with a rash of coronavirus protocols the past two Weeks. That's the reason the ballclub has given for this pause. But I find it hard to believe that players have been so careless with following distancing guidelines that they've been out of commission for two Weeks, especially when they are more than a Year into this pandemic. Meanwhile, I remind you that this club has won only four Games so far this season. I'll leave it at that.
The team has been cleared to play again. This weekend they were supposed to host Purdue for a three-Game set. But I guess to make up for Games lost, the Boilermakers came in early (I guess) to play a fourth Game. The series started last/Thursday night ... and they got tripled up, 9-3. Yup-yup. Maybe they should've been "in protocol" for another Week.
#-Infinity: Timberwolves (Last Week: -2). The Common Man said something noteworthy as to the final two Games of the Wolves' season, a backer-to-backer at home where they lost to Boston Saturday afternoon by 16 and then beat Dallas Sunday night by 15. The gamers for both stories were as night-and-day as the Woofs' efforts for both contests: They were listless, etc., vs. the Celtics and came out with pride, etc., versus the Mavericks. You are talking about the same team playing on consecutive nights; does it make sense to you that that club's effort was non-existent one tilt but in vivid color the next? Wouldn't a more accurate rationalization for these two Games (and journalism requires some big-picture perspective offered by contrasting Minnesota in both Games put together) be that the Celtics decided to gear up for the playoffs by caring about their Game, and that the Mavs didn't? That's a much better explanation than insisting that the Two Elves shut 'er down on Saturday and turned it up to 11 on Sunday.
Anyway, the Timberwolves finished the abbreviated (72 Games as opposed to 82) 2020-1 schedule with a 23-49 record. That is typically execrable for this franchise, but it is only the sixth-worst in the NBA. And I'll go out on a limb and say that in terms of the Draft, the Wolves are in a good spot. Like I analyzed in last Week's survey, if they stay put or get passed up by luckier teams that have better regular season records, they'll toss that pick to the Golden State Warriors, but they'll be drafting an (at best) rotation guy. If the Wolves leap up to the top three, they'll get to keep the pick and are ensured of selecting a stud. Only if they get the fourth pick will they be screwed; two of the five players considered the best this Year will still be available, but the Dubs will be the ones taking them.
Meanwhile -- and I'm sure I've felt this way before -- as shitty as this season has been, this feels like a bottoming out. Karl-Anthony Towns has faced down COVID-19 and appears to be back. D'Angelo Russell was able to shake his injuries enough to team up with KAT to build some sample size. Proving me wrong, Anthony Edwards has started to find his game and has the potential to replace, if not eclipse, KAT as the franchise cornerstone. And in Games where all three played significant minutes, the Timberwolves actually had a better than .500 record. You take that as progress.
Sure, these guys were still shit-ass on the defensive side of the court, so they really need more 3-and-D Wings more than a scoring machine. And they need to do so while dancing below the salary cap; it's almost criminal that a club this woeful is somehow capped out. But as we've described the Minnesota Timberwolves many times before, there is talent there, and the worst is now behind them. Next year, let's demonstrate some competence!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment