The Weekly Minnesota Sports Survey

#0: Lynx (Last Week: 0).  Home victories over New York and Los Angeles -- the latter a come-from-behind affair where Minnesota allowed the Sparks to score only four Points in all of the Fourth Quarter -- extends the squad's winning streak to four Games and, more importantly, clinches a playoff spot for them for the 11th straight Year.  We are pretty much taking postseason appearances for granted.  Now, will they be able to do something once they get there.  I'm not sure, which is why I am tempering the team's place here by putting them at 0.

Next week they finish up four-Game homestand versus Washington on Saturday, then travel to Las Vegas on Wednesday.

#-1: United FC (Last Week: -2).  Adrien Hunou finally made himself known to Loons fans by bracing at Houston.  MNUFC won Saturday night for their first win at the Dynamo's stadium ever.  However, they remain in fifth in the Western Conference.  Still no sign of Robin Lod nor six other players on the senior squad.

They're off till the 11th.

#-2: Gopher soccer (Last Week: -1).  OK, through four Matches the XI have scored only two Goals.  But they're also undefeated after Thursday afternoon's scoreless draw against Mississippi St.  Wyoming comes to town Sunday afternoon, and then the club travels to Nebraska-Omaha for a Game Thursday.

#-3: Twins (Last Week: -3).  Took two-of-three at home vs. the best team in the National League Central, The Bastard Seattle Pilots, then flew to Detroit to play, and win, a make-up date over the Tigers, then came back to drop both Games of a two-fer against the Cubs.  Well, when you're calling up young Pitchers to see if they have a chance to stick in The Big Show, this is what's going to happen.

On the road this screening Week: Three contests against the Bay Rays, then four tilts with The Cleveland Proto-Guardians.

#-4: Gopher volleyball (Re-Entry!).  This is a bad portent.  They dropped a four-Setter against a team ranked below them, Baylor.  They then swept TCU in the other Game they had in the Big Ten/Big 12 Challenge in Madison over the weekend.  They came home and played a huge contest against the top-ranked team in the nation, Texas, Wednesday night -- and they lost in four.  I appreciate Hugh McCutcheon continuing to play and bring home the best teams in top-flight volleyball.  However, they're establishing a pattern of not being that good against the truly great programs in the country right now.  Not good, especially since they're travelling to Gainesville, Fla. to play fifth-ranked Florida Sunday afternoon.

#-5: Gopher football (Re-Entry!).  I was working the Game, even though I didn't see it in person.  They made a Game of it against Ohio St., which is much more than many of us could ask for.  In fact, halfway through the Third Quarter, they were leading the fourth-ranked Buckeyes, 21-17.  But Ohio St. pulled off a long Touchdown Pass, then the Buckeye Defensive Line strip-sacked Tanner Morgan, which led to a scoop-and-score, and TD Passes of, ugh, 70 and 61 Yards iced the 45-31 defeat.  Worse than that: Mohamed Ibrahim, who ran for 164 Yards and scored twice -- and made Ohio St. worry about him whenever he was on the field -- left the Game for an injury that many feared would end his Year here.  We shall see, but Ibrahim would be a huge loss for this program.

Back at it 9/11 as they host Miami of Ohio.