#0: Gopher volleyball (Last Week: -4). OK, this is more like it. Went to Eugene, Ore., and won both Matches of their Big Ten/Pac-12 Challenge over the weekend, beating two teams ranked slightly behind the-then tenth-ranked (?) Gophers, Stanford (in four Sets) and Oregon (in five). They then started their Diet Coke Classic last/Thursday night by defeating new top-flight athletic program, St. Thomas, in straight sets.
So ... maybe around tenth-best this Year? It's not a championship, but at least I have a better inkling as to how this squad could/should be. The U. finishes up its own tournament Saturday night playing Iowa St. After that, it's the B1G.
And yet I can't put them above negative numbers. For one thing, the volleyball club played three Games, two of which were against ranked schools, and won all three of them. Impressive output there. And second, from what I can tell quickly scrolling through Chris Henderson's Woso twitter feed, he does not have Minnesota anywhere near the top of the rankings when it comes to RPI or any other metric you could think of. I'm not absolutely sure that, at this very early stage, he would put the U. in the NCAA field of 64. Not having overwhelming success against what isn't exactly Murderers' Row probably explains it.
But they're a BcS school, so here comes a step up in foe. It starts off with a home date vs. a very good Wisconsin side, and then they travel to face Ohio St. on Thursday.
#-2: Lynx (Last Week: -3). The Indiana Fever are the worst team in the WNBA. Thank the scheduling gods, then, for having Minnesota play them three Games in a row -- the fourth-to-the-last, third-to-the-last, and penultimate ones -- the first two of which serve as the final Games of the season at Target Center. So yeah, they took both tilts at home comfortably. That, combined with the Phoenix Mercury finally losing, has pushed the Lynx back into a spot where they'll get a bye for the First Round/Play-In Games. In fact, the Lynx sit in third place right now, a half-Game ahead of bugaboo Seattle, who have not been the same since the Olympic Break. (Meanwhile, the Connecticut Sun has clinched home-court advantage through the entire playoffs, and who the hell saw that coming?)
They could still slip into fifth, but there is that Game in Indianapolis tonight. However, there is a date in Washington Sunday against a Mystics ballclub that could still be fighting with the Los Angeles Sparks for the final playoff spot that wraps up the regular season. Minnesota's in; where and how, unfortunately, are still up in the air.
#-3: Gopher football (Re-Entry!). The footballers broke their duck (it's a British term -- am I saying that right?) Saturday afternoon by beating Miami of Ohio, but by a somewhat disconcerting 31-26 score. The Gophers led at Halftime, 21-3, but the Redhawks racked up ten Points (to Minnesota's zero) and scored 17 straight to make the score 21-20 early in the Fourth Quarter. But a Trey Potts 21-Yard Touchdown Run (replacing Mo Ibrahim, gone for the season after getting injured in the loss to Ohio St.) and Matthew Trickett nailing a Field Goal from 50 was all the cushion they needed.
Still, a five-Point victory against a Mid-American Conference team doesn't instill confidence. Worse yet is Ohio St. losing at home, and handily, to Oregon, which, by the transitive property all college football fans use to compare their teams to others, means that the U. may not be as good as they seemed to fare against the Buckeyes. But more proof is on the way: In the type of Power 5-versus-Power 5 (or, come to think of it, "Alliance") matchup that is both welcomed and still not enough, Minnesota travels to Boulder, Colo., in an intriguing contest vs. the Colorado Buffaloes Saturday at high noon.
#-4: Twins (Last Week: -2). I went to Tuesday afternoon's Doubleheader opener versus Cleveland. It wasn't a regularly scheduled Game; it was a makeup for a rainout in June. And since there was a night Game as well, by rules that carried over from the pandemic 2020 season, both Games were reduced in length to seven Innings.
You know what? I didn't mind that. It took just a bit over two Hours to finish the contest. I had time to talk to my usher friend from the theater, then drive off to the gym to work out starting in the early evening. It also reminded me of earlier in the summer when I took in a St. Paul Saints Game vs. the Iowa Cubs with my friend. It was a regularly-scheduled nine-Inning affair, but they scheduled a Game that was suspended back on June 20 to be finished just before the evening one, and because (and I'm spitballing here) that first Game was scheduled to be nine Innings, that was going to go the whole nine even though there were two Games that day and the nightcap was going to be seven Innings only. (Quick recap: The I-Cubs had a two-Run lead headed into the bottom of the Ninth in the unsuspended Game, only for the Saints to plate three and win, the last of those Runs being scored on a bounder that hit off an Infielder's glove close to Second Base. The second Game went into extra Innings, and in the *eighth,* the Game-ending Run came on a chopper that went high enough in the air for the Saints Runner on Third Base to score well before any throw from the Cubs Fielder could reach him [and the Fielder did not throw]. Thus, the Saints "walked it off" twice on August 17!) I was squeamish about staying late, especially after our Game was tied after seven, but I got home at a decent hour to sleep just enough (I think) to roll into work the next day.
What am I trying to say? I think this is a minority opinion, but I don't mind baseball Games that are part of Doubleheaders being seven Innings long. It's not like it's a foreign concept; a decade or more ago, the Big Ten regularly scheduled DHs as part of a three-Day, four-Game weekend conference series, and those Saturday tilts were each only seven. And as much as we want to romanticize turning off the stopwatch and allowing ourselves to be swept away by the unhurried rhythms of baseball, well, we're busy people, and we want to get going to our next thing as soon as possible. Besides, Major League Baseball still has a pace of play and time bloat issues; it's taking an axe to the problem, but you'll definitely save some time if you lop off two Innings from a Game. (Oh, and I also don't mind starting off extra half-Innings with a Runner on Second. Speeds things up, you know?)
Oh, the Twinks ... yeah, they lost the Game that I went to Tuesday afternoon, 3-1. Joe Ryan was pitching solid for Minnesota, but then he gave up a massive Home Run that reached the upper deck in Center Field, then a comebacker hit him in the wrist. That hit was so bad, and so clear, that he didn't even pick up the ball that stopped right in front of him. He just walked off the field without waiting for trainers and slammed his glove in the dugout. (Right now the team says Ryan doesn't need any surgery, thank goodness.) They beat the Proto-Guardians in the nightcap, however, 6-3, one of only two Wins for the Week, next to five Losses. The most egregious of those, by the way, was Monday afternoon's makeup date at the Yankees. The Twinks were leading when, who knew, they pissed down their legs again, gave up a Game-tying three-Run Home Run to Aaron Judge in the eighth, then lost it in the tenth.
At Toronto this weekend, at Wrigley to play a two-fer at the Cubs midweek, then a four-Game series with the Blue Jays at home starting on Thursday.
#-5: Vikings (Re-Entry!). Yeah, this is what I feared the most: Confusion, lack of discipline, no margin for error when the shit hits the fan and, ultimately, a Loss to what was a putrid Cincinnati squad last Year to open the regular season this Year. The Offense, which carried this team through a godawful 2020, was once again the weakest link in Sunday's matchup. And even though I don't think Dalvin Cook fumbled the ball in Overtime, it was a case where the replay would not show anything definitive enough to change whatever the call was on the field.
The next day, I saw something in The Athletic that changed my mind about Head Coach Mike Zimmer. The writer of the piece noted that he frequently points out how his players screwed up ... and that he has rarely, if ever, said anything about the coaching -- his coaching. Many Zimmer haters have said this about him, and I now see it, too. I predicted this team would go 5-12, which would force the Wilfs to clean house. Zimmer continuing to throw his guys under the bus would be a red flag that he is a desperate man willing to do anything in order to keep his job.
This Sunday they are in Phoenix to play The Chicago-By-Way-Of-St. Louis Cardinals. Kyler Murray could dance through a keyhole. Chandler Jones racked up five Sacks as they went into Nashville and torched The Bastard Houston Oilers. You really think the ViQueens aren't going 0-2?
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