#-1: Timberwolves (Last Week: -4). No team stood out this Week. But only one won more Games than lost, so by default I guess, the Woofie Dogs claim the top spot for this Week's WMNSS. They crushed the Warriors at Target Center Sunday by 20, then survived an absolute shit-ass Third Quarter to somehow outlast the Knicks at Madison Square Garden Tuesday, 112-110. Jaylen Nowell bailed out the team with his clutch, out-of-nowhere shooting, and having role players unexpectedly step up has been one of many bright spots that Wolves can claim as proof of a turning point. Unfortunately, they had to travel from The Big Apple to The Terminal City and play the next night vs. the Hawks, and understandably (yes, I'm making an excuse for these guys -- playing on one side of the country to another on back-to-back nights is ridiculous!) they got beat, 134-122. In that contest, there were more offensive fouls called on Karl-Anthony Towns, and there was more bitching from KAT about not getting calls. At this point, both occurrences can be considered features, not bugs. Surprisingly (at least from my standpoint), streak shooter D'Angelo Russell is becoming The Voice Of Reason when it comes to complaining about calls. He might not be the most tradeable of The Big 3 after all.
An incredibly busy screening Week starts tonight/Saturday night at home versus The Bastard New York-by-way-of-New Jersey Nets. Since this is a road Game, Kyrie Irving can play in this one. They then tuck in a three-Game road trip -- Portland Tuesday, then a horrid back-to-back where they play at Golden State Thursday and then Phoenix on Friday. Like the previous Week's consecutive Games on the road, this part of the schedule is bullshit.
#-2: Wild (Last Week: -1). They battled The Bastard Quebec Nordiques in Denver in an MLK matinee before dropping the second Point in a Shootout. They then routed the once-mighty Blackhawks in Chicago last/Friday night, 5-1. They still sit seventh in the Western Conference with seven Games in hand. Those Games, postponed because other squads were facing COVID outbreaks, were finally rescheduled in February, when the NHL was supposed to be taking off to let its players compete in the Olympics. Six of the seven Games will played every other night. That means that the Wild will be getting in six tilts over the course of 11 Days (and the seventh one happens four Days before the first of this gauntlet). This will be extremely busy and extremely taxing, and the once-high-flying Wild may be in for some turbulence if this goes sideways on them.
But that's next Month. Tonight/Saturday night they complete the home-and-home with the Blackhawks as the two clubs cap Hockey Day In Minnesota 2022. They then host Montreal before visiting the Rangers at MSG.
And yet they were redeemed (sort of) by what happened last/Friday night. The top-ranked team in the nation, Wisconsin, came to town to start a two-Game series, and in a tight one, the Gophs came out on top, 2-1. Amy Potomak, whose five-Minute Major for Boarding allowed the Badgers to tie the score at 1, made up for it with the Game-winning Goal.
Somehow, the U. probably now rank only behind Wisky in the PairWise. So does the Badgers Win count more than the Mavericks Loss?
The second Game against the Badgers comes this/Saturday afternoon. They then head out to second-ranked Ohio St. to start a two-Game set there on Friday.
#-4: Gopher men's hockey (Last Week: -3). Similarly to their female analogue, the Gopher men's hockey team suffered the indignity of losing at home to a program that is beneath it. Now, I doubt they had a 53-Game winning streak over Alaska, but last Saturday's 3-2 Loss was still shocking and humbling. (It also snapped their winning streak at five.) They bounced back last/Friday night against Michigan. In what they say was a heated crowd at Mariucci (the Big Ten must now be smiling that these schools are finally bearing some fruits of grudges that should hold fanbase interest), the U. took advantage of a five-Minute Major (just like what happened in the women's Match just across the street!) on the Wolverines' Jacob Truscott late in the Third Period to, in OT, score the Game-ending Goal courtesy of Ben Meyers.
The U. is tied for ninth in the PairWise; I think that's good. One more against The Maize And Blue before heading out to South Bend and beginning a two-Game series vs. Notre Dame starting Friday.
#-5: Gopher wrestling (Last Week: -2). The then-14th-ranked Gopher grapplers lost at home to then-ninth-ranked Wisconsin, 21-15, Sunday afternoon. The U. won only four Matches in the Dual, but three of them were Major Decisions, including Gable Steveson at Heavyweight.
At Michigan in two Weeks.
#-6: Gopher men's basketball (Last Week: -6). COVID-19 continues to wreak havoc on the college basketball schedule. Go through a daily schedule for the sport, and you'll see several Games on the bottom of the page either say "POSTPONED" or "CANCELED." The former is what happened to Wednesday's scheduled tilt versus Penn St. at Happy Valley. So the only data point from which to evaluate this team is Sunday afternoon's 81-71 Loss at the hands of Iowa at Williams (which, by the way, is attached to Maturi Pavilion ... where, at the same time the Gopher men's b-ball team was falling to the Hawkeyes, the Gopher wrestling team was putting the finishing touches on their Loss to the Badgers). The club is still getting slapped with a hard dose of reality. They host Rutgers and Ohio St. this Week.
#-7: Gopher women's basketball (Last Week: -5). OK, if Lindsay Whalen wasn't heralded as a goddess in her home state, Thursday's dehumanization by Iowa at The Barn would immediately put her on the hot seat. The Hawkeyes beat them by a score of, get this, 105-49. It's the second-worst defeat in program history. Oh, and they lost to Ohio St. last Saturday by eight, also at home. Plus this Week they travel to Michigan St. (Sunday) and Purdue (Thursday). Yep, they're not going to any postseason tournament this season, either.
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