Positive Numbers: Timberwolves (Last Week: -3). The hype surrounding this club is as deafening as I can remember hearing it. Target Center had that proverbial "playoff atmosphere" as they fended off Boston in Overtime Monday, 114-109, then stacked that with victories at home over The Bastard Charlotte Hornets Wednesday and at San Antonio Friday in the Wolves' first (-ever) In-Season Tournament Group Stage Game. For a team that has consistently been inconsistent over the Years, they have won five in a row. Most impressively, they are currently the best defensive team in the NBA. Maybe, just maybe, this franchise has turned a corner. And I'm encouraged enough to not only put them in the top spot of the WMNSS, but also place them in Positive Numbers.
So they will conclude their five-Game road trip this Week. They have two Games at Golden State, this/Sunday night and Tuesday. However, only the Tuesday night Game is an In-Tournament one. They will the play Phoenix Wednesday and New Orleans Saturday.
#0: Vikings (Last Week: -2). OK, Kevin O'Connell can coach. He loses his starting Quarterback, Kirk Cousins, for the season; he sees his back-up, rookie Jaren Hall, leave in the First Quarter of the Game last Sunday versus the Falcons in Atlanta. So in comes Josh Dobbs, who was traded from Arizona but started several of their Games this season. He hadn't had reps with the first team. He has barely taken any practice snaps. And yet KOC brought him up to speed during the Game and directed him to throw the ball where he was supposed to. Dobbs did, and along with some timely runs, the Vikings came back to defeat Atlanta, 31-28, their fourth Win in a row that puts them above .500 for the first time all Year. Detroit (of all teams) might be the class of the NFC North Division, but the Vikings are fighting for a playoff spot, and I didn't see that coming coming into the Year. That puts them also above negative numbers. But can they keep it going at home today/Sunday against New Orleans?
#-1: Gopher men's basketball (NEW SEASON!!!). A promising start, so far, for Head Coach Ben Johnson, who, in only his third Year, by all rights is on the hot seat. His first Year was bad, at 13-17, although everyone was giving him a mulligan. Last Year, his second, the squad was 9-22, and there were Games where the Losses were so bad that you wondered if leadership knew what it was doing. He's doing a good job rectifying what predecessor Richard Pitino simply didn't want to do: Keep the best players in Minnesota in-state. But there has to be a little more than competence shown this season.
Bethune-Cookman and Texas-San Antonio certainly ain't Duke and Kansas, but you would be right to be suspicious based on track record whether the Gophs could win both Games, even if they were at Williams Arena. But they did, and by respective margins of 20 and 26. But now comes the only non-conference tilt vs. a BcS school, as Missouri comes to The Barn Thursday. This will be a fair test as to how good, or at least not bad, they are this season. And I'll get to see it in-person 'cause I bought a ticket! Oh, they'll continue their five-Game homestand that opens their season against South Carolina-Upstate Saturday.
#-2: Gopher women's basketball (NEW SEASON!!!). They began their season Wednesday with a 92-57 rout of Long Island at Williams, a right start for new Head Coach Dawn Plitzuweit. After the unfortunately bad tenure of local legend Lindsay Whalen, Plitzuweit comes here with an opportunity to jump-start the club and the program. I truly believe that Minnesota is a sleeping giant. Whalen was able to keep some of the best high schoolers in-state; she just could not coach them up. Plitzuweit, who has coached at four colleges dating back to 2002, has a .721 coaching record and, in her only season coaching at West Virginia last Year, took the Mountaineers to the NCAA Tournament, can. More importantly, Whalen's recruits all have decided to stay. If Whalen was the issue, Plitzuweit can change things around in a snap.
Like the men, the women are also kicking off the season with a lengthy homestand. They'll host Chicago St. and North Dakota St. this screening Week.
#-3: Gopher men's hockey (Last Week: -4). If there is any rivalry that has leaped in prominence over the past, oh, five Years or so, it's Minnesota-Michigan. They're the two programs that recruit the best, and they have clashed in the postseason more and more often, which creates the animosity that fans come to the arena to enjoy. Like I have said before, it'll have to be heated rivalries like this that will help erase the memories of the old WCHA and CCHA.
The U. split their series with the Wolverines at Yost Arena over the weekend, coming back from a 3-1 deficit by scoring three straight to win on Friday, 4-3, then losing in a Shootout last/Saturday night. These two teams will see a lot more of each other over the rest of the season.
Host Notre Dame Friday and Saturday.
#-4: Wild (Last Week: -6). Was in New York State all screening Week. Doubled up the Islanders, but got whacked by the Rangers and then got nipped in the bud in Buffalo. Meanwhile, Jared Spurgeon just got back from Long-Term Injury Reserve. He wasn't gone that long, so how could he have ever gone on LTIR? Just a thought.
Season's still young(-ish), so being out of a playoff spot isn't the worst thing in the world. But that Defense had better get its act together or ... oh, who are we kidding, they're not winning the Stanley Cup this Year.
Weirdly sparse screening Week. This/Sunday evening they host The Team That Was Stolen From Us v.2.0. They then visit Ottawa Saturday.
#-5: Gopher volleyball (Last Week: -5). Won in four Sets at Northwestern, lost in four Sets at home to Purdue. There is some serious retrenching going on. I might have to take back my prediction that these players have done enough to ensure their place in the NCAA Tournament.
Busy Week ahead for this squad: At Indiana this/Sunday afternoon, then host Iowa and Ohio St. back-to-back at home Friday and Saturday.
#-6: Gopher football (Last Week: -7). You've heard of the seven-year itch, haven't you? Well, this is P. J. Fleck's seventh season at the helm of the Gopher program, and after getting blasted yesterday/Saturday afternoon by a 49-30 score to a Purdue team that was 1-5 in the Big Ten and 2-7 overall, I think both sides are getting pretty goddamn antsy as to where this is headed. Minnesota is nowhere close to being Ohio St. or Michigan. (It's a goal, it's always a goal, but college football has a hardened hierarchy, and recognizing that isn't submitted, it's just reality.) But there has to be progress, and I think one of those steps in progressing is being the best of the rest, and beating teams you are supposed to beat on paper.
But along with inexplicable Losses to Northwestern and Illinois, this is the third defeat to a club the U. should be better than. And as I have said before, the Losses to inferior teams in the past pile up. No one is saying that Fleck hasn't changed this program for the better. But I think they are saying that they expected more, and they should. Now, we still have a team that has yet to become bowl-eligible, and I doubt they'll be able to do that next Week when they visit Ohio St.
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