Brandon Mileski of The Common Man Progrum said it best after they went to Big D and defeating the Mavericks: That 119-101 Win was the type of professional Win that you have never, ever seen The Minnesota Timberwolves demonstrate. This is a gigantic about-face from last season, let alone their entire franchise history. But this screening Week is yet more proof that these guys may not be a flash in the pan and may more be like actual championship contenders. And to think that these guys would ever have their shit together and the Wild, their fellow winter pro franchise in Minnesota, wouldn't (see below).
Busy Week this Week: At Miami tomorrow/Monday (will Jimmy Butler be impressed by how the T-Wolves are playing Defense now??), visiting Philadelphia then home versus The Team That Was Stolen From Us v.1.0 back-to-back, in Sacramento Saturday before the Christmas break.
#-1: Gopher women's basketball (Last Week: 0). The squad's first B1G matchup under Head Coach Dawn Plitzuweit was an extremely close affair. But buoyed by the Williams Arena crowd, the Golden Gophers came back from a five-Point deficit to start the Fourth Quarter to beat Purdue last Sunday, 60-58. The contest was tied at 58 with the Boilermakers having the ball with 13 Seconds to go, but Amaya Battle was able to get the next-to-last of 19 Purdue Turnovers and get fouled with three Second left. She hit both Free Throws, then Mara Braun was able to steal the ball to salt away the Win. Great stat for the U.: The Boilermaker bench scored no Points in the tilt.
Their 96-64 pasting of Grambling St. on Wednesday was, well, predictable. But they are currently at 10-1 and within shouting distance of the NCAA Tournament. They will finally finish up non-con play hosting Lindenwood Thursday afternoon before the men's Game.
#-2: Gopher wrestling (Re-Entry!). They're 5-0 after pummeling North Dakota St. at Maturi last Sunday, 33-7. All of their opponents so far have been tomato cans and I doubt more formidable in-conference foes will be so accommodating, but for now, hey, they're undefeated! There's some military-themed tournament just before New Year's Eve, but real competition doesn't ramp back up until January 15, when they face Iowa on the road to begin Big Ten play.
#-3: Gopher men's basketball (Last Week: -2). Demolished IUPUI Tuesday, 101-65. Elijah Hawkins dished out 17 Assists, a school record which, given the team's bodybag-stuffed 8-3 record, is something I think the athletic department is crowing a little too much over. Host Ball State Thursday evening after the women's Game.
#-4: Wild (Last Week: -4). OK, forget about what the team's doing on-ice for a second; what the hell is going on with the Mild front office? First, Assistant General Manager Chris O'Hearn abruptly leaves the team -- just about a year after signing an extension, by the way. Then it was revealed that Andrew Heydt, the organization's Director Of Team Operations And Player Relations, filed a complaint to Wild Human Resources about GM Bill Guerin. Journalists are still trying to get a read on what has happened and what is going on right now. From a quick canvas on the Internet, I'm not sure if either investigation is completely closed.
As an aside, the fact that the complaint about Guerin leaked is a big symbol of what, to me, likely is dysfunction in the Wild front office. It's great for fans. It's great for The Media, too. But frankly, a professional, buttoned-up franchise would not let something like this leak to a reporter. It wouldn't happen at all, to be honest, but stories like this don't always come out, at least not, oh, a couple weeks or so after the complaint was filed. Now, I have to kind of get back to The Media side in all this. Michael Russo, longtime Wild beat writer who now works for The Athletic, is, in my not-so-humble estimation, The Best Hockey Beat Writer In The NHL. He was blindsided by the O'Hearn "firing." It makes me think either he somehow got caught flat-footed with the news ... or that one of his sources within the organization is O'Hearn himself. If the latter, I wonder about the real reason for the "mutual parting of ways"; the actual reason has not been found yet.
Add all of that to the recent firing of Head Coach Dean Evason, justified as it may be, and the perception of the Wild as a straight-laced, no-drama franchise has incinerated into ash. This is a shitshow, guys, and add that the season may just be lost already, and that the squad will be spitting out a roster with about $15 million less than all the other teams in the league next year, and we might be looking at a local franchise with as much direction and maturity as the Love Boat-era Vikings.
Now, back to on the ice ... well, they're actually really good. They ran the table this Week, shutting out The Kraken in Seattle, then coming home and drawing out Shootout Wins over Calgary and Vancouver at home. They're 28 Games into their season and they're only three Points behind St. Louis for the final playoff spot in the Western Conference. This cavalcade of disaster still might make the postseason.
Very busy screening Week for these guys, too. At Pittsburgh and Boston back-to-back, then hosting Montreal and said Bruins before Christmas.
#-5: Vikings (Re-Entry!). I don't get this team. I just don't. The Defense under Brian Flores is getting a lot of pub, and they deserve it after shutting out The Bastard Oakland (By Way Of Los Angeles) Raiders last Sunday. But then that D failed to hold a lead for the third consecutive Loss yesterday/Saturday afternoon in Cincinnati. I didn't see the Game because I was at that taste test, but I was listening to the Game up until the point Greg Joseph made it a 14-Point Game. By the time I got done with the research study, they were approaching the end of regulation and it was tied. Apparently the D was burned by yet another jump ball in the End Zone. Memo to Kwesi Adofo-Mensah: Draft a tall Cornerback.
But the this Week's two Games, the Win over Los Vegas and the Loss to the Bengals, have exposed holes in the Offense, of all things, something Kevin O'Connell was brought in to help and to paper over. The Defense shut down The Bastard Oakland (By Way Of Los Angeles) Raiders, but the O scored only three Points, and that was in Overtime. That impotence when the Vikes had the ball signaled the end of The Joshua Dobbs Experiment -- he was the emergency Quarterback vs. Cincy -- and man, I can't remember a player on a Minnesota team whose star burned so bright and then burned out so fast than the Passtronaut. Nick Mullens saved the team's ass last Sunday, but he apparently wasn't able to QB sneak for a First Down in Overtime. Maybe you need to hire Tom Brady as a Tush/Bush Push Coordinator or something.
At the start of the season, I thought that because of the amped-up schedule and the churning of so many players on the defensive side of the ball, I thought that this was, at best, an eight or nine-Win club. But after seeing them play well after injuries to Justin Jefferson and Kirk Cousins, I thought, "Hey, maybe this squad can keep it together and make the playoffs!" I don't know if this defeat is fatal -- everyone thought they would lose, it's just crushing and unacceptable that they choked on yet another lead -- but their postseason hopes had to have taken a blow yesterday/Saturday. Through all the ups and downs, these Vikings might end up with eight or nine victories after all.
They host Detroit Christmas Eve. Fuck, good luck with that.
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