Positive Numbers: Timberwolves (Last Week: -3). It's getting to the point where it should be NBA Finals or bust for this team. I'm serious. They're on a four-Game winning streak -- and all four Wins are on the road. They demolished an on-track Clippers squad in Los Angeles Monday by 21, then took both Games at Portland Tuesday and Thursday, both going away. They went into the All-Star break (congratulations, by the way, go out to Anthony Edwards, Karl-Anthony Towns and West All-Star Head Coach Chris Finch, even though they got blown out by the East because it's the All-Star Game so who gives a flying fuck?) tops in the Western Conference, the first time this franchise has ever done that. (By the way, I may not have corrected myself from an earlier WMNSS when I said Finch is the first Timberwolves HC to coach an ASG. Flip Saunders did coach one. I regret the error.) This club has reached another unprecedented milestone, so I have to both put them in the top spot and into Positive Numbers.
Coming back from the break they begin a seven-Game homestand with back-to-back contests vs. Milwaukee and Brooklyn Friday and Saturday.
So now the next event for this team is the conference championships, scheduled for College Park, Md., Saturday, March 9. Assuming Minnesota doesn't do anything at this point and beyond, am I able to ignore these guys for the rest of the Year?
#-1: Gopher baseball (NEW SEASON!!!). John Anderson announced over the offseason that this season, his 43rd helming the Gopher baseball program, will be his last. While I appreciate his tenure and admire his longevity, I still believe that Minnesota is a sleeping giant that would use new energy and a fresh set of eyes to capitalize on the good aspects of this program. That being said, I have no idea how this team is predicted to fare this season.
However, they are in the middle of their opening tournament of the Year, The College Baseball Classic being played in Surprise, Ariz. They went 12 Innings with Cal State-Bakersfield before winning Friday, 8-7, but then lost Saturday to seventh-ranked Oregon St., 6-4. However, they came back with a resounding 11-2 domination over New Mexico last/Sunday night.
They finish up the tourney early this/Monday afternoon playing the Beavers once again. After an exhibition vs. the Twins at their Spring Training base in Fort Myers, Fla., they'll play a two-Game series versus Northeastern, presumably also at the Twins' Spring Training Complex.
#-2: Gopher softball (Last Week: -5). The Gophers really got affected by the thing that will impact both diamond sports this spring: Bad weather. The club was slated to play five Games in the Shriners Children's Clearwater Invitational (presented by EvoShield) in Clearwater, Fla. But being this is Florida in the late winter, weather was so awful there that the three tilts they were supposed to play Saturday and Sunday were cancelled. They were big opponents, too: ninth-ranked Stanford, fourth-ranked Georgia, and twelfth-ranked LSU.
On one hand those were lost opportunities to paid their resume come tournament time. On the other hand, they did play a ranked foe, fifth-or-sixth-ranked Washington, early Friday afternoon and got pummeled, 12-4. They bounced back to beat the only unranked team they were scheduled to face over the weekend, Georgia Tech, but that was by a 12-11 margin. Going 1-1 when more Games were cancelled over a Week than played doesn't show how good or bad a team is ... or does it?
Maybe Denton, Tex., will have better weather. That's where the Golden Gophers will be this weekend for the UNT Invitational. They'll play five Games: Two with Texas Tech and one each against Stephen F. Austin, New Mexico and host North Texas.
#-3: Gopher men's hockey (Last Week: -2). They're holding steady in ninth in the PairWise, but it was a rough weekend at South Bend, where they won in Overtime Saturday evening after getting thrashed by a score of 6-1 Friday night. Maybe a bye weekend will do them good; they host Michigan for a pair the following weekend.
#-4: Wild (Last Week: -7). The Mild could've made it a perfect screening Week as well as a five-Game winning streak. They went to (Las) Vegas and beat the defending Stanley Cup champion Golden Knights, 5-3, Monday in what a few people are calling the squad's best performance all season. They followed that up Wednesday with a 3-1 Win over The Bastard Winnipeg Jets in that tiny Mullett Arena, the Tempe home for the Arizona St. men's hockey team. In a sign of how I think there is no hockey fanbase in the Phoenix area, despite the attendant boost in prices because only about 4,600 people can fit in there for an NHL Game, the crowd had a decided Minnesota bent to it. They then took a 2-1 lead late Saturday at home versus Buffalo, only to (yet again) allow a late Goal and then lose it in Overtime.
The league remains so, so forgiving when it comes to keeping teams in the playoff race for interest's sake. Still, Minnesota remains within hailing distance of the final spot in the West -- four Points behind St. Louis with Nashville ahead and Seattle alongside them. And this is a club that should be tanking for better draft position.
A pair of back-to-backs this Week. They host Vancouver for a Presidents' Day matinee, then fly up to Winnipeg to face The Bastard Atlanta Thrashers tomorrow/Tuesday night. They then visit Edmonton Friday and the Kraken Saturday.
#-5: Gopher men's basketball (Last Week: -6). When things are going well, even small setbacks can be interpreted as positive steps. Case in point: Thursday's eight-Point Loss at #2 Purdue. This club, and even Ben Johnson's clubs of the previous two Years, would in no way even be expected to compete. But while it's disheartening to see the U. have a lead and blow it, they led the Boilermakers by eight at Halftime. (Purdue subsequently lost at Ohio St., which just fired their Head Coach in the middle of last Week, but the Boilermakers are still a very good team.) With so much good news surrounding this team, you can easily see that as a moral victory, especially when the Gophers bounced back with an 11-Point Win at The Barn over Rutgers. You know, when I look at Joe Lunardi's bracketology on Tuesday morning, is it possible I'll see Minnesota as one of the Next (it actually should be called Penultimate) Four Out? What a turnaround for this program!
Home to said Buckeyes Thursday, at Nebraska Sunday.
#-6: Gopher women's basketball (Last Week: -8). Missing the NCAA Tournament is now a foregone conclusion -- these players are fighting for the WNIT now. An eight-Point defeat at Rutgers Tuesday extended their losing streak to six, a streak that mercifully ended Saturday at Williams with a 25-Point shellacking of Northwestern, which is something every team in the B1G is doing. Unfortunately time is running short, and I don't think this squad has bounced back from the loss of Mara Braun.
Home to Wisconsin, at Nebraska.
#-7: Gopher women's hockey (Last Week: -4). After getting their collective asses kicked at Wisconsin over the weekend by scores of 4-3 (in Overtime, but still) and 4-0, I am very, very troubled as to the future trajectory of this program. This is a far cry from the team that last won it tall in 2016, and eight Years feels so long ago. There are two benchmark programs the U. has to compare itself against, Ohio St. and the Badgers, and they went 1-7 against them, tallying a total of 5 Points. Even more evidence that these Goofers are a clear cut below the true elite in this sport ... and below the program they once were.
Hosting Minnesota-Duluth this weekend.
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