Two games this week and Minnesota is no closer to any of the goals. Not to the goals that the team (& many of the fans) have of making the playoffs. Not to the goal of improving the big picture with one bad year that leads to more great players donning the royal colors.
What a bunch of crap.
I've been saying it and I'll keep saying it - a .500 season is the worst-case scenario.
Maybe they squeak into the postseason if the 8th-seed clause is enacted. It can't be ruled out and I would root for them to succeed if it happens. But coming up short AND missing the chance at some ELITE talent should make every fan mad.
Every single one.
Today's loss decreases the odds of an 8/8 finish but if they rally again and finish the season beating the teams that they are supposed to then they'll still find themselves near that stink hole.
Loserville...👎 👎 👎
It was a good news/bad news sort of week for the Bison.
Beyond the latest "keep up," NDSU 🏀 announced a few days ago that they'll spend the final days of the month in the Twin Cities to face Loyola Marymount on the 29th and Minnesota on the 30th. Those late additions are all the more important after next weekends four-team event in Milwaukee was shuttered. Even after these many months of grinding it out it's hard to believe how merely scheduling, much less playing games has become an arms race, but that's the situation every team is in.
Moorhead State announced more details to the 2021 schedule for 🏀 & 🤼 . The former will begin on January 2nd at home against Augustana. Their other home series will be against Crookston (Jan. 8-9), St. Cloud (Jan. 29-30) & Minot St. (Feb. 5-6). They will finish the schedule on Feb. 20 against Saul Philips at Northern State.
As for 🤼 , they'll hit the mat on Jan. 7 against SW MN St.. They'll close out the schedule against Augustana in Sioux Falls on Feb. 11, with four bouts in-between.
The three other Winter sports schedules are still in the works.
In the ongoing effort to build a contender (you can only call it a rebuild if they've done something before but clinging to the WC finals appearance is just sad) Minnesota had their busiest week of the year.
Granted, that's a low bar all things considered, but even in a regular year few weeks would be like this half-week was. It started with the draft where they confirmed much of the speculation by selection Anthony Edwards. No, not this one:
Not long after, news broke that they were reacquiring MN's adopted son Ricky Rubio. Considering the constitution of the roster he won't be a starter but he'll be a leader, he'll help the second unit improve and most likely will help close out games on a regular basis.
Those things alone are worth their weight in gold.
And they were just getting started
The next significant moves were to get deals done with Malik Beasley & Juan Hernangomez. Those two will log heavy for the team this year and the Spanish National Team experience that Rubio & Hernangomez have may pay dividends in ways that we don't know.
The final move on Gerrson Rosas' chess board was to trade Omari Spellman & Jacob Evans to Thibs' new team for 10 year veteran forward Ed Davis. Flipping two guys who would at-best play marginal roles as long as the top 10 guys stayed healthy for a guy who will provide more leadership, if not get into the rotation early in the season, is some shrewd dealing by "Gers."
🏀 season is coming quick, who's ready?!
Fargo started the week in Nebraska against Tri-City. They scored five goals for the third game in a row, with the first coming less than four minutes into the game by Tristan Broz. Tri-City tied it up a few minutes later, but with less than three minutes left in the period Ryan Siedem & Jacob Braccini each got one past the goalie. In the second-half of the second period Braccini added a fourth score and then Nick Strom added number five with four minutes left til the second break. Tri-City tacked on one more early in the third, but were stifled the rest of the way.
In the rematch Tri-City scored first and it took til the second period for Fargo to tie it at 1s. It took all of 2.5 minutes for T-C to regain the lead, but then, again, Fargo managed to pull even with them, this time with seconds remaining in the third period. Fargo could only ride that wave for 41 seconds of overtime before the decider got by Brennan Boynton to make it a split.
From there the team traveled to Omaha for a one-off today which finished with them behind 5-1.
They'll be at home on Friday as the first of four at the Arena, stretching in December.
It's been a while since the birds provided any conversation fodder but this week it was announced that they were 2020 Organization of the Year for the Assocation. Considering the fluidity they have had at manager over the last few years it's extra special that they were chosen!
And now for the main reason for this week's title.
Human resilience continues to amaze me. We go through things that are unfair, unjust, sad, confusing, irritating, infuriating, so on and so on, but more often than not we don't give up.
Since last March the prep athletes have all been impacted by the ongoing situation in a unique way but when the opportunities that they've had to take the field or the court arose they've done so with whatever adjustments were required and smiles behind the cloth.
Far bigger than the final scores of any of the games is the message that it sends.
Don't give up.
Take the opportunities that come your way.
Enjoy life.
This week was the culmination of the work on the 🏈 field in Minnesota and on the 🏐 court on both sides of the river.
To the West that meant more state titles were earned, by Bismarck Century & Linton/H/M/B. To the East it meant a semi-mad dash to get as much time behind the net as possible before the clock struck midnight, figuratively and literally.
On Friday night, Moorhead finished their dominant run against Alexandria. It was an honor to capture the moments during the 63-7 game but even more so in the aftermath as that great Spud squad took it's time leaving the field. Not to give too much away, but I think I captured both periods of time pretty well 🙂.
Away from Jim Gotta, D/G/F also completed an undefeated season with a 27-0 win over Pequot Lakes. A season that began with special consternation finished with dominance, it couldn't have been drawn up much better!
Like wise for Barnesville. They didn't get to make State for the fifth year in a row but they jaw-wacked Warroad 41-8 in the conclusion of an undefeated season in which they only gave up multiple touchdowns twice in seven games.
And then there was the most personally surprising outcome of the lot.
Park Christian: losers of four of their five games, only in the second round because of a forfeit, against one of the teams that had bested them, won 7-6. I'd be lying if I said I knew where Blackduck is but they won four of their six games and were only limited to single digits one time, so it's quite a shocker by the Falcons!
The old saying may be that only one team finishes as a winner, but in this particular year that is not the case and I for one am A-ok with that!!
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