On a day when Justin Jefferson was covered more thoroughly than an Eskimo in bed in an igloo Adam Thielen came through with his best game of the season. It's important to remind the league that MN is not a one-trick operation. It would be even better if KJ Osborn would start doing what he had been earlier in the year, especially with Cook potentially out for some time. That also applies to Kene Nwangwu who should get an opportunity with the offense now that he's established himself as the long-term return man.
This is yet another game that should have been won but wasn't. The latest batch of injuries will only make the next six weeks of the season tougher but ball security is what foiled their latest attempt to get about .500. It's something they have excelled at this season so I'm not going to make grand pronouncements based off this one game but it was the back breaker today.
Moving forward, if the team is anything less than 3-0 over the next three games then the playoff aspirations will vanish and they'll be stuck with a stupid mid-round pick.
A 🏈 bye week + a holiday made it a fairly quite week on the prairie. But what sports there was went pretty well.
🤼 started the week in Brookings.
A day later men's 🏀 found itself in a dog fight with some Texans but prevailed due to their superior talent & experience. Fast forward to Saturday and they got a chance to keep working on their half-court offense against a thoroughly-overmatched Idaho squad.
The women also got a game-length practice as Dickinson State entered the SHAC. Emily Dietz was held in check but they still managed to get six different players in double figures, lead by Heaven Hamling (22) & Kylie Strop (17) off the bench. Can only judiciously take so much from the scoring output or the margin but having as many as 10 reliable scorers would go a long way in trying to bridge the gap between Fargo and the South Dakotas.
Outside the lines, Christian Watson & Cordell Volson both accepted invitations to the East/West Bowl, set to be played Feb 3 in Vegas. In addition to those two Noah Gindorff & Josh Babicz will have the chance to get evaluation at the Players Association Bowl in Pasadena. Along with those came the announcement that coach Entz was chosen as Conference Coach of the Year.
🏐 got in on the news making as sophomore outside hitter Ali Hinze was name All-Conference Honorable Mention.
Moorhead St. had a light week between the lines but still managed to make good out of it. For the women's 🏀 it took a couple more losses before they could finally break through into the win column. During the stretch they showed progress from Northern State through Michigan Tech & finally with a three-shot win over Billings. They'll need to keep it rolling as conference play begins Thursday with a trip to Bismarck.
The men began their week with their third straight win, a conference opener against Northern State. A couple days later they had a non-conference game against another familiar foe as Winona State squared off during MSU's Thanksgiving Classic. A quality effort on both ends in the second half propelled them to a nine point win. They very nearly made it five in a row against Sioux Falls Saturday but the Cougars scratched their way to a four point victory. They will also now get the conference slate underway in earnest.
Concordia's short week began with an announcement of All-Conference 🏈, seven-strong.
Tuesday continued with a loss by women's 🏀 to Macalester.
By days end they had also had a school record on the ice as the women routed Northland.
Talk about riding a see-saw!
Whatever "turning the corner" means, Minnesota may have finally done it. We've only just hit the quarter-poll of the season so it didn't actually take as long as it felt to get things clicking, but after years of futility the overreaction was merited. So now, after all the failed attempts, maybe, just maybe, the right pieces are here to have a couple enjoyable seasons at minimum.
Beating Miami, with Anthony Edwards showing some alpha-dog was a great game. Then Saturday, less than 24 hours after a poor loss in Charlotte & without Towns down the stretch, D'Angelo Russell finally had the sort of performance which Rosas may have envisioned when making him the organization's #1 target.
🤞, if the trajectory holds then even better things may lie ahead!
The "hot stove" had been as cold as the upcoming weather but Sunday afternoon brought some warmth for fans of the team. Multiple outlets have reported that Byron Buxton has agreed to a 7 year, $100,000,000 contract with several special elements to account for his storied history of injuries.
It also likely means that the team will continue to not spend aggressively in free agency at the pitcher position. He's a box office player so it makes sense that they would keep him but don't ignore the ramifications.
While many of us were going for extra servings at our various feasts the Bolts got an extra outing on the ice this week. They got it going with a one-off Wednesday in Sioux City but were once again on the losing end. It continued Friday with another black mark against their season, losing to Tri-City by a goal.
They were able to get their second win of the month the next day as both offenses exploded. From down 2 - 0, 3 - 1 & 4 - 2 Fargo rallied over the final 11 minutes of the third period & the first few of overtime capped by Joe Palodichuck's first score of the season! A fitting end to a contest which began with Thomas Weis' first score. Luke Gramer, Tyler Rollwagen & Bret Link netted the three in-between for Fargo.
They will head out for the next two weeks before returning home for the rest of December.
Reminder that scores are added daily, so check back often.
But now for the highlights
The prep week began with the 🏐 All-State teams being announced and it showed that the future continues to be bright in the area!
Even with the Holiday in the middle of the week 🏒 & 🤼 began their Winters of competition. Fargo North has come out like gang-busters on the ice to start the year 3-0.
But before going full-bore into the next seasons 🏈 had more conclusions to make in downtown Minneapolis. The magical run for Fertile/Beltrami ran into a buzzsaw as Le Roy/Ostrander took home the 9-man title as the last of the teams from the area to be playing.
That didn't stop attention from being paid to the hardwood as previews for the West Fargo girls, Fargo South's boys & girls and Sheyenne's girls have dropped.
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