Bison
In the continued trickle of 2020 Football recruits, NDSU may have gotten it's best one yet. The heavily recruited Cole Wisniewski received offers from many programs that some would consider superior yet the athlete who could play seemingly anywhere on the field decided to come Northwest. The machine is going to keep on rolling. Not the first to say it and definitely not the first to think it but there it is!
Twins
The Twins finished the pre-break portion of the schedule with a loss to the Rangers but they had already blown Texas out to lock up the series before the quintessential get away day. The lead on Cleveland continues to dwindle so the break couldn't be timed much better. It's going to be fun watching a couple of the league's best compete amongst the best but I've come to be glad that the number of all stars is so low now. Take the break and then come back and blast Cleveland in the first series. That's what you call making Lemonade out of Lemons!
Timberwolves
The frustration from a week ago is still drilling down but the team has moved forward with a couple signings that couple round out their rotation in the upcoming season. Jordan Bell, formerly of the Golden State Warriors, may prove to be the best acquisition of the current lot but fellow fresh faces Jake Layman & Noah Vonleh could contribute at different times over the year. I'm not confident that any of them will top nine but as I said, I think Bell has the best chance. Any of the three could be successful far beyond the financial agreement because each one will look to earn more money in their next deals - both Bell & Vonleh are under one year contracts. The burning question remains what will be done to enhance the point guard position. Beyond Jeff Teague and his expiring contract is Shabazz Napier who should not be the primary back up. Accoring to Spotrac there are 23 points available which includes the recently retired Darren Collison so it's actually a 22 man field. Tyus Jones remains a local favorite to return to the Wolves but there's been little news on his courtship by the Wolves or other teams. As one of the youngest such players left and with the familiarity of Ryan Saunders I don't get how he hasn't been inked yet but it's possible that he's doing his due diligence to find the best position for himself. Hopefully by this time next Sunday he'll be locked in for a few more years in Minnesota! As for the competition in the desert, Okogieson has so far shown that he's well on track to form the hypothesized Wolven Curtain. His offense still have a way's to go but he's clearly making strides so that will follow suit. His fellow big club mate, Keita Bates-Diop, has also been more than a step ahead of many of the opponent players thus far in the Summer League. With the experience that each has coming in, it shouldn't be any other way. The third spoke of the Timberwolves main squad is Naz Reid. It remains to be seen how much time he spends in Minneapolis as opposed to in Iowa but he has also shown some good things in his first professional action. We're all still waiting on either of the Wolves' draft picks to debut this Summer but in the mean time, Mitch Creek has made some nice plays. He's fighting up stream, pun intended, position wise but as a potential three point shooter it's possible he could find his way onto the main roster or at least onto Iowa's. The results don't matter but they're 2-0 and it's been fun so far. The consistently evident message of unity has been as refreshing as anything from the action so far & if it continues into the real season it'll be great!
Redhawks
In similar fashion to the Twins, the surging Redhawks stumbled on Sunday after securing the series over Milwaukee. Their recent run of success has pushed them to the top of the North division with the best record in the American Association. It'll come down to the Saints, as it always seems to, but with only 6 head to head matchups (split home & road) remaining between the teams, FM may be able to feast on the inferior teams and put a vice grip on the standing. I'd much rather they just go out and kick the Saints all over the diamond but if worse comes to worse, things could still work out favorably! As a deeply frustrated sports fan, I'll take winning however it can be had!!
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