Notes

I had a nice visit with Tom the Retired Twins Fan  during Walmart's Black Friday shopping event.

I couldn't help but notice his cart was empty.

I found out we're both now rooting for the Detroit Lions to go all the way this year. Also we don't have tons of confidence in the latest Twins pitching acquisition. BUT, like almost all Twins fans in the off-season, we're optimistic.

It will take quite a bit more off-season activity to get us hopeful,  though.

The Gopher football team gets a chance to play with the big boys today. Number 20 Wisconsin was more than we could handle last week. Today it's number 11 Michigan State. I'm making a point of seeing the early part of that one.

On Saturdays, there's always lots of stuff to get done. I won't see the whole game.

Alabama/Auburn is the BIG game of the day. I hope to catch the end of that one. As always I'll be rooting for the underdog. Go Auburn!

Football

The Casually Observing Wife and myself found ourselves at my Aunt's for Thanksgiving dinner yesterday. My Aunt Maybelle has never understood football though she rarely misses a Twins game. She doesn't mind football on in the background while we visit so we watched the whole first half of the Packers/Lions game yesterday with her before leaving at halftime for a much needed nap.

 I've come to this conclusion:  The Packers are WORTHLESS without Aaron Rodgers. That, and Detroit is a much better team than I've given them credit for. They have the most high-powered offense this side of Peyton Manning. I mean yesterday they put up college numbers with over 550 yards of offense. That's so rare in pro ball. Last week they had 300 yards passing at halftime.

I lost interest in the last two games yesterday and ended up watching Kung Fu Panda I and II on FX instead. Where the first movie is clearly the best, the second one is growing on me.

Better yet, the first four seasons of the TV show are available on iTunes for only $10 each in 1080p HD as a holiday special. Looks like I have 22 more hours of Kung Fu Panda to watch this weekend.

When we aren't shopping.

New Ulm here we come.

Twins Sign Nolasco to $50 Million Deal

It's a four-year deal with an option for a fifth. Last season he had an ERA of 3.70 with 200 innings pitched for the Marlins and Dodgers. He's 31.

I always hesitate when we get National League pitchers. The ERA LOOKS GOOD, but without a DH in the NL, the pitchers are automatically worse when they face American League batters. For his career, his ERA is 4.37.

I fully expect him to be worse when pitching for Minnesota. He's was probably the best of our limited options, however. Look for the Twins to sign one more starter for similar terms in the next week or two. Three of our starters for this year will be leftovers from last season. Deduno, Diamond, and Gibson will all be given opportunities.

Oh, and the Twins have extended a multi-year offer to Mike Pelfrey. He was 5-13 last year for the Twins with an ERA of 5.19. He has NOT signed yet, though. Until he does, the Twins will keep looking at other possibilities.

And let's not forget the Vanimal. Vance Worley was awful for the Twins last season, but he is signed to a multi-year deal as well. They aren't going to waste his contract leaving him in the minors forever.

Happy T-Day!

I'm looking forward to some football games today.

The Wolves lost their third in a row last night. It was kind of expected. There are some really good teams in the NBA and we faced three of them in a row. They are now below .500.

I'm still watching, but not as much of each game.  It's still better than watching the Vikings play poorly every week.

Minnesota sports: Fighting everyday to be mediocre instead of awful.

And not always fighting that hard.

Wolves Trade Williams

Derrick Williams was the highest draft pick the Wolves ever had. He was drafted number two overall in the 2011 draft. He's only 22 now.

And the Wolves couldn't find a place for him. It didn't help that he played the same position as Kevin Love.

Yesterday we gave up on him and traded him to Sacramento for some defensive help. The Wolves have had very little luck in the draft. In 25 years, we've had Love, Garnett, and Rubio. All others have been mediocre at best.

Another one bites the dust.

Monday Notes

Derrick Rose decided to have his meniscus fixed rather than have the basic "slice  off the little tear" route. Most surgeons don't even attempt to fix cartilage tears because there is so little blood flow to cartilage. As a result, instead of missing a few weeks at most, Derrick will be out for the season AGAIN. There is no guarantee that fixing it will work either. You need blood flow for things to heal, and cartilage has none.

Blake Griffen, like me when I had a meniscus tear, elected the "slice" method and was back in a matter of a couple of weeks when he had his tear.. I'm not sure which doctors are recommending the "fix" treatment. It will be interesting to see if its successful.

Colin Kaepernick looked like his old self again last night. He threw the ball well and ran out of trouble when he needed to. RGIII, on the other hand, was battered and pressured all night. The result was a rather easy Niner's win.

As expected, the Wolves lost to the Pacers last night. The Pacers are now 13-1. The Wolves fall to 8-8.

The Gopher basketball team lost to number 8 Syracuse last night 75-67. The game was in Hawaii as part of the Maui Invitational.

New England BEATS Manning

The best game of the weekend.

Wow.

Vikings Don't Lose

If you watched the game yesterday, as a Vikings fan, you knew the Vikings would have won that game if...

...they had just used Gerhart more in the fourth quarter or in  overtime. The Packers LITERALLY could not stop him. All but one of his carries was for 8-26 yards.  When it was crunch time, we did what we always do. We handed up the middle to Adrian Peterson, and he lost yardage, and we were forced to punt. I'm not saying Gerhart is better than Peterson, but yesterday you could see the relief in the Green Bay defense when Gerhart sat on the bench with the game on the line. They KNEW how to stop Peterson. Gerhart was the problem yeaterday. AND as usual, Frazier was absolutely clueless when it comes to reading patterns. We lost when we stopped using Gerhart.

If your a Packers fan, you saw how you could have easily won yesterday.  Flynn SHOULD have been their starter from the beginning.  With Flynn on the field, the Vikings offense wouldn't have had such a tremendous game. They wouldn't have been on the field so much. They wouldn't have scored so often.

The reason there was a tie yesterday?  Both head coaches didn't know how to use their backup players properly. If either saw tendencies properly, one team would have won.

They both deserved the tie. And Frazier still deserves to be fired.

Gerhart: 8 carries for 91 yards.  That says it all.

One last point: Ponder was spot on yesterday. Most of his incompletions  were dropped balls. He was as good as I have ever seen him. HE deserved better.

A new coach would be a good place to start.

Packers/Vikings Today

Remember when that game meant something to both teams?

Saturday Sports

I watched a little over half of the Gopher's game yesterday. They never were really out of it, it's just that two costly fumbles and some pass interference calls in the end zone did them in. They are better than they've been in  quite a while, but those kind of horrible plays are going to cost you against a good team. Wisconsin kills everybody they go against. Losing 20-7 with all of those costly plays is nothing to be ashamed of.

The Wolves looked less than adequate last night as well. I was waiting for them to make a move, and at the end of the third quarter when they whittled Houston's lead down to eight, I was getting hopeful. Alas, the first couple minutes of the fourth quarter sealed their fate. They lost by 11. The Pacers are next. A .500 record is just around the corner...

I was looking forward to watching number 4 Baylor play last night. They've averaged over 60 points and close to 700 hundred yards a game going into last night 's game at number 10 Oklahoma State. Instead I saw one of the biggest upsets of the season. FINALLY. They got beat so bad I almost felt sorry for them. It looks like Ohio State will be moving up to number three again. With number two Florida State looking at losing Famous Jameis with his ongoing legal problems, the Buckeyes may still squeak into second place in the BCS standings before the season is out.

Speaking of Florida State, they scored 80 points yesterday. I don't ever remember a team doing that before. Idaho is a really  bad team, but still, 80 points...

The Chicago Bull's Derrick Rose has a torn medial meniscus in his right knee. That is NOT as bad as another ligament tear.  He'll be out indefinitely, but it really shouldn't be the whole season. I'm guessing around a month after surgery. We'll see. He could be back even sooner. It depends on how fast he heals and if he's ready to "trust" his knee again. I had a friend playing golf TWO days after a medial meniscus tear, and feeling good about it. I hear basketball is tougher than golf, though.

Wolves Crush Garnett, Brooklyn

I watched nearly all of the second half. I couldn't believe that this was the Wolves. They built on an already sizable lead and then rested the starters for an entire quarter.

It was a balanced attack with lots of three pointers. And the defense suffocated Brooklyn.  Minnesota has three, really tough games coming up this week, including the amazing Pacers. But I'll be watching. Even if they lose, I'll be watching.

Wow, what a treat. So this is what having a good NBA team to follow is like.

The Bulls lost Derrick Rose to ANOTHER right knee injury last night, so I know how fast all of this can come crashing down. For the time being, I'm going to enjoy this Minnesota team.

Right now, it's the best one we got.

(With apologies to the Wild. It's too bad they play ice soccer. They might be fun to watch as well.)

Notes

A-Rod over the last few days has got sick of baseball's treatment of him. Though most think he's clearly done something wrong, many think baseball is acting at least as irresponsibly. IF Selig would have been content with a 50 game suspension, this whole mess would probably already be over. But baseball BUYING the stolen documents, and the other records of the drug clinic in question, has left local drug enforcement officials livid. Selig, in his fervor to nail A-Rod, has impeded investigations to get the real criminals (the owners and partners of the organization.)

In effect Bud went after the junkie at the cost of letting the major supplier get away.

Johnny Football was being displaced in the minds of Heisman Trophy voters because of his off-season autograph signings. They started gravitating toward a better choice, Florida State's freshman sensation.  "Famous Jameis" was their new top pick.

Well now that allegations are being made against him a sexual assault case, everyone is distancing themselves from him as well. All the sudden Johnny Football is looking pretty good again. All I'm saying at this point is that the DNA evidence against Jameis Winston SHOULD NOT have been made public. Once again confidential results were leaked to the press illegally. I'm sick of these people getting away with this type of activity.

"Whistle Blowers" in our society are being looked at as heroes. Winston will have his day in court, but he's already been tried in the media, and will continue to have to live with the media's judgements.  The leak has now made it practically impossible to have a fair trial. "Due Process" in America is fast becoming a thing of the past. We are a society that demands quick answers with questionable media people leading the charge.  The problem is that "quick answers" often lead to wrong conclusions. And violent/heated opinions.

And justice gets lost in the process.  It's only going to get worse.

Fielder Now a Ranger

Texas and Detroit traded superstars yesterday with Detroit trading one of the biggest, first baseman Prince Fielder, to the Rangers. In exchange, Texas sent over the not quite as big a name, second baseman Ian Kinsler. Detroit gave Texas $30 in cash as well, to help pay what is left of Fielder's enormous salary.

Detroit frees up some salary cap issues while it allows the Tigers to move their biggest superstar, Miguel Cabrera back to first to make room for top prospect Nick Castellanos at third.

Texas needed left handed power.

A good trade for both clubs.

We're still waiting for blockbuster news from the Twins...

Wolves Lose Another Close One

Kevin Love was 2-17 shooting and we lost by 4. It doesn't get much worse than that.

Person of Interest

Every once in a while, I mention this show as the best television has to offer. It's got complicated plots, nasty villains, and lots of great characters that you really look forward to seeing.

Last night was a show that ripped your heart out.

Start with season one and catch up. You must see this show from the beginning. Don't start where they left us last night. You need to start from the beginning.

But watch it.

The $300 Million Dollar Man?

I found it laughable a few weeks back when a fairly well known Twins fan/writer said we should get Robinson Cano as a free agent this year to PROVE to Twins fans that we interested in competing this year. His asking price was revealed yesterday. $310 million over 10 years.

They said he'd be a big improvement over current second baseman Brian Dozier. Dozier was solid in both the field and at the plate the second half of last season. I would venture to say that he was the team MVP of the second half. His clutch hitting and sure glove gave us hope for this season.

The last things the Twins need is two players worth over half a billion between them.

What we NEED is starting pitching and to hold on to our bullpen.

Its just another example of how writers who are incapable of rational thought. Long-term deals are finally being recognized by owners as anchors on clubs' futures.  It 's not time to move backwards as a club. It's time to move forward.

Even the Yankees are laughing openly at Cano and his agent, Jay Z. Cano IS NOT the best player in baseball. And 10 years from now, most will not even remember him.

Sign good players to medium-term, reasonable-deal contracts. And pay for good pitching. That's a formula that works.

If you sign the biggest dog in the yard, most likely that dog will come back to bite you, because most dogs turn out to be just that, dogs.

Wolves Lose

You know you're into the Wolves when they lose to a bad team and it bothers you.

BCS

There are four unbeaten teams left in major college football.

Ohio State is one of them, and coach Urban Meyer is upset that at number three, he and Baylor are both fighting it out for the third place position. A place that simply does not matter in the current BCS framework.

He says the system is "flawed".  Usually, at this point in the season, enough upsets have occurred that only two obvious teams are left in the championship hunt. With only a couple of games left in regular season, those upsets haven't occurred yet.

From my perspective, I've always said there should be a "plus one" bowl. IF two teams are left at the end of the season that are undefeated, there should be ONE more game. But even if four teams are left undefeated this year when the dust settles, teams like Ohio State and Baylor could have done something BEFORE now to do something about it.

Take the Buckeyes for example. They EXPECTED to go undefeated this year because their strength of schedule was not very difficult.

And THAT is the problem. They took the easy way out by not scheduling top teams into their schedule early in the season. In fact ALL of the top teams are doing that now. The regular season determines if you are good enough to be in the championship game at the end of the season. If you wimp out with an easy schedule during the regular season, don't come crying to me when you aren't given any respect at the end. Urban Meyer knows how it works. He elected to go the easy route and he's now paying the price for that.

That's WHY there haven't been any big upsets yet this season. NEXT year that would have been a great strategy. THIS year you got caught taking the easy way out.

That's why your an outsider looking in this year. The BCS isn't flawed. YOU are.

What bothers me more is that it shows me how BORING the new playoff for a championship will be next year and from now on. Top teams will have easy schedules to make sure they make the final four. NONE of the regular season games will matter after this year. Good teams will avoid each other, and college football will become unwatchable.

More free time for me.

Cam Newton

The Patriots are not as good as they once were, but that shouldn't stop folks from noticing that Cam Newton and the Panthers are definitely getting better. The Panthers won their sixth straight game last night, and it came at the expense of the once mighty Patriots on a last minute drive.

The Patriots are human. It makes for a much better game.

Separated at Birth

I meant to post this weeks ago, but I kept forgetting. How is it that two of the best quarterbacks in the NFL could be mistaken for each other? It's a mystery.

I'm not going to tell which is which. One of these is Aaron Rodgers and the other is last night's losing quarterback, KC's Alex Smith.

NFL

In summary:

The Vikings looked horrible with their starter Christian Ponder. Green Bay looked awful without Aaron Rodgers. The Lions got beat despite Matthew Stafford throwing for over 300 yards in the first half. And the Bears were tornadoed out for a couple hours but still came back to win on one of the sloppiest fields in recent football history.

Everybody is still in it except the Vikings.

The FUN game last night was watching ailing Peyton Manning do his thing against the Chiefs who WERE the best team in football. Mr. Precision makes it look so easy.

Harvin

Of course, Percy Harvin will be ready to play for Seattle today now that they are going against the Vikings.

I'll watch the start of the game, but how long I watch it depends on if the Vikings can stay competitive.  I don't have much hope there. I'm more interested in the KC/Denver prime time matchup. I plan on watching most of that one.

Wild Roll

I was switching between several channels last night watching college football and the T-Wolves,

I kept going back to the Wolves. Love, Martin, and Pekovic all had 20 or more for Minnesota. The bench had 36. It was a very balanced onslaught that was fun to watch.

I've never been able to say that about the Wolves before. Even when Garnett was leading the charge many moons ago, it was nail-biting wins that ruled the day. Now, we're actually coasting to wins.

College football had a lot of threatened upsets yesterday, but the only one that came through was number 4 Stanford getting knocked off by unranked USC.  I've been disappointed with the lack of big upsets so far this season. Alabama, FSU, and OSU had strong victories yesterday. The "BIG 3" just keep rolling.

Maybe next week...

Wild Win

Okay, I've been neglecting Minnesota's other winter sports team. There's a good reason for that. It's just hockey, right?

Well, I watched part of last night's game, and even though the Wild are off to a great start this year (12-4-4), it's still just hockey.  The final was 3-2. The Wild had one more lucky bounce than the Panthers, and the Wild skated away with a 3-2 win.

It's a lot like soccer except they move faster. I've explained this before but it bears repeating.  When all of the games are this close and low scoring, winning is not determined by the "better" team but by simple odds. Knowing there are so many ties, shows the same thing.

I can't stand any sport that is determined more by mathematical probability than skill. The players and teams are too evenly matched to root for. It's not much different than flipping a coin. Sometimes it land on heads 5 times in a row.  That's a winning streak.

I'm not saying the players aren't skilled, they quite clearly are. But most team's players have very similar skill levels. As a result, their skill doesn't determine outcomes.

Probability does.

Baseball has great pitching. Football has great quartbacks.

Hockey just has lucky screened bounces that go in the net.

So does soccer.

Your free to watch if you wish, but coin tossing just doesn't interest me.

Wolves Fal Flat

I watched quite a bit of this game, and the one thing that was obvious was that neither team set up much of a defense.  The Wolves were behind most of the first half, and had a miserable third quarter, and ended up losing by 4.  They really never stopped the Nuggets all night.

Another game tonight.  I hope they remember how to play defense...

Twins News

With very little to talk about in the world of sports this morning, I thought I'd mention some Twins notes.

A couple of names from the past have recently resurfaced. Jason Bartlett has been signed to a minor league deal by the Twins. He was declining before his knee surgery a little over a year ago, so there's no reason to think that at 34 years old he will help the Twins in the future. BUT he will be given a chance to fight for the shortstop job with Pedro Floriman.

More interesting? The Twins have requested to see the medical records of Johann Santana from the New York Mets. Though Santana pitched a no-hitter in 2012, he spent all of last season recovering from a second round of shoulder surgery. His prospects are dim at best, but that may make him available for very little money as well.

As much as the Twins have stated that they are willing to spend more money in free agency this year, they have shown no indications of that so far. And let's face it, if there were really good starting pitchers available in free agency, they wouldn't come here.

Expect more bargain basement acquisitions and reclamation projects this season as well.

Wolves Win Big

Kevin Martin was sick last night.  It didn't matter. Ricky Rubio had a career high 16 assists. Kevin Love had 33 points, and Corey Brewer popped in 27. And all the starters rested in the fourth quarter.

And they still won by 29 points.

The Wolves are HOWLINGLYgood right now.

Looking forward to Friday, Saturday, and Tuesday games already.

That Didn't Take Long

Number "one," Kentucky got beat by number "two" Michigan State in college basketball last night. It was the first real game of the season for both.

I say this every year, but it bears repeating:  DON'T rate any teams until they've played a month or so.  EARLY season ratings don't mean squat. Once teams have played 8-10 games, do what ever you want, but ranking them this early simply doesn't matter. Top teams will play 35 games this year, and will make the NCAA's gigantic tournament no matter what.  See what they have to offer, THEN rank 'em.

This isn't college football, where wins and losses MATTER.

It's just basketball.

Gopher Football Golden

For the first time in THREE years, the Golden Gopher football team is ranked. They came in at number 25 in the AP and USA Today polls. At 8-2, the Gophers are now competing for a major bowl game.

No more Preparation H Bowls for them.  No sir. Dollar General Bowl here we come.

Timberwolves Ban Hazing

Shabazz Muhammad, rookie for the T-Wolves this year, will no longer be "required" to wear a Jonas Brothers backpack. Team president and General Manager, Milt Newton told him to stop wearing it.

Hazing is officially done in the Minneosta locker room.

Finally.

If nothing else, the Incognito incident, has brought a new awareness to the never-ending childish pranks that go on in sports locker rooms.  I was laughing last week when former pro stars were running down Incognito for "crossing the line" when it comes to inappropriate locker room behavior.

They said what Incognito did was wrong, and then went on to say that you can't compare it to "harmless hazing" like taping rookies naked to the goal posts.

Pot meet black kettle.

Its now up to executives in sports, like Milt Newton, to end ALL hazing before it gets out of hand. All practical jokes breed inappropriate behavior. The "boys will be boys" mentality has to be put aside. The players on these teams are being paid millions of dollars to do their JOB. It's time they all go about it in a professional manner.

Just make sure that the rookies buy donuts for all team meetings. (But put it in their contracts.)

Mauer

The Twins have decided FOR Joe Mauer that he's is no longer going to be their often times beat-up catcher.  Josmil Pinto, for the time being, will be the Twins new catcher.

With Morneau gone this was the BEST option for the Twins.  Mauer can now play, hopefully injury free, for several more seasons rather than spending 30-50 games a year on the disabled list.  It's not what Mauer wanted, but when you make THAT MUCH money, it's up to the TEAM how you should be used.

It's the right call, and I'm looking forward to Pinto at the catching position. Last year, he showed flashes of brilliance. Maybe he'll be just what we needed.

Two positions filled. Seven to go.

And a full starting pitcher rotation.

I can smell World Series from here.

Wolves Miss Three Shots In Last Five Seconds, Lose

So close.

The Wolves played another great game Monday night, except this time they came up a little short. Love missed the final tip-in chance at the end that would have sent the game to overtime.

So very close.

Woves Score 47 In First Quarter, Clobber Lakers IN LA

Going into last night's game, the Wolves had lost 22 straight to the Lakers.  That hideous streak ended with a bang.

Rubio ended with a triple-double. Kevin Martin had 27. And Kevin Love finished with 25. It wasn't even close. They started with an unbelievable first quarter and just kind of coasted the rest of the way.

They have the much better Clippers tonight. Let's see if they can do it again.

The Wolves are 5-2 on the season. By comparison, the Miami Heat are 4-3. I'll take it.

Football

Watching the Packers with their third string quarterback is like watching the Vikings. It's just sad.

Denver with Manning is so  much fun. Even with an average defense, the Broncos are going to win easily most of the time.

The LIONS are on top of NFC North. Talk about Wacky World.

New Orleans at home is sure a different team. At home they are practically invincible. On the road they look like the Packers with a third string quarterback.

Gophers Beat Penn State

That's FOUR straight Big Ten wins.

They haven't done that in FORTY years. The Gophers are a good squad this year. I actually look forward to watching them every week. I haven't been able to say that in... forty years.

DUI Of the Day

Minnesota Viking receiver , Jerome Simpson, already on probation for illegal drug use, was caught driving drunk early Saturday morning.

The NFL over the last 6 months has been getting serious about this type of behavior. It's time that Minnesota starts parting ways with criminals. 

He's the Vikings leading receiver this year.

Love Gives Wolves Win

Kevin Love: 35 points, 15 rebounds, 8 assists.  Kevin Martin: 31 points.

That says it all. When those guys are shooting, it's hard for any team to keep up, even the Dallas Mavericks. The Wolves pulled it out down the stretch, having only a three point lead with a couple minutes to play, Love hit a three-pointer to seal it.

Great game. Let's see if they can play that well against the Lakers on Sunday. And the Clippers on Monday.

Vikings Win

Ponder's first pass last night was a horrible interception.  From that time until he injured his shoulder going for a touchdown late in the third quarter he LOOKED like an NFL quarterback. A good one.

Cassel did his job as backup. The defense got better in the second half.  And they finally had a successful last-second goal line stand.

I was going to watch the Stanford/ Oregon game last night during commercial breaks figuring it was going to be the better game. It wasn't. The Vikings/Redskins game had ALL the drama.

And the Vikings won. Minnesota might be a 2-7 team, but last night they gave me a reason to watch.  That's all I've ever asked for. I actually hope Ponder is healthy enough to play in 10 days.

That's how good he was last night.

Go Vikings!

Vikings Play Tonight

Not expecting much from this one. I'll probably watch it during commercial breaks from my other shows.

Wolves Lose At Home

They got out to an early lead in the first. And then thy looked like the T-Wolves we've known and loved over the last 25 years.

sigh

Kyle Rudolph

The ONLY receiver Christian Ponder can seem to find, Kyle Rudolph, is out with a broken foot. It came on his touchdown Sunday afternoon.  Ponder will start Thursday against Washington.

The news (and injuries) just keep getting worse.

Rodgers Out With Broken Collarbone

A hairline fracture in his collarbone will keep Aaron Rogers out about 4 weeks. It could have been a lot worse. They've got teams with less than stellar records the next three weeks, including the Vikings. There's a chance they could come out of this injury just fine.

Go Rodgers!

T-Wolves Lose

Love took the last shot. He missed it. We lost by one. The comeback fell short.

Packers Lose Far More Than Game

Let's face it, the Packers ARE  Aaron Rodgers. They only had him for one brief series last night, and without him they are not the same team. No word yet on how bad the injury is. At least it's his non-throwing shoulder.

Last night's game was battle of back-up QBs, and it looked like it. It was like preseason game, except that it counted.

As a Viking fan, I offer you one of our starting quarterbacks free of charge. You can have you pick of the three. The only catch is that you take Leslie Frazier, too. You wouldn't want to break up a good set.

Wolves Get the Knack of Knocking Off Knicks

The T-Wolves are red hot.  They scored 40 in the first quarter and basically coasted to a win. It got a little scary with about 4 minutes left, but good shooting ruled the day.

Love had 36 points and 15 rebounds.  Kevin Martin, who was acquired for his shooting ability, came through as well with 30 points including five for five from three point range.  Rubio's 10 assists all looked great.

Another great game, the T-Wolves have caught my attention. They haven't beat the Knicks in New York for five years.

More please. Much more.

Vikings

I watched most of the second half yesterday. They played well enough to win. My major problem was with 4:22 left in Dallas territory with a first down, they THREW the ball. Of all the times NOT to throw the ball on first down, that was it, Running it unsucessfully up the middle three times in row would have brought the game to the two minute warning. Punting it on fourth down would have put Dallas deep with less than 2 minutes to play.

And that was a worse case scenario. ONE first down would have basically clinched the win.

By giving Dallas an extra minute of clock time, they ended up losing with 37 seconds left.

A bad coaching decision at the 4:22 mark cost them the game. Most people won't see the obvious link. It was a horrible call and they lost because of it. You run a horse like Peterson the WHOLE game, and then, when its OBVIOUS that you should run him three more times to clinch the win, you make a call that would make a first year junior high coach blush in embarrassment.

I take it back, it's STILL Frazier's fault. If you play well enough to win several times this season and lose it in the last minute, you are a lousy coach. Fire Frazier NOW. An example needs to be made of him as an apology to the whole team.

AND their fans.

Gopher Get Third Straight Big Ten Win

They got a big lead alternating quarterbacks, made some incredibly stupid coaching decisions on fourth down late in the game, and just when they were going to lose, the OTHER team made an incredibly bone-headed play of their own, literally handing us the surprise win.

In one sentence, that described roller coaster game. And I don't remember the last time the Gophers won three straight in Big Ten play.

Ponder To Start

I'm okay with Christian Ponder starting this week against Dallas. We have no other better options.

The Vikings secondary is hurting and after watching Aaron Rodgers pierce that secondary like a world-class sniper last week, I don't think it matters who we put in at quarterback.

Romo has been solid in most of his starts this year, but he's no Aaron Rodgers. A couple of big plays, and the Vikes could actually win this one. In the NFL that's all it takes.

I'll probably miss most of the game either way. I'll be watching for BETTER match-ups this weekend. Good football is better than Vikings football.

Wolves STUN Thunder

It wasn't so much that the Wolves beat OKC last night, they clobbered them.  It wasn't even close. The Wolves dominated them out of the gate, and then went on to outscore them in every quarter.

Kevint Durant, "the second best player" in the NBA, was held to just thirteen points on 4-11 shooting from the floor while the Wolves offense, led by Love, Rubio, and Pekovic, all sported  double doubles on the evening.

No matter when you tuned in to watch, you saw a great Wolves team.

I could get used to this.  The Wolves are 2-0 on the young season. Only 80 games to go.

This is what  I expected LAST season until everyone got hurt.  Maybe this is the Wolves year.

Oh, the Miami Heat lost again last night. They are 1-2 on the season. Another pleasant trend.

Unique Finish

The Bengals lost in OT last night, when their QB Andy Dalton got sacked in the end zone for safety.

Miami ended a four-game losing streak with that timely sack. I was surprised to discover that ending has happened twice previously in NFL history.