Florida State Is My Favorite State

Seeing Tubby Smith patrol the Gophers’ sidelines gives me an uncomfortable feeling in my stomach. Maybe similar to if Otis Redding caught me singing in the shower; I just sort of wish he didn’t have to sit through that. This year, as it is whenever a famous coach inherits a struggling squad, is going to be weird. Sort of a throwaway season, waiting for Tubby to recruit the next Tayshaun Prince. But whether or not Smith is just waiting things out until his own guys come aboard and this latest crop of mediocre Minnesota high school stars has moved on, he already seems to have the Gophers playing more confidently and passionately than they did at any point last year. In Tuesday night’s loss to Florida State the Gophers stayed within ten points for most of the game by playing intense defense (they forced FSU into 16 turnovers and 42.3% shooting) and hanging with the bigger, more athletic Seminoles on the glass. The troubling thing is that they still lost by 14.

Its too bad hustle and energy can’t really run your offense for you. I mentioned that the score was close for a long while but, truthfully, it never really seemed like the Gophers could win the game. The first ten minutes were something of a free-for-all, with both teams running with abandon and raining threes, and the Gophers even managed to claw their way to a 22-18 lead during that stretch. But once reality set in, and Florida State’s talented guard trio of Isaiah Swann, Ralph Mims and Toney Douglas began to apply some serious backcourt pressure, the Gophers unraveled. U guards Lawrence McKenzie and Al Nolen began forcing passes into the teeth of the zone (3 turnovers each in 26 and 22 minutes, respectively) and all of the Gophers’ ball handlers started to look a little frantic and lost. Even when the guards did manage to beat Florida State’s pressure and execute the offense, forwards Spencer Tollackson and Dan Coleman had a miserable time converting, shooting a combined 5-21 from the field. In all, the Gophers shot a pretty horrendous 33.8%, including a tasty mix of rushed, contested threes and missed jumpers.

Once the pressure elapsed, the Gophers showed themselves to be a well-coached team, executing their offense crisply. But the sad truth is that even their best players (ostensibly McKenzie, Coleman and Tollackson) did not look skilled or athletic enough to play well against a good defensive team. To kill the party even further, the Gophers success on defense was somewhat illusory. It's true that their aggressive play forced Florida State to turn the ball over and shoot a low percentage. But they also sent the Seminoles to the line 32 times (compared to only 10 Minnesota free-throws), which probably tells us two things: the Gophers were out of position and they were out of control. Oh well, at least ESPN saw fit to show a bunch frat guys in luxury boxes do the Tomahawk Chop. So we were lucky enough to see that.

The top-ranked Gopher wrestling team opened its dual-meet season last weekend by eviscerating Northern Illinois, Northern Colorado, and North Dakota State. Minnesota overwhelmed their opponents by a combined score of 109-21, and lost just four times in 30 matches.

On Sunday they will face substantially stiffer competition when they take on second-ranked Iowa State at Williams Arena. The Gophers outpointed the Cyclones last year to win their third national title in seven years. It will be the fourth time in just two years that Minnesota has been involved in a one-two showdown, with the Gophers prevailing in all three previous encounters.

Sunday's marquee matchup will pit the U of M's Roger Kish against Jake Varner. The 184 pounders are ranked one-two in the country. In four prior meetings, the rivals have each prevailed twice. Most notably, Varner pulled off a 4-2 win in last year's NCAA seminfinals.

Derek Boogaard has been called many things: enforcer, tough guy, and goon. One thing he has not been called is "NHL All-Star."

But there is a movement afoot on the Internet to change that. At Vote 4 Boogey you will find everything you need to help elect the Wild's 6' 7" 270 lbs. forward.

Okay, I don't mean for this to become a Hot Stove baseball blog, and I originally intended to do an analysis of the Delmon Young-Matt Garza trade today, but first I want to point you to today's post
on Baseball Reference's Stat of the Day blog. It's about Bert Blyleven's Hall of Fame candidacy. B-R posts Blyleven's stat lines against Hall of Fame hitters, and while that's not a case in and of itself for why the former Twin ought to be enshrined himself, I think you'll find the results intriguing.

If you want to read what convinced me of the statement I make in the subject line of this post, my old friend Rich Lederer has been on something of a personal crusade on Blyleven's behalf over the years, and I just think his arguments are much stronger than the opposing side's.

The wise baseball analyst is always looking to enhance long-term value by trading expensive established players for young, inexpensive stars. The Pio Press' Bob Sansevere has ascertained an innovative way for maximizing value in this scenario: trading players your team doesn't have the rights to.

In his latest piece, the writer outlines his ideal trade scenario:

If I'm the Twins' general manager, here's what I do. (And I'd do it under duress because I'd be working for a cheapskate owner.) I get on the horn with Boston Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein and say, "You want Johan Santana, right?"

Epstein likely will say, "Right."

Then I say, "Tell you what. I'll trade you Santana and Carlos Silva and Joe Nathan."

This is where Sansevere's genius comes in. Silva is a free agent. But Epstein won't find that out until after he's accepted the trade! "Ha," we'll say! "Thanks for your young stars, sucker!" It's foolproof, the ultimate money for nothing.

See, perception is reality. Like staking a flag into an island when you don't see anyone else there, claiming rights to trade a free agent is the ultimate economic comparative advantage for a team. Is a free agent wearing a uniform? I didn't think so. That's why they call them "free" agents; they're free to be claimed.

Like Galileo, Sansevere has come under some criticism for this insight, but he is merely ahead of his time. Indeed, his main problem was not going far enough. What if this "trade-theRed-Sox-a-free-agent" strategy had been developed while Alex Rodriguez was still on the market? The Twins could have traded the Sox the future Hall of Famer from right out from under the Yankees.

Shortsighted bloggers should take a lesson from this type of forward-thinking analysis. In future years we may refer to Silva as Opposite Day Curt Flood.

The Sansevere Theorem is a stunning step forward in the science of trade equity. It's the baseball equivalent of John Marshall's legal declaration that Indian tribes west of the Mississippi were nevertheless domestic of and dependent upon the United States -- even though they were as yet unknown to settlers. It takes a bold general manager to simply assert that all free agents are assets your team has a right to. Perhaps the next step is to find a way to claim rights to all potential free agents.

I'm getting ahead of myself, though. There is still time to make up for missing out on trading A-Rod. After dealing free agent Silva away to the Sox, the Twins should then flip Kent Hrbek and Kirby Puckett to the Yankees for Alex Rodriguez. A-Rod would fill the Twins' third base hole and Puckett, being dead, would not take up valuable payroll space. This would please owner Carl Pohlad and free us up to pursue another free agent.

Except we never need to pursue free agents again: just trade them. See the beauty of this?

Hawks 94, Timberwolves 87
Season record: 1-10

It all seemed so simple. Get the ball inside to Jefferson. Let him take his defender to the basket, or, if double-teamed, have him pass out to the open man, who would then nail his shot. Force difficult shots on defense. Box out and battle for rebounds. Repeat as necessary.

It worked great for the first half of Saturday’s game against the Atlanta Hawks, during which the Wolves looked like a confident, assertive, winning team. Jefferson in particular came out of the block strong, hitting all four of his shots and both free-throws for 10 first-quarter points to go along with eight boards. And he wasn’t alone. In the first half, ‘Toine was 5-5 with two threes and 12 points. McCants, Jaric, and Telfair were a combined 9-13 for 22 points. The team as a whole shot 66 percent, and turned the ball over a mere four times. And they were up by 18 at the break.

Then it all fell apart.

PRE-GAME REPORT

Minnesota (4-6) at New York Giants (7-3), noon

A trip to the Meadowlands will forever remind me of the 2000 playoff game when the Giants pummeled the Vikings 41-0. That game unofficially signaled the end of an underachieving era in Minnesota professional football. That team was supposed to avenge the 1998-99 team’s meltdown against Atlanta and finally return the purple to the Super Bowl. After 14 weeks that team was an impressive 11-2. But after a mini collapse forced them to go on the road to face the Giants in the NFC Championship game, the season was almost over before the Vikes’ #1 ranked offense took the field. The game was so lop-sided that Randy Moss frustratingly uttered these fateful words after the game, "It's going to be hard for us to win a Super Bowl in Minnesota. I don't want to really say Minnesota is never going to win the Super Bowl, but it's going to be hard for them to get it. ... I can't really say I'm going to be a Minnesota Viking in a couple years."

While today’s game in New York isn’t an NFC Championship game with a ticket to the big show on the line, it is a very important game for this team that symbolizes inconsistency. The NFC this year is weak and Minnesota’s schedule is very favorable. With an upset today and a win next week against the struggling Detroit Lions at home, the Vikings will all of a sudden be in the mix for a wild card berth.

That last sentence is harder to type than believe.

But these days, an 8-8 record might back you in to post-season play. Then again, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Adrian Peterson will not be exploding down the sidelines today. Tarvaris Jackson will be in the sights of one of the best pass rushes in the game, part of me (my brain) thinks he’ll last a quarter and a half before we see Kelly Holcomb. Throw in the fact that the Giants are hungry and trying to keep pace with America’s Team in the NFC east and today’s game doesn’t look good on paper.

But to a Giants fan, the 2000 NFC Championship game didn’t look good on paper.

HALFTIME REPORT

Minnesota 24, New York Giants 7

Wow! The Vikings secondary comes up big in the first half with two interceptions, one returned for a touchdown by Darren Sharper who always has a big game in New York. No surprise in how Minnesota’s defensive line played the run holding NYG running back Reuben Droughns to 39 yards. Eli Manning is struggling, big time. His receivers and him need to have a sit down if they expect to come back in the second half. Of course Eli has known bad days before.

Ha ha.

Actually, I’m enjoying watching an opponents quarterback struggle for a change.

That said, no one will confuse Tarvaris Jackson with Tom Brady anytime soon but he is avoiding the big mistake and if he can continue to make a play or two and just hand the ball off to Taylor to shorten the game, the Vikings might pull this off.

POST-GAME REPORT

Minnesota 41, New York Giants 17

Zygi’s team is on the rise.

It’s a sweet day to be a Vikings fan. It’s even sweeter if you’re Vikings owner and New Jersey native Zygi Wilf.

Wilf was cut to multiple times during today’s broadcast getting “Zygi” with it, flaunting a smile that seemed to say, “Das ist gut.” In what can only be described as a thumping of the NFC wild card leading New York Giants and their quarterback Eli “the poor man’s” Manning, the Vikings flexed their defensive muscles today and are making some noise as they inch ever closer to the second wild card spot.

Poor Eli. He isn’t the biggest Vikes fan. Only twice has he been picked 4 times in one game and both times happened against Minnesota. Today’s pick fest was especially fruitful, leading directly to 21 points on run backs by Sharper, Dwight Smith, and Chad Greenway. Minnesota’s offense can always use the help and even though the offensive game wasn’t pretty, the team moved to 5-0 this year when scoring 20+ points. The Giants got a heavy dose of Chester Taylor and he had a respectable, albeit understated game with 78 yards rushing on 31 attempts. The story in today’s game was the pressure Vikings defense put on Eli and how he, ah-hem… responded.

Let’s hope this two game winning streak continues. Next week’s match-up at the Metrodome looms large for the Vikings. Detroit (6-5) will hope to end a 3 game slide and maintain their spot as #2 in the NFC north. Adrian “All Day” Peterson is on schedule to make his return to the line-up and contribute to NFL’s #1 rushing attack. If the defense can stay hot Zygi might have a reason to smile big come this January.

(Here's my clever, non-ironic subtitle: and why it'll be even better when they don't re-sign Carlos Silva. Yes, I'm serious, and we'll talk about Silva in detail when he signs).

Few expected Torii Hunter to be back in a Twins uniform next season, so the fact that he signed with the Angels for five years and scads of money that the A.P. reports to be $90 million is no surprise. You'll likely still hear friends, neighbors and pundits bemoaning the departure of the star center fielder.

You shouldn't listen.

After you've eaten your last slice of pie and reflected on all you have to be thankful for, you should add this to the list -- that the Twins aren't going to pay Hunter a premium based on what he did in years past. This team needs to look hard at what players are likely to do in the future, and there's a miniscule chance that Hunter is performing up to this contract by year three -- let alone the final two years, when he'll be 36 and 37 years old, respectively.

David Cameron is one of the sharpest baseball minds I know, and he listed Hunter as the most dangerous landmine in the free agent market this month. Carlos Silva was number two. I'll summarize Dave's argument thusly: it doesn't make sense to commit tons of cash to a player who is getting older, and though talented, isn't as stellar as his name value indicates.

In the short term, it'll sting to lose Hunter's offensive punch, especially given the Judy-without-the-Punch offense the Twins are running out there these days. In the long run, though, this is the right move. Especially when your team has chosen not to be a big-budget player, avoiding commitment to players through their decline years is essential. It's frustrating to watch established players leave, and I'm a big Hunter fan. But it makes more sense to catch players on their way up.

Cavaliers 97, Wolves 86
Season record: 1-8

LeBron James has a tattoo across his back that violates both traditional rules of modesty and AP style. It reads: “Chosen 1.” The point being, LBJ—we’d call him “King LeBron,” but we’re not looking to vomit in our mouth today—is a preternaturally cocky guy. But with games like Wednesday night’s effort against the Wolves, it’s hard to argue much with the man. He scored 45 points on 26 shots, and he hit six of 10 three-pointers, including back-to-back treys in the middle of his minute-and-a-half personal 10-0 run that extended a four-point lead to an insurmountable 14 with less than two minutes to play.

Indeed, James hit shots all night long. He also penetrated at will, drawing fouls, and finding the open man with nifty, seemingly effortless no-look passes. Not only was he the best player on the floor while barely breaking a sweat, but, to bring out an old chestnut, he made those around him better.

You know Benjamin Polk from his work on the Timberwolves. He'll still augment Jonathan Kaminsky's coverage of pro basketball, but we've also inked a deal with Polk to cover the emerging Tubby Smith Era at the University of Minnesota. This is his first Gopher post.

Radio On!
Considering that a person can turn on a TV and watch Kent Hrbek fish, I find it rather amazing that Tuesday's Gophers-Iowa State game could not be found on television anywhere, on any channel. I mean, is it possible that the matrix of visual culture could have failed to extend its reach, even to something as admittedly marginal as an early season college basketball game between two mediocre teams? Apparently. So, remembering all that can be gleaned from listening to a baseball game on the radio—the rhythms of the game, the rich textures of sound, the charming and melodic banter — I thought it would be interesting to try and listen to the entirety of the game on good old WCCO 830. It was not interesting. It turns out that listening to basketball on the radio is nothing like listening to baseball. In fact, it's not much different than sitting in front of the computer, watching the score update on the internet, something I'm embarrassed to say I have actually done. The lone advantage of the radio being that you can hear plainly when someone misses a shot, a sound I became very familiar with during the course of this game.

In any case, the Gophers managed to beat the Cyclones 68-58 in Tubby Smith's second game as head coach, boosting their record to 2-0. Iowa State finished in the lower tier of the Big 12 last year, and lost their leading scorer, Mike Taylor, who was kicked off the team for (as commentator Mike Grimm put it) “an accumulation of minor arrests”. But this was a road game, in front of what sounded like a hostile crowd, and considering how unwatchable the Gophers were last year, even against lesser competition (I'm thinking in particular of the excruciating and dispiriting loss to Northwestern), I'd say there's reason to be encouraged.