What a night at Target Center

Wednesday night I got the best surprise as I went to the Timberwolves-San Antonio game. I always hope the team can win but sometimes you just don’t get your wish.

I sat in a sparse upper deck in fact I counted 22 people in my section. It is a work night and the team has been struggling but this night was worth all the heartache.

I was so disappointed when the announcers said Tim Duncan and Tony Parker were scratches for the game. I was anxious to see these guys in action. It was my first Timberwolves-San Antonio game.

The way the game started for San Antonio jumping out to a 12 point lead early I thought Parker and Duncan out and we are still down by double digits.

One thing amongst many things I enjoy about this team is they don’t quit. Yes they have lost a lot of games but I still have seen positive signs from this roster.

The Spurs are without Duncan and Parker while the Wolves are without Kevin Love, Brandon Roy, Andrei Kirilenko, Chase Budinger and Nikolai Pekovic.

The Timberwolves at least for this night played I think the best game they have played all year. The shooting this team conducted was one of beauty. The clean swishes over and over by JJ Barea, Luke Rindour and Rubio I did not want the game to end.

I do not know if Rubio has played a better game in his Timberwolves career but at least for Wednesday I can say I was at the game where Rubio had his first career triple double.

The guy plays with such passion. I have said it before but it never gets old to see a guy consistently hustle and either near stealing or actually stealing. What a thrill to watch!!

JJ Barea, Alexey Shved both played huge games tonight especially from behind the 3 point line. I was hoping the Wolves would stay close and make it a respectable game. I guess I was wrong as the Wolves took it to the Spurs by 24.

The Spurs are one game away from 50 wins and at least Wednesday night they have to wait another game.

One player that needs mention and that is Chris Johnson who had a career high 6 blocks in this game. I will say if ever there was a team win Wednesday was a great example.

Congrats to Ricky Rubio for his first career triple double and thank you Wolves for giving me a happy ride home.

Thanks for reading

Purplestick

 

Sports and more sports, just can't get enough

The Minnesota teams have a chance this week to really make a statement in one team’s case and the other has a chance to be a spoiler while the college team is hoping to survive.

The Minnesota Wild schedule this week:

Sun Mar 10- vs. Vancouver

Tue Mar 12- vs. Anaheim

Thu Mar 14- vs. Colorado

Sat Mar 16 @ Colorado

It is a great chance this week to defend home ice and make a statement in the race. The Vancouver game is for first place as the Canucks have 28 points and the Wild 26. A Wild win and they would be tied for first in the Northwest Division in points.

The Anaheim game will be tough but at home should be advantage Wild. The Ducks sit alone in first place in the Pacific Division with 37 points which is 2^nd overall in the West behind Chicago who has 45. This would be a great confidence booster when the Wild takes down the Ducks.

The Colorado games are home and home with the Wild currently 4 points ahead as of Sunday. A pair of wins could really help separate the two teams in the standings.

Summary- 3 Home games and 1 road with 2 of the home games against 1^st place teams. Let’s Go Wild!!!!

The Minnesota Timberwolves schedule this week:

Sun Mar 10- vs Dallas Mavericks

Tue Mar 12- vs San Antonio Spurs

Wed Mar 13- @ Indiana Pacers

Fri Mar 15- @ Houston Rockets

Two home and two away with three of the four games against current top eight in each conference and if the season ended today these teams would be in the playoffs.

Sunday’s home game against Dallas who is the current 11^th seed and the Timberwolves are 12^th. A win by Minnesota could help climb the playoff chain with still a lot of work ahead of them.

Tuesday the team is home to the number one seed in the West Conference, and is a game I will attend.

Wednesday the team faces as of Sunday the 3^rd seeded the Indiana Pacers.

Friday the team travels to the number seven seed in the West, the Houston Rockets coached by Kevin McHale.

The struggling Minnesota Gophers got the number 9 seed and will face the 8^th seeded, Illinois Fighting Illini in the Big Ten Tourney Thursday morning at 11am.

The overall picture is a Minnesota team will play every day this week except Monday. What a great sports week ahead. We are also 7 days from selection Sunday to see which teams get invited to the Big Dance and which teams will be sitting home.

Let’s Go Wild, Timberwolves and Gophers and also keep in the back of your mind the Twins opening game is Monday April 1^st when they host Torri Hunter and the Detroit Tigers. What a great way to start a season with a divisional opponent coming to Minnesota.

Thanks for reading

Purplestick

Saturday, a full day of action

Saturday’s Minnesota sports fan had a schedule to love with all teams in action and It started early at 11am with the Gophers basketball team in Purdue and the day ended with the Timberwolves in Denver for a 8 pm start.

It is unfortunate the Gophers struggled once again on the road today. The big win at home vs. Indiana followed by a dominating win once again at home vs. Purdue only to end with 2 road losses.

The team finally hit the .500 record in conference after the Penn State win only to end with an 8-10 record and falling to a 9^th seed in next week’s Big Ten Tourney in Chicago.

The hopes we as fans have it is a neutral sight game the rest of the way with anything possible. It is the one hope I have left to hang onto. I really felt the way this team started out playing well in the non-conference and then to start the Big Ten schedule 3-0 including a win at home vs. Michigan State and a road win in Illinois I really thought we were on our way.

Let’s hope things go well next week and although I have read the Gophers will be in the Big Dance but if they can’t get things turned around who knows?

The Minnesota Wild come into Nashville Saturday night with road wins hard to come by. It is Ryan Suter’s return back to Nashville where he played 7 seasons. How will the emotion affect both teams?

As a Minnesota fan losing the likes of Kevin Garnett, Torri Hunter, Marion Gaborik and more I understand when a star comes back home.

It was nice to see the Wild score on a power play and who gets an assists? Ryan Suter assists on the goal by Zach Parise.

Suter took a penalty and Nashville scored the tie breaker. I was concerned that Nashville would take this energy boost after the goal. Suter’s home coming 1 assist and one penalty and also seemed to take a lot of late hits from his ex-teammates. It was nice to see the Wild come to Suter’s defense.

Wild Goalie Nicklas Backstom came up huge Saturday especially after his last start ended early as he was benched in the Chicago game. It was huge to see his confidence did not seem shaken.

The game went into overtime with no scoring setting up the shootout. Matt Cullen and Mikko Koivu came through beating a goalie who is 6’4” with beautiful goals. What an important 2 points the team got on the road and now return home Sunday vs. the first place, Vancouver Canucks. The Excel Energy Center will be rocking Sunday night.

The Minnesota Timberwolves played in Denver and were down by only one at half. I was feeling good that Minnesota may steal one on the road.

The wheels fell off quickly late 3^rd quarter and the rest of the game. It is amazing how a deficit of 6 can go to almost 20 in a short span.

Nugget’s have 2 ex-Timberwolves players Corey Brewer, 7^th pick in the 2007 draft and Ty Lawson, 18^th pick in the 2009 draft. A note on Lawson even though the Wolves drafted him the team did a same night trade with the Denver.

The Nuggets scored 111 for the game and of that Brewer had 15 and Lawson 32 combing for 47 of the 111 which is 42 percent of the team’s total. Ex-Minnesota players come to haunt a team again.

The game on Saturday marked the one year anniversary in which Ricky Rubio went down for the season at home against the LA Lakers.

The season has had more downs than ups but the one positive is the play of Ricky Rubio.

The Vikings have Adrian Peterson go down for the season only to come back 9 yards shy of the all-time rushing mark and now Rubio is getting closer to his first triple double seemingly every night after last year’s season ending injury. These 2 men are an inspiration to people who work hard and have desire will be successful.

The Wolves on the road late in Denver add in daylight savings time must return home Sunday with a game against Dallas followed by Tuesday home against San Antonio Spurs.

I am hoping Sunday is a sweep for the Minnesota teams with the Wild and Timberwolves both at home.

Thanks for reading

Purplestick

Wednesday had the makings and then......

Wednesday had a chance to be big for the Minnesota basketball teams but in the end only 1 was in the W column. Yes, the Timberwolves finally broke their losing streak of 6.

The team shows so much grit but that does not always show in the final score.  The hustle by Ricky Rubio is so encouraging and I would think eventually rub off on teammates.

His 6 steal in the game and 4 of those in the 4^th quarter is so fun because as you watch the game he is centimeters from stealing even more. His leadership at point each night for me is a thrill. The passes he makes just do not get old to watch. The creativity he presents makes you want more.

Chris Johnson and Mickael Gelabale joined the team recently and now signed through the end of the season. They are not big household names but do show that they can contribute. The scoring numbers by these 2 do not jump out but there hustle up and down the court is noticeable. Johnson and Gelabale each had 6 last night. The jumping ability by Johnson is a nice feature to have on the team. How about Gelabale assignment on Monday against Miami as he had to guard LeBron James? The experience they are getting is valuable for next season whether it is here in Minnesota or another NBA team.

A great team win and a much needed one as they now travel to Denver on Saturday with Daylight savings times and then come home for Dallas Sunday and San Antonio Tuesday.

The Minnesota Gophers came into the Nebraska game on a 2 game winning streak. The Gophers back on January 29 beat Nebraska by 19 at Williams Arena.

My thought is a 2 for 2 for wins in basketball. There is no way Minnesota will lose. The Gophers finally made the .500 mark at 8-8 and Nebraska came in 4-12. The odds are in Minnesota’s favor so I thought.

It was the last basketball game in the Devaney Center as a new one opens next year. There is a lot of incentive for Nebraska to pull the upset.

It is hard to believe the winning team shot 36 percent for the game. It is even harder to believe Gophers Senior forward, Rodney Williams had 0 points.

This Gophers just struggle on the road and factor in the team shot 50 percent at the free throw line going 10-20. They lose by 2 and miss 10 free throws what if the players could have converted.

It is strange to say as I watched both games even though one won and one loss it is incredible the free throws these teams miss. They are free points.

Thanks for reading

Purplestick

Minnesota sports week with plenty for all

Sunday March 3^rd was the start for a busy week in Minnesota sports with professional, college and even throw in some high school all in action. This is like a piece of heaven for the hard core Minnesota fan I am.

Sunday the Minnesota Wild hosted the Edmonton Oilers and it ended up being with one of the most dominating games by the Wild in quite some time.

I don’t know if I can recall a game where a team did not get a shot on goal. The Wild outshot Edmonton 18-0 in the second period and yet did not score. The Wild looked so good it was just a shame the team could not score.

Third period started out quickly literally as 9 seconds into the 3^rd Mikko Koivu lights the lamp to make it 2-1 and then the Wild add 2 more to end with 4 which ties the season high.

It was a great way to start the Minnesota sports week.

Monday the Timberwolves hosted the Miami Heat in a game in which I attended. It was my first chance ever to see LeBron James in action along with his teammates.

The Timberwolves dressed only 9 and did really have much of an answer for the inside game of Miami. It was like a dunk free for all for Miami.

The strange thing is even though Miami seemed to get what they want the Timberwolves were in the game in the 3^rd quarter only being down by 8. I was encouraged and was in hopes of an upset.

It seemed the flagrant foul called on JJ Barea followed by a technical called on Timberwolves coach Rick Adelman really took the steam out of the team.

The crowd was booing loudly and continually. It was the hope at least for that night that the Wolves would catch a break but not to be.

The crowd itself I saw a ton of Miami Heat jerseys, hats and coats while the Timberwolves fans did a god job of showing support for their young team. In my section I just did not see much Timberwolves apparel worn by fans. It is strange to see fans in neutral colors but I guess as long as they are cheering for the home team it is all good.

The Wolves had a chance to get to .500 at home but it was not meant to be so they are now 13-15 at Target Center. I am still a fan of the teams hustle as witnessing Rubio stealing the ball from LeBron and Dwayne Wade.

Tuesday the Wild went on the road to Chicago in hopes of ending the longest streak of consecutive points in a game that Chicago has going.

The Wild start out 1-0 on a goal by Devin Setoguchi, but then Chicago came storming back scoring 4 consecutive goals and knocking Wild goalie Nicklas Backstrom out of the game.

Chicago is mighty impressive and it will take a complete game by somebody to knock them down a notch or if they get a cocky attitude. It can be done, however at least for Tuesday night it was not the Wild’s night.

Wednesday focuses on basketball as the Wolves host Washington while the Gophers men’s hoops team travels to Nebraska.

The Timberwolves are on a 6 game losing streak while the Gophers last 2 road games were blowouts. Let’s hope Wednesday is a day of change for both squads.

Wednesday-Saturday brings boys high school hockey state tourney at the Excel Energy Center. I do love this tourney but honestly I miss the days of the small schools such as a Roseau or Grand Rapids coming to the tourney and taking on a Bloomington Jefferson or an Edina team for the state titles. There are now so many different class levels for the schools.

Saturday is a feast with the Gophers final Big Ten game in Purdue, the Timberwolves are in Denver and the Wild are in Nashville and the state championship games will be played. If you like sports, Saturday is the day to stay home kick back get your remote and just enjoy some sports viewing.

As always thanks for reading

Purplestick

 

 

 

A look at Minnesota's home team numbers

Minnesota teams have given fans memories both great wins and unfortunately some heart wrenching losses at home. The road troubles my hope one day will be solved at least by one of the sports.

In 1987 and 1991 the Twins won the World Series in 7 games losing all 3 on the road but winning the 4 at home to become World Champions.

In the 1998-99 season the Minnesota Vikings went 8-0 at home and as I will never forget the only loss at home was in the NFC Championship game. I was there and sat in disbelief as I watched the Atlanta Falcons doing the Dirty Bird on the stage at the Metrodome.

This year during the 2012-2013 season Minnesota teams are once again coming through for the home town fans.

The Vikings went 7-1 at home with the only loss to Tampa Bay on Thursday night football. The last game of the year might go down as the best game I had ever been at watching Vikings kicker, Blair Walsh kick the game winning field goal over the Green Bay Packers.

The Minnesota Wild have a shortened season due to the strike that finally got settled. I was anxious to see how the fans would react to the strike. The first home game answered my question. I was not there but watching the game on TV I could feel the excitement.

The Wild have started out 7-2-1 at home including 2 wins in overtime and a shootout win over the hottest team in the NHL, the Chicago Black Hawks.

The Timberwolves have had a tough season but as I look at their home record they are 13-14 with a huge game against the Miami Heat on Monday March 4^th.

I have looked at the teams they have beaten at home which includes wins over Oklahoma City and Dallas.

The team has 20 wins for the season with 13 of them coming at home at Target Center.

The Minnesota Gopher basketball team just concluded their home part of their schedule on Saturday. The team ended up 15-2 at Williams Arena. The only blemishes were against Michigan and Illinois.

The 4 teams of the Vikings, Timberwolves, Wild and Gophers compiled up thus far a record of 42-19 and 1 tie which is 70 percent win for the home team.

I am a positive person in life and take that into my sports passion. Minnesota for years has had trouble on the road no matter what sport but the home winning keeps on coming. If the teams can figure out how to win on the road well we might be talking 1987 and 1991 Twins, 2011 Lynx and then hopefully one day I can add on to this short list.

Thanks for reading

Purplestick

 

Awesome Senior Day at the Barn

How can you not love the college basketball game? Minnesota goes to Iowa and Ohio State and gets drilled by 20 plus points each game. Indiana comes in as the number one team in the nation and we watch the fans storm the court after the Gophers pull the huge upset.

Wednesday the number 4 team in the nation, Michigan Wolverines, lose to Penn State was a big stunner for one reason. Penn State had not won a game in the Big Ten coming into the Michigan game 0-14. Who would have seen this coming and to score 84 points against the number 4 team in the land?

Saturday the 2 teams face off after pulling major upsets. I would think both coaches would worry about a possible letdown after such emotional wins?

It was nice to see that the Gophers came to play. Penn State did not score the first 11:20 minutes of the game. I was listening to the game on the radio on my way home on the trip. It was weird to hear the play by play callers saying the Gophers are pitching a shutout. If I would not have known what game was on I would have wondered what sport I am listening to.

Minnesota up 16-0 with roughly 8 minutes left in the first half. Penn State scores 84 points on Wednesday and Saturday 0 for the first 11 minutes. This college game is unbelievably fun to watch as we come into March Madness.

I got home in time to watch the second half and it was just a matter of how much the Gophers would by. Penn State never hit their stride thanks to fantastic defense by the Gophers.

It was so nice to see a Minnesota team not give another team a sniff of getting close. It was even nicer as Senior Day at the Barn and the fans did not leave disappointed.

It was great that the Gophers were so far ahead they could start pulling the seniors one at a time for the game and let the fans say goodbye. Trevor Mbakwe went first with 3:40 left in the game and the rest followed one at a time.

It has seemed to me that the Gophers have fingered out that their inside presence will be big coming into the big dance.

This team has the potential to do something in the tourney other than going one and out. Mbakwe, Rodney Williams and Elliott Eliason will need to bring their physicality.

It was a great day for the Gophers who now end the regular season on the road before the Big Ten tourney in Chicago and then the Big Dance.

I got a feeling this team is going to give us some memories and I am not talking about bad ones.

Go Gophers

Thanks for reading

Purplestick