Who needs it more tonight?

Tonight, both the Gophers and Boilermakers play vital games on their Big Ten schedule. Both teams have slid a bit lately and both surely need a win tonight as they enter the home stretch of the regular season. Which team needs a win more tonight?  Neither team is very good, and at this point, the only thing I can think that separates the two teams is that Purdue beat Minnesota. But which team needs to win more tonight? I argue that it's Purdue.
Despite the fact that ESPN's Bracketology has Purdue in and Minnesota out currently, I would say that the truly "must win" game belongs to Purdue. It has more to do with the opponent each team is facing, rather than the situation for the team. Surely, Minnesota needs to win a couple of more games, but it would be hard to say that a loss to the #6 team in the country, Michigan State, would make things much worse for them.
On the other hand, Purdue is playing Nebraska. If the Boilermakers start losing to teams like Nebraska or Penn State down the stretch, they are in a much less enviable situation. The Gophers likely need to beat Michigan State, Indiana or Wisconsin (as well as their season finale against Nebraska) to remain in contention, but losing in any of those three games specifically doesn't make things worse for them. Purdue, on the other hand, would play themselves out of the tournament, perhaps, if they lose to Nebraska today.
I would say that would mean Purdue needs a win more this evening, right? Of course, I would prefer both teams win this evening. Let's hope both squads can make it happen.

Say, the Gophers might make the tournament

And by "might" I mean, if they finish .500 the rest of the season, they almost certainly will. Despite knuckleheads like Jim Souhan complaining that Tubby Smith hasn't done anything (you know, besides getting 4 star recruits to sign with the team and increasing the season win total threefold since he's been here), the Gophers, without star inside presence Trevor Mbakwe are destined to make the tournament.
The team is 16-6, with a 10-5 record since Mbakwe went down (on top of a more difficult schedule), and only two of those games can be considered embarrassing. Sure, losing to Iowa is tough, but the Hawkeyes also beat Wisconsin in Madison and Michigan at home. The Gophers also only lost that game by two.
Minnesota's two worst losses, really, are at home to Purdue and a blowout loss at Michigan State. The non conference loss to Dayton coincided with Mbakwe's injury, and they took Illinois to two overtimes and made Michigan play all 40 minutes.
The schedule the rest of the way for Minnesota is tough, certainly, but I believe they shouldn't have a problem hitting 20 wins (at least) and earning a ticket to the Big Dance. I'm not the only one, either. ESPN, CBS and NBC have Minnesota in their projected brackets. Not only that, but CBS has the Gophers as a 9 seed.
It might not be what Souhan wants to hear, but Tubby Smith has done a good job coaching this team through serious adversity. See you in March

OH, good, people ARE calling for Tubby Smith's head

People are, in fact, clamoring for a change in Minnesota. The local papers and some pundits are talking about Tubby Smith being on the hot seat. For his part, Tubby seems to think he will be getting an extension, which makes sense, given that this team, a disappointment for many, would have been vastly better than most of the teams Dan Monson put together. Still, there are calls for his head.
I continue to assert that Minnesota is not a big enough program that they can do much better than Tubby Smith. I decided to get someone else's opinion on the matter.

There you go. The Star Tribune's Michael Rand recognizes that the calls for Tubby Smith's axing are fairly aimless. I gladly call for a coach's head when he deserves it (Ron Gardenhire, Danny Hope), but Tubby Smith doesn't deserve to lose his job.

Tubby Smith is a good coach

I was stunned.... STUNNED to see the reaction on Twitter the other day after the Gophers had the audacity to ONLY defeat South Dakota State by 16. People calling for Tubby Smith's head, like he is some sort of failure. Seriously?
All right, let me spell something out. As a native Minnesotan, and a Gophers fan from my youth, I have to say that Minnesota is not an elite program. It is not the type of place that will attract talent because of it's history. The Twin Cities are not the type of place young people with a choice will ever voluntarily choose to live, unless they are from here originally. This is the type of team that needs a big name coach, and Tubby Smith has been that coach.
Oh, you disagree? Never minding his reputation from Kentucky, where after winning a title, the team went kaput, look at what happened when Smith took over for Dan Monson. In 7 years as the Gophers coach, Monson took the team to 1 NCAA tournament, which occurred in the same year that they won over 20 games... the only year they won that many. Almost immediately, Smith turned the Gophers around. Last year was the first under his purview that the team DIDN'T finish with 20+ wins, and was only the 2nd time he didn't reach the NCAA Tournament,. Most of this was due to some devastating injuries, particularly to point guard Al Nolen.
And don't say the improvement is because anyone is better than Monson, or something like that. Monson turned Gonzaga into a household name, taking them to the Elite 8 in 1999, and since he left the Gophers, he has turned Long Beach State around in 4 years. The Gopher program needs Tubby Smith, and you are mistaken if you feel otherwise.

Purdue-Minnesota... a preview

Things that will be better than watching Purdue-Minnesota game on Saturday
- Watching the Florida International - Akron game
- Washing Andy Rooney's back.
- Washing Andy Rooney's front.
- The Vikings
- The Twins
- The Twins catchers at the plate
- Belgian Waffles covered in thick cherry cough syrup
- Belgians covered in thick cherry cough syrup
- Snake egg caviar
- Camping out in East St. Louis.
- Herpes

This game is early on Saturday, so maybe sleep in or go for a walk. Unless you are a fan of the team in question. If that's the case join me in a pre-noon drink or 5!

The Victoria Times College Football preview

I'm not going to get too far into detail on this, mostly because I haven't been to Spring Practices, I haven't stayed abreast of recruiting news and I am decidedly not an expert. This is just me talking here. The teams that I will cover are the ones that are of most importance to the Victoria Times. Purdue, Minnesota, North Dakota State, and this year's wild card, Wyoming.

Purdue: The Boilers, I think, are in a lot of trouble. Their first two choices for QB are injured (ACL's, of course) and one of those guys is entangled in the Miami fiasco. Still, Purdue has 15 returning starters, so this will tell us a lot about Danny Hope as a recruiter and coach. I say he sucks, but we will find out on the field, I suppose. If there is any light with this team, it's that they might have a decent ground attack. If Ralph Bolden stays healthy, then that is good news.

Minnesota: I am much higher on the Gophers this year. They won't be good, but I like their future. Jerry Kill seems to be what the team needs, and there are some athletes on the roster, like Marqueis Gray that might be able to surprise some weaker teams in the Big Ten. And then going forward, I think the Gophers will be a Bowl team for a while. Not this year though.

North Dakota State: I can say, with all honesty, that I know nothing about NDSU or their chances. I DO know that there are some outlets picking them to finish 2nd in their conference! They might be the best team listed here

Wyoming: The Cowboys have THREE freshmen competing to be the starting quarterback. Yikes. They are also playing in the one year that the Mountain West might be at it's toughest, with both Boise State AND TCU in conference. Still, they might pull off a win or two, like against, I don't know, UNLV (who they will play while I am there, and lost by almost 40 at Wisconsin today)

The best result possible

Well, for me, anyways. I am talking about the Minnesota - Purdue game that played this afternoon. It couldn't have turned out better by my estimation, with Purdue winning by 12, 73-61.
As a fan of both teams, I want what is best for both teams. In this case, Purdue stood to win the most by winning this game. With Michigan State falling apart lately, and Purdue's huge loss to Ohio State, Purdue suddenly had no big wins. They needed to get things back on track, and playing a Minnesota team (ranked in the top 20) was just the ticket.
As for Minnesota, they were in exactly the opposite boat. They have been playing everyone strong, including Northwestern who the beat on Wednesday. In addition, they are recently without Al Nolen, who broke his foot. The Gophers can certainly be forgiven a road conference loss in such circumstances. And having watched them, I know they can overcome the injury eventually.
So, I guess where I am going with all this is that Purdue winning, and winning by 10+ proved Purdue's strength and didn't really hurt Minnesota.

What does this prove?

So last night, Minnesota nipped Purdue in Williams Arena. Minnesota has had a brutal schedule to begin the Big Ten season, losing to Michigan State, Wisconsin and Ohio State on the road. They didn't really have a bad game in the bunch, and it came after the Gophers had a non conference schedule that included wins against North Carolina, West Virginia and 10 other teams. They are a good team that got dealt a bad card with a tough schedule to start the conference schedule.
Purdue has one loss on the season, an admittedly bad loss on a neutral court against Richmond. Other than that game, they had been taking care of business, not just winning, but crushing every opponent on their schedule. They ripped Penn State in Happy Valley before the Nittany Lions went on to beat Michigan State and Illinois there. Up until that point, they had earned a #8 ranking with only one loss.
So, what does this mean, Minnesota beating Purdue by 3 in Williams Arena? I say it means that the Big Ten is a difficult conference, and Minnesota, despite the tough schedule, is still fighting and is still a good team. I think it proves that Purdue is a very good team, staying in a tough battle on the road, despite one of their top players not playing well. It shows a well rounded team that will contend for the Big Ten crown, especially now that they have had their wake up call.
Oh. Wait. Nope, I was wrong. According to basketball expert Seth Davis, it just means that Purdue was overrated. They will probably lose to a mediocre Big East team this weekend (one that Minnesota already beat).

Kill you righteous indignation

I feel bad for Jerry Kill, the new coach for the Gophers. First there is the unfortunate nature of his last name. It's a verb! Many puns can be made! Unlike many of the punmakers across the Twin Cities though, I do respect him. That's the other reason I feel bad for Kill. As soon as he was hired, the move was assailed by the local media and many alums.
The problem, as the locals saw it, was that Northern Illinois, Kill's former employer, was a small time program, and they wanted a bigger name coach. They pointed to the fact that he lost in his game against Miami (Ohio) in his final game with the Huskies. The only thing is, this WAS the best the Gophers could do, and that isn't Joel Maturi's fault, entirely.
Minnesota is an unappealing job. This is a fact. The Gophers are in a top conference, televised nationally every year, and are thoroughly, soundly defeated. The Gophers haven't had a good fan base since the 60s, in large part to their being forgotten in the face of professional sports, they were away from campus for 20 years. Meanwhile, big time programs like Michigan and Ohio State get hundreds of thousands of fans at the game, and incredible support. The Gophers losing every year and being a small fish in a big pond (both in the Big Ten and in Minneapolis) likely turned desired coaches like Mike Leach, Randy Edsall, Kevin Sumlin, Brady Stoke, Chris Peterson and Randy Shannon off to Minnesota. Why would they want to come here, when there will almost certainly be more desirable jobs opening up this winter?
As for the whole issue of Northern Illinois losing to Miami issue... that was the conference championship game. The entire critique is going to be based on one game? One very close game? Some went so far as to say they should hire Miami's coach, but Northern Illinois ended the season with more wins than Miami. Also, NORTHERN ILLINOIS BEAT MINNESOTA! I mean, doesn't that constitute an upgrade for the Gophers? Just because he wasn't the big name Gophers fans were hoping for doesn't mean he isn't a better coach. There was also speculation that the Gophers were talking to Paul Chryst from Wisconsin as a prospective candidate, which many local sportswriters are . I don't know that they are exactly the same, but Chryst turned down Purdue two years ago, and frankly, Purdue was a much better situation than Minnesota is now.
And I don't mean the previous two paragraphs to deride Coach Kill. Sure, he wasn't a big name, an up and comer, but that doesn't mean he isn't a good coach. In fact, he may be what the Gophers need. He is humble and self effacing, which means he is not likely to be out worked, and is going to be loyal to the program, believing it is bigger than he is. He sort of looks like Joe Tiller. Most importantly, he did what he did at Northern Illinois working with the same talent pool as the rest of the Big Ten, So good luck, Coach Kill, I hope you do a fantastic job,

Which coach will be the bigger name?

So, it's pretty much no doubt that the Vikings will be getting rid of Brad Childress this year. This would mean that, at the end of the football season, there will be no Minnesota football team with a head coach. Who will be the new coaches here in Minnesota? Which coach will make the biggest splash upon his hire?
Ever since Tim Brewster was let go, anyone with an opinion has said that the Gophers need to add a big name to help bolster their recruiting and become competitive once again in the Big Ten. Who could they possible ad? Larry Coker claimed interest during the last hiring process, but now Coker hasn't been working for 5 years and just took a job at Texas-San Antonio, so he wouldn't be the big name coach we would think. The hot name for the Gophers right now is Kevin Sumlin from Houston. He is an up and comer who has worked at Minnesota in the past as a WR/QB coach, but I'm not sure this is really all that big a name for Minnesotans who are already clamoring for Mike Leach.
The Vikings shouldn't have too much of a hard time adding that big name, but they haven't ever shown a tendency to make such waves. Consider their last three coaches were Brad Childress, Mike Tice and Denny Green, with Green the only one with prior head coaching experience. I still expect Zygi Wilf is in this for the money, not the wins. He needs a more marketable team with bigger names. I expect him to go with a defensive coach who will need a fully developed quarterback (because Wilf will want to bring in a big name QB after Favre leaves). I think this means the Vikings will take a good long look at Jon Gruden. If I am mistaken, and the Vikings will continue to avoid the big name coaches, they will more than likely seek to add Jack Del Rio or maybe even promote Leslie Frasier. Either way, I would be willing to guess that Carson Palmer will be coming to Minnesota in the not too distant future. Of course, all this assumes that the Vikings AREN'T headed to California, in which case the novelty of a new team in LA would lead to a pretty impressive gate and high value, low cost marketing, and they might be content to go with an offensive guy and draft a QB like Ryan Mallett.
Oh, who am I kidding. The best option is Ron Gardenhire. He might win Manager of the Year, and he doesn;t know a THING about baseball!

Come on Twins, I need this

The Twins find themselves down 2-0 in their series against the Yankees. Nothing new. I have always been able to take solace in the fact that when their season ends, I will have something to look forward to. Let's break down the Minnesota rooting interests (and my own, for that matter) with the Twins, once again, on the brink of elimination.
Vikings - They started the season 1-2, just reacquired a wide receiver that everyone seems to forget was run out of town half a decade ago, and now their geriatric quarterback is involved in a sexting scandal. At the very least, they could go on a run and annoy the hell out of me before eventually breaking the hearts of Minnesotans.
Gophers - 1-4. Lost to South Dakota. Lost to Northern Illinois. Just an awful team.
Wild - The Wild started their season yesterday, and after today's game will be returning winless. It would be wone thing if they had lost to a good team, bu they lost to the Carolina Hurricanes, who were even worse than the Wild, not winning until February (if memory serves). And it wasn't even fun hockey. It was sloppy, miserable hockey that nobody in their right mind would want to watch.
Timberwolves - They hoped to cash in by putting a billboard up on the Target Center for the Twins postseason run. Oops. The team is entirely new once again. Corey Brewer is the longest tenured Wolf, and frankly the entire team is mostly forgotten.
Gophers basketball - The Gophers hoops team is pernnially frought with controversy. So that's fun. And they also tend to occupy the middle of the Big Ten standings. Only one more season until Nebraska joins! Easy wins!
And now, more personally...
Purdue football - Yes, they are 2-2, but they beat Western Illinois (narrowly) and Ball State (narrowly.. Ball State then lost to Iowa 45-0) but lost to Notre Dame and Toledo, worse than the Gophers have lost any of their games. Toledo also had the worst offense going into the game before scoring 31 points in West Lafayette. So the defense sucks. And the top two choices at QB are hurt, as is the top receiver. They play Northwestern this week, then a clash of the Titans with the Gophers the next. That's going to be a tough ticket.
Colts - Also 2-2. One thing about Indy is that, with their faulty defense, they have always needed the breaks to fall their way. Houston used to throw a late interception or miss a field goal, the Jaguars used to have late personal fouls on the secondary that would give Indy new life. This just hasn't happened this year. Without homefield advantage in the playoffs, I really don't think Indy is a legitimate threat in the postseason.
Purdue basketball - My only hope. The Boilers are returning almost every one of their key players from the past few years, except for Chris Kramer, who is surely hustling his way around the Brownsburg Staples. My entire winter will depend on the Boilers basketball team. No pressure. Unless, of course, the Twins can turn it around, in which case I'm in good shape!
Ugh

At least it's NFL Season

I'm a fan of two teams in the college game, the Purdue Boilermakers, my alma mater, and the Minnesota Golden Gophers, the home town team. The season's second week was played, mostly in full, yesterday, and I can already tell this isn't going to be a good year for football.
Both the Gophers and Boilermakers played FCS (lower level) teams this week, the Gophers against South Dakota and the Boilermakers against Western Illinois. Minnesota lost to South Dakota 41-38, and Purdue narrowly edged the Leathernecks of Western Illinois, 31-21.
The Gophers couldn't stop South Dakota at all on defense and ended up allowing 41 points. Imagine what will happen when they have to face a real opponent, like USC, Ohio State or Wisconsin or... hell even Northwestern.
Purdue won, so that means they are a little bit better than Minnesota, I guess, though they struggled. Not only that, they fought injury the whole game, including a devastating injury to their top receiver, Keith Smith, though that was in the 4th quarter when the game shouldh ave been in hand. And by "in hand" I mean, Smith shouldn't have even been on the field, because the second team should have been babysitting a 40 point lead. But alas, this was not the case, and both of my college teams are woebegone, and I am looking forwards instead to the NFL team. At least it appears the Colts have locked up their run defense.
Oh dammit.

That was the worst scenario possible

Going into the Purdue - Minnesota game, I was looking for one of two results. Purdue wins by a lot to secure their status as a 1 seed. Minnesota edges Purdue to maybe get a shot at the tournament. Instead, Purdue eked by Minnesota, which doesn't help either team, really. And oh yeah, this.

 

Uh oh.

Rooting interests for Minnesota.

I said earlier this week that the Minnesota Gophers were likely still in the NCAA tournament. With the way thins have been going lately, with upsets all over the place, I figured I might share some prudent teams for Gopher fans to root for for the rest of the weekend.

Tennessee over Auburn, then over Mississippi State in the SEC

Duke (ugh) over Maryland today in the ACC. Tomorrow's game is pretty irrelevant.

Arizona State over USC for the PAC 10 title.

Missouri over Baylot in the Big 12.

Temple over Duquesne in the A-10.

Utah over San Diego State in the Mountain West championship game.

Utah State over Nevada, because two Utahs winning titles would be cool, and also USU would probably get an auto bid without winning the WAC.

There you have it, Gopher fans. You know who to cheer for.

A few thoughts on the Purdue-Minnesota game

I was able to get tickets to the Purdue-Minnesota game yesterday (obstructed view!) so I thought I would share a few of my thoughts. Unfortunately, I didn't bring my camera (although I wouldn't have got much, what with the pole in my way. Anyways, some thoughts.

- Whenever I have been to Purdue-Minnesota games in the past, I end up rooting for the road team, simply because the home crowd ends up acting like such jerks. The "you're a pussy" chant after Marcus Green was injured was disgusting.

- The Gophers are a much bigger and more athletic, but they simply couldn't handle the jump shooting bigs of Purdue. There was no excuse, because of Minnesota's size and strength, for Purdue outrebounding Minnesota. More than anything, I think the work on the glass was a bigger factor than Purdue's shooting or even the Boiler defense, because Minnesota was very good on the interior defense for most of the game.

- Watching him on TV, I never really haven't seen Robbie Hummel as a fun player to watch. He doesn't move fluidly, he has an ugly shot, and he isn't a particularly gifted ball handler. I thought maybe watching him in person finally would tell me how he's so successful. Nope.

- Jajuan Johnson, on the other hand, is quite a treat. Have you ever seen a giraffe running? Nothing looks right, it all looks slow motion, but then you realize that because it's so lanky, it's actually moving quite quickly and, upon further review, its actually quite beautiful to watch. That is Jajuan Johnson. The Jaraffe, as I believe he should be called.

- Colton Iverson reminds me of Kris Humphries. No, that is not a good thing.

- The Minnesota back court is infinitely better than Purdue's but again, Purdue's ability to work their bigs to the perimeter makes up for this. For whatever reason, maybe the lack of dominant interior players, Minnesota didn't really even try to get it down low.

- Nemanja Calasan and Lewis Jackson have a strange relationship. Calasan went out of his way to congratulate Jackson, pat him on the back, encourage him when things go awry. Jackson seemed to resent this.

- Chris Kramer hit the floor at least once a minute. You would think someone as stocky as he wouldn't get knocked over so much.

- The officiating was brutal on both sides of the game. So at least it was fair.

- The Gophers didn't really have anyone try to step up. Al Nolan played all right, but he didn't get his team into the game.

- Purdue travels way too much.

- Holly Rowe is, as Bob Whitfield might say, thick in the britches. It was, however, funny to see her try to peer in the huddles during timeouts.

- I got to see Bob Knight! He was across the court, but still.

- Tubby Smith is going to fall off his stool one day, and it will be too bad. It's been good having him in the Big Ten.

A couple close shaves.

Fortunately, last night I was working and didn't have a heart attack watching Purdue and Minnesota playing on the road against Northwestern and Wisconsin respectively. Both games came down to the wire, and both ended with victories for the team I was pulling for. Thank goodness.
I think it taught us something about both teams though (and maybe not. Like I said, I missed the games). Purdue still expects to roll inferior opponents, but in the Big Ten, there are no such teams this year. Minnesota, on the other hand, has struggled against the top tier opponents they have faced, and perhaps came out flat because of nerves in Madison against the Badgers. Fortunately, both teams have the talent to overcome rocky starts this season.
Furthermore, they are lucky to have coaches that so well fit the demeanor of their teams. In the case of the Boilers, Matt Painter is a young coach with a lot of spirit, needed to light a fire under the lackadaisical Purdue team. On the other hand, a calmer, experienced Tubby Smith helped the Gophers relax and play their game. After so many disappointing basketball seasons from a personal perspective, this season is shaping up to be my favorite in a while.
(It's Friday, so I wrote about happy things instead of things that are pissing me off, like the Colts being out of the playoffs, the Twins already being mathematically eliminated from post season contention and the Wild are meagerly holding on to the last playoff spot in the West.)

Minnesota's 10-0 record doesn't mean anything, because they play in the Big 10

Big deal. The Golden Gophers are 10-0. This should be promptly ignored because the Big Ten is a slow, boring conference, that never seems to produce quality teams. Oh sure, people may point to Michigan State, Illinois, Ohio State, Wisconsin, Purdue or Indiana and say that the Big Ten historically has a strong conference. But really, who are you fooling? That's barely half the conference.
This conference also has crap like Iowa, who lost to Drake today. They aren't even the best team in Iowa! And Northwestern, perennial crap, has already dropped a game to Brown. Ironic, yes? Let's not forget Penn State and their loss to Rhode Island. With such terrible teams in conference, how can you even begin to say that Minnesota is deserving of accolades for their 10-0 record?

Revolutionizing sports in Minnestoa

Sports in Minnesota are getting an overhaul over the next couple of seasons. Two teams, the Minnesota Gophers football team and the Minnesota Twins will be getting new stadiums. The Gophers begin play in TCF Bank stadium next season. It will be the first stadium built for a Big Ten team since, well, the Metrodome. TCF will be the newest stadium in the conference by 49 years when it opens. It will also be the smallest stadium in the Big Ten, despite Minnesota being one of the largest schools in the country. They may actually have some sellouts, especially if the Gophers continue to improve.
In other news, the Twins have announced a name to their new stadium. Despite my wish that local cereal giant General Mills would get naming rights so we could call it Lucky Charms Field or at the very least the Cereal Bowl (along with the Trix Track. I had it all planned out), they went with one of the two major retailers in the city, Target. It's pretty underwhelming, having a Target Field when we already have a Target Center where the Timberwolves play. Better than having it named after a cell phone company, I suppose.
Speaking of the Timberwolves, they have made some changes as well. Deciding that their logo didn't look quite stupid enough, they went ahead and tweaked it. Going for the Phantom of the Opera look for the theater community, I suppose. Compounding the problem, they have also chosen to wear uniforms that appear to have pine trees stabbing them in the armpits. Ridiculous. Additionally, I like that one of the commenters appreciated that the Wolves were "repping their city" by putting Minnesota on the jersey. Right.
Even if I'm not a fan of all the teams in the area, I think it improves the quality of life for the area, having sports teams, and having those in charge investing so much time and effort into them, even if it results in some ugly uniforms and boring stadium names.

How do you make a bad team feel worse about their season?

Make their uniforms look like they have been soaked in a horrible mustard/urine blend!

No NHL? At least we still have college

Originally posted on "Is It Sports?" by Ryan

Ryan:let me see if i can get all the D-1 schools in minnesota
Ryan:Minnesota
Ryan: got em
Steve: good job!
Ryan: for hockey though, lets see... minnesota, minnesota state, Minnesota-Duluth, St. Cloud State, Bemidji State
Steve:Does Illinois even have a hockey school?
Ryan: im looking right now... if nebraska omaha is a d-1 hockey school, then by god illinois should have one
Steve: where is the list?
Ryan: www.uscho.com
Ryan: looking through these divisions, its like a who's who of 16 seeds in the big dance

I shudder to think that anyone would label me a stereotypical Minnesotan, namely because there are very few Minnesotans that fall into that stereotype. If there was one way to separate a native Minnesotan from someone who just moved there it would be hockey. Almost everyone who has lived there from childhood has an affinity, however fleeting, for the game.

I went to a University of Minnesota hockey game at Mariucci Arena in Downtown Minneapolis. We played Merrimack, a school I had never heard of. The fans at the game were into the game. They had choreographed cheers, and new exactly when to use them. They gasped at the close calls, cheered when the puck was cleared from the zone. The fans knew the game.

Instead of an NHL section in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, there were two pages devoted to hockey, high school and college, boys and girls. Minnesotans care about hockey the game, even if they don’t particularly seem interested in professional hockey. Everyone in Minnesota knows someone who plays, from mini-midgets just learning to skate to someone who was a fourth round draft pick by the Blues a few years ago. My brother played for at least half a dozen years. I would have, but my enormous head was not conducive to good equilibrium on a pair of ice skates.

The high school I attended won two state championships while I was there. This has the rough equivalent to a school in Indiana winning the basketball championship, or a school in Texas winning a football title. High school hockey in Minnesota is important. College hockey in Minnesota is important. Pee Wee hockey in Minnesota is important. Professional hockey is mere entertainment.

The state of the game of hockey is in great shape among its truest fans. The National Hockey League has its demons to work out, but in the mean time, the real fans of the game are content to watch their own boys and girls skate at the community rink. -Ryan