Weekend links with Jon Marthaler
Posted on March 15th, 2008 – 11:24 AMBy Michael Rand
What a strange Friday night. You’ve got good Gopher news from Indianapolis, bad Gopher news from Mankato, and then all sorts of news from Atlanta, where the Georgia Dome proved it’s not too early in the year for severe weather. The links for each:
*If you missed the SEC Tournament-related news from Atlanta: during the overtime of Mississippi State and Alabama, severe weather tore through downtown Atlanta, causing damage across the city and at the Georgia Dome. The roof there — like the roof at the Metrodome — is made of Teflon-coated fiberglass fabric, which may be strong but isn’t strong enough to hold up to a tornado. Several holes were ripped into the roof, and some debris — washers, bolts, etc. — fell from the ceiling as scoreboards and light fixtures swayed back and forth. My favorite non-Randball internet writer, Spencer Hall, happened to be on the scene. Here are his reports, with photographic evidence where necessary: 10:29 pm, 12:07 am, and 2:20 am. Here’s the breaking-news video from ESPN, as well. Just a strange night in Atlanta; tournament staff can prepare forever, but I’m sure they never stopped to consider what’d happen if weather affected an event inside the Georgia Dome. I guess we should be thankful that this has only happened once at the Metrodome.
The Kentucky-Georgia game was scheduled to follow Alabama and Mississippi State, but after the Crimson Tide and Bulldogs finished their overtime, the final game of the night was postponed because of concerns about the Georgia Dome. As of 4 am, nothing has been decided for sure, though it would appear that the last quarterfinal will be played at Georgia Tech this morning. However, for the tournament to remain on schedule, the winner would have to play in the semifinals later today, which would be obviously unfair to whichever team is stuck playing twice in a day. According to ESPN, tournament officials are looking into possibly playing the semifinals on Sunday, then declaring co-champions; of course, the NCAA Tournament committee probably wouldn’t be happy with that.
The other problem: the Georgia Dome holds 53,000 fans for basketball; Alexander Coliseum, at Georgia Tech, holds just under 9,200. With thousands of Kentucky and Georgia fans descending on Atlanta for the game, suffice it to say that ticket allocation at Georgia Tech will be a problem.
*Over in Indianapolis: the good folks at From the Barn have all the reaction to the Gophers’ improbable win over Indiana, including video. Paging Jim Shikenjaski has reaction as well. We had to see the Hoffarber seat-of-the-pants video a few more times, but it was worth it to see the Gophers pull off their very own version of the Christian Laetttner play.
*And finally, in Mankato: well, here’s the video (NOTE: Watch for swears from whoever’s shakily videotaping his TV.) Frankly, it’s the entire Gopher season in a nutshell: they played nearly 100 minutes of hockey, didn’t score a goal, and wasted great goaltending from Alex Kangas thanks to offensive ineptitude. It was the 14th-longest game in college hockey history, the second-longest in Gopher history, and the most disappointing overtime game for Gopher fans in a season full of free hockey. One more loss, and the maroon and gold will be done for the season — which is no worse than they deserve.
That’s it for me — a newsy Saturday morning, to say the least. Next week we’ll get back to videos where someone falls down and hurts themselves, I promise.
7 Responses to "Weekend links with Jon Marthaler"
I was at the Twins game back in April of 1986 when the roof of the HHH dome ripped in a storm. It was scary. I do have to say the dome emptied in a very orderly manner. It was Dairy Queen cap night so there was about 35,000 people and the dome emptied in about 5 minutes. The game was against the California Angels, I wanted to see Rod Carew. He didn’t even play because they had a new First Baseman named Wally Joyner.
I think I had a heart attack.
Interesting video of the Gophers/Hoosier Daddy game. What is this Big Ten Network? Never heard of it before. Is it a website like ESPN for the Big 11?
Also, I nominate Blake Hoffarber as the Most Clutch MN Player of all time and I challenge you to name someone better.
If I’m reading the gamer correctly, last night’s hoc-key match sets up an SCSU/Gopher tilt in the Frozen Funday, or whatever it’s called.
Needless to say, I’m at a loss for how to trash talk with Jon about this, so any help I can get would be appreciated.
Roughkat: if you’re talking Minnesota-born, I guess that’s as good an answer as any. If not, then Kirby Puckett has to be my vote, unless George Mikan or Vern Mikkelsen won all those NBA titles for the Lakers in the last minute.
Stu
I got your back. Trash talk all you want. After watching the Gophers I’m not worried at all that SCSU will win by at least 4 goals.
Stu - Jon only correctly picked 3 of the 5 WCHA series. The 2 he didn’t have the stones to even make a prediction, including the Gophers series. And he calls himself a fan…
I too was at the dome when it ripped, but since there wasn’t a cloud in sight, Rosen could not reveal on air the embarrassing trurh that Hrbek had just missed on a mighty swing cutting an equally monstrous dome blowing fart in the process. Just a rumor of course, but quite a few older ladies needed to be revivived.
