"Strandom" Thoughts of the Night: Timberwolves, NBA Refs, Gophers, Zags & Damages

I had a suggestion tonight from @olearychris on Twitter to call my blog Strandom Thoughts. I like it. I'm not going to change the blog name (yet), but I will use Strandom Thoughts as the title whenever I'm going to be jotting disjointed ideas, rather than writing about one subject. So here goes the debut of Strandom Thoughts:

• The Timberwolves are only 1-3 so far this season, but for some reason, they seem to be much more fun to watch than last year. GM David Kahn did promise me in the security line at the airport, that I would enjoy watching them play, so I had expectations, and so far they have been met. Obviously this is not a playoff year for the Timberpups, and they will likely have twice as many losses as wins, but learning the new system under Kurt Rambis, acclimating new players to the line-up, missing Kevin Love due to injury & having Al Jefferson & Corey Brewer returning after long injury rehabs, all indicate that it is a growing year for the team. But they are showing that "growing" does not need to be brutal to watch.
• Speaking of Corey Brewer...he is by far the most improved player on the team so far. I have been a fan of Florida Gators basketball for awhile; not ahead of the Gophers or Zags, but I've enjoyed watching them since the days when Teddy Dupay was running point (and apparently learning how to run bets at the same time). So I was excited for Corey Brewer to be on the Woofies. His rookie year was obviously a learning experience (and what the heck was with Randy Wittman not allowing rookies to wear headbands; Brewer had always worn one & felt like you & I might feel if we left the house without wearing shoes). Then last year, he was showing some huge strides defensively before that knee injury. This year, he is finally showing the whole package out there. After his career high of 19 points on Sunday night, he had 14 pts on Monday, plus 4 rebounds, 6 assists, 2 blocks and most impressively, 5 steals (with only 1 turnover). Now he just needs to get that shooting percentage up a little higher, but with his 2010-11 option picked up, he will have the opportunity to continue to improve his game.
• Final Timberwolves thought, about Monday's game in L.A. vs. the Clippers. When Ryan Hollins had a very athletic dunk to cut the Clippers lead to one point with under 20 seconds left, he was very clearly fouled, yet no call was made. This allowed the Clips to just hit their free throws & ride out the rest of the game. I'm not sure if the NBA refs spent their work stoppage time last month watching MLB umpires or SEC football refereeing crews, but they might want to wipe those images from their minds now...
• It is almost time for my attention to be focused on "real" basketball, as the college season is just around the corner. While I will always cheer for the Timberwolves, the overall NBA game is not my thing; too many isolation plays & not enough teamwork out there. College ball just makes me smile. The countdown numbers are almost in single digits now: 10 days until the University of Minnesota Men's Basketball team takes on Tennessee Tech, although it's only available to watch online (Fri. Nov. 13 at 7:00pm CST). Gonzaga Bulldogs kick off their season in 11 days vs Mississippi Valley St., which I can watch on FS Northwest thanks to the DirecTV sports pack (Sat. Nov. 14 at 7:00pm CST). Finally, it is 12 days until the Gopher women get started vs. Lamar, which is unfortunately, like most of their non-conference schedule, not available to watch on TV (Sun. Nov. 15 at 2:00pm CST).
• This leads to the other important countdown atop my list: 135 days until March Madness begins (meaning 131 days until the Christmas day of the sports year; Selection Sunday).
• Speaking of Gonzaga & Minnesota, they are once again linked, and this time it has nothing to do with Dan Monson. Osseo alum Sam Dower is a freshman at Gonzaga this season. As far as I know, he is the first Minnesota native to play for the Zags. He had a great game on Monday night in the exhibition vs. Alberta, getting 15 points & 5 boards. I'm not sure yet if he will be red-shirted for the season, but I'm looking forward to watching him play again. I enjoyed seeing him (along with current Gopher/Hopkins alum Royce White) during the MN State tournament a few months back.
• My writing time is up for the evening, so I will conclude with one non-sports thought. Find Season 1 of FX's show "Damages" (starring Glenn Close & Tate Donovan, my favorite former Space Camper accidentally launched into orbit) on iTunes or Netflix. I enjoyed the new USA Network show Royal Pains this summer, and got to like Campbell Scott, who played the millionaire Boris on that show. Upon reading that he would be in Damages Season 3, I decided to check out the first episode from Season 1, just to get an idea of what the show was, so I would have a clue of what was going on in Season 3. All it took was one episode for me to be completely hooked in this serial law thriller, with more twists than Chubby Checker (wow, that was way too cheesy). I just finished Season 1 and am ready to kickoff on Season 2 soon. Ted Danson was a main figure in this season, but the real scene-stealer was Zeljko Ivanek (who has also played Emile Danko on Heroes, JJ on Big Love, Governor Delvin on Oz & Andre Drazen on 24, as well as one episode guest appearances in about every hour-long drama on television in the last decade. Visit his IMDB page at http://bit.ly/4AgMkl if you want to count how many shows you've seen him on over the years). The Slovenian actor convincingly played a lawyer with a down south accent, and he managed to grab the spotlight from the bigger name stars in the show. I promise you won't regret checking this out (unless you find yourself missing your bedtime because you want to watch just one more episode before sleeping.)