Welcome to the Wednesday edition of The Cooler, where it's good to be positive sometimes. Let's get to it:
*I profess to be good at neither rowing nor water skiing, but I can more confidently profess to never having considered combining the two aquatic pastimes.
Members of the Gophers rowing team, though, had the brilliant idea — and the strength — to do just that on a recent preseason training trip to San Diego.
With team boathouse manager Martha Brummitt waiting behind the eight-woman crew, they proceeded from a dead stop to gain enough speed to get Brummitt up on her skis. Per the team's web site: Never has this feat been documented by an all-women's crew, let alone with a woman skiing as well.
It wasn't the world's smoothest trip, and Brummitt ended up doing a face plant at the end, but the video of the whole thing — including team members cheering them on loudly — is glorious:
(Photo and video via Gopher Sports)
*The Gophers lost in a heartbreaker at Michigan, but let's not get too heated about the discrepancy between the clocks. All that matters is whether the ball left the shooter's hand before the actual shot clock expired — which it did, albeit barely — not if the clocks didn't perfectly line up.
The Gophers, though, can take plenty from the narrow 59-57 defeat to No. 5 Michigan — and thankfully they seemed to take the tough finish in stride. "We thought we were going into overtime," said Gophers center Eric Curry. "But we're not going to put anything on the refs. We should've got the rebound and finished the possession. We always preach that."
Said Gophers coach Richard Pitino: "It's a long season with a lot of terrific opportunities in front of us. It kind of is what it is. We grew today."
*Related but unrelated: By the way, the aftermath of the Saints loss to the Rams has reached an even more ridiculous stage with the suggestion that the Saints need and deserve a parade.
*The Wolves are done with the Suns this season, meaning Gorgui Dieng and Devin Booker will have an entire summer to cool down from whatever was bugging them Tuesday night.
