Jon Marthaler bakes up a batch of delicious links just for you. Other times, you can find him here and here.

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Happy Saturday! Those of you who took up Rand's challenge from yesterday and tried to watch more than one Minnesota team in action last night certainly weren't disappointed. An overtime winner for the Wild against the Red Wings, and another impressive neutral-court win from the Gopher hoops team -- Louisville two years ago, Butler last year, now North Carolina this year; that's not a bad record. The Wolves got blown out, but heck, at least Darko had 23 and 16, right?

We can only hope the rest of the weekend goes that well. On with the links:

*I have linked to Steve Rushin a lot lately. I wasn't going to this week - and then he wrote a poem about kickers that rhymes "freakish" with "Ali Haji-Sheikh-ish." How could I not link to that?

*Regular RandBaller fasolamatt sends in an advertising video for the Spain soccer team's new shirts. It's one of those great ads that are half gross and half awesome.

*While we're on the subject of soccer, the Kansas City MLS team announced this week that it was changing its name; instead of being known as the "Kansas City Wizards," the team is now "Sporting Kansas City." This is just the latest entry in a list of MLS teams with Eurosnob names that don't make even a little bit of sense; though "Real Salt Lake" is still the most egregious offender, "Sporting Kansas City" (compare to Sporting Lisbon in the Portuguese league) is up there. The good folks at Unprofessional Foul solicited some ideas for other possible stupid American team names, and hilarity ensued, if you're a soccer fan. (My favorites: "Kansaslautern" and "Dayton Orient".)

*I don't watch IndyCar and neither do you, but this Sports Media Watch interview with IndyCar CEO Randy Bernard is still worth reading. I've written before that I can remember IndyCar being quite popular when I was a kid; maybe it's about due for a comeback.

*And finally: if you're the kind of person that believes a pro sports team can somehow make a lasting difference in the community by winning, then Ravens wideout Derrick Mason has some words for you. I think sports are a great thing for a community, but still: well said, sir.

That'll do it for me. Before I go, a depressing reminder: ten days ago, it was nearly 70 degrees. Today, it'll struggle to reach freezing, and if you're like me you've got a ton of leaves you can't rake because they're still trapped under a nice thick blanket of snow. Sometimes, I just don't understand how things work around here. (But the Gophers won last night, so what do we care?)