One month into the basketball season, 11 teams are still undefeated. And one school -- Lovell -- boasts two of those teams.

The Bulldogs made a quick assimilation into Class 3A, as the boys and girls are both 6-0. LHS is the only school in Wyoming that has two unbeaten basketball teams.

The other undefeated boys teams are Natrona (7-0), Buffalo (6-0), Wind River (7-0), Meeteetse (7-0) and Ten Sleep (6-0). The remaining unbeaten girls teams are Sheridan (7-0), Big Horn (6-0), Arvada-Clearmont (6-0) and St. Stephens (8-0).

(And I don't know why I just got around to noticing this, but... Did you see that three of the remaining five undefeated girls teams are from Sheridan County? Pretty cool. And it's also worth noting that Big Horn plays Arvada-Clearmont on Jan. 19 in Clearmont).

Of course, not every team listed here will finish the season unbeaten, and if history continues on its current trend, no team in Wyoming will go undefeated. Since 2002, only three teams (Thermopolis boys in 2004 and Douglas and Tongue River girls in 2005) have gone undefeated.

Of the 11, which one do you think has the best chance of finishing with the goose egg in the loss column? Will any of them do so? Add a comment and let the world know.

Posted by patrick.schmiedt@trib.com

(PS -- I'm heading out of town for the next few days, so if you ask me a question on here or on e-mail it might be a while before I get back to you...)

... especially no one in Wyoming's high school sports arenas. It's the down time for most teams right now, the quiet between the preseason and the regular season. Although there are a few events going on this week, most teams have the time between Christmas and New Year's Day to themselves.

A little relaxation, though, isn't a bad idea. The winter season is the longest of them all, a full 17 weeks from beginning to end. Contrast that with the fall season (13 weeks) or, egad, the spring season (a scant 10 weeks).

The winter sports participatns have the most time to develop, the most time to improve from practice No. 1 to contest No. 30. It can be a long, drawn-out process, so a week off can't be all bad.

For those of you that have this week off, enjoy it. And if you don't have the week off, well.... at least you're not bored like everyone else. :)

So happy holidays and enjoy the season, no matter what you're up to.

Posted by patrick.schmiedt@trib.com

Today's cancellations and postponements, as we have them:

n  CASPER TEAMS POSTPONE BILLINGS GAMES: The boys basketball teams from Natrona County and Kelly Walsh have postponed their games Friday and today with Billings Senior and Billings West, Mont. The games might be rescheduled in January, but no definite dates have been set. The girls games are still on as scheduled.

n  NORDIC SKIING CANCELED: The second day of the Casper Invitational Nordic skiing meet on Friday was canceled due to snowy, windy weather and bad roads on Casper Mountain.

n  BURNS-GUERNSEY POSTPONED: The Burns-Guernsey boys and girls basketball games scheduled for Friday in Guernsey were postponed. No make-up date has been set.

(New addition) n  ENCAMPMENT GIRLS POSTPONED: The Encampment girls' game against the Laramie sophomores on Friday in Laramie was postponed.

If you know of more postponements or cancellations, let us know! E-mail me at patrick.schmiedt@trib.com and help us out.

It's kind of a quiet week in high school sports land, isn't it?

But it's not like that eerie quiet you get sometimes right before the sun comes up. Instead, it's quiet like Daft Punk -- it tends to fade into the background, but there are some parts you can't help but listen to.

That said, there are quite a few cool things going on this weekend. First on my mind are a couple cool things here in Casper -- the Casper Invitational Nordic ski race, set for Thursday and Friday on Casper Mountain, and Thursday night's basketball game between the boys from Gillette and Natrona County, the top two ranked teams in Class 4A.

I'm actually headed up to skiing on Thursday, but that basketball game should be a doozy, too. And it doesn't end there for NC -- the Mustangs play Montana's top-ranked big school, Billings West, on Friday in Big Sky Country.

On the mats, the Pat Weede Memorial Invitational is scheduled for Friday and Saturday in Gillette. If you want to see good wrestling, go to Gillette this week -- this is the most elite tournament you'll find in Wyoming all year long.

After this week, it's mostly quiet until January (Fremont County Shootout, Energy Classic and Laramie Invitational swimming aside). So get out there and enjoy this weekend while you still can, and then AFTER that have a happy holiday season.

Posted by patrick.schmiedt@trib.com

Here they are, five teams that have caught my attention over the past two weeks:

1. Meeteetse girls basketball: Finally, the losing streak is over for the Longhorn girls. It had reached 47 games and spanned parts of three seasons, but finally, Meeteetse was on the winning end, beating Chugwater 37-32 to break the streak. Since then, the Longhorns have won two more games and and are 3-3 overall. So, my trivia question for you now is this: Which girls team now has the longest active losing streak?

2. Meeteetse boys basketball: While we're at it, let's stay in Park County, where the Longhorn boys have quietly put together a 7-0 start. You could call this the potatoes portion of the Longhorns' schedule; the meat will come later. And starting off with back-to-back games against Wind River and St. Stephens after Christmas break will certainly test the Longhorns' early success.

3. Powell wrestling: With Star Valley gone, someone had to step up and fill the void in Class 3A. So far, it's been the Panthers, who have looked sharp this month and finished second to 4A power Natrona at the Worland Duals last weekend. Of course, Wheatland, Douglas, Torrington and the rest of the 3A bretheren are not-so-quietly waiting in the wings....

4. Newcastle boys basketball: There is a lot to like about the Dogies. A lot. Athletic, experienced and on a bit of a roll, Newcastle went 3-0 last week, and in the process knocked off Class 2A's top-ranked team, Sundance. That's no small feat. Watch out, the Dogies are for real.

5. Lusk wrestling: The way the Tigers blitzed the Wright Duals was almost scary. No surprise, though. Lusk is consistenly one of the top teams in 2A, and this year is no exception.

There it is, a simple cross-section of some teams that are looking good early in the season. Feel free to add to the list by posting a comment below.

Posted by patrick.schmiedt@trib.com

So for the past two weeks, we've been scratching our heads, trying to figure out how in the world the old Sports Goulash blog got locked up, how no one in the world could edit posts or comment, how to free ourselves from the technological stranglehold we were in.

Well, this is it. Although the technological problems on "Old Goulash" still exist, this will be the new home for Sports Goulash.

The past two weeks have been frustrating, I know. I assure you, no one has been more frustrated than yours truly. But we're back and we're ready to go.

A couple of things to note:

The new Sports Goulash will have live comments, i.e., you won't have to wait for comment moderation. This brings the blog in line with all the other trib.com posting abilities. I warn you to use this with care. Basically, this will leave the comments section a lot more open and fluid, and I ask that you use that responsibly. Just because you might use an "anonymous" handle doesn't mean that we don't know who you are.

You can still go to http://www.trib.com/goulash/ If you do so, you'll be automatically redirected here. If you want to update your bookmarks, that's cool, but you don't necessarily have to...

The old Sports Goulash archives are still available, and we're trying to get them moved over to this address at my.trib.com. Right now, we're still in the chokehold trying to get those archives moved. For now, you can still read them, but commenting abilities on those old posts have been, well, frozen.

That said, sorry for the last two weeks. It's not because I didn't want to blog, it's because I couldn't. But for now, we're back up and running, and I have to say it feels pretty good.

Posted by patrick.schmiedt@trib.com