Well, the Pimpdags made it to regionals. Here's what I remember about how it happened:
Game 1 vs. Beloit: Beloit was stronger than they were at Huck Finn, and we were a little slow out of the gate as usual. Since this game was the first with our full team playing to win, there was a lot of figuring out what role to play to for the team during our first two games, which caused this game to be a bit closer than it probably should've. Still, we win comfortably while keeping an open rotation 15-10.
Bye: I went and watched the hodags for while, they were in full costume and throwing hammers at will against Stevens Point. I laughed when some huge guy on SP skied a couple of them for a score and then left to go watch the Slutdags (Wisconsin C) and scout the rest of our pool.
Game 2 vs. UW-Milwaukee B: This game is where we really started to figure stuff out, especially on defense, and we never relented. They couldn't figure out our sponge D and we ran it nearly every point as we cruised to a 15-1 win, narrowly missing the bagel due to a miss-thrown hitch pass off of a pull.
Game 3 vs. Whitewater: Our last game of the day, we were really excited to see how we could match up with guys. The answer: not all that well. We were complacent from our earlier wins and were not ready for the pressure Whitewater put on us. Dumps couldn't get open, the cutters got shut down in and were handing out deep, nothing was coming easy and we got frustrated and turned the disc over a lot. We fought, but couldn't put it together, losing 15-5. However, the lost was good for us I think as it made us realize what improvements to make come Sunday.
With 2nd place in our pool we were schedule to play Marquette in the quarterfinals Sunday morning:
Quarters vs. Marquette: Marquette really just has one guy with ridiculous backhand breaks. Marquette ran their offense through him, playing conservative and knowing that their guy would make the plays and throws for them, which he did. He played nearly every point to start the game, resting only on D points when Marquette had gone up a break. We stayed in it, but just couldn't shut down their offense despite the Hodags cheering us on, and we lost 13-10.
Backdoor quarters vs. Stevens Point: Now we found ourselves in must-win territory. Lose this game and our season was over. So of course we got broken on the first point of the game. Stevens Point was big and was scoring on deep looks. Over the course of the game was starting working it under them and stifiling them with handler defense, and we slowly caught back up and built a lead. I hit Bob with a pretty backhand huck for the game-winning score 12-9.
Backdoor Semis vs. UW-Milwaukee: Win this game and we were in regionals, lose and we faced a 5th-place do or die game. This was a game of runs, we went up 3-1, they went up 5-3, we tied it at 5's, they took half 8-6, and stretched that lead to 10-7. UW-M is an athletic team, but didn't value the disc well. We were getting turns but being frustrated by their D, many points we long with 3-5 TO's per team. Then at 10-7, knowing we were tired and dreading a do-or-die game against Eau Claire, we cleaned up our offense, throwing 100% throws, and kept the pressure on D to tied the game at 10's. They would score the O-point 11-10, but we would answer with chilly offense and 0 turns as we worked it up the field and scored to force universe. On universe Milwaukee moved the disc up half the field before trying a deep shot, we wolf-packed it and Calkins came up with a huge D. Then that same chilly O took over, Friedman hit a wide open Bentley on a huck, and a couple passes later Mark hit Calkins for the win, the bid to regionals, and the bookends. Everyone played amazing in this game, though Calkins and Mark get special mention, I think each of them had multiple double happiness points and huge skies to keep us in the game and keep our momentum rolling.
3rd Place game vs. Marquette: We lost 15-4. We were simply exhausted and were happy with simply making it to regionals. Some of our starters had their cleats and shirts off by half-time. I kept putting myself in, trying to have one last good point before being done, but it took forever as I was exhausted and kept making mental errors. Eventually at 14-3 Marquette came down in zone and we worked it up and I threw the score. I was done. The good news from this game is that we were slowly figuring out to mark their main handler, so if we see them again at regionals I expect this match up to go solidly the other way.
After the Marquette game I walked a field over to root on my Frontline teamates who play for Milwaukee in their game to go against Eau Claire. This was a great game with a lot deep hucks, few turnovers, and even a callahan. With no cap on Eau Claire scored the break to win 17-15 and take a bid to regionals for the first time a couple years. Heartbreaking for Milwaukee, both teams had played 4 long games that day and were probably just as tired as I was.
All in all it was a great weekend. I feel that I finally found the role I need to play for the Pimps and I relish it, hopefully we can make some adjustments this week during practice and play even better at regionals this weekend, where it looks like we'll be coming in as the 11 seed.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Wisconsin Wolves
First, a quick word on sectionals. The weather won and the tournament was moved to this weekend. Weather looks to be around 60 degrees, maybe some showers on Saturday, with a light wind. All in all perfect conditions for the pimps. All that other stuff I said still stands.
I feel at some point I'll figure out how to add links to the sidebar, highlight words as links in the text, and add photos so the blog doesn't suck, but that's a summer project, so we'll just deal with it for now. Photos of stuff are on Facebook anyway.
So the subject of the post is Tyke's latest adventure, that of being a professional football player. The season opener was last weekend and I went, not quite knowing what to expect. I had gotten dirty looks from Tyke a couple weeks ago when I said I thought womens football would look like the 7th grade football team I covered for yearbook in 8th grade. After seeing the game, well, I'll say in terms of size and average football experience, the women are probably around that 8th-9th grade level, but they play a lot smarter, which would be expected.
Not that I know a lot about football, but from I saw there were very few sacks/missed blocking assignments or miscommunications between players compared to the middle school football I've watched, which at times resembled a gag reel of screw ups. The weather (snowing, windy, temp around 30) didn't help at all, and the football proved very hard to throw and fumbles from frozen hands were prevelent. Wisconsin has a good QB, so I'm looking forward to seeing what this team looks like when it's warm enough to actually throw a spiral.
In the end the Wolves lost 14-7 to Chicago, mainly due to size difference. The largest player on Chicago was a running back, and she was about twice the size of any of the Wisconsin defenders, so most of the Chicago's plays involved running this woman up the middle, where behind a nearly-as-large O-line she was usually able to gain 4-5 yards. Very hard to stop.
The highlight of the game though was Wisconsin's touchdown, which originally started out as a screen pass to the left for about 3-4 yards. At that point the WR was about to be tackled, but she decided she saw an opening back to the right, turned directly around, ran back to the line of scrimmage and began a dash across the field, allowing another Wolf to throw a viscous block, opening up the entire side of the field for the WR to beat the Chicago defense in a sprint to the endzone. The play was recorded as a 21 yard pass, but the woman probably ran 80 yards. For a second there I thought I was watching Reggie Bush. Very cool.
Tyke unfortunately didn't get to play at all, as despite being the 2nd fastest on the team she hasn't fully transitioned from no-contact ultimate to full-contact football. She's listed as Tight End and Corner back, and as soon as she figures out that whole jamming/getting out of being jammed thing, she'll be a force. Hopefully I'll get to see her wreck havoc as a special teams gunner at the next home game in May against Detroit.
I feel at some point I'll figure out how to add links to the sidebar, highlight words as links in the text, and add photos so the blog doesn't suck, but that's a summer project, so we'll just deal with it for now. Photos of stuff are on Facebook anyway.
So the subject of the post is Tyke's latest adventure, that of being a professional football player. The season opener was last weekend and I went, not quite knowing what to expect. I had gotten dirty looks from Tyke a couple weeks ago when I said I thought womens football would look like the 7th grade football team I covered for yearbook in 8th grade. After seeing the game, well, I'll say in terms of size and average football experience, the women are probably around that 8th-9th grade level, but they play a lot smarter, which would be expected.
Not that I know a lot about football, but from I saw there were very few sacks/missed blocking assignments or miscommunications between players compared to the middle school football I've watched, which at times resembled a gag reel of screw ups. The weather (snowing, windy, temp around 30) didn't help at all, and the football proved very hard to throw and fumbles from frozen hands were prevelent. Wisconsin has a good QB, so I'm looking forward to seeing what this team looks like when it's warm enough to actually throw a spiral.
In the end the Wolves lost 14-7 to Chicago, mainly due to size difference. The largest player on Chicago was a running back, and she was about twice the size of any of the Wisconsin defenders, so most of the Chicago's plays involved running this woman up the middle, where behind a nearly-as-large O-line she was usually able to gain 4-5 yards. Very hard to stop.
The highlight of the game though was Wisconsin's touchdown, which originally started out as a screen pass to the left for about 3-4 yards. At that point the WR was about to be tackled, but she decided she saw an opening back to the right, turned directly around, ran back to the line of scrimmage and began a dash across the field, allowing another Wolf to throw a viscous block, opening up the entire side of the field for the WR to beat the Chicago defense in a sprint to the endzone. The play was recorded as a 21 yard pass, but the woman probably ran 80 yards. For a second there I thought I was watching Reggie Bush. Very cool.
Tyke unfortunately didn't get to play at all, as despite being the 2nd fastest on the team she hasn't fully transitioned from no-contact ultimate to full-contact football. She's listed as Tight End and Corner back, and as soon as she figures out that whole jamming/getting out of being jammed thing, she'll be a force. Hopefully I'll get to see her wreck havoc as a special teams gunner at the next home game in May against Detroit.
Wednesday, April 09, 2008
Lake Superior Sectionals Preview
Sectionals is this weekend, and it's interesting as I'm approaching this tournament like I approached regionals last year: we're seeded to quality to play further, but that's no guarantee, we have to prove it and play very well. It's the biggest tournament of the year and regionals is the reward.
Aside from only 5 bids for 7 quality teams, the weather is making this even tougher. Current forecast is for temps in the 30's with a chance of snow and moderate wind. There's currently no mention of rain, so as long as the fields aren't soaked from the rain this week (Tuesday and likely Thursday and Friday) the tourney is on, and we have to ready to play in bad conditions, especially after our collapse in bad weather in Nashville. The best performances this weekend will belong to teams that embrace the conditions and play through them as opposed to making excuses. As Tyke's coach always told her team, you can't control the weather, so there's no use worrying about it, focus your energy on the things that you can control: solid throws, watching the disc into your hands, running the offense right, playing hard D. Doing well this weekend is all about winning the mental battle with ourselves, if we do that the results will take care of themselves.
Still, we do have to play other teams this weekend. We're seeded 5th behind the Hodags, Whitewater, Marquette, and Milwaukee. Eau Claire and Stevens Point make up a close 6th and 7th. The format is here: http://www.upa.org/scores/tourn.cgi?div=127&id=4487
I'm not a fan of the additions the SC made to the format, but they're easy enough to avoid. We have a relatively easy first day, 2 warm up games against teams that won't beat us, but will work us and make us realize what we immediately need to work on. Then we have Whitewater. Then we have a cross-over game that has no bearing on Sunday seeding, the odds of this game being played seriously are very low. The games of concern for the Pimpdags on Saturday are the Marquette/Milwaukee game and the Stevens Point/Eau Claire game in round 4. If we can get a chance to see some of these games it'd be a great scouting opportunity. The 3rd game of interest will hopefully see us rooting on our C-team in the 3rd place cross-over game for a spot in the champ bracket on Sunday.
Sunday: Our most important game of the whole weekend is the first game on Sunday, if we win we're playing well with confidence and are in good position to get a bid via the 3rd place bracket semis. If we lose our confidence will be shaken and we'll have to rebound quickly in a must-win game in a tougher draw in the lower brackets. I think it's possible we finish 3rd at this tournament, it's also possible we finish 7th. This will be the first tournament we will have our full team playing together, and it's going to be good.
Marquette and Milwaukee are good teams, but looking beyond RRI and raw tournament finish, their individual game results show me nothing to make me question our ability to beat them. Stevens Point hasn't played a game all year, though are usually around the Pimpdags level, here's hoping their lack of experience hurts them more than the advantage they gain on other teams having no clue what to expect. Eau Claire beat us in Nashville, yes, but the second half was 7-6 Pimps after everything went wrong in the first half, not to mention we were missing some key players. Excuses yes, but excuses that give us confidence and Eau Claire concern.
All in all I'm pumped. I'm excited to see us play to potential. Personally I've done this before and I know what I need to do: play my role, run our system, and dominate like I know I can. Stay focused. Stay calm. Play smart. As long as I have something to say about it, this will not be my last weekend playing college ultimate.
Results to follow when it's all over.
Aside from only 5 bids for 7 quality teams, the weather is making this even tougher. Current forecast is for temps in the 30's with a chance of snow and moderate wind. There's currently no mention of rain, so as long as the fields aren't soaked from the rain this week (Tuesday and likely Thursday and Friday) the tourney is on, and we have to ready to play in bad conditions, especially after our collapse in bad weather in Nashville. The best performances this weekend will belong to teams that embrace the conditions and play through them as opposed to making excuses. As Tyke's coach always told her team, you can't control the weather, so there's no use worrying about it, focus your energy on the things that you can control: solid throws, watching the disc into your hands, running the offense right, playing hard D. Doing well this weekend is all about winning the mental battle with ourselves, if we do that the results will take care of themselves.
Still, we do have to play other teams this weekend. We're seeded 5th behind the Hodags, Whitewater, Marquette, and Milwaukee. Eau Claire and Stevens Point make up a close 6th and 7th. The format is here: http://www.upa.org/scores/tourn.cgi?div=127&id=4487
I'm not a fan of the additions the SC made to the format, but they're easy enough to avoid. We have a relatively easy first day, 2 warm up games against teams that won't beat us, but will work us and make us realize what we immediately need to work on. Then we have Whitewater. Then we have a cross-over game that has no bearing on Sunday seeding, the odds of this game being played seriously are very low. The games of concern for the Pimpdags on Saturday are the Marquette/Milwaukee game and the Stevens Point/Eau Claire game in round 4. If we can get a chance to see some of these games it'd be a great scouting opportunity. The 3rd game of interest will hopefully see us rooting on our C-team in the 3rd place cross-over game for a spot in the champ bracket on Sunday.
Sunday: Our most important game of the whole weekend is the first game on Sunday, if we win we're playing well with confidence and are in good position to get a bid via the 3rd place bracket semis. If we lose our confidence will be shaken and we'll have to rebound quickly in a must-win game in a tougher draw in the lower brackets. I think it's possible we finish 3rd at this tournament, it's also possible we finish 7th. This will be the first tournament we will have our full team playing together, and it's going to be good.
Marquette and Milwaukee are good teams, but looking beyond RRI and raw tournament finish, their individual game results show me nothing to make me question our ability to beat them. Stevens Point hasn't played a game all year, though are usually around the Pimpdags level, here's hoping their lack of experience hurts them more than the advantage they gain on other teams having no clue what to expect. Eau Claire beat us in Nashville, yes, but the second half was 7-6 Pimps after everything went wrong in the first half, not to mention we were missing some key players. Excuses yes, but excuses that give us confidence and Eau Claire concern.
All in all I'm pumped. I'm excited to see us play to potential. Personally I've done this before and I know what I need to do: play my role, run our system, and dominate like I know I can. Stay focused. Stay calm. Play smart. As long as I have something to say about it, this will not be my last weekend playing college ultimate.
Results to follow when it's all over.
Sunday, April 06, 2008
Huck Finn
Tourney recap week concludes today with Huck Finn, held last weekend in St. Louis. I was originally annoyed we were left out of the power pools, but as it turns out that was a good thing, as we took a skeleton crew of 17 that included only 5 people who will start for the Pimpdags in sectionals next weekend. We were short handlers (with only 5) and even shorter on experienced cutters, but it was a great weekend of progress for the next generation of pimps.
Saturday:
This day started out with Davidman and myself taking bets on how many points we would play. The weather was windy upwind/downwind with occasional sprinkles. Our first game was Illinois B, and it was close at first before we started figuring out how to get upwind scores (and Illinois started giving us the disc) and cruised to an 11-5 win. We then lost to Wheaton, our inexperience showing greatly as there were numerous turns on miscommunications, poor throws, and drops. The same was the story later in the day against Missouri, a game characterized in my mind by a turfed backhand on my part giving Missouri an easy upwind score right as we were trying to make a run and get back in the game. Our other two wins were easy, but were also very sloppy with lots of turns. At the end of the day I had played 62 points over 5 games to 11, or 74% of the points, and our rookies were coming along nicely. While some of us went to the party that night, I stayed in, watched basketball, and went to bed early.
Sunday:
Our first game was against some group of Carleton players that went on to win the tournament. We lost 14-2, but it was fun to play against these guys and really focus on playing good defense and making throws under pressure. Our next game was against Western Illinois (who?), which turned out to be a respectable team. The collected a lot scores off of transition hucks, as our D after turns continued to be poor at best. I played every point I could in this game, and probably more than that, as an injury one of our 5 handlers and stomach problems for another forced 3 of us to play about 8 points in a row. We were playing better in this game, but exhaustion was showing among our best players, and defense was slack as times and mental errors were all too common. Notable plays in this game were me going ho feet first after catching an O2 (babytalk) to toe the endzone line for the score, and me throwing a technically perfect huck to Dave, only to have him brutally misread it, running towards the 4 defenders on the open side trying to D it instead of going breakside where the disc trailed off nicely and landed calmly in the middle of the endzone. In the end we lost 13-10, simply losing steam at the end. I ended up with a pretty good statline: 2 goals, 4 assists, maybe 3-4 turns, but I too was exhausted as the winning goal was score on me, my guy running towards the back corner of the endzone and me unable to follow. Total points played on the weekend: 90.
Coming Up: Sectionals Preview.
Saturday:
This day started out with Davidman and myself taking bets on how many points we would play. The weather was windy upwind/downwind with occasional sprinkles. Our first game was Illinois B, and it was close at first before we started figuring out how to get upwind scores (and Illinois started giving us the disc) and cruised to an 11-5 win. We then lost to Wheaton, our inexperience showing greatly as there were numerous turns on miscommunications, poor throws, and drops. The same was the story later in the day against Missouri, a game characterized in my mind by a turfed backhand on my part giving Missouri an easy upwind score right as we were trying to make a run and get back in the game. Our other two wins were easy, but were also very sloppy with lots of turns. At the end of the day I had played 62 points over 5 games to 11, or 74% of the points, and our rookies were coming along nicely. While some of us went to the party that night, I stayed in, watched basketball, and went to bed early.
Sunday:
Our first game was against some group of Carleton players that went on to win the tournament. We lost 14-2, but it was fun to play against these guys and really focus on playing good defense and making throws under pressure. Our next game was against Western Illinois (who?), which turned out to be a respectable team. The collected a lot scores off of transition hucks, as our D after turns continued to be poor at best. I played every point I could in this game, and probably more than that, as an injury one of our 5 handlers and stomach problems for another forced 3 of us to play about 8 points in a row. We were playing better in this game, but exhaustion was showing among our best players, and defense was slack as times and mental errors were all too common. Notable plays in this game were me going ho feet first after catching an O2 (babytalk) to toe the endzone line for the score, and me throwing a technically perfect huck to Dave, only to have him brutally misread it, running towards the 4 defenders on the open side trying to D it instead of going breakside where the disc trailed off nicely and landed calmly in the middle of the endzone. In the end we lost 13-10, simply losing steam at the end. I ended up with a pretty good statline: 2 goals, 4 assists, maybe 3-4 turns, but I too was exhausted as the winning goal was score on me, my guy running towards the back corner of the endzone and me unable to follow. Total points played on the weekend: 90.
Coming Up: Sectionals Preview.
Thursday, April 03, 2008
Southerns
Back after a brief hiatus yesterday when I decided nothing happened over spring break worth writing about. Basically I tried to do work while everyone else drank themselves stupid. Recap over.
The second weekend of spring break though brought the tournament that I had been looking forward to most all year: Southerns. This was the 3rd year in a row I've been to this tourney and it's probably my second favorite after Vegas. Dartmouth men were there, Wellesley women were there, and a van containing Ian, Mark, and Lechmaier would also be there. Things were looking up.
Saturday:
Game 1 v. Middlebury: It's always fun to play against the northeast teams I know well, and I love Midd. I gave our coaches a scouting report that proved correct, Midd put it deep again and again to a couple great athletes and played a smart game that took advantage of our turnovers. They won 13-6 as we opened up our 28 man roster. Highlight of the game was Midd recognizing me and appologizing for the keg incident at regionals last year. I then put the person to blame for that in a headlock.
Game 2 v. Tulane: Tulane is a great team, lots of fun, and kept a positive attitude despite only have 7 guys and 3 guys on their roster this weekend. We had an open rotation from the start and cruised to a 13-7 victory, assuring us of holding seed in our pool.
Game 3 v. Wake Forest: A rematch for me from Southerns last year when Wake beat Dartmouth with a decent zone. I don't think Wake is as good this year. They got up on us early, but we stayed in it, down a break or two. Then at 9-7 them our zone clicked and we started getting turns. Wake had been trying to break our zone with high floaty throws over our cup, and we finally threw a tall line in to stop that. Needless to say it worked and we went on a 4 point run to win 11-9. Great game, though I feel Wake lost their fight after we tied it at 9s. The last two points for us were breaks that happened on a short field turn due to our zone: for 10-9 Wake forgot to guard me in transition and I scored an easy up the line cut from Ian. For 11-9 I returned the favor to Ian when Wake forgot to guard him.
Game 4 v. St. Olaf: This was our fourth game in a row and our starters were feeling it. We're generally a pretty deep team, but against this type of competition we go maybe 14 deep, which isn't enough for 4 games in a row. St. Olaf threw our same zone and the start of the game was notable for very long points and lots of throws gaining not many yards. Ian and I had some good teamwork on short throws in the cup to gain yards, and I believe I had a 100% hammer completion rate, but something would always seem to go wrong at some point and we'd turn it. Half was still close at 7-5 Olaf, but in the 2nd half they picked it up and we ran out of steam and got bageled. 12-5 final. I'm looking forward to seeing these guys again at regionals.
Interlude: After our game I took advantage of our last round bye and went to watch Wellesley play a few fields away. Davidman tagged along, intrigued at the concept of an all-womens college. We watched the first half as I caught up with my friends on the Whips and called Tyke to gloat that I was hanging out with her team. I then walked a couple fields over to say hi to Wellesley B and Dartmouth womens B. Next it was off to watch the Pain Train play. Unfortunately they romped their last round opponent 13-3 and I missed the whole thing. I still got to hang out with them afterwards, and it was great to see them all again and hear about how well they're playing. I also met Carson, the former CUT player who is effectively my replacement cutting on the O-line. I hate to say it, but they definitely traded up. A few hours later I went to the party for the first time in my 3 years, where I spent most of my time talking to Fishie and beating my drunk Pimpdag teammates off of her with a stick. I think my coach actually introduced himself to her twice. When she left I went over to dance with Wellesley for a while before it became time to drag my shitfaced coach back to our campsite and go to sleep.
Sunday: Our 3rd place finish in our pool landed us an upper seed in the 17th place bracket, and even greater luck as due to Eau Claire and another team going home, we were matched up against Chicago B, serving as a filler team.
Game 5 v. Chicago B: We showed up about 20 minutes before game and thank god we were just playing Chicago B or we would've lost. Highlight of the warmup was Dartmouth a couple fields away doing 'the cheer' and me sprinting through two teams' endzone drills to get there in time to scream "we are psychotic". I used this game to begin implementing my "don't turn it over, don't be a hero" handler strategy as the rest of the team goofed off. Half was 8-2 and I tried to pump us up and get us to play clean, saying we could win 15-5, or we could win 15-2. Needless to say we won 15-5. Figures.
Game 6 v. Towson: This team had a couple good handlers with great facial hair, but hardly anyone else. Our zone kept them from getting their offense flowing and forced turns upfield if the handlers ever advanced the disc. Our offense was running well and I spent my time on the sidelines watching Dartmouth play Ohio St. in the quarterfinals a couple fields over. So yeah, we ended up winning this one 15-7 as Towson was happy to hand the game to us after we got up a few points.
Game 7 v. South Florida: We switched fields to the swamp fields and immediately saw a huge snapping turtle. Poking it with a stick failed to produce a desired result, so we went about warming up after watching the end of an intense Brown-B v. Florida B game. That game however was in the consolation bracket of the 17th bracket, while we were in the semis of the 17th bracket, so we began our warm ups with the confirmation that we were indeed the best B team in the country. South Florida was an interested game, intense and good spirited. Both teams collected a lot of breaks in the first half, but we were able to clean it up better than them in the second half and rolled to yet another victory 12-8.
Game 8 v. Princeton: The finals of the 17th place bracket. I played in this same game last year and lost to a rested Richmond team (their semis opponent had bagged), so I looking for a little redemption. The early points were multi-turn battles as Princeton was putting defensive pressure on us like we hadn't see yet this season. I threw into a couple layout D's as our cutters haven't mastered running through the disc and catching at full extension. I also had a couple other bad throws as my "don't be a hero" mentality slowly fell apart as everyone was looking to throw a score just so these marathon points would end. Princeton ended up taking a 4-0 lead before we could punch one in. We actually managed to get a couple breaks in this game as well, but the O-line just couldn't hold onto the disc against Princeton's defense. Despite my throwaways I though I played a good game, my defense was definitely it's most intense on the weekend despite my exhaustion, and I had two great IO hucks for scores. I also had another rules argument for the ages, as I actually made Princeton get out my rulebook so I could prove myself right about a travel call (that wasn't a travel). In the end this was an 11-4 lost for the Pimps, but one I was proud off as it was really the first time this season I felt like I was back playing intense ultimate with Dartmouth.
Speaking of Dartmouth, they went on to win whole the damn thing, holy shit. We never win tournaments. Fishie and Cornell also won. Hopefully I'll see both teams at Nationals in May.
The drive home was more eventful than I would've hoped, but that's a story for another post.
The second weekend of spring break though brought the tournament that I had been looking forward to most all year: Southerns. This was the 3rd year in a row I've been to this tourney and it's probably my second favorite after Vegas. Dartmouth men were there, Wellesley women were there, and a van containing Ian, Mark, and Lechmaier would also be there. Things were looking up.
Saturday:
Game 1 v. Middlebury: It's always fun to play against the northeast teams I know well, and I love Midd. I gave our coaches a scouting report that proved correct, Midd put it deep again and again to a couple great athletes and played a smart game that took advantage of our turnovers. They won 13-6 as we opened up our 28 man roster. Highlight of the game was Midd recognizing me and appologizing for the keg incident at regionals last year. I then put the person to blame for that in a headlock.
Game 2 v. Tulane: Tulane is a great team, lots of fun, and kept a positive attitude despite only have 7 guys and 3 guys on their roster this weekend. We had an open rotation from the start and cruised to a 13-7 victory, assuring us of holding seed in our pool.
Game 3 v. Wake Forest: A rematch for me from Southerns last year when Wake beat Dartmouth with a decent zone. I don't think Wake is as good this year. They got up on us early, but we stayed in it, down a break or two. Then at 9-7 them our zone clicked and we started getting turns. Wake had been trying to break our zone with high floaty throws over our cup, and we finally threw a tall line in to stop that. Needless to say it worked and we went on a 4 point run to win 11-9. Great game, though I feel Wake lost their fight after we tied it at 9s. The last two points for us were breaks that happened on a short field turn due to our zone: for 10-9 Wake forgot to guard me in transition and I scored an easy up the line cut from Ian. For 11-9 I returned the favor to Ian when Wake forgot to guard him.
Game 4 v. St. Olaf: This was our fourth game in a row and our starters were feeling it. We're generally a pretty deep team, but against this type of competition we go maybe 14 deep, which isn't enough for 4 games in a row. St. Olaf threw our same zone and the start of the game was notable for very long points and lots of throws gaining not many yards. Ian and I had some good teamwork on short throws in the cup to gain yards, and I believe I had a 100% hammer completion rate, but something would always seem to go wrong at some point and we'd turn it. Half was still close at 7-5 Olaf, but in the 2nd half they picked it up and we ran out of steam and got bageled. 12-5 final. I'm looking forward to seeing these guys again at regionals.
Interlude: After our game I took advantage of our last round bye and went to watch Wellesley play a few fields away. Davidman tagged along, intrigued at the concept of an all-womens college. We watched the first half as I caught up with my friends on the Whips and called Tyke to gloat that I was hanging out with her team. I then walked a couple fields over to say hi to Wellesley B and Dartmouth womens B. Next it was off to watch the Pain Train play. Unfortunately they romped their last round opponent 13-3 and I missed the whole thing. I still got to hang out with them afterwards, and it was great to see them all again and hear about how well they're playing. I also met Carson, the former CUT player who is effectively my replacement cutting on the O-line. I hate to say it, but they definitely traded up. A few hours later I went to the party for the first time in my 3 years, where I spent most of my time talking to Fishie and beating my drunk Pimpdag teammates off of her with a stick. I think my coach actually introduced himself to her twice. When she left I went over to dance with Wellesley for a while before it became time to drag my shitfaced coach back to our campsite and go to sleep.
Sunday: Our 3rd place finish in our pool landed us an upper seed in the 17th place bracket, and even greater luck as due to Eau Claire and another team going home, we were matched up against Chicago B, serving as a filler team.
Game 5 v. Chicago B: We showed up about 20 minutes before game and thank god we were just playing Chicago B or we would've lost. Highlight of the warmup was Dartmouth a couple fields away doing 'the cheer' and me sprinting through two teams' endzone drills to get there in time to scream "we are psychotic". I used this game to begin implementing my "don't turn it over, don't be a hero" handler strategy as the rest of the team goofed off. Half was 8-2 and I tried to pump us up and get us to play clean, saying we could win 15-5, or we could win 15-2. Needless to say we won 15-5. Figures.
Game 6 v. Towson: This team had a couple good handlers with great facial hair, but hardly anyone else. Our zone kept them from getting their offense flowing and forced turns upfield if the handlers ever advanced the disc. Our offense was running well and I spent my time on the sidelines watching Dartmouth play Ohio St. in the quarterfinals a couple fields over. So yeah, we ended up winning this one 15-7 as Towson was happy to hand the game to us after we got up a few points.
Game 7 v. South Florida: We switched fields to the swamp fields and immediately saw a huge snapping turtle. Poking it with a stick failed to produce a desired result, so we went about warming up after watching the end of an intense Brown-B v. Florida B game. That game however was in the consolation bracket of the 17th bracket, while we were in the semis of the 17th bracket, so we began our warm ups with the confirmation that we were indeed the best B team in the country. South Florida was an interested game, intense and good spirited. Both teams collected a lot of breaks in the first half, but we were able to clean it up better than them in the second half and rolled to yet another victory 12-8.
Game 8 v. Princeton: The finals of the 17th place bracket. I played in this same game last year and lost to a rested Richmond team (their semis opponent had bagged), so I looking for a little redemption. The early points were multi-turn battles as Princeton was putting defensive pressure on us like we hadn't see yet this season. I threw into a couple layout D's as our cutters haven't mastered running through the disc and catching at full extension. I also had a couple other bad throws as my "don't be a hero" mentality slowly fell apart as everyone was looking to throw a score just so these marathon points would end. Princeton ended up taking a 4-0 lead before we could punch one in. We actually managed to get a couple breaks in this game as well, but the O-line just couldn't hold onto the disc against Princeton's defense. Despite my throwaways I though I played a good game, my defense was definitely it's most intense on the weekend despite my exhaustion, and I had two great IO hucks for scores. I also had another rules argument for the ages, as I actually made Princeton get out my rulebook so I could prove myself right about a travel call (that wasn't a travel). In the end this was an 11-4 lost for the Pimps, but one I was proud off as it was really the first time this season I felt like I was back playing intense ultimate with Dartmouth.
Speaking of Dartmouth, they went on to win whole the damn thing, holy shit. We never win tournaments. Fishie and Cornell also won. Hopefully I'll see both teams at Nationals in May.
The drive home was more eventful than I would've hoped, but that's a story for another post.
Tuesday, April 01, 2008
Music City Tune-Up
Tourney recap week continues today with the Music City Tune-Up in Nashville, TN. Now the team vowed never to speak of this tournament again, and I don't like thinking about it, but if you try to forget something never happened, you'll never learn from it, so here goes.
This tourney was the first weekend of spring break and we were missing some key players, notably Ian, Mark, and Lechmaier. We were short handlers, short cutters, and full of inexperience for this one, with the makings of a great tournament for the younger pimps to learn and improve. Unfortunately that was not going to happen as the skies opened up during our second game and that inexperience turned into drops, throw-aways, bad decisions, and overall misery. The fields turned into mud pits and by our last game of the day we were down to 12 players as 2 cars had returned to the hotel to ward off pneumonia. I'm not going to recap individual games on Saturday as every game was basically the same: our zone was good, but the other team just seemed to pull down some swill and we just didn't care as much as the other teams. As the day progressed I started hucking without cause as that was often a better option than a dump throw to cold shivering hands. With nothing really to play for and the desire for a relaxing, comfortable spring break overwhelming, we learned that we don't play well in the cold and wet (surprising, I know, coming from Wisconsin), and that this is a very emotionally driven team. We made a good run to almost come back against sectional rival Eau Claire, but it was quite obvious that the desire to play good ultimate is not enough to motivate this group, there are intangibles involved that the captains will need to draw upon come the series so that we can play our best.
Sunday was at least a better day, sunny and warm, though with numerous puddles left on the field from Saturday. Due to some of the most idiotic TDing I've ever seen we had a pool play rematch in a 12-team bracket for our first game.
Game 1 v. UT-Chatanooga: We had lost to them 13-5 the day before, and were determined to beat them this time, as we knew we could run with them easily. We had the fire this time, but were lacking intelligent play. I know I had a couple bonehead turnovers, and we seemed incapable of getting on D after a turnover as UTC score many times on fast breaks. Our D line couldn't guard the deep look and despite fighting hard and playing a tight rotation, couldn't get a break in the second half and lost 13-11.
Game 2 v. Tulane: This was our consolation game before heading south to Florida for the week and I was determined not to have this be the first tournament ever where I didn't win a game. The wind died down and hucking practice with Alter before the game really helped me out as I threw 5 assists on throws over 30 yards. We cruised to a 13-7 win.
Of note is that this tournament saw the debut of cutter Brett on 4 points, a quick recap of those 4 points:
Point 1 v. JMU Sat: Rainy, didn't get open in, didn't get the disc
Point 2 v. JMU Sat: Hosed my guy deep for the score on the 2nd throw of the point
Point 3 v. Tulane Sun: Got open in, hucked for a score
Point 4 v. Tulane Sun: Got open in, hucked for a score
So, obviously this is something I'd like to do more often, but for that to happen a couple handlers need to step up as right now my greatest value to the team is probably my ability to consistently get open for the dump and keep the offense flowing with accurate throws. If someone else can do that (which I think they can now that we're practicing outside), hopefully I can transition into a role of making the offense run from the cutting side of thing.
Next Post: Spring break in Pensacola Beach
This tourney was the first weekend of spring break and we were missing some key players, notably Ian, Mark, and Lechmaier. We were short handlers, short cutters, and full of inexperience for this one, with the makings of a great tournament for the younger pimps to learn and improve. Unfortunately that was not going to happen as the skies opened up during our second game and that inexperience turned into drops, throw-aways, bad decisions, and overall misery. The fields turned into mud pits and by our last game of the day we were down to 12 players as 2 cars had returned to the hotel to ward off pneumonia. I'm not going to recap individual games on Saturday as every game was basically the same: our zone was good, but the other team just seemed to pull down some swill and we just didn't care as much as the other teams. As the day progressed I started hucking without cause as that was often a better option than a dump throw to cold shivering hands. With nothing really to play for and the desire for a relaxing, comfortable spring break overwhelming, we learned that we don't play well in the cold and wet (surprising, I know, coming from Wisconsin), and that this is a very emotionally driven team. We made a good run to almost come back against sectional rival Eau Claire, but it was quite obvious that the desire to play good ultimate is not enough to motivate this group, there are intangibles involved that the captains will need to draw upon come the series so that we can play our best.
Sunday was at least a better day, sunny and warm, though with numerous puddles left on the field from Saturday. Due to some of the most idiotic TDing I've ever seen we had a pool play rematch in a 12-team bracket for our first game.
Game 1 v. UT-Chatanooga: We had lost to them 13-5 the day before, and were determined to beat them this time, as we knew we could run with them easily. We had the fire this time, but were lacking intelligent play. I know I had a couple bonehead turnovers, and we seemed incapable of getting on D after a turnover as UTC score many times on fast breaks. Our D line couldn't guard the deep look and despite fighting hard and playing a tight rotation, couldn't get a break in the second half and lost 13-11.
Game 2 v. Tulane: This was our consolation game before heading south to Florida for the week and I was determined not to have this be the first tournament ever where I didn't win a game. The wind died down and hucking practice with Alter before the game really helped me out as I threw 5 assists on throws over 30 yards. We cruised to a 13-7 win.
Of note is that this tournament saw the debut of cutter Brett on 4 points, a quick recap of those 4 points:
Point 1 v. JMU Sat: Rainy, didn't get open in, didn't get the disc
Point 2 v. JMU Sat: Hosed my guy deep for the score on the 2nd throw of the point
Point 3 v. Tulane Sun: Got open in, hucked for a score
Point 4 v. Tulane Sun: Got open in, hucked for a score
So, obviously this is something I'd like to do more often, but for that to happen a couple handlers need to step up as right now my greatest value to the team is probably my ability to consistently get open for the dump and keep the offense flowing with accurate throws. If someone else can do that (which I think they can now that we're practicing outside), hopefully I can transition into a role of making the offense run from the cutting side of thing.
Next Post: Spring break in Pensacola Beach
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