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