I am going be honest. I had almost an entire write up done going into the finals. I started researching Queen City and had updates about TiV through semifinals. I was ready to go, I knew it was gonna be Wisconsin vs Arizona (shocking, I know but I was ready) but I figured the Hodags would take Sunburn 13-6 or something. However, I am getting text updates from my cousin, 5-3 Wisconsin, 10-8 Wisconsin, what the fuck? How is Arizona scoring? Sunburn lost to Claremont in quarters at regionals last year, what the hell am I missing? I dunno whats going on in the desert, but I am gonna find out. I want to write more, but I will save that for later. I will say, though, that like the Patriots, no team is invincible. Go Arizona, please talk to me.
Here is my original writeup. More to follow:
So Trouble in Vegas has come and gone, as has Queen City Tune Up. There were a lot of big winners in Vegas, not mention a few broken hearts. Charlotte also housed the biggest barn burner East of the Mississippi and my NUMP ballot looks like the floor of a Pedro Martinez sponsored cock fight. Here are my thoughts on each tourney.
Trouble In Vegas
Trouble In Vegas
First lets start off with the Cultimate extravaganza that has been dubbed the best and worst idea in the history of ultimate. I hear the weather was actually good this year which is nice considering the last two years were like Wyoming in November.
Wisconsin: I thought the 'dags were gonna steam roll folks but they definitely had their pulses raised en route to winning their 2nd tournament. They had close games against CUT (11-9) in semis and Arizona (12-11) in a capped finals that ended with a Sunburn score. I want to draw some conclusions, but like the 6-5 Wisconsin loss to CUT and Texas beating Colorado back in 2006, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.
Arizona: I get a text Saturday night, "Arizona beats Florida". I know that Sunburn has a few winter wins for the ages. They knocked off the Squids at Santa Barbara a few years back but Florida?!?! They managed to do something that no one has EVER done, beat the Gators in Vegas. The next thing I know Arizona beats Cal and faces Harvard in semis, semis?!?! Ok, Vegas is weird, Arizona wins, good luck against Wisconsin. 23 points later Arizona scores it's 11th goal to end a capped game. 11 on Wisconsin? Oregon got 9 on the Hodags at nationals and a team that has never made nationals gets 11? Are you serious? I have no idea what this result means, but I will say that no one has gotten this close to Wisconsin this year and this really shows that Arizona could be significantly better than just a quarters/semis team at Regionals. My sources say the finals were exceptionally well played on both sides. I think I am one of many that is blown away with this performance and I really hope to see more of Sunburn this year. The Southwest royalty could shift significantly this year and if Arizona can keep it up, they may have a chance to finally play in a game-to-go. I wish I had more information on them, but I'm on it.
CUT: When I asked my buddy JAM (who was there) what he thought of Carleton, he had one word, "Fast". The crafty boys from Minesooota are definitely experienced, polished and on track to challenge the best in the country. It's too bad they got all this World's talent right around the time Wisconsin was on their way to an unprescedented, and un-possible, undefeated season. Tough draw in semis but they really belong this year. Their biggest advantage, their Junior World's talent, is actually 2-fold in the sense that not only are these kids spectacular, but they have all already played together and in analogous systems (ARHS and Paideia). If they can overcome the size barrier by playing crisp, mistake-free ultimate, they can challenge Wisconsin when it matters. Unlike the rest of the country, CUT is unafraid of the baby blue and if they can capitalize on Wisconsin's raw intensity with composed ultimate, they maybe the NY Giants against the NE Patriots this May.
Whitman: I am really glad someone from Washington reads my blog. Here is what Joe's Brother had to say about the Walla Walla Sweets:
Somewhat off the radar, but maybe worth keeping on eye on in 2008 is that the best high school player in the country last year, Jeremy Norden, went to Whitman and claimed a lot of other Juniors players had interest in going there as well. Plus, he said the club gets an enormous amount of support (financially and otherwise) from the school and community. He's good enough by himself to propel a team into the mix. And the RSD chatter supports the rumor that there are other solid HS standouts on the freshman line. No word on their bureaucratic recruiting (they had a paperwork related DQ last year), but if their papers are in order, this team could be THE team on the rise.
They're at TiV this weekend, so by Monday we should have a little more info on them.
Turning heads and making quarters (over Ego no less) was definitely not what I was expecting from this Pool F second seed. They have their work cut out for them and are going to need to keep it up to get out of the Northwest.
Haavard: Aside from the Ivy rivalry, I am really impressed with these these guys. They are the new Brown. Making semis by beating two hot teams in Whitman and Illinois is impressive considering what teams usually make it this far in the desert. Most NE teams play their best in the spring and seeing that Redline is getting big wins (but not against the squids, HA) when they can't even practice outside says a lot. They have stellar freshmen with Andrew Vogt and George Stubbs (injured), but Zirui Song, Dave Roebuck, and Dave Lipson are all superstars. I had the pleasure (sarcasm) of playing against them this past summer/fall when they suited up for New Noise and like Cal, their club experience is really paying off for their program. However, NE teams have a tendency to shuffle around a lot come the series. Harvard definitely has their work cut out for them in a region with the most teams fighting for a spot at nationals (Williams, Brown, Dartmouth, and Harvard) with no clear front runner.
Santa Cruz: Finally, they show up. Despite a slow start they battle back from starting 0-2, and go through UCSD to make quarters. DLK gives me far too many shout outs, but I will say the slugs finally showed why they are in contention to win the Bay Area section and come out of the NW. Vegas is cool because there are 3 days of good ultimate and several teams get a chance to do well. Illinois owned day 1, Santa Cruz had their time to shine on Saturday, and Arizona owned the Lord's day. They beat my Squids (by 1) making quarters, but got stuck with the ravenous wolves (Wisconsin). It would have been cool to see them play any other team because they might have stood a chance. Regardless, they brought themselves back to their status post Sean Ryan and have the knowledge that they can bring it to Stanford and Cal. I feel sorry for LPC because they will have to play one of these teams while the other two duke it out in semis come sectionals.
Illinois: For a team that wanted to break into the elite, they definitely did not disappoint. They managed to knock off 2 juggernaut teams in Oregon and Colorado, on the first day no less. Folks have been talking them up a lot on RSD as of late and I continually understand why. They lost in pre-quarters to Haavard, but this kooky format with 10-8 scores and 80 teams really doesn't blemish Illinois' hopes. They showed that they are #1 in the Great Lakes and have given Ryan Purcell and Will Neff an enemy to fear.
Colorado: I wanted to mention a few words about Mamabird's seemingly poor weekend. It looks like Beau is no longer wearing black and gold considering that he wasn't in Vegas for the first time in 3 years. Martin Cochran was also not in attendance but a broken foot has sidelined him only until March and if he heals alright, #17 and the rest of Colorado will be back for the series. I will say that without Beau their offense is going to have to make some serious adjustments. Jolian can't throw to himself and with Mac Taylor streaking deep as well, their handling responsibilities are going to fall on veterans like Chris Wicus.
Illinois: For a team that wanted to break into the elite, they definitely did not disappoint. They managed to knock off 2 juggernaut teams in Oregon and Colorado, on the first day no less. Folks have been talking them up a lot on RSD as of late and I continually understand why. They lost in pre-quarters to Haavard, but this kooky format with 10-8 scores and 80 teams really doesn't blemish Illinois' hopes. They showed that they are #1 in the Great Lakes and have given Ryan Purcell and Will Neff an enemy to fear.
Colorado: I wanted to mention a few words about Mamabird's seemingly poor weekend. It looks like Beau is no longer wearing black and gold considering that he wasn't in Vegas for the first time in 3 years. Martin Cochran was also not in attendance but a broken foot has sidelined him only until March and if he heals alright, #17 and the rest of Colorado will be back for the series. I will say that without Beau their offense is going to have to make some serious adjustments. Jolian can't throw to himself and with Mac Taylor streaking deep as well, their handling responsibilities are going to fall on veterans like Chris Wicus.
Closing Thoughts
TiV is just as crazy as Vegas itself. Arizona 11-10 over Florida, Santa Cruz 11-10 over UCSD, Whitman 10-9 over Ego, Carleton 11-9 over Colorado, all of these scores are close/exciting, but suspect and do not paint a clear picture. There are many more positive things to take away from this than negative, though. Arizona and Harvard need confidence, and their results help them. Florida and Colorado need to know that they have weaknesses and their results help them. Whitman and Santa Cruz need to prove they belong and their results help them. UCSD and Oregon need to know that they can win but also know that they can lose and their results help them. CUT needs to know that they have got the talent and Wisconsin needs to know they can't intimidate their way to another national title and their results help them out.
Queen City Tune Up
Just when I thought I had it all figured out, UNC, Georgia, NC State, and Michigan had to go and screw it all up.
NC State: The biggest winner is obviously the winner. But damn it, where the hell did they come from?!?! They weren't at Warm Up. I didn't write about them. What the hell?!?! They played spectacular and hats off to them. They really have dropped below radar since finishing 5/8 at nationals in 2004 but they could be back in black...and red. If I had to guess, i think that they took advantage of a gassed UNC team, twice. They played them in the last round on saturday after UNC barely beat Michigan 9-8. They then played them in the finals after a 15-14 semifinal game with Georgia. I wonder if they can handle UNC at 100% and I also wonder if UNC has the depth to make it to out of the AC.
UNC: I am not sure what to say about Darkside. At 100% it looks like they are the real deal but I wonder about their legs. They made the finals but they lost to the same team twice after winning double game point matches. I think their depth has got to be an issue and this problem will not fix itself considering that Georgia is very deep and Florida has more star power. They took 2nd in the region last year so they have history on their side and I hope they can keep it up against the AC's best in Florida, Georgia and now NC State.
Georgia: Ahh, I wish you guys were going to Stanford. They sweep their pool, they dismantle Edinboro and Georgia Tech, and then WHAM, get taken out by UNC. I think behind NC State, Georgia gained the most from this tournament. The funny thing about ultimate is that unless you are challenged, you really can't see your weaknesses. I remember Furious at nationals in 2006. They raped everyone, including Chain Lightning 15-7 in semis, but their offense really wasn't tested and Sockeye took advantage in the finals. What's cool is that this is just QCTU. Georgia now knows that UNC, as well as Florida, can take them down and they will take this knowledge into practice the next 3 months. Hopefully Swanson stays healthy, but he is lucky that he plays for a very deep team.
Pitt: Delaware won the region last year but after this weekend, Pitt is definitely the aggressor. Pitt has some phenomenal talent in sophmores Chris Brenenborg (team USA) and Eddie Peters (Pike), not to mention a lot of veterans with nationals experience. They were definitely the best Metro East team in Charlotte. They beat Penn and finished ahead of Delaware, not to mention taking NC State to 12-10 in semis. However, this is just February. Keep the engines burning boys, you'll need it if you want to earn big wins for yourself and your region in May.
Michigan: Will is a great pick up but like I said, I think Michigan's performance will improve tournament to tournament. Their offense is going to have to adjust to #1 and it is no wonder that playing outside for the first time in '08 was not kind to Magnum. However, they did play UNC 8-9 (what kind of score is that) and dismantled a national caliber Delaware team 13-3. They did lose to Penn when it mattered though, but I have a feeling they may have looked past them considering they had beaten Georgia Tech 10-6 and Penn lost to Virginia in the last round on Saturday. Needless to say, I am sure they have a lot to think about back in Ann Arbor and hopefully they have the tools to put together a fight against a fired up Illinois team that had a great weekend in Vegas.
Michigan: Will is a great pick up but like I said, I think Michigan's performance will improve tournament to tournament. Their offense is going to have to adjust to #1 and it is no wonder that playing outside for the first time in '08 was not kind to Magnum. However, they did play UNC 8-9 (what kind of score is that) and dismantled a national caliber Delaware team 13-3. They did lose to Penn when it mattered though, but I have a feeling they may have looked past them considering they had beaten Georgia Tech 10-6 and Penn lost to Virginia in the last round on Saturday. Needless to say, I am sure they have a lot to think about back in Ann Arbor and hopefully they have the tools to put together a fight against a fired up Illinois team that had a great weekend in Vegas.
I want to reiterate how amazing NC State and Arizona played this weekend. I was expecting Wisconsin/CUT and Georgia/UNC but like Berman says, "thats why they play the game".
In the next few weeks we have two prez day tournaments, Kaimana, Hellfish Bonanza and Mudbowl. I will be watching Stanford this weekend in Hawaii and I wonder what Mike Payne has done with Bloodthirsty after they got rocked in Santa Barbara. Stay tuned, this year is just getting started.
Just my thoughts
match diesel
20 comments:
NC State is 3-0 against UNC this year and owned them last year too. They also lost to Georgia in a close final at QCTU. This is a very good team that self-destructed at Terminus and Centex last year.
Also notable is Maryland's 13-4 shellacking of UNCW. They lost to Delaware 9-8 but are not afraid of them. This could be their year.
As for Kaimana, if pools hold Stanford will play both Australian and Japanese teams on Saturday. Fun!
Also of note, Harvard was playing without George Stubbs who is out 4-6 weeks with a knee injury.
I was talking to him on the phone before semis and he was raving about some other freshman on Harvard who played on the Canadian Junior Worlds team in 2006. He's talked about him before but I'll definitely remember his name next time I hear it.
Also, while Harvard is not outside, they are at least in a field house practicing and so they are playing full-sized games of Ultimate which not many Central and Northeastern teams can do this time of year.
I had also wanted to disagree with Joe's Brother (Louis?) about Jeremy Norden being the "best high school player in the country last year" but as I was talking to Stubbs he was watching the Whitman /Cal consolation game and kept saying "there goes Jeremy putting up another perfect huck." I won't concede that Jeremy is the best (he is great and he is incredibly nice to boot) but I think we can both agree that there is some ridiculous talent in this year's freshman class of players.
FYI re: Harvard
Andrew Vogt is that Canadian freshman.
Also, while Adam Johnston is a superstar, he graduated last year. Phil Roebuck and Pi are Harvard captains and played on New Noise alongside Zirui and Lipson.
Glad to help, Match, but I'm actually a Minnesota resident. I (Louis Abramowski) coach Hopkins. Last year we traveled to Paideia and UPA Westerns so I was fortunate enough to be on the small list of people to see both amazing Paideia and Northwest 2007 teams. I also (technically) am a contributor to the PlayUtlimate Blog and I covered UPA Westerns for the UPA newsletter last year so I interviewed Norden after his incredible championship game.
Having seen the Paideia laundry list of all stars and the two enormous standouts on Northwest (Norden and Ikeda) in action, I really felt Norden stood above the rest. His 80 yard forehand pull into the wind is enough to make Muffin jealous. His disc skills really were second to none.
That said, it could just be that Northwest had 2 huge standouts with 12 other guys that played mistake free, whereas at times last year every player on the line for Paideia seemed like a 6'2" 24 year old club player.
Kyle's right about the strength of this year's freshman class, but it's easier now than ever before to watch the progress of players with Easterns, Westerns, P-Cup, YCC, Junior Worlds, PlayUltimate, and other blogs, which makes it hard to tell if it's especially strong this year ... or if we're just paying closer attention.
I think Kyle wrote something earlier about the possibility of Paideia earning 4 FOTY honors this year. NWS could earn 2, which would mean 75% of the honors would go to the alumni of just two schools.
Players with FOTY and All Region honors in the same year:
Josh Zipperstein
(open, Brown, Metro East, 2002)
Beau Kittredge
(open, Colorado, Southwest, 2004)
Dailey Jackson
(open, New Mexico, Southwest, 2005)
Kate Stambaugh
(women, Washington University, South, 2006)
Shannon O'Malley
(women, Washington, Northwest, 2007)
Jeremy Norden
(open, Whitman, Northwest, 2008)??
I'm sure there are others who can give more input on it but the arizona core have been the studs on both sunburn and their club team arson (who've been making at least quarters in the SW region) for what seems like the last 3-4 years. At Tempe a couple weeks ago Sunburn took both eventual tourney champs Zippo and semis team SDU (I can't remember what they were calling themselves at this tourney, but it was mostly san diego united) to double game point.
See ya at kaimana match.
What team at Kaimana are you playing on?
almos pau with my SD brethren
where are these Kaimana pools?
Pulse, does stanford have Freaks and Doughboy in their pool? Doughboy is a mix of Australians/English/US. I know they have 3 Dingos (Australian Open Team for Vancouver) and 1 or 2 other Australians, but that is all.
Also, Pulse, have we met?
Kaimana pools and schedules have been emailed to your captain.
This is what the probably-final pools look like:
Ono
Almos Pau
Lone Star
Sippin Sallies
Sarcastic Fringeheads
Voltron
Mulva Park
Kane
Maui Mana
Phlllbt
Skeletor
Philthy
Blackfish
Nhara Moku
Sabotage
Dougboy
Bloodthirsty
Freaks
He Lolo
Aloha Spirit
Hey Match,
I really enjoy reading your blog, I think it's probably the most comprehensive thing out there (someone is not doing their homework at MSSUI) I think with a lot of leadership comes a little responsibility.
Talking about how Furious "raped" opponents in 2k6 might turn a few people off, especially female readers, who I know are out there. Well, it's offensive accross the board...
Anyway, I think your entries read like ESPN-esque commentary most of the time (bravo), so it might be cool if you had some similar protocol?
Not surprised to see Arizona doing well this weekend. At Tempe I played with the San Diego United guys, and we got into a double game point battle with Sunburn. This happened after Zippo held them off in a double game point victory as well. Taking two club teams to DGP was very impressive. I was talking to some of the guys I recognized from Arizona, and it sounds like this will be their year, with the big play makers being 5 years. I'd love to see your write up on them if they get back to you.
We'll see if they can continue their hot streak through the series, or if the standard SW teams have a little aloe for the Burn.
I am actually writing for mussi as well so hopefully your opinion will cross over in due time.
I definitely agree that with more readership comes more responsibility and if you go back and read earlier articles, I definitely have come a long way. I will say that the ultimate community is annoyingly sensitive though. I think this comes with the fact that most people that play ultimate are educated and potentially a little more sophisticated, so phrases like "getting raped" or "tits lit" or "tea bagged" are a little offensive. However, I think a great majority of my readers are male sports fans and thats how we talk, sorry. These phrases ascribe creativity as well as color, not to mention conveys a bit more emotion than, "they got beat badly". I am not saying that I am married to my "vulgarity with a hint of wit" but I am not going to give it up easily. It's my writing style and it has gotten me this far.
What's hilarious is that I am SO much milder on my blog than in real life. You want offensive? Let me tell you the Chico Dog story, my rendition of the aristocrats and/or my No Bubbles half time cheer.
While there may be some merit to sanitizing his language and thoughts for greater appeal, not to mention to avoid having potential employers asking him questions about his unrelated to work blog, I don't want to see him do it here. This is his private space, his voice unadulterated. Yes on mssui it should be cleaned up and "professional." Here, I want his gruff attitude consequences and all.
Actually, "ulty_arnie" I think I did meet you at Kaimana last year - were you playing with Nhara Moku?
YES, I was the captain of Nhara. I also was the captain of Pacific Rim All Stars the year before, and started and played on the High School team, DFI Gravity, in '05.
Do you play on Skeletor?
RE: Arizona
1. They were at Centex in 2006 after a good showing in Vegas. The problem was that their best player got an injury. Otherwise I think they'd have taken the 3rd spot from the SW that year.
2. We (Claremont) beat them last year at regionals when we were without our best player (broken collar bone), and they were without their two best players (the guy from both of the CTOD's feat Arizona, and the Loppy, aka the guy with the 'Play Ultimate' tattoo on his calf).
3. Their core of guys didn't play for Arson this year, instead moving to Barrio, thus explaining why Barrio made it to quarters at Co-Ed nationals (also giving the 'Zona guys some top shelf experience)
RE: SW Royalty
The big three in the SW broke down last year, and was shaky the year before. Last year the Squids lost to Claremont twice, including one loss in the series. Also, Arizona would have made semis at regionals had they been healthy. Basically, Arizona, Claremont, and UCSD were all even that year.
RE: SB Invite
I think you can take away about as much from this years SB Invite as last, IE, nothing. The Squids had strong showings both times, but I don't think sloppy rain ultimate is a good predictor of what the SW regionals will be like. I will say this though, the worse the weather, the better for SB, SD, and Colorado.
I can't admit to being unbiased anymore, as I have recently moved back to the States for grad school, but have some thoughts I wanted to share.
I always see this in America, the 'things didn't play out as the majority expected, so lets find an excuse,' kind of attitude. I know when we won Beach Worlds just 2 months ago, I read a lot about how it was poorly planned and the US team wasn't representative enough and people had to pull out and so on and so forth. Well, I can tell you from teh Australian team's perspective, we had a few top players (people who have made the Vancouver worlds team) pull out for complications and expenses, and even had a few who were committed but ran into last minute visa issues; lost 5 players. We also had to travel twice the distance and pay 3 times the amount for airfare and yet were tagged with an astericks win. I don't think this is a reasonable view. Everyone that shows up puts their all into winning, and the best teams play through their personal struggles and win anyways. Furious didn't have an Asterisks win against sockeye in '05 (?) when Lou got hurt and had to shift positions around a little. Thong and Buzz Bullets earned their respective spots in teh Worlds final in perth, but before the Bullets came and owned the US teams, that was an asterisks win. This mentality is something that I find skewed with attitudes.
How is this relevant? Well, NC State is said to have beat a gased UNC team twice. Well, if you thoroughly review the results, you will notice NC State had a double game point win over Ohio state (mssui has them as 16th in the nation), then went on to beat Pitt (mssui ranks them at 13th in the nation) by 2 after being down at half (final score 12-10 which means it went to cap and I can tell you decently past), and then went on to dismantle UNC, 15-6. Yet, instead of crediting NC State for being the team able to fight through all the adversity to win the tournament, your language makes it seem like UNC was really the team of hte tournament, just unlucky they had to play a hard team followed by another hard team. But the fact is, that is what the bests teams have to do, and that is what NC State did. Yes, UNC were missing 3 players to injury, but NC State was missing 2. Yes, UNC beat Georgia after a huge comeback, but if they were as awesome as everyone makes them sound, they should have beat Georgia better and had time to rest. NC State had ot fight to beat Pitt and did, and then continued on with beating UNC. The point is, why must we make an excuse of UNC being gased? Both teams played the same number of games in teh same conditions, so why does it seem like one team is disadvantaged? The fact is, at that day and time, NC State was better, and significantly. I was there and can tell you UNC is an incredible team, full of talent and passion. I can also say that NC State were not just talented and passionate, but able to dig deeper and pull off that last win which is the difference between a tournament champion, and finalist. The fact is, give credit where credit is due; don't make excuses for a team's results due to some extraneous circumstances that inherently, both teams had to deal with. UNC is ranked 7th on mssui for a reason, they are supposed to be able to play under all conditions, and win, but in this case, NC State did just that. The fact is, we can either make excuses for why things didn't go as we wanted, or accept that to be the best, you must be able to win no matter what the situation and deal with it. Federer doesn't say, 'well it is clay, so it is unfair.' He goes and trains his hardest to go destroy all those spanish and french dirtballers on their own surface to prove he is the best. Why should frisbee be different?
Anyways, I understand that past years and experiences have shown UNC, Michigan, Pitt and others able to grow and get better and prove themselves to be the best in the nation (all constantly showing up at nationals as opposed to NC State of recent), but wouldn't NC State's win show they might be back on track?
All in all, the Queen City semifinalists have proven themselves year after year and I understand that and respect that, but don't make excuses for their disappointments, appreciate other teams achievements. As you said with Oregon, these teams we expect to always be the top 15 are all fallible and new ones are easily able to take their place. I can remember in '05 when Florida wasn't even a team that made it out of regionals, and now they are consistent national contenders.
God Bless
match, I can't believe there are any female readers left this far down in the comments in a thread about men's college ultimate. So offend away!
Hey there's another cheapo comment for ya.
So i know that arizona has alot of seniors on the team is this year there only real shot or could they become a national power house
I think the key to Arizona maintaining success over the next few years is having this year's 4th years take a 5th year. Having the college kids play club has helped this team take big strides, the next step (according to all national powerhouses aside from Carlton) is to maintain the chemistry for an extra year.
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