Sunday's Big Winners and....non-Winners?

Wow, great day for ultimate (not for me, I broke my foot) but a great day non the less. Lets talk some sectionals' results with who looked good and who got "no-cigar'd".

Carolina Sectionals

Biggest winner for this weekend was definitely North Carolina. Putting them as the 3 seed in this "love-triangle" with NC State and UNC-W seeded above was an arguably good decision but I am not surprised that Darkside pwned. North Carolina made finals at Centex and despite the fact that the bracket was pretty lopsided, it is still a spectacular achievement and a huge step for UNC in their hopes of stiff-arming JoJah and making nationals again. I think they got sent down to the 3 seed because of their Easterns results which is ok, but I think they were better than both NC State and Wilmington. They did better than the Wolfpack in Austin and were playing in the finals at Centex while UNC-W watched the finals at Southerns. Their depth and Nationals experience is something neither NC State nor UNC-W have and I think the pieces fell into place for them. I am curious to know how close the weather was to weather.com for Greenville, NC, because if the wind was significant, I would think UNC-W would have put up a better fight. Regardless, good luck to them, they are the #2 team in the AC and hopefully they can just play their game and make it past Georgia.

SoCal Sectionals

Wow, way to go Claremont. Taking your section for the first time, at home no less. I hope they carry this momentum and continue to play their game. Arizona, take notes, this is the team to beat. Arizona took out the Braineaters twice without Kershner at Stanford and once at Pres Day, but Claremont has only improved with every tournament this year and Arizona is still riding their Vegas high. Sunburn may be 3-0 agaisnt the boys in orange so far, but the series is all that matters. I am basically assuming Colorado will win the region as usual, but I suppose each team has a shot, especially considering the fact that Colorado squeaked past Colorado State 15-13. The seedings will probably pit Arizona and Claremont against each other in semis (assuming they are 2 and 3) and I wonder if we will see some 1-1 records between these two. If either team wins and then loses to Colorado only to have to play that team again, wow, beating a team twice is tough. I think Arizona has a little more experience at this point but Claremont has fire power. Southwest Regionals is definitely going to be interesting and bizzarre this year. Both Claremont and Arizona have never gone in with this much success and each team has been consistent all year. Awesome!

Georgia/SC Sectionals

Phew, way to raise some pulses JoJah. Georgia Tech really brought it and I think this was the 2nd best sectional final of the weekend. I love Georgia but I think they have their work cut out for them. They have been treading water all year and have really slipped right when they needed to take a step forward towards Boulder. However, I will say that a sectionals win is a win and because of rivalries and emotion, scores get a little crazy. However, I will say that a 13-14 score against UNC or Florida would mean a lot more than struggling against a non-Nationals contender.

Bay Area Sectionals

Alright DLK, way to go. Santa Cruz really impressed me today. With the top slot in Frisco up for grabs, Santa Cruz was really not the team I thought would take the section. What is intersting, is that if you go to their scorereporter site, there is a lot of red there. What does that mean? Lesson after lesson and finally, when it mattered, they took everyone to school. They haven't seen Cal that much this year and they didn't play at sectionals but now the Slugs are probably the #1 seed going into Davis. This is new territory for this Santa Cruz team but I really hope they keep it together. LPC showed that they are good but don't have it when they needed it and Stanford is not Stanford this year. They figured it out in Palo Alto, but this is the 3rd tournament where they should have done better, the other two being Santa Barbara and Centex. This sort of inconsistency is not something I have seen from Stanford and now that they are headed to the next round, the level of comfort among the team will be slim to none.

Texas Sectionals

Ah, TUFF, you're killing me. Now is not the time to slip. Congratulations to North Texas, I remember a few years back when they went to Santa Barbara and made life hard on some west coast powerhouses. I am not entirely surprised they took it to the Austin crowd, but this result is my #1 sectional finals this weekend. Biggest upset of the weekend, and what I find interesting is that the last time North Texas played in a tournament was Frostbite (which they won) in Missouri and Texas has played at Stanford and Centex since then. Perhaps Texas looked past North Texas but I am sure they learned their lesson and will bring it at Regionals. This makes the South yet another wildcard region. Texas and Kansas made it out last year but Texas is now not #1 in the region and Kansas has been ehh, this year. Can we begin to talk about Oklahoma and North Texas as top seeds in the region? Who knows? Going into regionals as a top seed without Nationals experience is a tough position (unless you are Tim Gehret). Both Texas and Kansas have been there and this will help them. However, if these two new faces can keep their composure, we might see some new threads at Natties.

Washington/BC Sectionals
I feel bad for Whitman. They are a young, up and coming team and they played like it. Made the sectional finals and played UBC great. But after a close loss, I am sure depth and emotion were a bit low and they lost to a team they should have beat in Washington. I think they have what it takes to beat both teams in Davis, but going against veteran teams like Oregon and maybe Stanford will be tough for Jeremy Norden and the rest of the Walla Walla Sweets. With Oregon looking as dominant as they should, and Santa Cruz winning the Bay Area Barn Burner, their is still no clear front runner for the NW region. My god, it could be so many different teams.

Closing Thoughts

There was some talk on RSD recently about scores and what they mean. I personally think they have some but not much predictive power. A win is a win and depending on the match-ups, a close score at Sectionals is not a score that is duplicated at Regionals. I think Colorado is fine, this is their month. However, the SW region is all about Claremont and Arizona. Claremont is looking up to Arizona who is looking up to Colorado. Like Centex, I see Colorado's experience and relatively veteran roster getting them the success they need to take the region again. However, neither Arizona nor Claremont has been in this position and I think that the rematch after a Colorado dominant final will be THE game of the weekend.

Georgia has their work cut out for them and UNC has to be salivating at the chance to convincingly demolish the AC outside Florida. I had Cornell pegged as Penn's big challenge for the 2nd spot out of the Metro East, but now I am not so sure. They got unlucky and lost on double game but beat out RPI after a tough loss to take #2 in the section. Brown looked good but I think the Metro Boston Section is looking the best out of the NE.

Games still to watch for are Carleton/Minnesota, Tufts/Harvard, Illinois/Notre Dame and Wisconsin/UW-Whitewater. Carleton can begin to get their hopes up for nationals if they can handle a confident Minnesota team. Tufts and Harvard, wow, no idea here. Illinois and Notre Dame are two hot Great Lakes teams and the winner will be the challenge for Michigan. Lastly, I am really curious to see what Wisconsin puts together this weekend. After Centex, they have probably done a lot of bitching and yelling but I hope they still have high spirits. They will come out angry, hungry, and, most of all, ready to begin the series.

just my thoughts

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