So, life got in the way of me going to this tournament. Between a job interview and the fact that my fiancée and I decided to move the wedding date up two months, I had to travel home instead of going to one of the biggest parties on Earth. Apparently, I lucked out since I heard on the news that people got shot on Bourbon Street.
Since I wasn’t there, I asked a few of my fellow teammates to do a write-up for me so that you would have the benefit of a firsthand account. Well, everyone has midterms this week, so I’m left to give you a second hand account.
We went 2-2 on Saturday beating Texas and UCF and losing to Georgia Tech and Notre Dame X. This seems to suggest that we’re beginning to get back into regular form as a team. Clearly we have some kinks to work out since we lost to a split squad, but the elements of good team are there. That’s exciting.
On Sunday, we lost in the quarterfinals to Wisconsin. They took half 7-2, but we battled back to make a game of it and lost 13-9. (It figures the one Mardi Gras I miss and we play Wisco. I’ve been wanting a shot at them my entire college career.) This game reinforces two points: 1) you gotta play every half 100% 2) This is a game of runs, so never count yourself out even if you’re down 14-2.
I really wish I had more to say, and maybe some of my teammates who were there will post some informative and entertaining comments. I heard a lot of talk in practice about epic Botticelli and speeding tickets (Max?).
Now that the spring season has begun, I feel compelled to give my opinion on which teams look to dominate the college division this year. Most of my thoughts are based on the championship bracket from Trouble in Vegas, combined with what I saw at TiV. Yes I know it’s not good to only have one source of information, but somehow I’ll make it work.
Wisconsin is no longer invincible. They’ve lost quite a bit of talent and quite a bit of swagger. Their work ethic and effort hasn’t waned much, but this team is not used to losing and it’s obvious. They seemed to get frustrated too easily, which caused them to become impatient. Impatience leads to mistakes, which leads to playing consolation games instead of a quarter final matchup.
Florida still has a team of tools. Don’t get me wrong, these guys are still stellar players, but the general attitude of this team is do anything to win anything. Everybody loves to hate them, but you cannot deny that they have a pretty good shot of making it to the title game again. They’re hungry for a championship. I really hope they starve.
Colorado looks about 4 inches shorter than they have in the past; however, 6’2” is still pretty tall. This team started rebuilding last year and made it to the semifinals at nationals. This year could be scary for all their opponents.
Carleton is still Carleton. They have a program, and this year is no different than any other year. They’re good, but not great. Luckily for them, there are no great teams in the college division this year.
Oregon seemed to be having the most fun of any of the teams at Vegas this year. They reminded me of the team the Illini sent to Vegas last year. These guys love ultimate, and they love winning. Most people are good at what they love. Ego is no different.
Arizona, Pitt, Santa-Barba and Cornell round out the quarterfinalists. I have a very good feeling that Zona will be better than I originally thought. Their hucking game is solid because they have the throwers and the cutters to make it happen. When I watched them at Vegas, 90% of their hucks hit their receivers in stride. They also did a very good job of setting up the big throw with their in-cuts and handler movement.
Pitt also had a huck game, but I don’t think it will take them as far. Their hucks were rarely on target, and their longs were more lucky than good at coming down with the disc. Any team that can make a defensive adjustment to prevent desperation hucks will shut Pitt down.
I didn’t get a chance to see Cornell or Santa-Barba play, but making it to quarters at a 100 plus team tournament is a big deal. The real trick is making it through the season without burning out.
If I had to pick two favorite teams, I would say Zona and Oregon. Both seem to have fun being good at Ultimate. And that’s what it’s all about.
The weekend started off on a rough foot. Upon arrival, we ran into some trouble at the rental car counter. Thriffty wouldn’t let us use McKinley’s card to rent the vans we needed, even though he reserved the vans on his card weeks in advance. So instead of three vans and a comfortable ride, we got two vans and cramped car trips for the entire weekend. Fitting 12 people into a van meant for seven loses its novelty after the first trip. We had another scare when we thought we only had two rooms reserved at the hotel for 24 people. Turned out we had four rooms and Brad just didn’t get two of the confirmation emails from the hotel. That reminds me, McKinley, we need to schedule a performance review of your treasurer operations.
The Illini drew Oregon for the first game of the weekend. This is the third year in a row that we’ve played ego. They broke out tie dyed degos for their jerseys (hot). They came ready to play, and the Illini didn’t. We ended up holding them until the cap, but they were up 10-6 when the horn blew. After this game, the wind began to pick up.
The next round brought Santa Cruz to our field. After losing to Oregon, the Illini felt that they had something to prove. We came out against the slugs in rare form. The defense generated turns and the offense only gave up a few breaks. The wind picked up, but the Illini held their own. When the cap went off, we were up 12-8.
After a bye round and some peanut butter and jelly bagels, the Illini lined up against Kansas. The Horronzontals were late to the field due to a25 minute point at the end of their last game. The wind did not help the pace of our game either. I’m pretty sure this game didn’t even get to half-time. A 45 minute point (I am not exaggerating) did not help things. The Illini got a big boost from closing out that marathon point and finished the game 5-4.
A few notes about the Kansas game. They had a Hidaka. They’re rookies had worse spirit than Florida (I may be exaggerating). And I’m serious about the final score. 5-4. It’s almost like we were playing women’s ultimate.
With day one in the books, we were feeling pretty good about ourselves. After a nap and some In and Out Burger, a carload of us headed to the strip. Last year, the team had some fairly good fortune at a particular roulette table at Planet Hollywood. Apparently, the table was out for some revenge. Kurley ended up taking the table for $140, but the rest of more than doubled that in losses. Yours truly does not want to talk about it.
Exiting the Casino, Kurley was still in the mood to enhance his winnings. We traveled across the street to the Bellagio to find some more action for the young spender. The minimums were a bit high for the rest of us, so we ended up leaving after 15 minutes. Upon exiting the casino, Miles got a call from McLain asking to meet up. As it turns out, McLain and Somerfield had been hanging out with McLain’s sister. By hanging out, I mean drinking. McLain was lit by the time he met up with us at another casino that was selling 99 cent margaritas. He had also collected over 200 hooker cards.
After some bad luck at the tables, I should have known that Day 2 would not bode well for the team. Normally I like surprises and suspense, but I’ll tell you right now that we went 0-3.
Game number one brought a reunion between the Illini and Dave. Dave has grown a goatee in an effort to imitate Tony Stark from IronMan. I must say, he pulls it off pretty well, but he doesn’t look anything like Robert Downey Jr.
In the first three or four points, it looked like it would be a close game. However, as the weather turned from bad to worse, the game turned from bad to worse. It became quite obvious with each break that the Illini just wanted the game to be over instead of putting up a fight to win the game. This will be the main theme of the rest of my post. It just seemed like each team wanted the disc more than me did.
In the Pitt game, they threw huck after huck after huck. Their throws were crap about 90% of the time, but 90% of their hucks got completed in the first half. The Pitt longs worked harder to get in position to make a bid for the discs. Their hustle allowed them to come down with 50/50 throws more than 50% of the time. In the second half, the Illini adjusted their defense to protect against the deep, but it was too little too late. I’m pretty sure we won the second half, but it’s difficult to win a capped game when you only score two or three points in the first half.
We played Arizona in our last game of the day. It seems to be the team consensus that they’re be better than most people think they’re going to be. Unlike Pitt, their hucks were fairly accurate, and their defense put a lot of stress on our offense, especially their marks.
That night, a few members of the team decided to try their luck at the black jack tables in the tournament hotel. I wasn’t there to witness any of it, but I heard that Max made $70 and Lamp and Brad made money off the same dealer as well. There were others, but I can’t remember who they were. If you could post the amount of money you won or lost in the comments, then we can figure out if the team ended up in the black after our poor showing at the roulette table the night before.
Day 3 started off with a close one against Duke. We gave up a few breaks to begin with and they ended up taking half 7-5. The Illini then went on a devastating run and went up 11-8. Duke battled back, and all of a sudden, we found ourselves playing for double game point at 12-12. We had lost the opportunity to stomp on their throats, and it cost us the game.
For game two we marched over to a field on the other side of the tournament site to face Harvard. I hate Harvard. They’ve never done anything to actually piss me off. They don’t call cheap fouls, and they’re fairly spirited. And that’s the problem. They have this attitude that I just can’t stand, yet I have no legitimate reason for my dislike. All personal feelings aside, I agree with Denis. These guys have the best, non-cheating cup in the nation right now. The offense looked good at times playing against it, but we eventually grew impatient. I think this stems from the fact that we aren’t used to playing with each other. We’ve got to learn to trust in our ability to maintain possession of the disc even if we’re throwing 20 swing passes before we get one shot to the longs behind the cup. In case you haven’t figured it out, we lost to Harvard. Grrrr…
Our final game of the day came against the University of Washington. They straight up out hustled us. They have 3 or 4 legitimately outstanding players, and yet our deep lines couldn’t keep up with them. They wanted the disc more than we did. They came down with more swills and made better bids at the disc than we did. We can’t expect to win with our legs and then not use them.
Wow. This post has not been one of my happier ones. Don’t let that fool you though. Frustration can be a good thing if used as a motivator to get better. We’ve got the time to get it together and improve as a TEAM. Start playing with and for each other and the number in the W column will start to go up. Mardi Gras is next. I don’t know about you, but I’d like a reason to party.
There are no standout teams as of right now. Most of the blog chatter I’ve seen on who is good and who isn’t depended more on personal bias than on actual fact (sorry muffin. I’m not actually sorry though). Trouble in Vegas provides the ultimate community with a first look at which college teams have the potential to make a run at the national title in 3 months. Generally, teams at early tournaments fall into three categories: hot out of the gate, still working the kinks out, and we were right about writing them off.
Examples from last year:
Arizona: hot out of the gate
Colorado: still working the kinks out
Let’s start with my assessment of our team, and I’ll get to our opponents later. Stupca is right. It’s been a while since all of us have played together, and we’re going to be making a lot of adjustments at these early tournaments.The d-line should find themselves getting their swagger back by the second day. Most of us are returning players, and we just cannot fail with Walden as our leader. The O-line has bigger hurdles to overcome. Luckily, we have a good system, and I’m confident they will find their flow by the end of this tournament. Perfecting that flow may take a few more tournaments though.
According to Captain Denis, these are the teams we will for sure be facing this weekend: Oregon, Santa-Cruz, Kansas, Stanford, Arizona, Pitt and Duke.I haven’t seen any of these teams play since last spring. Their preseason performances in the fall may have been good or may have been bad, but I don’t really care. There’s not much I can say about each one of these teams to accurately predict their level of play. But like any “credible” journalist, I’ll still attempt to do so.
Oregon has a strong history. Their players are usually tall, so the desperation huck is always a threat. We matched them well last year, but I can’t say for certain how we’ll look against them this weekend. Pavan may get a chance to shine.
Santa-Cruz has never been spectacular, but that just means that they are easily underestimated. We cannot underestimate them.
We must beat Stanford. Losing is not an option. They will probably put in this chump handler named Dave. Under no circumstances are you allowed to feed him a peach.
Arizona is coming off the greatest year in their program’s history, but I don’t think they have much of a team without Callahan Joe.
I haven’t heard too much noise on behalf of Pitt, but they do have a high school feeder system. This could mean some young talent may give us trouble.
I didn’t even know Duke’s team name until just a few minutes ago. It’s brimstone in case you were wondering, but you probably weren’t.
This weekend should bring some interesting results. I’m setting the bar at 4 – 5 for the Illini. If our offense gels by the last game of the tournament, I’ll consider the trip a success. I’ll also consider the trip a success if the team comes out in the black at the roulette tables.
