Vegas Preview

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.