Vegas Hype - Not Too Early

Well, Smith has managed to draw me out of my blogging-hybernation. I feel obligated to prove that some engineers can, in fact, write something grammatically sound.

Trouble in Vegas is approaching quickly, especially for a team that waits so long for the final A/B split. Illinois is somewhat unique in the way that we don't practice anything A team specific until (just before) second semester. While many of the higher level teams are slowly building steam towards their peak performance, we're still deciding on an identity for the year. Vegas is our first chance to flex our muscles as a team, and we can not take the opportunity for granted.

Three day tournaments are a different animal than the regular weekend trip. In one such as Vegas, three days are necessary to organize the giganto-bracket that Cultimate has devised in their ultimate wisdom. Pun and irony intended. Since we were not placed in the main power pool, we have a long way to go to reach pre-pre-quarters. Awesome. If Cultimate sticks to their current format, we have a regular pool of four on Friday which we are favored to win. If we pull off top two in this pool, Saturday brings a "power pool" comprised of the top two from two different Friday pools. In all likelihood, this gives us an early game against Arizona. As many of you would guess, I'm psyched just for the possibility of a little brother beatdown. For the A team vets of Typhoon in Vegas '09, this is also a chance to redeem ourselves for the very soggy loss to Arizona last year. As a rule of thumb, we're allowed one loss out of these five games in order to advance. I'm gunning for none.

What does this mean to you? Well Mister First-Time-A-Teamer, you need to get excited. We are a long way from Regionals - now is the time to show us what you have in raw ability. Most of you will only see the field on defense, matching up against the savvy O-liners of teams from across the country. You have to stand out among players like Kennedy and Pappy, who might actually kill someone for a D. Any older players reading this will agree that rookies (I use the term vaguely) are scary. Who knows what they'll do? If you go out there with half the intensity of Walden, I promise you will see results throughout the season.

Let's use these next couple weeks to put our collective nose to the grindstone so we can enjoy some hot desert sun. It can't rain again, right?

Remember, WWWD
Austin

The start of the spring season

We started our spring season a week before classes as most of the a-team and some b-team players returned early to participate in our mini-camp. 2 practices a day 8-11am and 2-4pm for the week inside at the ARC.

The first practice of the day consisted of lots of practice time just running our very complicated offense. We started off slow and added things as we went and there was a big difference in everyone's understanding from last year at this same time. Last year let’s face it we sucked until regionals. That's just the truth, but once we started to really get the flow of our offense we were kicking some ass. Now with starting off with a bunch of guys that already ran it for a year, more kids were able to pick up on the timing a lot faster. Let’s just say at times it was looking good. We also added a lot from last year straight from the start and most everyone was picking up on it.

The first few morning practices were focused more of getting our offense down, and once that was decent we started adding defense. Now practices were getting a lot better. If we have one thing here at Illinois it is a very competitive group of guys. Once we start to scrimmage and make scoring, getting d's, and fast break scores worth points it seems like everyone really steps it up.

As for the afternoon we changed our focus from learning the game to preparing for the game. Monday & Wednesday we did some kind of condition with drills and then hit the weight room. As for Tuesday & Thursday the captains first teased us with a hour of fundition then Evil Walden showed up. He tried to kill us with his own version of hell week, but condensed into 2 crossfits. Other things we learned on these days, at least this is what I was hearing, if you want a great basketball team get Neal and Kohn on your team.

During the night our great social chair the one and only Kurt had a ton of things planed for us. Tuesday we went to the movies to see Youth in Revolt. Wednesday we had a pasta party/fifa tournament where McKinley had a crushing victory over Adam. Thursday we all went out for wings. Also where we learned that Kevin can name every country in the world. Friday we didn't have an afternoon practice so the team went to IHOP for lunch. All you can eat pancakes is amazing. After the waitress grounded half the team she successfully creeped the entire team out, we left. No contest for eating the most pancakes was started, most likely a good idea after what happen last year.... 7 of us played credit card roulette and I won, 68 bucks. Friday night there was a sweet party. What a great week of social events.

Now, a look forward to our season. This week is the start of classes and our normal practices. Vegas is here in about 3 weeks, Mardi Gras is the week after that. With the change of how our regular season works, which I am still not sure of, we need to be ready and prepared for every game this year. We have a pretty young team compared to recent years, but we can't walk into our first tournament and just use it as a warm-up or a tournament just to get everyone used to this high level of play. I am really excited to see our transformation this season. We have a great blend of vets, and younger guys plus everyone is highly motivated. I feel that even early in the season we will find more success than we did last year.

Its going to be a exciting year here get ready for it guys. Know that there will be setbacks, but in the long term those aren’t a big deal. We just have to learn from them and come out better. Tell yourself now that we will not let our season end before May 31. No one will just step aside and give us this. We have to take.