Huck Finn Wrapup

How about that UPA huh? I had another blog post halfway written over spring break about how much the current strength bid system sucks. I should have some motivation to finish it now that it's victimized the Great Lakes region. Looks like we'll just have to win the region I guess.

One thing we learned about the current UPA system from Huck Finn, is how little concern anyone has for unsanctioned tournaments. Rather than taking the regular season more seriously as a whole, I find that we just care less about certain games. We encountered this situation both on Saturday and Sunday.

Our first game was against Purdue. As we should have expected from a team in our section, they came out gunning for us. As we have many times this season, we came out really flat. They collected a couple breaks on us right away in the game, putting undue pressure on the D-line. (Ha! Get it?) After what seemed like an eternity, we collected ourselves and stuck it out for an all-too-close win. The wind, though calm in the morning, picked up as this game dragged on. Had we known this would happen, we probably would not have chosen to let them start on offense going downwind. Lookin' at you, Walden! Illinois over Purdue 12-10.

Next up was St. Olaf. I know a couple of guys on the team who are summer league ballers, so I was expecting a closer game. Apparently they exhausted their ballitude winning the first round over over Texas State. Our D-line tore them to shreds for a 13-6 win. Highlight: I throw a push pass to a stationary Hidaka for the goal, at which point he is tackled at full speed by an overzealous defender. Hilarious.

This is the part where things start to get crazy. Both St. Olaf and Purdue took down Texas State, prematurely giving us the 1 seed out pf the pool. Enough of us realize this to seriously affect our competitive fire, and Texas State beats us without much of a fight. I really don't remember much about this game, simply because I didn't care about the outcome. I referred to this earlier, but it seems like having some regular season games count really highlights the fact that the others don't. On one of the last points of the game, Sid's guy goes deep on a turn, and Sid collapses on the field halfway to the goal line. Minus one O-line handler. Texas State wins shortly after. I can't really talk, since they beat us, but these guys have the one seed going into South regionals. That region is in for some trouble at natties. Texas State over Illinois 11-8.

Our pool win gives us a bizarre bracket play / crossover game against Michigan for the rights to the top half of the bracket. The loser switches to the bottom half, and effectively plays prequarters again. I would complain about this crazy ass format, but it ended up giving us our only game against a high-level team of the weekend. Our lack of intensity from the Texas State loss carried over into the beginning of the Michigan game. This was contrasted with Michigan's absolute fury over losing to us in semis of regionals last year. The first half of the game was their revenge. Our O-line couldn't connect on routine passes, while theirs was. They ran set plays to the breakside, uncontested by our marks. They came up with all the 50/50 discs, though not by following the rules. Before anyone really knew what was happening, they had taken half 7-2. During the break we reiterated what our goals for that game were, and we came out looking a lot better. Just looking better wasn't enough. Illinois 7 - Michigan 13.

Day 2
Prequarters take two pitted us against St. John's, another Central region team. These guys came out hot, getting a couple breaks against our O-line to start things off. Our D-line was looking even better - getting our breaks back plus more. The score went back and forth a bit throughout the game, but there was never really any doubt who was in charge of things. The wind, though calm in the morning, switched back to its regular blustery and parallel to the fields persuasion. After joking with Kurt in the morning about I'd never thrown a thumber in a game, I decided to bust one out in this game. On game point, St. John's came at us with zone going downwind. They were quickly informed of their mistake by a cross-field thumber to a very ready Kevin Bruns. After a few more passes, the game was over. The real highlight of this game was when Walden decided he didn't want to lose, and kicked things into overdrive. That's one more defender who's going to have Big Nasty nightmares. Illinois over St. John's 13-10.

The Wash U Alumni came into this next game looking to slap us around a little bit. While we haven't played Wash U in the last couple of years, the guys on this team showed the remnants of what used to be a pretty good rivalry. Unfortunately, nobody on our team feels the same way, and subsequently we were not nearly as motivated to win as they were. Many of their players were perfectly comfortable jacking the disc straight into the increasingly formidable wind, while we could barely keep our grip on short throws. We were plagued by drops and silly turnovers throughout the game, and unable to capitalize when they messed things up. The Contra Alum went up early and held on to their lead for a 13-10 victory. As soon as it was over, they cracked some beers and took their cleats off. Their mission of beating Illinois was accomplished, and they were no longer interested in the tournament. They informed us that they would tell the TD that we had won the game so we could advance in the bracket. Ball State (our potential next opponent) wanted none of this, and demanded that we not advance. After a short vote, we decide not to play in the 5th place bracket, and instead stay to heckle Ball State while they beat down on an unenthusiastic Wash U Alum team.

I'm still (several weeks later) not sure what to make of the loss to the Wash U Alum. I'd love to rationalize it, but there's really no excuse. We should have seen it coming and focused right from the start. It's a lesson we've had to experience over and over and over this year. Sectionals proved the same thing.

Speaking of which: Illinois wins CP Sectionals after a year's absence from the top. I said I'd have this writeup out tonight, but it looks like Sid is planning on doing it. I'm off the hook! I hope this blog post makes sense. I've been busy, so I wrote it in like 4 different sittings and am not willing to proof read. Boom Wego.

Austin