Franklin... inspired by... Franklin!!! Double post!
With Centex less than 48 hours away, I think it would be both fun and instructive to look at the national picture by tiers. I'm sure that these tiers will change a bit after the big showdown in Austin.
Having expanded to 32 teams and focused solely on the women's division, this year's Centex reminds me of the great Japanese cult flick Battle Royale. Almost all of the contenders are going to be there (Oregon and Washington are the exceptions), and there has likely never been as good and deep a field of women's teams at one tourney.
TIER OF HEAVEN aka Ready to play on Memorial Day
If I were Vegas (I assure you that I am not; at best, I might be the City of Commerce Casino), I would favor the following teams to be battling on the final day of Nationals:
UC Santa Barbara
Oregon (not at Centex)
Wisconsin
The first two are no-brainers having reached the finals of both President's Day and Stanford Invite. Interestingly, Fugue is not attending Centex so there will be no chance of a third finals meeting (unless St. Louis is actually Oregon in disguise... imagine how awesome it would be if SLU had a dream run to the Centex championship and shocked everyone when they ripped off their masks Mission Impossible-style to reveal that they've been Fugue all along. I'm not sure if Oregon is Edward Norton or Tyler Durden, I have no idea why I picked St. Louis, and I know I'm just muddling everything with the Fight Club and Mission Impossible references. Just run with this.)
Wisconsin reportedly lost to St. Louis at the Midwest Throwdown in a game that was decisively upwind-downwind. Bella Donna also lost to Vanderbilt at Terminus -- no offense to Vandy, but my first reaction to the result was to wonder if Wisconsin was missing some of their players. Centex will be the true test of whether they belong in this tier, but on paper, they are a very strong candidate for the Tier of Heaven.
Each of the above teams have everything that you need to win the big one. Depth? Check. Star players? Check. Big game experience? Check. Knowledgeable coach? Check.
TIERRA DEL FUEGO aka Angry at FJR for not Putting Them in the Tier of Heaven
Ottawa
Stanford
Washington (not at Centex)
Michigan
Each of these teams could move up or down, and again, Centex will be a critical test before the series begins. The one exception, of course, is Washington who opted not to attend the tourney. This is complete speculation but my guess is that it has something to do with Cyle van Auken coaching the team and Element's close ties to Cultimate. It's a bit of a shame, and if Element underperforms at Regionals and/or Nationals, there will be plenty of speculation about whether their decision not to attend Pres Day and especially Centex will have hurt their title chances.
What keeps each of these teams from being in the top tier is each has at least one major question mark. With Ottawa, I think depth remains their Achilles' heel. Also, to my knowledge, they are one of the only top-level teams without a coach. Yeah, it's self-serving to write that coaches make a difference, but I think most people would agree that it is true.
Stanford is a bit like Jennifer Aniston. They are both very attractive and likeable, but they lack that extra something special you're looking for in a big screen star. Superfly has a number of very good players (Cassel, Platt, Founds, Damon), and one of the best systems in the country. I have had difficult time identifying exactly what they are missing; perhaps it is a dominant, crunch-time player (someone like Georgia Bosscher or Cree Howard) who will take over at the end of the game. This can certainly change over the next two months. Plus, there is also that glaring lopsided rivalry with Fugue.
Michigan may be the best candidate to move up. Except for their loss to Wisconsin at Mardi Gras, they have been nothing short of dominant. While they have played a number of decent teams (Iowa State, Pittsburgh, Florida to list a few), they have yet to play against the big dogs (except Wisconsin). Flywheel is arguably deserving of a one seed at Centex, but they get to prove their top-tier worthiness by taking on UCSB in pool play.
TIER-RAN-A-SAUR-US REX aka Intriguing Squads that Could Be Sleepers, Dinosaurs or Dennis Rodman
The teams in this tier are wild cards for different reasons. Each of them could move up or down a tier and a couple are capable of ascending to the very top tier.
British Columbia
UCLA
Cal
USC
Western Washington
Carleton
As I've mentioned in a previous post, UBC didn't have Tory Hislop or Jenny Lo with them at the Stanford Invite. I still think that we have yet to see the real UBC this season. However they do in Austin should be the best measure for what everyone should expect during the series.
UCLA is quite a bit like Stanford as the really good but not flashy team. Consider them the Katherine Heigl of the women's division (I think of Heigl as the younger model of Aniston; apologies to those who are big Heigl and Aniston fans). BLU is stealthily getting better with each tourney and could be one of the surprising teams in Austin (not that UCLA performing well should be considered a surprise).
Cal has the talent to move up but their big issue seems to be their mental game in particular matchups. Though the Pie Queens have the talent and ability to play each team tightly, none of their games against Stanford and UCSB have been particularly close.
As always, it's impossible to be objective about this one, but USC could be a breakout team if they can figure out how to upend a couple of the other big name programs. Consistently good but just short of winning (DGP losses to Oregon, Ottawa, UCLA, UBC, Cal), the Hellions finally broke through with a comeback victory over UBC at Stanford. I also think we figured something out in the process of winning the consolation bracket in Ripon. If we can come through with a couple of key wins in Austin, we could shake up the national picture.
Western Washington resembles USC in many ways. Both have been up-and-comers in tough regions and this year figures to be their breakout season. Whether this team is moving upward or downward is tough to say. Chaos had a very solid showing at Stanford, but they remain in the Northwest, where being number five or six just won't cut it. They are this year's Dennis Rodman, the team that could be great, be disappointing or create complete havoc.
Carleton is Carleton. I don't know this year's squad well enough to determine their breakout potential, but like I said, it's Carleton. They looked uncharacteristically weak at Southerns, and my guess is that their poor performance can be attributed to missing some players.
TIER-EE-YAY ELEISON aka The Darkest of the Light
This tier is crazy big and can likely be subdivided into two or three tiers, but at this point in the season, differentiating these teams is really difficult. I've separated the teams below by region.
What sets this tier apart from the above is that these teams here are almost certainly not going to beat any of the teams in the top two tiers during the series (or even at Centex). Each of these teams are capable of upsetting the teams in the prior tier though.
SOUTHWEST
UC San Diego
Arizona
Colorado
ATLANTIC COAST
North Carolina
UNC Wilmington (not at Centex)
Wake Forest
Florida
NEW ENGLAND
Dartmouth
Northeastern
SOUTH
Texas
St. Louis
Truman State
METRO EAST
Pittsburgh
Maryland
OTHER
Illinois
Wisconsin Eau-Claire
Iowa State (not at Centex)
I have written a decent amount on the Southwest teams (UCSD, Arizona, Colorado), so there's no real need to do so now.
As for the Atlantic Coast teams, if I had to bet on who gets the two bids, I would go with UNC and Wake Forest. When in doubt, go with the ACC (how's that for crack analysis?). If wind factors into the equation at Regionals, Florida, led by Kristen Lamm and Allison Walford, would likely be the biggest beneficiary. If Wilmington's star players can conserve their energy for the key games on Sunday, they will also be very much in the mix. A couple of sleepers in the AC include William and Mary and Elon.
In the New England region, I thought that Northeastern was going to run away with the title (I think that's what I wrote in the upcoming UPA magazine), but Dartmouth is looking strong this spring. Winning Southerns on double game point over Florida, Princess Layout also has quality wins over Iowa State (who won't be at Centex), Truman State, the Mates of State and the 51st State, Canada. Whazzat, you say? Rohre Titcomb of Five Ultimate is one of the star players on this team, and she can certainly add victories over VC and Gaia to her proud accomplishments. Dartmouth and Northeastern will have to fight off challenges from Harvard and Middlebury.
Texas and St. Louis are two of the favorites from the South region and though they have yet to play each other this season, they could potentially meet in a play-in game on Saturday. Michelle Ng did a great write-up of several Midwest teams after the Midwest Throwdown, so instead of rehashing what she wrote, I'll just direct all interested parties to that post. St. Louis will be drawing confidence from their recent Chicago Invite victory, beating Illinois in the finals.
Pittsburgh Danger and Maryland Helpful Corn are likely going to vie with Cornell and Penn State for the second spot out of the Metro East. Charlie Mercer is a difference maker for Maryland, and unfortunately, she was sidelined with injuries for the bulk of last year's College Championships. Having a healthy Mercer is critical for Maryland's hopes to return to the big show. Pitt comes in as a bit of a mystery team to me. They were certainly a solid team last year and notched big wins over Stanford, Wisconsin and UC Santa Barbara at last year's Centex. This year, they took 2nd place at the Queen City Tune Up and eked out close wins over UNC, Florida and Penn State. Their only losses this season have come at the hands of Michigan, but both of their matches were blowouts in favor of Flywheel. They get to prove themselves against three of the perennial powers in the women's division (Stanford, UCLA, UBC), all of whom they faced last year in Austin.
Illinois, UWEC and Iowa State round out the rest of this tier. I wrote about Illinois in my recap of Pres Day, and I'm a bit surprised that they didn't win the Chicago Invite. Being from the frozen tundra, Eau Claire has yet to really compete this season. They lost to Iowa State at High Tide, but that tourney is rarely a good indicator for how a team will perform later in the season. Getting to the play-in game will be an important step for them to assert themselves as a legitimate contender for one of the three Central region bids.
TIER-A-MISU aka It's Like Dessert, You Know... At the End
Claremont
Georgia
Emory
Kansas
Wash U.
Michigan St.
Attesting to the strength of the Centex field are teams like Claremont and Kansas who are seeded 27th and 32nd respectively. The two teams have both won tourneys (Stanford Qualifier and Frostbite) this season. Claremont could make an argument for being in the above tier (one win over Texas), but I see them as a step below UC San Diego, Arizona and Colorado so here they are. Likewise, Georgia and Emory seem to be a decisive step below the top four in the Atlantic Coast.
Of the teams listed in this tier, Wash U. and Michigan State have the best chances of qualifying for Nationals. Wash U. has a win over St. Louis and a DGP loss to Truman State this spring. Michigan State hasn't travelled much this season, but they pulled off one of the biggest upsets last year in Boulder when they beat Texas. Illinois is a good bet to take the second spot out of the Great Lakes region, but Infamous and Case Western should both be in the hunt.
I wish I had more on these teams, and hopefully, I'll get to see some of them in action this weekend. The schedule is pretty tight so odds are against it. In any event, this is going to be a very exciting weekend.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Stanford Invite Recap - Part Two
And now for a game-by-game analysis...
Stanford
This was a fun and tight affair for the bulk of the game. We led 4-2 and 6-4 before they ran off the last three points of the first half to keep the game on serve. The game remained on serve at 8s. After scoring their O point, Superfly threw us a curveball by coming zone for what I believe was the first time in the game. The abrupt shift knocked us back a bit, and they scored two quick points to suddenly make the game 11-8. The soft cap was on at this point and a very long point ensued. Both teams turned it over 7 or 8 times which took us into the hard cap. We had plenty of opportunities to score but they won the point and the game, final score 12-8.
Unsurprisingly, Jenny Founds and Danielle Platt were the key playmakers for Superfly. Emily Damon was still out with her elbow injury, and Sam Zyck skipped the game for the Hellions as she was still wary of playing after her appendectomy (she ended up playing the next game). Aside from Founds and Platt, a number of players (Ali Mendoza, Elaine Hart, Caitlin Rugg, Ana Brown) played well. This year's Superfly squad doesn't blow you away with any one particular thing; they are fundamentally strong across the board and they run a deep rotation.
Also to nobody's surprise, Superfly plays a very solid team game. I am also very impressed with how their coaches, particularly Robin, maintain their poise and confidence during the game. Along with the Hellions, I am still learning how to deal with these tight elite-level games, and I am going through the growing pains of dealing with my frustrations and our lows. I am extremely fortunate to have a very understanding team and even luckier to have such a patient wife.
British Columbia
The differences between this game and our previous matchup at Pres Day were like night and day. UBC was without Tory Hislop and Jenny Lo, but they had Candace Chan (or at least someone who looked exactly like her) playing with them. The Thunderbirds were also sporting their new, super-sweet looking Five Ultimate jerseys.
In the previous game, the reigning champs had played very cleanly on offense, moving the disc quickly with short throws and utilizing a lot of give-and-gos. At Ripon, UBC was looking to stretch the field more, and although Chan was a big factor in our game, the Thunderbirds got a lot of different players involved. We got up early in this game (4-2), but gave up a four point run and found ourselves down 7-5 at half. When UBC got another break to go up 10-7, we looked defeated.
I don't know where our turnaround began or how it happened, but we stormed back to tie the game at 11s. UBC held serve to get to game point but we fired back with three in a row to win the game. One of the big factors on our side was our one true rookie, Kate Schlag, who had two big layout grabs including the game-winner where she picked up the trash from a pass that was intended for Lindsey Cross. Schlag ended up with six goals in what was probably the best game of her young career.
On a side note, one of the other notable things about this game was that it was the first time the Hellions had played with observers. The observers were operating under the experimental rules, and I was mostly in favor of them. The only thing I would like to see amended is to allow players to also call travels. Early in the game, there were a couple of blatant travels that the observers were missing and our players were a bit frustrated that they couldn't make those calls. On the whole, the observers did a great job of managing the game, and it was a great experience for the Hellions.
North Carolina
This game had letdown potential written all over it, and sure enough, we were flat through the bulk of this game. We managed to take half at 7-6, but the second half began in disastrous fashion as Pleiades rolled four straight on us.
While we may have been flat, UNC simply deserved this win as they outhustled us. UNC's offense moved the disc well and Leila Tunnell and Jill Simmerman did quite a bit of the damage on the throwing end. I also really like Karen Kimel as a receiver; she looked very solid in our game. Pleiades isn't particularly dominant in any one aspect of the game; instead they rely more on good teamwork and collective intensity. Tunnell does provide a lot of firepower as a thrower, but in our game, she played very much within the team framework instead of looking to take over every point. The offense undoubtedly starts with her, but UNC has a number of other players who can pick up the handling slack.
One thing that really impressed me about Pleiades is something that was also characteristic of Seaweed. They played every point as if it were the last one; I especially noticed this when they were playing Stanford. Superfly had opened a large and pretty much insurmountable lead on UNC, but Chapel Hill kept fighting as if the game was theirs to win.
The scariest thing about our game was that we ended up one point away from dropping down to the 4th seed in the pool. Down 12-9, we turned the disc over on our half of the field and UNC worked it to within 10 yards of the end zone. After a time out, they had a good shot at scoring, but floated a pass that Noelle Oh defended. We ended up scoring on that possession and secured the 3rd spot in the pool and a place in the pre-quarters. Certainly, we were disappointed with our play and losing out on the chance to grab second outright (and a better matchup in the pre-quarters), but coming through on this point was something that we could be proud of.
UCLA
This was a matchup that we had been looking forward to. As I mentioned in my previous post, there were very few breaks in this game and for the most part, it was a very even game. Though we were disappointed with the outcome (losing another DGP game.. blah), I was very pleased to see that we were able to rebound quickly after a dispiriting performance in the previous game. Our offense wasn't particularly sharp against UCLA, but we played considerably better than we had against Pleiades. I'm sure that playing UCLA was a bit of a motivator, but it still impressed me that we were able to reenergize ourselves.
Another bonus was that I got a considerably better sense of how to play BLU in future matchups. Of course, I'm sure that Korb thinks the same thing.
Claremont
The Greenshirts were missing one of their top players, Kate Bayliss, so they were relying even more on their fantastic rookie, Sarah 'Carny' Carnahan as their big receiving threat. Carny is an impressive athlete who utilizes her size very well and is capable of defending virtually any of the top receivers in the college division. She's a grad student so I'm not sure how long she will be at Claremont, but if she's on a Ph.D track, the Erica Baken - Sarah Carnahan connection will be the foundation for the team for the next three years.
On a side note, I think Erica Baken is the clear cut Freshman of the Year in the Southwest. Cailey Marsh would have made this much closer but she won't be returning to UCLA (she will likely reappear with Washington next year). It's possible that I'm missing other contenders in the region, but I can't imagine anyone who has had as much impact on her team as Baken. I'm still up in the air about how I feel regarding the FOTY award since it's becoming much more about the top incoming Juniors players in the region. Part of me would like to see it become a true Rookie of the Year award, but as Juniors-level Ultimate continues to grow, it makes it considerably tougher to exclude them from consideration for this award.
UNC-Wilmington
When I played at William and Mary in the 90s, Wilmington and ECU were the big, bad teams. Their men's team won the title my freshman year and their women's squad took the championship during my senior year. I was definitely eager to see how the team has evolved since I last saw them.
The team has retained a classic Carolinian feel, something that many may see as a negative. Their brash style of play isn't going to win them many friends, but they don't seem to be concerned about that. They are hungry competitors who are focused on winning through solid, aggressive play. I have yet to see Wake Forest and Florida play, but the Atlantic Coast should be at least a four-team race with Wilmington right in the thick of it.
After breaking each other once to fight to a 4-4 tie, we took the final four points of the half to go up 7-4. We opened the second half with three straight to essentially put the game away. One of the keys to our success was to limit Wilmington's deep game and force them, especially their weaker players, to make a lot of difficult throws underneath. Our marks were particularly good this game and helped us to create some easy scores.
One funny post-game note: the Hellions love to sing and cheer other teams, and as they have done with every team this season, they cheered Seaweed. The silence that met the Hellions after the end of their cheer might have been one of the funniest and most awkward post-game moments I've ever seen. Truly classic.
UC San Diego
This was an interesting game in that there were no major runs over the course of the game. After breaking Psycho on the first point of the game, we traded points to halftime. I felt like we had a good grasp on the game because our O line was firing on all cylinders. We didn't give up a break the entire game after giving up only four in the previous two games.
I had mixed feelings about O and D lines and the efficacy of this subbing strategy in the college division, but I think it can be useful when you have the personnel for it. During the first two years of coaching, I tried to work with a classic O and D line approach, but found that the best way for us to be competitive was to play our top 8-10 players on any key point regardless of whether it was an O or D point.
As a team is always fluid and changing, I became convinced at the Stanford Invite that we were now better served by running with a more traditional O and D split. We now have the depth to be able to run 14+ deep in any game which allows players to get into more a regular subbing rhythm. The split particularly benefitted us on receiving points as the O line was able to come in mentally fresh and focused solely on that point. I think when players are on the field for 3+ points, they have a tendency to lose focus and the potential for getting into ruts increases. While it is quite possible that my approach to subbing could change again, my hope is that the structure is now in place to operate this way for years to come.
Stanford
This was a fun and tight affair for the bulk of the game. We led 4-2 and 6-4 before they ran off the last three points of the first half to keep the game on serve. The game remained on serve at 8s. After scoring their O point, Superfly threw us a curveball by coming zone for what I believe was the first time in the game. The abrupt shift knocked us back a bit, and they scored two quick points to suddenly make the game 11-8. The soft cap was on at this point and a very long point ensued. Both teams turned it over 7 or 8 times which took us into the hard cap. We had plenty of opportunities to score but they won the point and the game, final score 12-8.
Unsurprisingly, Jenny Founds and Danielle Platt were the key playmakers for Superfly. Emily Damon was still out with her elbow injury, and Sam Zyck skipped the game for the Hellions as she was still wary of playing after her appendectomy (she ended up playing the next game). Aside from Founds and Platt, a number of players (Ali Mendoza, Elaine Hart, Caitlin Rugg, Ana Brown) played well. This year's Superfly squad doesn't blow you away with any one particular thing; they are fundamentally strong across the board and they run a deep rotation.
Also to nobody's surprise, Superfly plays a very solid team game. I am also very impressed with how their coaches, particularly Robin, maintain their poise and confidence during the game. Along with the Hellions, I am still learning how to deal with these tight elite-level games, and I am going through the growing pains of dealing with my frustrations and our lows. I am extremely fortunate to have a very understanding team and even luckier to have such a patient wife.
British Columbia
The differences between this game and our previous matchup at Pres Day were like night and day. UBC was without Tory Hislop and Jenny Lo, but they had Candace Chan (or at least someone who looked exactly like her) playing with them. The Thunderbirds were also sporting their new, super-sweet looking Five Ultimate jerseys.
In the previous game, the reigning champs had played very cleanly on offense, moving the disc quickly with short throws and utilizing a lot of give-and-gos. At Ripon, UBC was looking to stretch the field more, and although Chan was a big factor in our game, the Thunderbirds got a lot of different players involved. We got up early in this game (4-2), but gave up a four point run and found ourselves down 7-5 at half. When UBC got another break to go up 10-7, we looked defeated.
I don't know where our turnaround began or how it happened, but we stormed back to tie the game at 11s. UBC held serve to get to game point but we fired back with three in a row to win the game. One of the big factors on our side was our one true rookie, Kate Schlag, who had two big layout grabs including the game-winner where she picked up the trash from a pass that was intended for Lindsey Cross. Schlag ended up with six goals in what was probably the best game of her young career.
On a side note, one of the other notable things about this game was that it was the first time the Hellions had played with observers. The observers were operating under the experimental rules, and I was mostly in favor of them. The only thing I would like to see amended is to allow players to also call travels. Early in the game, there were a couple of blatant travels that the observers were missing and our players were a bit frustrated that they couldn't make those calls. On the whole, the observers did a great job of managing the game, and it was a great experience for the Hellions.
North Carolina
This game had letdown potential written all over it, and sure enough, we were flat through the bulk of this game. We managed to take half at 7-6, but the second half began in disastrous fashion as Pleiades rolled four straight on us.
While we may have been flat, UNC simply deserved this win as they outhustled us. UNC's offense moved the disc well and Leila Tunnell and Jill Simmerman did quite a bit of the damage on the throwing end. I also really like Karen Kimel as a receiver; she looked very solid in our game. Pleiades isn't particularly dominant in any one aspect of the game; instead they rely more on good teamwork and collective intensity. Tunnell does provide a lot of firepower as a thrower, but in our game, she played very much within the team framework instead of looking to take over every point. The offense undoubtedly starts with her, but UNC has a number of other players who can pick up the handling slack.
One thing that really impressed me about Pleiades is something that was also characteristic of Seaweed. They played every point as if it were the last one; I especially noticed this when they were playing Stanford. Superfly had opened a large and pretty much insurmountable lead on UNC, but Chapel Hill kept fighting as if the game was theirs to win.
The scariest thing about our game was that we ended up one point away from dropping down to the 4th seed in the pool. Down 12-9, we turned the disc over on our half of the field and UNC worked it to within 10 yards of the end zone. After a time out, they had a good shot at scoring, but floated a pass that Noelle Oh defended. We ended up scoring on that possession and secured the 3rd spot in the pool and a place in the pre-quarters. Certainly, we were disappointed with our play and losing out on the chance to grab second outright (and a better matchup in the pre-quarters), but coming through on this point was something that we could be proud of.
UCLA
This was a matchup that we had been looking forward to. As I mentioned in my previous post, there were very few breaks in this game and for the most part, it was a very even game. Though we were disappointed with the outcome (losing another DGP game.. blah), I was very pleased to see that we were able to rebound quickly after a dispiriting performance in the previous game. Our offense wasn't particularly sharp against UCLA, but we played considerably better than we had against Pleiades. I'm sure that playing UCLA was a bit of a motivator, but it still impressed me that we were able to reenergize ourselves.
Another bonus was that I got a considerably better sense of how to play BLU in future matchups. Of course, I'm sure that Korb thinks the same thing.
Claremont
The Greenshirts were missing one of their top players, Kate Bayliss, so they were relying even more on their fantastic rookie, Sarah 'Carny' Carnahan as their big receiving threat. Carny is an impressive athlete who utilizes her size very well and is capable of defending virtually any of the top receivers in the college division. She's a grad student so I'm not sure how long she will be at Claremont, but if she's on a Ph.D track, the Erica Baken - Sarah Carnahan connection will be the foundation for the team for the next three years.
On a side note, I think Erica Baken is the clear cut Freshman of the Year in the Southwest. Cailey Marsh would have made this much closer but she won't be returning to UCLA (she will likely reappear with Washington next year). It's possible that I'm missing other contenders in the region, but I can't imagine anyone who has had as much impact on her team as Baken. I'm still up in the air about how I feel regarding the FOTY award since it's becoming much more about the top incoming Juniors players in the region. Part of me would like to see it become a true Rookie of the Year award, but as Juniors-level Ultimate continues to grow, it makes it considerably tougher to exclude them from consideration for this award.
UNC-Wilmington
When I played at William and Mary in the 90s, Wilmington and ECU were the big, bad teams. Their men's team won the title my freshman year and their women's squad took the championship during my senior year. I was definitely eager to see how the team has evolved since I last saw them.
The team has retained a classic Carolinian feel, something that many may see as a negative. Their brash style of play isn't going to win them many friends, but they don't seem to be concerned about that. They are hungry competitors who are focused on winning through solid, aggressive play. I have yet to see Wake Forest and Florida play, but the Atlantic Coast should be at least a four-team race with Wilmington right in the thick of it.
After breaking each other once to fight to a 4-4 tie, we took the final four points of the half to go up 7-4. We opened the second half with three straight to essentially put the game away. One of the keys to our success was to limit Wilmington's deep game and force them, especially their weaker players, to make a lot of difficult throws underneath. Our marks were particularly good this game and helped us to create some easy scores.
One funny post-game note: the Hellions love to sing and cheer other teams, and as they have done with every team this season, they cheered Seaweed. The silence that met the Hellions after the end of their cheer might have been one of the funniest and most awkward post-game moments I've ever seen. Truly classic.
UC San Diego
This was an interesting game in that there were no major runs over the course of the game. After breaking Psycho on the first point of the game, we traded points to halftime. I felt like we had a good grasp on the game because our O line was firing on all cylinders. We didn't give up a break the entire game after giving up only four in the previous two games.
I had mixed feelings about O and D lines and the efficacy of this subbing strategy in the college division, but I think it can be useful when you have the personnel for it. During the first two years of coaching, I tried to work with a classic O and D line approach, but found that the best way for us to be competitive was to play our top 8-10 players on any key point regardless of whether it was an O or D point.
As a team is always fluid and changing, I became convinced at the Stanford Invite that we were now better served by running with a more traditional O and D split. We now have the depth to be able to run 14+ deep in any game which allows players to get into more a regular subbing rhythm. The split particularly benefitted us on receiving points as the O line was able to come in mentally fresh and focused solely on that point. I think when players are on the field for 3+ points, they have a tendency to lose focus and the potential for getting into ruts increases. While it is quite possible that my approach to subbing could change again, my hope is that the structure is now in place to operate this way for years to come.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Stanford Invite Recap - Part One
I had been planning on writing up a preview for the tourney but I ran out of time. Dang. I also had to write up the women's division preview for the UPA magazine so I've been a bit delinquent with my blog posts. Double dang.
To make up for my tardiness, I'll be posting two or more entries this week. And now...
THE STANFORD INVITE
Going into the Stanford Invite, three of the most interesting storylines included:
1) The Battle for the Northwest
Washington and Western Washington chose to attend Trouble in Vegas over President's Day. Oregon, Stanford, UBC and Berkeley chose Pres Day over TiV. Who would emerge on top and how would the individual rivalries (Oregon v. Stanford, Stanford v. Berkeley, Washington v. UBC) turn out?
After the weekend, I would say that Oregon and Stanford are the two clear favorites in the region, but the margin between each of the top six Northwest teams is razor thin. UBC remains the most difficult team to assess. They were missing Tory Hislop and Jenny Lo this weekend, both of whom are vital to the Thunderbirds' chances of a repeat championship. My personal feeling is that the T-Birds are much better than they showed this past weekend, but they are in danger of losing the confidence that they need to compete with the rest of the Northwest. It is a brutal region and every little edge makes a big difference. At Centex, they are currently scheduled to play against cross-country rivals Ottawa and UCLA, the team they can never seem to beat. If they can't manufacture a big win in Austin, I think their best shot of making the College Championships would be to convince the UPA to redraw British Columbia as part of the Central region. Maybe that's a bit extreme... a much more likely scenario is to request the UPA to create a new region called the Great White North. Now, that would be awesome, but the travel would be a bitch. Thankfully, snowmobiles are plentiful in the GWN.
Berkeley had a very split weekend. On the downside, they missed a great opportunity to nab a key win against Washington and lost a contentious pool game to UNC-Wilmington, a team that they should have beaten. Worst of all, their psychological struggles with Stanford only got worse. Thus far, Superfly has simply owned the Pie Queens, winning all three matchups by an average of six points. The two teams are much more evenly matched than the results would suggest, but in a rivalry like theirs, the mental game means everything. If Berkeley can't find a way to play Stanford tight at Sectionals (or Centex), they will likely have to key in on upsetting Oregon or preparing for an arduous run through the backdoor gauntlet.
On the upside, Cal beat Western Washington and demonstrated that they are definitely capable of beating Element. The Pie Queens should feel confident that they could run the table if they had to go the backdoor route, and certainly one of their advantages is that they can run a deep rotation. They will have to find ways to keep their key players fresh (Cree and Darragh in particular) and get some of their role players to step up and have one of those Derek Fisher or Robert Horry type of games. They don't need to be big over the course of the tourney; they just need to make great plays in key spots or have a big performance in an important game. Look for Lucy Rosenbloom to provide one of these performances.
Western Washington is an interesting squad, and I'm looking forward to seeing them play more. They have quite a bit of size on their roster but I know very little about their rotation beyond Alyssa Weatherford and Hannah Kreilkamp. They played Fugue to double game point, and they can draw on their experience getting to last year's game-to-go. On the national scale, I think Chaos currently belongs in the same tier of teams that includes UCLA, USC, Cal and Carleton.
2) The Battle for the Southwest
After the weekend, a clear divide emerged between the top three (UCSB, UCLA, USC) and the next tier in the region (UCSD, Arizona, Colorado, Claremont). Truthfully, UCSB remains in a tier of their own ahead of BLU and the Hellions, but the UCSB-USC matchup remains an intriguing one.
UCLA has emerged as the team that I suspected they would. Featuring what may be the most patient offensive line in the entire women's division, Coach Korb has BLU playing very well. Most impressive is that this team has adopted quite a different style of play from past squads. Last year's team offered quite a bit more high-octane offense but had the versatility to switch between a smashmouth style of play and a Bostonian value-the-disc offense. This year, they are heavily geared to the latter, and what makes this squad, especially their O line, particularly frustrating to defend is that you cannot key in on two or three players. Sarah 'Atari' Peters, KC 'Bossa' Vampola and Adrienne 'Hawkins' Baker are their primary receiving threats -- all three are athletic players who all play within themselves very well. In the backfield, Karisa 'Danger' Tang, Samara 'Nokie' Leader and Rebecca 'Diggs' Delshad are three of their primary handlers who play very disciplined offense.
Our pre-quarters game was a fun matchup and should be the first of at least three meetings this year. We opened the game with a break, and almost followed it up with another quick one that was D'd in the end zone. The shocker was that both teams would only break three more times in the rest of the game. BLU got both of their breaks in the first half and they took half 7-5. The early break point definitely threw me off of what kind of game this was going to be -- it took a while for me to realize that this was going to be a very O-line heavy game.
True enough, the second half was dominated by both team's O-lines. I think we each had a couple of decent shots at breaking, but for the most part, there was a lot of clean offense and the receiving team very often overpowered the other team's D line. Down 12-11, we finally got our second break after BLU uncharacteristically gave us three good chances at scoring. On double game point, UCLA worked it patiently against our zone and eventually found Atari in the front corner of the end zone.
I'm sure that this felt good for some of the BLU folks who think I've been talking too much shit against them this year. I'm also certain that I'll continue to throw verbal logs onto the fire and risk alienating the younger crop of BLU players who take me too seriously. Here's a few more verbal bombs for any Westwood elitists who might be reading this.
V-BOMB #1 - USC will beat you soon and you know it. We're like the grim reaper and your time is coming soon. Enjoy your time on top of the LA pyramid while it lasts and don't forget to gather your plastic while you may.
V-BOMB #2 - I thought our previous jerseys from my first year of coaching were pretty ugly, but dude, your current threads make me think you were sponsored by K-Mart to advertise a deep discount ugly sale.
A few thoughts about UC San Diego... I'm really psyched (heh, get it?... *groan*) that they have bounced back. Our game against them was a lot of fun and notwithstanding Sir Robin's questionable taste in wardrobe, they looked good. Psycho has a number of good young athletes on this team, but they will need another year or two before they can realistically get to the next level. Even still, their current squad is more than capable of grabbing one of the Southwest bids. They will have to fight off Colorado, Arizona and Claremont, and they have realistic chances of upsetting either UCLA or USC. After a one-year suspension, getting a bid to Columbus would be a major accomplishment and a big step towards returning to the top of the Southwest.
One area where Psycho needs to improve is in their handling depth. In our game, they definitely relied a lot on Jennifer 'Sir Robin' Jacobsen, Amy 'Meeko' Chang and Molica 'Guano' Anderson. Usually, they would have two of the three on the field and by the end of the game, they looked a bit fatigued. If it's too late for them to develop a solid 5th or 6th handler option, they might be better served by stacking strong O lines and a few selective D lines. Their top seven can run with almost every team that I have seen, but against the top ten or so teams in the country, they have to pick and choose their points. They definitely cannot win any of those games by rolling out balanced lines (i.e. 4-5 top line players and 2-3 second line players).
3) The Atlantic Coast - Contenders or Pretenders
I have a soft spot for this region since I originally hail from the Atlantic Coast (actually there was no such region in my playing days... back then, it was the Mid-Atlantic). UNC and UNC-Wilmington came into the tourney as two of the region's top teams (Wake Forest and Florida round out the favorites in the region), and both demonstrated that they are capable of running with any of the top tier teams. I think depth is an issue on both teams which will be more evident at a longer tourney like the College Championships, but if either or both of these teams makes it to Columbus, they have great potential to upset a higher seed.
As the result of their consolation game indicates, Pleiades and Seaweed are two evenly matched teams. They may both be from the Tarheel State but they have very little in common beyond that. Pleiades plays a much deeper rotation and their offense is much more versatile than that of Seaweed. I was definitely impressed with how the team has progressed, especially offensively, since I saw them last year. Leila Tunnell is a gifted thrower and UNC has a couple of tall targets, especially Karen Kimel, who effectively stretch the field to open up options underneath.
Seaweed relies heavily on four players - Elise Bardsley, Kelly Tidwell, Lia English and Sara Casey - all of whom are strong and confident athletes. In our game against them, these four ran almost every point. I have the feeling that running such a short rotation will catch up with them at Regionals, but in a one-game winner-takes-all scenario, Seaweed is more than capable of beating anyone in the Atlantic Coast region. They also possess an aggressive style of play that can throw opponents off their game. Their wins over Berkeley and Colorado demonstrate how talented they are.
We had observers for our game, a brilliant move by my wife Tracy after hearing a few choice things about Seaweed from their previous opponents. Wilmington is more than happy to get into the call game, and the presence of observers made a gigantic difference in our game. After a bit of a contentious start, we took control in the first half and built a decent lead by halftime. Seaweed battled us to the very end of the game -- their effort was consistently solid and their never-quit attitude will serve them well at Regionals.
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My next post will have more specific thoughts on the other teams that we played (Stanford, British Columbia, Claremont).
To make up for my tardiness, I'll be posting two or more entries this week. And now...
THE STANFORD INVITE
Going into the Stanford Invite, three of the most interesting storylines included:
1) The Battle for the Northwest
Washington and Western Washington chose to attend Trouble in Vegas over President's Day. Oregon, Stanford, UBC and Berkeley chose Pres Day over TiV. Who would emerge on top and how would the individual rivalries (Oregon v. Stanford, Stanford v. Berkeley, Washington v. UBC) turn out?
After the weekend, I would say that Oregon and Stanford are the two clear favorites in the region, but the margin between each of the top six Northwest teams is razor thin. UBC remains the most difficult team to assess. They were missing Tory Hislop and Jenny Lo this weekend, both of whom are vital to the Thunderbirds' chances of a repeat championship. My personal feeling is that the T-Birds are much better than they showed this past weekend, but they are in danger of losing the confidence that they need to compete with the rest of the Northwest. It is a brutal region and every little edge makes a big difference. At Centex, they are currently scheduled to play against cross-country rivals Ottawa and UCLA, the team they can never seem to beat. If they can't manufacture a big win in Austin, I think their best shot of making the College Championships would be to convince the UPA to redraw British Columbia as part of the Central region. Maybe that's a bit extreme... a much more likely scenario is to request the UPA to create a new region called the Great White North. Now, that would be awesome, but the travel would be a bitch. Thankfully, snowmobiles are plentiful in the GWN.
Berkeley had a very split weekend. On the downside, they missed a great opportunity to nab a key win against Washington and lost a contentious pool game to UNC-Wilmington, a team that they should have beaten. Worst of all, their psychological struggles with Stanford only got worse. Thus far, Superfly has simply owned the Pie Queens, winning all three matchups by an average of six points. The two teams are much more evenly matched than the results would suggest, but in a rivalry like theirs, the mental game means everything. If Berkeley can't find a way to play Stanford tight at Sectionals (or Centex), they will likely have to key in on upsetting Oregon or preparing for an arduous run through the backdoor gauntlet.
On the upside, Cal beat Western Washington and demonstrated that they are definitely capable of beating Element. The Pie Queens should feel confident that they could run the table if they had to go the backdoor route, and certainly one of their advantages is that they can run a deep rotation. They will have to find ways to keep their key players fresh (Cree and Darragh in particular) and get some of their role players to step up and have one of those Derek Fisher or Robert Horry type of games. They don't need to be big over the course of the tourney; they just need to make great plays in key spots or have a big performance in an important game. Look for Lucy Rosenbloom to provide one of these performances.
Western Washington is an interesting squad, and I'm looking forward to seeing them play more. They have quite a bit of size on their roster but I know very little about their rotation beyond Alyssa Weatherford and Hannah Kreilkamp. They played Fugue to double game point, and they can draw on their experience getting to last year's game-to-go. On the national scale, I think Chaos currently belongs in the same tier of teams that includes UCLA, USC, Cal and Carleton.
2) The Battle for the Southwest
After the weekend, a clear divide emerged between the top three (UCSB, UCLA, USC) and the next tier in the region (UCSD, Arizona, Colorado, Claremont). Truthfully, UCSB remains in a tier of their own ahead of BLU and the Hellions, but the UCSB-USC matchup remains an intriguing one.
UCLA has emerged as the team that I suspected they would. Featuring what may be the most patient offensive line in the entire women's division, Coach Korb has BLU playing very well. Most impressive is that this team has adopted quite a different style of play from past squads. Last year's team offered quite a bit more high-octane offense but had the versatility to switch between a smashmouth style of play and a Bostonian value-the-disc offense. This year, they are heavily geared to the latter, and what makes this squad, especially their O line, particularly frustrating to defend is that you cannot key in on two or three players. Sarah 'Atari' Peters, KC 'Bossa' Vampola and Adrienne 'Hawkins' Baker are their primary receiving threats -- all three are athletic players who all play within themselves very well. In the backfield, Karisa 'Danger' Tang, Samara 'Nokie' Leader and Rebecca 'Diggs' Delshad are three of their primary handlers who play very disciplined offense.
Our pre-quarters game was a fun matchup and should be the first of at least three meetings this year. We opened the game with a break, and almost followed it up with another quick one that was D'd in the end zone. The shocker was that both teams would only break three more times in the rest of the game. BLU got both of their breaks in the first half and they took half 7-5. The early break point definitely threw me off of what kind of game this was going to be -- it took a while for me to realize that this was going to be a very O-line heavy game.
True enough, the second half was dominated by both team's O-lines. I think we each had a couple of decent shots at breaking, but for the most part, there was a lot of clean offense and the receiving team very often overpowered the other team's D line. Down 12-11, we finally got our second break after BLU uncharacteristically gave us three good chances at scoring. On double game point, UCLA worked it patiently against our zone and eventually found Atari in the front corner of the end zone.
I'm sure that this felt good for some of the BLU folks who think I've been talking too much shit against them this year. I'm also certain that I'll continue to throw verbal logs onto the fire and risk alienating the younger crop of BLU players who take me too seriously. Here's a few more verbal bombs for any Westwood elitists who might be reading this.
V-BOMB #1 - USC will beat you soon and you know it. We're like the grim reaper and your time is coming soon. Enjoy your time on top of the LA pyramid while it lasts and don't forget to gather your plastic while you may.
V-BOMB #2 - I thought our previous jerseys from my first year of coaching were pretty ugly, but dude, your current threads make me think you were sponsored by K-Mart to advertise a deep discount ugly sale.
A few thoughts about UC San Diego... I'm really psyched (heh, get it?... *groan*) that they have bounced back. Our game against them was a lot of fun and notwithstanding Sir Robin's questionable taste in wardrobe, they looked good. Psycho has a number of good young athletes on this team, but they will need another year or two before they can realistically get to the next level. Even still, their current squad is more than capable of grabbing one of the Southwest bids. They will have to fight off Colorado, Arizona and Claremont, and they have realistic chances of upsetting either UCLA or USC. After a one-year suspension, getting a bid to Columbus would be a major accomplishment and a big step towards returning to the top of the Southwest.
One area where Psycho needs to improve is in their handling depth. In our game, they definitely relied a lot on Jennifer 'Sir Robin' Jacobsen, Amy 'Meeko' Chang and Molica 'Guano' Anderson. Usually, they would have two of the three on the field and by the end of the game, they looked a bit fatigued. If it's too late for them to develop a solid 5th or 6th handler option, they might be better served by stacking strong O lines and a few selective D lines. Their top seven can run with almost every team that I have seen, but against the top ten or so teams in the country, they have to pick and choose their points. They definitely cannot win any of those games by rolling out balanced lines (i.e. 4-5 top line players and 2-3 second line players).
3) The Atlantic Coast - Contenders or Pretenders
I have a soft spot for this region since I originally hail from the Atlantic Coast (actually there was no such region in my playing days... back then, it was the Mid-Atlantic). UNC and UNC-Wilmington came into the tourney as two of the region's top teams (Wake Forest and Florida round out the favorites in the region), and both demonstrated that they are capable of running with any of the top tier teams. I think depth is an issue on both teams which will be more evident at a longer tourney like the College Championships, but if either or both of these teams makes it to Columbus, they have great potential to upset a higher seed.
As the result of their consolation game indicates, Pleiades and Seaweed are two evenly matched teams. They may both be from the Tarheel State but they have very little in common beyond that. Pleiades plays a much deeper rotation and their offense is much more versatile than that of Seaweed. I was definitely impressed with how the team has progressed, especially offensively, since I saw them last year. Leila Tunnell is a gifted thrower and UNC has a couple of tall targets, especially Karen Kimel, who effectively stretch the field to open up options underneath.
Seaweed relies heavily on four players - Elise Bardsley, Kelly Tidwell, Lia English and Sara Casey - all of whom are strong and confident athletes. In our game against them, these four ran almost every point. I have the feeling that running such a short rotation will catch up with them at Regionals, but in a one-game winner-takes-all scenario, Seaweed is more than capable of beating anyone in the Atlantic Coast region. They also possess an aggressive style of play that can throw opponents off their game. Their wins over Berkeley and Colorado demonstrate how talented they are.
We had observers for our game, a brilliant move by my wife Tracy after hearing a few choice things about Seaweed from their previous opponents. Wilmington is more than happy to get into the call game, and the presence of observers made a gigantic difference in our game. After a bit of a contentious start, we took control in the first half and built a decent lead by halftime. Seaweed battled us to the very end of the game -- their effort was consistently solid and their never-quit attitude will serve them well at Regionals.
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My next post will have more specific thoughts on the other teams that we played (Stanford, British Columbia, Claremont).
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