CCC: Fall Ultimate Surprises
ckerr4
tournaments. Based on past history, I think you can be confident that
the men's and women's teams that win the CCC will be good, probably UPA
Championship Final Four caliber, type teams.
But I'm not sure you can learn much from the reverse, teams that do
poorly fall tournaments like the CCC may not really suck.
Saturday at the CCC had some huge surprises and the continuation of
some interesting trends.
Surely the biggest surprise was the #1 men's seed, the University of
Colorado, just getting slaughtered by Davidson College. Maybe Davidson
has come out of no-where to have a world beating team this year, maybe
Colorado's lost a zillion players from last year, but somehow I doubt
either are true. Who did Colorado bring to Atlanta? Maybe the SOM needs
a way to indicate who's really on a team's roster for that particular
tournament?
Still, after finishing 4-1 with a +28 goal differential and taking
second in their pool (after being seeded #24!) Davidson must have a
very decent team -- assuming all their players are legit.
As must the University of Florida who won Pool A with a tournament best
+62 GD. I think you've got to make Florida and UGA (who finished 4-1
and will have Ring of Fire's Jason Cade playing with them in the
spring) the co-favorites to win the Atlantic Coast.
Other surprises on the men's side included North Carolina and William
and Mary both finishing 0-5. Although W&M was competitive in almost all
of its games, you have to wonder if the 2004 season was the end of
William and Mary being a regional power?
Michigan State finished 5-0, thanks to back to back one-pointers
against UVa and NC State. And Indiana also finished 5-0, including a
11-10 squeaker against W&M in the last round. Maybe John's rant that
had MSU win the championship wasn't so outrageous?
Aside from Florida's march, the strongest performance of the day for
the men had to be Wisconsin's +36 toasting of Pool D. Only Ga Tech
(1-4) gave them any kind of a game, and that was in the first round.
Assuming many of the Wisconsin guys drove to the tournament (they
usually do), Tech probably started the game with a pretty significant
advantage in terms of sleep.
Assuming they win their quarter-final games, UFL and Wisconsin play in
the semi-finals tomorrow at 1:00 with the winner a favorite to go on
and win the tournament.
Plenty of surprises on the women's side as well with the top teams in
both pools finishing 0-5, and a bad 0-5 at that. Both teams piled up a
series of ugly loses but you have to assume that UGA must have been
pretty close to full strength. Looks like 2006 will be a rebuilding
year for UGA and with State losing its top 4 from last year, their
spring could be a struggle as well.
Florida won Pool B finishing 4-1, with Wake Forest finishing second,
also 4-1. After winning the Wolfpack Invite, this is Wake's second
consecutive strong showing, making it likely they're for real.
UNC-Chapel Hill finished 4-1 losing only a first rounder against near
home team Emory, who also finished 4-1. Could the Atlantic Coast top
four women's teams this year really be UNC-Chapel Hill, Florida, Wake
Forest and Emory?? Nobody would have picked this last year. Nobody.
Each of these teams earned a bye into tomorrow's quarter-final game, so
all of them making the final four of the CCC would seem very possible.
That would pit UNC vs. Florida and Wake Forest vs. Emory (!). I'll put
my money on Linsday Hack and UNC, but really this looks wide open.
Charles
tatc...@hotmail.com
Illinois, although maybe they did score that many, who knows...
-Joey, posting under Tom's name-
Keebler
starting to take big competitive steps. We lost only one senior last
year, and with the addition of several all-star freshmen (our team at
all tourneys is legit), we hope to turn some heads in the next several
years. This spring we are getting back 3 excellent players from
traveling abroad, and are losing only one senior for next year.
Hopefully our performance at CCC will make sure nobody in the future
says, "I've never heard of Davidson, but I'm sure they will go 0-5."
Well, now you've heard of us, these games are not a fluke, and we are
only going to get better in the spring.
-Colin "Keebler" Smith (the Davidson handler NOT at the CCC)
Julius
julius
Jim
Chris Van Holmes
Glad to see Cornell didn't go 0-fer like predicted.
CVH
Wagenwheel
they didn't want to play Club teams. They sound scairt.
Origi...@gmail.com
Semis (13-4?) and MSU beat TUFF. Wisconsin beats MSU on double game
point for the 14-13 win.
Women's side semis were Emory and Tufts (Emory wins after Tufts makes a
great comeback, coming from down 8-2 to down 10-8 before Emory closes)
and UNC getting worked out by Florida, who looked strong all weekend.
UF beats Emory on ANOTHER double game point, Emory coming back from a 4
point deficit I believe to bring it close again.
Great finals, good weekend.
amis...@yahoo.com
looking forward to an amazing season!!!
--Amy Smith
Emory
mccants
a major contender in the AC. Straight up, Tammy moose is a hell of a
coach and those girls have a lot of drive and determination. Florida
is more of a surprise, a pleasant surprise, as UNC beat them pretty
handedly every time we played them last year. I wonder how many of
those girls played the summer together? Playing together in the summer
is huge. Their zone was very effective and the strongest zone I have
honestly seen in women's college ultimate on the east coast.
I would not count out UGA just yet. From what I understand, they did
equal PT and wooten is not yet playing with them. Remember, UNC went
like 0-7 last year at CCC to only improve to being ranked #2 in the
nation at one point.
Personally, I am looking forward to the AC being one of the strongest,
if not strongest regions again this year.
Alright, it is now time for my off season.
Lindsey Hack
Blo...@gmail.com
great white hope) Wicus being unavailable this weekend as he was
becoming a full Sigma Alpha Mu brother.
However, look for Colorado rebounding in future tournaments as Chris
has indicated that he will not miss any more tournaments as he
personally invites all on the West Coast to come see "The Show" and get
a glimpse of what a true Callahan contender looks like.
Im Out,
SuperFan
Andy P
Wisconsin was severly undermanned for the tournament, due to Brian
Frederick, Kevin Riley, and Shane Hohenstein all not going. And
whoever else. Wisconsin won all their games.
I bet all the Colorado players really appreciate that comment. Maybe
we should just call them them the Wicuses from now on.
But yeah Colorado's bad weekend doesn't mean shit. Nationals is in a
long long time.
AP
jt
> Actually, I did pick Wake Forest to take a step up this year and become
> a major contender in the AC. Straight up, Tammy moose is a hell of a
> coach and those girls have a lot of drive and determination.
I picked 'em as well and I agree with the coach comment.