C'mon, that Gibson kid is sick, and the team has their squad together. Not that anyone asked for my opinion, but I'd love to have natties be exciting as opposed to not, so....
What I'd Do If I Were Playing Florida.
On D: Mix in trash zone with force backhand and Force Middle. Look, most college teams always play force flick by default. But against FLA, that's dumb - Gibson's the game on that team, and his best weapons are flick and hammer. So neutralize those with a force backhand.
You mix in the others to keep them from getting too comfortable... and FM is good in that it generally reduces the yardage available to give n go's (which they run a lot, since Gibson wants to touch it every other pass) and forces most hucks into the stack / help coverage.
On O: PLAY WITH AN OBSERVER. Call "DOUBLE TEAM" early and often.
Their 4-man Z, which they run all the damn time, is WAY too close to the disc (at least, they were all the time when I saw them). You need to be vocal about calling that violation - don't just accept it. Call it, every time, over and over. It's a rule that's in the books for a reason - to prevent D from getting an advantage it shouldn't have over the O. Not making that call EVERY TIME means you're ceding that advantage.
And getting an observer there is a good way to make sure they abide by that 10-foot line after you make that call.
Florida is a great team. If you get matched up against them, it's gonna be a tough game. Doing dumb things (playing into their strengths on O, enhancing their D strength by being timid about making calls) is gonna make it tougher.
Florida seems to be weak in the very first game in the morning. I dunno why but they just dont get up for it as well...maybe its the mcdonalds for breakfast. I think when UDel beat them last year it was the first game of the day and I a few other losses, or almost losses in the past couple years in that first game too. I duno what time the Arizona game happened. Anyone know. So if you're lucky enough to have the first game of the day, take advantage.
Also they basically play only 8-9 people the whole game. So it would be a good idea to get legs in on D and try to wear them out. And rest your own studs as much as possible. This is probably a reason for why they play zone, so they dont have to run as much.
>Not making that call EVERY TIME means you're ceding that >advantage.
This is terrible zone advice. If you want to make Nationals more exciting, the addition of 50 observer-mediated "double team" calls will be excruciating.
To beat a 4-man cup, you need to take advantage of the open space that is created down field by throwing hammers. If your current players don't have hammers, get working on it - you don't have much time. If you still can't throw hammers by Friday, you'll be best off using the blade. Ben Wiggins used this approach to make it to finals. The crowd gets steadily drunker at Nationals as you progress through the tournament, so while their calls to "do it" or "taste it" are probably well-founded on Friday, think a little on Saturday, and completely ignore them on Sunday (c.f. Ben Wiggins).
Tournament Prediction: Illinois wins 6 straight DGPs. Player to watch: Pavan "Air Snake" Saguru, he is the actual reincarnation of Gabriel "Shank" Saunke "Key to Victory": Sleep Women's side: Michigan v Ottawa (at some point, pools not up yet)
On May 11, 8:16 pm, Matt.Pasien...@gmail.com wrote:
> >Not making that call EVERY TIME means you're ceding that > >advantage.
> This is terrible zone advice. If you want to make Nationals more > exciting, the addition of 50 observer-mediated "double team" calls > will be excruciating.
More time to throw is a good thing. Advancing up the field due to Misconduct Penalties is a good thing. Demonstrating a deficiency in the observer system of not issuing enough TMFs in the face of egregious rules infractions is a good thing.
On May 11, 8:16 pm, Matt.Pasien...@gmail.com wrote:
> To beat a 4-man cup, you need to take advantage of the open space that > is created down field by throwing hammers.
Hammers are good, but when they were playing at Regionals, I noticed Gibson, who was playing deep-deep, liked to poach way in to take away some of the prime hammer real estate, while leaving the far endzone pretty open. One trick UNCW pulled to counter this (perhaps not consciously prepared, though) was to set up a dump both behind and to the side of the cup, toss an easy swing to the dump, who then ripped a flat laser huck to the endzone for the score, such that Gibson never had a chance to catch up.
Do that a couple times, and you'll either make Kurt respect the deep a bit more, opening up space for hammers in the middle, or just make him really angry. When UNCW did it, Kurt started yelling at his cup for letting off hucks, when really, there wasn't much they could do.
On May 11, 5:16 pm, Matt.Pasien...@gmail.com wrote:
> >Not making that call EVERY TIME means you're ceding that > >advantage.
> This is terrible zone advice. If you want to make Nationals more > exciting, the addition of 50 observer-mediated "double team" calls > will be excruciating.
I think, the onus -should- be on the team violating the rules for any "excruciating" moments. No one blamed the Magic/Lakers/Heat/Suns for the excruciating Hack-A-Shaq, which has become a universally reviled tactic. But then again, the players don't need to care about exciting, they need to care about winning.
