- For one, I’m glad I didn’t book that ticket to Mardi Gras. Saturday = cancelled due to lightning. Sunday was just a giant bracket, but results aren’t on Score Reporter. My boy Peter says the semifinals were Minnesota v. Indiana and Iowa v. Luther, with Minnesota taking down Iowa in the final, 13-8 or so. Ozark Ultimate has some info on Sunday’s bracket play.
- Joaq’s going to cover what went down at Stanford Invite, but if you don’t know, the semis were Carleton v. Harvard and Pittsburgh v. Colorado; Carleton beat Pitt in the finals, 15-8. From what I know, CUT’s Julian Childs-Walker was out for the weekend, so this makes not only two tournament victories in a row for Carleton, but two tournament victories in a row while missing one of two dominant cutters (Grant Lindsley was out for the finals at Warm Up). Also, we didn’t post it here, but Joaq did a Stanford Invite preview for USA Ultimate.
- I’ll go ahead and admit that I didn’t think Pitt would make semis. I just had a feeling that with everyone else having played at least one tournament, they were apt to lose to someone like Oregon or UBC in quarters. Instead, they climbed out of a 7-12 hole to beat UBC 16-15 in the quarters, and then overcame a 6-9 deficit to beat Colorado in semis. Both were tweeted here.
- So it was a good weekend for Pitt until they ran into Carleton. In the six games that CUT and Pitt have played since the spring of 2008, CUT has won five, including all three Nationals meetings (each was an elimination round). Are their other examples of one good team dominating another over the past few years?
- With this in mind, seeding at Nationals is going to be very important; I think Pitt is in trouble if they see Carleton, Carleton has to be worried if they run into Florida, and Florida is screwed if they see Colorado. Others?
- This has been written already, but the most important games of the weekend may not have been played in Palo Alto. Ohio and Ohio State matched up in the final at Easterns Qualifier, with Ohio taking the bid to Easterns. The Qualifier had a lot of teams that could be the second, third, and fourth-best in their regions (Ohio and Ohio State in the Ohio Valley, Virginia Tech and UNC-W in the Atlantic Coast, Georgia Tech in the Southeast), so their records against each other are important. Virginia Tech’s semis showing is great, but their only out-of-region win was over Michigan State. On the whole, the Easterns Qualifier was a win for the Ohio Valley.
- Another comment on Ohio: it was windy at Easterns Qualifier (Vassar told me it got up to 20 mph, and even though it was 60 degrees outside, players were shivering on the sidelines), and from what I’ve heard, Ohio is great in the wind. Their handlers are very capable of making throws that other teams shy away from, and they play patiently against zone defenses. Also, they run a disciplined zone D of their own. If you’ve got more tidbits about this team or any other, feel free to post them.
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