This weekend, while many across the nation were watching NCAA basketball, several USAU college ultimate tournaments were in full swing. Down in Austin, Texas there was Centex.
Centex took a perceived hit in quality of teams even before it started. That is largely due to Easterns. But while Easterns had some solid teams, the top teams at Centex were still very strong, including some Ozark Conference teams.
Ozark Conference Teams
Arkansas – Ludicrous Speed looked good early in the season. A second place finish in the preseason at Harvest Moon and a second place finish at Big D in Little D gave the impression that Arkansas was going to be a good team, even with the loss of their senior talent. However, losses to Missouri and Missouri S&T at Free State Classic showed that Arkansas might not be as strong as they initially looked. The overtime win against Kansas partially redeemed them, but since then Arkansas has been struggling greatly.
At a shortened Mardi Gras Arkansas lost both of their games and freshmen speedster Joe Bell. At Centex, Arkansas got behind early to Illinios but did much better in the second half. In their second game, against Florida State, they dominated the first half and looked like they had turned a corner. However, they ended up squandering the lead and losing by one. Ludicrous Speed would have to wait until Sunday to win their first game, versus Texas State, but they eventually lost to Oklahoma, and Florida State again.
Arkansas has a lot of work to do. They have talented freshmen and Matt Jackson and Eric Kearney. But that might not be enough. Bell should be back in time for the Conference Tournament, but will Arkansas?
Kansas – The HorrorZontals have been the most consistent team in the Ozarks. They have made Nationals five of the last seven years, missing only 2005 and 2008.
At Centex, Kansas got sucker punched by Kansas State to lose their first game of the day. They ended up recovering by defeating the other lower seeds in their pool, but lost to top-seeded UBC, 8-11. On Sunday, the Zontals moved into the Chumpionship bracket and beat Northwestern, but lost to Illinois and Wisconsin Steven’s Point, both teams they had beat previously.
The Zontals have the talent to beat many teams in the nation. However, they seem to be a collection of ultimate players who go to the same school and not necessarily a team. Sniping, arguing, taunting, and one-upsmanship are not generally good for team chemistry and may be holding the boys in red and black back. They still have Fool’s Fest to work out the kinks before the series, but if they do not get them ironed out there is a good chance this just might be the third Zontal team since 2004 to miss Nationals.
Kansas State – The Huckstables are the surprise of the 2011 season. They were not expected to challenge for a top spot in the Ozark Conference. But now Kansas State is, according to the USAU rankings, the fourth best team in the South Central Region. The Huckstables seem to have conjured a full compliment of players from thin air, from solid handler Cameron Hunter, to all-around star Pat Shriwise, and big time deep Chris Youderian. That does not even begin to touch on the other players on the team, from starter to bench, that give other teams fits.
Kansas State came out fired up on the first day of Centex, beat Kansas and gave UBC a game that ended with a d that popped into UBC’s hands, making the final score 11-9. On Sunday, the Huckstables continued their upward climb by beating Washington and losing on ultimate point to Texas. It is true Colorado College easily handled Kansas State, but Colorado College could be one of the best teams in the nation. Even so, the guys from the Little Apple finished fourth at Centex.
Missouri – Missouri brought a small squad of nine to start Centex. They were bolstered by two more near the end of the Colorado College game and promptly scored six in a row against Wasabi. Other than that remarkable run and a win against UCLA, their showing at Centex was disappointing to say the least. Then again, it is hard to win with a small team.
The MUtants have some good players, including captain Matt Francis, but it is not translating into quality wins. Besides an early season win on Arkansas at Free State Classic and two on Harding at Midwest Throwdown, the MUtants have had trouble beating strong teams. Missouri is sure to be a better team once they show up with a full complement of players, but their lack of game time experience might hurt them.
Oklahoma – The Apes of Wrath got stuck in the pool of death at Centex. They also did not do themselves any favors by making every pool game a close game. After beating California Long Beach on ultimate point and losing by two to Washington, the Apes had to fight back to beat Northeastern, lost by two to Northwestern, and by three to Wisconsin Eau-Claire.
Oklahoma did better on Sunday by beating California San Diego, Air Force, and got revenge on Arkansas for Big D in Little D to take 17th place. It is not a surprise that in both games Oklahoma won on Saturday both Mike Rice and Matt Carney came up with big plays. That is why they are on the field. However, if the Apes want to continue to win the big games someone else is going to have to help these guys out and shoulder the load — and not just for a few points.
UP stands for Universe Point dude.
But hasn’t Kansas been like that for at least the last few years? I’ve never considered any Kansas team well spirited. I guess my point is yeah, they’re not exactly nice, but that’s never stopped them from having strong seasons before.
I’m not saying Kansas is not spirited. They are no different than any other team I have seen this year, except for the Texas State vs. Milwaukee game.
What I am saying is that they don’t seem to get along well. Look at Arkansas last year. They were very good individually but had chemistry problems. When a player made a mistake they would yell at each other.
There have been times this year, when Kansas players are questioning, loudly, if anyone else on their teams is actually playing. And there have been some snide comments said loudly on the sideline.
I have been on several teams and I find it hurts more than it helps. Often the guy who made the error knows he made the error and doesn’t need someone else riding him besides a captain or coach.
Now I have seen some teams where that does work, so we will see what happens. Kansas is good at performing when the pressure is on.
To his credit, Kansas coach Jerrod Wolfe tries to keep his guys from killing each other.
Oklahoma’s got a hella deep roster, carney sucks
Oklahoma is deep. Nick Neal comes to mind along with Kevin “Falkor” Christian and Lyle “Cooter” Clark.
The problem is they are not consistent in their play. And when Mike Rice and Matt Carney are on the rest of the team follows.
Your conjecture on the Arkansas team last year is based on watching them at what tournament? Or just hearsay?
My view was that Arkansas encountered problems, because they didn’t practice and individuals were not as talented as they believed.
The last Kansas leader that cared how his team was perceived was Wimer. Since Wimer’s graduation the lower classmen have been given more opportunities to be disrespectful to teams and tournament directors.
That conjecture would be from observation, I saw Arkansas at Frostbite, and first hand accounts from multiple sources. My example to the previous poster was just that, an example, and oversimplified the reasons the 2010 Arkansas team did not reach its full potential. My purpose was to tie one of the reasons Kansas is not succeeding this year to one of the reasons why Arkansas did not succeed last year.
I am sure Arkansas had other problems besides the one I stated, just as Kansas surely has other reasons why they are not living up to their potential, but from an outsiders point of view I would know very little about a lack of practice and talent divaness. My observations are based on a narrow angled view of how teams perform at certain tournaments, and as such rarely paint the whole picture.
As the story goes, when Krushchev left office he handed his successor two letters. He said that if he ever got into a jam that he couldn’t find a way out of, he should open the first letter. And then, if he managed to get into another jam that he couldn’t get out of, to open the second letter.
At some point later, the guy got into a terrific mess and remembered the letters, so he dug out the first letter and opened it. It said, “Blame everything on me.”
Well, this worked out great, and things went along for a while until, inevitably, he got into another situation that there was just no way out of. So, he opened the second letter. It said, “Sit down. Write two letters.”
I see Kearney and Matty will be moving on to Letter #2 soon.
Very accurate assessment of the section.
Carney doesn’t suck.
not what I heard
OK, maybe he does a little.
I have a couple things I’d like to say. First on the highlight clips it would be nice to get a little more lead up into the actual highlight. I don’t know if there is a limit on how long the video clip can be but I would definitely enjoy seeing the action that led to the play. Just a suggestion.
2nd. Please don’t take this the wrong way, but while I appreciate the praise I think you have a misunderstanding of this year’s Apes of Wrath. This team is one of the deeper college teams I have played on, and to focus on me in particular is a mistake. I play a small role on an O-line that typically plays less than half the points in a game. We have numerous guys that make much more spectacular plays and work 10 times harder than me during pretty much every game. You’ve mentioned some of them with Falkor, Nick, and Cooter, but you’ve definitely missed what I would consider the core of our team. Nolan Randolph, Parker Dooly, Chris Rowsdower and Nate Crain (2nd team all region last year) are all solid players that we depend on on both sides of the disc as a team. I know its easy to look at me and carney as captains as the driving force behind any success we might have, but in reality I’m just the old guy that doesn’t play much and yells a lot. I’d like to see some more coverage on some of our other players that actually play really good ultimate.
This is going to date me somewhat, but I can remember a few years back to when RSD would light up year after year with people talking about how awesome OU’s Vijay Menon was. Invariably, some OU player would then post that while Vijay was good, the heart and soul of the team was actually Bryan Paris—he was the better all-around player, team leader, Callahan nominee, etc.
And maybe that was true, but there was a reason Vijay was mentioned over and over again on RSD—he really was a sick player.
All of that to say, being humble and wanting to share the spotlight with your teammates are both admirable characteristics, but there’s probably a reason why an unbiased outside observer mentions you over and over. You might be selling yourself a bit short.
But I haven’t actually seen OU play this year, so I may be wrong.