I thought I would put some thoughts together regarding the Santa Barbara Invite results from this last weekend. I was in attendance last weekend as a coach with UC Davis so perhaps my opinions are a tad bais but probably not by much.
First off the schedule was ridiculous, we played two games early in the day and were done by 1, then we had a 4 hour bye until our game at 520, then the next game at 9:20. Then after our 9:20 game we had an 8 am game.
Anyways my thoughts on the teams I saw...
UCLA: They were the team I expected to see, lots of handler movement and give-gos all day. They went up on us early but we stayed tight on our marks and and started generating turns and evenutally came away with the win 9-6. I think this team is pretty solid but with the offense they run they need solid timing and anticipating from the handlers and cutters. This is probably why they didn't do too well at this early tournament. Initally I would expect them to finish around the back door semis at regionals.
Colorado: Athletically gifted team with height and solid fundamentals all the way around. They liked the side stack with iso cuts and the IO break. We brought the game within 1 or 2 but really didn't play our best game. They didn't seem to have an amazingly dominant player but they did win the tourney so you can't count them out of being a good team.
Arizona: A much younger team then of years past but still very athletic. They liked the deep ball and would at times blindly huck it to someone deep. They are probably a team around the same talent level as UCLA.
Cal: This team is a solid fundamental team. They only try to do a few things and do them well. Mateo can throw what ever he wants and Hagen anchors the deep D and O. Again they are fundamentally sound and really enjoy breaking the mark. They have great role players in James, Gary, and Rhoeder. They're a lot deeper than I expected and I guess it just goes to show that you can't coun't out Nationals experience.
Stanford: They lost a lot of talent from last year and you can see that in their play this year. They have a few talented players but they aren't the dominate team they have been in years past. They do a lot of verical stack with a cut from the front going deep and they like to those big back hand hucks. We were able to match up well and limit the number of hucks they completed. I'm not ready to count them out because they still have a well established program and just like everyone else they will continue to get better. So we'll see how they do come stanford invite.
UC Santa Barbara: They have been declining since my Junior year in college and now I think they are the the least talented Tide team I have ever seen. They just seem deflated from the team they used to be. They aren't very loud or enthusiastic at least not to the level they used to be. They still work hard and run hard but they are young and make typical mistakes. I'm sure they will keep working but I don't seem them in Madison this year.
San Diego State: My Alma Matter. My boys have been running hard from what I hear and they look like they are in pretty good shape. They had a rough weekend partly due to there age (young team), silly drops, and lack of practices prior to this tourney. I still think they will improve especially since Cliffy says they are the best team State has had. I'll be rooting for them and I think they can defeat Squids and Tide this year. But you gotta do it at regionals for it to count.
UW: From what I could tell they didn't have the talent they have had in the past. Not sure if they were missing anyone but they seemed beatable and under staffed. Maybe the travel got to them but it seems that they didn't bring there best game. But hey it's early.
See you at Vegas...all on black!
No comments:
Post a Comment