Tuesday Bullets

The time between Club Nationals and the start of the college season is mostly dead space. There isn’t a lot going on. Over in the real world, Andray Blatche is a bum, Amare Stoudemire is really fun to watch in person, and Greg Popovich is still the man.

A couple of Frisbee things did come to mind today:

This video of the 1989 College Finals popped up on RSD yesterday. Pretty cool. Does anyone else see similarities between UCSB’s offense and the one that Carleton ran when they won the title in 2009? The big thing that stands out to me is how much space there is not only in front of but also around the guy with the disc; rather than have a designated dump set up and chill for a bit, the dump either materializes from a handler that drifted upfield into the breakside space for a while or a cutter that just continues his cut until he’s in the backfield. I gather that there’s a fundamental sense of the fact that at some point, a handler needs an easy reset. But until that time, you might as well put everyone in motion and let things happen.

Does anyone else see similarities between UCSB’s offense and the one that Carleton ran when they won the title in 2009? The big thing that stands out to me is how much space there is not only in front of but also around the guy with the disc; rather than have a designated dump set up and chill for a bit, the dump either materializes from a handler that drifted upfield into the breakside space for a while or a cutter that just continues his cut until he’s in the backfield. I gather that there’s a fundamental sense of the fact that at some point, a handler needs an easy reset. But until that time, you might as well put everyone in motion and let things happen. This article on the downfall of the Head Coach in Waiting in college football is interesting to me when put into the context of ultimate. In college ultimate, a lot of coaches are alumni of the schools they’re coaching since they still have ties to the school or area (and since nobody is going to pay them to do it elsewhere). I’ve always liked the idea of coaches and management in college and pro sports getting their start as players in their respective organizations, since I think it leads to a better understanding of a specific brand and system. Two thoughts that come to here are that a.) bringing in someone else from the outside can be hit or miss and b.) actually designating a HCIW seems counterproductive to me, since I think that a big benefit of looking internally is that teams can see potential coaches that weren’t originally thought of as such.

A couple of friends and I are working on doing some previews for the upcoming college season. If you have a perspective on any particular team or region or anything related and you’re interested in contributing, hit me up: neeley87@gmail.com