UCF v UGA in the mud in Tupelo. Game to go will be up tomorrow.

drbell_2332 AT yahoo DOT com

Here are a few snippets from the original email Bmoore sent out before we decided to go public-

The idea for this team came from wanting to develop the younger players of the conference, and not simply focus on those that already have years of experience. Now, if the desire to be on this team is very high, then of course the number of younger players that make it will be limited, however they will be more than welcome to attend practices. At the off chance that tournament numbers are extremely low, they could be there to fill in.

Tryouts: I have no idea how many people are interested in playing for this team. If the numbers are very high then Monkey Bowl will turn into a tryout instead of a first tournament.

Captains: TJ Martin and Veneeze

If you are interested, fill this out. The tournament list was something quick just to have on there. There will be additions to it.

(The team doesn’t have an official name yet, but I think Bamasecs Allstarz should be it)

Alabama

1. CB
2. Veneeze
3. Gilstrap
4. Hardman
5. Thomas Yerby
6. Duke
7. Travis Midkiff

Auburn

1. Brad Smith
2. Andrew Ruffing
3. Chad
4. ER
5. Fred
6. Danny Yates (don’t you hate those one hit wonders?)

LSU

1. Sharon
2. Pickle
3. Iyoub

MSU

1. Stroup
2. Erek
3. Cody
4. Max
5. Nathan Burkett
6. Peaches

Ole Miss

1. Brian Morris
2. Brian Garrot

Southern Miss

1. Mark Schimmel
2. Maybe Chris Partin

Tulane

1. Jon Schlosberg
2. Kevin L

Vandy

1. Joe Wagner

Wow, that is a ton of good players. Young guys, you better work your tails off this summer and into the fall. You have some huge shoes to fill. Based on who is supposed to be returning for each team, this is how I would rank everyone-

1. Tulane
2. LSU
3. Auburn
4. Ole Miss
5. Alabama
6. MSU
7. USM
8. Vandy
9. MTSU

Any thoughts?

Rhodie and I were talking the other day about why Bamasecs has lagged behind our regional counterparts for so long. We really narrowed it down to 2 things- kids playing in high school, and current players playing on good club teams during the summer. We are starting to see the learning curve for freshman get smaller and smaller as more kids come in with prior experience, but we still are lacking in the club department.

I implore every single one of you to play on some kind of club team this summer, whether it is open or mixed. The only way you can improve your own personal skill set and raise your ultimate IQ is by playing on a club team where more experienced players can help you along. I know I learned more in the first year I played with Brah than I did in the previous 2 summers combined.

If some of you young guns are sitting here reading this thinking “I don’t think I am good enough to make a solid club team,” GO TRYOUT ANYWAYS. You will never know if you don’t go.

Here is a list of teams that each and every one of you should take a look at. They are all good enough for you to learn from.

Bucket (ATL Mixed)
Chain (ATL- go to the tryout, you will learn a TON)
Deep Fried (Jackson, MS)
Freaks (Huntsville, AL)
Ironmen (Birmingham, AL)
New Memphis Open Team (not confirmed)
Party Posse (NOLA mixed)
Sixpack (ATL/South Carolina Area)
Southern Revival (ATL/All over the SE mixed)
Tanasi (Tennessee)
Possible New Bamasecs Open Team (details to come)
Hammer Bros. (Slidell, LA)
Roma (Rome, GA)
All Spark (Ox-vegas, MS)
The Prairie Squids (Memphis, TN)

Every single one of these teams has something to offer that will make you a better individual player. This will translate to new ideas and skills for each of your college teams. The days of playing summer league to get better are coming to an end.

UPDATE:

Thanks to the wonderful ultimate community over at reddit, here is a list of club tryout dates in our region:

AL

Open:

• Huntsville Open (HUN) – link (May 11)
• Ironmen (BIR) – link (May 4/5)

GA ATL

Open:

• Six Pack (GA) – link (May 25/26/June 8-9)
• ROMA (ATL) – link (May 11)
• Chain Lightning (ATL) – link (May 18)

Women:

• Ozone (ATL) – link (May 11)

Mixed:

• Southern Revival (ATL) – link (May 18/19)

LA NOLA

Open:

• Hammer Bros. (SLI) – link (May 26/June 2)

MS

Open:

• Deep Fried (JAC) – http://bamasecs.wordpress.com/2013/03/28/club-tryouts-and-other-musings/ (May 11/18)

TN

Open:

• Tanasi (CHA/KNO) – http://bamasecs.wordpress.com/2013/03/28/club-tryouts-and-other-musings/ (May 11)

Women:

• Desoto (NAS) – link (May 4/5/June 1/2)

Here is the spreadsheet if you want to play with that again:

regional bracket blank(1)

And here’s your official form:

Scoring:
3 points for Pool Winners
1 point for every correct pool position after that

10 points for 1st overall
9 points for 2nd
8 points for 3rd
5 points for 4th
4 points for 5th
3 points for 6th
2 points for 7th
1 point for 8th

We’ll be giving away a $25 gift card to iTunes for the winner. Thanks for playing and remember to share this with your friends/family/teammates!

http://scores.usaultimate.org/scores/#college-open/tournament/12680

Look for a new pick-em contest today sometime.

UCF is clearly the best team at the tournament. I don’t expect them to have any trouble in pool play. It is worth noting that LSU gave them a hard game at Ttown (15-12 UCF), so there is a small chance of an upset. Kennesaw State got a seedings bump by virtue of USM finishing higher than MSU. I expect MSU to repeat their win over KSU at Cowbell. MSU has beaten LSU once this year, but I don’t see it happening again.

1. UCF (3-0)
2. LSU (2-1)
3. MSU (1-2)
4. KSU (0-3)

Pool B

FSU is in uncharted territory this weekend as a team that is expected to make nationals and even possibly take down UCF. Tennessee is a solid team, but I don’t think they beat FSU. Georgia Southern looks to return most of their solid team and has much better results against common opponents than USM, so I think the entire pool will go to seed. GS does show up in big moments, so they will have a chance to take down UT. USM earned their shot at the big time this year, but I think their season will essentially come to an end at 4:30 on Saturday.

1. FSU (3-0)
2. UT (2-1)
3. GS (1-2)
4. USM (0-3)

Pool C

This is the most interesting pool to me. We know Alabama has the potential to take down Florida (they did it at CCC in the fall for what it’s worth), but Tulane lurking in the 3 spot should scare the top 2 seeds. There will be at least 1 upset in this pool, but I am going to predict 2. Oh, and Vandy will be there. Joe will probably make a few awesome plays.

1. UF (2-1)
2. Bama (2-1)
3. Tulane (2-1)
4. Vandy (0-3)

Pool D

It really is disappointing that we had to seed UGA and GT into the same pool. I would have like to seen one of them get a crack at a Florida team in the pools. Anyways, I think this one goes straight to seed. There isn’t much to say because each team is a notch below the team below them. Auburn may have a small chance to upset GT, but I don’t think they have anyone that can guard Jay Clark.

1. UGA  (3-0)
2. GT (2-1)
3. Aub (1-2)
4. USF (0-3)

This leaves us with these cross over games.

The only games that aren’t to seed are UGA/FSU and Aub/UT. UGA is peaking at the right time and looks like a solid team. Auburn always plays well in elimination games, and UT isn’t that impressive to me. MSU could give Bama some problems with all their tall athletes, but Erek/Stroup/Steven/Tanner/whoever else is going will be more worried about getting to the Dave concert in Southaven on time.

My Sunday bracket ends up looking like this-

I don’t think anyone gets closer than 15-12 to UCF, and that is really pushing it in my mind. They roll in game 1. From what I remember about FSU, they have multiple tall athletes, which is Bama’s biggest weak point. My biggest upset of the tournament comes in the first round on Sunday- LSU over UGA. UGA may be looking forward a little bit to the anticipated matchup with UF, and LSU wins in a tight game. UF wins fairly easily over Auburn.

In the backdoor- GT over Bama because Bama can’t handle the Jay Clark deep throw show. UGA is really ticked off from getting upset and having to go through the (wish I could call it Brad Jones Memorial) backdoor, and rolls over the Weagles. UCF over FSU in a game that isn’t ever really that close, and UF beats LSU by 4.

LSU has the athletes to deal with the deep looks of GT, and I think they pull out another mild upset to get to the GAMETOGOOMGEEE. UGA beats FSU for the second time in 2 days to knock FSU out of nationals after finishing in the top 15.

UGA will show up mad after the first round upset and beat a tired LSU team to make Nationals. All of bamasecs will heckle this game like it is their job.

We had so much fun with the bracket for Bama Sectionals Gulf Coast College Championships that it was clear we needed to do it again for Southeast Regionals.

We’ve added a new feature: A visual bracket. Click this link to download the bracket:

Southeast Regionals Bracket

You will need Excel to view it, and I suggest you view it. As far as spreadsheets go, it’s pretty awesome. #nerdlife

(Francis here- I would advise you to open the excel document on your computer and not phone. I built in dropdown menus that automatically populate, but it may not function properly on a phone/tablet)

From there, fill out your picks. Then come back to the blog and input your results into the form below:

Scoring is as follows:

Pool Winner: 3 points
2nd: 1 point
3rd: 1 point
4th: 1 point

Sunday Seedings:
1 Seed: 8 points
2 Seed: 7 points
3 Seed: 6 points
So on and so forth to the 8 Seed

Final Standings:
1st: 10 points
2nd: 7 points
3rd: 4 points
4th: 1 point

We’ll be giving away a $25 gift card to iTunes for the winner. Thanks for playing and remember to share this with your friends/family/teammates!

Congratulations to the 2013 Bama Secs All-Conference Line:

Chris Browning (Alabama)
Greg Cousins (Tulane)
Brian Moore (Alabama)
Chris Partin (Southern Miss)
Dylan “Pickle” Schroeder (LSU)
Dylan “Sharon” Shannon (LSU)
Michael Venezia (Alabama)

The first thing I notice? Four people share a first name with someone else. Coincidence? You decide. And the second thing I notice is that one of those people is Southern Miss’ first first-teamer ever.

Also of note, there were almost as many legitimate ballots cast this year as in the two previous years combined. That makes the results in the next category particularly more compelling.

After 96 ballots, for the 2013 Freshman of the Year, there is a tie:

Evan Walter (Tulane)

Garrett Yetman (LSU)

And the 2013 Myron Hardy Award winner, as chosen by his peers, is…

Dylan “Pickle” Schroeder (LSU)