Chicago Invite Preview - ISU Open

I've been holding off on a CI preview because the seeds were changing daily, but I think they're pretty much finalized now and if they change any more, I probably won't write another post. Currently ISU is seeded 2nd in pool G which and due to the outrageous number of teams attending this tournament, we'll need to secure either 1st or 2nd in our pool Saturday in order to advance to the Championship bracket Sunday morning. Our pool is, in order of seed:

-Western Michigan
-Illinois State
-Toledo
-Michigan B
-Rose Hulman
-Niles North (Team ILL)

I'll give a quick preview of how I think each of our pool play games should go first.

Game 1 vs Toledo: I don't know much of anything about this team except their seed at Chicago Invite. Because of this I'm glad that we get to play them first with fresh legs underneath us since that is our team's biggest strength - the ability to outrun our opponents. Be ready for a fight, but I'm sure that if we keep our intensity up and play our game we should escape the first round unharmed.

Game 2 vs Michigan-B: Again, we should never look past our opponents, especially teams from schools with a reputation for ultimate excellence like Michigan. Expect to see some rookies probably with a lot of speed and heart mixed with a few experienced players with solid throws and field sense. If we come out hard and playing our game, this game should be won without too much trouble

Game 3 vs Niles North: Niles North (Team ILL) is a high school team that our Y team played at Glory Days last fall. They were a cool group of guys from what I heard, but shouldn't be too much for us to handle. Kudos to them for playing in college tournaments as a high school team. I'm sure they've all got great ultimate careers ahead of them.

Game 4 vs Rose-Hulman: We played RHIT last year at Sectionals after our loss to Loyola. We were all a bit dejected after being knocked out of the 10th place bracket by a team named after a duck cartoon, but we found the drive to step up and play well in the second half and I believe that the score was somewhere around 13-9. Last year they were a decent team led by a core of 2-3 solid handlers with good field vision. Expect to see a similar team this weekend. Their downfield cutters weren't particularly strong so if the D line can shut down the handler motion, this game should go our way as well. RHIT was a also a very cool group of guys, and I wish them the best of luck this weekend before 2pm and after 4pm.

Game 5 vs Western Michigan: Assuming Western Michigan is able to hold their seed until the last game of the day, this very well could be the game to decide the winner of the pool. Again I don't know much about Western Michigan but I'm sure Luke gave them a top seed for a reason. Hopefully Shane and Josh's workouts this winter have done their job and we'll still have our legs beneath us in this game. I'm sure we will. The biggest challenge here will be keeping our heads and trusting each other in what will most likely be our biggest game of the semester, and our first big game as a team. If we do that all day Saturday, this pool is ours.

With those out of the way I'd like to point out the importance of taking pool G Saturday. 1st or 2nd gets us into the championship bracket, but 2nd almost definitely pits us against North Park in the 1st game Sunday. While this is a winnable game, it will be hard fought and given that we'll have 4 rounds to play on Sunday to get the cup, any way possible to make our road a little easier should be welcomed. If we take our pool Saturday we'll get to play the 2nd place finisher in Pool B, which looks like it could probably be EMU, Lewis, or Gustavus. I think they're all around the same level, but NP is definitely a step above all of the Pool B teams and should take the B pool fairly easily. After the 1st round of bracket play Sunday, the games should all be of similar difficulty, so remember to bring your 5 hours and icy hot. Good luck to all the teams going this weekend, it should be a great time.