Boston, Day One

The first day of Boston was a lot of fun. Pike played four games against Medicine Men, PoNY (with ex-Pike and Princeton alumnus Bailey Russell), Boston and New Noise. The sideline wasn't as fun as playing, but it was a nice experience being a "partial" observer while being part of the team.

I'm not going to recap each game individually. Decent recaps can be found on Dusty's blog (Boston Invitational, Day One) and scores can be seen on the UPA score reporter (Boston Invitational).

I think most of the team feels that Pike underperformed at the tournament. From my perspective, I saw a lot of chemistry and mental problems relative to other teams. PoNY, in particular, looked to have a lot of trust between their players and this definitely proved crucial to their upset of Boston and going 3-0 in the pool. Particularly on defense, we had numerous turnovers on dumps/swings/poor deep throws, all of which rely on trust/chemistry between teammates.

While the O line had similar problems early in the tournament, they seemed to mesh moreso than the D as the tournament progressed. I would say they were also more effective integrating newer players (Mutton, Perry, Art), which is probably due to their tighter rotation. The team brought 20-some D players, but seemed to be playing all of them equally or half in a tight rotation. I think this hurt any chemistry that was developing.

A large portion of the team went to Applebee's for dinner. Results: Foss may be one of the funniest guys I know, my ID appears to work even though it LOUDLY states "Under 21" and is expired and Perry needs to keep a tighter watch on his french fries. After watching some "Deadliest Catch" and explaining that I didn't know anyone on the show, the bed was pretty sweet.

Today's Workout:
Boston Invitational

On the iPod:
Magnificient City Instrumentals by Rjd2