Great Lakes Regionals '09: The Culmination

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In anticipation of my PFD paper due right before our Regies departure, I thought I'd do myself a favor and post earlier, to get all the distractions out of the way. Apparently, this is not allowed, because I should never get more than four hours of sleep a night, and to punish me, the seedings have been changed. Thanks a whole fucking lot, Team #16. Who doesn't show up to Regies? SRSLY.

As mentioned, I have a PFD paper, a Derrick Frazier paper, another honors PFD paper, and Regies Part II to write. So fuck it. I'm not updating this post except to say that we're probably going to play Valpo (who we beat anyway), Michigan State ('08 backdoor finals rematch, woot!), and Northwestern. Same shit applies. Change the names around. Playing Michigan State should be fun, if we do indeed get a matchup with them. I know a certain three point deficit that's going to be fueling a lot of our returning players, so I'd get ready to get boom troasted.

Look at what happens when I try to work ahead, I get got.
Heavy is the head that eats the crayons.
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Firstly: Dear Illinois Bitches Ain't Shit, please, please, please go to Regionals. Please. We know you want to play, and we want to have you there. What team turns down a chance to play at Regies? Honestly. Don't be like that. You'd get to play against effing Michigan, one of the best teams in the country. You don't learn by playing shitty teams. You learn by testing your mettle against the best. That's the only way you get better. Plus, you'd get to watch some great ultimate. You get to cheer and be obnoxious and energize us from the sideline. I know you think you might not be doing much, but doing simple things like yelling up or strike really, really helps, not to mention it's a huge morale booster when we can look at our sidelines and see people going nuts and screaming for us. Please reconsider, and please go.

Also, as Amanda Thereesie Wind said so eloquently: "Bitches ain't shit, but we ain't shit if you bitches don't show up." Well put, Mother Thereesie, #1 draft pick. SOUL PATROL. Give her a reason to show off those fresh new sleeve tattoos.

Secondly, even though he hates me and thinks I'm the most retarded student in the world, I just wanted to brag again about Paul Diehl (or PFD, as he calls himself in his e-mails), my Internattie Law professor. He got a call from Fox on a consult about the show "24". SICK, right?! He's so famous. Too bad I'm failing his class (except for the fact that I missed an A on my first paper by 2 points, suck it).
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After an entire season of preparation, Regionals weekend is only a few days away. Just a few days. Months and months of hours on the track and at the gym, hours on the field and vomit all over Memorial Stadium, and it all comes down to one weekend. With each tournament we played this season, we saw more and more we needed to work on, and more and more teams that could possibly take our Natties bid from us. Even though we never played them this year, we knew Michigan was the top team to beat. But after Chicago Invite, we were introduced to Case Western, and after Sectionals, we found out Northwestern and North Park would push us harder than we thought. Low key, the Great Lakes Regies will be great to watch. [Midwest Hype Squad, activate.] We're playing in a straight up NCAA tournament style bracket, and it's gonna be dope.

Sweet 16: (14) Oberlin
We start off bright and early against Oberlin. We played them in the fall, maybe? I don't know, I was busy squatting and eating street food for literally pennies a day in the 中国. I might miss it, WHATEVER. Anyway, I don't know much about this team, but they put up a good number of points against Northwestern on SB2K9 at Southerns (7-15). In the past, we've sort of had their card; we played them at Regies last year and either got a Callahan or two or almost got a good number of Callahans. Even so, I think it's important that we still take this game seriously and not get sloppy. I just want to remind everyone of the 3 vs. 14 game in the NCAA tournament this year, when American went up something ridiculous like fifteen points on Villanova in the second half. Now of course, Villanova pulled it out in the end, but that's beside the point. Git 'er done.

Elite Eight: (11) Indiana/(6) Notre Dame
I think this could possibly be the most important game we play all day. If we come out flat, we could find ourselves locked in a long, drawn out game that goes on for way longer than we need it to. That sucks because then we're running around wasting our energy for way longer than we'd like to, and sloppy play doesn't exactly inspire confidence. We should use this game as a way to set the tone for the next one. Come out and play the game we know we can play, so we can go into the next game rested, pumped up, and confident. This game could either help build our momentum or put us in a bad spot both physically and mentally for the next game.

We played pretty well against Indiana last time, so I'm not too worried if they're the team that comes up against us, and you know what, I'm also not too worried about Notre Dame, either. Not to knock on Notre Dame at all, but that game was only close at the beginning because we just couldn't get our shit together after just coming off a high-intensity loss. I know we'll do a much better job this time around and make that separation much earlier in the game.

Final Four: (2) Northwestern/(7) North Park
No matter which team shows up against us in the Final Four, this game promises to be epic. I always used to dread playing against North Park for various reasons, but our games against them this spring haven't been horrendous, and have actually been quite pleasant. The only thing that we suck at is closing them out. We'll go up big or we'll string together a few nice points, and then let them come storming right back. I don't know what it is, maybe a mental lapse or just a drop-off in intensity, but we can't let it happen. At tournaments like Regies, you CRUSH hope. I don't care what Barack says, we're out to kill each and every single one of your hopes and dreams. We don't have a play called iso Barack, but we have a played called iso Michelle, and that play is intended to make you re-evaluate your life after we brutalize it. As for Northwestern ... well, after having played them once, I think we'll know what to expect this time, and we'll know what to do. We have got to stop letting off the break, or at least make them more reluctant to throw that shit. We've got to play crazy D like I know we're capable of playing. I remember last year at Regionals, on two successive swing passes by Northwestern, we had two layout bids within literally a second of each other, and they knew we were bat shit crazy about the whole getting the disc business. Crazed, intense, physical D, and methodical, clean offense. That's all it takes. (Easier said than done, no?) But remember spring '07 in Rantoul. Remember what they did to us. I know more than a few people are hoping for a Sectionals final rematch, but I'll be equally happy with either team, really.
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That's it, ya'll. Three games to the 'ship. Three. We've just got to win three and then we'll get to fight for our shot at Nationals. I've always said that I don't believe in the word "deserve", and at the end of the day, no matter how much stronger, better, or faster we are than any other team, we still don't deserve it. It comes down to earning it. It comes down to playing well when it matters and doing everything possible to get the "W". We're a good team. We've definitely got our flaws, but I strongly believe that we're a good team. We're done learning, we're done tweaking. Time to play.

Live every week like it's shark week.
She KNOWS.
Iso Michelle Obama.
Kiss Me Thru the Phone.
Love in this Club.
You are about to get GOT.
Work Hard, Get Bank.
Let's. Go.

For all the ridiculous things Goose has said over the years, there's one thing he said last year right before we played Michigan in the finals of Regionals that really, really stuck with me:
This will either be a game you'll always remember, or a game you'll never forget.