Nationals

Carleton vs Florida - 2010 USAU College Finals from luke johnson on Vimeo.

There's a great video of nationals finals on vimeo (thanks to Luke Johnson) in high def and with all the arguing edited out. It's about 1000x more watchable than the live stream on Monday.

Carleton seems dedicated to slowing the game down and playing fundamental ultimate. Florida takes the huck look whenever it's there, and sometimes when it's not. They get away with this because they're playing incredible defense and Carleton can't seem to get much decent flow against them. Maybe it would have been dumb for Carleton to throw more aggressively, or maybe they just didn't have the players to match up with Florida's in the deep game. The first time I watched the finals, I felt like the outcome was somehow erroneous or unexpected. Watching it again with more clarity and continuity, Florida was the better team for the conditions and should usually win this game.

Florida has an amazing amount of athleticism, and Brodie really is the most dominant player in ultimate, although I don't regret not voting for him for Callahan after watching this game. My first thought on watching the game was that Carleton didn't adjust well enough to stop Florida's style of play, but upon watching the game again it seems like they were doing nearly everything they could. He was just unstoppable.

If we were doing a draft of college players to club teams (how sweet would that be?) I suppose Brodie would have to go #1 overall, but I would have concerns about melding his playing style into a team that isn't completely tailored to him. I really hope he decides to play club because I'd like to see how his skills translate to a higher level of play.