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Another year, another great time, despite WSU's woes.
So here they are, the unsolicited and somewhat unbiased observations from our court side seats.
Best team - Duh. I touched on Drake in a VT thread how they go about business. To truly appreciate, you have to see them in person. Their only achilles heel in the dance will be depth. After the starters and a couple of reserves, they don't have much. Still, they were impressive.
Best player - How Eric Coleman wasn't First team All-Valley is a mystery. Big bad Falker wanted nothing to do with him Friday night and he just abused Sampay and Odiakosa Saturday. He put his team on his back Friday and beat SIU. He got even less help on Saturday and they were toast. The look on Falkers face when he would come out was priceless. Coleman just kept smiling at him every time he returned. It was classic.
Best Coach - How do you argue against Keno. He has designed the perfect setting for the personnel on hand. They know their roles and execute to perfection. Just a thing of beauty to watch.
Best Fans - WSU fans. Hands down. The numbers, the cheering (especially when Marshall came out) and staying for the whole enchilada was impressive.
OK, the not so good.
Worst team - Why did Evansville even show up? We know The Valley mandates participation, but they could have saved the travel costs and issued a statement the whole team was sick. They were really bad.
Worst player - Daniel Ruffin should have stayed in Peoria. He single handily put his team in a hole constantly jacking up off balance 20 footers. Just one bad decision after another. After a while, we just shook our heads every time he launched another scud.
Worst Coach - I know they had a successful run, but what was Jankovich thinking during the 19-0 run by Drake and not calling at least one TO? Not even one? Man, that was painful to watch.
Honorable mention to our good friends Les and Jacobsen. To allow Ruffin to keep bombing away in the CU game was mystifying. And why Eric Coleman didn't touch the ball (at the minimum) every time down the floor in the ISU game was perplexing. His passing was just as dangerous as the low post moves.
Dumbest plays - P'Allen and his mouthpiece snafu took the prize. We were sitting right behind CU's bench and Dana torched him when he sat down. It was sheer immaturity. HM goes to SIU's Wesley Clemmons for two consecutive bonehead fouls at crunch time of the UNI game. He literally cost his team with both of them.
Dumbest fans - SIU. Some of CU's finest get a mention, but SIU's fans ***** and moan about every call.
Every call.
Even calls that DOFO would agree with.
It was a thing of beauty to watch all 15K trudge out after they got
ColeMANed. The place sure got quiet. Real quiet.
Best Dance team - Of course, it's really not a competition. Illinois State's 'Red Line Express' (I even like the name) is very easy on the eyes. Every year, every time. The only moan was their hip hop routine.
Some unsolicited advice - Know what you do well and then go do it. Leave the hip hop crap to the sisters.
Worst Dance team - CU. Look, I know it's a conservative school, but they had more clothes on than a mummy. They pranced around a couple of times and walked off. Snooze.
UNI's dance team look like a bunch of robots. Try working on something different for next year.
The UE dance team needs to stay away from the buffet spread. There was some serious beef asking a whole lot from their costumes.
Best cheerleaders. Illinois State. They were consistent and better to watch than anyone else. We sure missed the usual WSU contingent though.
I know we didn't get to meet any WSU fans. Apologies to SF8 and SUB.
Ah, next year will be here before you know it. 8)
So here they are, the unsolicited and somewhat unbiased observations from our court side seats.
Best team - Duh. I touched on Drake in a VT thread how they go about business. To truly appreciate, you have to see them in person. Their only achilles heel in the dance will be depth. After the starters and a couple of reserves, they don't have much. Still, they were impressive.
Best player - How Eric Coleman wasn't First team All-Valley is a mystery. Big bad Falker wanted nothing to do with him Friday night and he just abused Sampay and Odiakosa Saturday. He put his team on his back Friday and beat SIU. He got even less help on Saturday and they were toast. The look on Falkers face when he would come out was priceless. Coleman just kept smiling at him every time he returned. It was classic.
Best Coach - How do you argue against Keno. He has designed the perfect setting for the personnel on hand. They know their roles and execute to perfection. Just a thing of beauty to watch.
Best Fans - WSU fans. Hands down. The numbers, the cheering (especially when Marshall came out) and staying for the whole enchilada was impressive.
OK, the not so good.
Worst team - Why did Evansville even show up? We know The Valley mandates participation, but they could have saved the travel costs and issued a statement the whole team was sick. They were really bad.
Worst player - Daniel Ruffin should have stayed in Peoria. He single handily put his team in a hole constantly jacking up off balance 20 footers. Just one bad decision after another. After a while, we just shook our heads every time he launched another scud.
Worst Coach - I know they had a successful run, but what was Jankovich thinking during the 19-0 run by Drake and not calling at least one TO? Not even one? Man, that was painful to watch.
Honorable mention to our good friends Les and Jacobsen. To allow Ruffin to keep bombing away in the CU game was mystifying. And why Eric Coleman didn't touch the ball (at the minimum) every time down the floor in the ISU game was perplexing. His passing was just as dangerous as the low post moves.
Dumbest plays - P'Allen and his mouthpiece snafu took the prize. We were sitting right behind CU's bench and Dana torched him when he sat down. It was sheer immaturity. HM goes to SIU's Wesley Clemmons for two consecutive bonehead fouls at crunch time of the UNI game. He literally cost his team with both of them.
Dumbest fans - SIU. Some of CU's finest get a mention, but SIU's fans ***** and moan about every call.
Every call.
Even calls that DOFO would agree with.
It was a thing of beauty to watch all 15K trudge out after they got
ColeMANed. The place sure got quiet. Real quiet.
Best Dance team - Of course, it's really not a competition. Illinois State's 'Red Line Express' (I even like the name) is very easy on the eyes. Every year, every time. The only moan was their hip hop routine.
Some unsolicited advice - Know what you do well and then go do it. Leave the hip hop crap to the sisters.
Worst Dance team - CU. Look, I know it's a conservative school, but they had more clothes on than a mummy. They pranced around a couple of times and walked off. Snooze.
UNI's dance team look like a bunch of robots. Try working on something different for next year.
The UE dance team needs to stay away from the buffet spread. There was some serious beef asking a whole lot from their costumes.
Best cheerleaders. Illinois State. They were consistent and better to watch than anyone else. We sure missed the usual WSU contingent though.
I know we didn't get to meet any WSU fans. Apologies to SF8 and SUB.
Ah, next year will be here before you know it. 8)
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