I Love This Game (Warriors Basketball)

It's true.

I'm a big time fan, and have been through bad times and good. The current state of the team is a bit depressing, but it doesn't mean I'll jump ship, it only means that I have a lot to say (and that I'll be able to go to more games because people will be StubHub-ing their season tickets like hot-cakes).

Over the next week or so I plan on breaking down my thoughts about the team. I'll start with the summer // going into the season, then move on to the early season and the play, and finally move into what I'd like to see happen. A lot of change within the organization appears eminent over the next few months, I just hope it goes down at all like I'd want it to.

My current top 5 favorite Warriors:

5. Capn. Jax (More so when there is a real play maker to bring the ball up, he's not a point forward. Loved him the last two years).

4. Marco Belinelli a.k.a. poor man's Manu

3. Andris a.k.a. Drago

2. BWright (I really liked him last year, and he seems to do good things for spacing and ball movement when he's out there. Sure he'll make some mistakes, but he's young let him develop.)

1. Monta (I don't care that he hurt humself in a freek accident, kid is sick. I was going to buy a mid 90s throwback Monta Jersey if the Ws made the playoffs last year.)

More to come.

Questions for the Upcoming College Season

Okay loyal fans, I'm sorry that I'm a bad blogger.  It happens.  There is no way I can catch up on all the post ideas I've had in recent months, so instead I'll throw out something quick to try and get me going again.  So, with all the controversy this fall over the '09 college season, and all the eventual inactivity, I figured I'd review some things to think about going into winter break.

1) Who will emerge as the Open devision front runner in SoCal?  We should get the answer to this question post SB invite.  UCSB has historically performed very strong at their home tournament, but I don't know if that can be expected from them in this rebuilding year.  As I see it now, Claremont, UCSD, and UCSB seem to be relinquishing the hold they've had on the section of late with a Semis birth at Sean Ryan for SLO and a SoCal Warmup Championship from CSULB.  My instinct tells me this is SLO's year (they've got this guy Dom, Captain of SLO-Core, and I think he'll wind up being the difference maker).

2) How strong will Arizona be?  Sure, they lost a lot of guys, but they've built dedication, and their younger guys got great experience last year.  I predict they make semis at SB Invite.

3) Will any SoCal team make semis at SB?  Right now I'd go with no.

4) How strong will the NW be this year?  After a recent low in strength as a region last year, can the NW rebound?  I think it will, and I think there will again be a top 10 team left out of Nationals because of the current bid allocation process.

5) When will the Stanford invite happen?  Well?

6) Where will the competition go?  In a way, this was the question that defined the fall, and it can still define the spring.  Most of the teams invited to C1 were prepared to go where the competition went.  Now the question is, where will they go next.  I think Vegas, Stanford, and Centex will prove strong again this year, but I wouldn't be surprised if a couple of teams defected from Centex for Southerns or Easterns (tournaments where the men's and women's teams could both play, and then spend the week together).  Also, I wonder how many teams can really afford to travel across the country all the time anymore.

and the big one for me:

7) What does the separation of Women's Centex from Open Centex, and the emergence of Pres Day as the choice tournament for top women's teams early in the season mean for the future of college ultimate tournaments?  Will we see more single gender events with the creation of a regular season.

I do like the evidence of growth in the women's devision this year.  With the expansion of Women's Centex and the addition of a Qualifier for the Women's devision at the SB invite.  Maybe we'll see more college women's tournaments this spring.