5/2/07 Division B Top 25 Poll is out

[PigPen]

I think Coach Horn has a lot of great points. I would love to see every game at the tournament, consolation or not, be treated with respect and full of energy and competition. But I am with Sonny, they just aren't and that is a fact. The bottom seeds just happy to have made it? They love the consolations games and the chance to prove they aren't a fluke. But the top seeds expecting a championship? No way. They lose, their season is over and they begrudgingly play the games.

I had to chime in on this one-I have been a player at the old NIRSA nationals (pre USLIA) and have covered/ been at 6 out of the last 7 tourneys. I wish everyone had Rob's passion for consolation games, but that's not the case. Dan said it all. I have seen some teams go for it all (UMD/UT in '04 Coach Graff calls for a stick check late inthe 4th to turn the game so UMD wins) and have seen A&M/Auburn have their goalies faceoff. Same argument for tourney records-Pike's umteen goals in a conso vs. Arizona is an accomplishment but not as meaningful as the FSU kid doing it in the actual tourney game.

But teams that are there with a mindset to win it all just aren't going to get up for consol games. I had to interview one prominent coach on the third day of the tourney after their second and final consol game. I asked the question-how do you motivate your guys for this kind of situation. Perfect repsonse sums it up-"We came here to win it all-it's nine o'clock in the morning on Friday and this game means nothing to us I think the motivation has to come from within, but in this situation I can't blame my guys for coming out flat. It's time to go home."

I agree with Sonny-if you lose, you get one more game just to play. That way you get two games for coming (just liek most road trips). If the team decides to stay-hopefully the coach can arrange some off field activities for entertainment-St. Louis always got rave review for that. I remember one year one team (who must have also had the same feelings) left without anyone knowing and didn't even show for their last consol game.

[Buc_em_up]

Southwestern has been blown out in both of their trips to nationals.

This is not entirely true, but because we have been at the bottom of the seeds both of the last two years, we have had to play high seeded teams that could be expected to win by a substantial margin. Last year however, in our first consolation game we gave Calvin a good run for their money, could have beaten them if we played like we had all season, and then in the second consolation game we beat Augustana (who had beat harding to get the AQ). Im not saying that we should win Div. B, but we want to play and give it our best shot.

I'm pretty sure you lost to augustana last year at nationals......i could be wrong, but i'm pretty sure i read that somewhere

Yeah you are right, we beat calvin and lost to augustana, my bad

[Andy Sharp]

Dayton played a great championship earlier tonight,

Calvin 0 5 2 1 - 8
Dayton 3 7 6 3 - 19

They met my expectations, will surely blow many of yours out of the water.

If we didn't hold our own at face-offs, who knows how much worse it would have been. Calvin 15, Dayton 7 (missing 2, with 2 non-fo restarts)

The tempo was much different than last year's 6-4 game, the goalies were put to the test and transition play was vital.

Their shot count, plus accuracy/variety was more than we could handle or keep pace with, one count had them totaling 49 to our 28.

Both goalies reportedly had 13/14 saves a piece.

This team is worthy of the bye and my hesitation, after reading all about it from the critics, about their SOS proved unwarrented.

[Dr. Jason Stockton]

Dayton played a great championship earlier tonight,

Calvin 0 5 2 1 - 8
Dayton 3 7 6 3 - 19

They met my expectations, will surely blow many of yours out of the water

This team is worthy of the bye and my hesitation, after reading all about it from the critics, about their SOS proved unwarrented.

As a poll voter, Dayton certainly sent a loud message my way. That's an impressive win. . .