--- In quizbowl_at_yahoogroups.com, "nicolas_walters" <Sywolf_at_a...> wrote: > > The tournament essentially has gone from one where any > team in the field could win, depending on luck, packets, etc. to one > where it is almost a de facto result ahead of time. We might as well > send them the trophy already, if the same four that played at West > Coast SCT are playing at ICT. I can understand Nick's frustration here, but I've got to say as a coach that I'm surprised by his willingness to concede the tournament already. I'm not good with S-values and stuff, but even if they scored a bunch of points, there's six weeks in which to drill yourself and your teammates to get better. Besides, experience-schmexperience: I realize I'll probably get hooted for this, but I don't think it makes that much difference to have played ICT before. You've played NAQT format, so that's not new; now you just have to answer questions. You either know the answers or not; it shouldn't matter if you were there last year. Further, though perhaps I shouldn't be broadcasting this, UCLA's team won't feature the only veterans you might face. If my Valencia team qualifies at our SCT this weekend (a fair bet), two of my players will be playing ICT for a second (and a third) time, obviously in Division II. Last year both of them played in the DII final. That's more experience than even the UCLA fellows have. It's also possible that some members of the Hutchinson CC team that qualified from Kansas or the Bevill CC team that qualified from Alabama could have vets from two years ago, when both were at the ICT in Chapel Hill. In any case, NAQT, allows three years of play for CC competitors. In any case, I hope Nick and others in DII at the ICT will use the existence of UCLA vets in the field as a motivator to practice hard for the next few weeks. Don't be sending that trophy to UCLA just yet . . . --chris
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0: Sat 12 Feb 2022 12:30:47 AM EST EST