"Bowling Blind"-Part Uno

The Winner Within consisting of Championship Reps

NCAA

Winning...and losing

The correlation between wins and losses is simple in sports: two teams meet, one team scores more is declared the winner, while the team that scores less is declared the loser. Sounds rather simple to say, but in collegiate bowling the victors are a little bit less defined. Usually in team games and in baker games, teams bowl them out, accumulate pinfall totals and at weekend's end, the team that has knocked down the most pins is declared the winner, those that do not are considered runner up finishers. It has always been the simplest formula to observe and it makes sense when you think about it: bowling is not a 40 yard dash, it is a 26.2 mile marathon. You don't make careers in a day or in a week but in the long course of seasons and multiple victories. In the college world, as written before, you only get so many chances in four years to make a career or make a team so a season is neither a sprint or a marathon, yet a 10K or a half marathon. Your pacing has to change and be out near the front of the pack from the start in order to pull ahead in the end and emerge victorious.

Last week's Eastern Shore Hawk Classic in Millsboro, Deleware had Vanderbilt emerge victorious for the second consecutive tournament to make it a perfect start to their season...kinda...sorta...

Let's review some quick facts about the tournament last weekend:

1) Vanderbilt beat Kutztown University by 257 pins and beat third place Deleware State by 545 pins.

2) Michelle Peloquin and Josie Earnest finished 2nd and 4th respectively for the all-events, marking the second consecutive tournament the best 1-2 combo in the nation and possibly the best 1-2 bowling combo since Nathan Bohr-Sean Rash at Wichita State came out in the top 5.

3) The mere fact that teams cannot physically hang with the Lady 'Dores, especially in the northeastern part of the country has now turned the college bowling season into a rather intriguing storyline between Nebraska and Vanderbilt. These two teams have clearly emerged as the two superpowers in NCAA bowling and nothing short of a 1 vs. 2 season long power struggle to where you hope at season's end bowling fans get a national championship between the Huskers and the 'Dores and that it lives up to the hype in April.

4) Vanderbilt's record after two events this season is not 2-0, but it is 28-5.

28 wins and 5 losses??? Yes, their record is 28 and 5. Despite these being "tournaments", the game within the game is a win-loss record in the context of the tournament which, in turn helps establish teams with records in the course of a season. This enables the National Tenpin Coaches Association (NTCA) to establish a rankings system to determine the top teams in the nation. The NTCA then selects 8 teams to participate in the women's national championship in April.

This past weekend, Vandy lost 3 games this week (same as host school and reigning national champions, Maryland-Eastern Shore) which now put them at 28-5 despite being utterly dominant in their first two tournaments in terms of pinfall. Michelle (who if you haven't noticed, I like a lot..."she's cool, pretty, excellent bowler, maybe she'll go on a date with a starving blogger"...) intimated to me on Saturday after their team game loss to Sacred Heart that the team has to learn how to win games. It is a strange dichotomy into how NCAA bowling is in that a team that was leading the tournament after Saturday afternoon was leaving the bowling center a loser in relation to win-loss record...by one pin no less.

While Michelle's worries are warranted as well the worries of Earnest as well (in tears after the SHU match as she failed to strikeout to win the match outright and showed tremendous emotion), the three losses must be looked at in their own context. Friday, they lost to Jersey City in bakers after NJCU shot a tournament high baker game of 269. Saturday in the team game portion, they lost twice to Bethune-Cookman and the aforementioned Lady Pioneers of SHU. In both those games however, Vandy ran into some lefty magic. Against Bethune-Cookman, it took a tournament high game of 257 to beat Vanderbilt by 27 pins. In the second loss to Sacred Heart, the lefty combination of Sarah Pellatier and Katie Edsall both shot in the 240's, with the latter Edsall basically channeling her inner Tommy Jones and carrying everything in sight to help score the upset. In Pellatier, she ended up winning the all-event title playing a risky bank shot but rewarding enough to claim individual victory.

But team bowling is not based on the one player, but the 5 bowling and the support system on their bench. Vanderbilt went on to sweep all 6 games in Sunday's baker format using a combination of good team play, rotation changes, and flat out solid shotmaking to turn a tight tournament between a game Kutztown team into a rout, plus a rather solid beatdown of KU in bakers 816-697. Win-loss records aside, you can observe a lot just from watching as Yogi Berra would say. What I have seen from Vanderbilt in two tournaments is a dominant team game group of players who are great shotmakers from player 1 to 6. They have a versatile lineup so much so that Peloquin, easily the best senior class bowler in the nation is bowling second in team games. The real question is whether or not they can pull off success in the baker games, the backbone of college bowling come April. That will be the true question of winning and losing. Will Peloquin be right in saying that her team has to learn how to win? They have until April to find out...

PBA Tour

Just a few quick observations on the Big Wood PBA Tour this past week:

1) "Dear Kenny Simard....": keep talking to Norm Duke and you're bank account will go up. Simard was easily the best player in the field this past week in Chicago as he threatened to shoot the 19th televised perfect game in tour history against Brad Angelo Sunday. Unfortunately, Simard shot 289 in the semifinal match and then lost in the title match to Wes Malott in devastating fashion leaving a ringing 10 pin to lose 216-211. In fairness to Malott, he completely outbowled Simard in terms of lane play and in hitting the pocket but still had to sweat out Simard needing a double in the 10th to claim his first title. It was not in the cards for Simard but as long as he keeps Norm Duke's ear, he will win soon and often.

2) Jason Couch's return: great to see JC back on TV after 9 months away due to knee surgery and he was his usual solid self albeit in defeat to Angelo. Couch is a great mark for the sport of bowling in terms of excitement, energy, clutch, big-game, big-time performances as well as his risk-reward style of game. Yes, he's got 15 titles and 4 majors and here is hoping he's got another great 1999-2002 major run in him especially with Duke still performing at a high level in the majors and pushing the major envelope to another level in recent seasons. Bowling is better when these two players are in the hunt for big time wins because of the intensity they bring and the audacity they have on the lanes. Hopefully, both are healthy for the entire season and bring their best to the big tournaments.

3) Wes' one win was...?: Wes Malott likes to win once a year so he got his title out of the way really quickly by winning for the second time in Chicago in his career-4th title and one each in the last four seasons-and for the second time on the scorpion pattern. However...I don't see this being the end of Wes' winning ways this season. In six events, he has already made 3 shows on 3 different patterns, in the top 3 in points, average, and player of the year points. He is truly a monster out on tour and Malott can really revolutionize the sport for big men.

4) Angelo is back: I knew he won earlier this year in Omaha but in losing to Simard yesterday (or getting gangbanged for lack of a better word), you see Brad Angelo be Brad Angelo again. In his first two or three seasons on tour he was great on TV from a standpoint of talent, humor, personality, and intensity...but no wins. The last part (the no wins) started to mentally affect him it appeared and whenever he got to television in recent years, he struggled and wallowed in darkness while not showing much emotion. It seemed as if for all the world, it looked as if a great player was not going to get over the winless hurdle. Then Omaha came, Angelo outbowled everyone on the show and won his first title which seemingly has rejuvenated him. In getting creamed by Simard, Angelo was waving the towel in the 8th frame of their match when he knew he was done in for and he smiled through it all. One win can change a lot in a guy's eyes and for Angelo it was a spirited win. He is back on TV smiling, showing himself to the crowd, having a good time like he did several years ago when he was arguably the best player on tour. If you wanna argue over details about "best player" go ahead but he was the top player in points in a cumulative sense for almost two seasons. His ball roll might very well be match by roughly 0.1% of the guys on tour and when he's on, he's on.

5) Ladies...?: So far in three Women's Series events, nothing has stirred my interest in women's bowling this season. Yes, Michelle Feldman becoming a dominant player in the series is helping putting an old face with a new concept but so far, the Women's Series events have been rather uninspiring. It has not helped that Feldman's two victims in Jody Woessner and Missy Bellinder have averaged about 160 in their matchups against Feldman but still, we are dealing with a so far lifeless Women's Series.

Tomorrow: Part Two of Bowling Blind surfaces around 'bowling' in another sense...