This Valentine’s Day marks the fourth installment of arguable the most important tournament on the East Coast every year. The Big East-Appalachian Super Tournament, commonly known as the BEAST, has played host to some of the best lineups in its previous three installments. This year, due to the Michigan Dodgeball Cup happening at the same time, there will not be another “top-tier” team (usually considered the four main Michigan schools and JMU) joining JMU’s home tournament this weekend. What the tournament does have though, are the three biggest teams on the East Coast, which has been gaining a lot of traction in a lot of people’s minds, in JMU, UMD and Towson, Ohio power Kent State, and NCDA newcomer Akron.
This tournament will give each team attending a great opportunity to learn a lot of things they have going for them, and what they need to improve on in preparation for Nationals in April. Going on that, here is a game-by-game preview and prediction of how I think things will go. Continue reading “BEAST IV Preview”
