Platteville will be hosting the the 9th annual Zanderthon Throw-Down on March 1st. The teams in attendance will be the University of Wisconsin Platteville (UWP), the University of Wisconsin Stout (UWS), University of Wisconsin Eau Claire (UWEC), University of Illinois Urbana Champaign (UIUC), and alumni. This weekend UWEC and Stout will join up to make a team and UWP and UIUC will be doing a double header making it 4 times they will have played each other. Let’s take a look at the teams, the schedule, and some thoughts from a few players below.
UWEC/UWS– Stout and Eau Claire will be joining up to form a team to get more reps in on the season. Both programs are still really new so this is a great opportunity for them to learn and continue to grow. The experience will be valuable to them and will help them build confidence in their understanding of the game. It will help them develop their skills and figure out the type of strategy that works best for them! We are glad to see them at the event and look forward to seeing their improvements from previous ones.
UWP-Platteville’s job this weekend will be to continue to build off the Rosen Bowl performance and continue to work on the fundamentals. The Pioneers need to continue to get everyone more involved on the court as it will be important in helping them stay fresh and ready to attack at all times. UWP wants to continue to build confidence up in their players as well as building trust with each other. They need to focus on being disciplined and doing the little things right if they wish to come out with 2 wins this weekend.
UIUC– This weekend will be interesting to see what type of team Illinois will be bringing to the Zanderthon Throw-Down. They will not be at full strength so they will have to really be on their game if they are going to compete and take wins against the Pioneers. At the Huskie Invite, they also did not play with a full squad and were still able to find a way to play effectively and beat Platteville. This means they got what it takes but they will need to play their best as UWP will be at full strength and it is their home court.
The following are a few questions for a few players on the day and what they are expecting from their team.
Erik Zander–What do you want to see for your team’s performance this weekend?
Charles Cardenas (UIUC)-Given our low numbers, I hope to see good team coordination to stay alive on the court as long as possible. Minimizing mistakes will help us even the playing field against a solid and strategic home team. That being said, we still have a solid squad and most of our core members to compete.
Hollie Wheeler (UWP)– I hope to see solid communication and uniform movement. We all need to move up and back together quickly to avoid getting crossed. We will need convincing pump fakes at every point on the court in order to keep our opponents at bay and allow us to command the court. I’m hoping we can win all of our games, especially with us having the numbers for this tournament.
EZ-Who are some players you expect to stand out for your team?
CC-I’d like to see Brandon Gacek, Alejandro Montez, and Ehis Eromosele show off their experience with solid play. These guys can all show off on the court and I expect them to do so at some point this weekend.
HW-I expect Eric Sullivan and Tori Sanborn to really stick out on the team. Eric has proven to be really effective with his pump fakes and throws no matter where he is positioned on the court. Tori has shown lots of improvement and she has really found her place on the court as a really strong play caller, thrower, and catcher. She is someone the team can rely on for blocks and all around support.
EZ–What do you want to see from your teammates in the no-sting match?
HW-For the no-sting, I want to see our team fall into place and have the game just click for us. We have all the elements, we just need to get the flow right. I want to see more pump fakes that are strong enough to bait our opponents into giving us ball control. I am extremely proud of how far our women’s team has come and I can’t wait to see them show off their progress since the last home tournament no-sting game.
Final Thoughts– UWEC/UWS has a great opportunity to get more experience and continue to grow and help develop their understanding of the game. This weekend Platteville has their first opportunity to finally get a win against Illinois and hopefully get the taste of the over time loss to them out of their systems. For UIUC, this is a great opportunity for them to see just how talented they are and if they can compete even when at a disadvantage in numbers. These games will be a great test for them and allow them to grow and continue to get better and be able to compete at nationals. We will be streaming the games on the Platteville Dodgeball YouTube channel. If you have not, make sure to subscribe to the channel at the following link so that you get the notification when we go live (UW-Platteville Dodgeball)!