Friday, September 14, 2012

4-2=The fight for the title


The tournament is winding down, and there are only two blog posts left (including this one) before Thoughts from the Guardshack follows Yahtzee’s Roll on Life into hibernation. Sorry to start this off on a sad note, but 1) my semester is really busy, 2) yours is too judging by the sharp decline in views after school started, and 3) it just seems like a good place to end it. Before that happens, though, we have a tournament to analyze! We are down to the Final Four: Joey “Big Stick” Bauman, Cyle DeBoer, DJ Pyle, and James “Changalang” Chang. The #1 overall pick is still alive in Joe Bauman and he looks very poised to make a run at the ‘ship. Will he get past this round, or will his quest for ring #2 come up short. Actually, either way he is getting a 2nd ring…but we all know which ring he wants more. Alright, here we go!


Joey Bauman vs. Cyle DeBoer—Two great guys, zero great ladies…actually zero ladies regardless of greatness. That’s a problem. To be honest, Cyle got put in a very tough bracket, and that is why he is in the Final Four. If he had been in the yellow bracket with Freisen, Chang, and Dontay he would have made a much earlier exit. But that’s life, sometimes the hands of fate slap you in the face…or in Cyle’s case they break a bone in your hand. However, Coach Talley has taught us how to make a positive out of a negative, and I think Cyle will use that. But I’m getting ahead of myself. First I have to talk about Joe a little bit…mainly because if I don’t he will go into a rage because he wasn’t mentioned and didn’t get any attention. Ok, so that’s a lie, but I need to talk about Joe regardless so here we go. Joe has this strange sense of pride about winning the Bachelor to the Rapture tournament. I don’t know why, but it’s almost like he’s found his life purpose through this. I don’t know how healthy that is, but Joe is my brother in Christ, and I support him in his life journey. That’s all you get Joe, but relax, there is more to come about you.

Back to Cyle. He broke a bone in his hand a few weeks ago and has been busy recovering and (hopefully) developing connections with the female gender. This might be through pity points with the cast and all, but that doesn’t matter. It’s just like banking in a 3 pointer, it might not be ideal, but the points count regardless. All of this to say, Cyle makes it out of this tournament, and celebrates his hard fought loss (victory?) with some God-honoring marital…well you know. Joe cuts down the net so to speak and heads into the championship game focused and ready for a tough battle.


DJ Pyle vs. James Chang—Battle of the south here; DJ hails from the land of oranges and Chang says he’s from Atlanta, although I thought for the longest time he was from Madison. That doesn’t matter, what matters is which one will get the lady first. Chang has some mad long boarding skills, and I just read on facebook today that DJ Changalang is coming back. On the other hand, DJ….well…is still DJ. It is appropriate and relevant to greet him with, “Mornin’ Deej” regardless of the time of day simply because for him it’s always morning. Sleepy Deej values a couple things: his bed and his hair. With the hair being extra poufy as of late, he has made several comments about it. I’m not a girl, so I don’t want to assume here, but I’m guessing poufy hair is not tops on the “What to look for in a guy” list. Just like with Joe, though, I will continue to support him in his life journey and let him learn this lesson in time.

Who will win this matchup? I was struggling for a decisive factor that would make this clear cut. I went back and forth and was honestly leaning toward sending Chang into the finals. To clear my mind a little bit, I sent out a twitter poll asking for opinions. It only took one response to get my decisive factor. Of all people it came from my summer blogging partner and the one who got me into all this, Tim Youtzy. His tweet reads as follows: “DJ Pyle advances. Rising asian population at NWC gives Chang a chance.” Boom. Decision made. That was the X-factor I needed and I can’t believe I missed it. I talked about NWC’s cultural makeup a lot when analyzing Kabakas “CoCo” Clark, and it applies here as well. While the N-Dub still has a small population of African-Americans, there is a rising number of Asians. In addition, the startup of his deejay career will help him in that department as well. I agree with Tim, Cyle, Dammo, and Isaac (who also picked DJ) and Mr. Pyle is in the finals.



Here we go, an epic battle for the ring and the rights to be called the Bachelor to the Rapture between Joe Bauman and DJ Pyle. Who will win? Find out in the next installment of Thoughts from the Guardshack (which will be written in the guard shack because it just seems like the right thing to do). 

No comments:

Post a Comment