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If the two Washington University basketball teams haven’t impressed you enough with their combined 29-1 record, the upcoming intramural basketball season should produce plenty of thrills.
It is hard to find die-hard varsity sports fans despite the continual success of many varsity teams. But maybe sports fans do exist at WU. Maybe there is a place somewhere within this campus that hard-nosed, competitive, win-at-all-cost sports fanatics come to play.
If there is a place where all of the pre-med, double-major, 4.0 students come to vent their anger and display their minimal athletic skills, they do it by playing IM basketball.
The 2002 IM basketball season kicks off on Sunday afternoon. The reigning champions, DSP, managed by Matthew Story, will try to defend their title against The Air Purifiers. DSP returns most of its team, and should make another run at the title. However, other teams expect to pose more of a threat to DSP this time around.
“DSP is going to be tough,” said Michael Majestic, the captain of Caucasian Invasion. “However, we have a lot of returning guys this year, and have been playing a lot together. Mike Cruckshank, our leader, has finally gotten into shape and has matured into a solid point-guard.”
The Caucasian Invasion took DSP to the limit in a regular season game last year before running out of gas with just a few minutes to play.
Shaun Koiner, the captain of The Man, also says DSP is the team to beat this year.
“They’re certainly going to be good again. They don’t really have any stand-out players, but they play really well as a team.”
When asked about his own team, Koiner explains that the team is young and inexperienced, but they will be dangerous.
“We added some freshman cats to the squad,” he said. “They’re talented for sure, and we’re going to go into every game expecting to win. But the main thing is to get better and better every week. We’re young so we’re going to have some great games and some bad ones, but you know, we gonna do our thizzle.”
Clearly DSP has developed a lot of respect around the league, but each team in the league believes that the championship is up for grabs.
“This is my first year playing IM ball at WU, and I know how sweet some of these teams are, but my team is confident and we look forward to the challenge. It should be a sweet season,” says Phil “Shooter” Katz, a member of Money.
Dave Leipholtz, an ex-varsity basketball player, leads another potential threat to DSP, the Big Dumb Animals, into the season on Sunday. Majestic called the Big Dumb Animals “a potential threat, and a team that could dominate anybody if they play their game.” That seems to be the pattern with many of the IM teams this season. There are a lot of teams with potential that have a legitimate shot at the title this year. That is why it should be exciting.
Despite the addition of many talented freshman all over the league, it appears DSP will be the team to beat. DSP brings back players who all know how to win, but they are clearly are going to be faced with new challenges this year. A lot of freshman have been added to many teams, and the talent level of the whole league has been raised a notch. Expect an exciting season of basketball.
Contact Matt at [email protected]