Skyd Draft

I talk about ultimate a lot. Friends, family, girlfriend (who points out that I probably talk about it too much) - it doesn't matter with whom I'm speaking, since I'll probably bring up ultimate regardless. So it was excellent when Skyd came out with a draft. Even more ultimate to talk about! The draft is here: http://skydmagazine.com/2014/03/2014-mock-draft-draft-board/ and there is additional analysis done by three ultimate minds (Kyle Weisbord, Brandon Malecek, and Alex Ghesquire) as well as team specific thoughts.

Here are some of my thoughts on the draft*:

Best and worst pick by round based on who else was available

1. Best = Kitteredge, Worst = Joye
2. Best = tie: Tunnell / Degirolamo, Worst = Koss
3. Best = tie: Natenberg / Driscoll, Worst = (Adam) Simon
4. Best = tie: Sneider / Farrell, Worst = Neff
5. Best = Wiggins, Worst = Nelson
6. Best = Vasilyev, Worst = Perston
7. Best = Loskorn, Worst = Kinley
8. Best = tie: Gehret / Dahl, Worst = Konker
9. Best = Foord, Worst = Nord
10. Best  = (Danny) Clark, Worst = Carneige
11. Best = tie: Thomas / Harris, Worst = none (cop out I know, but every pick in this round was great)
12. Best = Matsuno, Worst = Browar-Jarus
13. Best = Stuart, Worst = Herscu
14. Best = Wilson, Worst = Green
15. Best = Shofner, Worst = Allison-Hall
16. Best = Abrams, Worst = Kolinek

Best possible picks left on the board (not in any order)

• Morgan Hibbert
• Andrew Brown
• Andre Gailits
• Tom James
• Mark Poole
• Karl Loiseau
• Nick Menzies

Solid sleepers in a deeper draft

• Aaron Loach
• John Korber
• Justin Allen
• Bob Liu
• David Melacon
• Derek Alexander
• Simon Higgins
• Tim Gilligan
• Andrew Hollingworth

Overall thoughts

It's drafts like these that are the future of ultimate; people being this invested for this long are what differentiate ultimate between a game people enjoy playing and something with which a fan can connect. These aren't necessarily the "greatest" ultimate minds partaking in the draft, but that's what brings out the best in the analysis and commentary. I hope more events like this happen more frequently (last real draft was 5 years ago), and there is a running commentary on ultimate in general.

For an effort of full disclosure, I consulted with Team Jones Smith for the majority of their draft, so take everything I say with a grain of salt.

* - To clarify, every single player in this draft is better than I am in many, if not all, facets of ultimate. I'm judging them solely based off of the draft itself and not saying anything about them as a player. Even a team of the "worst picks" per round would absolutely dominate a team of 14 of me in any aspect of the game.