Mosconi Cup selection

adammcnatt said:
I would like to wish the US team luck and success. However, I would have put Corey Deuel and John Schmidt on the team.
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A case can be made for Deuel, but Schmidt had a pretty modest year that included a failure to reach the knockout stages at the WPC. All in all, I think a good job was done selecting the American team.

The European team selection must have been a little trickier. Immonen, Hohmann, Chamat, and Feijen are obvious. Alex Lely is a rock solid choice in view of his brilliant effort at the European Championships.

To me, the choice of Raj Hundal comes as a bit of a surprise. Despite Hundal's win at the world Pool Masters, I'd suggest that the case for both Sandor Tot (#1 ranked player on the Eurotour and 9th at the BCA Open) and Nick Vandenberg (5th at the WPC and 7th at the US Open) is stronger than the case for one-hit wonder Hundal.

Still, it's exciting to see an English player selected, and I wish Raj good luck.

Should be a great Mosconi Cup.
 
I think that Schmidt will raise to the occasion if selected. Who makes the decisions anyway? Williams is not even a remote threat to win anything except the lag. A couple of years ago, he lost every match he played (even his partners in the doubles could not offset his pitiful game). How he ends up as a permanent member of the US team defies reasoning. Also, I am not sure if Putnam is better than Deuel. Finally, Strickland should not represent anything or any entity but himself.
On the european side, Chamat played as a D player against Bustamante at the US open. There is no way he should be there instead of Van den Berg who did great at the WPC and US open. I would have put the snooker genius and two-time world champion Ronnie O'Sullivan on the team. He has played in the Mosconi Cup and wants to play 9-ball in the US next year. Lastly, Stalev instead of Lely.
 
adammcnatt said:
On the european side, Chamat played as a D player against Bustamante at the US open. There is no way he should be there instead of Van den Berg who did great at the WPC and US open. I would have put the snooker genius and two-time world champion Ronnie O'Sullivan on the team. He has played in the Mosconi Cup and wants to play 9-ball in the US next year. Lastly, Stalev instead of Lely.
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Seems to me that you don't care much who has played well since the last Mosconi Cup. Lely was the European 9-ball and European 8-ball champion in 2005. If that's not good enough, then Vandenberg doesn't belong either.
 
sjm said:
Seems to me that you don't care much who has played well since the last Mosconi Cup. Lely was the European 9-ball and European 8-ball champion in 2005. If that's not good enough, then Vandenberg doesn't belong either.
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And Shawn Putnam won 2 UPA events back to back (Corey didn't). :rolleyes: Someone's game can go up or down in a years time. Also, the players aren't just hand picked. There's a process that they go by. I don't know the full process but I do know that if the winner of the US Open is American, they get a spot. If not, it falls back to UPA calendar yr ranking, which would probably explain Charlie Williams... Johnny is 1st, Shawn is 2nd, Thorsten is 3rd (can't play for the Americans) and Charlie is 4th. I'm not exactly thrilled about Charlie being on the team either but it appears to be on the up & up instead of politics....JMO
 
Timberly said:
And Shawn Putnam won 2 UPA events back to back./QUOTE]

Shawn is a superb choice. If memory serves, he won the 2004 UPA Championship, the 9-ball event at the Super billiard Expo at Valley Forge and the US Open warmup event. He's been playing well for quite a while, and will be a great asset to the American team.
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sjm said:
Timberly said:
And Shawn Putnam won 2 UPA events back to back./QUOTE]

Shawn is a superb choice. If memory serves, he won the 2004 UPA Championship, the 9-ball event at the Super billiard Expo at Valley Forge and the US Open warmup event. He's been playing well for quite a while, and will be a great asset to the American team.
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Close but not quite. he won the 1st UPA tournament of the 2005 yr in Pittsburgh. Which was also the 1st tournament of the now defunct North American Open Tour. :( Great concept, gone about the wrong way. The following month he won in Valley Forge. Yes, Shawn's most recent win was at the US Open warm up where he beat Warren Kiamco (sp) amongst others in a field that consisted of Allen Hopkins, Earl Strickland, Mike Davis, & Jose Parica, to name a few. Great tourney by the way. The Tiger Planet Pool folks always run an enjoyable tournament & I try to go to as many as I can.

I think both Mosconi teams are strong. I'm not going to rip 'em apart, I'm going to support 'em. There might be a person here or there that I don't agree with but I'm still going to support them. :cool:
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Timberly said:
Close but not quite. he won the 1st UPA tournament of the 2005 yr in Pittsburgh. Which was also the 1st tournament of the now defunct North American Open Tour. :( Great concept, gone about the wrong way. The following month he won in Valley Forge. Yes, Shawn's most recent win was at the US Open warm up where he beat Warren Kiamco (sp) amongst others in a field that consisted of Allen Hopkins, Earl Strickland, Mike Davis, & Jose Parica, to name a few. Great tourney by the way. The Tiger Planet Pool folks always run an enjoyable tournament & I try to go to as many as I can.

I think both Mosconi teams are strong. I'm not going to rip 'em apart, I'm going to support 'em. There might be a person here or there that I don't agree with but I'm still going to support them. :cool:
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Thanks for the correction, Timberly. That was it, the North American Open Tour event. My memory failed me, as it does from time to time.

I know Shawn will do himself proud.
 
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