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Morning Line: Tucson Day 1

By: Slade Long

TUCSON, Ariz. – Welcome back to the PBR’s Unleash The Beast season. Since late May of this year, the focus has been on the PBR Team Series competition, and it’s been interesting in a number of ways, which I’ll touch on a lot of these as the UTB season goes along.

The biggest change Teams introduced is a change in perspective. In normal PBR competition, it’s every man for himself, and the best path to success for an individual rider is essentially to stay on more bulls. Technically you would need to stay on more bulls from all over the spectrum, not just get lucky and draw more easy ones. This is true for teams too, but think about it from the perspective of each team and it gets deeper. Teams can choose their riders and set their own matchups. So, they are aiming for the same thing a single rider needs, but they are doing it for 10+ riders, plus they have the advantage of making the best matchups they can for each game rather than settling for a random draw.

Given that the teams have these options and avenues to strategize at the next level, you would expect to see riding percentage go up, and it did … but only by 3% over the UTB norm. You might also expect some guys to really improve in the Teams format, and a lot of them did. Most of the teams had some guys who outperformed their career-best seasons, and this is exactly what SHOULD happen when you have the ability to set matchups for every game.

Looking at the opening round here in Tucson, this will be a bit of a wakeup call for a lot of guys. There aren’t a lot of ideal matchups for riders, or at least not as many as you would see at a Teams competition. Almost 30% of the bulls out in round 1 are relatively inexperienced too.

Colten Fritzlan on 914 Lights Out:
Fritzlan missed some time during the Teams season with injury and didn’t ride up to his normal standard when he was able to go. He has a prime matchup here. Lights Out is one of the nicest bulls to ride that you will find at the UTB level. He’s 6-8 in his career and 0-7 at UTB events. Fritzlan should have the upper hand here and could get off to a good start bouncing back from a tough 2022 season.

Koltin Hevalow on 72 Hundred Bad Days:
Hevalow appeared at two UTB events in 2022, going 0-for-3 at those. He stayed busy during the Teams season riding for the Kansas City Outlaws. He accounted for about 10% of his team’s total points on the season. Hundred Bad Days is good for left-handed riders, has been ridden in 4 of his last 5 outs and he happens to belong to Hevalow’s coach – J.W. Hart. This won’t be an easy matchup. This bull is no pushover, but Hevalow has a shot at a round win and a statement ride here.

Joao Henrique Lucas on 7641 High Plains Drifter:
Rafael Jose de Brito rode this bull twice at Ridge Riders Days in Glendale, Arizona, this past October. Drifter is 2-2 against right-handed riders overall. Lucas rode 41% of his bulls during the Teams season, which is significantly better than he’s done in any UTB season. He was the second-best producer for the Nashville Stampede and was instrumental in helping the organization win the Teams championship event in Las Vegas Nov. 6.

Kaique Pacheco on 858 Trump Train:
Pacheco was the best and most effective rider for Nashville during the Teams season, but his overall riding percentage was a little lower than his UTB season totals for the past three years. Pacheco is not really what you would call streaky, but at times he is good, and at other times he’s unstoppable. He’s on a roll right now and has a very manageable bull here.

Daylon Swearingen on 295 Otis:
It’s been a while since this bull was ridden, but it’s also been a while since he faced an elite, left-handed rider. Swearingen had a career year all the way around in 2022. He won the World Title in May, was the best rider on the Carolina Cowboys’ roster and the second-best rider on any roster during the inaugural Teams season. He also stayed healthy all year and won a ton of money. He should have the edge here.

Briggs Madsen on 894 Tijuana Two Step:
This is Madsen’s first UTB event, but he should be well prepared for it. He was a solid player for the Oklahoma Freedom during Teams – riding a respectable 35% of his bulls. This bull will probably go away from his hand, but this is a nice bull and Madsen has a shot here.

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