Let’s not break up Casey Patterson and Theo Brunner just yet

Put the dynamite away. Stow the C4. Let the fuse remain unlit.

Let’s not blow up Casey Patterson and Theo Brunner just yet.

Yes, they’ve had two bad tournaments, in New York and The Hague, Netherlands. Even then, I’m not even sure bad fits the bill.

So let’s hold on just a second before we start demanding a partnership breakup because of two rough – kind of rough – tournaments.

They took fifth in New York. For Patterson, this isn’t great, particularly when considering that the first loss was to 11th-seeded Ed Ratledge and Eric Zaun and they also benefitted from a forfeit from Nick Lucena and Phil Dalhausser, who bailed when Nick’s wife, Brooke, went into labor.

Their other loss came in the quarterfinals to Ricardo Santos and Chaim Schalk, the very team that put Dalhausser and Lucena in the contender’s bracket in the first place. I’ve written enough on both that it should be patently clear at this point that losing to that team should come with no shame whatsoever.

Playing today in the FIVB Moscow event at 1:10pm. Hopefully @richyusa won't be judging us from behind all day