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...inside the Linndale locker room, pre game...

“Defend, rebound, and take care of the basketball.” Pio figured it was a young group and he’d do well to set the tone and expectations immediately. “I want you to be able to defend your position well, and then be able to defend another position. Defensively, we’re not good enough. Rebound. We have to be able to go and get the basketball. The basketball belongs to us. Do NOT let the other team have it. If you go get the basketball, the other team can’t score and it gives us more chances to score. Take care of the basketball. I HATE turnovers on offense. I love causing turnovers on defense. It’s OUR basketball. Protect it.”

Pio looked around the locker room. Ubaldo Pestana was the only player not here, and he logged into the meeting on the team’s videoconferencing platform. He was away due to a personal matter. Everyone looked alert and attentive. That was good; there had been times he remembers from his playing days where that wasn’t always the case. Those players never lasted long.

“Gentlemen, we expect to make the playoffs. That is our expectation. That is ALWAYS the expectation here. Defend, rebound, and take care of the basketball. If you do that, no one will want to play you in the postseason.”

“Now, on to tonight’s opponent. It’s going to be a big ask, but we have to find a way to control Armstead. If he has a big game, we lose. Don't let him gp for 40 points 20 rebounds on us, or some ridiculous performance,and make him work for what he gets. You all know what the game plan is. Reese, be ready. I expect nice things from you. Reynolds, watch carefully, ask questions, and when your number is called, put in the work. Datler, just keep grinding. Shooter, 15 off the bench tonight?”

“Nope. 20, Coach.” Trenton Tovar had a lot of confidence. Sometimes, too much.

“Just don’t let that confidence turn to cockiness. This is a strong defensive league and you’re not a finished offensive player. And if you don’t play defense, you won’t play here. Got it?” Pio wanted to make sure Shooter as he called him remembered to get back on defense. My veterans, you know what I expect. Lead the way. Those who don't follow better be leading. Those who do neither, goodbye."

“Got it.”

“Good. Team, show me who you are. I’ll worry about getting you to be who you want to be. What do you want to be?”

“Champions.” Pio thought that was unenthusiastic and quite muted.

“Make them hear you out in the arena. What do you want to be? Say it like you mean it!”

“CHAMPIONS!!!”

“Now go show me what that looks like!"

"I told you guys to show me what champions look like. They don't look like what you showed out there at all. There was no defense. No rebounding. You didn't start making shots until the last quarter. My point guard had as many assists as turnovers. Do you understand we were not PLAYING THE CHAMPIONS?!? WE WERE NOT PLAYING SOMEONE WE WANT TO SEE AS CHAMPIONS!!! WE PLAY SO WE CAN WIN AMD BE CHAMPIONS!!!! THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE!!!!" Pio Reina was a very unhappy man.

"You know we have work to do. Go to work. I know we've got a young team, but these are the losses that keep you out of the playoffs. The guys we needed to play well did not. You know who did? The bench, Specifically Paulie, Reese, and Nick. Good job, now do it again. Starters and reserves, those are the only 3 players I am pleased with. The rest of you guys have some soul searching to do. You better do it fast; if you don't come ready to work it's gonna be a long, long season. And I'm not going to be a nice guy."

<3

I will take the underseeding as motivation =]

I would like to add that we managed to upset our way into the
Final 64 of the U.S.A Cup last season and we are hoping to
ride off of that success. *fingers crossed*
The past few seasons I wasn't on the game much, so I got relegated and sat in D.4 for a while but I'm interested again thanks to a good run in the Cup in season 59.

I see this is a pretty solid division...
I'm hoping I put the right pieces together to stick around for a bit ;]

Last edited by ascent at 02/12/2023 01:55:59

Day 1 (Saturday 11 February 2023) : Performances by (https://www.buzzer-manager.com)

Night results
Philly Dribble 134 - 209’s MostWanted 139
San Dominica Warriors 89 - Flamin' Flamingos 90
Linndale 119 - Lion Rebels 128
Fondy Cardinals 86 - Carolina Rebels 113
Miami Cleo 82 - Tasty Tardsicles 89
The White Walkers 93 - Hustlas 80
Cincinnati Slammers 87 - STG on MCU 89
The Beer Bellys 95 - Żubr Białystok 121

Best collective performance of the evening
Points : 139 : 209’s MostWanted
Rebounds : 78 : 209’s MostWanted
Assists : 32 : Carolina Rebels
Steals : 12 : Linndale
Block Shots : 8 : Flamin' Flamingos

Personal best performances of the evening
Points : 54 : A. Ziółkowski (209’s MostWanted)
Rebounds : 25 : H. Espinosa (Carolina Rebels)
Assists : 9 : J. Glicas (Philly Dribble), D. Allen (Carolina Rebels), É. Blanchet (San Dominica Warriors), B. Anderson (Flamin' Flamingos)
Steals : 5 : À. Casadevall (STG on MCU), V. Ögretmen (The White Walkers)
Block Shots : 4 : S. Aldino (Flamin' Flamingos)

Top 5 of the evening
Point Guard : M. Velasco (Philly Dribble) (21 Points, 7 Rebounds, 5 Assists, 2 Steals, 0 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 28
Shooting Guard : A. Ziółkowski (209’s MostWanted) (54 Points, 3 Rebounds, 6 Assists, 2 Steals, 0 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 44
Small Forward : J. Glicas (Philly Dribble) (28 Points, 4 Rebounds, 9 Assists, 0 Steals, 0 Block Shots), G. Azheli (209’s MostWanted) (30 Points, 11 Rebounds, 1 Assists, 0 Steals, 1 Block Shots), V. Papageorgiou (The White Walkers) (24 Points, 10 Rebounds, 2 Assists, 0 Steals, 1 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 27
Power Forward : I. Homs (The Beer Bellys) (31 Points, 18 Rebounds, 6 Assists, 0 Steals, 0 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 48
Center : T. Armstead (Lion Rebels) (25 Points, 13 Rebounds, 5 Assists, 0 Steals, 3 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 40

MVP of the evening
I. Homs (The Beer Bellys) (31 Points, 18 Rebounds, 6 Assists, 0 Steals, 0 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 48

The bad performance of the evening
J. Esposito (Hustlas) (18 Points, 5 Rebounds, 1 Assists, 0 Steals, 0 Block Shots) : Efficiency : -8

All kinds of statistics
The player who forgot to remove his mittens : D. Parent (Lion Rebels) : 6 Turnovers

Player targeted by the referees : P. Huddleston (Philly Dribble), M. Woesler (Philly Dribble) : 6 Personnal Fouls

The iron-man : G. Locus (Miami Cleo), S. Bynum (Tasty Tardsicles), S. Hollins (Lion Rebels), N. Hidasi (Żubr Białystok), S. Hatch (Żubr Białystok), P. Stevens (Cincinnati Slammers) : 48 Minutes

The shooter : A. Ziółkowski (209’s MostWanted) : 8 Three points

The best performer : T. Armstead (Lion Rebels) : Rating : 16.5

The worst performer : T. Lang (Fondy Cardinals) : Rating : 4.0

Initial Transfer Report
With one game in the books and seven players still on the transfer list, including three players with at least $10k salary (but not more than $18k), I thought it would be interesting to look at the transfer activity for our league going back to the 2nd of February (which was technically before Season 59 finished up, but I included those because they were transfers by teams not in the finals - and regardless, they wouldn't take effect until this season).

We've had 29 transfers amongst 9 teams, wich The White Walkers leading the pack making 9 transfers in total. All told from 16 transfers out, teams have made a total of $4,297,669, including 18-year-old rookie Stanford Roach going for a cool $1.7 mil. On the flipside, with only 13 new players coming in, teams have spent a combined $8,197,700. What's really crazy is in only two transactions (Tasty's $1.3 mil purchase of Chik Wui Kwong and Walkers $2.8 mil purchase of Victor Papageorgiou), we nearly matched the amount of money brought into teams via transfer sales.

On the salary side of things, we sold off $270k in total salary and brought in $365k in three less players. Victor and Chik are the big money targets, along with 209's purchase this weekend of $56k Tian Rumin, and The White Walkers other side is $47k Roberts Dargels.

My favorite transfers, though, have been The Night King's three for three deal, bringing in two 18-year-olds and a 22-year-old each with salaries under $1000 to fill out their bench play. That means that players 6, 7, and 8 on their roster (in terms of salary) make up 97% of their 6-10 roster salaries.

If these transfers had all gone through before the first game, here is how the preseason rankings would've ended up:

1. Tasty Tardsickles (previously #4)
2. Philly Dribble (#1)
3. Linndale (#2)
4. Miami Cleo (#3)
5. San Dominica Warriors (#5)
6. The White Walkers (#7)
7. Hustlas (#6)
8. Lion Rebels (#8)
9. Żubr Białystok (#9)
10. 209's MostWanted (#13)
11. Carolina Rebels (#10)
12. Fondy Cardinals & Beer Bellys (#'s 11)
14. Flamin' Flamingos (#16)
15. STG on MCU (#14)
16. Cincinnati Slammers (#15)

I expect these will shift a little bit more, but I won't be updating the rankings. Obviously, biggest take away is that Tasty jumped to the top of the pack thanks to their investment in Chik Wui Kwong and 209's making a push up to the middle of the pack by replacing two players making $56k with one.

Good luck on Tuesday - Week One Power Rankings will be out Thursday or Friday!

Pre game team meeting:

Coach Pio Reina was still pissed off about Saturday's game.

“First things first. The garbage job you did Saturday night comes with consequences. Paul, Reese, and Nick have earned the starting nod for tonight. Shooter, I know you think Kyle is starting because he scored 31. You’re wrong; he’s starting because he was plus 3 and you were minus 6. What’s rule one here?”

“DEFEND!”, the team exclaimed in unison.

“We gave up 129 points. Was that defense?”

“NO!”

“We gave up 20 offensive rebounds AND were out rebounded by 19. That can’t happen again. Did we rebound?”

“NO!”

“Our starting point guard had 4 turnovers. Did we protect the ball? This one I’ll answer for you. The answer is no. Turnovers must be below double digits per game. We had 10. We can do better. So we didn’t do anything we expect out there on the court. Now, I want to be clear about something. I said we. Why am I including myself in this? I’m not a player anymore. I’ll tell you. I put you at a disadvantage. I planned to have us a run a different defense. I got inside my own head and changed that. That’s on me. I take accountability for that. The actual performances from Saturday, the in game performances? That’s on you. We were terrible, and it was a total team effort. We’re not doing that again. ARE WE?”

“NO!”

“All right. Now let’s talk about tonight. If you expect this to be a walk in the park, you didn’t see how they beat the team that ended our season last season. They took better care of the ball. They defended. They gave themselves a chance to win, and they did. We have to contain Li See Yan. You’ll note the 3 starters who had at least a minus 10 are ALL coming off the bench. How do you get on the court?”

“DEFENSE!”

“I want to see the bigs be more assertive. Our starting power forward and center scored a total of 21 points Saturday. Lion Rebels got 49 from theirs against us. Our opposition’s starting center had 23 by himself in their game Saturday. That has to change. We will defend. We will rebound. We will take care of the ball. Gentlemen, this is our house. We will defend our house. We will protect our house. Do these things and the wins will come.”

“This was a much better performance, gentlemen. Much better! Enjoy it for a moment, but understand we have a ton of work to do.” Pio Reina was satisfied with tonight’s result, but clearly saw work remained. “That first quarter defense was atrocious, and the third quarter was even worse, but you guys played a solid second quarter defensively, and that fourth quarter was impressive. That fourth quarter defense is what I want to see on the regular. Day in and day out. You’ve showed the capability; now I want to the consistency. I want to see that every day. Offensively we are finding our way and it’s gonna to be interesting. Nick was big tonight. Great job! Kyle, great things happen when you attack the rim; keep it up! Garcaa, keep doing what you’re doing. Paulie, that was a very good floor game. Keep it up! Reese, you did a very good job out there tonight. I loved it! Keep doing that; the offense will show eventually.”

“Now on to the bench; mixed results. Coenen and Datler, we need both of you to get it together. Shooter, nice game. You got a lot more in you and I want to see it. Kamp, you think you’re ready to return to the starting lineup? I can see Mr. Mann is. I actually liked the bench performance tonight, and I want to see you guys do it again before I consider inserting you back into the starting lineup. Reese and Nick did nothing to be removed from the lineup. You guys were removed for a reason. Show me you deserve to get back in with the starters. You have until Saturday to convince me. Bobbie, when you get your head right, we’ll think about putting you back in. Paulie is the guy for now. Enjoy the win. BBM lineup tomorrow; don’t read anything into that lineup or the tournament lineup. We have a long way to go before we get to what I consider a set starting 5, got it? Good game, guys.”

Last edited by Speedtraps at 02/14/2023 22:31:54

Day 2 (Tuesday 14 February 2023) : Performances by (https://www.buzzer-manager.com)

Night results
209’s MostWanted 102 - San Dominica Warriors 109
Flamin' Flamingos 94 - Linndale 104
Lion Rebels 106 - Fondy Cardinals 90
Carolina Rebels 86 - Philly Dribble 101
Tasty Tardsicles 63 - The White Walkers 105
Hustlas 89 - Cincinnati Slammers 73
STG on MCU 99 - The Beer Bellys 110
Żubr Białystok 78 - Miami Cleo 95

Best collective performance of the evening
Points : 110 : The Beer Bellys
Rebounds : 65 : Miami Cleo, The Beer Bellys
Assists : 28 : Philly Dribble
Steals : 12 : Linndale
Block Shots : 10 : Miami Cleo

Personal best performances of the evening
Points : 42 : K. Brown (Lion Rebels)
Rebounds : 21 : A. Gallucci (Miami Cleo), I. Homs (The Beer Bellys)
Assists : 9 : P. Lutz (Linndale)
Steals : 6 : D. Wagner (Cincinnati Slammers)
Block Shots : 5 : P. Cheatle (Miami Cleo)

Top 5 of the evening
Point Guard : K. Brown (Lion Rebels) (42 Points, 7 Rebounds, 3 Assists, 3 Steals, 0 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 41
Shooting Guard : A. Ziółkowski (209’s MostWanted) (29 Points, 1 Rebounds, 4 Assists, 1 Steals, 0 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 25
Small Forward : M. Marsh (STG on MCU) (34 Points, 3 Rebounds, 4 Assists, 4 Steals, 0 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 35
Power Forward : M. Anwander (Fondy Cardinals) (33 Points, 14 Rebounds, 1 Assists, 0 Steals, 0 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 39
Center : D. Freire (The White Walkers) (19 Points, 20 Rebounds, 5 Assists, 0 Steals, 2 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 35

MVP of the evening
K. Brown (Lion Rebels) (42 Points, 7 Rebounds, 3 Assists, 3 Steals, 0 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 41

The bad performance of the evening
J. Makeba (Tasty Tardsicles) (9 Points, 2 Rebounds, 1 Assists, 2 Steals, 0 Block Shots) : Efficiency : -6

All kinds of statistics
The player who forgot to remove his mittens : D. Rivas (Flamin' Flamingos) : 6 Turnovers

Player targeted by the referees : R. Raich (209’s MostWanted), J. Bégin (San Dominica Warriors) : 6 Personnal Fouls

The iron-man : A. Gallucci (Miami Cleo), L. Arevalo (Carolina Rebels), M. Jimenez (Tasty Tardsicles), E. Dickens (Tasty Tardsicles), R. Pace (Tasty Tardsicles), K. Brown (Lion Rebels), H. Quindós (Żubr Białystok), M. Grimm (Żubr Białystok), D. Freire (The White Walkers), R. Ainsworth (Cincinnati Slammers) : 48 Minutes

The shooter : M. Marsh (STG on MCU) : 6 Three points

The best performer : T. Armstead (Lion Rebels) : Rating : 15.5

The worst performer : T. Lang (Fondy Cardinals) : Rating : 4.0

Week One Power Rankings
Week 1 Observations
Welcome to season 60's first official power rankings following games one and two of the regular season. As the season has gotten underway, we have five players averaging 31 or more points per game, including 209's Ariel Ziółkowski's 41.5 PPG after scoring 54 points last Saturday night. Seven players are averaging 15.0 or more rebounds per game, and six players are averaging 7.0 assists or more per game.

I won't do this every week, but just pointing a few things from the first two games of the season.
-> First off, 209's putting up 139 points on Philly Dribble just a few weeks removed from Philly only allowing 82.4 PPG in Season 59. Wut. Ziółkowski's 54 points came on 34 total shots, including 8-14 from three. He also made 12 of his 15 free throw shots. This isn't the only game this season where the fouls have been very lopsided (27 PF for Philly compared to 16 for 209's).

-> Same game, different stat: 209's had almost as many offensive rebounds as they did defensive rebounds (37 to 41). Additionally, Philly Dribble only had 2 ORs for the night.

-> While 209's/Philly was a barn burner, San Dominica Warriors found themselves in the unenviable position of being upset in crazy fashion by the Flamin' Flamingos Saturday night. They started out with a 12-point lead after one, the Flamingos chipped away through the second and third quarters and found themselves down 9 going into the final frame. Starting the fourth down 72-63, it took a few minutes, but they held the Warriors to one FG for the first three months while sneaking up to 73 points to be down one with 8:50 left. They then proceeded neck and neck, swapping the lead back and forth with no one getting more than two points lead until Flamingos went up by three, with 4:22 left. San Dom was not out of it, though, and crept back in and with 1:19 left were winning 87-86. With 24 seconds left, D. Rivas scored on a layup to give Flamingos the lead. After a time out, J. Bégin scored 9 seconds later to give them a one-point lead. Flamingos time out. They take it all the way down to the buzzer with SG L. See Yan scoring with no time left to edge San Dom out for a loss to start the season.

-> As far as Tuesday's games go, the first thing is holy buckets did The White Walkers put the smack down on Tasty Tardsicles, beating them by 42 points after holding them to only 41 points through three quarters. Tardsicles finished with 21% shooting from the field, including a dismal 6-29 from three with "Dingle" Conaghan shooting 0-8 from beyond the arc.

At least five more transfers since I first posted about all the transfer activity up until Monday. Big buy was Fondy Cardinal's bringing in a $77k PG in Jorge Muñoz to pair with big man Matthis Anwander. Still a handful of players transfer listed and I am sure more activity on the way, but as of now, we have spent $4.2 million more than we have sold off collectively since the start of the month. What is this, the Premiere League?!?

For those of you who are new, my power rankings are based on a combination of average Efficiency Per Game (EFFG) rank and their Opponents EFFG (OPP EFFG). Week one ties are sorted by difference in EFFG and OPP EFFG (ensuing weeks will take into consideration previous week's rankings to sort ties).


Last edited by Baine at 02/16/2023 18:15:50

Week 1 Power Rankings
1. The White Walkers
EFFG: 122 | OPP EFFG: 58
Already there's only two undefeated teams heading into Week 2. The Night King takes the cake, with a convincing win on the road against Hustlas followed by the decimation of the Tardsicles on Tuesday. Their big purchase, newcomer 25-year-old Victor Papageorgiou, who they dropped nearly $3 mil on, leads the way so far with 21.5 PPG, shooting an impressive 51.5% from the field and 64% from three. Next up, they take on Żubr Białystok before playing host to STG on MCU.

2. Lion Rebels
EFFG: 140.5 | OPP EFFG: 106
Welp, this won't last long, I can assure you of that. A nice (surprising) win over Linndale at home, scoring 128 points, a feat this squad did not accomplish all last season (only scoring more than 100 7 times), followed by soundly handling Fondy Cardinals (though after their last purchase, maybe not next time). I have a feeling I got lucky and will be exposed this coming week with a matchup against Philly Dribble at home before traveling to San Dominica.

3. Philly Dribble
EFFG: 137 | OPP EFFG: 113
While they lost in that barn burner to 209's , they were able to right the ship immediately with a nice win over Carolina Rebels. Fun fact I discovered this week, Phils_Wings is an OG, having joined up in the middle of Season 2! I do not know what is going on with Phillip Huddleston, but he suffered another injury this week. Probably shouldn't be a problem though with their aforementioned road trip to Daylis stadium before playing host to Flamin' Flamingos next week.

4. Carolina Rebels
EFFG: 117.5 | OPP EFFG: 107.5
This is the middle of a three-way tie in terms of efficiency rankings. But a 1-1 Carolina team handled Fondy with relatively little strain before suffering their 15-point loss to Philly (man, I'm glad there aren't two Philadelphia based teams again this season!). Hugo Espinosa is nearly averaging a 20/20 double-double with 22.5 PPG and 19 RPG thanks, in part, to a 24-point, 25 rebound performance in game one. They get to host San Dominica this weekend before traveling Linndale's way after that.

5. San Dominica Warriors
EFFG: 113 | OPP EFFG: 104
Coach Stephenson made up for that heartbreaking buzzer beating loss last weekend by beating 209's at home on TV by seven, and that is in spite of 209's hitting 46% of their shots, including from three. Biggest difference in this one may have been free throws, with the Warriors making nine more than their opponent despite both teams having 18 fouls each. After their trip to Carolina, they turn to the other Rebels playing host to my crew next week.

6. Miami Cleo
EFFG: 99 | OPP EFFG: 94
I'm not trying to downgrade last season's Great 8 #2 seed - while their defense has been quite good (they held both opponents to less than 90 points) their offense is going to need to find a way to turn on. They lost by seven to the Tards which makes a potential matchup with the Walkers a bit intimidating, but then turned around and put Żubr Białystok in their place, beating them by 17 at home. They face STG on MCU on the road at YT Shorts before hosting Hustlas in a TV game.

7. Hustlas
EFFG: 90.5 | OPP EFFG: 87.5
I don't know if it's the lack of Reese's posts to start the season or what, but Hustlas feels a bit lifeless, losing by 13 to The White Walkers (which now, might not look SO bad) before taking care of Cincinnati by 16. But they are only averaging 84.5 PPG so far. Without having made a flurry of moves like we are used to, it's hard to know what to expect from them this season. They play host to The Beer Bellys on Saturday night, which should be revealing and then they travel to Miami for that TV matchup on Tuesday.