BuzzerBeater Forums

Your write ups are crazy fun thanks for doing those!

I enjoy a little shit talk so I liked the early needle.

Good luck to everyone as we get going tonight… hopefully injuries are minimal. Some real quality squads in this league so excited to mix it up.

Happy Ourer: “Hello Linndale fans, and welcome to another season of Linndale basketball. I am your host, Happy Ourer, and there have been some changes this season. Starting off with the departures, our very own Marshall Richards and Air Allnite have traded the broadcast booth for the opportunity to join Pio Reina’s coaching staff. Joining us here in the broadcast booth is my new partner, Linndale alumni Joshua Doe. Welcome aboard, Josh!”

Joshua Doe: “Thank you for the welcome, Happy! It’s great to be back! I do have to ask, what are you doing that this seat is a cradle of coaches? Didn’t Pio grace this seat a time or two as well?”

HO: “Yes he did, but I take no credit in producing coaches!”

JD: “Well, let’s talk about another coach. In addition to Marshall Richards and Air Allnite, Pio has recruited Byron Helm to join the coaching staff. I’ll tell you what, those kids on the Linndale roster are gonna learn a lot and get there butts handed to them if they scrimmage the coaches! That’s a lot of talent there!”

HO: “What about the team? After a crushing regular season meltdown, is Pio Reina on the hot seat?”

JD: “No, but the GM is. The late moves last season did not work and weren’t well received by the fans. He needs to redeem himself if he can. Ownership has stayed quiet, so it’s unknown where they stand. I know Pio wasn’t happy either.”

HO: “Well, it’s common knowledge around the league that one of last year’s additions, Heikko Valgur, is available, and so is Rod Guyton.”

JD: “Valgur was not a good move for the team last season, but Guyton seems more like a salary dump. Up until late in the season, Guyton was incredible!”

HO: “Any youngsters you’re excited to see?”

JD: “I expect to see Christophe Nguyen play a lot this season. How much will depend on how hard it is to move off Guyton. Another guy affected by Guyton is Rich McCain, and also rookie Eze Donny. Out of those, Nguyen will play a lot. Early on, they are going to have to be creative in getting McCain on the court. Valgur’s presence also affects the playing time of Art Reese and Rolland Reynolds. They will see more time once he’s dealt with. This is a roster that is in transition. I’m excited to see what the year brings for Damian Hatfield and Pascal Michel Pemwieser. I’m excited for all the youngsters, but Hatfield and Pemweiser are the two I’m most excited to see.”

HO: “What about the rest of the cast? What do you expect?”

JD: “Leo Genipabu and Floyd Hearn are my picks to wreck shop. It may take a bit before they get untracked, but once they start rolling, that duo is gonna be tough. Serkan Sokmen will be given the chance to be what they think he is. Mantas Petriukstis needs to take a step forward this season. The talent is there. Trenton Tovar is always fun to watch, we’ll see if he focuses a bit more on defense. Kyle Knowles has said he had a bad season last season and wants to atone for it. This team has talent, but we need to see if they got over that uncharacteristic late season collapse. I understand there are some new philosphies and a change in player development thinking, so we shall see what happens.”

HO: “We’ll be back with assistant coach Byron Helm on the other side of this commercial break. This is the Linndale Basketball Pregame Show!”

HO: “We’re back and joined by Byron Helm, assistant coach for your Linndale basketball team. Welcome Byron!”

Byron Helm: “Thanks for having me!”

JD: “Hey Byron, Joshua Doe here. What can we expect tonight?”

BH: “Joshua! You trying to get into coaching next?”

JD: “I’m trying to be on this side of the desk, my friend! What can you tell us about tonight’s game?”

BH: “The focus is going to be on the young guys. Southpaw army would be a tough test for anyone, but Pio wants to get a read on where the young guys are, specifically in the back court. Guyton and Knowles are not playing tonight. Neither is Heikko Valgur.”

JD: “Last season’s team was wildly successful shooting the three pointer last season. Are we looking to be more inside focused this season?”

BH: “Not specifically. Pio still will coach how he thinks will beat the opponent. He’ll coach to the players strengths. He’s just making more of an effort to develop the younger players now. It’s why the team is looking to move Guyton and Valgur.”

JD: “What will we see tonight?”

BH: “Well, we don’t know what we’re getting from the point guard position. Expect Floyd and Leo to lead the way inside and we’ll have a slightly better read on where things stand with the young guys in the back court after tonight. For Shooter and Mantas, this is a test to see who steps up.”

JD: “Thanks, Byron. We’ll be watching!”

Joshua Doe: “I’m with Pio Reina after a season opening loss at home to league newcomer Southpaw Army. Coach, we know there were some things you were looking for. Can you tell us what you saw and what you learned from this game?”

Pio Reina: “Josh, the kids are gonna have to learn some hard lessons sooner or later, and tonight was the first of many. We needed to see who was going to step up in the back court and we came away with some good information, but this is going to be a long process. We learned Nguyen isn’t ready for big minutes. It’s not the shooting; it was the turnovers. Shooter had a rough night, but we’ll learn about him over the long term. We know who and what he is on offense. Petriukstis was solid. We need him to continue being solid off the bench and to start asserting himself more. We didn’t learn much about McCain, but he’ll be a season long project. The guys need court time. We’ll have to sacrifice a few wins to get them developed.”

JD: “Coach, does that change the expectation for this season?”

PR: “No. When you have Floyd Hearn and Kyle Knowles on the roster, you owe to them and the others to put your best foot forward. The season is a marathon, not a sprint. The team you see tonight is not going to be the same at season’s end. We expect to be in the playoffs. That expectation does not ever change. We expect to play defense, rebound, and take care of the basketball. We did not defend. They shot 44% from the field and 40% from the arc. They outrebounded us. We did not take care of the basketball. We didn’t shoot the 3 well. The things we expect did not happen. I expect the veterans will hold the young guys to task in the locker room.”

JD: “Byron Helm said it might take a moment for Floyd Hearn and Leo Genipabu to jell. They looked to me like they held up their end of things. What did you see?”

PR: “Well I’m not going to lie. We didn’t expect Leo to shoot the outside shot like he did, but he had it working. It seems that we always get a big to start drilling those 3 balls, and that’s a nice tool to have, but the guy we brought in for that was only 1 of 5 from the field and didn’t take a 3.”

JD: “Will we see Knowles and Guyton against the Lion Rebels?”

PR: “Kyle will be on the court. Rod Guyton is going to be with another team tomorrow morning. The opportunity for the young guys to get time on the court is definitely here, but their youth does not change our expectation. Mantas and Kyle will start in the backcourt. We’ll sort the rest out later on game day.”

JD: “Should fans expect an new player to be brought in?”

PR: “I just coach who’s here. You’ll have to talk to the GM about that. I’m going to talk to my team, and then meet with my staff.”

JD: “I won’t keep you any longer. Thank you for your time, Coach.”

PR: “Thanks, Josh.”

Day 1 (Saturday 26 August 2023) : Performances by (https://www.buzzer-manager.com)

Night results
Lion Rebels 123 - Las Vegas High Rollers 91
San Dominica Warriors 72 - 209’s MostWanted 89
F.Day Internet Lovers Club 90 - Philly Dribble 103
southpaw army 114 - Linndale 90
VileOnes 80 - Miami Cleo 92
Mindless Zombies 🧟‍♀️ 93 - Super Sonics 103
Żubr Białystok 0 - Twotone Touloose 50
Fort Wayne Pistons 96 - Tasty Tardsicles 111

Best collective performance of the evening
Points : 123 : Lion Rebels
Rebounds : 61 : 209’s MostWanted
Assists : 38 : Lion Rebels
Steals : 10 : Lion Rebels
Block Shots : 9 : F.Day Internet Lovers Club

Personal best performances of the evening
Points : 34 : I. Tabrizi (F.Day Internet Lovers Club)
Rebounds : 20 : K. Nádas (209’s MostWanted)
Assists : 8 : T. Freeman (Mindless Zombies 🧟‍♀️)
Steals : 3 : D. Parent (Lion Rebels), S. Huerta (Lion Rebels), L. Baião (San Dominica Warriors), A. Messineo (VileOnes), J. Bover (VileOnes), M. Craig (Super Sonics)
Block Shots : 5 : D. Branimirović (F.Day Internet Lovers Club)

Top 5 of the evening
Point Guard : M. Craig (Super Sonics) (23 Points, 3 Rebounds, 3 Assists, 3 Steals, 0 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 25
Shooting Guard : N. de Moraes (southpaw army) (21 Points, 2 Rebounds, 3 Assists, 2 Steals, 0 Block Shots), R. Mathews (Super Sonics) (24 Points, 6 Rebounds, 6 Assists, 2 Steals, 0 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 26
Small Forward : A. Nikitinas (Tasty Tardsicles) (18 Points, 6 Rebounds, 4 Assists, 0 Steals, 0 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 23
Power Forward : I. Tabrizi (F.Day Internet Lovers Club) (34 Points, 19 Rebounds, 2 Assists, 0 Steals, 2 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 40
Center : T. Armstead (Lion Rebels) (26 Points, 14 Rebounds, 5 Assists, 1 Steals, 2 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 38

MVP of the evening
I. Tabrizi (F.Day Internet Lovers Club) (34 Points, 19 Rebounds, 2 Assists, 0 Steals, 2 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 40

The bad performance of the evening
L. Boga (209’s MostWanted) (0 Points, 2 Rebounds, 2 Assists, 0 Steals, 0 Block Shots) : Efficiency : -5

All kinds of statistics
The player who forgot to remove his mittens : K. Nádas (209’s MostWanted), C. Nguyen (Linndale), S. Brinkman (VileOnes) : 5 Turnovers

Player targeted by the referees : R. Singh (Lion Rebels), R. Sedonio (Lion Rebels), M. Otçigin (San Dominica Warriors), J. Garro (F.Day Internet Lovers Club), F. Hearn (Linndale), J. Bover (VileOnes) : 5 Personnal Fouls

The iron-man : G. Charino (Las Vegas High Rollers), I. Örü (Las Vegas High Rollers), I. Tabrizi (F.Day Internet Lovers Club), J. Bover (VileOnes) : 48 Minutes

The shooter : P. Fasselli (Philly Dribble), L. Genipabu (Linndale) : 4 Three points

The best performer : N. de Moraes (southpaw army) : Rating : 15.5

The worst performer : E. Stiles (Tasty Tardsicles) : Rating : 6.0

Brian:
Last Saturday Night, tough loss to open the season against the Outlaws of 209. Tonight the Warriors hope to end the SMG season opener with a win. I”m Brian Sanborn, he’s Bret "the Legend" Rodrigues, along with Hunt and special guest Douglas Diamond. Guys what are you expecting to see tonight?

Hunt:
Hopefully not what we saw Saturday. Look I don’t want to end up becoming the Aegiana version of Air Allnite here but man! Someone! Someone please explain to me why we went patient against a team like the Outlaws?

Bret:
We told you! It was the last thing anyone would expect!

Hunt:
Yeah seems the players on the Warriors were not expecting it either from the way they played. I just don’t understand. It seems like a loss that shouldn’t have happened

Bret:
Wait are you kidding me! Last season you yourself said if the 209 survived relegation, they would be contenders next season for the conference title. Now they get a win that solidifies that comment and you’re mad!

Douglas:
Yeah man I’m with Bret. Look it was an away game, first game of the season. The 209 have made all the right steps in terms of becoming contenders. Coach wanted to see what would happen. Tonight we see what we’ve always seen from the Warriors as they go to break even at 1-1

Brian:
I agree I think in the confines of the SMG, the Warriors up the ante. Get a win and Coach gets a look at this team when challenged in the comforts of home

Hunt:
Look they just better not play the way they did Saturday or I’m not going to be happy

Brian:
When we come back. We’ve give the starting lineups and Samantha will take us down to floor to talk with Coach. This is the Warriors Pregame Show.


Last edited by Coach Stephenson at 8/29/2023 7:47:08 PM

Joshua Doe: “Coach Reina, this was not a good night for the boys in the locker room. What happened?”

Pio Reina: “Josh, as you know, we pride ourselves on defense, rebounding and taking care of the ball. They shot 40% from the field and 58% from outside the arc. They outrebounded us. We did not take care of the basketball. 15 of the 17 turnovers came from the starters. 17 is unacceptable, but 15 by the starters?!? We cannot and will not tolerate this. This has to get better and quickly!.”

JD: “On the positive side, the three point shooting, field goal shooting, and rebounding showed improvement over Saturday’s loss.”

PR: “I can’t be happy about that if it means we got better but it still wasn’t good enough. I won’t be happy if the team isn’t playing to the standard expected. Myself, Air Allnite, Byron Helm and the rest of the staff have got to do a better job getting results out of this group.”

JD: “What positives can you take from tonight?”

PR: “Kyle Knowles came out, played and shot the ball well. Floyd Hearn rebounded the ball well. Those two guys are who we’ve always said they were.”

JD: “Christophe Nguyen didn’t play a single minute after starting the opener. After citing his turnovers, what did you think of the game Mantas Petriukstis played?”

PR: “Mantas took better care of the basketball. He showed some aggressiveness offensively, he just didn’t get many shots to fall. To be clear, he needed minutes and so did Nguyen. Until we get the point guard settled, there will likely be a rotation at that position. You’ll find out who’s playing themselves out of the rotation in time.”

JD: “Pemwieser looked solid out there. What did you see from him?”

PR: “Pemwieser shot the ball well. It was a far cry from the opener. His board work has to improve, but we are happy with his performance tonight.”

JD: “Is there anything you want to tell the fans out there who are panicking after an 0-2 start?”

PR: “Have patience. Over half the roster is under 24. We’re young. We’ll get better. There is no need to panic; we will start winning games. The expectation does not change, the work to meet that expectation does. We simply have to work harder, smarter, and better. Tougher defense, better rebounding, and improving ball security are what we have to do. We also have to knock down our free throws. Have patience.”

JD: “Coach, who needs to come through for this team to get to where you want them to be this season?”

PR: “Well right now, whomever is playing point guard has to gives us production and run the team efficiently. At shooting guard, I think we’re fine. In Kyle we trust, and we’re in good hands with Shooter. At small forward, Serkan Sokmen has to start asserting himself. We have to find how to unlock him or get Reese and Reynolds performing. Leo and Floyd will be fine upfront. Pemwieser and Hatfield need to continue their upward trajectory and provide depth. Getting things on track with a win would be a start. Winning seems to take care of things.”

JD: "Thanks, Coach."

PR: "Thanks for having me, Josh."

*in the GM's office*

GM: "Was that a veiled shot to go get a point guard, Pio? 'Well right now, whomever is playing point guard has to gives us production and run the team efficiently.' How about you and your staff get the guys we have up to speed?"

Coach: *walks into the office* "You know Pio is quite blunt, if measured. He'll say what he has to directly to you, not through an intermediary."

GM: "Coach, I wasn't expecting you until tomorrow."

Coach: "Are you telling me to leave?"

GM: "No. I'm glad you're here. We have a lot to talk about."

Coach: "We do. Also, I'm here to observe and offer help. We do still run the alumni program, do we not? We'll talk after practice tomorrow. A couple of my favorite players will be on hand for practice."

Day 2 (Tuesday 29 August 2023) : Performances by (https://www.buzzer-manager.com)

Night results
Las Vegas High Rollers 64 - San Dominica Warriors 91
209’s MostWanted 68 - F.Day Internet Lovers Club 78
Philly Dribble 92 - southpaw army 111
Linndale 89 - Lion Rebels 107
Miami Cleo 97 - Mindless Zombies 🧟‍♀️ 92
Super Sonics 50 - Żubr Białystok 0
Twotone Touloose 85 - Fort Wayne Pistons 104
Tasty Tardsicles 87 - VileOnes 96

Best collective performance of the evening
Points : 111 : southpaw army
Rebounds : 63 : San Dominica Warriors
Assists : 34 : southpaw army
Steals : 10 : VileOnes
Block Shots : 13 : F.Day Internet Lovers Club

Personal best performances of the evening
Points : 35 : L. Zotke (Las Vegas High Rollers)
Rebounds : 21 : K. Nádas (209’s MostWanted)
Assists : 10 : M. Velasco (Philly Dribble)
Steals : 4 : J. Glicas (Philly Dribble)
Block Shots : 5 : D. Branimirović (F.Day Internet Lovers Club)

Top 5 of the evening
Point Guard : C. Wui Kwong (Tasty Tardsicles) (17 Points, 4 Rebounds, 7 Assists, 3 Steals, 0 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 24
Shooting Guard : N. de Moraes (southpaw army) (28 Points, 2 Rebounds, 5 Assists, 1 Steals, 1 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 36
Small Forward : U. Jaén (Fort Wayne Pistons) (28 Points, 6 Rebounds, 6 Assists, 0 Steals, 1 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 28
Power Forward : A. Gallucci (Miami Cleo) (22 Points, 15 Rebounds, 1 Assists, 2 Steals, 2 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 33
Center : T. Armstead (Lion Rebels) (22 Points, 10 Rebounds, 3 Assists, 0 Steals, 1 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 30

MVP of the evening
N. de Moraes (southpaw army) (28 Points, 2 Rebounds, 5 Assists, 1 Steals, 1 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 36

The bad performance of the evening
L. Ma Ying (Mindless Zombies 🧟‍♀️) (2 Points, 0 Rebounds, 0 Assists, 0 Steals, 0 Block Shots) : Efficiency : -5

All kinds of statistics
The player who forgot to remove his mittens : M. Watkins (Lion Rebels), L. Genipabu (Linndale), E. Dickens (Tasty Tardsicles) : 6 Turnovers

Player targeted by the referees : K. Nádas (209’s MostWanted) : 6 Personnal Fouls

The iron-man : L. Zotke (Las Vegas High Rollers), A. Jänes (Las Vegas High Rollers), M. Blanco (F.Day Internet Lovers Club), D. Branimirović (F.Day Internet Lovers Club) : 48 Minutes

The shooter : K. Knowles (Linndale), K. Brown (Lion Rebels) : 6 Three points

The best performer : N. de Moraes (southpaw army) : Rating : 16.0

The worst performer : R. McCain (Linndale), P. Trout (Fort Wayne Pistons) : Rating : 6.0

Week One Power Rankings
Week One Observations
Week One is officially completed as we head into the first of the BBM round robin games. With Season 62 underway, there are 10 players averaging 24 PPG or more, with two of Las Vegas' crew hitting 28 (Gonzalo Charino) and 35 (Lutjen Zotke), though it should be noted, both players only played in one game this week. Six players are averaging 16+ RPG, with 209's Kálmán Nádas leading the pack at 20.5 with two games of 20 or more boards which currently ranks him 20th in the entire USofA. And 9 players are taking advantage of the improved assist rate from the game engine, hitting at least 6 assists per game, with Philly's Miguel Velasco and Tasty's Chik Wui Kwong hitting 7 APG.

Team-wise, only four teams are averaging more than 100 PPG and seven (well, eight, but Zubr hasn't had any statistical bearing on the season as of yet) teams are averaging less than 90 PPG.

I won't do this every week, but just pointing a few things from the first two games of the season.
-> My "preseason" 4th ranked team Mindless Zombies starting out 0-2 is a bit of a surprise, though effort played into at one of those games. It doesn't help they started out against two of the higher quality teams in the Great 8 and I'm sure they'll turn it around and get back to .500 by the end of Week Two.
-> I'm counting two upsets through two games - Saturday night 209's took it to San Dominica, jumping out to a 15-point lead after holding them to just 13 points in the first quarter and they simply held on the rest of the night to emerge with a 17-point victory. They didn't shoot particularly well in that game (35.5% from the field and 31% from three), but it was better than the Warriors managed to fare on the road. The second upset I'm calling was last night's VileOnes 9-point victory over Tasty on the back of a good game prep guess, increased effort and a Princeton tactic for the win. The free throw disparity seems to be at the heart of the victory for Vile, being granted 8 more total free throws and hitting 78% of them for seven more points than Tasty achieved from the charity stripe.

Other than that, no epic come from behind victories through two games. There's still a lot to settle down roster-wise, and as you'll see from this week's rankings, schedules have a lot to do with where teams land on the list. But before that - here's the transfer report.

Transfer Report
I've been keeping track of transfers in and out since the August 6th (the first day that transfers weren't eligible for last season's playoffs). In that timeframe, our league has had a total of 33 transfers (17 players brought in, 16 out). Average age of players sold is 26.9 with four 18-year-old rookies sold, while the oldest player (Mindless Zombie's former Mitar Vlahovic) hitting 37 years young. The average salary of players being sold age 25+ is $36.6k with those players selling for a grand total of $2.4M.

Honestly, that's pretty meek, overall...but boy do we know how to SPEND SOME MONEY. Of the 17 players transferred in so far, teams have collectively spent $10.06M. The average age of those players is 26.2 with an average salary of $38.4k. That's a sum total of 652,167 Buzzerbeater dollars being brought in on salary for this season!

Of all those transactions, southpaw army, Las Vegas High Rollers, and F.Day Internet Lovers Club lead the pack with 6 total transactions each. Vegas and southpaw were split at 3 purchases and 3 sales, while F.Day brought in 5 new players. There are (as of this writing) only three players transfer listed totaling just $41k in salary (here's looking at you Heikko Valgur and your $35k salary), with teams looking for a measly $352k in transfer fees. Now onto the rankings!

Week One Power Rankings

Week One Power Rankings
For those of you who are new, my power rankings are based on an average of Efficiency Per Game (EFFG) rank and their Opponents EFFG (OPP EFFG) rank. Ties are sorted by lowest OPP EFFG (ensuing weeks will take into consideration previous week's rankings to sort ties).

1. Lion Rebels
EFFG: 145.5 | OPP EFFG: 83.5
This marks two seasons in a row I've started these rankings out with my team in first...which is only fitting since I'm making the rankings. Truth be told, (and I've written this before), I cringe whenever my team is near the top. I'm like a New York Jets fan this year - it's gotta be too good to be true! Realistically, this is a result of an easier schedule to start, though I'm not going to start calling Linndale an easy victory quite yet. Lots of room and time for them to improve and come back to bite me in the butt when the Lion Rebels visit Linndale after the interconference play is done.

2. southpaw army
EFFG: 139 | OPP EFFG: 91.5
So, Buzzer Manager, for some reason, lists our teams in alphabetical order in team stats with southpaw listed below VileOnes, which I didn't realize at first as I was entering in numbers to my nerdy spreadsheet...which meant that my numbers were off and VileOnes was ranked 2nd...I started to investigate why a 1-1 team (with a great win on Tuesday!) could possibly have managed 139 average EFFG with their scores being close in both games and that's how I discovered that I'd botched it. All that is to say, the only reason southpaw is #2 and not #1 is strength of opponent so far. I have full confidence they'll be #1 from here on out.

3. Super Sonics
EFFG: 127 | OPP EFFG: 96
Handling Mindless at home by 10 before then being gifted the vacated Zubr squad, Super Sonics are biding their time for some competition to come their way. While Miami sticks out the most, Tasty probably wants a taste of that as well. But until then, they're hosting Fort Wayne this weekend before taking on VileOnes at Return the day after Labor Day on television.

4. San Dominica Warriors
EFFG: 138 | OPP EFFG: 107
Well, a first game stumble trying to be tricky still lands them in 4th after decimating Las Vegas last night, though their 3-point shooting leaves a lot to be desired. But Jerome Bégin doesn't care about that because he doesn't mind it padding his OR stats. Up next comes a road trip to the "We're Figuring It Out" Linndale before hosting Philly Dribble. Historically, this would've been a buzzsaw type of week, but the way things have been stacking up, it might be more of a cakewalk.

5. F.Day Internet Lovers Club
EFFG: 99 | OPP EFFG: 91
While they're middle of the pack in EFFG, their OPP EFFG lands them in the top four of the league, which pushes them to the top of those whose average rank leaves them at 6 on the scoring chart (three-way tie with the next two teams in the rankings). Defense wins championships, but you've got to have some offensive fire power to hold up in this league. A game one loss to Philly saw them up by 6 points after one quarter, only to see it all fall apart, scoring only 33 points in quarters 2 and 3 after scoring 30 in the opening quarter. By that point, there wasn't much they could do. But in Game 2, they took advantage of 209's spent enthusiasm and despite not having as high of ratings across the board, they snuck out a victory after being down 12 at the half by holding MostWanted to 4 points in the third quarter (speaking of mug shots), and then rocked them in the 4th with a 13 point quarter difference to win by 10. They take a trip to Las Vegas before hosting Linndale in Week Two.

Week One Power Rankings
Power Rankings Continued
6. Miami Cleo
EFFG: 109 | OPP EFFG: 93
Our second 6 score in average rankings for the week, Miami comes to us with an undefeated record, holding off VileOnes last weekend by 12 before holding off Mindless Zombies to win by 5 thanks to a bit of effort difference. Fun fact: Miami hasn't purchased a new player since the start of Season 57 when they brought on Patrick Cheatle. Miami plays host to Zubr before heading out for Fort Wayne next week.

7. Tasty Tardsicles
EFFG: 123 | OPP EFFG: 102.5
Tasty enjoyed a 15-point victory over Fort Wayne last weekend on TV before succumbing to VileOnes on the road. They certainly looked good in the Low Post victory on Saturday, dominating the boards and assists enroute to 111 points. While they held the advantage again on Tuesday night, they weren't able to overcome VileOnes trio of Bover, Brinkman, and Ramazan who combined for almost 2/3rds of their points on the night in that Princeton offense. Next comes the Zombies, who are probably quite vengeful and then they get to travel to the evacuated Bialystok.

8. 209's Most Wanted
EFFG: 86.5 | OPP EFFG: 89.5
Alex's crew is tied at this spot with #9, but thanks to their defensive 3rd ranking, find themselves at #8 instead. They took advantage of a too patient Warriors team to get a victory at home before then stumbling on the road against Lovers Club. Their rebounding has been phenomenal, but historically, their OPP EFFG hasn't been this good - if this is a real turn around, they've more than got a chance to compete in the Big 8. A visit from the southpaw army is on the horizon (on TV nonetheless), before they travel to Daylis for a rendezvous with the Lion Rebels.

9. Fort Wayne Pistons
EFFG: 116 | OPP EFFG: 113.5
The Mechanics group is the opposite (almost exactly) of 209's. While they're ranked 5th in EFFG, their 10th place OPP EFFG leaves them at 9th on this list. As mentioned earlier, the Pistons got pummeled by Tasty before hosting TwoTone and getting to decimate them in turn. Despite being down by 3 after one quarter, they turned it on for a 12-point separation in the 2nd and never looked back enroute to 27 assists and 54% shooting from the field. Their rebounding, however, is suspect.

10. Philly Dribble
EFFG: 108.5 | OPP EFFG: 117.5
Going up against what, for all intents and purposes, is a Div II team will put your team in a funk, as both Linndale and Philly found out this week. Paride Fasselli go the rare start on Saturday and showed off like he usually does off the bench, scoring 32 points on 24 shots. He started the second game as well, but southpaws bully new point guard Nivaldo de Moraes somehow infected Fasselli with a stomach virus one minute into the game. (I guess it's been since last season that Paride began starting regularly...I just remember him torching me off the bench my first several seasons - nightmare!). While they're at 6th in the Big 8 and at .500, they'll find ways to make it up. This week they host the Lion Rebels before traveling to Shaw Memorial Gym to take on the Warriors.

11. VileOnes
EFFG: 94 | OPP EFFG: 104
Man, I would've felt stupid if I had just rolled with VileOnes at #2 on this list. But I'm sure Vile Returns would've loved it. Seems like the evil type to enjoy a bit of chaos. And chaos they inflicted with their 9-point victory over Tasty at home following their twelve point "if-not-for-that-3rd-quarter-melt-down" loss to Miami the game before. But seriously, Bover, Ramazan, and Brinkman look like an epic trio - and they're all young! They take their three-ring circus to Twotone's Pavilion before hosting Super Sonics on TV next Tuesday.


Last edited by Baine at 8/30/2023 2:15:13 PM