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Hey peoples! New kid here, looking forward to getting rocked in D3! I'm gonna keep training my peeps and let yall whoop up on me while i'm eating my popcorn. Best of luck and happy hunting!

As long as you have that 6 figure center on your roster, you'll be giving someone a hard way to go. You gonna play him tonight?

Happy Ourer with you tonight on the first road game of the year for Linndale’s favorite basketball team! Along with Joshua Doe, Sam Dunkley, and Jimmy Buckitts, we’re live from, hey… what do they call this place anyway?

Joshua Doe: I don’t know what they call it, but whatever they call this place that’s where we’re live from.

Sam Dunkley: We’re at the Soul Vineyards, where Linndale’s season came to a halt in the playoffs last season.

Jimmy Buckitts: In Happy’s defense it isn’t where we’re at that’s important, it’s where Linndale is going, and that’s into a building where they are 0-2 against Eternityz Rostah.

HO: Are you saying a loss here turns this place into a veritable house of horrors for Pio Reina’s boys?

JB: Three losses in a row and that kind of thing can start to get in your head.

JD: We’re not here to talk about superstitions. Let’s talk some basketball!

HO: Let’s look around the Great 8.

JB: I heard there’s a couple of jokers out there who think the Big 8 owns the Great 8.

HO: I’m sorry; did you say something about the Big 8?

JD: Ain’t nobody got time for that foolishness! Sam, what you got on the Great 8?

SD: In Great 8 play Saturday, we saw the prohibitive favorite to win the conference, the Detroit Globetrotters, take down another newcomer in No Limit BPE, 83-63.

JD: All that talk of ‘possibly best in the league’ at all those positions and I did not see it Saturday.

JB: They did just enough and they won by 20. Not sure who that says more about, but it does say something.

HO: We saw newcomer Page 2 win a barnburner against Duke, 149 -140.

JB: Joshua, don’t say it…

JD: What? Does it really count if it’s Duke? I’m just asking a question. There were a lot of fouls on both sides, but basically Page 2 ran them out the gym after they beat them up.

SD: Nine points isn’t exactly running them out the gym, but 23 steals and forcing 24 turnovers? I’ll give you that.

JB: Linndale took down Everett Everymen 110-61.

JD: I was excited to Snell and that group play. They have to get some guards on that team. They’re gonna have a long season if they don’t. They’re wasting the big fella and that group of bigs there.

SD: Finally, Andersonville took down tonight’s opponent, Eternityz Rostah 85-75.

JB: That game didn’t look right to me.

JD: I’ll say it. The Rostah was sandbagging and got caught. That won’t happen tonight.

HO: Was it sandbagging or was it Father Time?

SD: Or has Andersonville gotten better? All of those things can be true at the same time.

JD: I’m not trying to disrespect what Andersonville did, but I have questions about that Rostah team. They can be really good, or they could be a bunch of old guys slowing down a really good point guard. I’m curious to see which way this goes.

JB: I spoke to Pio Reina about that, and he’s not concerned about what happened in that game. He did talk up his improved perimeter defense, singling out Walt Colenbrander and Juan Onrubia. He also said Onrubia has chased down Pasman as the best perimeter defender on the team, and Colenbrander is right behind them.

SD: Pasman is always trying to improve something, so I expect him to get to work on that. Defense is his thing and he’s not going to just let someone catch him, he’ll try to raise the bar.

JD: Nobody cares about the defense if you can’t score when you need to. I need to see this group win a defensive game against a strong offensive team. Who’s that guy that’s getting the ball and saying ‘I’m about to score and there’s nothing you can do about it’? Tell him to get some buckets!

HO: Hopefully, we start to see that tonight. When we come back from break we got courtside for the tipoff!

Last edited by Speedtraps at 12/31/2024 2:15:28 PM

Jimmy Buckitts: I’m here with Linndale assistant coach Air Allnite. Coach, we didn’t see much of starting point guard Walt Colenbrander in that first game. Will we see him tonight.

Air Allnite: (deadpans) Jimmy, I can’t control what the cameras show. He was at the last game and he played. He even hit a three pointer. What more do you want?

JB: Coach, Pio Reina has referred to him as the unquestioned starter. He didn’t start last game. Will he start tonight?

AA: Jimmy, let me be clear. If Pio named Walt the unquestioned starter, there’s your answer. That’s who the starter is. Understand we have a number of guys who have the ability to start at point guard for this team, and our job is to win games and make guys better. That’s what we’re trying to do. Whoever you see on the floor is a byproduct of the coaches working towards both goals.

JB: You’re known as a guard specialist and shooting coach, but you’ve been working on solving the turnover problem the last few seasons.

AA: We’ve been up and down in that area the last few seasons, but overall we’re trending in the right direction with turnovers. The Rostah backcourt can give you fits, so this ought to be a good test tonight.

JB: We’re anxious to see how things go tonight. Thanks for your time, and good luck tonight. That was Air Allnite, Linndale assistant coach. Happy, back to you.

HO: Jimmy, did my ears deceive me? Did Air Allnite, the resident curmudgeon on the staff just crack a joke at your expense? I didn’t know he had a sense of humor!

JB: To be fair, Happy, I don’t think he knows it either!

HO: Thanks Jimmy! We’ll talk to you a bit later on.

Happy Ourer: Well, there’s not much to say after this one.

Joshua Doe: There’s a lot to say. Pio Reina should be angry right now. That locker room should be angry. Some things need to change. Byron Helm has got to put these big through some things. They can’t hold on to the ball! I love Joy Beko; he does a lot of things you need done, but he’s not a scorer. If Joy Beko leads your team in scoring and you have talents like Juan Onrubia, Gian-Luca Twaruschek, and Douglas Simmons, who couldn’t even get on the court today, you have to make changes.

Sam Dunkley: Joshua isn’t wrong, but I think we should remember it’s only game 2, and we don’t know what the training schedule is. We don’t know what they were stressing this week.

JD: It better be shooting! That was an embarrassing shooting performance. And don’t get me started on Pere Vendrell! 0 for 5 on free throws! Man, ain’t nobody guarding you! Inexcusable!

Jimmy Buckitts: The team that can’t shoot straight has reared it’s ugly head. Juan Onrubia, Beko, Twaruschek, and Reinholm only shooters at 50% for Linndale and none took 10 shots.

HO: Onrubia couldn’t stay on the court with his foul trouble tonight. I get Pio’s thought of putting your best defender on the point guard to make it difficult for your opponent to run their offense, but that specatacularly did not work tonight. Onrubia and then Colenbrander spent the night chasing Mizoguchi around tonight and got carved up.

JB: It’s worth noting Mizoguchi carved up Pasman on defense last season. It’s possible that as good of defenders as that trio is, Mizoguchi is just better than they are, and that’s kind of scary to consider.

JD: Man, somebody has got to put the ball in the basket consistently. Maybe Pio needs to let the offense be part of the defense. If you can’t shut them down, make them shut you down.

JB: There might be something to that. Last season, when scoring 120 or more points, Linndale was 6-0.

SD: Come on Jimmy! Look at that list! K8be4L, Nanooks of the North, Cleveland Heat Lakers twice, Brooklyn Knicks, AZ Sunburn, and Duke all suffered that indignity. Duke and AZ Sunburn are the only one that didn’t get relegated. To be clear, not a single playoff team is on that list.

HO: So right now, I’m hearing that Pio Reina needs to let the dogs off the leash as it were, and go let them find their offense.

JD: You are not winning games if you don’t score points. Nobody ever won a game in this league without scoring. Ever.

JB: I lean more towards letting Pio Reina do his thing with his staff and trust they get where they want to go. More times than not they get the desired results, and that has to stand for something.

SD: I tend to side with JB on this, but it’s clear that more offense is needed. Maybe that means taking a little bit of focus off defense and putting more emphasis on the offense. If I’m Detroit and Page 2, I’m thinking Linndale is a winnable game on the schedule.

JD: They’d better! If I was coaching anyone playing Linndale right now, we would be very disrespectful. Score on us; I dare you. Make them prove they can score.

HO: I’ll bet you that GM Roberto Gurgone is working on that as well. Sometimes I think you all forget Roberto is a Linndale Hall of Fame point guard, and Pio is a Linndale Hall of Fame shooting guard. Joshua, you’re also a Linndale Hall of Famer.

JD: Pio was a defensive genius, Roberto was versatile and did everything, and I was good at putting the ball in the basket. I’m just saying they have rwo of those three qualities. They need that third.

HO: We must go to commercial, and we’ll pick this up when we return. Tonight Lindale is a loser 102 to 84. Back after these words from our sponsor.

Day 2 (Tuesday 31 December 2024) : Performances by (https://www.buzzer-manager.com)

Night results
Las Vegas Red Pandas 77 - Anchorage Allstars. 94
The Dachshunds 101 - Defenseless Babies 132
Wahoo Warriors 90 - AZ Sunburn 112
Auto-Strikers 80 - GloryBoyz 129
No Limit BPE 106 - Page 2 103
Duke Devilz 119 - Everett Everymen 110
Linndale 84 - Eternityz Rostah 102
Andersonville Alligators 70 - Detroit Globetrotters 104

Best collective performance of the evening
Points : 132 : Defenseless Babies
Rebounds : 73 : AZ Sunburn
Assists : 34 : Defenseless Babies, Everett Everymen
Steals : 12 : Wahoo Warriors, GloryBoyz
Block Shots : 10 : GloryBoyz

Personal best performances of the evening
Points : 43 : J. Radford (Wahoo Warriors)
Rebounds : 18 : M. Kearney (The Dachshunds)
Assists : 14 : J. Campos (Duke Devilz)
Steals : 4 : M. Silver (Defenseless Babies), T. Gonzalo Matas (Wahoo Warriors)
Block Shots : 3 : J. Yongyi (Anchorage Allstars.), E. Shtern (AZ Sunburn), D. Lentz (Wahoo Warriors), M. Wade (GloryBoyz), A. Timpanaro (Duke Devilz), P. Vendrell (Linndale)

Top 5 of the evening
Point Guard : J. Campos (Duke Devilz) (28 Points, 2 Rebounds, 14 Assists, 3 Steals, 1 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 34
Shooting Guard : R. Lian (Duke Devilz) (37 Points, 1 Rebounds, 4 Assists, 0 Steals, 0 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 30
Small Forward : C. Aldao (GloryBoyz) (31 Points, 5 Rebounds, 1 Assists, 2 Steals, 0 Block Shots), L. Jimenez (Everett Everymen) (34 Points, 7 Rebounds, 4 Assists, 1 Steals, 0 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 29
Power Forward : K. Kortunov (AZ Sunburn) (18 Points, 16 Rebounds, 2 Assists, 3 Steals, 1 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 36
Center : B. Erickson (Defenseless Babies) (15 Points, 13 Rebounds, 2 Assists, 1 Steals, 1 Block Shots), M. Kearney (The Dachshunds) (14 Points, 18 Rebounds, 7 Assists, 0 Steals, 0 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 29

MVP of the evening
K. Kortunov (AZ Sunburn) (18 Points, 16 Rebounds, 2 Assists, 3 Steals, 1 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 36

The bad performance of the evening
R. Echave (Las Vegas Red Pandas) (0 Points, 2 Rebounds, 0 Assists, 0 Steals, 0 Block Shots)W. Atkinson (AZ Sunburn) (2 Points, 4 Rebounds, 0 Assists, 0 Steals, 0 Block Shots) : Efficiency : -3

All kinds of statistics
The player who forgot to remove his mittens : A. Kulacs (AZ Sunburn), T. Gonzalo Matas (Wahoo Warriors), R. Denzel (Auto-Strikers), B. Beam (Auto-Strikers), R. Franklin (Everett Everymen), A. Roche (Andersonville Alligators) : 5 Turnovers

Player targeted by the referees : C. De Stefano (Page 2) : 6 Personnal Fouls

The iron-man : T. Gonzalo Matas (Wahoo Warriors), J. Radford (Wahoo Warriors), P. Hengyun (Page 2), L. Jimenez (Everett Everymen), P. Nevin (Everett Everymen) : 48 Minutes

The shooter : M. Yancey (Anchorage Allstars.) : 6 Three points

The best performer : M. Muñoz (Detroit Globetrotters) : Rating : 15.0

The worst performer : B. Wolff (Eternityz Rostah) : Rating : 4.0

I thought i did but only but him in the backup spot! so i'll try again next time, got distracted i guess when doing lineups.

I like when I have a match and I know I’m going to lose but, maybe I’ll keep it competitive. Then I get shellacked by 34. Fuck.

I feel that. Didn't expect to win my game, but didn't expect to be blasted like that. The final score was NOT indicative of the game.

Happy Ourer: Joshua, you wanted to see offense get a chance. It looks like Douglas Simmons is going to get some run with departure of Roman Bodura and Rafet Ozver should see his playing time stabilize with the departure of Pere Vendrell.

Joshua Doe: It’s about time we see Simmons on the floor, but unless he’s coming out firing like Gian-Luca Twaruschek did last season with a slew of 20 point games, they need more scoring. Vendrell’s departure was all but assured when the big fella Juan Jose Gallardo arrived.

HO: Joshua, you move a big for another big. How does that stabilize the playing time for a Rafet Ozver? You still have the same minutes problem.

JD: Happy, you have to use the talents of the players you have. If you acquire the right player, you might see Beko move out to small forward. Imagine the skill set of a player that forces you to move Beko to small forward. He’s probably a scorer, who does as good work inside as Beko, if not better. What I’m saying is, if you get the right guy you unlock a number of things. Maybe it’s a scoring wing that slots Onrubia into the sidekick role until he’s ready to be the lead hero.

Sam Dunkley: I’ll tell you what, the defense inside and the rebounding improved, but Simmons getting more time doesn’t address Bodura’s loss on the perimeter defensively. We need to see Simmons contribute on offense and on defense he simply needs to be passable.

Jimmy Buckitts: I think the real takeaway is Roberto Gurgone’s fearlessness to make a move. I spoke with the Linndale GM and he mentioned that they wanted a more consistent rebounder in that role and that it would allow Davide Spada to be the full time backup center with Juan Jose Gallardo’s arrival. He said that would allow Ozver to be the primary backup for Joy Beko and Twaruschek can float between both forward spots. I think there’s another move coming, maybe 2.

JD: One of those moves has to be a scorer. Plain and simple. I don’t want to hear about ‘if the cost is right’, or ‘the player we’re looking for isn’t available yet’ or ‘that player doesn’t fit our profile’. Can the man score 20 a night in his sleep? Because that’s the profile you need right now!

HO: Joshua throwing the hammer down!

JD: I know Roberto well. He’s done a good job in that position as GM. He knows just on pure talent, they can’t compete with the Detroit Globetrotters tonight. He also knows if anyone can find a way to get a win, it’s Pio Reina. But you, these guys here in studio, the fans at home and Roberto all know this team needs a pure, give me the ball and watch me work because they can’t stop me scorer. Twaruschek isn’t quite there. Onrubia isn’t there. We don’t know if Simmons is that guy. Frias shows flashes but is too inconsistent, and Colenbrander isn’t selfish enough to be that guy. Roberto, go get your scorer.

HO: I’m sure Roberto isn’t watching us right now, Joshua.

JD: Well, he ought to. This is the best, longest running, most informative pregame show around with the best analysts…

HO: Shameless plug here…

JD: ...and if you want to know what’s going on, this is the only show worth watching or listening to. I’d call him, but I’m working, and I wouldn’t want anyone to call me while I’m working so I give that same respect.

SD: So, we got time to do some Big 8 analysis?

JD: Will y’all stop with that foolishness? Ain’t nobody got time for that here! This is Great 8 country! We got Great 8 business to handle, and we’ll deal with that other stuff when it’s time and not a second before!

HO: (laughing) and there you have it! We’ll be back with more after the break!

Day 3 (Saturday 4 January 2025) : Performances by (https://www.buzzer-manager.com)

Night results
Defenseless Babies 94 - Las Vegas Red Pandas 107
AZ Sunburn 119 - The Dachshunds 111
GloryBoyz 123 - Wahoo Warriors 111
Anchorage Allstars. 102 - Auto-Strikers 52
Everett Everymen 73 - No Limit BPE 99
Eternityz Rostah 96 - Duke Devilz 79
Detroit Globetrotters 124 - Linndale 127
Page 2 105 - Andersonville Alligators 99

Best collective performance of the evening
Points : 127 : Linndale
Rebounds : 66 : Las Vegas Red Pandas
Assists : 31 : Eternityz Rostah, Detroit Globetrotters
Steals : 12 : Anchorage Allstars.
Block Shots : 10 : Anchorage Allstars.

Personal best performances of the evening
Points : 42 : H. Oßmann (Detroit Globetrotters)
Rebounds : 22 : B. Ellis (Detroit Globetrotters)
Assists : 15 : C. Ravestein (Detroit Globetrotters)
Steals : 5 : J. Schindl (Anchorage Allstars.)
Block Shots : 3 : A. Bedonia (GloryBoyz), J. Yongyi (Anchorage Allstars.), M. Álvarez (Eternityz Rostah)

Top 5 of the evening
Point Guard : Y. Xiao (GloryBoyz) (34 Points, 5 Rebounds, 4 Assists, 2 Steals, 0 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 38
Shooting Guard : H. Oßmann (Detroit Globetrotters) (42 Points, 9 Rebounds, 3 Assists, 0 Steals, 0 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 37
Small Forward : J. Massalt (Page 2) (29 Points, 8 Rebounds, 9 Assists, 3 Steals, 0 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 37
Power Forward : J. Beko (Linndale) (20 Points, 21 Rebounds, 7 Assists, 3 Steals, 0 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 44
Center : K. Tanko (Page 2) (23 Points, 21 Rebounds, 1 Assists, 1 Steals, 0 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 38

MVP of the evening
J. Beko (Linndale) (20 Points, 21 Rebounds, 7 Assists, 3 Steals, 0 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 44

The bad performance of the evening
A. Stockton (Duke Devilz) (0 Points, 0 Rebounds, 0 Assists, 0 Steals, 0 Block Shots) : Efficiency : -6

All kinds of statistics
The player who forgot to remove his mittens : T. Gonzalo Matas (Wahoo Warriors), F. Loaeza (Auto-Strikers) : 6 Turnovers

Player targeted by the referees : R. Rapp (Page 2) : 6 Personnal Fouls

The iron-man : T. Gonzalo Matas (Wahoo Warriors), J. Radford (Wahoo Warriors), L. Schneider (Everett Everymen), H. Ramos (Everett Everymen), J. Massalt (Page 2) : 48 Minutes

The shooter : J. Collante (Andersonville Alligators) : 8 Three points

The best performer : V. Grinevicius (Wahoo Warriors) : Rating : 16.0

The worst performer : A. Stockton (Duke Devilz) : Rating : 4.0

Happy Ourer: Tonight was an old school 15 round heavyweight fight, except at the end of 15 rounds, they kept swinging. After a catch and shoot three pointer to beat the buzzer tied the game at 109, these two teams continued to slug each other, with Linndale outlasting Detroit 127-124. Gentlemen, your thoughts? Sam, you first.

Sam Dunkley: I didn’t expect this game to be as even as it was. When Linndale had that run to end the third into the fourth, you knew Detroit would make a run, and they did. Pio Reina’s boys would not go quietly into the night. I don’t know that they win this game last season. I don’t think they do. Wow!

HO: Jimmy?

Jimmy Buckitts: It’s been a while since we saw someone score 30 for Linndale, and I don’t remember the last time that happened AND Joy Beko scored 20 in the same game!

Joshua Doe: To heck with the first part, I can’t remember the last time that second thing happened!

JB: That’s exactly my point, Joshua. It’s rare. Look up and down the lineup. There was scoring off the bench! Frias, Twaruschek, and Simmons combined for nearly 50 point off the bench, and these weren’t garbage time minutes they were in. These were important minutes, and they produced. 7 guys scored 10 points or more. This was as complete a team effort in a game that wasn’t a blowout that we’ve seen in a while.

JD: You know, someone is going to look at the stat line and say Walt Pasman got cooked, but it took Obmann 31 shots to get 42 points in 44 minutes. Now, he’s tough to stop, but 31 shots to get 42 points is a lot of work. I don’t know that Linndale wins this without Pasman. I was also impressed with Juan Onrubia. This was the kind of performance that showed why Linndale was quick to get him from Las Vegas in that other conference.

HO: I thought both teams played well. It seemed Linndale had an answer for every run Detroit made, but Joy Beko put this team on his back and did everything. 20 points, 21 rebounds, 7 assists, and 3 steals.

SD: Another thing I noticed was they just kept picking each other up out there. If somebody missed a shot somebody else got the rebound, or made a steal. They didn’t resort to hero ball, where 1 guy is trying to do it all by himself.

HO: After that New Year’s Eve beating they took from the Rostah, this was exactly the performance they needed.

JB: You knew something was brewing when Beko beat the buzzer with a three pointer at the half. When Frias did it to send the game to overtime… this game would have been really tough to recover from had they lost.

SD: They’ll meet again in Detroit, a game I’m sure Detroit will be waiting for, if only to send a message.

JD: It’s not a rivalry until you win on the other guy’s floor. One game is just that. But coming up is Page 2, and they dominated the boards on the way to a 105-99 win over Andersonville.

SD: Andersonville had their way from the three point line, going 15 of 31, but it wasn’t enough. Kingsley Tanko led the was for Page 2 with a 23 point 21 rebound performance.

JB: Meanwhile, No Limit BPE took down Everett Everymen 99-73, despite a 25 point 12 rebound performance from Gilbert Snell.

JD: That man is going to get frustrated with the lack of support from his teammates. Someone needs to step up there.

HO: We end things with Eternityz Rostah beating Duke 96-79. A 7 point game at the half, the Rostah effectively ended things with a 26 to 9 third quarter. I take it that no one is surprised.

JB: No.

SD: Not at all.

JD: Nope.

HO: Also to no one’s surprise, we are out of time. We’ll see you all Tuesday night!