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Snake River is no longer on the inactivity watch list, but I was very surprised to see how long the manager of the O'Ballers has been offline. I wouldn't drop them from the rankings until next season, but if they stay inactive...I may be forced to drop a longtime playoff team in this league.

Big 8 Power rankings:
1) BPE (13-2)
2) Gators (12-3)
3) WildHoochieKoos (10-5)
4) Big Beavers (9-6)
5) Snake River Panthers (6-9)

Great 8 power rankings:
1)Raleigh Capitols (15-0)
2)Hard2Guard (14-1)
3)The Duck City Ninjas (11-4)
4A)The Barack O'Ballers (8-7)
4B)Jersey Blazing Heat (7-8)

discussion/explanation: the standings for 4th/5th in the Great 8 flip flopped again, but I'm beginning to think Jersey in their inaugural season just might sneak in that 4th and final playoff spot. We'll save Hooch vs Jersey for last though...the first game I'll get out of the way is the Big Beavers vs Raleigh game...after keeping it close in the first quarter, Raleigh hung almost 50 on the Big Beavers in quarter 2. In the end, despite Brathen Simpson and James's best effort, the three point shooting and ability to get to the basket/get fouls at will for Raleigh was too much for the Big Beavers. Onto Snake River and Duck City...Snake River's back court was absolutely electric in this game, but Duck City's superior rebounding and more quality passing gave them the edge. Snake River's backup center, who was forced to play big minutes in this game, showed a lot of promise, though; maybe that's something to watch going forward? Finally, we get to Hooch and Jersey...assists, turnovers, and made 3's made all the difference in Hooch's 18 point win. Jersey has a lot of positives to take from this going forward, however; Joya showed once again that he's capable of controlling a close game on the boards, grabbing ten rebounds just from the offensive glass(23 overall!). Perhaps focusing the offense around their bigs even more,such as with the "look inside" offense, is the move going forward? It'll certainly be fun to watch Joya and Gaugl, both of whom have come to establish themselves as stars in this league at the PF position, match up when Jersey and the O'Ballers meet up again for the start of round two of division play.

Big changes seem to be on the horizon. Here are the updated power rankings

Big 8 Power rankings:
1) BPE (14-2)
2) Gators (13-3)
3) WildHoochieKoos (11-5)
4) Big Beavers (9-7)
5) Snake River Panthers (7-9)

Great 8 power rankings:
1)Raleigh Capitols (16-0)
2)Hard2Guard (15-1)
3)The Duck City Ninjas (11-5)
4)Jersey Blazing Heat (8-8)
5)The Barack O'Ballers (8-8)

discussion/explanation: wow. You know the slate of games was good when the one I get out the way first is a 2v3 game. So let's get right on it, shall we? The difference in this game seemed to be: the first quarter, rebounds, and free throws. Duck City won assist to turnover margin and dominated the three-point line, but once again, playing through the paint on offense lead to H2G's success. As for Gators vs Beavers, it was very close statistically, but it seemed to come down to the three ball. Other than that and Big Beavers winning the assist to turnover ratio, stats were basically dead even. I'm not even joking. I don't have much else to say. Now for the game that truly flipped the standings for the first time this season. Despite Gaugl dominating the power forward matchup, Jersey won the game, dominating offensive rebounds, assist to turnover ratio, and to an extent 3's. In general, Jersey took and made more shots, and that was the story of the game: pace and efficiency. And that is how they're now 4th in the power rankings in the Great 8.

More drama in the standings on the way, including another upset! let's get into this, shall we?

Big 8 Power rankings:
1) BPE (15-2)
2) Gators (14-3)
3) WildHoochieKoos (11-6)
4) Big Beavers (10-7)
5) Snake River Panthers (8-9)

Great 8 power rankings:
1)Raleigh Capitols (17-0)
2)Hard2Guard (16-1)
3)The Duck City Ninjas (12-5)
4)Jersey Blazing Heat (8-9)
5)The Barack O'Ballers (8-9)

discussion/explanation: this week's slate of games featured both the O'Ballers and Jersey as they jockey for positioning in the standings with both point differential and attempting to pull off upsets along with a mild upset in the Big 8. With that out the way, let's see what went down in said games. Raleigh jumped out to a big first-quarter lead and never looked back, shooting around 60% from the field while Jersey shot closer to 30% from the field. At this point, the only team I see realistically taking down Raleigh in the regular season or postseason is H2G. Onto the next game, despite a monstrous, herculean effort from Gaugl who ended up getting a triple-double, a massive third-quarter effort from Duck City helped them escape with a victory in this game. Assist to turnover ratio seemed to play a role in Duck City's win, along with the 3 ball, which the O'Ballers went 0-11 on while for Duck City the 3 ball was coming mostly from Tilge, the clear first option on this team, who made 6 of his 7 3-pointers. Both their centers also chipped in quite well, Gatto with his 23 points and 8 rebounds in 27 minutes while Thomas played a more facilitating role in his 23 minutes, dishing 6 assists to go with his 6 boards. Finally, we have a rare upset on our hands. A big first quarter from the Beavers was too much for Hooch's squad to handle as they tried to chip their way back in but couldn't do quite enough. Free throws and rebounds played a huge part in general to their win, but a big key to their success: the surprising play from their guards. the Princeton offense they ran caught Hooch, running an inside box and one, off guard, and with Mahoney and Brathen facilitating more than usual while James was scoring more than usual, along with the typical rebounding contributions of Brathen and Jonas, they did just enough to get the win along with both giving themselves a cushion for fourth place and put some more pressure for jumping up to 3, unlikely as it is.

Only 2 games to discuss this week but they were pretty good ones! So, let's get right into it.

Big 8 Power rankings:
1) BPE (16-2)
2) Gators (15-3)
3A) WildHoochieKoos (12-6)
3B) Big Beavers (11-7)
5) Snake River Panthers (8-10)

Great 8 power rankings:
1)Raleigh Capitols (18-0)
2)Hard2Guard (17-1)
3)The Duck City Ninjas (12-6)
4)Jersey Blazing Heat (9-9)
5)The Barack O'Ballers (9-9)

discussion/explanation: there aren't many games to talk about but there are some things to discuss in relation. Raleigh jumped out to a big first-quarter lead and never looked back even as DC found their groove in the second quarter. The rebounding advantage for Raleigh was huge and probably contributed to the margin of victory. The playoff implications...don't really change for either team; Duck City is 3 games ahead of 4th place but now 5 games out of second with 4 games left. The only playoff positioning games that are important in the Great 8 are every game that the O'Ballers and Jersey play and the highly anticipated H2G vs Raleigh rematch on this coming Saturday, the 23rd. Moving on to the next game, the Big Beavers jumped out to a big first-quarter lead and held off a furious fourth-quarter rally attempt from Snake River to hold on for a victory and keep the pressure on Hooch for that 3rd spot. Despite struggling from the charity stripe, it along with rebounds played a crucial factor in the win; Snake River, however, if they heat up like this again at a later game, may be able to sneak an upset in. Snake River has fallen 3 games behind the 4th spot with 4 games to go but could play spoiler in their last game against Hooch; Big Beavers has BPE then 3 CPU teams to close out the season, while Hooch has 1 CPU team then faces BPE, Gators, and Snake River back to back to back; even if they upset one of the first two teams, Snake River could play spoiler at the end; we all know Cousido is capable of dropping 50 with 10 3's on any given night, and if Hooch's team shooting is off that night or Snake River is much more aggressive with getting free throws, that may be all she wrote for that game. With all this in mind...I'm officially changing up Hooch and Big Beavers to 3A and 3B instead of 3 and 4.

Last edited by Rob Da Man at 6/17/2018 10:19:54 PM

Let's get into it...not much to say with the games, but with the playoffs so close, I'll be discussing possibilities in the discussion

Big 8 Power rankings:
1) BPE (17-2)
2) Gators (16-3)
3A) WildHoochieKoos (13-6)
3B) Big Beavers (11-8)
5) Snake River Panthers (9-10)

Great 8 power rankings:
1)Raleigh Capitols (19-0)
2)Hard2Guard (18-1)
3)The Duck City Ninjas (13-6)
4)Jersey Blazing Heat (9-10)
5)The Barack O'Ballers (10-9)

discussion/explanation: let's get into the games...Jersey was dominated from start to finish, as Joya was held to 6 rebounds and H2G dominated basically every major statistical category. The funniest note from this game: all the made 3's came from bigs! Moving along...despite an incredible rebounding output from Jonas including 12 offensive rebounds, BPE's efficiency, evident in assist to turnover ratio and their FG%, gave them the edge in the 20 point victory. Now for the fun part...playoff discussion. This is gonna be a part of the rest of the regular season discussion. I think I'll start a separate forum for the playoffs and include predictions before the game, in addition to post-game analysis like I do now...but that's neither here nor there. The first thing I'm gonna get out the way: the top 2 seed in both divisions are basically locked, and the current number 1 and 2 are both essentially locked into their slots(H2G and Gators, even if they beat Raleigh and BPE, likely won't catch up in terms of point differential). Also, Duck City could theoretically drop to 4th place, but with the O'Ballers, after a CPU team this coming Tuesday, finishing up against H2G and Raleigh, that's not gonna happen. One last thing, because Snake River is facing the brutal stretch run ahead while Big Beavers has 3 CPU opponents left...they mathematically could catch up for 4th place but pragmatically that isn't happening. Now, onto the interesting discussions...3rd and 4th place in the Big 8 and 4th and 5th place in the Great 8...as previously stated, Big Beavers have 3 games left, all against CPU teams...meanwhile, Hooch's last 3 games are BPE, Gators, and Snake River...they likely lose those first two, but they are the favorites against Snake River...that being said, there's always the chance for an off shooting night, and Cousido is the type of player that can lead the charge for an upset single-handedly. Big Beavers' chances of catching up to Hooch's point differential are slim to none, however, so their most realistic shot of passing Hooch is to bank on the Snake River upset while taking care of business on their end and hoping Hooch doesn't pull an upset themselves. If I had to put money on it, though, they end up with a tied record and Hooch maintains third-place on point differential. Now, onto Jersey and the O'Ballers...as previously mentioned, The O'Ballers have a CPU team followed by H2G and Raleigh-yikes! Jersey, meanwhile, has a CPU team, Duck City, and what might as well be another CPU team. Assuming things go as expected, they end up with the same record; now, it comes down to point differential. Presently, the O'Ballers have a 35 point lead on point differential; looking at the schedules, however, I have a sneaking suspicion that Jersey will get back and surpass that 35 point deficit in these next 3 games. Basically...if I were a betting man, I'd put my money on Jersey making it, and it would be the first time I could remember since joining this league that a "first-year expansion team" made the playoffs in this league.

Predictions will be returning for me starting in the playoffs! Been busy to do them.

Look forward to it!

Wow...there's a lot to talk about. Let's get into it

Big 8 Power rankings:
1) BPE (18-2)
2) Gators (17-3)
3A) WildHoochieKoos (13-7)
3B) Big Beavers (12-8)
5) Snake River Panthers (9-11)

Great 8 power rankings:
1)Raleigh Capitols (19-1)
2)Hard2Guard (19-1)
3)The Duck City Ninjas (14-6)
4)Jersey Blazing Heat (10-10)
5)The Barack O'Ballers (11-9)

discussion/explanation: I'll start out with the Gators themselves...they ran Snake River out the building in the first quarter and never looked back. MVP candidate Cousido struggled against Florian Lackey who I will proclaim as a guy who could win defensive player of the year if BuzzerBeater had that as an award. He usually plays the best player on the other team and usually locks them down, and Cosuido was no exception. Overall here's the story of the game...Gators had 23 offensive rebounds. Snake River had 34 total rebounds. Also, shooting efficiency and free throws played a major factor. Another thing to watch is a possible changing of the guard at center and power forward; Calderon and Pihronen played more minutes off the bench than Taccini and Coly did as starters. Next, we have a closer game between BPE and Hooch. Once again, BPE's overall efficiency proved to be the difference as free throw conversion, field goal percentage, and assist to turnover ratio were all things that BPE had a big advantage in. Finally...it happened. I wasn't sure if it would happen...but it happened. Down goes the last unbeaten. The shooting efficiencies were about even. H2G had a slight advantage in rebounds, and while the assist to turnover ratio was about even, but H2G had way more assists. At the end of the game...while Clint Watson may have been the one to miss the shot, it was Jandula who choked at the end, missing a couple of layups and a mid-range shot in addition to committing an unnecessary foul in the last minute. Law Kim Tech, meanwhile, was coming up huge for H2G in the last couple of minutes. Starting at 2 minutes left, Raleigh had a 2 point lead, 92-90. Anyway, moving along to the playoff implications...home court still likely goes to Raleigh in the Great 8, and nothing in my eyes has really changed. The only thing that's really changed in the Big 8 is that Snake River is officially eliminated from the playoffs and will likely face the CPU team that finishes 7th in the Great 8. Overall, the playoff picture hasn't changed, the only spots that could really change going forward are 3 and 4 in the Big 8 and that's only if Snake River pulls the upset of Hooch and 4 and 5 in the Great 8 which I gave my opinion on last discussion.

There's several games to talk about with the playoffs fast approaching. Let's do it.

Big 8 Power rankings:
1) BPE (19-2)
2) Gators (17-4)
3A) WildHoochieKoos (14-7)
3B) Big Beavers (13-8)
5) Snake River Panthers (9-12)

Great 8 power rankings:
1)Raleigh Capitols (20-1)
2)Hard2Guard (20-1)
3)The Duck City Ninjas (15-6)
4)Jersey Blazing Heat (10-11)
5)The Barack O'Ballers (11-10)

discussion/explanation: we have several games to get into today. I love it! We'll get BPE-Snake River out the way first...it wasn't even close, and while Cosuido had a much better game this time around than last game...the story of the game can be summed up as this: they had one more rebound as compared to turnovers and had only 3 fewer missed field goal attempts than points. Simply put, BPE absolutely bodied them, and all this without making a single 3 point shot. In the next game...the score wasn't as absolutely dominating, but H2G dominated on the boards and through efficiency en route to a big win over the O'Ballers. For our next game, Duck City used shooting efficiency, especially from behind the 3 point line, along with strong 2nd and 3rd quarters to put away Jersey despite them dominating on the boards and putting up an assist to turnover that, while worse than Duck City's, wasn't a huge disadvantage for them. Onto the last game of the day, Hooch managed to pull the upset against the Gators by gaining a sizeable first-half lead then maintaining it in the second half. For the Gators, the fact that Hooch "looked like the only team trying out there" seemed to be the big thing that doomed them, as they played more sloppy than usual, they did seem to have 5 guys positively contributing but after that all you see is guys having something that seems to contribute to the loss such as 5 fouls in 33 minutes, two guys who weren't hitting their shots and didn't get free throws, the second of those two guys having 2 turnovers in 15 minutes as a point guard, a center having 3 turnovers in 9 minutes, and lastly a guy having 3 fouls in 6 minutes. Basically...they laid an egg and Hooch took advantage, especially their small forward and power forward, both of whom were extremely efficient on offense and the former of whom was very active on defense. Looking forward to the playoffs...in the Big 8, BPE vs Big Beavers and Gators vs Hooch is basically set in stone as the matchups. All I can say is, expect different rotations from me in that game against Hooch; should be a fun one! Meanwhile, for BPE vs Big Beavers, I think that will also be a very good game. The Big Beavers have made big strides this season, especially at the guard spots, and whatever the outcome, it'll be fun to watch. Onto the Great 8, if one of Raleigh or H2G loses, then the other clinches the one seed; in the likely scenario that they both win, Raleigh has the point differential advantage in the bag. At the 4 spot, The O'Ballers currently hold a one game and 29 point advantage, but since their final matchup is against Raleigh and Jersey's matchup is against AC Bellem, I predict that Jersey wins, the O'Ballers lose, and the difference in points is greater than 29 meaning that Jersey get the final spot, becoming the first team I've seen make it in the playoffs in their inaugural season, where they'd face Raleigh in the playoffs, and with the other matchup it would be the classic Duck City and H2G matchup that's always a lot of fun.

The regular season has now come to a close. Here are the final rankings heading into the playoffs.

Big 8 Power rankings:
1) BPE (20-2)
2) Gators (17-5)
3A) WildHoochieKoos (15-7)
3B) Big Beavers (14-8)
5) Snake River Panthers (9-13)

Great 8 power rankings:
1)Raleigh Capitols (21-1)
2)Hard2Guard (21-1)
3)The Duck City Ninjas (16-6)
4)Jersey Blazing Heat (11-11)
5)The Barack O'Ballers (11-11)

discussion/explanation: With the season over and the board for the playoffs set up, this section will mostly focus on what happened today. To start off...despite Gaugl's best efforts, Raleigh won the game by 45 points, having basically every major advantage go their way. In the next game that I'm gonna cover...I swear, the Gators are never running an inside box-and-one again, it never works for them. Anyway, BPE jumped out to a large first-half lead, then held off the Gators after an astonishing run in the first 5-6 minutes of the 3rd quarter where Lackey and Bayramov seemed to carry the whole team on them. Neither team shot particularly well, but free throws, rebounds, and assist to turnover ratio were all clearly in BPE's favor. Interestingly enough, both teams took it easy this game as the playoffs approach; this is probably because their seedings were locked in. Also, Camp seemed to find the secret to rendering Lackey's defense ineffective. Moving on to our last game...Hooch had a great shooting night, shot 47 free throws, got 30 steals...and still only won by 7 points. I had previously said Cousido was capable of going for 50 on any given night...unfortunately for Snake River, they needed that 50 plus one more and they got 43 from him. Overall it was a fun game to watch unfold. There's one more note I wanted to add in...coming into the final game of the season, the Barack O'Ballers and Jersey Blazing Heat were separated by one game and 29 points...after the 45 point loss by the O'Ballers to Raleigh and the 37 point win by the Blazing Heat against AC Bellem, the Jersey Blazing Heat have officially made the playoffs in their inaugural season! Congrats to them and good luck to everyone whether that's in the playoffs or in a relegation series.

There are no records to go off of so this is purely an opinion based pre-season ranking. Also, for the new guys in this league, first off, welcome, and second off, I won't include CPU teams in this or squads that have been inactive for long enough(which tbh how long "long enough" is too me is sort of inconsistent but eh). In terms of why I rank the teams where I do, I'll explain all of my reasoning below the rankings.

Big 8 Power rankings:
1) BPE
2) Gators
3) Big Beavers
4) WildHoochieKoos
5) Snake River Panthers

Great 8 power rankings:
1)Hard2Guard
2A)Clemson Cavs
2B)The Duck City Ninjas
4)Jersey Blazing Heat
5)The Barack O'Ballers
6)Boynton Birdseye

discussion/explanation: in the Big 8, BPE is clearly the team to beat. I didn't even realize how far behind them my team was until I tried to play man defense in the semis...that was a mistake. Also, they now have awesome guard play which makes them all the more dangerous. Next, we have what I believe to be a very close race between 2,3, and 4, especially at 2 and 3. The Gators are interesting in that their main players are back as Lackey gets his second full season on the team under him, Bayramov can still score with the best of them when he's on, and Basham and Gomez are also nice pieces around them, but they've now fully committed to their new center after selling off Taccini who'd been their starting center for several seasons while Pihronen seems to have passed Coly in the rotation. The Big Beavers, meanwhile, finished very strong at the end of last season and even beat the HoochieKoos in the second go-around of divisional play. BPE is another team that seems to have gotten much better in the backcourt, especially with Wade James emerging as a big scoring threat in addition to his passing ability(evident in his high assist numbers). Hooch seems like a bit of a wildcard as excluding the Gators matchup in a game where they put in more effort, they seemed to tail off a little down the stretch, but they still have a solid squad. Lastly, we have the up and coming Snake River Panthers, who have a couple of really good guards and now the key to success for them is improving the forward spots and center spot from within via training. As for the Great 8, usually the team coming down from the III league would be the favorite, but Clemson's team ratings really underwhelmed me. I'm not even sure if they'll be better than Duck City, which is why I have the "2A and 2B" situation. Hard2Guard came off a season where they were 5 seconds from sending the more impressive Raleigh team from last season to overtime at their place in the playoffs, but...see the playoff thread to recap my personal pick for "playoff MVP." As for the next 3...I'm not sure what improvements Jersey or the O'Ballers have made, but seeing what we saw last season, I'm more confident in seeing internal improvement from Jersey than the O'Ballers, though where both teams need to improve to stand out from the other is the guard spots. Lastly, we have the new team and...quite simply, I'm treating them as basically an expansion team. I hope they stick it out though; more competition is always fun! Overall, it should be a fun year; the most interesting part of this is that the Big 8 may be starting to catch up with the Great 8 in terms of team quality. It'll be fun to watch! Well, good luck to everyone and I'll see you again with a rankings update along with game recaps after the first gameday.