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Week Two Power Rankings
Week 2 Observations
Week 2 typically shows the biggest movement of the season in the power rankings, mostly because of how some people start out with the schedule. My team, for example, played what the standings now declare as the 5th and 8th seeds. This week, however, we got to throw into the mix Philly Dribble, now at 3rd. At any rate, strength of schedule and timing are key for the beginning weeks of these rankings, but things will sort themselves out over time, though some teams end up winning in not so efficient fashion, which will end up sticking out like a sore thumb (thus my perpetual ranking of Carolina lower than they perform in the standings all last season). As a quick example - last week San Dominica ranked 12th in EFFG and 8th in OPP EFFG, leaving them ranked 10th overall in my rankings. This week, you'll see them fly up the charts thanks to jumping from 12th to 3rd in EFFG and 8th to 2nd in OPP EFFG.

While it is definitely not entirely accurate it makes the season a bit more interesting to have these power rankings differ a bit from what we see in the standings. They'll be up and down and around as teams find their groove (or slip and fall on their faces). For those of you who are new, we'll see them pretty much solidify and not see much movement about a week or two after the all-star break.

Lots of movement on the transfer list, but I haven't had time to catalog everyone's movement. I'll try to get to that next week. So far, things are matching up fairly evenly from one side of the standings to the other, but whitestok's crew remains the only undefeated team after four games. On to the rankings! (Last week's rank will be in parenthesis behind the team name)

Week 2 Power Rankings
1. Żubr Białystok (3)
Continuing their winning streak, Zubr had a shootout victory over BKDogs before having somewhat of a slugfest against surprisingly slumped over Tasty Tardsicles. Thanks to a Week 1 LionPride victory, they lead the league in point differential. Next comes a road trip to the Keg before hosting Mindless Zombies on television in an early season top of the standings battle.

2. San Dominica Warriors (10)
Coach Stephenson and them boys bounced back after a week 1 defeat to Carolina getting to face FR-S and Las Vegas . This week, they play host to Linndale before taking a trip to 209's. Their EFFG jumped 28 points and their OPP EFFG 16 to push them up the leaderboard this week.

3. Lion Rebels (1)
Glad to see my boys drop a bit in these rankings - can't have egos take hold, you know. While we handled Las Vegas, there was a foolish attempt made to win on the road in Philly. Silly idiot that I am. Next comes a home game against 209's before having to travel to Linndale in what should be an equally foolish evening.

4. Mindless Zombies (9)
A nice jump up the rankings for the Zombies this week with the bulk of that movement coming from their OPP EFFG thanks to a LionPride game mixed in there. They also took down Tasty after only scoring 10 points in the first quarter and they went on to win by 12 with a ridiculous 67-point 2nd half, while only hitting 29.6% of their 27 three point shots, thanks to Pooh Acevedo going off for 42 points. The U21 US player is having a nice season so far, averaging 17 PPG on 51% shooting. Next comes IRL zombies Miami Cleo before traveling to whitestok's arena for the aforementioned match up in what could determine the Great 8 leader after three weeks.

5. Super Sonics (12)
Yet another big jump, this time thanks to a 17 point EFFG leap combined with a nearly 20 point leap in OPP EFFG. After losing their first two games, they rebounded and beat off Miami before holding the Bellys at bay for their 2nd victory of the season. Tasty is on deck next before they travel to oriolekid's Ellicott City as they look to get two games above .500.

Week 2 Power Rankings - Part 2
6. Carolina Rebels (5)
Minimal retread for Carolina this week in EFF rankings as they settle into the .500 club with a loss to 209's on the road before bouncing back with a nice victory over Linndale at home. They have what looks to be an easier week in Week 3 with matchups against Las Vegas and FR-S on the slate. Interesting to note that PF Hugo Espinosa ranks 48th in 3FG% in USA Div III...but that is only on 10 three point shots.

7. Linndale (2)
Slight shift for Linndale thanks to dropping from ranked 3rd in EFFG to 11th thanks to a 14 point drop, but they also dropped 11 points in OPP EFFG, though that slip wasn't as far. But overall, they land here. After starting off with two wins, speedtraps has been eerily quiet with a 5 point loss to Philly at home followed by Carolina's upstart victory against them on Tuesday. Next comes a road trip to San Dominica before playing host to Lion Rebels...they could either be 4-2 or 2-4...but more likely 3-3 after Week 3.

8. Philly Dribble (8)
Holding steady at 8th, they rank 9th and 7th in EFFG and OPP EFFG respectively, despite their 3-1 start. Their game one loss was rectified by beating off potential playoff competitors in Linndale and the Lion Rebels. Next comes a home TV game against FR-S, followed by a road trip to Vegas - what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, except the results of that game, which we'll be reporting live on Twitch.

9. Miami Cleo (7)
Good news - packer_22 signed in today! ("I'm not dead"). But he's going to have to get some game shape back in order which could make his next few games a bit difficult. A loss to Super Sonics was followed by a beat down of BKDogs. Next up comes a trip to The Headstone Arena before they host The Beer Bellys.

10. The Beer Bellys (14)
Moving up the rankings this week, the Bellys won on the road against LionPride before succumbing to Super Sonics at home on TV (bummer, man). Their gift now is a home matchup against Żubr Białystok before then making the aforementioned trip to Miami.

11. BKDogs (4)
BK had the most precipitous drop of the teams this week after starting the season off with two wins, they lost to Żubr in a game in which the HALF TIME score was 79-54. They put up 121 points but gave up 144 in that barn burner in which nearly 7 players scored at least 20 points (two of them managed 19 and 18). Then they turned around and came out flat against Miami, scoring only 79 points and losing by 24. They should get some bounce back against Clement EFF Holley on TV before traveling to Tasty's House of Hoops.

Last edited by Baine at 6/2/2023 5:58:55 PM

Week 2 Power Rankings - Part 3
12. 209's MostWanted (11)
The 209's saw a fairly significant drop in EFFG (10th to 14th) and OPP EFFG (4th to 9th), and that's with a somewhat surprising win at home against Carolina by 12. They then turned around and got smacked in the nose by FR-S. After Week 1, FR-S was averaging a paltry 86.5 EFFG, but against 209's they came out with 137 EFF as a team, hitting 50% of 90 shots including 8-20 from three. Even more astounding, THEY TOOK 42 FREE THROWS. Someone paid the refs off GOOD. At any rate, Alex has the Lion Rebels on the road Saturday before hosting the Warriors next Tuesday.

13. Tasty Tardsicles (6)
Another decent drop in these rankings, Tasty had a bit of a rough week, losing to the Zombies at home before shriveling up against Żubr Białystok and only scoring 68 points. They travel to Key Arena (I was going to be disappointed if it was named anything else, zhouzhaoxu) and then play host to BKDogs.

14. Las Vegas Silver Stars (13)
One of two teams with out a win yet, Las Vegas had a rough week this week with matchups against Lion Rebels and then hosting San Dominica. Their defense, in particular, struggled and dropped 16 points in OPP EFFG. Week 3 brings more pain, most likely, with a road trip to Carolina and then hosting Philly in the Twitch Streaming Event of the Week (I don't know where this came from, but I started it, so I'm sticking to it).

15. FR-S (15)
A tip of the cap to FR-S with just over $110k in total salary less than 209's and knocking them off while also not having a game rating of anything higher than average (in only two categories). Well played, to get the first victory of the season. Next comes a road TV game against Philly followed by Carolina at home. Will they be able to surprise anyone else?

16. Clement Holley and the Scrubs (16)
OK, OK, it's LionPride. I'm just glad they're dominating bots in the Cup with their Scrubs. Losses to the Bellys and Zombies this week with a road TV game against BKDogs followed by hosting Super Sonics. I've a hunch they're going to sneak a win against someone sometime soon.

Best of luck in Week 3!

After starting off with two wins, speedtraps has been eerily quiet with a 5 point loss to Philly at home followed by Carolina's upstart victory against them on Tuesday.

Been a rough couple of weeks in real life, too. I got sick, my daughter got sick, and my 2nd oldest is doing the high school graduation thing. Should be back to normal shortly. As for the basketball team, the guards have to make shots. That would be a nice start...

Hunt: I'm Hunt Mosley and with me is the Original San Dominican, Stuart Wilson filling in for Bret Rodriguez and this is the Warrior Pregame Show

Stuart: Thanks Hunt, it's a real privilege to be here.

Hunt: Stu, the Warriors it seemed had some reflecting to do after that second game loss to Carolina. The Warriors have answered with two straight wins, now granted none of those are what the Warriors will be facing tonight when they take on Linndale

Stuart: Hunt, you are 100% right but all answers we really need come from the horse' mouth himself. Here's Coach

On screen an interview between Stuart Wilson and Coach Stephenson:

Stuart: Coach, you're 3-1, back on top of the Big 8 standings, with a date with Linndale forth coming. How has the anticipation for this game been for your squad.

Coach: Won't lie. Do we really want this game as a win, oh heck yes. Last season they did to us basically what we did to Philly two seasons ago. So I'm not even gonna try to call lightning down by not admitting that this game means something. However there are still goals for this season and while we want this win, we want it the right way and in accord with our goal of making the playoffs

Stuart: The Blaine Report listed you guys as preseason favorites to win it all. You know Gordo already told me what happened so come clean. I know you didn't like that.

Coach: Nah (chuckles) I'm wondering what did I do? I mean he and his team are good analysts, I respect his cousin every time we play the Lion Rebels. Man what in the world made him go and do that. Nah joking aside. We already in a tough division in a tough league. Just the rivalries alone between Pio, Daisy, Wing, and myself are big enough problems just on the regular don't need any more bulleyes and that comes with that. You know me Ball, I would rather be the tiny flea sneaking in than the mighyt titan everyone is looking at across the ocean.

Back to the studio:

Hunt: Oh yeah Gordo and I talked and yeah he wasn't happy about that at all. But I want to talk about the new acquistions the Warriors have made this season: Maid Vrana and more recent the Big Turk Mehmet Otcigin.

Stuart: Yeah one of the things Coach was talking about was getting a fire under Blanchet this season. Last season it seemed that people didn't respect our point guard position. You hear how teams are scared of Granja and Baiao and their ability to score or how teams worry about Begin as a rebound putback machine but no one ever says oh we're scared of them at the one. So there were talks of getting another point guard to one light a fire under Blanchet

Hunt: And its worked. Blanchet has been playing his best ball in a long time.

Stuart: Yeah, but also to free Ali Baba to be more a shooter than a distributor which is more of his game. Now Otcigin. Well the guy is a rebounding machine along the lines of Begin and Parrish. Now there's gonna have to be an adjustment period for both but I guarantee before the season is done these two will be key contributors to the Warriors this season.

Hunt: Just not this game.

Stuart: Nah, this game look for all the familiar faces, but its Linndale, its San Dominica. Pio vs Stephenson. We're gonna be entertained.

Hunt: I'm hoping for a win. More on what the Warriors will need to do to win when we return.


Last edited by Coach Stephenson at 6/3/2023 8:36:03 PM

That’s rough man! Hope everyone’s feeling better!

Happy Ourer: “Happy Ourer here with Marshall Richards and Air Allnite as Linndale loses another one to the San Dominica Warriors, 103-90. It was not as close as the score implies.”

Marshall Richards: “They did not play Linndale basketball by any standard. They were out rebounded 59-46, they turned the ball over 14 times, and they did not share the basketball at all. It was a complete disaster of a performance.”

Air Allnite: “I have consistently said that Pio Reina is not the coach for this team. I have consistently said he doesn’t know how to run an offense or use his bigs. When you have Floyd Hearn and Ramon Sanz Garcaa on your front line and you can’t get them more than 11 shots total between the two of them, you deserve to get beat down and fired immediately.”

MR: “Not getting Hearn and Garcaa a minimum of 10 shot attempts each is just ridiculous. I understand adjusting to the hot hand, but that’s not what happened for the most part.”

HO: “It was disturbing that the bigs didn’t get much of an opportunity, but was that due to the Warrior defense or was that just being outcoached?”

AA: “Pio got out coached as usual. I’m not sure why you expect me to say otherwise!”

MR: “You actually ate crow last season, so I take your words with a grain of salt. Was it a bad performance? Yes. I’ve never seen a 3-2 defense just shut off the inside against Linndale like this. I’ve also never seen a 3-2 defense get cooked like this against Linndale. 16 of 33 from the three point line tells me Pio somewhat accomplished one of the things he was looking to, and that was getting guards to make shots. The starting back court was 12 of 23 from the outside. That might not sound like much overall, but from deep that was some hot shooting, and a huge step forward.”

AA: “Hearn and Sanz Garcaa had a total of 7 points between them. Sanz Garcaa has now gone 2 straight games without a double double.”

MR: “It was Hearn’s first of the season without one. What’s your point?”

AA: “My point is they aren’t using the bigs to the best of their abilities.”

HO: “Aren’t you the same guy who complained that the bigs didn’t produce a 20-point 10 rebound game last season? You've stated that both should be doing that regularly in the same game. When you have the weapons at the guard positions that Linndale does, having both with a 20-10 game in the same game isn’t going to be a thing on a regular basis."

AA: “Are you telling me Pio can’t find that balance? If you are killing it inside, the defense has to focus on the inside. That leaves the guards open on the outside to bomb away. When the inside game has been there, the outside game has not. Now that the outside game showed up, the inside game has gone away. That’s no accident.”

MR: “I’m sure starting Art Reese over Serkan Sokmen at small forward had no effect, Air. Sokmen had been a bit inconsistent, but he’s had 3 turnovers all season so far. Reese had 7 in this game alone. Reese is no threat offensively right now. You think getting Reese together and getting Sokmen back on track isn’t a thing?”

AA: “Lose a 4th game in a row and you’ll have all the time in the world to see Reynolds and Reese and Nguyen and McCain, and even Wilson because Linndale loses 4 straight the season is over. From then on you’re just fighting to avoid relegation.”

HO: “It’s too early to go that far, Air. Then there’s the fact that a Pio Reina coached team hasn’t lost 4 straight regular season games ever. I don’t know that Pio has been on a team that lost 4 straight.”

MR: “You bet against Pio and Linndale last season and lost big. You sure you want to do that again?”

AA: “Lose 4 in a row and the season is done. Lion Rebels are coming to town on Tuesday. Saturday you have 209’s Most Wanted coming to town. You could legitimately be 2-5 coming out of that. Tell me how you make the playoffs after that?”

HO: “We’ll be back with more after the commercial break!"

Last edited by Speedtraps at 6/4/2023 7:21:27 PM

Yeah, we're ok finally. My daughter had her semi-annual visit to the local hospital; this one was her shortest stay yet, so I was happy about that. She got pneumonia the same time I had a bout of bronchitis. Both of us recovered in time for my son's high school graduation yesterday. Getting back into the swing of things took a bit longer than expected, but we are back in the routine of things.

Semi-annual. Man I know you do it already but tell your daughter she's a brave one. i become a complete coward doing the annual doctor visit much less semi annual. Nah man, enjoy Liberation Day as my parents called it when we graduated high school and take your time with the recup. We'll be here when Pio and the rest of the Linndale staff get back from leave

I freely admit she is the toughest person I know, and have always said so. Here's a little story about her, but first keep in mind she does not like ANY medical device on her at all. Ever.

Summer 2020. She's 4. She's on a ventilator. Been in PICU for 24 days, the last 3 on life support. My wife stayed at the hospital with her. I'm at home with our other 2 boys, and we are struggling to hold it together. We manage, but it was hard. My wife's parents come over and tell me to leave because I need a break. I go to see my daughter because outside of video calls from my wife, I haven't seen her and it's killing me. She's my baby girl. I get there, and it takes everything in me to not lose it. I'm shaking so bad, my wife thinks I'm stroking out. I see all these machines on my daughter and I know they're keeping her alive and I can't do a thing to help her. That definitely does something to you.

I make my way to her bed, and I'm stroking her hand. She grabs my index finger. She only does that to me. She'll hold her mother's hand, but for me it's always the index finger. Always. So I tell her the same thing I always tell her wgen she's in the hospital. "Little girl, whaddaya say we bust outta this joint and go get us some ice cream? Daddy's here and I came to bust you out!" She opens her eyes, starts coughing, and coughs out the breathing tube. We're at home eating ice cream 2 days later.

That's how tough she is.

Last edited by Speedtraps at 6/4/2023 7:38:43 PM

Thanks for sharing…you have an incredibly strong girl (I’m sure you’re boys and wife are top notch as well). Keep up the good work dad - you’re doing great!

Last edited by Baine at 6/5/2023 10:15:08 AM