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Not going to lie, I forgot to set my lineup when playing against Divine so played with more enthusiasm than I had intended... Nevertheless it was a good performance for a team that's in its infancy...

Hate when that happens! Good win though!

Week Three Game Two Recaps
Once again, only one player on player game to highlight today from last night's festivities:

FR-S vs. Duluth Dirty Dogs
The dirty dogs, in a bit of a surprise, used more energy on this game with the FR-S boys, but still coming with their fast-paced Full Court Press game. The game wasn't particularly close because of those two factors, but Duluth also had their lowest scoring total of the season, beating FR-S 89-55. Both teams struggled from the field, shooting 34% and 25% each, but Dudluth made up for it by hitting 12 threes on the night. Backup shooting guard M. Pekoz finished the night with 23 points with three other dogs hitting double digits. Backup PF B. Joyner pulled down 18 rebounds in 29 minutes. FR-S's SF B. Zurlo put up a fair effort but struggled shooting to eek out 15 points in a hard fought night. The dogs were just shy of a full house with only 2 luxury boxes unattended. Rumour has it that SFRS13 paid the two box owners to not attend the game just to ensure the arena wasn't entirely sold out.

Other Player V. Bot Games
OmegaShot v. Tomahawks
Once again, OmegaShot ran up and down the court, scoring no less than 33 points in a quarter to dominate the Tomahawk Bots 143-54. They nearly had 5 players hit 20 points on the night - hitting 19 of their 34 threes, including starting SG L. Volkner hitting 7 of 7 (he only shot 9 times in the game). Down 36-4 after the first, Tomahawks never had a chance.

Sneaker Geeks v. DVine Lions
Another run and gun team played at home, scoring proficiently from the outside and holding Sneaker Geeks Bots to 46 points on the night, winning 134-46. This one wasn't particularly close and PG E. Scuppa dominated the field shooting 21-32 with 8 threes (not a miss on the night from behind the arc), finishing with 52 points. Basham and Dalton finished the night with 28 points each. Other notable player was PF G. Reis finishing the game with 28 rebounds. The only question that comes with DVine is whether or not they're going to expand their team so that those four guys don't have to play 48 minutes every night.

Lion Rebels v. LAGB
The Lion Rebels took their basic offense on the road to LAGB's LAGB Arena, playing in front of 5007 fans on the night to win 108 v. 52, giving up their second highest scoring allowed for the season. Star Center Terry Armstead finished the night with 30 points, 19 rebounds on 13-18 shooting in 35 minutes. Meanwhile, LAGB SG C. Farr scored 22 points on 9-22 shooting, including 50% on 8 threes for the night.
Neros v. I Volt

In the TV game for the night, I Volt thoroughly decimated Neros Bots by nearly 100 points, 152-59. Lots of guys scoring double digits for I Volt, but backup C A. Dekovic gets the nod for best player of the game with 19 points to go along with 15 rebounds in only 25 minutes, including 11-12 from the free throw line.

Good luck in the BBM Tournament games tonight - looks like FR-S and OmegaShot have a tough match up in the Cup games this week. Best of luck!

Fresh meat! Welcome to the league YGT. Best of luck to ya!

Week Four Part One Recap
And we're back with another enthusiastic edition of the column, where we review any player on player games and highlight any non-bot outstanding players in the other games! This week's focus is on the dirty dogs of Duluth and the DVine Lions, hosting in a shoot out matchup that almost saw the demise of the dirty dogs, but not quite.

Duluth dirty dogs (7-0) vs. DVine Lions (4-3)
Though competitive, DVine appears to struggle against its human competitors. They've put up +100 points in each matchup, including 127 in Saturday night's brawl, but even with more effort than the dirty dogs and home court advantage, they fell, losing by 12 in front of 11,053 fans. Taylor Dalton (SG) scored 44 points in the evening, but that was balanced out by 12 turnovers, struggling mightily with the dirty dogs full court press. On the flip side of the court, Lev Sasson (SF) and Chen Chun Yeung both scored 32 points on a combined 26-49 from the field in the win. Though the dogs fell behind early, they were able to pull off the second half come from behind by outscoring the Lions by 17 in the 4th quarter. The Lions fought valiantly lthough, hitting 15 three pointers to keep them in the contest for as long as they did, but now the dogs have proved that they stand alone atop the Great 8 in IV.42.

Lion Rebels (7-0) vs. Frosty BC (3-4)
The Rebels thoroughly dominated, limiting Frosty to only 2 1st quarter points enroute to a 116-37 victory. Surprisingly, young point guard Kurt Brown scored on 12 of 18 shots, including 3-6 from three, to score 29 points along with 5 assists, 5 steals, and 5 blocks and a 9.0 rating.

YGT (5-2) vs. OmegaShot (6-1)
Omega rudely introduced YGT to the league Saturday night with a 90 point loss served up on a silver platter, 133-43. Puzzlingly, YGT's top 4 salary players didn't even suit up for the match and while 32 year old PF Paris Logsdon had a nice showing (19 points, including three 3 pointers), YGT was no match for the Run and Gun offenseive display by Omega, which had 36 year old cagey vet, Nehemias Orduna score 29 points with 5 three pointers.

Edmonton Earthquakes (1-6) vs. I Volt (6-1)
The Quakes didn't stand a chance in this one, as I Volt racked up 140 points for an 85 point home victory and back up PG Ingmar Kollman went off missing only two shots on the night for 32 points and 6 assists in only 26 minutes.

Sneaker Geeks (0-7) vs. FR-S (5-2)(
In the last bot vs. player game of the weekend, FR-S defeated handily the worst team in the league, by 60 points, but also gave up 85 points in the win, by far the most bot v. player points scored by a bot this week. FR-S took 105 shots and shot 57% from the field, including 54% on threes, but other than that, there offensive flow didn't look good and they barely out played the Geeks. Not a great look for the third place team looking to level up against the likes of Duluth and I Volt this season. Backup SG Ioannis Trapezanidis did a great Giannis impression as the Greek Freak, scoring 23 points on 9-14 shooting in just 20 minutes, including 4 of 6 threes.

That's all from this weekend. Inter conference play starts tomorrow night, with OmegaShot traveling to FR-S in the player v. player highlight for the second half of the week. We'll see if FR-S's game management this season will prove to be the difference against Omega whose on pace for nearly 2800 points this year but haven't been managing player minutes or game style/effort whatsoever.

Last edited by Baine at 11/3/2021 9:17:12 AM

Week Four Part Two Recap
8 games in the books, nearly half-way through the season and just three games until the All Star game, here is our 2nd half league recap:

OmegaShot vs. FR-S
OmegaShot (7-1) continued its romping Run and Gun offense, deftly handling FR-S (5-3) attempt at Patient to slow the game down, defeating them 113-100, though FR-S entered the final period only down 4. 35 year old José Refugio Fernández (42350714) led the R&G parade with 37 points on 15-29 shooting, including 50% from three (on ten shots) in 40 minutes. After the first period, the point guard only had three points on two shots and after two led the team, but still only had 12 points. His 3rd quarter performance sparked the OmegaShot with 28 points on 8 made field goals.
Still, it was a decent effort by FR-S, whose SF-like shooting guard Ioannis Trapezanidis (48571921) was the star in the patient offense, hitting 14-34 and 6 of his 8 free throws to score 35 points on the night, however he struggled from the three point line uncharacteristically, only hitting 1 of his 6 attempts. The season long 40% shooter couldn't find the drip on the court tonight. While he had 33 points after three quarters, he only made one of his final 5 shots in the 4th quarter as FR-S stumbled.
Even though FR-S dominated the boards (60 to 37), the 13-28 from three point land for OmegaShot was the deciding factor in this one.

YGT vs. Sneaker Geeks
Poor showing by both teams in this game with ineptitude on both the offense and defense leading to a 92-90 loss for the newly knighted YGT (5-3). Good effort by SG Alan Mixon for YGT (50235295) scoring 30 points and playing all 48 minutes, but 4-12 from three will not cut it if you're going to be taking 12 of those types of shots. He ain't no Steph Curry, that's for sure.

LAGB vs. I Volt
Unsurprisingly, VLT (7-1) dominated their bot matchup last night, 138-66 leading in FG% (58%, including 58% from three), rebounds (64-33), assists (40! - 15), steals (8-4) and 12 (count 'em, 12!) blocks. Seven players in double digits on the night, including a spectacular performance from SG Mykolas Šapauskas (46751940), the Lithuanian who scored 27 points on 11-15 shooting, including four of his five 3-pointers in just 32 minutes.

Lion Rebels vs. Neros
Another crushing victory for the Lion Rebels (8-0) over the bot-run Neros, defeating them 131-36. Bit of a surprise in this game for American Byron Lutz (49430492) with a break out game in the PG position scoring 33 points on 13-19 FGs, including 5-8 from three. The Rebels sorely need a three point specialist and it looks like they're banking on him to be that guy. PF Ryan Singh also had a nice night with a triple double in 35 minutes.

Louisville Cardinals vs. DVine Lions
DVine (5-3) righted the ship with an easy bot matchup after losing Saturday to the Duluth dirty dogs, defeating the Cardinals 139-73. They scored 42 points from the land of 3's, with SF Darren Basham (47801638) scoring 39 points on 16-27 shooting, but also dished out 11 assists, enabling Taylor Dalton and current points/game leader Erik Scuppa to score 28 and 25 points respectively on the evening.

Tomahawks vs. Duluth dirty dogs
Duluth (8-0) had no trouble dispatching of the hawks, 140-65. With three players scoring at least 21 points and another four hitting double digits, they appear to be a force with their frenetic pace on both sides of the floor. Israeli SF Lev Sasson again lead the way for the dogs, scoring 26 points in 26 minutes.

League Leaders and the Like
After 8 games, here are your league leaders by category:
Scoring: DVine's Erik Scuppa (35.2) - though his teammate Taylor Dalton (33.1) is creeping up on him.
Rebounding: Another DVine, Portuguese Power Forward Guilherme Reis with 20.5. This race isn't very close, but the Lion Rebel's Terry Armstead has pulled off a run of 14, 19, 14, 19, & 19 over the last five games to pull himself into second on the rebounds list
Assists: DVine continues to dominate these leader boards with Darren Basham and Erik Scuppa both with 6.5 apg, thought his race is much tighter with the 10th closest player having 5.4 assists per game.
Blocks: DVine's Stevie Hobbs has 24 blocks for a 3.0 average.
Steals: Duluth's Hank Saylor leads the way with 3.6 steals/game, totaling 29 steals, but special mention goes to Iago Adrian Cardelle for the dirty dogs who has 24 steals compared to only 5 fouls on the season for a 4.8 STL/PF rate, which leads the league handliy.

That's all for this week - next week I'll be revealing my All Star roster predictions. Saturday's player on player matchup features a revealing one between the Great 8's I Volt (7-1) vs. the Big 8's Lion Rebels (8-0). Should be a good matchup!

Last edited by Baine at 11/3/2021 10:17:39 AM

Week Five Part One Recap
Welcome to the fifth week of the season as we start to settle into the near-mid point of Season 55. I believe for the first time this year we had two player on player matchups, though one wasn't nearly as competitive as it should have been.

#3 DVine Lions vs. #3 YGT
DVine (6-3) made an interesting choice, benching the leading scorer of the league, PG Erik Scuppa (10 points in 13 minutes) alongside SF (turned SG Saturday night) Darren Basham. 19 year old American Garland Villegas instead point for the Lions, scoring 15 points with 5 assists, including 4 turnovers. Backup SF Israel Silverman lead the way to victory with 29 points on 13-27. Their run and gun attack was and because they put more effort into the game that YGT (5-4), they led by 28 at the half before finishing them off 112-47. YGT looks like they're starting to figure out schedule and gamesmanship, but they've got a lot of work to do to still make the playoffs and their lineup choices are a bit interesting, choosing to start 5 guards in a weird sort of small ball.

#2 I Volt vs. #1 Lion Rebels
The premiere matchup of the weekend, everyone was eager to see if I Volt's (7-2) depth in their roster would be able to take down the recently Division III demoted Lion Rebels (9-0), but even with the ferocity of their effort and up tempo offense combined with their press they were unable to pull the game off, losing 115-91. Volt was able to pressure the Rebels into 27 turnovers on the night with their full court press, but just didn't have the offensive fire power to pull this off, shooting only 29% from the field, including 4-29 from three. The Rebels, meanwhile, were still able to shoot 54% and dominated the glass for nearly 30 more rebounds, 74-48. I Volt shot the ball a lot, 118 times, with their primary four scorers shooting 27, 19, 29, and 14 times...they just couldn't hit anything. PG Romus Gasiniauskas (18 points 9 rebounds) and SF Maksymilian Korecki (18 pts 6 steals) led the way but it wasn't enough as C Terry Armstead and PF Ryan Singh each had a double double on the night.

Sneaker Geeks vs. #2 OmegaShot
The still not bot OmegaShot easily defeated the geeks 135-52 - it was a lot uglier before the fourth, but sitting their stars for the fourth led the geeks score 25 points in the final frame. SG Lars Volkner had himself a night, scoring 25 points on 11-15 while C Bican Okar grabbed 18 rebs.

#1 Duluth dirty dogs vs. Louisville Cardinals
Duluth had no trouble dispatching the cardinals, but did give up 63 points to the cardinals, 150-63. Once again Chen Chun Yeung had himself a night, scoring 28 points on 10-15, including 6-7 from the charity stripe to go along with 6 assists PF Bob Joyner put up 22 points to go along with his 16 rebounds, including 8 assists, 5 steals, and 4 blocks.

#4 FR-S vs. Trumps
Super clean game here for FR-S (6-3) winning 109-75. They spread the ball around and had six players in double digits. Two standout stats on the night - FR-S had 42 assists on the night, but they also had 19 fouls which led to the Trumps making 13-18 from the line to make it a little bit closer than it should have been. Backup guard Tyberiusz Swieboda had 18 points in two minutes to go with his 8 assists.

Week Five Part Two Recap
Another week with two player on player matchups! Exciting! Here are the highlights from last night's games.

YGT (5-5) vs. Duluth dirty dogs (10-0)
YGT, clinging to third place in the Big 8, had no chance going up against the seasoned Duluth dirty dogs, and that proved to be true, with the dogs dominating YGT for a 90 point victor, 147-57. Even though YGT put in more effort, their low salaried starting five was simply no match with leading scorer 21 year old American Center Barney Grantham scoring only 14 points on 7-12 shooting, but could only muster 5 rebounds to go along with his 5 turnovers.

Meanwhile, recently recovered from injury, PF Hank Saylor was given another night off - the media is speculating that even though Duluth's team doctor proclaimed his bruised knee healed, that Saylor wasn't ready to test it out quite yet, even though his contractual bonuses for making the all star game are on the line now that he's missed a full week of games. But PG Iago Cardelle stepped up, shooting 9-13 from the field, with 2 three pointers to score 20 points and C Omar Sellers scored an individual season high of 20 points on 9-11 shooting to go along with 11 rebounds and 4 blocks to help dominate YGT in a blow out.

OmegaShot (9-1) vs. DVine Lions (6-4)
The fast paced match up between Omega and DVine ended up not being as close as anticipated even though Omega hasn't managed their effort in any shape or form this season. The working theory was that even though DVine has only been playing effectively 8 players, because they out spent on top 5 players by $30k over Omega, they'd still be able to win, especially at home, but Game Shape appears to be costing them honest chances at improving their play off position on the season. The trio of Scuppa, Dalton, and Basham put up 26, 24, & 33 points respectively, but Scuppa only shot 31% from the field including missing 11 three pointers on the night. Dalton didn't fair much better, missing 9. IF, and that's a big IF, they had been able to nail 80% of their three pointers, they could have pulled this off, but with their current game shape, Steph Curry and Klay Thompson, they are not! For Omega, Lithuanian small forward, filling in at backup SG for the Shot, Aleksejs Albergs had a nice night off the bench, scoring 18 points in 16 minutes for a 12.0 rating.

On to the player on bot matchups:

Lion Rebels (10-0) vs. Edmonton Earthquakes (3-7)
The Rebels ended up fouling more aggressively than they typically do, sending the Earthquakes to the line 12 times, where they scored an additional 9 points to get over 51 points on the game, but that wasn't enough to match as they lost 117-51. That's the third highest scoring total the Lion Rebels have given up this year. PF Ryan Singh had a nice night, scoring 18 points, with 13 rebounds, & 8 assists.

(to be continued)

Last edited by Baine at 11/10/2021 12:26:37 PM

Week Five Part Two Recaps Continued

Frosty BC (3-7) vs. I Volt (8-2)
I Volt recovered well from Saturday night's loss, scoring 164 points to Frosty's 74 for the 90 point victory, but it appears they played a normal effort level again. The 164 points scored led to 8 (nearly 9) players scoring in double digits, but backup Center Ante Dekoviccame in and played 32 minutes on the night scoring 29 points to go alongside 18 rebounds on 12-15 shooting. Starting PF Adelardo Martin snagged an offensive rebound with 2:53 left in the second and tried to get it back in, but Frosty's backup PF Nate Leggett flagrantly fouled Martin and he came off the court at that time. Dekovic had been in the game at the time, and came off to get a breather. At the start of the second half, the 7'0 Dekovic played center, while starting center Sun Bingham slid over to PF and Dekovic had himself a night, scoring 23 points in the second half. Bizarrely enough, Negget's flagrant foul left Martin with a case of the stomach virus and he continues to be out for at least another week!

LAGB (1-9) vs. FR-S (7-3)
FR-S (third in the Great 8), easily dispatched of their bot matchup without much drama, 116-52. Six players hit double digits in scoring, but SF Bruno Zurlo scored 21 points in 28 minutes while collecting 7 rebounds to help lead the way.

One more week to the all star game! Good luck everyone.

Last edited by Baine at 11/10/2021 12:26:00 PM

Week Six Part One Recap

Technically two player on player games from Saturday night, though OmegaShot would go on to botify, only to be replaced by Bilodeau, led by manager Celtics (welcome to the league! Good luck and let us know if you have any questions).

Duluth dirty dogs vs. OmegaShot
OmegaShot (9-2) put up a valiant effort, but their lack of defense did them in. They hung pretty tight with Duluth (11-0), but at the end of the day, couldn't keep up the pace even though they scored 40 points in the final period. The Argentinian SF Nehemias Orduna put up 39 points on 17-22 shooting, including 5-8 from three, but now, at 36, finds himself on the transfer list. At $20 per week, the current asking price of just over $200k seems quite steep for the forward, even though he's averaging 19 points per game on 51% shooting. His German counterpart Lars Volkner, also 36, scored 37 points in his final game with Omega and finds himself in a similar situation on the transfer list.

On the other side of the court, Duluth's PG, Iago Cardelle had himself a night, shooting 17-33 for 47 points, his best performance of the season. Iago has been quite good this season and C B. Okar handled the boards and assists for the team, though he did have 6 turnovers on the night, with 15 and 8 respectively.

FR-S vs. Lion Rebels
The other player on player matchup was more of a defensive battle, with FR-S (7-4) deploying the Patient strategy to try and eke out a win over the 11-0 Lion Rebels, and while Greek SG Ioannis Trapenzanidis scored 31 points in 31 minutes and FR-S led at the half 37-32 thanks to a defensive performance that held the Rebels to only 11 2nd quarter points, they were unable to contain them in the 2nd half, which the Rebels scoring 51 to FR-S's 37 to pull out the victory. 19 year old Kurt Brown scored 25 points to go along with 8 rebounds and 5 assists, but if he hopes to help the Rebels out long term, he's got to avoid giving up 8 turnovers and 4 fouls. Star C. Terry Armstead finished the night with a double double, scoring 19 points and tallying 24 rebounds.

I Volt vs. Tomahawks
The Great 8's 2nd place team, I Volt (9-2) destroyed the Tomahawks, 134-63 with another well rounded effort by the Volt with 7 players in double digits and the team, altogether shot 61% from the field, including 56% from three on 16 shots from beyond the arc.

DVine Lions vs. Trumps
The Great 8 version of the Lions dominated Trumps, 117-83. The Lions continue to play 6 players per game, but this time Erik Scuppa only played 28 minutes at PG and only scored 9 points, while Basham and Dalton scored 37 and 34 points respectively.

Northampton Acid vs. YGT
YGT continues to trot out subpar players and it cost them in this bot matchup going up two with 17 seconds left only for Richard Nunn to hit a 3 with ten seconds remaining to put Northampton up by one. PG Franklin Moore, for YGT, got off a last second shot from the top of the arc, but bricked it and Northampton went home with the victory.