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There are not as many big matchups looming, but still some intriguing ones on the way. Here are the updated power rankings going into those

Big 8 Power rankings:
1) BPE (5-0)
2) Gators (5-0)
3) WildHoochieKoos (4-1)
4) Big Beavers (2-3)
5) Snake River Panthers (3-2)

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

discussion/explanation: the games went as expected, though some of the margins were surprising. The injury to Hooch's starting center made a big impact on the game against BPE; maybe they don't win with him healthy, but they probably shoot better than 25% from the field...yikes. They tried putting in a higher effort level and tried to slow down the big men for BPE through strategy, but Baldriz still got his buckets despite the inside box and one defense that Hooch played. Another interesting thing to note was BPE bringing their second-leading scorer off the bench; he was still kept in check scoring wise, however. Perhaps this was with the intent of starting with a more defensive based lineup? I'd have to ask Smooth himself to get that answer. What I can tell you is that the gameplan I had for Snake River went even better than expected. I went with a defense based starting lineup and brought Bayramov, usually my best scorer, off the bench. I expected to win by a sizeable margin; what I was not expecting was holding them to 21% from the field on defense and significantly impacting the averages of previously some of the highest average scoring players in league IV.64. Lastly, we have another interesting matchup impacted by an injury. Raleigh vs Hard2Guard went about as I expected it to, a relatively close game where Raleigh comes out on top. Depending on a few factors, namely injuries, however, I could see Hard2Guard getting them back in the rematch at their place. Another interesting thing to note is the fact that H2G decided to play through their post players in this game. The injury to Ortiz obviously affected the tactical decisions, but it almost felt like, in addition, a way to reward Tomo Plot just for this game for being a beast on the boards for so long.

As inter-conference play draws near, let's take a look at the updated power rankings.

Big 8 Power rankings:
1) BPE (6-0)
2) Gators (6-0)
3) WildHoochieKoos (4-2)
4) Big Beavers (3-3)
5) Snake River Panthers (3-3)

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

discussion/explanation: Snake River got picked apart by another top-ranked team in the Big 8...seems like when I was just starting out. Also, I'm pretty sure Hooch is about to get Must back when the two teams play so there's that. I was also surprised to see Hooch take it easy in the matchup against me, but I can understand the rationale considering they're about to get their big man back. In the Great 8, Hard2Guard basically beat the O'Ballers at their own game, so it'll be interesting to see with one of their players back from injury whether they continue playing through their post players or go back to a perimeter-based game. Duck City and Jersey played their usual brands of basketball; one interesting development, though, was the dominance of Duck City's bench unit in the fourth quarter of that game. Maybe it's partly because, like when I was starting, Jersey doesn't have much of a bench, but if a top-tier second unit develops for Duck city, it could help them going forward, especially in tougher close games.

Here are the updated power rankings as we head into inter-conference play

Big 8 Power rankings:
1) BPE (7-0)
2) Gators (6-1)
3) WildHoochieKoos (5-2)
4) Big Beavers (4-3)
5) Snake River Panthers (3-4)

Great 8 power rankings:
1)Raleigh Capitols (7-0)
2)Hard2Guard (6-1)
3)The Duck City Ninjas (5-2)
4)The Barack O'Ballers (4-3)
5)Jersey Blazing Heat (3-4)

discussion/explanation: first of all...wow. I was not expecting the O'ballers to get absolutely run out the gym like that. Oh, my goodness. Also, Hooch went away from playing post offense and blew out Snake River, and now they get their starting center back as the head into inter-conference play. Lastly, it has become evident to me that once I get sufficient funds after expanding my stadium again, I need to get some more players because while the team I have now is close, BPE has seemed to have clearly established themselves as the Big 8's top dog as of present. What would that look like? I don't know, possibly a point guard that could move Basham into a 6th man role for now or another player with close to Lackey's capabilities to defend both the perimeter and post at a high level.

Wow. vs WildHoochieKoos, @ Gators, and vs BPE.Bombers. Hopefully my new strategy will atleast allow me to get 2 out of 3 in this stretch. Course, the main issue will be dealing with the Koo's C, which even though has a low salary, seems to be their offense's engine. We'll see what happens! Also plan a couple lineup changes.

With inter-conference play officially underway, here are the updated power rankings

Big 8 Power rankings:
1) BPE (8-0)
2) Gators (7-1)
3) WildHoochieKoos (5-3)
4) Big Beavers (5-3)
5) Snake River Panthers (4-4)

Great 8 power rankings:
1)Raleigh Capitols (8-0)
2)Hard2Guard (7-1)
3)The Duck City Ninjas (6-2)
4)The Barack O'Ballers (4-4)
5)Jersey Blazing Heat (3-5)

discussion/explanation: First of all...wow, what a difference a couple of months makes. I know San Diego is winless and not in these rankings but damn...lost by 100 points. Even most CPU teams don't do that. Onto the user v user games...even with Must back, Duck City was able to run Hooch's press out the gym for a 34 point victory. I was surprised to see Hooch go to the press, and they seemed to have no answer for Duck City's guards and small forward. The Gators came out with a wire to wire 22 point victory against Jersey, despite the fact Jersey took 13 more shots in the end. And lastly, we have the most exciting game of the season yet: Big Bevers versus the Barack O'Ballers. This game came down to the final seconds but in the end, the go-ahead basket proved to be a dunk by Vidar Brathen that was assisted by Wade James. The O'Ballers had a chance on a buzzer beater, but their point guard Bosko Begovic couldn't get the baseline mid-range shot to drop (I personally question why they didn't go to Gaugl in this situation, but things happen).

I hope our game tomorrow will come down to the wire. My game plan will be simple: lockdown defense, 3 point shooting, avoiding turnovers, and stacking assists. I think I made the right decision to put a young Justin Christopher back into the lineup. Fraga is more experienced, but he lacks the shooting touch and the ability to direct the offense like Christopher was able to do vs the Koos. The thing I focus on is different players at different times stepping up and giving me big minutes, whether as a starter or off the bench. Both scenarios have happened quiet a lot. See ya in The Swamp Rob.

With several marquee matchups to discuss, here are the new power rankings

Big 8 Power rankings:
1) BPE (9-0)
2) Gators (8-1)
3) WildHoochieKoos (6-3)
4) Big Beavers (5-4)
5) Snake River Panthers (4-5)

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

discussion/explanation: 4 user v user games...there's a lot to discuss. BPE absolutely dominated Jersey on the boards; they even held Joya, one of this league's top rebounders, to 6 boards as they outrebounded them 69-33 in a 57 point blowout. As for Snake River and Raleigh...it was also domination. Raleigh had around a 4:1 assist to turnover ratio; Snake River had exactly a 1:4 ratio. Raleigh was nearly +30 in rebounds. The only statistics Snake River did better in this game were fewer fouls, more made free throws, and more made 3's, and even then those were marginal. Makings of a 59 point blowout. Now, we get into the more juicy matchups. BPE vs Hard2Guard, just looking at stats, seems like a matchup that's pretty even until we get to shot-making, particularly 3-point shot-making. The difference in 3's equates to 27 points; H2G won by 28. Lastly, we get to the game of the day...a game where my Gators had more turnovers, fewer assists, made 5 fewer shots...and won the game. The slight edge in 3's and the bigger edge in rebounds helps for sure, but the difference has to be free throw shooting. I don't know if I'm gonna have to interrogate someone in one of the luxury boxes, but I would NOT expect to ever get THAT kind of disparity in free throws again.

This slate of games was much less eventful than the last two, but there are still some interesting things to talk about

Big 8 Power rankings:
1) BPE (10-0)
2) Gators (9-1)
3) WildHoochieKoos (6-4)
4) Big Beavers (6-4)
5) Snake River Panthers (4-6)

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

discussion/summary: first off, since I'm not team training at the moment, don't expect me to put backups at the 1-3 spots in the blowout games going forward. Now that that's out of the way, let's get into the user v user games from yesterday. Hooch decided to take it easy against Raleigh and they got blown out, straight up. The rebounding department was fairly close but that's it. Next, we get to one of the weirdest box scores I've ever seen; an OT game that ends with an 18 point margin. What's stranger is, to my knowledge, Duck City didn't have anyone foul out(although they had two guys end up one foul away from doing so) or get injured in that game. I guess Baldriz took over like that; he ended up with 26 points and rebounds. On to the closest game, it was a game of runs, but in the end, The O'Ballers prevailed thanks to strong 1st and 3rd quarters. The big disparity in free throws, just like in Gators vs Duck City, was a huge contributing factor, as the O'Ballers were an eye opening 25 for 25 from the charity stripe.

We get to welcome a new edition to the power rankings! Please welcome: AC Bellem!

Big 8 Power rankings:
1) BPE (11-0)
2) Gators (9-2)
3) WildHoochieKoos (7-4)
4) Big Beavers (7-4)
5) Snake River Panthers (4-7)

Great 8 power rankings:
1)Raleigh Capitols (11-0)
2)Hard2Guard (10-1)
3)The Duck City Ninjas (7-4)
4)The Barack O'Ballers (6-5)
5)Jersey Blazing Heat (5-6)
6)AC Bellem(4-7)

discussion/explanation: First off let's focus on AC Bellem's first game against BPE...Bellem played a pretty good game for it being their first game. As we all know, they're basically like an expansion team: it may not be very pretty at first, but if they play their cards right, they'll get where they need to be, whether that's by signing a guy or two in the transfer market or through setting scouting to its maximum. It was also kind of weird to see BPE's star player Brathen get such little playing time, though he apparently got 4 fouls in the little time he played...as for Hard2Guard, their dominant win came thanks to their huge advantage in rebounding and assists along with simply executing their offense way better, as seen by the giant disparity in field goal percentage. Onto Hooch vs the O'Ballers...despite another great game for the O'Ballers in terms of free throw shooting, the shooting from the floor and the three-point line, along with a not so surprising +17 assist advantage and a very surprising +17 rebounding advantage gave Hooch's team what they needed to come out with the 30 point victory. And finally...the power matchup of the night. I'll be honest...I wasn't expecting the game to be that close. Maybe I should play that lineup more often? Bayramov went the hell off like he tended to at this point last season...problem is, everyone else was slacking. I'm probably going to start working on...mainly Gomez's..passing once I'm satisfied with the post defense levels of certain players...well, mainly Pirhonen...so that Gomez can be more effective when I put him at point guard in the future. Either way, I was surprised to see my team had a rebounding advantage against them, but they had double the assists my team did while also have 3 times fewer turnovers. And, of course, the discrepancy in made field goals. The feeling from this game is much different than last year after getting absolutely clocked by Mof State's defense, but I know this team has a long way to go.

First off, congrats to AC Bellem on their first W! Now, onto the new power rankings

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

Great 8 power rankings:
1)Raleigh Capitols (12-0)
2)Hard2Guard (11-1)
3)The Duck City Ninjas (8-4)
4)The Barack O'Ballers (6-6)
5)Jersey Blazing Heat (5-7)
6)AC Bellem(5-7)

discussion/explanation: in the first user v user game I look over...despite grabbing an astonishing 17 offensive rebounds and 13 more shot attempts, the Big Beavers were able to win, though it was close. In the end, the disparity in free throws, like in games the past few weeks, brought home a win for the Big Beavers. We also may be beginning to witness a "changing of the guard" in who leads the offense for the Big Beavers, as Wade James, looking at the stats, seemed to be able to get into the paint at will or dish out dimes to open teammates. Onto the next game, though, as Hard2Guard got a convincing victory over Hooch yesterday, thanks to a distinct rebounding advantage and a balanced scoring attack on offense. The emergence of a more post player based offense for Hard2Guard this season is a surprising but seemingly effective one. Daniel Fortin tried his best to keep it competitive, but in the end, no one else on his team could keep up. On to the next game, Gators @ the O'Ballers where the Gators strategy of putting Lackey on the other team's best scorer seemed to be effective, as Gaugl, while leading the O'Ballers in scoring, shot under 40% for the game and only got to the charity stripe twice while Lackey got 3 steals on the night. Other than that, the only thing the Gators didn't a distinct statistical advantage in was offensive rebounds and assist to turnover ratio, both of which was about the same for both teams. And finally...you knew I had to save this one for last...the long-awaited battle of the unbeatens...and...I'm not gonna gas it up anymore, it was over by halftime as Raleigh jumped out to a big lead, then the teams played about even in the second half. Surprisingly, the only distinct advantage Raleigh had was in scoring, though I may have to go check the halftime stats to see if that's really the case. Either way, Jandula and Bouquillon both stepped it up big time in this game, clocking in a combined 67 points.

After checking the halftime stats, it looks like it was statistically more of the same in the first half; in fact, it was probably even more like what I described statistically. It was also interesting to note that the majority of Bouquillon's points(26) came in the first half, while the majority of Jandula's(18) came in the second half.