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Great write up!!!!

but you will need to rank me lower after first week since you missing out some sales that I had

Pio Reina looked at the players in the locker room. The rookies looked nervous. Good, he thought. They should. He looked at each of the starting five. They were each with their primary backup discussing things. That was promising, but Pio wasn't about to get his hopes up. Byron Helm was with the bigs, as usual. The guards wanted Air Allnite to leave them alone. That wasn't abnormal; that he did was. Marshall Richards was with Rolland Reynolds and Rich McCain. That seemed a very intense conversation.

"San Dominica. My veterans already know. We'll find out quickly how this season will go. Whatever you think your A game is, improve it. I have no problem going with a short rotation. If you can't defend, you will not see court time. If I can't trust you on the court, you will not be here. Veterans, you know the expectation. It is on you to instill that to the young guys. My assistants will tell me who's ready and who isn't, but understand I can see quite well also. If they're wrong, they will be held accountable. If you play like crap, you will be held accountable. I demand defense, rebounding, and ball security. Give me what I want or suffer the consequences. Air, is the back court ready?"

"Yes", replied Air.

"Marshall?"

"We're making a late change to the roatation." Marshall did not like the matchups at small forward.

"Byron?"

"We're ready."

"Coaches in my office. Game time, gentlemen. Show me what you've got."

Well your prediction will be wrong about me ranking 2nd to last. I’m going for #1 pick so. I’ll be last for sure lol

"We take it down to Wednesday Juniper, courtside. Wednesday!"

"This was Coach Stephenson in the San Dominica Locker Room during halftime."

"Listen up. Don't think because we have a lead right now that you SOBs can slack off. This is no ordinary start of the season game. This is a rivalry game. They know us we know them. And we know for damn sure they're not gonna give up just because of an eight point lead.

Chris! Big Turk! You want to be called Silverbacks well 5 boards isn't good enough. You gotta give me more. Now let's go out there and play some SD basketball. Because we wanted this rivalry to stay and by God you SOBs are gonna play like you wanted this rivalry to stay!"

"It's obvious that Coach Stephenson wants his team to stay focused in the 2nd Half. This is Wednesday Juniper, back to you guys!"

Last edited by Coach Stephenson at 12/02/2023 21:16:49

Pio Reina was mic’ed up. We listened in at the end of each quarter.

“That first quarter was pretty good. We should have ended with a tie, but I’ll take it. Good, solid defense, ball security, we’re holding our own on the boards. Keep that up. What I need you guys to fix is the interior defense. Too many layups and dunks. Koncki, you have to lock that down. The guards have to support you better on the perimeter. Kops, where are you? I can’t see you on the floor; are you invisible? Hatfield, I want you more active defensively and on the boards. They got the first quarter; go get me the second quarter!” Score San Dominica 22 Linndale 21

“That second quarter was played at their tempo not ours. Unacceptable! Too many layups and dunks! You guys aren’t making them work hard enough. We can’t win playing at their tempo. Slow it down! Get mean defensively. Where’s the rebounding off to? And where’s our third scorer? As pleased as I was with the first quarter, I am equally disturbed by the second quarter. Gimme that defense, ball security and rebounding! You give me that and we can get back in this game! Take the air out of the basketball and make them work for everything they get!” Score San Dominica 56 Linndale 48

“Cerri, you gotta pick up Shooter. Air is with the medical staff, we’ll find out if he’s gonna be able to play. Cerri, assume you’re the guy. Mantas, you gotta pick up the scoring also. Kops, if you get hot shooting I wouldn’t be upset. Koncki, O’Brien is taking you to school. You gonna do something about that? Still playing at their tempo. I don’t like that at all. Take the air out of the basketball. We need more defense and more rebounding. I’m not asking you guys to do something you can’t do, so what’s stopping you? You gotta be better than this! Cerri, Shooter’s not coming back. It’s your time to shine. Let’s go!” Score San Dominica 81 Linndale 67

“This was embarrassing. You guys are supposed to be professionals. This was an embarrassment to our fans, to our opponent, and to me personally. I am disgusted.”

Day 1 (Saturday 2 December 2023) : Performances by (https://www.buzzer-manager.com)

Night results
F.Day Internet Lovers Club 98 - Dragmort Dragons Utd 88
Linndale 94 - San Dominica Warriors 113
Muffin Men 62 - Lion Rebels 94
209’s MostWanted 80 - Shandong Golden Lions 92
CB Bethesdorf 103 - Super Sonics 118
Tasty Tardsicles 121 - Mindless Zombies 🧟‍♀️ 113
VileOnes 97 - Fort Wayne Pistons 123
Jumpstop Jumpers 83 - Balls to the Walls 90

Best collective performance of the evening
Points : 123 : Fort Wayne Pistons
Rebounds : 65 : Super Sonics
Assists : 31 : San Dominica Warriors
Steals : 12 : Tasty Tardsicles
Block Shots : 10 : Balls to the Walls

Personal best performances of the evening
Points : 39 : A. Durham (VileOnes)
Rebounds : 25 : C. Goldsmith (Super Sonics)
Assists : 10 : G. Izaza (Fort Wayne Pistons)
Steals : 4 : T. Burkay (CB Bethesdorf)
Block Shots : 4 : J. Herman (Balls to the Walls)

Top 5 of the evening
Point Guard : C. Pla Llorente (Balls to the Walls) (21 Points, 9 Rebounds, 8 Assists, 2 Steals, 0 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 29
Shooting Guard : U. Jaén (Fort Wayne Pistons) (34 Points, 12 Rebounds, 5 Assists, 0 Steals, 1 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 45
Small Forward : S. Aranda (Fort Wayne Pistons) (27 Points, 4 Rebounds, 7 Assists, 2 Steals, 0 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 32
Power Forward : G. Nuñez (CB Bethesdorf) (36 Points, 14 Rebounds, 4 Assists, 0 Steals, 0 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 40
Center : C. Goldsmith (Super Sonics) (15 Points, 25 Rebounds, 0 Assists, 0 Steals, 0 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 29

MVP of the evening
U. Jaén (Fort Wayne Pistons) (34 Points, 12 Rebounds, 5 Assists, 0 Steals, 1 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 45

The bad performance of the evening
H. Kwang Chih (Mindless Zombies 🧟‍♀️) (2 Points, 0 Rebounds, 0 Assists, 0 Steals, 0 Block Shots) : Efficiency : -4

All kinds of statistics
The player who forgot to remove his mittens : J. Graf (VileOnes) : 6 Turnovers

Player targeted by the referees : S. Kang (Dragmort Dragons Utd), J. Graf (VileOnes) : 6 Personnal Fouls

The iron-man : Q. Yu zi (Dragmort Dragons Utd), D. Branimirović (F.Day Internet Lovers Club), M. Coedo (Mindless Zombies 🧟‍♀️), A. Guilla (Mindless Zombies 🧟‍♀️), A. Durham (VileOnes), N. Hayes (Jumpstop Jumpers), L. Alaniz (Jumpstop Jumpers) : 48 Minutes

The shooter : L. Alaniz (Jumpstop Jumpers) : 6 Three points

The best performer : T. Freeman (Mindless Zombies 🧟‍♀️) : Rating : 16.0

The worst performer : F. Chongwen (VileOnes) : Rating : 4.5

Brian:
I’m Brian Sanborn and welcome back to the Warrior Pre-Game Show. We’re here at Drury Indoor Stadium where the Warriors will take on the Muffin Men. I’m with Hunt of course, along with Bret “The Legend” Rodrigues and Douglas Diamond. Hunt I’ll start with you since you said something interesting in regards to this being a trap game.
Hunt:
Look we all remember that final game against Linndale towards the end of the season. We all heard when Samantha was interviewing Coach when she asked him how did he feel about this possibly being the last game against this team as a league matchup. We saw how emotional he was about it.
DD:
Least as emotional as one can expect from Coach.
Hunt:
Look he was pretty emotional, he talked how important this rivalry was, how important it was for Linndale, how important it was for San Dominica and for the Big 8 and the whole III.11 for that matter. And then when they ended up surviving relegation and staying, keeping the rivalry going … My point is last Saturday was a circled date. They were looking forward to that one and everyone who covered the league knew it. Which is why I said, whoever was the moron who placed this game first was being stupid.
Bret:
But everything you said shows why it was right to place it as an opening game. I mean there wasn’t a bigger game to sell for that week.
Hunt:
I can understand that. That being said. The point I was going for was that, that halftime speech. Coach wanted this game. The team wanted this game and the result was a feel good for the Warriors. Now I am concerned that maybe they put too much into this one and underestimate the Muffin Men.
DD:
Now I will agree the Warriors cannot think that just because these guy hail from a lower division that they can take them lightly but I’m not expecting that from Coach Stephenson and neither are any of you.
Brian:
Muffin Men have a dangerous player in Carlos Webber, the 6’7” forward who like another guy named Webber can hurt you from many places on the floor.
Bret:
Yeah I think we see Coach try to give Webber special attention. Maybe see a Box style defense.
DD:
But there are ways you can give a guy special attention defensively without resorting to the box.
Brian:
We will soon see. When we come back, we’ll get word from Samantha from the court just before tipoff. This is the Warrior Pre-game show on 98.7.


Last edited by Coach Stephenson at 12/05/2023 23:36:02

Day 2 (Tuesday 5 December 2023) : Performances by (https://www.buzzer-manager.com)

Night results
Dragmort Dragons Utd 67 - Linndale 87
San Dominica Warriors 108 - Muffin Men 72
Lion Rebels 111 - 209’s MostWanted 86
Shandong Golden Lions 99 - F.Day Internet Lovers Club 105
Super Sonics 109 - Tasty Tardsicles 125
Mindless Zombies 🧟‍♀️ 87 - VileOnes 85
Fort Wayne Pistons 88 - Jumpstop Jumpers 83
Balls to the Walls 71 - CB Bethesdorf 120

Best collective performance of the evening
Points : 125 : Tasty Tardsicles
Rebounds : 64 : F.Day Internet Lovers Club
Assists : 30 : Super Sonics
Steals : 15 : CB Bethesdorf
Block Shots : 13 : Lion Rebels, CB Bethesdorf

Personal best performances of the evening
Points : 45 : J. Valentin (Jumpstop Jumpers)
Rebounds : 22 : A. Carečina (Mindless Zombies 🧟‍♀️)
Assists : 12 : L. Melucci (F.Day Internet Lovers Club)
Steals : 5 : L. Petrinski (Dragmort Dragons Utd)
Block Shots : 7 : T. Pryor (CB Bethesdorf)

Top 5 of the evening
Point Guard : M. Craig (Super Sonics) (36 Points, 5 Rebounds, 9 Assists, 0 Steals, 0 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 42
Shooting Guard : E. Diršliokas (CB Bethesdorf) (25 Points, 5 Rebounds, 8 Assists, 4 Steals, 0 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 27
Small Forward : D. Branimirović (F.Day Internet Lovers Club) (26 Points, 18 Rebounds, 2 Assists, 2 Steals, 2 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 35
Power Forward : A. Carečina (Mindless Zombies 🧟‍♀️) (22 Points, 22 Rebounds, 2 Assists, 1 Steals, 0 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 40
Center : G. Quevedo (F.Day Internet Lovers Club) (20 Points, 14 Rebounds, 2 Assists, 1 Steals, 1 Block Shots), M. Jimenez (Tasty Tardsicles) (25 Points, 7 Rebounds, 4 Assists, 0 Steals, 0 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 29

MVP of the evening
M. Craig (Super Sonics) (36 Points, 5 Rebounds, 9 Assists, 0 Steals, 0 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 42

The bad performance of the evening
I. Pesen (Dragmort Dragons Utd) (10 Points, 5 Rebounds, 4 Assists, 0 Steals, 0 Block Shots)J. Garro (F.Day Internet Lovers Club) (4 Points, 2 Rebounds, 0 Assists, 0 Steals, 1 Block Shots) : Efficiency : -4

All kinds of statistics
The player who forgot to remove his mittens : C. Hofstätter (Balls to the Walls), B. Pascual (Balls to the Walls) : 6 Turnovers

Player targeted by the referees : C. Choi Kwan (Shandong Golden Lions), C. Sârbu (Shandong Golden Lions), V. Gutsul (Shandong Golden Lions) : 6 Personnal Fouls

The iron-man : A. Pakzat (Dragmort Dragons Utd), L. Melucci (F.Day Internet Lovers Club), D. Gay (Shandong Golden Lions), W. Acevedo (Mindless Zombies 🧟‍♀️), J. Bover (VileOnes), A. Carečina (Mindless Zombies 🧟‍♀️), S. Aranda (Fort Wayne Pistons), G. Hilliard (Jumpstop Jumpers), J. Valentin (Jumpstop Jumpers) : 48 Minutes

The shooter : E. Mihklimäe (CB Bethesdorf) : 6 Three points

The best performer : K. Brown (Lion Rebels), T. Freeman (Mindless Zombies 🧟‍♀️) : Rating : 15.5

The worst performer : H. Thompson (Balls to the Walls) : Rating : 4.0

Week One Power Rankings
Week One Observations
With Week One in the books, along with the first round of BBM round robin and the first Cup games (congrats everyone on not embarrassing yourselves by not losing in the first round!), Season 63 is officially underway. There are 8 players averaging 24 PPG or more (my apologies to Daniel Gay and Igor Tabrizi of the Golden Lions and F.Day respectively, who are averaging 23.5), with Jumpstop's John Valentin averaging nearly a 50 cent piece per game(!). Three players are averaging at least 18 RPG, but we have to eliminate the recently departed Chas Goldsmith who had 25 in his last game with Super Sonics, which leaves Lovro Praznik (Jumpstop) and Carlton Maddock (Mindless) leading the way. And six players are averaging at least 8 APG with Fort Wayne's Guaire Izaza dishing 9/game.

As far as teams go, half the league is averaging at least 100 PPG (Tasty leads the way at 123) and five teams average less than 84 PPG (Muffin is 17 below that at 67). Fort Wayne has been a bit of an upstart surprise, remaining undefeated after I ranked them 11th, and CB Bethesdorf has been doing some nice efficiency work to be a bit of surprise in Week One's rankings and sit at 1-1, and Tasty survived a tough first week to remain undefeated with games against Super Sonics and Mindless Zombies, arguably the top three teams in that conference.

I typically try to do a transfer report at this point in the season, but I was traveling for work this week, so we're going to eliminate that for now, but I'll try to get back to it this coming week. For now, he's a bit of a briefer than normal power rankings!

Week One Power Rankings
For those of you who are new, my power rankings are based on an average of Efficiency Per Game (EFFG) rank and their Opponents EFFG (OPP EFFG) rank. Ties are sorted by lowest OPP EFFG (ensuing weeks will take into consideration previous week's rankings to sort ties). This week's rankings will show EFFG and OPP EFFG scores as well as their ranking in parenthesis. Also, behind the team name, I will show their preseason ranking in parenthesis.

1. Lion Rebels (2)
EFFG: 137.4 (4) | OPP EFFG: 65 (1) | Average: 2.5
I really do hate this - this is the third season in a row that my Lion Rebels have been first after week one. In Real Life, I'm a Raiders fan, so anytime they're high in rankings, it's got to be Too Good To Be True. Thanks to a "cupcake" matchup with Muffin Men and a better-than-expected victory over 209's grants us the top ranking this week, though I expect that to change. F.Day Internet Lovers Club and Linndale await the Leos (yes, I did just make up a nickname for my own team. I'm the manager, I can do that!).

2. San Dominica Warriors (5)
EFFG: 138.5 (3) | OPP EFFG: 77.5 (2) | Average: 2.5
Getting edged out of first by OPP EFFG score, San Dominica starts out undefeated with wins against their Respected Rival Linndale and the Muffs. Neither game was particularly close, but Linndale's hope was up after 1 quarter, being down only 1 before going on to give up 34 and 32 points in the 2nd and 4th quarters to seal their fate. A TV game against MostWanted before they travel to F.Day's Graveyard arena are up next for the Coach Stephenson's boys.

Week One Power Rankings - Part Two
3. CB Bethesdorf (12)
EFFG: 139 (2) | OPP EFFG: 98.5 (5) | Average: 3.5
The first of two surprises in the top four teams this week - I'll just say this, Week One always gives us some surprises based on matchups. No dig at Dabizinho because while they got beat by 15 by Super Sonics, they still managed 110 efficiency (with Nuñez contributing over 1/3 of that with 40 EFF thanks to 36 points on 65% shooting, including 4-5 from three to go along with 14 boards and a 12.5 rating). Then they torched Balls to the Walls by 49 with 168 EFF and keeping them to just 54 EFF, and that's how you find them at third after week one. With Fort Wayne and Mindless Zombies (TV Game) up next, we'll see if they can keep this pace up.

4. Fort Wayne Pistons (11)
EFFG: 126 (Tied-6) | OPP EFFG: 94 (3) | Average: 4.5
Once again, not to knock these surprise teams, because I love chaos in these rankings, but after one week, only two teams kept opponents efficiency totals to less than 94...which is to say, as a whole, we're not very defensively dominant. And with ten teams hitting at least 104.5 of offensive efficiency and an average of 108.9 as a whole league, the offensive fire power seems to be winning out. Also of note, Fort Wayne's 126 EFFG ranks 7th...which means six teams are averaging MORE than 126...which is pretty ridiculous. With that being said, two wins nets the Pistons the top spot in the Great 8, edging out Tasty thanks to their dominant victory over VileOnes to start the season. Next, the upstarts face off against each other before they head to Tasty's to show what they're made of.

5. F.Day Internet Lovers Club (4)
EFFG: 126 (Tied-6) | OPP EFFG: 96.5 (4) | Average 5
A 10-point victory on the road vs. Dragmort is a bit misleading after they were leading by 27 by the start of the 4th quarter, with their backups averaging a -15 point differential while they were on the court, diminishing that large lead. They followed that up with a nice 6-point victory over the Golden Lions. With a 14-point lead heading into the 4th, they brought in their subs, and again, it took a bit, but Shandong shrunk the lead to four before faltering to grant the Lovers their 2nd victory. Now at third in the Big 8, it's a big week for them as they travel to Daylis to take on the #1 squad before hosting the Warriors who are 2nd in the conference.

6. Tasty Tardsicles (1)
EFFG: 146.5 (1) | OPP EFFG: 120 (11) | Average 6
Last season's Finals' runner up finds themselves undefeated, but down in the rankings after two, beating Mindless by 8, but giving up 20+ points to four of the Zombies. In a bit of a more promising result, their 16-point victory over the Sonics came at home with less effort and 50% shooting. The downside, is their opponent hit 46% from the field, including a 5-22 performance from behind the arc. But thanks to a 45-point third quarter while holding the Sonics to just 22 points, they took the victory home. With a welcome road game against Balls followed by the Pistons at home.

7. Shandong Golden Lions (7)
EFFG: 105.5 (8) | OPP EFFG: 102 (7) | Average: 7.5
A Div. II team last season in a bit of reset season it appears, they knocked off 209's MostWanted by holding them to 80 points, of which 26 were scored from the charity stripe. They continued to take it easy in their 16-point loss to F.Day in which key player Daniel Gay scored 36 points on 29 shots. Next comes Linndale at home before they travel to Drury Lane for a matchup with the Muffin Men.

Last edited by Baine at 12/09/2023 14:38:09

Week One Power Rankings - Part Three
8. Linndale (9)
EFFG: 104.5 (10) | OPP EFFG: 99 (6) | Average: 8
Speedtraps' crew starts the season 1-1 with a +1 point differential after 19-point loss to the Warriors and a 20-point victory on TV against the Dragons. I had to dig for this one, because I couldn't see much reason why based on stat glancing that Linndale has struggled. As a team, they've shot 43%, including a not terrible, but not great 34% from beyond the arc (from non-outside focused offenses). It took me a bit, but I found the glaring issue at hand: Mantas Petriukštis. He's averaged 34 minutes per game at shooting guard and while he's only shot 4 threes (and not made one), he's shot 21 total shots and only made three. In other words, he's Ice Cold like a Natty Ice. In 75 games, he's averaging 32.8% from the field...which is not good. I doubt Air Allnite can do anything to recuperate his woeful shooting as he appears to be what he is...which is headed for the bench, if I had a guess.

9. Mindless Zombies (3)
EFFG: 105.5 (8) | OPP EFFG: 117.5 (9) | Average: 8.5
Unlike the 1-1 CB Bethesdorf, Mindless Zombies are 1-1 and smack in the middle of the pack in these rankings, unlike their 3rd place ranking in the preseason. While they somewhat expectedly lost to Tasty, their two-point victory over VileOnes came after they blew a 14-point lead at the half, leading by one heading into the final frame, it was a tight quarter with Mindless never extending their lead more than 3 until 58 seconds were left when they moved it to 5, 84-79. After a few points from both sides, it was tied up at 18 seconds by Vile, before Ma Ying tried a layup with 4 seconds left and was fouled. And in a fitting ending, he made two free throws to clinch the victory after a grimacing final shot by Vile clanked off the rim with no time left. They host Jumpstop before visiting CB Bethesdorf for a TV game.

10. Super Sonics (6)
EFFG: 133 (5) | OPP EFFG: 131 (14) | Average: 9.5
A terrific offense combined with an inefficient defense isn't a recipe for success, especially in this league where offense appears to be coming at a premium. I am somewhat surprised, but again, it's week one, so those are bound to happen. Their 15-point victory over CB should tell you all you need to know about whether or not the Sonics will remain this low, but their loss to Tasty doesn't bode well for much competition at the top of the Great 8. Their second highest salaried player, Stanisław Fabis appears to be filling a backup role who dominated their Cup matchup. Regardless, their upcoming games against the bottom of the Great 8 (VileOnes and Jumpstop) should move them back up these rankings.

11. Jumpstop Jumpers (15)
EFFG: 90 (12) | OPP EFFG: 107 (8) | Average: 10
The self-proclaimed #1 pick, while being the first 0-2 team in these rankings hasn't performed as terribly as promised. At this point, it looks like the competition for the top pick may be better than the competition for promotion, with five winless teams averaging just 80 PPG. Of those five, the Jumpers have the lowest negative point differential. They're going to have to try even less than they already are to get that coveted pick. A 7-point loss to Balls and a 5-point loss to Fort Wayne leaves them heading to a road trip to the Zombies before hosting the Sonics.