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Statistics Nov 2004 Season -- These stats are just for fun. Our team is about teamwork first, not individualism.
Name Average Game 8 Game 7 Game 6 Game 5 Game 4 Game 3 Game 2 Game 1
FV FVA CT1 BestFit CT2 CEFC NewTeam FV
Jimmy Lee 2.6 0 2 0 0 5 0 4 10
Howard Zee 1.9 0 5 0 0 2 2 2 4
Brandon Kwok 16 19 27 16 21 7 20 7 3
Johnny Phan 10.9 DNP 7 21 13 6 DNP 8 8
Billy Min 12.8 13 DNP 3 12 DNP 16 20 DNP
Kelvin Zee 13.0 DNP DNP 7 23 DNP 6 16
Keith Luong 7.6 16 8 7 3 4 DNP DNP DNP
Michael Park 17.0 DNP DNP DNP 17 DNP DNP DNP
Jason Lee 11.0 DNP DNP DNP DNP 11.0 DNP DNP
Tony Jue 9.0 DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP DNP 9.0
Con Luong 10 DNP 10
Team 52.6 48 59 47 57 64 49 47 50
Opponent 42.5 45 45 44 45 34 46 40 41 |
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CrossTrainers Team (Nov 04)
My friend Jason Jue from CBCOC started up the league a few years ago. One of his teammates has a father who built a gym in his shoe company warehouse here in the city of Industry. They have generously allowed us to play in their gym for free, and all we have to pay is ref fees and some administrative costs. A sweet deal for us. I met Jason in Ken's InterChurch league and when we switched the league to Walnut, Jason brought his team over. Their first season, I decided not to play because I thought maybe I was playing too much, still being in school and such. But he invited me to join again the second season and so I signed on June 2002.
The first four seasons were ok, playing in the finals twice, but we couldn't win the thing. When we lost season four, I decided it was time to go shopping for a point guard. I had to face up to the fact that I was too old. Johnny agreed to play for the Oct 03-Jan 04 season and now the missing piece was there. We finally won going 13-0. At the same time, Brandon joined us. We also won our second season 9-1. Both times, Johnny was MVP. The third season we also won, though this time without Johnny because of Brandon and having both Con and Billy at the same time, going 8-2, with Billy as mvp. The games we lost were only because those two were not there. So now we are three-peat champions. I feel like I should let someone else win. But Johnny informed me he was ready to play again, so since I don't want to embarrass him, I will bring back all the guys and go for number four. CEFC is back and looks better this season so they will give us competition.
Game one we played FV on Nov 15, 04. Not a problem, except game time at 6:30 We came with Johnny, Brandon, Howard, Tony and me. Kel was late but it didn't matter and we won easily. I even had a big game scoring ten points. Felt like we were just toying with them. I have never lost to FV at BestFit. FV is to be commended because they have a true church team, and perhaps CBCOC. The rest of us seem to have non church players. I would not mind bringing in a church team, but because of Bestfit, we would not have a chance. But at least my guys are all nice guys. Billy, Jeff, and a few others do attend church, though not Walnut. Tony and Jason go to Walnut, and Howard used to. Keith grew up in the LA church.
Game two on Nov 22, 04, we played a new team, one of Jason Chu's friends. Billy was coming and I knew they had lost last week so I knew this game was in the bag. Johnny, Billy, Howard and me were there to start. But Kel and Brandon were late, so they ran out to a 6-0 lead. But once Brandon came, it was over. Billy had a huge game, no one on their team could guard him and he fouled out two of their players. Again, I felt like we were just fooling around although they did play well offensively, making some nice shots. Some kid went crazy and tried to start a fight with Brandon, but we stayed cool. I made two layups but missed two very easy ones. The games are so easy with my guys. I can just go out there and have some fun because they all know how to play. I feel like I have hired professionals.
Game three was on Nov 29, 2004. We were playing CEFC, who besides Bestfit would be our main competition. Billy told me he was coming Sunday nite and Brandon confirmed Monday morning so I wasn't too worried. I knew Kelvin was hurt but he said he would make it and I didn't really try to find a sub, although I did give an email to Mike and checked Keith's schedule. But then I found out Johnny was sick so I was able to get Jason to come. It was ice cold, and also I was already sick, so I wore a sweat shirt the first half. Game time we had three players, Howard, Jason and myself. Brandon showed up at prayer time, so we started with four. We then called Andy Chan but he never showed up. Brandon said he was a little tired from his trip to New York, but he played insane, hitting four straight treys, although his first one was a bank. Jason started out very well and hit his first two or three shots I think, but of course CEFC was on target as well, but we led something like 18-14 for a moment. Then we cooled off. I think the score was tied when Billy showed up with about ten minutes to go and entered the game. I didn't take any shots, Howard threw up three bricks, Brandon had 14, Jason had 9 and Billy had three at the half, with the score at 28-26 their favor. Billy got going in the second half and took it inside scoring at will, pretty impressive considering they had four 6-1 players, Jason Chen, Chris, Allen, and Kirk, besides Mike and Eugene at 5-10. They decided to go man because of Brandon (he hit two more treys in the second half) and us having four players, but that was a big mistake, letting Billy go with single coverage (although it was more like double). I usually like to go man against CEFC, but since Reuel and Chris were not shooting very much, and I would be a bad matchup, we stayed with zone. Eugene had two treys in the first half, Reuel had one in each half, and Chris maybe had one., and Alan had one trey. Not the usual CEFC. Billy would have scored more but he missed some freethrows he normally makes. I had this one nice pass to him where I faked a pass to Howard at the base, Billy's man stepped out, and I passed inside. Billy was alone, but he didn't know, so he held if for a second, turned around and saw he was open, but Reuel came by and fouled him. I was a little upset in the second half when I got fouled on a three point attempt and the lady ref ignored me. Even the specatators said it was a foul, and when I told her she arrogantly said, "I'm sure they did say it." If she would have said, "sorry, I missed it" or "it was just a touch foul" I would have been ok, but that remark really bugged me, so now I don't like her anymore and before that I did. Another reason for me to dislike lady refs. But CEFC still hung around, Howard hit a nice two off a board, and later we led by two with seconds to go. We played good D, they missed a shot, and I rebounded and gave the ball immediately to Brandon who hit a streaking wide open Jason. He had the layup but wisely decided to try to eat the clock with his speed. Some guy swung his arm, missing Jason by at least a foot, but the lady ref called a foul, with two seconds to go. Jason made the first and missed the second and they called time out. One chance to tie the game. We went man with Billy as the safety and he batted the long pass away. Boy, if they would have made the shot, and if we then lost, I would have been all over the ref for the stupid call. What was she doing? Was she trying to help them beat us? Anyway, I was so perturbed by her that I didn't speak to her or even look at her after the game. The other ref tried to explain things to me, telling me about the new rules on flopping and face guarding. Maybe she is just incompetent. In the next game, she called this after the shot foul that turned into a 5 point play. Anyway, I thought without Kel and Johnny, we would probably lose, but I didn't care since it isn't the playoffs, but this was a nice win. I should play point a little more without Johnny there, poor Brandon looked exhausted. I am getting old fast, and Brandon probably thinks I am scared to hold the ball, but actually I can still do it. I just think he can do more with the ball then I can. Howard and I were ok in supportive roles and Brandon, Jason and Billy were great. A game we could have easily lost, but won I thought pretty convincingly. |
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Dec 6, 2004. Game four, we played CrossTrainers 2, who along with FV1, are probably the weakest teams in the league. Because last week we only had five, I asked Mike to come, and he was way too much for them. He was getting all kinds of rebounds, way high. He scored inside and blocked a few shots too. Apparently, he and Johnny have played together before. Kelvin returned from his injury and was on fire hitting almost everything in the second half. It would be difficult to decide between the two of them which was player of the game. Because of that, Brandon and Johnny didn't bother to shoot much and piled up the assists. I wasn't expecting Keith but he also has rejoined us for the season, since his LA church league ended tonight. Howard kind of faded out among such players and I took the garbage time six or seven shots for my team, hitting my first shot a trey and then a nice ten foot jumper from the freethrow. Then I missed three, one an airball off a rebound and my last shot got blocked by Henry with a second to go (should have just held the ball for sportsmanship, but I wasn't looking at the clock). Seven guys is usually a good number of players, but for tonight it seemed like we had too many guys, and I felt bad whenever someone had to sit on the bench, especially since it was again a cold nite. All the guys are so good, they should be playing. I tried to balance the playing times. Anyway, it was a blowout as expected, and we must have won by 30+. Because I knew we would win, I never said a negative thing, not even to Howard. Didn't do much fastbreaking, they got back ok, but our half court game was on. It was a case of my team having too many great players (my paid mercenaries, I like to think of them) and them just being rec players. I felt sorry for the other team, but there was nothing I could do, we were just playing our game and trying to have some fun. We didn't even look at the score, until the end buzzer. Well, I hope I can keep my guys interested enough to keep playing. Because Johnny missed the CEFC game due to illness, he looks particularly unchallenged, almost bored. But maybe I am just imagining it. After a game like tonight, its hard to believe we won't take it all again. I like our guys, we should go out for dinner after one of the early games. I don't know how much longer I can stay on the court with these guys. I am pretty lucky to have this team. Brandon, Johnny, Mike, Billy, Keith, Stan, Con, Kelvin- wow, I think we could take on the world. |
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Jan 10, 2004. Last week's game was canceled due to the BestFit company forgetting to open up the gym for us. Most bad was Con coming from LA. So we showed up today and we have another problem - a greasy floor. The game was a laugher as people were just sliding all over the place. I must have been moving super slow because I never fell once. Johnny looked pretty cool, as he dribbled while sliding around, an ice skator playing basketball. But the player of the game was Brandon. He goes out there and shoots seven treys, nothing but net. Too bad for the 1-3 Bestfit team, as the slippery floor really took away from their aggressive game, they couldn't use their speed or athleticism. It seemed like they were slipping more than us. They wouldn't have beaten us anyway. They have no way to match Billy, Johnny and Brandon. All too common for our games, they got mad and tried to start something. Don't know why they get so upset, Keith was hit in the face earlier and we understood it as non-intentional foul. The refs gave me a T and them two Ts for players coming off the bench. Later, I spoke to Jason Chu, and he explained that his players don't want to be held if a confrontation occurs. So I will relay that to my guys. It might be a good idea to pracice mock situations and how to handle them. As long as no one got hurt, it was a funny night, one game that we can remember and talk about when we get together and reminence. Howard did an excellent job at center for the first ten minutes of the game because Billy and Kelvin were late. We built up a quick lead with Brandon and Johnny and we maintained the 10-15 point cushion though I think they got within 8 at one point and I had to call time out. I don't shoot at all against these quick Bestfit guys, unless I am totally open, but I enjoy playing defense and making passes. This is a nice team for an old guy to look good. We won 57-35, with Brandon 21 points, Johnny 13 and Billy 12 leading us in scoring. We are 5-0, with CT1, CEFC and FVA all behind us at 4-1. |
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Jan 25, 05. We just beat 4-1 CT1, barely. Can't understand how they play so well. Ryan played well. He intimidated me on one layup and blocked another one of mine. He also did an excellent job on Billy. Billy was a little upset, felt the ref didn't make the calls. Billy probably still scored in the double figures and did his usual good joy boarding and intimidating shots. Johnny was the man, scoring some clutch baskets, including one at the half time buzzer and one with the shot clock running down. Probably had twenty. Brandon did well, got us started with his first shot a trey, also scoring double figures, and made things interesting by missing two freethrows at the end. Keith made some shots as well, and forced some shots at the end, but so what, let the guys have fun. They had a chance to tie the game in regulation but just missed the trey. Howard had a chance to foul at the end, but neither he nor anyone else did it, so they got off the shot. I should have been there, I would have fouled immediately. We actually were winning by seven with a minute to go when I subbed out so that Howard could finish it up, but they sank two treys, even with us playing a 3-2. But I wasn't worried, we can beat them ten out of ten times with the team we had. Tried some man at the beginning and we did ok, leading even without Billy there yet. Howard and I didn't score. I didn't do much, but just defense and passing. I was on a three game losing streak, two at Walnut and one at the ABA. Nothing like playing with these guys to get back into the W column. With only six of us there, I got to play a lot, so had some fun. Kelvin was out hurt, and Mike was out on business in Chicago. |
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Jan 31, 2005. Had an easy game against FVA tonight. The only drama was that it was a 6:30 game, so we would be short. Lucky for us, Con was able to come, and with him, Brandon, Johnny and Keith, it was a 20 point win. Melvin saw the guys sitting there before the game and made a complaint jokingly. He knew we were good. We let FVA (Gary, Mel, Frank, Joe, Danny Chen, and two other new players) score at the end to make it only ten. Had lots of layups, especially Keith. Keith also had a monster block on Melvin. Keith and Con really work well together and they fed each other some nice assists. Johnny as point guard makes so much difference. When he subbed out, we faltered and FVA made a come back, but with him back in the game running the offense, it was a snoozer. Its so strange for me to just laugh at turnovers, usually they make me crazy, but with this team, I am so confident. I made a basket off the Con assist. Brandon continued his hot streak with threes and must have made at least five, and got us the big lead. Con blocked shots, got rebounds, stole passes, intimidated and got the outlet out, just awesome. Offensively he must have had double figures too, he just does it so quietly. With these four guys, we pretty much look way in a different level. All four of them could be players of the week. 7-0 in this league, none of the games with all our guns present at the same time. It would be interesting to see how we would do against some of the premier Asian teams in California. Of course, its the guards that make a big difference and the leagues we are in don't really have great guards. What do you think Brandon? You know the best players. Do you think our team of Billy, Con, Stan, Johnny and you as starters with Keith, Mike, and Kelvin off the bench could play in the best Asian levels of California? |
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Feb 7, 2005. I thought it was going to be an easy game and emailed everyone so. Johnny decided to go ref instead, and at game time we find out Kelvin is not coming. Keith gets stuck in traffic so we play the first ten minutes with four, myself, Brandon, Billy and Howard. I was thinking that it would be ok to lose tonight, and give poor FV1 a win as they are 0-7. FV1 does very well shooting and defending. They have the talent, but they are all kind of selfish. They don't recognize who the hot shooters are and they all insist on taking their share of shots. I am glad I have convinced Howard to see his role as a rebounder and myself as a passer. To win, you really do need role players. But you do need the big men up front first and the talent at guards. Which is why I was confident we would win with Brandon, Keith and Billy, and that would be enough for the night. And I would get to play the whole game. I was tired and slept very well. A nice work out for me. Brandon is stone cold missing his first eight or so shots, and we are down 18-1 when we get Keith in. Then Brandon gets hot and we pretty much catch them by the half. But then we go cold again in the second half and they continue to shoot well, so its back and forth especially the last minutes. Billy was somewhat aggressive but he got sandwiched by Jumbo and Pat a few times, that must have hurt. Pat elbowed me too, but just grazed me. Keith, Billy and Brandon make clutch shots at the end to match theirs and we escape with the three point win. I played poorly, I remember two turnovers. One I drove in and should have shot, but looking for the pass, I force it to Keith but it is intercepted. Another inbounds pass I throw it long and they intercept. I did get some nice assists and rebounds. We just got started kind of feeling pressured and we played that way instead of our usual relaxed game. We could have lost, but we come away with the win and so it was all ok. Brandon says he likes these kind of games, otherwise its too boring for him to keep winning big. Brandon led us with 19, Keith had 16 (14 in the second), and Billy had 13. Final score was 48-45. We are off the next two weeks due to holidays. Perfect timing with the ABA playoffs going on. |
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Mar 7. After a long layoff, we play the New Team. They play well despite the fact that to me they seem like they have never played organized league before. They have no center, maybe one forward and the rest are guard sized, and I really don't see any talent on their team. Though they stayed close, it really wasn't and I never doubted we would win. We don't even need Johnny for this one (he overslept, poor guy is all worn out.) One of their players Billy knows as the guy was at his church for a while. Though only about 5-8, he plays center is he is kind of rough. Gave me a nice hit on my ailing shoulder. Howard said he hit him too. Anyway they kept hitting these tough inside shots. Meanwhile Billy is having a hard time making his shots despite his huge size advantage. But he is still enough and the rest of the guys do fine, so its a win, though I would have sworn we should beat them by 20. I tried to shoot but all I could do was two meaningless freethrows at the end. We win 55-47. That guy complains after the game to the ref that he is horrible (some older vocal Chinese guy- he was ok, the other ref was Joe who Howard thinks is trying to be so unbiased becomes biased against us). So the ref says to him, "I don't know why you would say I'm a horrible ref, I don't say that you are a horrible player." So the guy still says he is horrible and so the ref says, "well, then I think you are a horrible player." and on they went. That kid has a bad attitude, he did the same thing with Paul the following week. The rest of their team are nice kids and accept the lost gracefully. Funny thing is that they really think they can beat us. |
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Mar 7. CEFC is our main competition, they hold 2nd place with a 7-2 record. Somehow they lost to BestFit. We go with zone, starting Billy, Johnny, Brandon, Kelvin, and Keith. Kelvin hits two treys and a free throw to give us our first seven points, while Brandon and Billy miss their shots. But CEFC is having a nice game. Jason steals an inbound pass and picks up another loose ball off an errant dribble and Reuel and Chris look like their old selves and hit their shots, so they race out to a ten point lead. I believe Reuel hit seven treys for the game. I sub for Brandon and Howard for Kel, so Johnny decides to shoot and drains some threes. Billy starts to get mad, so he follows his missed shots and finishes them on the second and third putbacks. But CEFC still leads so midway through the second half we switch to the man. They break us down to draw Billy and then throw to his man, Jason, who hits some nice mid range jump shots. I hate to take out Johnny, but he is the only man I can sub for as everyone else has a six footer to guard, anyway I reason Johnny needs a rest. I go in at the 7:20 mark and play tough D on Reuel, tiring him out a little and taking away his rhythm (I don't think he scored again). We make some headway, but at 4:50, I call Johnny back in, and he takes over. He even rebounds a missed shot and puts it back in. He drives in, he shoots the trey. Poor Alan on CEFC misses two key layups and CEFC lets one get away. They came up empty at the end and we win a game that they seemed to have.. We took their punches early and staggered, but we hung around and showed heart at the end. It was a very entertaining game. We will have to go man on them much quicker next time. Anyway, we are now 10-0, with no one near us. |
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Mar 14. We played CT2 last Monday, predictably a win. Mike emailed me and said he could come, so that was even worse news for CT2. We also come with Billy, Kelvin, Johnny, Keith, Howard and me. Brandon is out nursing injuries (he got hit twice in the ABA game). Brian Joe tells me before the game that I should play the whole game (obviously to lessen the power of my team). We don't play well, having all kinds of turnovers, and Billy missing some easy shots (credit should be given to them for holding Billy and Johnny to a basket each), but at the end pull away. Sorry CT2. You guys are a fine team, but my team is way too much, designed to beat Bestfit and CEFC. There really are two divisions in this league, my team, CEFC, Bestfit and maybe CT1 in one and everyone else in a division way less. Against CT2, I made two layups on long passes. The first one, the guy didn't guard me but I was planning to shoot, so it went in smoothly. The next one, the guy was there, but he stepped on me, so I looked at him and then threw in sort of a hook and everyone kind of laughed. Johnny didn't see any need to shoot, so he just passed and scored only two points, I hope he had fun. Kel showed up at game time, so I asked him to come off the bench, but he did well. Mike was relentless of course. His girlfriend Michelle came from Mt Sac and they had a "date" because she lives in Chino, 30 miles from him. One of the Korean guys from the new team tried to recruit Mike and Billy, which is understandable. These two guys could help any team. |
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March 21. Tonight we played BestFit. and I don't understand why they are 6-5. On one hand I like playing them because they are a good team. On the other hand, I don't like playing them because they are so hotheaded. I am afraid there might be a fight one day. But so far, my guys have stayed cool. Some stuff they get away with on other teams, won't work with my guys, so its a violatile situation. We even joked about it on email the last few days. Tonight, Jason and Billy had a little argument. Billy says that on a rebound he blocked Jason out, so Jason grabbed his hand/arm and tried to push him, so Billy grabbed his hand and pushed him instead. So Jason took offense and pushed Billy. Then Jason started saying stuff, fortunately Billy didn't respond. I did wish that Billy walked away, but anyway it was over and we continued on with the game. Johnny was out with family matters, so we started with me, Brandon, Keith, Mike and Jimmy S (he was there to recruit refs so I asked him to play because Billy and Howard were late, and I don't know why Kel no showed). It was a close game throughout, although they spurted out to a small lead at the beginning of the second half. But we caught up and soon got past them by about four points. Brandon had a great game drilling maybe five treys (two from the baseline on assists from me) and scored about 20 points. Billy did well boarding his misses. Keith got two treys and two fast breaks for ten points. Mike was significant though he missed some shots - he got hit in the eye, I hope he is ok. Howard hit an important deuce on an assist from Billy. I didn't take a shot, but I feel I helped by getting some boards, assists, ball movement and defense. Jimmy was off missing about five shots but did get one important deuce for us.. So I went back in for him with about five minutes to go and a slim lead. Soon I felt we needed to go to the 3-2 D and it worked as they couldn't figure it out and we won the game. They did a pretty good job on our front line, making us miss some shots and "holding" Billy and Mike to about a combined 18 points, but with Brandon and Keith, we have a lot of different ways to score. They relied on their treys and midrange shots but unable to go inside, I would have been very surprised if they had won. But it was close. |
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March 28, 2005. We played CT1 at 7:30. Now these guys have impressed me because they have won and have a good record (8-5). They seem to have done it with a consistent outside shooting percentage. I like David, who is always cheerful and a good attitude, and am glad that he has continued to improve his game and Wilson has also played to his potential after a very rough start. Somehow they have done better with Ryan than CT2. But they still have not been able to get past the best three teams, although they beat FVA. Tonight they are challenged, without Ryan, Wilson and a few other key players. We start with me, Howard, Kel, Keith and Brandon and each of our guys take two shots each and we miss our first eight shots, although I think I don't even touch the ball. But CT1 is no better and its an ugly game, maybe 0-0 after 5 minutes. So I sub out for Billy who had come a minute late and then we click and run out to a 20 point lead. The guys are nice enough to let me shoot and I think I get 11 points, one a pretty nice ten foot underhanded finger roll after a rebound. I miss all my outside shots, one an embarrassing air ball from the base line. They get within four because I miss shots, we are out of synch and not playing defense, but then we hit some shots and get the win. Billy was a little upset at one point because they elbowed him and Brandon was also peeved because this one guy was swinging his arm at his feet on the jumper which was potentially dangerous. The awful start, the missed shots and all the turnovers were upsetting to me and I could not enjoy the game as much as I should have. We don't really want to crush them, since they just have some subs filling in for their regulars, but their play affected our play as well. We seem to always play to the level of the competition, more often than not, just winning by a close margin. |
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April 4, 2005. I was worried because as of sunday nite, we had only three confirmed, me, Brandon and Keith, because of the 6:30 start time. I asked all kinds of people, but no one could help. Then Johnny confirmed Monday morning. So since Mike said he would try to come, I figuered we could start with four until he showed up. But when I got there, David was there and Jimmy Sidarta came although he never answered my email. And Mike was on time, so we had 7 for the nite. FVA was also in trouble, bringing in subs, one of them a not so bad girl. But I think we were having trouble taking them seriously, so we played rather mediocre. Give them credit, FVA played well. Brandon started out hot, but then at the end shot two airballs, probably because he lost intensity and focus. Keith was ok, but continued missing layups from Saturday. David was impressive, with his nice three stroke. With no real competition for him, Johnny just kind of cruised. Mike was good as usual, hitting a key shot at the end when FVA had built momentum and got within four, but had trouble with Mel, confused by Mel's unorthodox non jumping off tempo style. I got a fast break lay up and two free throws. My legs were slightly cramping, a result of this being my sixth game in three days. I kind of wanted to win this game so that Bestfit would end up third and be placed in the other bracket with number two CEFC and then perhaps we wouldn't have to play them again. But whatever. We conclude the regular season 14-0, and I don't see any real obstacle to prevent us from going all the way. But sometimes the best team doesn't win .... |
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April 11, 2005. Our first game of the playoffs was against New Team. Billy was supposed to be there, but somehow was a no show. Kelvin and Howard also no showed. So we had four, Johnny, Brandon, me and Keith. But the other team only had three, so I didn't have to find a fifth. It was a forfeit and we played four on four for fun. Very strange. |
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April 18, 2005. We played CT1, though Ryan is still out with his back injury. Johnny is out in Hawaii. We came with Brandon, Keith, David, Billy, Kel, Howard and me. I would have thought we should have beat them by 20, but they hung tough with us the whole game, playing a slow patient offense, hustling, and shooting very well. We did get up by 11 at one point in the second, but then they clawed back, so that it was a two point game with a minute to go, after we missed two treys. Keith was up and down, getting baskets but also missing many and throwing it away. Brandon also had more turnovers than usual and was off on his trey. But Kel was worse, I think he missed every shot except for a lay up and also had TOs. It was pretty bad, I had to sit those guys out longer than usual. We kept throwing up treys and coming empty, so I went in and put the ball in Billy's hands who had a huge size advantage. If not for David and Billy, we surely would have lost. Toward the end, Brandon started driving and got some clutch buckets and assists. Also in the last minute I put Kel in the low post with Billy and that was better. But anyway, they had the ball with 28 seconds to go, and I called a time out. I told the guys to switch to a man D. It worked as the guy dribbled the ball into Billy's hands. One more game to take the four peat. |
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April 25, 2005. Tonight we played BestFit, who stole the game from CEFC becasue of their speed and hustle, for the Championship. We came with Howard, Billy, Johnny, Brandon, Keith, Kelvin, and me. They were missing Will and Jason. They scored the first four points and Johnny answered with a three point play. But we were behind the early part of the first half. They hustled a lot, getting lots of offensive boards, leading to second shots, doing it the entire game. I started and played two minutes, then banged my knee on someone unneccessarily and never played again. Howard then subbed in and he boarded well, and we scooted out to a nine point lead. But they kept harrassing us, and it got to Howard, getting a technical with the elbow. The guy made one foul shot, and then seconds later a trey, so a 4 point turn around, and our lead down to five. But we got it back to 9 in the second half. Suddenly, Keith went crazy and when he threw a no look over the head pass to where he thought someone was, I had to take him out to calm him down. Be patient, don't press the issue, don't worry about scoring, get the ball to Billy, I told him. Then Brandon had some turnovers from fatigue, so I had to take him out too. I don't have to say anything to him, just gave him about 4-5 minutes to rest. At the 5 minute mark, I got him back in, and us with about a 7 point lead. Then BestFit started pressing, and Johnny was doubled and tripled team and lost the ball twice (like i did five seasons ago). But I wasn't about to take him out, I just yelled out for Brandon to bring the ball down with Johnny close by to pass to, and we were fine. BestFit got as close as three in the closing minutes, but we kept the lead. After their rest, both Keith and Brandon played well, Keith and Brandon both getting some layups and some nice assists, and forsaking the treys. Brandon even had this surprise post up move I never saw before. Finally we won, but it was tough because they just kept hustling, even though we were the superior talent. Johnny and Billy were co-MVPs and the other guys were all solid. Mike Pao on their team carried them, a very nice player, too bad I can't get him to join us. For this time, the best team won. So after losing the championship game for the CAAA and the ABA, I keep the Crosstrainers (the four-peat and 17-0 at that!), and now have the CCBL showdown this coming sunday. Thanks guys for a wonderful season and four straight championships here, hard to believe I could assemble together such a gifted pool of players. We will be off for the summer and I wonder what next season will look like.
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