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Link To Our First ABA Season, Sept-Nov 2004 |
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Link Back To Home Page |
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Link To ABA League |
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Points - For entertainment. Our team is about teamwork, not individualism.
Name Average Pts Game 5 Game 4 Game 3 Game 2 Game 1
Jimmy 1.8 2 2 0 1 4
Brandon 12 7 18 14 13 8
Stanley 13.8 17 7 14 12 19
Jason 7 2 dnp 9 15 2
Kelvin 11.2 2 23 6 dnp 14
Keith 13.2 16 24 3 dnp 10
Mike 6.2 4 6 9 6 dnp
Billy 10.5 13 8 dnp dnp dnp
Jeff 5 5
Johnny
Con
Ed
Team 63.2 68 90 55 46 57
Opponent 49.6 45 60 49 40 54
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ABA Season 2: Nov - Jan 2004
This season, the ABA placed us in the East Division. That is great because the tougher teams are out West, including the Appetizers, Old Timers, The Show and Green Light. Regular season, we should go 7-1 at worse, as long as we have our team intact, and we don't see those teams until the playoff championship game. But who knows if the ABA won't schedule them for us. The Appetizers and Old Timers played each other on Saturday, so its possible we could see them. I have also tried to improve our team in some areas we lacked, so hopefully, we will do even better this season.
Our first game this season was against Scoregasm at Fullerton JC North gym, Nov 14, 2004. We were favored by eight and one of the featured teams on the web site. Too bad they wanted to play Saturdays again, because they have to face us and we have their number. Stanley always plays well against them. We came with Stanley, Keith, Jason, Brandon, Kelvin, Jeff and me. We got out to a quick lead and pretty much held a six point lead throughout the game. We played them twice last season without Brandon and beat them, so since I knew we had Brandon this time, the win was in the bag. Everyone had a decent game, except Jason missed a few lay ups, still nervous I guess. To calm him down, I didn't yell much. Jason did have a nifty steal when a guy rebounded one of our missed shots. Jason just took the ball out of his hands and converted a three foot bank shot. Kelvin shot well, making three treys. Keith had a few turnovers, and overall played well, but hurt his ankle in the last minute. I made a two footer off a Kelvin missed layup and also converted two free throws near the end. Brandon made the game interesting by missing three out of four freethrows at the end, and Stanley also made one out of two at the end. So the final score was closer than it should have been, 57-54. I need to remind the guys to give the ball to Kelvin when they start fouling for free throws. Brandon scored 8 (one trey), Kelvin 14, Keith 10, Stanley 19, and Jason 2. The stats the league put up are wrong, because I looked at the guy keeping stats and he had nothing down, just our points (and even that is suspect). There were no stats available for Scoregasm. John, their best player, said at game end, that he was tired of losing to us. Preseason we were ranked 3 in the Eastern Divsion, behind number one Highsmen and number two Showtime. Because the other teams scored more than us, we are now number 7. The league is a little disorganized right now because of lack of teams/new teams coming in, so we still don't know our schedule yet for next week.
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The league has reorganized into three divisions, ABC. They have placed Walnut in the Intermediate Divsion. For me this is bitter sweet. On one hand I am happy because this means we have a great chance to win our division, get T shirts and a free pass into next season. On the other hand, I am sad not to have the chance to show we can beat the tougher teams. But I think I will take the money. There are maybe two or three teams that might beat us, but I definitely feel we should win it all. The league is doing the right thing to divide it up, because the weaker teams would have eventually left the league after one or two seasons. In fact, I was thinking if we didn't win it this time, I would quit as well, as it is just so costly. The league should experience growth from this move. This week we play a new team called DBM Realty. They beat Fourth World last week 55-35. They were led by 25 yo 5-8 Tsippy Estoys with 19 points (1 trey) and 26 yo 5-8 Jerome Basal with 10 points. We are the top featured game and despite being ranked number one in our division, they are favored by one point with 98 points total. |
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Nov 20, 2004. We won our game tonight but not without stress on me. First of all, Stan never responded to my email. Then Jeff calls me today to tell me he can't come because he is taking his parents to the Billy Graham crusade. So that leaves us with only four confirmed: Jason, Brandon, myself and our new player Mike. So I get to church early and start making calls to confirm everyone and try to find a 5th. I call Keith but no answer. I call Johnny but he can't make it because he pinched a nerve today. I call Stan but only get his answering service. I call Kelvin but no answer. But happily, Stan later returns my call and says he is coming, so I think to myself now we should win. Just in case, I decide to go early to our game to find Kelvin to see if I can get him to stay. But he can't as he has a birthday party to go to for Howard. I keep looking for the guys outside, but at 7:00, only Jason and me are there. Damien tells me that he thinks the team will beat us and I agree to be polite. The refs start the clock and announce the other team gets one point for every minute we are late. Brandon walks in at 7:01. I go out and look for Stan and happily he has arrived with his girlfriend. The game starts four minutes late so we are down 4-0 at the get go. Stan throws up a couple of air balls to begin, but I soon figure out these guys are not good and not very athletic. We do ok with four guys for a few minutes and soon Mike shows up with his girlfiriend Michele? Mike throws up a air ball on his first possession and I am thinking if he is good or not. I think the first quarter is 13-11 in our lead? I was able to get a couple of rebounds and I remember one assist to Brandon for a trey at the baseline. Soon they switch to man to man, and our guys want to shoot, so I don't do too much for the rest of game, except play D. By half time we are up 20-14. I find out Mike is indeed good, he ends the half with a reverse lay up, and gets fouled, very nice. He had a couple of nice blocks too, something we need. Jason starts out a little shaky, misses his first couple of shots but soon settles down and starts doing what I brought him in for, to give us easy lay ups. Brandon gets him some nice passes for lay ups and Jason makes some foul shots too. Still has some turn overs, and I think I can correct that, but overall a good game for him. I had zero turn overs and even made a foul shot, 1/2, when we are up and they are just fouling us at the end of the game. This team is the perfect team to play if we are only coming with five. Even I can play them. They have two plays, either they drive and pass to their big center or they spot up for three point set shots, pretty easy to guard. No jump shots. Brandon was good, but gave this guy a four point play toward the end when we were up by about a dozen, with a minute to go. Jason dribbles into a double team and throws the ball away. Then Stan fouls this guy by almost running into him. I am wondering why we are doing this when the game is over? But anyway we are up by nine with about thirty seconds to go and I tell the guys not to foul anymore and just let them shoot and don't get hurt. Game is over. But I come home exhausted mentally and physically. But I am happy that Mike will definitely be a huge plus, Jason had a good game, and we still have Brandon and Stan. We are looking good to win this thing. At the end of the night, I ask Damien why he switched up the league and he said to give teams like us who are here just for recreation a chance to win and not have to play the tougher teams. Brandon is a little perturbed and I tell him its because we lost to the Appetizers (and Green Light) by so much, but I figure we will have to prove ourselves to the ABA. For now, I think I will just enjoy these easy wins. Brandon scored 13 with one trey and 6 freethows, Mike had six with two free throws, Stanley had 12 with one trey and 3/7 freethows and Jason was team high with 15 points and 3/6 freethrows. Only two treys for us, pretty bad. DBM was led by their 6-3 center with only 10 points and Aldon J with 9 points on all their treys. Final score 46-40. |
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The ABA is still organizing. The three division organization is set but they have moved some of the teams around. There were a some teams they had listed originally that seem to have dropped out. Div 1 has twelve teams. Our Div 2 has 18 teams. And the Rec division has 12 teams. Under the future odds, Walnut is listed as the favorite with 7-2 odds of taking it all. Freestyle is next at 9-2, then Cool Runnings at 3-1, Slow Ride at 5-1, Metro Pop at 7-1, the Dons at 8-1, Scrubs 9-1, and DBM completes the top 8 at 10-1. Right now, due to our low scoring wins we are ranked #6. Metro Pop and Slow Ride are tied at the #1 spots due to their scoring of 132 points for two games. In div 1, Old Timers and the Show are listed as the favorites with 7-2 odds to win it all. Appetizers are #5 with 8-1 odds, becasue they already have lost to those two top teams. In the rec division, the Clippers and Bizarre Ride are top with 2-1 odds. So now the ABA is showing us some respect, at least in our division, and to be frank, we really should win it all. When Johnny and Con join us in the playoffs, I will be suprised if anyone stays within ten points of us. My only problem will be finding enough time for everyone if everyone shows. I am so looking forward to the playoffs, I can't wait. To get the teamwork right, I will try to get the guys together for some games at the CrossTrainers league. |
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Nov 11, 2004, game three. Today we played 2-0 Freestyle, our probable foe for the future championship game. We had a little problem in that the league switched the time to 2:00. I had Billy and Johnny confirmed at 6:00. But I wasn't able to tell Billy about the time change and Johnny had an Imperials Tournament game at 2:00. I was able to confirm Stan, Brandon, Jason, Keith, Kelvin and myself. Mike showed up at the gym, so I felt we should win. We were on fire the first quarter leading something like 18-5. Kel got us started with a quick trey. They seemed to have some trouble getting used to the small gym size. Jason hit some nice shots including a nice put back on a missed shot. We were leading by maybe 15 when Mike got a third foul and I had to take him out with 7-8 minutes to go in the 2nd quarter. Then things went bad. The refs started calling fouls on us and we went cold. They got to within four at the half, something like 28-24. The second half we would up the lead a little and then they would inch back, but never past the four point margin. They hit some big threes and did a good job with their charity freethrows from the refs. The refs still had some strange calls, like when they called us on three charges when we were going on fast breaks. Charges are usually a judgment call and its usually 50-50 so I was quite unhappy we got three charges and they were not called once or twice for the block and foul. But at least they also called fouls on them too, so both teams were in double bonus pretty quick. We all felt the refs let them back into the game. We had nice D, and stole a ton of balls, probably our most ever (they said we had 8), especially with Brandon at the forward spot (he had 4). I really like him down there, and Keith and Jason up top. Freestyle is very physical but we beat them with our skill. I felt they did some extra curriculars that were uncalled for. Why don't they just play basketball and show some class? While we won't respond with dirty play, I think another team might, so I hope those guys will just play more friendly. Brandon said Mike got socked twice in the face, and to Mike's credit, he kept his cool and played well. Mike was key for us, getting boards, blocking shots, and making points, giving us an inside game. Brandon hit the freethrows at the end, and stole their last pass. I really don't want to play them again, even though I think we would still beat them. They like man to man, and our guys don't screen a whole lot, often going one on one. Stan got a little tired and I wish I could have given him some rest, but I just couldn't. To show how physical they were, even Stanley got called for a double T when one of their guys (#3) elbowed him. They only have a couple of bigger guys, so we can post them all day on the man D. Our best play would be to keep Stan outside, to attract their big man, and then post up Mike and Billy on either side and pound it inside. I don't like the gym, too small. Ok, big test for us today and we did it without a full team. We beat them and the refs. We are for real. Even the scorekeeper was impressed and I guess he plays Sundays, because he said he wanted us to give them competition. I thought everyone played well. I didn't play, and just enjoyed coaching. I tried to calm the guys down to not let the physical play and bad reffing steal our game. The league says that Mike scored 9 with two blocks, Brandon scored 14 with two treys, Kelvin scored 6 with one trey, Keith scored 3, Stanley scored 14 with one trey and one block, and Jason scored 9. Freestyle was led by Steve Watts with 20 and one trey and 10 blocks (?), Elmer Lauron with 13 and one trey, Ron Ninofranco with 7, H Williams with 6 and R Ocampo with 3. They hit 9/13 at the charity and had two treys. We had 13/24 from the line (many fouls were at the end when they were trying to catch up) and four treys. Final score 55-49. Maybe the refs called fouls on us because they called so many fouls on them. They were cussing really loud. Some leagues have rules against profanity, but not the ABA. I guess its just as well they call lots of fouls, otherwise the physical play of Freestyle would even be worse. With our third win, we are the only 3-0 team in Division 2, so we are the number one ranked team now. Looking at Div 2, it appears that the best team there is Mike's other team, Team Ratz, who are the only other undefeated team at 2-0 also high scoring with 131 points (we have 158 with three games). They look pretty good and might be able to beat us. We will see how they do against a good team this week, as they play the 2-1 Highsmen, who are ranked number 2. We won't see either of these teams until the playoffs since they are on the sunday teams. |
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Dec 18, 2004. Our fourth game today was against 4th World, a new team with a 2-1 record, having beaten Aames and given a forfeit win against SloPo, but lost to DBM by 20, so I figured they were not that good. I was right as even the refs thought they were a Div 3 team. A little drama, as at game time only Brandon, Keith and myself were there. In fact, I thought I would be late as well. So we lost 4:35 off the clock and the game started with them 4-0. I knew Billy was coming, but I didn't know if Kelvin, Stan or Mike would. Finally Mike and Billy arrived almost at the same time and we started the game. Brandon was hot and made his first shot, a trey. Very quickly we were up 7-4, and I finally noticed they only had four players. And then their fifth player showed up, but it made no difference, the blow out was on. When the first quarter nearly ended, I saw that Kelvin and Stan had arrived. By half time we were up by 20, something like 38-18. They had no height, and could not go inside because Mike was blocking their shots. Billy and Mike owned the boards, so the guards just ran out as soon as they took a shot. We must have gotten 15 transition baskets at least. On top of that, they had no dribblers and if we wanted to, we could have pressed them and easily scored a 100. They were lucky that they hit their outside shots, so we just won by 30 instead of 50. Final score was something like 88-58. I took about three shots and made one, a one foot bank shot. This was the first game with Billy, Mike, Stan, Brandon, Kel, and Keith together and the results were scarry. The ref said we had five division one players, and he is right. We are way too good with this group. Our next four games will probably be blowouts as well, and we won't meet any real competition til the playoffs. There are only four or five other teams in Div 2 that are any good. Maybe I will ask the ABA to schedule games with them because otherwise it will too easy. The ABA says Brandon scored 18 with 4 treys, Kelvin 23 with three treys and one block, Keith 24 with two treys and 0/1 freethrows, Mike 6 with one trey and four blocks and 1/2 at the line, Stan 7 with one trey, Billy 8, and me with 4 (I think I only scored 2). 4th World scoring: Brian Miyamoto 21 with three treys, Marc Eguchi 13 with one trey, Ian Carandand 11, Peter Aquino 10 with one trey, and Tony Estrada 5 with one trey. We made 11 treys to their 6, and shot 1/3 at the charity line to their 4/5. |
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Jan 8, 2004, Brea Center. Although we were not the top featured game is our division, we were mentioned. This is what the ABA said. "Team Walnut has been successful in putting points on teh board this season with an average of 62.0 ppg behind the shooting of Brandon Kwok averaging 16.0 ppg. Fellow teammates Kelvin Zee and Keith Luong have also been impressive averaging 14.5 ppg. In addition, Mike Park has dominated the boards averaging 20-rebounds in the last two games. Two weeks ago, team Walnut scored a franchise high scoring 90 points as they stomped 4th World by 30 points. Keith Luong earned MVP honors with 24 points. Team Walnut has yet to show any weakness in their game or team chemistry. They currently hold best record in the Atlantic at 4-0 with 248 points. This week Team Walnut seeks its 5th straight win at the expense of Hoona Hoona. Both teams come into the game led their superstars in their respective conferences. Team Walnut however simply has too much talent from top to bottom for Hoona Hoona to handle and should be able to cruise on their fifth straight win of the season." The ABA was right. It was no contest. The bottom line was they were too short. Knowing this and seeing how they scored so many treys, I elected to go with a 3-2 defense: starting Billy and Stan low, with Kelvin, Keith and Brandon on top. They scored first, but soon it was something like 26-6. Keith was on fire. To beat us, they would have to go inside, but they were totally rebuffed by our big guys. They also needed to stop our scoring, but they could not. Another laugher for us. Any one of our guys could be the star of a team, but I am happy to say they are unselfish and always play team. I am even starting to get used to the Brea Center. I played 2-3 minutes at the end of the first half, and about five minutes at the end of the game. I remember one assist to Jeff and I got a nice assist from Billy for my 2 point layup. One of the Hoona guys was a little mean, he just came down there and shoved me at the three line for no reason. So I just stayed away from him and let him shoot. Brandon said they did the same thing to him. At the end of the game, only two of them would shake our hands. Stats according to ABA: Brandon 7 with one trey, Kelvin 2 (I didn't play him much), Keith 16 with 4 treys, Mike 4, Stan 17 with one trey (I didn't know he scored so much), Billy 13, Jeff 5, Jason 2 and me 2. Hoona stats were Hoon Lee 12, Jung Lee 0, Edwin Chin 6 with 2 treys, Tim Hong 8, David Ha 19 with one trey. So we had 7 treys to their three. Final score 68-45. |
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Jan 15, 2004. Today we played Kelvin's team, Aames. Brandon was out with his NAU game, so I decided to start in his place. Since I felt we were more athletic, I started the game with man to man D. But it didn't work, they kept getting open, and on offense we had lots of turnovers and missed shots. We got a early lead, but it was modest, and I felt it should have been more. So we went back to zone very quickly. At the half we were up by 12 but at the buzzer, Kelvin made a hail mary to get the score under double digits. In the second half we quickly shot up the lead to twenty and by the fourth quarter, Kelvin gave up and just asked us to let them shoot. So I said ok, but somehow the wide open game resulted in us scoring even more and them even less. Since we were just fooling around, the ref called the game with a minute and a half to go, but Kelvin protested so they restarted the game. And in the last minute, they kept throwing the ball away while we scored more. I scored at least six points, one layup off a steal from a guy dribbling, a ten foot set shoot off a nice pass from Keith?, and a rebound shot. I may have had one more basket, but I can't recall. I played about ten minutes per half. Keith was on fire again making threes. Billy and Mike were dominant, picking up second shots and controlling the lanes. Stan started out ok, but then somehow got lost. He told me that the gym seems too small and the spacing is not right, he doesn't know what to do with the ball. I got to figure out how to get him back into the game, we will need him to go all the way. After our game, I spoke to Damian and he said he might be able to schedule us a division one game as I requested. With our team, these saturday teams just are too easy so I have asked for more competition plus this will help me decide if we should take the plunge to Div I. We won 81-47, but the ABA still has not published the individual scoring for Div 2 and 3. |
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Jan 22, 2005. We lost. First of all we only had four guys. Secondly, we had to play the Freestyle team. Its so unbelievable that after three straight games with Billy, Stan and Mike against these weak teams that none of them show up against a good team.. The ABA had originally scheduled us to play Old School (Damian's fill in team), but then changed us to them this afternoon. Just like when we lost to the Appetizers last season, we faced a good team without our guns. Fortunately, Con was able to come, but unfortunately, no one else could. Jeff is in China, Stan got sick, Kelvin in Vegas, Brandon on a wedding, Billy at a Birthday. Johnny couldn't make it and Mike never replied, even after two emails. So all we had was Keith, Jason, me and Con. We had so many turnovers, leading to many layups for them. They also shot well from the three. I am not happy about the turnovers, I don't mind losing but to lose like that is distasteful. Jason would dribble it down, and all of a sudden the ball would go the other way. I am not going to let him play point ever again. He and Keith kept taking it one on one, and would not let me bring it down or even pass much. Kept rushing shots. I guess they felt we had to score, and giving it me was of course not a way to do that. But they don't understand that I will give it back to them for a better shot. They don't screen for each other either, a necessity for man to man D. Couldn't say much since we only had four players and were outnumbered. I really wanted to yell, but since we were going to lose, I thought we may as well lose with style and not argue among ourselves. We missed lots of freethrows too. For every good play we had, we had two bad plays. Refs were terrible, as usual. Keith said afterward that he did not want to play in this league anymore because of how bad they are. But because our team is so dominant, the refs have always been a nonfactor for us. Freestyle is so physical, especially OCampo, #34, (he almost got into a fight in the next game) and they all cuss so much. I scored one freethrow after OCampo hit me. He had been bumping me the whole game, so I knew if I dribbled he would try the steal but of course instead just hit me since he is not quick enough. Steve, their best player is actually ok, and like Keith says, if you are good, you don't need to play dirty. One layup that Jason had, he was undercut, those guys don't care if we get hurt or not. I feel terrible that Con made the trip to have to play a game like that, where he was totally outnumbered below. Well, I think now it would be safer for me to stay in Div 2 and hope the Freestyle team goes to Div 1. It was an eight point game in the fourth quarter, but we ended up losing by 20 plus. We are now 6-1, so I guess we will enter the playoffs in two weeks seeded number two or three. The bad thing is that we will have to play that dirty team again. I don't think there is any team that likes playing them. We lost 62-47. |
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Jan 29, 2005. We were scheduled to play at 7:00 but I asked for a change so that we could get Brandon as he was supposed to play at 6:00 in his NAU game. Then his NAU league switched to Sundays for a while. I was toying with the idea of asking for a rematch with Freestyle, since we could field our regular team. But with Stan not confirming, and Brandon possibly coming late, I decided to hold off. Kelvin's Aames team was scheduled to play them and as it turned out, our team did kind of play them. Kelvin asked Billy, Stan and Brandon to play for his team at 7:00 against them, and they beat Freestyle. Aames was actually losing at the half and down by ten early third quarter, but all of a sudden went on a 17-0 run to take the lead for good. Just like Freestyle, one of their guards tried to get into a fight with Billy, who stayed cool. So Aames beat them by three., 50-47. But poor Brandon got beat up, getting socked in the groin and clawed at the neck. Anyway, Billy, Stan and Brandon were tired for our game, but it didn't matter, I knew we would beat them. Scoregasm actually stayed close for three quarters, but then Brandon caught fire and threw in something like eight threes and Stan added three more, and the blowout was on. Brandon has been in the zone with his threes this last month, I hope it carries on. He is way out there in NBA three land, just swishing them. Jason and I just ran around and I managed to get eight points. I even scored the first two points of the game on the jump tip from Stan. Kelvin stayed for a quarter and then left so the five of us finished the game. The ABA has been very bad at publishing the individual scores these last three games, so I don't know where we stand for the playoffs. We might be number one, because with Mike gone off to Chicago, his Ratz team also lost last week, and might do so again, and they are the only other team that have a chance to be seeded ahead of us due to their high scoring. I think the score was something around 75-55. I usually don't like beating teams this badly, but we had to score a lot so that we could insure the number one seed. That is one bad thing about this league as it can embarras teams. |
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| Feb 11, 2004. The ABA has been bad about publishing our game results, so I finally have something to write about now. They called a bye for last week due to superbowl, kind of las minute. Messed up my plans as I had canceled my CCBL game. Anyway, Walnut ended up being seeded number one with a 7-1 record. Freestyle ended up seed two with a 6-2 record (total points of 494 and 61.7 APG). But really Team Ratz should have been the number two, but for some reason they only played 7 games so had a 6-1 record (446 total points and 63.7 APG) and ended up being number 4. They lost to the Scrubs in game six 43-41 when Mike was away in Chicago. I was hoping for these two teams to be 2-3 so that they would be in the other bracket and play each other. So as it turns out we will probably have to go through both of them in our quest to win it all. Team Ratz with Mike poses the main problem. But if we play our game and don't go cold on threes, we should do it. You can see the playoff matchups for the whole league at my link here: ABA Playoffs Feb 2005. The league was driving me crazy by not announcing our game time and changed things a few times. I finally had to write a nasty email to them and then Damien called and asked me what time I wanted to play Sunday, so we were able to get the earliest game possible Sunday which works better for me and I knew Brandon had a nite game with NAU. We play this Sunday and if we win then next Saturday. I am trying to get all the guns there. I don't see any problem with the first round match up against the 4-4 Beavers. They don't look particularly tall, nor do they seem to have any superstars. But I do hope Con and Johnny can come, as insurance for an easy win. |
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Feb 13, 2005. We beat the Beavers 75-48. Those poor guys really didn't have anything except for this one white fellow who made five threes. They were nice guys and took their beating like men. Billy was the MVP and took them apart inside and scored 20 points. Keith was on and also had 20, a few treys and more fast breaks. Brandon had a good game, a couple of nice treys and some nice drives, and went for 13, all in three quarters as he left before the fourth quarter to his NAU game. It was pretty much over by then, we were already up by 30. Johnny and Brandon got us up with a bunch of threes and then Billy took over. We were up 22-12 after the first quarter, 42-18 at the half, and maybe 54-29 at the end of the 3rd. The nicest part for me was having Johnny show up. He scored 8 points on a couple of treys, but the big thing was that the Beavers could not stop him from running the show. Johnny has no fear about them pressing or playing man. His dribbling and passing are amazing. He made the game so easy. The worse thing was having Stan injuring his ankle in the early fourth quarter. I hope he is well by next week. Kelvin had an off game, maybe 4 points, but I didn't play him a whole lot, as I didn't want to tire him up before his 7:30 playoff game with his Aames team. Jeff was good as a sub, with a deuce on a hustling offensive rebound. Jason and I got to play too, but we didn't score. One of their guys stripped me on the dribble. I have to remember to take the guys out once the game is over, so that we don't risk these injuries. Next week we play the Ratz, the only team I think that has a chance against us. But I'm pretty sure Con and Johnny are coming, so I am pretty confident. Its great watching our team, we are really good. I have never seen the Ratz, but based on their record and scores, they look extremely good. Correctly, they are going to Div 1 next season. The ABA however is calling us two point favorites with a total score of 125. |
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Feb 19, 2005. The agony of loss. We got whipped by a very skilled and efficient team that played like a team. We had the better individual players, but their blue collar work won. They hustled. And boy, did they shoot well. They had two guys that were pretty athletic, #5 and #23. And Noun just shot set shoots from way out, scoring 18 on six threes. Mike did the job defending their inside and getting the rebounds. Their Mexican fellow was also solid. They played with six players, and four of them were in double figures with Mike scoring two. We didn't get very many second shots. Offensively, we were ok, but we couldn't stop them. Their great outside shooting and passing kept us off balance. We would chase out at them and they would drive in, we would collapse and they would kick it out and connect. Just like that team "The Show" last season. And they even made the driving layups. They had a lot of balls bounce their way and the refs made some calls for them. Johnny stepped in from out of bounds to pick up the ball and the ref said you can't do that. That of course is bogus. Brandon got low bridged on a lay up and at the very least that should have been a foul if not a technical. And we had some missed layups, bad passes, turnovers, and shots that just didn't fall in. We were up after the first quarter and second quarter (by as much as 10), caught in the third and beat in the fourth. We seemed to be in control most of the game and suddenly they got ahead by 10 in the fourth, didn't even have time to switch the D to man, which if we play them again, I think I would do. I am sure Brandon had 10, Con had 10, Stan had 3 (slowed by ankle injury), and I think Johnny had 13, Billy 11, Keith had 7, Kelvin had 7. Jeff, Jason and I did not play. I thought we were ok, they just had the ball bounce their way. Final score was 71-62. The Ratz went on to beat Freestyle 62-50 for the championship. They were nice guys, played well, made their shots, and deserved the win. Division 2 looks stronger next season, so we lost a golden opportunity, but as long as our team stays intact, we will have the opportunity again. Next week begins a new season. One thing I hope is that the league gets better organized. To replace two of their refs would be even better. |
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