THE DREAM LEAGUE
Asian American / Open Basketball Leagues
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2008_Spring/Summer AAA-Premier (SF/Redwood City/Oakland) |
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AAA-P Cheep Thoughts from 6/1 | |
| 6/13/2008 4:00PM | |
AAA-P: On a Wed nite makeup on 5/28, Grey Goose used an 18-8 3rd quarter run to cruise past Wrecking Squad, 79-54. Mason Chin posted monster numbers: 13 points, 21 rebounds, and 8 assists. Chris Koo kept the game close for Wreck in the 1st half with 14 points, but scored only 1 point in the 2nd half as his team fell of the proverbial cliff... In the next round on Sunday, Wrecking Squad stayed alive by upsetting the #1-seeded SJ Barons, 59-53, in overtime. Andy Nguy had the go-ahead trey and the SJB failed to score in the extra frame. Once again, Chris Koo was a force in the 1st half, but disappeared in the 2nd. Koo tallied 11 points, but then did not score again until overtime, to finish with 13. Nguy led the way with 26 points. If the scoresheet is correct, it appears that Wrecking Squad only had 4 players, unless the 5th guy had no stats whatsoever. The SJB only had 5 guys, and they must have been thrown off. I've seen this happen before, but credit Wrecking Squad. Maybe they should have gone 4-on-5 all season long. Jack Tran had 27 points, 12 rebounds and Phil Jaw added 18 in defeat. More stats to go around for the smaller rosters!... Lightspeed upset the Viewpoint Veggies, 50-41, in overtime. Lightspeed scored 9-0 in overtime. Monroe Dorris needed the 5th period to finally hit some shots, scoring 5 of those 9 points, but after missing 11 straight shots prior to that. Overall, Dorris shot 4-for-20, but led his team with 12 points. Sean Fong led the Veggies with 13 points and 11 rebounds... The #2 SJ Monstarz only had 3 players show up for the game against Mad Cow. The 4th would have been captain Aaron Katayama, but he reportedly was injured during a tournament earlier in the day... Frosh Tryouts eliminated Bomb Squad, 63-47, with James Aragon leading the way with 15 points, 6 assists. Reggie Bagao had 16 points thru the first 3 quarters for Bomb Squad. He probably ran out of gas by the 4th... Not much should be read into #8 Ocho's "upset" of the previously undefeated #1 Rising Stars. The Stars were without their "star", biggie Sohrab Alem. His importance to the team could not have been more evident in the 61-37 thrashing at the hands of the other surprise big team of the AAA-P, TheOcho. Joe Momand has been there since Day One, but new season acquisitions Qais Hader adds size and Safi Mojadiddi adds a bonafide scoring threat. Mojaddidi is a pretty tallish ballhandler too, making it difficult for AAA-P teams to man up. If I had a crystal ball a few months ago, I definitely would have had more than an inkling to put TheOcho, due to their size, in the AAA-E. But let's not speak too soon. There's plenty of playoffs to be played. Anyhow, Hader tallied 13 points, 8 rebounds and Mojadiddi 23 points, 8 rebounds, 5 assists. Without the inside presence of Alem, the Rising Stars resorted to casting off from downtown and we all know how that turned out. Alex Mao led them with 11 points. For some of TheOcho players, I think the enthusiasm of anticipating a matchup against an undefeated #1, then proceeding to just demolish that team -- and not knowing that a bonafide MVP in Alem was missing since these teams never faced each other -- spilled a little into over-exuberance bordering on unsportsmanlike conduct. Friends, let us be a little respectful of the inevitable losing side of basketball's zero-sum game. We all know how shitty it feels to lose, especially when you're expected to play way better, have a target on your back, and let that target be hit and be hit a lot. When we finally go on the other side and win one like that, let's not let anything else ruin it. Just because you win doesn't mean you should have free license to say or express whatever without the other team seeing it. I don't mean you should hide your true feelings of joy winning the game, but let me put it this way. In the Japanese leagues eons ago, I was a pretty good player myself. Except I was on a not-so-good team. But back in the day, how many good Japanese players were there to go around? I was on one of those teams that wasn't privy to the good available Japanese (or Chinese) stock. Anyways, to make a long story short, we always lost to this one team (that now has morphed into a present team in the NL) by like 20 points. They would always be laughing by the time there were about 5 minutes left, up 20, joking around, daring their sorry bench players to shoot 25-footers. You know what? That shit pissed me off. I mean, here you are killing my team, even though I personally can beat all of you in five separate 1-on-1 matchups. They didn't even know they were kicking me when I was down, that's the sad part. But then again, I let it go, never spilling it over into something else. I just wish they realized what they were doing. Now, if one of my teams is up by 20-30, I try not to get it to a point where my teammates are laughing and joking around. I'm not saying TheOcho was laughing and joking around -- they weren't. I'm just saying what I saw and heard could be ALMOST put in the same category. I just think we should be old-school on that and not make other people feel slighted. You know, be considerate. All in all, I'm just glad it didn't really boil over in the TheOcho/Stars matchup and, in fact, both captains were very sportsmanlike in the end and tried to clear the air. I just got a little worried at some point where things were headed and some of the off comments I overheard. Commishes just want everybody to be happy, win and/or lose, even though that's sometimes hard to do or next to impossible, that's all. I'd like to see teams win with 100% class -- I didn't like what the Pistons did to the MJ Chicago Bulls, see. But I do realize people are people. Btw, TheOcho is now the team to beat. Their Big Three is just too AAA-Elite- or even AL-caliber, so to speak. In my opinion they will win the AAA-P Upper division unless they somehow blow it or some other team comes out of nowhere and just plays unbelievable (the Rising Stars could do this if they get Alem back and regroup, but I still think TheOcho is a notch better than the Rising Stars at this point late in the season). The SJ Monstarz are the other strong team, due to size, but they are having roster issues... Visual Basic edged the Multiple Scoregasms, 43-42, with Quoc Huynh getting the deciding bucket. Huynh tallied 15 points, 9 rebounds, 3 steals, and 6 turnovers. I wish I could've seen this game because Visual Basic must've been undersized compared to the big frontcourt for the ScoreGasms, which had Lawrence Lewis with 15-and-15 and George Morris with 8 points, 15 rebounds, and 6 swats. Point-shooter Joel Rubin went just 2-for-15, so that sort of tells the story, but from the scoresheet alone, it's really hard to picture how Huynh and Visual Basic pulled this one off with such a rebounding disparity. Huynh's 9 rebounds led his team and big man (although he would have been dwarfed) Dai Nguyen and sparkplug Denzie Batulan don't have any stats that jump out at me... Bomb Squad eliminated Hibachi, 56-36. Reggie Bagao led the way with 17 points and 5 assists. It's a disappointing exit for the big Hibachi, but I imagine Yao Ming look-alike James Bogan must have had his hands full with Bomb's big, Mike Singh. Singh managed 12 points, 10 boards, 2 blocks to Bogan's 7 points, 17 rebounds, 4 blocks... Grey Goose continued to move forward in the brackets with a 63-50 defeat of City Select. Grey Goose took a 37-45 deficit into the final frame, then rattled off a 26-5 fourth quarter to seal the deal, as City Select combined to go just 2-for-18 to close it out. Pretty much everyone on Grey Goose shared in the 4th quarter blitz, except curiously for Sherman Lee, who helped bouy Grey Goose in the first 3 quarters with all 17 of his points to lead his team in scoring. Mason Chin added 12-and-8 (rebounding totals seem sparse, however). A.Simonson led City Select with 14... Richmond Wolfpack routed and eliminated Team Dynasty, 53-35. Team Dynasty was without all-star Francis Diaz, who had a scheduling conflict with AL-P Jumpmen, who were unwilling to change their time and face the prospects of not having Diaz, because of a potential championship in another league the following week. This is where I'm a little befuddled. Team Dynasty had already entered the Losers Bracket, yet Jumpmen hadn't even started their playoffs and were facing a lower-seeded team in the opening round. To top it all off, Jumpmen has plenty of players on their roster. So I have no idea why Diaz did not choose to play with Team Dynasty. Anyhow, Jeremy Kavasavong led the Wolfpack with 16 points. Anthony Santos led Dynasty with 12... Earlier in the day, the Wolfpack knocked out BTR, 50-42. Daniel Flores led the way with 12 of his 14 points in the 2nd half. He also collected 8 rebounds and 3 blocks. Kevin Wong led BTR again with 13 points, but the team got off on the wrong foot, getting outscored 15-3 in the 1st quarter... The TL Bombers sent the Elephants to the Losers Bracket with a 57-47 win. Matt Dang scored 12 of his 24 points in the pivotal 4th quarter. Kerwin Uy added 14. Boun Khamnouane led the Elephants with 15, all on treys. The Elephants were without star point playmaker Mike Hoang. Power forward Mike Huang pulled down 12 rebounds in defeat, besting TLB center Steve Chow's uneventful 2-point, 6 rebound output... The Bulldogs sent the Warriors to the Losers Bracket with a 52-50 squeaker. Henry Chhiv had the deciding bucket. Chhiv collected 31 points on 11-for-18 from the floor. Brent Natsume led the Warriors with 20, but went scoreless in the 3rd when the Bulldogs went on a 16-4 run to turn a 24-30 halftime deficit into a 40-34 lead at the end of three. The Warriors' big man Jon G. Lee was held scoreless in the 2nd half and finished with just 8 points on 4-for-9, with just 7 rebounds. Bulldogs power man Tony Tran did the dirty work on Lee with 10 rebounds as the bigs cancelled each other out down low, with Tran scoring just 2 points. |