THE DREAM LEAGUE
Asian American / Open Basketball Leagues
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A ball 55, Y Tu Mama Tambien 50 |
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Deja Vu Dooms Yu Tu Mama |
| History is repeating itself for YTMT. Take a look. Last season, YTMT started off the season looking like world beaters at 5-0. Then, somewhere along the line, somehow, injuries set in and to further compound matters, the team started to implode mentally as players were either tardy to games, failed to show up at all, or couldn't maintain their cohesiveness as a unit and began to bicker at each other while pointing fingers.
The traveling circus roadshow is back in full effect this season and the LA Lakers of yesteryear have nothing on them. Shaq, Kobe, with all due respect, your feud with each other has been kiddy play compared to this. Just two big kids with all the money and time in the world on your hands. YTMT's troubles are the real kind. Players have real jobs to work at. Is this what I want to do for the rest of my life? Bills to pay. I gotta set aside this much of my paycheck before I can go to the noherbang this weekend. Girls to court. Will I ever get married? Add to this the tumultuous state that the franchise is suddenly in again, and you have fodder for water cooler gossip that will last way beyond one even remembering what Shaq looks like in Laker gear. YTMT had been cruising along prior to yesterday's game against A ball. They had a 4-0 record. Their lineup was looking impressive with basically the same unit with the addition of shooting guard Dave Wong out of Las Vegas, whom they picked up during the off season. And the motor that makes their car go - their backcourt of Dave Scott and Young Yu - who are at the peak of their careers - were looking sharp and saucy. Rewind While it took 6 games last season before the wheels started to come off, it only took 5 this time around. Whether or not the end result will be the same remains to be seen, but if YTMT's season spirals from here, mark down yesterday as the beginning. The injury bug has bitten the team again. Wong suffered a hip flexor during the week and was out of yesterday's action. Scott has a sprained wrist he suffered last week and is out indefinitely. Without these two yesterday, the backcourt duties laid soley on Yu and Eric Wu's shoulders against the hungry A ballers who were looking to exact a little revenge. They had lost in these two team's matchup earlier in the season by 10, 50-40. The injuries should have been an early warning sign of impending danger because as it stood, Wu didn't arrive to the arena until the first period was nearly over. This meant that YTMT played the first quarter with just 4 players to A ball's 5. Though this was the case, YTMT stayed close as Yu scored 7 points in the period. A ball took advantage of the extra man, by dumping the ball inside a lot to 6'3" Brandon Song who scored 10 points in the opening quarter to lead his team to a 16-12 advantage. Wu finally arrived to the game and was just about to enter the game to give YTMT the full complement of 5 players, as most teams are responsible enough to do, when Yu complained to official Joseph Thompson about a non-call on a shot he felt he was hacked on. Thompson didn't like what he heard and T'd Yu up. In a fit of rage, Yu lashed back at Thompson and without hesitation, got his second T and automatic ejection from the game. Players stood in bewilderment as they realized YTMT was finally just about to get 5 players together on the court only to see it slip away. Absolutely unreal. It was basically a WuYu flip flop. Without a choice, YTMT continued on and played the remainder of the game with 4 and nearly was able to pull it out, but not suprisingly, ran out of gas towards the end and suffered its first defeat of the season 55-50. They fell to 4-1 while A ball moved up to 3-2. A ball Capitalizes During the 2nd and 3rd periods, despite the player disadvantage, YTMT played tough, managing to outscore A ball 13-8 and 17-13 in those quarters, respectively. YTMT used an aggressive 3-1 zone matchup to confuse A ball and limit their looks at the basket during the 2nd. Meanwhile, Paul Kim scored 8 points and played a little bit of everything including point to keep YTMT in the lead. The team held a 10 point lead halfway into the 3rd quarter after PK found Brian Yang (16 points, 13 rebounds) underneath for a basket and the foul. The team was charged and seemingly ready to pull out the unlikely, however, there was too much time remaining in the game. A ball woke up and charged back, realizing that they had to play with the man advantage by swinging the ball around quickly to the open man for either the open jump shot or the easy basket underneath. Song found two easy baskets inside a couple of times in the 3rd and A ballers started hitting wide open jump shots that YTMT could do nothing to contain. Towards the end of the 3rd, after Joe Hwang hit a jumper, Song got one of his buckets, Jabin Kim hit a nice drive lay-in, and Albert Ko nailed a J, A ball had cut the deficit to 5 at 42-37. The comeback was on. In the 4th, YTMT was doing everything to hang on to dear life as they tried to work the 24 second shot clock down each time to protect their small lead and help rest their weary players. A ball applied pressure D on the ball handlers each time, double teaming him a lot given that they had the luxury. Tired and lacking their legs, YTMT couldn't overcome it and get back to play tough D and A ball blitzed them 18-8 in the period to pull out the victory. A barrage of three pointers boosted A ball as Kim hit 2 from downtown, Hwang tossed in one, and Jack Run got one of his own. YTMT also struggled mightly at the free throw line, only converting 12-25 for the game. Song led his team, posting a double double with 16 points and 10 rebounds. Hwang aided with 11 points and tough defense, even as he lost a contact lens during the game. Kim tallied 8 points and 5 rebounds and Jae Ha Hwang Hwang had 9 big boards to help wear down YTMT. PK notched his league leading 3rd double double with 11 points and 11 boards. Wu and Chun Won Yi had season highs of 9 and 7 points respectively. For A ball - the team has put itself into good shape to make the playoffs, whereby it's possible that captain Mark Fang has an outside chance at rejoining his team after his long layoff due to his wrist injury. Meanwhile, for YTMT - their soap opera of a year seems to just be getting started again. The simple act of showing up to games on time, if at all, has been a problem for the team and coupled with the rash of injuries they always seem to have - it's possible this team could never measure up to the potential that it has. Along with the explosive nature of the team's psyche, it wouldn't be surprising to see some heads roll at season's end starting with management. Thus far, they've had trouble keeping players in line and have let them run rampant with their words and their actions. A disciplinarian like Bobby Knight might be what's exactly needed to keep them in check. Either that - or a phone call to Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft and owner of the Portland Jailblazers, to see what he had to do to turn his franchise around. Paul, pal, you got a second? |
Score by Quarters
| Team | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Q4 | OT | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A ball | 16 | 8 | 13 | 18 | - | 55 |
| Y Tu Mama Tambien | 12 | 13 | 17 | 8 | - | 50 |
Boxscore
| A ball - 55 | |||||||||||
| Player | FG | 3PT | FT | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO | F | PTS | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fang, Mark | DNP | ||||||||||
| Hwang, Jae Ha | 3 / 3 [1.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 0 / 2 [0.000] | 9 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 6 | |
| Hwang, Joe | 3 / 14 [0.214] | 1 / 8 [0.125] | 4 / 6 [0.667] | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 11 | |
| Kim, Jabin | 3 / 9 [0.333] | 2 / 6 [0.333] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 5 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 8 | |
| Ko, Albert | 2 / 8 [0.250] | 0 / 2 [0.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 4 | |
| Morita, Brent | DNP | ||||||||||
| Run, Jack | 2 / 7 [0.286] | 1 / 2 [0.500] | 1 / 2 [0.500] | 0 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 6 | |
| Shim, Kendall | 2 / 6 [0.333] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 4 | |
| Song, Brandon | 8 / 13 [0.615] | 0 / 1 [0.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 16 | |
| 23 / 60 [0.383] | 4 / 19 [0.211] | 5 / 10 [0.500] | 28 | 9 | 7 | 2 | 10 | 21 | 55 | ||
| Y Tu Mama Tambien - 50 | |||||||||||
| Player | FG | 3PT | FT | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO | F | PTS | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ang, Ark | DNP | ||||||||||
| Choi, Yusik | DNP | ||||||||||
| Kim, James | 4 / 14 [0.286] | 0 / 3 [0.000] | 3 / 7 [0.429] | 11 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 11 | |
| Scott, Dave | DNP | ||||||||||
| Wong, David | DNP | ||||||||||
| Won Yi, Chun | 3 / 11 [0.273] | 1 / 5 [0.200] | 0 / 5 [0.000] | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 7 | |
| Wu, Eric | 2 / 8 [0.250] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 5 / 7 [0.714] | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 9 | |
| Yang, Brian | 6 / 14 [0.429] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 4 / 6 [0.667] | 13 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 16 | |
| Yu, Young | 3 / 5 [0.600] | 1 / 3 [0.333] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 7 | |
| 18 / 52 [0.346] | 2 / 11 [0.182] | 12 / 25 [0.480] | 29 | 5 | 2 | 4 | 8 | 8 | 50 | ||