THE DREAM LEAGUE
Asian American / Open Basketball Leagues
|
2005 Winter/Spring AL-Elite (San Mateo/Oakland) |
|
|
| Last Updated: 6/9 12:00PM PLAYOFF BRACKETS Jump to Season Schedule and Scores (or scroll down) Previous Articles Schedule Updates SIN CITY SHOOTOUT AUG 20-21 It's So Hard to Say Goodbye to the Season of the Vic Dream League Names Most Inspirational Player Award After Victor Cheng (1974-2005) Las Vegas Tournament Set with Year of the Yao at the Palms!!! Partnerships set stage for giant 64-team soiree in Sin City in August Alliance Advances (Finally) JUNE 9, 2005 -- Scores from the past few weeks, updated playoff brackets, and previews of this Sunday's matchups will be posted shortly... Schedule Status MAY 28, 2005 -- Still waiting for dust to settle with the San Mateo situation. Looking at ways to make things less inter-dependent next season, but we are stuck with the way things are for now. Schedule should go out no later than Thu 6/2 at 8:00AM. We Must Try to End Playoffs By 6/12 MAY 19, 2005 -- We just got word from yet another team that they will be playing in a tournament on 6/19, therefore as the article below suggests, albeit with certain assumptions, we must strive to end our playoff brackets by 6/12. This will at the very least require the Mavericks and either the Big Gamerz or Alliance to play somewhere in between Monday 5/23 and Saturday 6/4. Assuming we wait until 5/23 to find out whether this will involve the Big Gamerz or Alliance, then the real dates are somewhere between roughly Wednesday 5/25 and Saturday 6/4. If someone in our league has a better proposition, email me, I am all ears... Floodgates Finally Open at SMHS -- Playoff Scheduling Analysis MAY 18, 2005 -- First off, congrats to Five Ten for advancing in the Winners Bracket. It took awhile, but we finally got the floodgates to open at SMHS this weekend! Let us take a moment to examine the playoff scheduling complexities. As league commish, there are several very difficult factors I am or have been dealing with: a. I try never to schedule a doubleheader for advancing Winners Bracket teams. b. The San Mateo site was closed on 5/8 and only had evening tipoffs available on 5/15. c. All other San Mateo sites closed on 5/8 and 5/15. d. Alliance could not play at an alternate site on 5/8. e. Alliance could not play at an evening tipoff on 5/15. f. The Wildcards will be gone after 6/12. This leads to the following conclusions: A. If the Wildcards are still alive after this Sunday 5/22, then I have no choice but to reserve 6/12 as a target for the championship (Winners Bracket survivor versus Losers Bracket survivor) as well as the repeat championship. That last point is important. If the Wildcards have a mathematical shot at beating the Winners Bracket survivor, then a repeat game is required by true double-elimination rules, which means we have to have that game on 6/12 as well. B. Looking at the playoff brackets, the remaining Winners Bracket games, and the mantra of not scheduling an advancing Winners Bracket team for a doubleheader, since the Alliance vs Big Gamerz will occur on 5/22 and Five Ten's next Winners Bracket game must occur on 6/5 because of Conclusion A, then the Mavericks' Winners Bracket game must occur somewhere in between Monday 5/23 and Saturday 6/4 inclusive. C. If the Wildcards are to play against their last Losers Bracket opponent on 6/5 and if the Five Ten Winners Bracket game also occurs on 6/5, then the loser of the Five Ten Winners Bracket game will have to play against the Wildcards. This results in the Wildcards playing one game on 6/5 and their opponent playing two games on 6/5. Also, their opponent can only be either Five Ten or Alliance because the Big Gamerz and the Mavericks only have single-elimination status and cannot appear in the Losers Bracket. D. If the Wildcards do *not* advance after 5/22, then we breathe a sigh of relief (sort of) and the brackets can continue on as normal and stretch into 6/19, but because the league is planning its Big Dance tournaments for 6/19, I will try to have the AL-Elite championship or repeat championship end on 6/19 and move the Big Dance NL/AL division back to 6/26 to accommodate. This bears repeating: IF THE WILDCARDS ADVANCE ON 5/22, THE MAVERICKS' WINNERS BRACKET GAME MUST OCCUR *BEFORE* 6/5. ALSO, IF THE WILDCARDS ADVANCE ON 5/22, THE LOSER OF THE FIVE TEN WINNERS BRACKET GAME ON 6/5, EITHER FIVE TEN OR ALLIANCE, WILL BE PLAYING TWO GAMES, THE SECOND ONE PROBABLY AGAINST THE WILDCARDS. Please recognize that this is not a time to point fingers and figure out whose fault this all is. Alliance is no more guilty of being older and having family obligations than the Wildcards are for needing to go back home after the end of school. These were the unfortunate hands we were all dealt and we have to come together to ensure the league works for all of us. This is actually a time for everyone to step up. In these coming weeks, the remaining teams have to bend a little and realize the constraints that we have are unmovable. Do not be surprised or worse, feel disrespected if I insist that your team plays during an undesired day or time (remember that the Mavericks game has to occur before 6/5 if the Wildcards continue to survive). I hope that you can see the glass as half full in that you have a very competitive and therefore fun league here and I have been pulling rabbits out of hats to secure various gyms. Even if your team bows out or key players are not available for whatever reason, you will get many chances in the future to come back against the team that beat you. There are many more seasons to follow along with the Big Dance, the Summer league, and the Vegas tournament. What's ironic is that despite all of this, our scheduling difficulties have made my San Mateo liaison look bad and has probably also made Dream League and myself look bad in front of you guys. Surely if I have to throw the hammer down in these upcoming weeks, I will continue to look like the bad guy or Nazi Commish for some of your teammates who don't know what's going on. On the contrary, I have actually made some huge sacrifices this season to keep things afloat. First of all, with gym fees more than *twice* as expensive as that of SF and Oakland, I only raised fees by five bucks per player. I have scheduled my team (the Oskis, of course) at odd hours and in Oakland on multiple occasions. Although my team has also been plagued by random injuries, we have played with four guys at least once and five guys at least twice on top of that -- some of that has to be related to scheduling. I have made phone calls to San Mateo gym liaisons an average of three days per week since before Week 1 (no exaggeration). I have made personal trips down to San Mateo locations trying to figure out what the hell is going on, on many an occasion -- you guys all know how expensive gas is these days. So I am asking each of your teams and players to step up as well in the coming weeks and take our scheduling difficulties in the chin. You will just have to step up and deal with it. If any of you have any ideas to make this work better for you, I am open to suggestions, just email me -- but I don't see any way around the conclusions made above. The good news is, it looks like the San Mateo High dam has broken, so aside from the requisite exorbitant fees on the Peninsula, it should be clear sailing for future seasons to come. Previous Articles Lee Shows Dark Side Against NL Teammates (5/15) More Problems Pop Up at San Mateo, Playoff Recaps (5/12) DREAM LEAGUE ARTICLE IN OAKLAND TRIBUNE!!! (5/9) San Mateo Slumber (5/5) Parity and Playoff Picture (4/28) Special Group Rate on Year of the Yao Ends Sunday Night (4/15) Dream bLog (4/14) Luckily We Get a Full Slate at CSM on 3/20 (3/15) It's CSM Up Until May (3/9) Oskis Nearly Botch Up Last Few Seconds (3/2) Vikings Make Their Debut with 2nd Half Rally (2/24) Season Schedule Set and Previews (2/16) Schedule Updates (Last Updated 3/3 8:00AM) To make a change request, you need permission from 3 teams, see Rules & Regulations Date Affected - Description (Date Posted) 3/6 - Gym constraints include CSMX and 12-5pm unavailability (3/3) |