THE DREAM LEAGUE
Open/Community Basketball Leagues
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2005 Spring/Summer (SF) Tue BelowTheRim |
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| Last Updated: 7/27 8:00AM SIN CITY SHOOTOUT AUG 20-21 Click here or scroll down for Season Schedule grid Beacon Wins Championship JULY 27, 2005 -- The Junior Beacon Ballers held off Gino & Carlo, 73-67, to cap off a rally from the Losers Bracket to win the championship. The previous week, Beacon snuffed out the competition by demolishing the Boilermakers in an elimination game, then on the same night dusting off Gino by 10 points. Yesterday night's 6-point repeat win over Gino gave Beacon the championship. In the Beacon-Boiler game and true to predictions, Armando Pazos was only able to tally 23 points, 17 points shy of the 40 points that was predicted to be needed for the Boilermakers to succeed in an upset. Sure enough, the Boilers lost by 18 points. Chris Suffle stepped up with 21 points in the losing effort. Then in the Beacon-Gino game, Beacon got out to a 29-11 first quarter lead on 14-for-22 shooting. Sunny Margate was ejected in an altercation, but in his absence Gino actually came back to only lose by 10, with John Gumino leading the way. Eugene Lucius started out with 10 points in the first quarter for Beacon and finished with a game-high 18 points. The repeat championship nearly repeated itself with Beacon jumping out once again to a 23-13 first quarter lead. Margate apparently had another championship game in another league and did not arrive until midway through the 2nd quarter. Beacon started the 2nd quarter 0-for-7 through nearly five minutes as Gino clawed its way back to a 4-point halftime deficit. Gumina already had 11 of his eventual 16 rebounds at this point. In fact, were it not for just 3-for-6 from the foul line for Margate late in the quarter, the deficit could have been down to just 1. The two teams fought a virtual stalemate the rest of the way, although Gumina started the 3rd quarter 0-for-6. The game ended with fouls to send Beacon to the line, but Frank Song always kept it a three possession game by hitting all 4 of his free throws in the quarter, eventually resulting in Beacon's championship. The next league will probably start in the Fall. Congrats to the Beacon Ballers on their winning ways, but this commish is going to need some time to recover from the Bawlers and their whining ways. I'm not talking about each and every player. You know who you are. If attitudes do not make an upward tick next Fall, there will be no reason for me to show up every Tuesday and take the abuse. If you can't trust that I've painstakingly weeded out the worst refs at a value that is still affordable to the common citizen, then please go back to playing in the other leagues you used to play in. We run Dream League as professionally and as organized as possible. I expect our players to carry forward with class. If you cannot conduct yourself in a respectful manner in a way in which Dream League believes the game should be played, then Dream League is not for you. Until then, try to remember that the game is supposed to be fun for all. I'm doing all I can on my part, now you do yours, please... Click here or scroll down for Season Schedule grid Margate Leads Gino to Winners Bracket Advantage JULY 19, 2005 -- The last two weeks of playoffs can be summarized by the playmaking abilities of Sunny Margate of Gino & Carlo, the scoring of the Boilermakers' Armando Pazos, and the absences of star players on the Junior Beacon Ballers and Free Agents in what were supposed to be "gimme" first-round matchups. In Round 1, the Boilermakers squeaked past the Free Agents as Pazos poured in 29. But the Free Agents were without star playmaker Marcus Schexnayder and only ran with 5 players. Carlos Velez had 29 and Everett Johnson 22, but that was not enough. The Boilermakers almost gave the game away as they inbounded the ball with less than 10 seconds remaining following a layup which brought the Free Agents to within three. Velez stole the inbounds and converted with a foul, but missed the ensuing free throw that could have sent the game into overtime. Meanwhile, in the absence of league-leading scorer Tim Breen, the Beacon Ballers fell victim -- barely, as Frank Song's last-second three-point attempt tie was off the mark -- to Margate's 13-point, 9-rebound, 5-assist affair, as four players on Gino & Carlo scored in double-digits. This resulted in intriguing first-round knockdowns for the top two seeds, who now had to face each other in an elimination Losers Bracket game. In Round 2 in the Losers Bracket, the Free Agents lost Velez and Beacon lost guard Michael Salamin on ejections due to an altercation. The loss of Velez wiped out the point guard ball handling of the Free Agents and Beacon never looked back. Schexnayder held Breen to just 5 points, but no one could stop Michael Hicks at the small forward position. Hicks led all scorers with 23 points and that game eliminated the Free Agents. On the other side of the bracket, Margate missed a triple-double by one assist (and a quadruple double by four turnovers!) and John Gumina dominated the boards against the undersized Boilermakers, with 25 points and 14 rebounds. Pazos did all he could with 26 points and Chris Suffle overcame a poor first round with 17 points, but the Boilermakers were too one-dimensional and collected just 5 assists for the entire team -- one assist below Margate's season average. Now we're left with David vs Goliath in the Losers Bracket. The Boilermakers have less speed and less shooting accuracy than Beacon. We predict that two other Boilermakers besides Pazos and Suffle must combine for 20 points or Pazos needs to hit 40 points for an upset to occur. Whatever happens, the Losers Bracket survivor will have to get ready to play against Gino & Carlo immediately following. The back-to-back situation is probably good enough for a 6-point spread in and of itself. Margate and his crew have seized control of the brackets -- at least for tonight. Click here or scroll down for Season Schedule grid Gino Comes Back to Eliminate GBC JUNE 30, 2005 -- #4 Gino & Carlo overcame a 31-18 halftime deficit to eliminate #5 GBC. Sunny Margate led the charge with 7 of his 8 assists and 14 of his 22 points in the 2nd half. Meanwhile, the #3 Boilermakers eliminated #6 And None convincingly. This sets up a tough matchup for Gino going up against the 6-and-0 Junior Beacon Ballers. If Gino wins that one, hand the MVP trophy over to Margate, who is tearing up the league with an average of 19 pts, 10 reb, and 6 ast per game (then again, this is double-elimination, so we'll still have to wait and see). On the other side of the bracket pits the young Boilermakers against the Free Agents, who are coming off two straight frustrating losses to JBB. Click here or scroll down for Season Schedule grid Gino Snatches Double-Elim from GBC, but Faces Immediate Revenge Game JUNE 23, 2005 -- In a bizarre twist of fate, Gino & Carlo beat GBC to finish at .500 and earn themselves double-elimination status in the playoffs. Unfortunately, GBC finishes below .500 and they will be playing one-and-out ball from this point forward. Meanwhile, the depleted Boilermakers overcame a 2-2 end-of-first-quarter anemia to earn double-elimination status as well. And None dropped its sixth straight. Finally, Beacon beat the Free Agents once again, but both teams had already secured double-elimination status. Obviously Beacon is #1 and the Free Agents are #2 going into the playoffs. They will each have a bye on 6/28. With the Boilermakers' earlier 73-68 victory over Gino & Carlo, this means that the Boilermakers are the #3 seed and Gino & Carlo is #4. With GBC at #5 and And None at #6, this sets up repeat showdowns: Gino & Carlo versus GBC and the Boilermakers versus And None. GBC gets a chance for revenge against Gino & Carlo, but Gino has two lives whereas this is the end of the rope for GBC. And None also gets a chance to bounce back against the Boilermakers in a similar circumstance. This is true playoff atmosphere, Dream League style! Note that on 6/28, the Boilermakers get the preferred 8pm later tipoff because they have the highest seed in the bunch. On 7/5, the winner of Gino/GBC will go up against Beacon while the winner of Boiler/AndNone goes up against the Free Agents. Don't count the single-elimination teams out -- mathematically they only need to win 2 games in a row to reach the championship, and anything can happen at that point. Click here or scroll down for Season Schedule grid JBB Retains Dominance While Double-Elimination Up For Grabs JUNE 15, 2005 -- The Junior Beacon Ballers took control of the game against the Free Agents in the 2nd quarter and it was a stalement from that point on, thus the JBBs retained their dominance in the league and pushed their record to 5-0. They will play against the Free Agents again next week in the last regular season game, which matches up teams next to each other in the standings in anticipation of playoff positioning. As mentioned in the STANDINGS/TEAMS page, the standings are ordered by PCT, then alphabetical and in this case is not an accurate representation of the true standings. The Boilermakers, GBC, and Gino & Carlo are obviously tied at 2-3 going into the final regular season game. By rule, we utilize the NFL tiebreaker system to see which team is really currently in 3rd, 4th, and 5th place. The first tiebreaker is head-to-head within the group. Each team has beaten each other, so all three teams are 1-1 amongst the three. The next tiebreaker is common opponents, but each team has lost to both JBB and the Free Agents, while beating And None, so that solves nothing either. The final tiebreaker is "strength of victory", which Dream League has defined as the point differential in all victories. We take all victories because it is the widest net we can cast relative to the entire league, rather than in a vacuum amongst only the three teams. With 14- and 16-point wins (+30), GBC sneaks by Gino & Carlo (+27) and the Boilermakers (+25). Ironically, the Boilermakers might have gotten the best deal because as the 5th-place team, they play against the 6th-place team, which is And None, which has an 0-and-5 record. So it's GBC and Gino & Carlo battling to reach .500 and the coveted double-elimination status, while the Boilermakers have statistically an easier chance of achieving .500, although And None has been playing better and better each week. Remember that the first week of playoffs will involve #3 vs #6 and #4 vs #5 while #1 and #2 await the winners the following week. Teams at or above .500 get double-elimination status while it's one-and-done for teams finishing the regular season below .500. It should be interesting to see which team, GBC or Gino, steps up big time next week. And None can play spoiler. So it's And None vs Boilermakers at the least desirable 6pm slot since they are at the bottom of the standings, GBC vs Gino at 7pm, and Free vs JBB at 8pm on 6/21. Click here or scroll down for Season Schedule grid Season Schedule Now Up -- 6 Teams Only MAY 23, 2005 -- The league wasn't able to come to a comfortable financial arrangement with the proposed 7th team, therefore we are sticking with 6 teams and the schedule has been completed below (scroll down). Please note that the sixth regular season game will be scheduled based on future standings, and will essentially be playoff positioning and one last shot against a similar team before heading into the playoffs. In the playoffs, teams will get double-elimination status only if they finished the regular season at or above .500, which means there could be huge playoff implications in that last regular season game. Please note that thanks to the Beacon team accepting all 6pm games, each of the other 5 teams has only one game at 6pm. Matchups for tomorrow night 5/24 were also made based on the results from 5/17 and it is best to get those competitive matchups done now because of the 6th last regular season game being based on standings again. This means that the 2nd and 6th weeks of the season are theoretically the most competitive regular season weeks as the teams look on paper as of this writing. Also, aside from Beacon, each team has two 7pm games and two 8pm games to go along with one 6pm game. Please be reminded that there is a $5 per week per transaction late fee which covers the league's trying to track teams/players down each week, along with outstanding multiple trips to the bank. We're Waiting on 7th Team for Scheduling MAY 20, 2005 -- We're still waiting on the 7th team, captained by Nelson P. who actually came by to watch our games last Tuesday. They will get back to the league before midnight on Sunday, therefore the season schedule should be out by Monday at 8:00AM. If Nelson's team is in, then And None will receive the bye on 5/24, otherwise the 6 original teams will move on and all teams will be playing. Thanks for your patience with the "Dream League way", which is to accommodate people as best as possible and make everyone happy without ruining it for everybody else -- sometimes to a fault, admittedly. Meanwhile, we had three lopsided games last week. This goes to show you that despite the league's intention to have close and competitive games, sometimes it is just impossible to predict how teams will perform. You can be sure that next week's matchups will be purposely scheduled to have closer games. Also, please be reminded that each team is expected to have two 6:00PM games. There is just no way around that. The Beacon team has volunteered to have all of their games at 6:00PM, but until we work on the schedule, we won't know if that will make a difference mathematically. Thanks again for your patience and again, the season schedule should be posted by Monday at 8:00AM. MAY 17, 2005 -- Welcome to the Dream League's seventh Open League and first-ever "Below The Rim" league, where only one player on the court can be taller than 6'2" at any given time. The schedule for tonight is set, see below. Here are some things to keep in mind about the scheduling... - Entire season schedule will be up by next Monday - Each team *must* play two games at 6PM - Email rich@dreamleague.org if you have a specific Tuesday in which a certain time must be accommodated - There might be a 7th team to be confirmed by next Monday - Schedule for 5/17 does not change whether we end up with 6 or 7 teams - Regular season schedule assuming 7 teams: 5/17, 5/24, 5/31, 6/7, 6/14, 6/21, 6/28 - Playoff schedule assuming 7 teams: 7/5, 7/12, 7/19 Here are some things to remember about tonight's tipoffs... - Rosters can be tweaked up through the third regular season game inclusive - All players must have submitted an online waiver - Players that have not signed off will need to spend warmup time at the gym hand-signing a paper waiver - Captains may enter data online for their team members (name/phone/address required) - Bring reversible jerseys with unique numbers on both sides, otherwise statkeeping will be compromised - Bring minimum team payment of $100 -- but each week adds $5 penalty for multiple trips to the bank - Call Rich the commish at 415.377.7722 if any of the above are issues - See this page for detailed info on rules and regulations |