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SIGNUPS FOR NEXT SEASON ('07 SPRING/SUMMER)
Up In Smoke outlasts Syuhn Fung for 'chip
 APRIL 3, 2007 -- Recaps and VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS...
Chooi and Rillo hold off Pan and Wu to give UIS the 'chip (3/18)
Wu loses composure as Syuhn Fung falls off a cliff (3/11)
Rillo hits game-winning trey on drive from Chooi (3/11)
MARCH 19, 2007 -- Syuhn Fung fought all the way back from a 9-24 first quarter deficit to take a 55-52 lead in the fourth, but Up In Smoke's Vince Chooi and Ron Rillo hit key buckets late in the game to take the championship.
Stats, scores, recaps, and videos coming soon.
VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS from 3/4
MARCH 17, 2007 -- Video highlights now embedded... See videos
MARCH 16, 2007 -- Not quite ready yet in terms of embedding the video onto our website, but here's the link to all of the highlights from 3/4. Be sure to click on the "See All" link on this page... More info
Stats from 3/11 are up. Recaps and videos for 3/11 forthcoming.
Tipoffs for 3/18 Posted
MARCH 15, 2007 -- Click Bird's Eye View link above or SCHEDULE/SCORES page.
Mini-Recaps from 3/4
MARCH 15, 2007 -- Catch up on the previous weekend's slate of playoff games from 3/4. Some video highlights might be available soon, too. Also stay tuned for the same from 3/11.
As we finish off the season, look out for a recap of the season we just had, and what to look for next season as we'll be polling the captains on their teams' intentions, then updating the Rumor Mill for Spring/Summer 2007. We're going as fast as one man can input stats, write recaps, and upload video... More info
Playoff Brackets for 3/18 Updated
MARCH 13, 2007 -- Click on the Playoff Brackets link above. Up In Smoke forced a repeat championship matchup against Syuhn Fung this weekend. Up In Smoke first eliminated the Prodigies in a close game. Then in the first championship matchup, Syuhn Fung's Quentin Wu lost his composure and picked up two consecutive technical fouls in the 4th quarter, resulting in an automatic ejection. At the time of the ejection, Up In Smoke was ahead, with Ron Rillo leading the effort with many threes.
Good thing there's only one game left, otherwise Wu might have put himself in jeopardy of being auto-suspended upon the 3rd unsportsmanlike-related technical foul accrued. As far as we know, if Rasheed Wallace gets his 16th technical in a game and its his first technical of the game, he is not suspended on the spot but rather afterwards.
Up In Smoke regained the homecourt advantage for this Sunday 3/18. Details forthcoming, including recaps from 3/11 and 3/4.
Notes and VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS from 2/25
MARCH 8, 2007 -- Recaps and even some video from 2/25... More info
Reminder: Dumb-light Savings Time this Sunday
MARCH 7, 2007 -- Don't forget to set your clocks ahead one hour before your Sunday tipoff... More info
Playoff Brackets for 3/11 Posted
MARCH 6, 2007 -- Click on the Playoff Brackets link above to see who advanced. MVP candidate and point-shooter Quentin Wu hit a trey with one second remaining to vault Syuhn Fung to its first championship appearance in the many much-maligned, losing seasons they've been in Dream League. Before the brackets began, we talked about the 5 elite teams in the league. Well, Syuhn Fung was not part of that discussion. Perhaps they caught a couple breaks on the bracket road, but who cares, they made it!
Meanwhile in the Losers Bracket, the Prodigies got revenge on Bench Gremlin, then blew a 20-point lead to eliminate Ballaz By Law by 6 points. So Up In Smoke will now face the Prodigies in the last Losers Bracket game. The winner will play against Syuhn Fung and these games are all at Syuhn Fung's homecourt of SF. Should Syuhn Fung lose, the repeat championship would be played on 3/18 (unless both teams agree to postpone).
We hope to have stats and recaps from 2/25 and 3/4 up soon.
Schedule for 3/4 Posted
MARCH 1, 2007 -- Wow, it's March already. Btw, we plan to start next season with a soft launch on April 9. You can probably start your team as late as 2 weeks (4/23) after that. Look out for our usual big pre-season blast email.
Anyways, click on the Bird's Eye View link above for 3/4. Again, the SCORES/SCHEDULES page won't be updated for another 24-36 hours. Also, the scores and stats from last week are gonna be a little delayed, as we weren't able to pickup the scoresheets from CSM, BCRC, and IJRC. The good news is, most of the stats from up to 2/11 should all be up by now and you know who won by the Playoff Brackets page. If not, feel free to email us, as our assumption is that our teenage statcrew fulfilled their assignments.
Use Common Sense with Scheduling
FEBRUARY 27, 2007 -- Please be reminded of several things when it comes to scheduling. First, we have designed dreamleague to be flexible to every teams' ever-changing weekly desires (that's why we do it this way), but please provide specific times when making requests, otherwise you leave it open to interpretation. Second, we're in playoffs and many teams are gone, which means tipoff timeframes are, by nature, squeezed because gym directors only want to deal with blocks of time in a row.
Scheduling decisions will be made on a democratic basis. Failing that, we will do what is best for league logistics, which often include scorekeeping staff constraints. Finally and most importantly, be prepared for the worst. If the stars between you and your opponent's requests -- along with that of the gym directors -- do not align, then your players will have to make some choices. Don't be surprised if some games are decided by the players who are able to clear their Sunday schedules over those who are not.
Playoff Brackets Updated for 3/4
FEBRUARY 26, 2007 -- Click on the Playoff Bracket link above. Syuhn Fung advanced to face Up In Smoke in the Winners Bracket at Oakland, homecourt of Up In Smoke.
Bench Gremlin is now sent down to the Losers Bracket to face the Prodigies once again. Ouch. The Prodigies are sure to want revenge. Winner plays Ballaz By Law, which has the highest seed in the Losers Bracket and therefore gets the advantage when there's an odd number of teams left. Homecourt as well means these games are likely to be held on the Peninsula (SQHM back online?). More info later this week.
AL-P Playoffs Round 3 - Predictions
FEBRUARY 24, 2007 -- Every year the unpredictable things always happens during the NCAA tournament in March. This year should be no different so why should we expect our AL-P playoffs to be any different... More info
Schedule for 2/25 Posted
FEBRUARY 22, 2007 -- Click on the Bird's Eye View link above. Please note that we'll put the schedule up on each league's SCHEDULE/SCORES page, but the SCHEDULE/SCORES page is prone to error, so please report any errors you see on SCHEDULE/SCORES to the league ASAP (this will be on Friday).
BBL and Unstoppable Players Suspended
FEBRUARY 20, 2007 -- A player on Ballaz By Law (BBL) has been suspended for the remainder of this season's playoffs and one additional season for punching a player on Unstoppable four times during the game on 2/11... More info
Playoff Brackets Updated
FEBRUARY 19, 2007 -- Click on the Playoff Brackets link above.
Seeking PTPs (and Big Men) for Vegas
FEBRUARY 13, 2007 -- We're looking for a few more good men (Prime Time Players and especially Big Men) to join our "Dream League Represent" team for this weekend's Vegas All-Star Weekend.
The team has merged with the Prodigies, consisting of Gold Rush MVP Sunny Margate, perennial AL all-star Barry Lee and former NL MVP Sean Caiola.
Transportation by minivan and lodging is already taken care of. Just hop in! Email me at rich@dreamleague.org.
AL-P Predictions for 2/11
FEBRUARY 9, 2007 -- [From T.Lee:] Were down to 8 teams and everyone has double elimination. I’ve been in 3 different divisions in the past 4 seasons of Dream League and the playoffs just don’t get any better then this... More info
Refs for 2/11, Scheduling for 2/25
FEBRUARY 9, 2007 -- FYI: for 2/11, 5 of our top 7 refs are unavailable.
For 2/25 (remember, 2/18 is a leaguewide bye unless there are a bunch of objections), please to tell us early about your tipoff preferences. If there are particularly special/acute requests, we will ask you to provide one scorekeeper before or after your game, that week or the following.
This bears repeating because two of our veteran teams this past weekend alerted the league office to times they could not attend, at the last minute.
To all the players out there, don't make your captains look like a troublemaker to the league office. Be a little more proactive with your calendar. Communicate with your captain. If you don't, then you're leaving your team out to dry at the worst time, during playoffs.
Tipoffs for 2/11 Posted
FEBRUARY 8, 2007 -- See Bird's Eye View link above. SCHEDULE/SCORES pages, which are more error-prone, to be updated later. Bird's Eye is just a copy/paste of the master spreadsheet, so it's final.
Reminder: no games on 2/18
FEBRUARY 6, 2007 -- As you should know by now, I'll be gone on 2/18 for the Vegas All-Star Weekend Tourney. It's listed as a league-wide bye.
If this is a problem for anyone, please let us know ASAP, although we'd be hard-pressed to find backup staff to run dreamleague on 2/18 anyways.
To estimate how many weeks we of playoffs we might have left, look at each successive advancement of the Winners Bracket section of the Playoff Brackets.
Lower seeds eliminated, 8 double-elim teams left
FEBRUARY 6, 2007 -- All of the lower seeds were eliminated this past Sunday, leaving 8 teams, all with double-elim status. It's a true double-elim bracket now, entirely based on the Final Rankings.
Hopefully T.Lee will chime in soon to give us our much-anticipated matchup previews. Keep in mind, the higher seed still gets homecourt. That should give you an idea of where you're playing this weekend.
For the teams that got eliminated, hopefully we'll see you back next season as we kickoff our new stratifications based on 6 teams instead of the traditional 8 or more. That prevents the need for teams to constantly ante-up, as almost all of the 8 teams left have done. Imagine if we had a division with BGmz, Tryb, Kurr, PFA, Juic, and maybe two graduates from AAA-Elite (they have some tall teams).
Bird's Eye View Schedule for 2/4 Now Up
FEBRUARY 1, 2007 -- See Bird's Eye link above. First off, a final payment audit will occur by Fri 2/2. Reminder: all teams should have 8 regular season games completed after 2/4. Only teams with more than 8 paid roster slots can have more than 8 players anytime during the playoffs.
As usual, the SCHEDULE/SCORES page will not be posted until later (and is more prone to error whereby the Bird's Eye View is the final version).
Playoff Machups for 2/4 Explained
FEBRUARY 1, 2007 -- Homecourt advantage goes to the team that finished with the better regular season record and tiebreaker, which is not necessarily the same as ranking/seeding. The NBA has the exact same procedure in determining homecourt. Here are the final rankings... More info
AL-P Predictions for 1/28 (Belated)
JANUARY 31, 2007 (8:00AM) -- [From Torrent Lee:] With only one week left before the start of the playoffs, this season's AL-Premier playoffs is going to be one of the most competitive runs in Dream League history... More info
Auto-Forfeit Alerts for 1/28
JANUARY 26, 2007 (5:00PM) -- SCOREKEEPING FOR A SPOT HAS ALREADY BEEN ACCOUNTED FOR AS A PAID SPOT. THERE ARE STILL SPOTS OUTSTANDING. Check the online spreadsheet on the Registry of Payments page and you'll see those spots listed (link is on the right). The following teams are at risk of forfeiting before tipoff this Sunday 1/28...
- Big Gamerz: 7 spots paid, 8th game on 1/28 = 1 spot to be paid.
- Bomb Squad: 7 spots paid, 8th game on 1/28 = 1 spot to be paid.
- Cali Express: 6 spots paid, 7th game on 1/28 = 1 spot to be paid (-$18).
- Kurruption: 7 spots paid, 8th game on 1/28 = 1 spot to be paid.
- Prodigies: 7 spots paid, 8th game on 1/28 = 1 spot to be paid.
- Up In Smoke: 7 spots paid, 8th game on 1/28 = 1 spot to be paid.
The following teams will be at risk of auto-forfeits next week 2/4...
- Ballaz By Law: 8th game on 2/4, 7 spots paid thus far.
- Cali Express: 8th game on 2/4, 6 spots paid thus far (-$18).
Matchup Explanations for 1/28
JANUARY 26, 2007 (1:00PM) -- First off, the lower half the standings voted to keep with one big playoff bracket. That kinda sucks for me as a scheduler because this means we insert an extra round into the playoffs, which stretches it out to a 5-week affair and possibly 6 if there's a repeat championship. But competitively speaking, that's fine by me.
Btw, the top three seeds probably won't like the original format because they get a first-round bye. Unless Cali-BBL final regular season game happens to fit in (see below).
Secondly, there was a great debate as to whether or not we would stick with the interconference for the top teams or have repeat games such as Cali-UIS and Prod-Bomb. For those of you wondering why we would change the 2nd interconference game, it's because I am one step ahead of you already. If Prod, Bomb, and BBL or a subset of those tie in the West, it's gonna be a bitch to figure out. Now would you rather spend 3 hours trying to go the depths of the NFL tiebreaker system or would you rather avoid that if you could? This is because Bomb beat BBL, BBL beat Prod (twice), and Prod beat Bomb. The fact that BBL beat Prod twice gives us an odd amount of games to work with, which would have been solved with a Prod-Bomb rematch.
This concludes this session of dreamleague's Commissioner 101. ;o) Class dismissed.
Alas, we went back to the original plan because of logistics. UIS had to play in the morning and Cali at night. So anyways, BBL gets the bye and Cali will play them next week 2/4 before the Superbowl.
Whether or not the rest of the AL-P starts playoffs on 2/4 is dependent on whether or not BBL and Cali are in the top three. If they are, we'll get started with the playoffs while Cali and BBL finish off their regular seasons, on 2/4.
Auto-forfeit report comes out later today.
DLBA Content Finally Within Earshot of DLNY's
JANUARY 26, 2007 (8:00AM) -- Okay, the real headline should be "Team Profile of AAA-P Das Boot", but this stuff is so good, every division has this paragraph on their homepage now.
Vinsanity's interview of Das Boot captain John Yi finally gives us one notch in terms of awesome local content. If you've ever read the DL NYC pages, you know that we've been envious of such fantastic reading consumption. Only about 364 such interviews to go to catch up to NYC. Thank you, Vinsanity... More info
Schedule for 1/28 Posted
JANUARY 25, 2007 (8:00PM) -- See Bird's Eye View link above.
Still Working on the 1/28 Schedule
JANUARY 25, 2007 (12:00PM) -- Sorry about this. Killed a day working (finally) on the Vegas tournament. Also, remember that Big T Monkey and I are geeks and spend certain Saturdays coding the new dreamleague website. Saturday was tiring as I had to spend another 3 hours till 1am sorting out the 3rd batch of t-shirts. Plus, I spend about 13 hours every Sunday running the league, so I definitely took my single "weekend" day on Monday.
Anyhow, the schedule should be up by 5pm today. Auto-forfeit updates also coming soon, so you better get your payments in before they go up by $1 tonight.
Auto-Forfeit Alerts
JANUARY 18, 2007 (3:30PM) -- Time to check the Payment Registry page again (see link on the right under "articles from this season"). Here are the teams that are at risk of auto-forfeiting this Sunday 1/21...
- Ballaz By Law: 5 spots paid, 7th game on 1/21 = 2 spots to be paid by 1/21.
- Bomb Squad: 6 spots paid, 7th game on 1/21 = 1 spot to be paid by 1/21.
...and the teams that will be in jeopardy next week...
- Big Gamerz: 7 spots paid, 8th game on 1/28 = 1 spot to be paid by 1/28.
- Cali Express: 6 spots paid, 7th and 8th games on 1/28 = 2 spots to be paid by 1/28.
- Kurruption: 7 spots paid, 8th game on 1/28 = 1 spot to be paid by 1/28.
- PFA: 7 spots paid, 8th game on 1/28 = 1 spot to be paid by 1/28.
- Up In Smoke: 7 spots paid, 8th game on 1/28 = 1 spot to be paid by 1/28.
Please keep checking the Payment Registry page for updates.
Schedule for 1/21 Now Up
JANUARY 18, 2007 (10:30AM) -- Bird's Eye View schedule is now up (see link above). SCHEDULE/SCORES pages being updated ASAP.
One thing that is still not getting through to dozens of players is that as soon as they know their own personal schedule for Sunday and it affects their team's/teams' minimum 6-hour tipoff window, they should contact their captain immediately or just email the league office and copy in their captain.
If you do this before Tuesday of every week, you have a much greater chance of getting the time you want. If you wait until Tuesday afternoon and we've already started the schedule, it is usually nearly impossible to accommodate because our schedule has so many dependencies, namely with guys playing on multiple teams and making sure scorekeepers who play on certain teams are in the right place at the right time. Thus, by Tuesday night, the schedule becomes a veritable house of cards.
Don't forget that if you do make a special tipoff request, it is customary to scorekeep the game before or after in exchange. This is because it is indeed more difficult to construct the schedule with constrained parameters.
Matchups for 1/21
JANUARY 17, 2006 -- We're still working on the tipoffs. In the meantime, here are some notes for 1/21...
- Bnch at Prod: Has to be in the morning due to Prod players on AL Tree. Prod beat Bomb, so Prod is #2 and Bomb #3 in West. Bnch beat BGmz which beat Tryb, so Bnch is #2, BGmz #3, and Tryb #4 in East. Great litmus test for Bnch. Inverse teams, with Prod's quickness in perimeter like Barry Lee to Bnch's inside play from the August brothers. Dan Matsumura might run into some problems with length of Bnch interior defense, but Grant Templin has his hands full chasing around Prod guards.
- BGmz at Bomb: Midday due to Bomb scorekeeping and AAA BGmz. Great litmus test for BGmz. Bomb now finally has the size to go with Rome Olmpiada's outside touch. Should be a bruiser down low with Matt Shannon and Rex Francis in rebounding battles against Derrel Young, Ruben Puno, and Rob Cuenca.
- Kurr at Unst: Probably later PM due to AAA Kurr from OAK. Pretty much boils down to stopping Noore Kadri. Big-time matchup for Amado Rivera. Kurr has three quick guard defenders, but they better not let Kyle Tanamichi the deadly three-point assassin off their radar screen. Our abhorred team stats don't even have Tanamichi listed up thru 2 weeks ago. Regardless of Kurr's renowned struggles on offense, they have to play some D here.
- Juic at PFA: Has to be early on Peninsula. Good news: one will finally break a losing streak. Bad news: one will continue a losing streak. This one's just for pride. Loser of Kurr/Unst will determine fate of hope for opposite conference cellar dwellar, as previously explained that attaining #11 status might not be so bad. Loser of this one will probably end up #13. Playoffs already started for both these teams. E#6 plays E#7 next week, so Juic has best chance of leapfrogging, assuming Kurr loses.
- UIS at BBL: Has to be midday due to scorekeeping issues. Wow, this one's gonna be interesting. Nick Collins vs Yih-Wei Chien down low. Guy Blightman vs Ariel Dimpasoc on the boards. Vince Chooi vs Chris Tsuitsui with the rock. This is the marquee matchup in Dream League aside from AL-E Rams vs Tree. Oh well, can't be in two places at once!
- Tryb at SyuF: Probably late game at SF. What a win by SyuF over Bomb. Played up to potential. Too bad Tryb lost Vic Jacobs because would have been good matchup vs Quentin Wu. So now, who's gonna contain Wu? SyuF has height with Dave Chen and Ed Pan on the boards, but Drew Park and company have tenacity. Loser of this game will be on brink of single-elim playoff status.
- BYE: Cali, which as East #1 will play a dh on 1/28. Very tough assignment, but we couldn't fathom laying this on the poor cellar dwellers. Test of strength next week. Remember, Losers Bracket is gonna be subject to doubleheaders.
Payment registries will be updated today and potential auto-forfeits announced tomorrow.
Auto-Forfeit Alerts
JANUARY 12, 2007 -- The following teams are in jeopardy of auto-forfeits...
- Bomb Squad: 1 spot needs to be paid before tipoff.
- BBL: 1 spot needs to be paid.
- UIS: 1 spot needs to be paid.
- Kurruption: 3 spots need to be paid.
- Cali Expr: 2 spots need to be paid.
AL-P Predictions for 1/14
JANUARY 12, 2007 -- [From Torrent Lee:] I finally found some time to write my first blog of 2007. I’ll try and give everyone a quick update of what has happened with each team while I’m doing the predictions for this weekend... More info
Reminder: Keep Our Gyms Clean
JANUARY 11, 2007 (12:00PM) -- Every now and then, we have to send out a reminder. Please pickup plastic bottles and stuff that you normally leave at the bench.
Just bring ONE empty bottle with you on the way out and dump it in the garbage can. At Potrero, this has become really bad. So I'll try to get the gym director to move the garbage bins closer to each bench, but let's just not get him mad, okay?
1/14 Schedule Now Up
JANUARY 11, 2007 (8:00AM) -- Bird's Eye View now up. SCHEDULE/SCORES to be updated later. More on 1/14...
- Payments haven't been updated for a few days.
- Auto-forfeit list (if any) to be posted soon.
- All West intra-repeat games at SF.
- Bye: Tryb.
- See article on matchups below.
- No other scheduling issues.
- Scores are currently about 4-5 days' lag.
- Stats are currently at about 2 weeks' lag.
AL-P Matchups for 1/14
JANUARY 10, 2007 -- Matchups for the West this Sun 1/14 will be as follows, according strictly to standings because PFA is struggling so bad:
- PFA at Unst: in SF since Unst has already played 2 games on Peninsula.
- SyuF at Bomb: Bomb had worst strength-of-victory amongst 4-1 West teams. Bomb beat BBL (by 1) which beat Prod (by 4) which beat Bomb (by 9).
- BBL at Prod: In SF since BBL will only be playing 2 games outside of Peninsula.
Photos of dreamleaguers
JANUARY 9, 2007 -- Vinsanity has been taking some pics for us, mostly starting with AAA-P. Here are some updated as of 1/7. Maybe at some point during the playoffs he'll have a few shots of every division, but his primary focus will be AAA-P West... View photos
Quick Request: Paper for Scoresheets Needed!
JANUARY 9, 2007 -- While we have a break in the action early in the week, we'd like to request at least two (2) packs of 8.5" x 11" paper to print on. Doesn't have to be fancy; matter of fact, we'd prefer if it is of the "recycled" kind. These will be used as our scoresheets every week. We use about 70 sheets of paper for the 35 or so games we have each week, so we're a bit dwindled by now.
So if your big company can spare a ream or two, for the good of our community organization in which the bulk of the paper will eventually get handled by a teenager from the projects, please bring a ream or two to your next game this Sunday 1/14. THANKS!
All SMHS Games will be at SQHX
JANUARY 5, 2007 (1:00PM) -- BBL has paid their spot.
JANUARY 5, 2007 (11:00AM) -- Finally found out the nitty gritty. I don't feel like talking about it, but it has to do with the left hand not talking to the right hand.
Short story: All Peninsula games on 1/7 will be at SEQUOIA AUXILIARY GYM ("SQHX"), which is through the gate at the left side of the parking lot when you face the school (main gym would be on your right).
Sorry for the confusion. Should have known this was gonna happen. Should have just stuck with SQHX in the beginning. The SCHEDULE/SCORES page will now be populated by today at 12pm. All captains affected by this will be called after the SCHEDULE/SCORES pages go up.
More Scheduling News and Gym Idiocy
JANUARY 5, 2007 (8:00AM) -- Check the AL-P Season Schedule page for more...
- Looks mostly like smooth sailing from here on out.
- Since PFA is struggling and BBL is dominant, might rematch the West intra-repeat on 1/14, forcing both to play in SF (no more than 2 out of 8).
- Fixed 1/28 matchups so that E#1 will have doubleheader, but...
- Will probably move playoffs back to 2/11 to create makeup weekend 2/4.
- This allows E#1 to spread out games, no doubleheader.
- So we may redisperse 1/28 games to 2/4 based on gym balancing issues.
A transcript of why the SCHEDULE/SCORES page didn't go up on Thu...
- Flashback to Wed 1/3. Commish on call to SMHS gym booker: "Is SMHS available this Sunday?"
- SMHS gym booker: "Yes, it's wide open."
- Commish: "Great, I'll call you on Thu with the specific times."
- SMHS: "Talk to booker supervisor in the morning since I won't get in until 1pm."
- Commish on Thu morning, voicemail to booker supe: "Just reconfirming Sunday."
- No word back for 6 hours.
- SMHS booker in v-mail to Commish: "Supe just told me they've got Color Guard in the gym all day Saturday. Sorry, can't do it."
- Commish with puzzled look at his cellphone, thinks: "But I friggin' asked for SUNDAY!" Leaves another voicemail.
- WHAT THIS MEANS TO YOU: If you're scheduled to play in SMHS, I might need to move it to SQHX (Sequoia auxiliary gym).
See the stupid !@#$% I have to deal with?
Glaring payment delinquencies...
- Cali Express: Must pay for 2 spots before tipoff!
- Ballaz By Law: Must pay 1 spot before tipoff!
- Kurruption: Only 3 spots paid. Late fees gonna add up.
- Bomb Squad: Will face auto-forfeit concerns next week.
- Up In Smoke: Will face auto-forfeit concerns next week.
Rise Up, Oakland (Literally) for 1/7
JANUARY 4, 2007 -- Check the Bird's Eye View for the schedule for 1/7, link is above. Due to the gym issues mentioned below, all Oakland games will be earlier than usual. This is the week where we predicted that everyone will have to suck it up. The SCHEDULE/SCORES page will be updated in a few hours.
The good news is, we've checked with IJRC for 1/14 and beyond, and we're looking good. More on 1/14 and beyond in a forthcoming article.
DON'T FORGET TO UPDATE YOUR PAYMENTS TO AVOID AUTO-FORFEITS (AND LATE FEES) THIS WEEKEND!!!
Some Good News, Some Bad News Affecting 1/7
JANUARY 3, 2007 -- Don't forget to check the payment issues in the immediate article below. Meanwhile, here's the bad news first...
- OAKLAND TIPOFFS: We cannot play any later than a 12pm tipoff at IJRC (due to baby shower) and a 3:30pm tipoff at BCRC (due to famed Oakland Rebels youth practice). This means some Oakland teams have to start sucking it up and playing a little earlier than usual. Unless they want to play in SF. And tell us before it's too late.
- OAKLAND GYMS: We're trying to secure something at IJRC so this doesn't happen again. SACC got booked up all of a sudden (probably by the East Bay youth church league). We tried Alameda Point, Merritt and Laney College. Longfellow Middle School in Berkeley is still prohibitively expensive. We're pulling out all the stops. It just ain't happening right now in the thick of youth hoops. Just ask Encinal or Alameda HS, where NJB dominates. Luckily, this will all subside in March.
- GAMES ON SUPERBOWL 2/4: With a domino effect from above, everyone please be prepared to play on 2/4. Last tipoff would be at 1pm, since the Superbowl kicks off at 3pm. Teams that have requested tipoffs later than 1pm will have to suck it up. Not all divisions will play on 2/4. We will have more info as we get closer.
- PAYMENTS: Bears repeating to check the Payments article below, since forfeits and late fees are affected.
Now here's the good news...
- T-SHIRTS: They've been ordered. Apparently a few of you didn't read the FAQ on t-shirts. Relax. It's just a t-shirt (that we can't pay for until we get certain payments in on time). Despite our perennial low-budget hand-to-mouth survival instincts, you will definitely get your t-shirt, so long as you paid on time and online way back. That being said, the vendor has said that only one-third of the shipment will be available this week, but it's crazy logistics getting the tees out to you anyways, so that doesn't change anything -- we'll still be handing out t-shirts at scorer's tables the next 3 weeks.
- LAST SEASON'S CHAMPIONS: We've got your awards, too. Will be distributed like the t-shirts, at scorer's table (maybe) at your game. Remember, it's a logistical nightmare, so please don't get too over-anxious right away.
- WE'RE MOSTLY CAUGHT UP ON STATS: Contact mark@dreamleague.org for specific questions. And be very, very specific. Don't just say, "My stats are wrong." That doesn't help us one bit. You gotta point out the exact game, date, time, location, name of player, what stat is wrong, everything. By doing so, you save us time, otherwise we have to jump into the damn haystack to find your needle.
- STATS IS WORTH ANOTHER BULLET POINT: Almost totally being caught up with stats is a monumental effort led by Mark Chin. It's literally worth another "good news" bullet point to nearly even it all out. If you spot any curiously interesting stats, please let us know and we'll post them for everyone's entertainment.
Payments Audited...It Ain't Pretty
AUTO-FORFEITS IMMINENT IF TEAMS CONTINUE TO NOT PAY ATTENTION
JANUARY 3, 2007 -- Bullet points below updated per new payments.
JANUARY 2, 2007 -- We welcome the New Year on a bit of alert status. As seen on the AL-P Registry of Payments page, half of the AL-P teams are at risk of being auto-forfeited for payment delinquency at this Sunday 1/7's tipoffs.
THE FOLLOWING TEAMS WILL AUTO-FORFEIT AT TIPOFF ON SUNDAY IF PAID ROSTER SLOTS DO NOT EQUAL THE NUMBER OF THE GAME COMING UP THIS SUNDAY:
- Kurruption (bye 1/7) must pay for 4 spots by 1/14 or they will forfeit.
- Bomb Squad must pay for 1 spot or they will forfeit.
- Ballaz By Law must pay for 1 spot or they will forfeit.
- Up In Smoke must pay for 2 spots or they will forfeit.
- Cali Express must pay for 2 spots or they will forfeit.
Should both teams of any particular game auto-forfeit, both teams will receive a loss which will count against their race for .500 and double-elim playoff status.
Use the payment button on the right, or if you are having trouble finding it, click directly to the Payments page.
As you can see, we are well into the season by now and fees have gone up by $1 per game week elapsed. Everyone who pays this week will be paying a cumulative $5 late fee. Fees will continue to go up by $1 each week we have games.
AL-P East Mid-Season Power Rankings
DECEMBER 14, 2006 -- Disclaimer/Intro: As a player, captain and GM who is always looking for new talent and looking to improve my own game, some of the content below will be skewed a bit, though I will try to be as objective as possible. With Torrent doing a great job on the point spreads (keep them coming Torrent!) and giving up in-depth info on the West, I wanted to talk a bit about the AL-P East, just to fill a gap and make things more interesting and fun. I've played against all of the Eastern teams, except for UIS... More info
AL-Premier Predictions for 12/10
I’m going to try to keep this week’s blog short because I still haven’t gotten use to typing with one hand yet since I suffered a fracture index finger in last week’s Dream League Game. This is everything summed up in a quick blog... More info
Scheduling Notes for 12/10
DECEMBER 7, 2006 -- SCHEDULE/SCORES page to be updated within a few hours.
- Byes: Cali (natural bye) and all Western Conference teams except BBL/PFA since the West is running ahead of the East due to the East having an odd number of teams.
- BBL at PFA: This is actually a makeup game and is scheduled at PHRC for scorekeeping purposes. It is projected to be the only game outside of the Peninsula for either of the teams and is needed this week for scorekeeping purposes (7 home games on Peninsula still).
- Kurr at BGmz: Locked at 1:30pm due to scorekeeping. We're hoping both captains can help us scorekeep the 12:30pm game.
- Bnch at UIS: Bnch requested >3p tipoff and UIS wanted even later, but as mentioned on the Bird's Eye, the latest game we can have is 3:30pm at BCRC.
- Juic at Tryb: Tryb with their usual >2p pref.
Corporate Donations Drive
DECEMBER 6, 2006 (7:00PM) -- Even though it's pretty much essential to our survival, we've been way too swamped of late to follow up with you guys about corporate donations. Our newest dreamleague volunteer, Miky Kuo, might be giving you a call to set something up via snail mail (filling out a form) or at this Sunday's games. Thanks for your help as we strive to get all this done before the tax season ends on 12/31.
Major Gym Problems for 12/10
DECEMBER 6, 2006 (4:00PM) -- There's a lot of AAU youth tourneys going on this weekend. SQHS and IJRC are not available and BCRC now has reduced hours. We are trying to plug up the holes, but don't be surprised if we have to postpone some of the following: NL, AAA-P East/South, and REC Oakland. All of these leagues or conferences, we foresee the ability to do makeup games, probably in the morning on 2/4 (Superbowl Sunday). Stay tuned, because while postponement is imminent, IT IS NOT DEFINITE. Schedules will be up in the next 24 hours.
Bay Area Gold Rush Tourney Coming Up!
DECEMBER 5, 2006 -- The deadline for the upcoming Gold Rush Tourney is fast approaching! For the Elite division, we have some new national rankings, which should get interesting as we head into 2007 because there is a parallel elite tourney the same weekend at our Gotham City Games. For our Bay Area tourney, there are also updated lists of teams attending for other divisions, which include Competitive (like our league's AL), 6-Foot, INT/REC (like our AAA), and Masters (35-and-over)... More info
AL-Premier Predictions for 12/3
DECEMBER 1, 2006 -- To make my blogs more fun and interactive, I will be writing my predictions weekly with a point spread handicap for each game just like they do in Vegas... More info
Scheduling Notes for 12/3
NOVEMBER 30, 2006 -- Scheduling notes for 12/3...
- Let me know if there's a typo on the SCHEDULE/SCORES page compared with the Bird's Eye View, which is usually more correct because it's just a text copy/paste whereas SCHEDULE/SCORES involves a lot more error-prone clicking.
- Based on the craziness of this week's scheduling, we will attempt to start scheduling games every Tue instead of Wed. This means all special requests should be emailed before the end of Tue, otherwise you might as well not request it because it's probably too late.
- Bye: BGmz per request. We ended up swapping this one with Cali's bye from 1/7, but when told they were having a game this Sun 12/3, Cali requested a bye for 12/10. So the result is Kurr now has a bye on 1/7. See the updated Season Schedule Matchup article.
- Bomb at Stop: No issues here. Bomb usually wants a game no later than 2pm.
- Prod at BBL: Prod has players coming from Oak 11am game. No other issues.
- SyuF at PFA: SyuF requested >3p tipoff.
- Juic at Cali: Locked in at 4pm with Cali scorekeeping at 3pm and getting discount on Gold Rush Tourney fees.
- Kurr at UIS: UIS requested 6pm tipoff and will scorekeep at 7pm. Kurr stuck with back-to-back with AAA-P Kurr due to AAA-P Grey, REC Cash, and UIS requests. At least AL-P Kurr will play first.
- Tryb at Bnch: Tryb has players at Raiders game, but tipoff at IJRC so hopefully close enough and Raiders get blown out by 4pm. This falls outside Bnch's normal tipoff of <3p, but nothing we can do about that. Tryb will scorekeep the 5pm.
Every Team Will Have to Suck It Up a Little
NOVEMBER 29, 2006 -- Here are some hot items of late:
- We have been getting quite a few 1pm or later tipoff requests. We don't have any additional gym space; it would cost everyone more money to try and find new gyms just for the afternoon. Everyone will need to suck it up once in awhile and play at 9:30 or 10:00 at some point. If someone has a better alternative, such as a new gym where fees are affordable, let us know.
- If your team makes a special request, we will need your help in returning the favor with game scorekeeping, or 1-hour scoresheet compiling (which helps get your stats up faster), before or after your game.
- We could still use more help with the stats. This could be as simple as sticking around after your game to compile your stats, in which we would bump your team's stats up to #1 priority for the week, or helping us get more youth staffers.
On tap for the website Thursday: 12/3 scheduling and notes and Gold Rush Tourney stuff
For Friday: The start of league articles for AAA-P, NL, AL-E, AL-P, and AAA-E.
Chinese Youth with Skillz for LeBron Commercial
NOVEMBER 27, 2006 -- We got a call today from Blake Casting in Hollywood. They are filming the next LeBron James commercial with Microsoft. Probably has something to do with LeBron's deliberate push into the Chinese market.
They are looking to cast a PAID role alongside LeBron. This person must be:
- Genetically Chinese.
- A 10- to 15 year-old BOY (unfortunately not looking for girls).
- An otherwise awesome basketball player with really good skills.
Contact us immediately for more details.
Roster Slot Fees Have Started to Go Up
NOVEMBER 27, 2006 -- Roster slot fees have gone up two bucks from the original price. This is actually one week behind schedule, as we originally said prices would be going up starting 11/6.
We have found this to be the only effective way to get your slow-paying teammates to get moving.
Please be aware that one roster slot per game played must be paid BEFORE TIPOFF, otherwise your team will AUTOMATICALLY FORFEIT. If you cannot pay online by credit card, you can pay the senior Dream League scorekeeper at the scorer's table.
If you pay by cash, be sure it's written down on the scoresheet and signed by you.
WE WILL BE UPDATING PAYMENTS MADE PER TEAM IN THE NEXT FEW DAYS. The payment info currently found on the Rumor Mill will be transferred to each appropriate league page. If you are unsure if certain teammates have paid or not, send us a quick email and we will do a search in our Google Checkout account. A full audit is expected after 12/11 as we hit the Tourney/Xmas/NewYear break.
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