B1 5v5 East

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Spruce401 59  Intramural Heroes 70

Heroes introduce Spruce401 to the league

GAME THREAD: https://twitter.com/CACBasketball/status/1483576053272657920?s=20

Gentlemen, gentlemen, gentlemen! As my JV coach used to say, grab your water, check your athletic supporter and let’s hit the court! 

Week 1 is always a blast. The anticipation to return to the court is palpable. Veteran squads are hoping that the chemistry and jumpers they developed during the previous season are still intact while the rookie clubs are eyeing the competition, trying to showoff in warmups and not come across as nervous. Once the ball is thrown up, though, it’s game on! 

Spruce401 is one of those rookie squads, and they came out hot against the defending division champs Intramural Heroes. Jack Lincoln (7 points, 7 boards) did all his damage in the first half attacking the Heroes bigs. That's the thing, these guys LOOK tall, and I suppose they are, but you can hit them for buckets on the block. Jack did that well last night. 

The first half was tense. IH couldn't hit a 3, starting 0-9, but Ian MacLean (11 points, 4 assists) got the offense going. He pushed the pace in transition, found the right guys for easy looks and convereted hit free throws, which in this league, is saying something! Despite their poor shooting the Heroes eventually built a lead

Right before halftime, the Heroes got a quick 4 points in the final 15 seconds to push their advantage to double digits. What had been a tight, close game seemed turn on a dime.

In the second half I was a little distracted trying to show the new stat-keeper the ropes, so you didn’t get any tweets from me. Greg Bormes (21 points, 5-6 FTs) took on the lead offensive role for Spruce401, which, I assume is a BC reference? Have I mentioned that yet? In the first half, no  player on Spruce401 had more than 7 total points. I couldn’t tell who was going to take the reins but Greg gladly did. His 3 point shot looked good even though it didn't fall consistantly (1-4 each half) but his free throws did. Kennedy is a funky gym. It's tough to get off a corner 3 without stepping on the endline (a reoccuring problem for much of the night) and the rims are pretty loose. 

The Heroes, as they have for seasons on end, had more than enough offensive to keep their opponents at arms length though. Cedric White (23 points, 8 boards) was grumbling before the game that he should be the owner of the Fall 21 MVP award. His teammate Tim Gallivan won it. Cedric wasn’t messing around though, he said right to Tim’s face he thought he was robbed! Nothing builds team chemistry like a little friction, right? Well, after Tim (19 points, 8 boards) carried the load with 14 first half points, Ced did it all in the second half. He bullied his way to the hole, got a bunch of guys to jump on his pump fakes and convered over and over again. The Heroes never ended up shooting well from 3 on the night, but still cruised to a week 1 win

Cummy Thighs 72  Spin'Em 56

Cummy Thighs makes a mess of SpinEms season debut

GAME THREAD: https://twitter.com/CACBasketball/status/1483592775216119817?s=20

Spin’em as a team looked a bit out of sorts in this one, like they all had a 5 AM flight the morning of the game instead of it just being Tommy Kelley’s excuse (0 points, 0-3 3s, 4 fouls). Was it the high expectations of being the preseason #3 squad? Was it REALLY the RepSpecs that Pat Kelley (14 points, 4-12 3s) wore? Missing Struck and Pags? Whatever it was it wasn’t pretty. 

Kelley missed his first 5 3s and scored just 2 points in the first half. It was a surprise to exactly zero observers that he ditched the rec specs during the break. 

@CACBasketball put the league on notice #thekidgotaprescription #recspecs pic.twitter.com/yGl6S0srBG

— Patrick Kelley (@pgkelley11) January 7, 2022

I suppose I should give the Cummy Thighs some credit! They broke open a 30 point halftime tie with some physical defense and unstoppable offense. Travis Sinatra (25 points, 5-7 3s) did his best impression of, well what Pat Kelley usually is! Didn’t matter if a defender was in his face, he was pulling up from distance and usually trotting back on D before the ball swished through the net. His running mate all season will be team captain Doug Horan (21 points, 3-5 3s, 8 boards) and neither had any issues with the step up in competitoin. Of course, this Spin'Em team was floundering in B2 last season, maybe my expectations for them are too high?? They're now almost four years removed from their Spring 2018 title season. Fri Lavey (17 points, 11 boards) can't carry this team forever can he? Jackson Gates (10 points, 3 boards) was solid in the first half of his CAC debut but mostly ignored in the second by his teammates. That's probably because Pat was shooting a lot more. You can't add new blood and then not try to integrate it into the system! 

Jeff Allen (16 points, 3-6 3s) was all about the buckets in the second frame for Cummy Thighs. He and Johno Mastacusa (2 points, 5 assists) had a nice 2 man game going. I like that Allen realized that just because he dumped it down to the post doesn't mean he wasn't going to see the ball back. More guards could learn to trust their bigs like that! 

Spin'Em will (probably) be fine, but I notice the roster is getting a little bloated. Are they really going to try to work 13 guys into games? Who knows, let's move on to week 2! 

Mid-Range Magic 51  5th Seed 70

5th Seed motivated to show out vs MRM

GAME THREAD: https://twitter.com/CACBasketball/status/1483607613996777473?s=20

Eric Sellew (18 points, 4 assists) taking inspiration from my preseason rankings, which I made BEFORE i knew the changes to the roster, seems a little MJ-like. He’s turning a nonexsistant slight, into a slight!  How was I supposed to guess that they’d add a 6’4” “guard” that played at Amherst. The effortlessness that Johnny McCarthy (19 points, 7 boards, 3-5 3s) exuded while on the court is unmatched by anyone in this league. 

He’s one of those guys that when he’s on the floor, everyone rotates to him when he has the ball. You know who took advantage of the MRM guys side-eyeing McCarthy? That’d be both the Sellew brothers. Eric and Chris (13 points, 3-8 3s). Chris was so open on a couple possessions he even took layups! Can you imagine that, a field goal attempt from Chris Sellew that isn’t worth 3 points?? Unheard of. You think I’m kidding? Check the stats, last season he only hit 11 2 point field goals in 8 games. He’s WELL ahead of that pace this season! 

The final score might look like a blowout, but this was another game that was close at the half. Mid Range Magicians were getting a lot of second chance points early on. It’s hard to keep Andrew “Bogut” King (13 points 10 boards) off the boards, even when you know he’s going to be crashing, even when you have the size to hypothetically keep him off the glass it just doesn’t seem to work. They shot well from 3, hitting 4-5 led by Cam Zahner's debut (11 points, 3-6 3s). Cam was so jacked up after hitting his second three of the night he gave KD (0 technicals, 0 bad calls) a high five on his way down the floor! I don't think I've ever seen that.

But in general the volume just wasn’t there for MRM. Their pace was too deliberate and they didn't get enough shots up. You're going to need to score a lot of points in this league to win games!

The second half featured a lot of turnovers and sloppy play and no way to slow down the 5th Seed assault. In general though, despite some of the wider final spreads, I’m excited to see what this league can do the rest of the seaosn. There’s a lot of talent in this league, and I’ve got to say it at least once, no team is as good, or as bad, as they appear in week1! 

Men's League 59  Splash Bros 68

Splash Bros the Real Deal Holyfield

GAME THREAD: https://twitter.com/CACBasketball/status/1483620759482380291?s=20

The Splash Bros made their debut in impressive fashion in the night cap. Men’s League only lost two games last season, and both were to undefeated 7th Floor Crew (now playing in A 5v5 for good reason), so this win is a bit of an early season “PAY ATTENTION TO US” statement for the rookies.

The story coming into the season was of course the anticipated domination of former Princeton Tiger Pete Miller (13 points, 18 boards, 7 blocks). He's very tall people! And his CAC debut did not disappoint. He swatted enough shots in this one to make me think a triple double is only a matter of time while flashing obviously refined footwork and a sweet J that promises to make this Splash Bros offense nearly impossible to guard. Oh and he will throw it down on your head in transition so look out!

Men's League actually has a good match-up for him in former Yale Bulldog Will Childs-Klein (7 points, 15 boards). Will's tall and long and did everything he could on both ends of the floor to negate Pete's presence.

Splash Bros built a 34-28 halftime lead thanks to Alex Kiritsy's (14 points, 4 steals, 2-4 3s) early aggressiveness. He was willing to gamble against the Men's Leagues guards and it led to some early transition points. 

Men's League offense was bailed out by Terry Walsh (16 points 10 boards) on more than one occasion. When no one else could get anything going, Terry did what he had to do, including challenging the big, in getting his buckets.

But Men's League could never slow down the team assault of Splash Bros. I liked what I saw from Zak and Yvon, and they were missing two guys too. This could be a real good team in the league. They built a double digit lead and held it nearly the entire second half.

Late in the game when it looked over, Men's League captain George Shultz (7 points) hit a couple buckets back to back to make me think his squad would make a push for this thing, but Mark Karmiy (23 points, 5 assists, 5-7 3s) was just too much in this one! 

I don't quite think a UMass 3v3 championship has the same cache as having two late tip-ins in the NCAA tournament to NEARLY pull off a 12/5 upset, but Karmiy is playing on the same floor as Miller now and outscroing him. If I were Mark i'd have text him my statline first thing this morning.