B Draft League

Commentary by HARRY & CUNDALL...

Sutton Who? 72  Goat Shit 3: Amir’s Revenge 68

Clasby rains fire on the defenseless zone

Everyone knew the news coming into this game that Kap, abandoned his team for one of his thousand vacations a year as did Joel, who might vacation even more than Kap does. Where’s their loyalty to their teams? Meanwhile, Ian was missing Deven, who apparently didn’t enjoy the amount of minutes he got last game. Everyone else was there for Sutton Who? and we got 40 minutes of AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMIR! Also, we got a new ref I’ve never seen before in 8 years in the CAC. TO THE ACTION! 

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMIR, asked me what they should do for defense in this game, because I am the only basketball wizard in this league and I told him they should probably triangle-1 Clasby, because he’s the only real shooter on the team. Well, spoiler (or I guess, non-spoiler alert), they just started the game in a regular zone. That led to, you guessed it, Clasby raining down open jumper after jumper over this porous zone that had more holes in it than the Pats offensive line. Clasby, hasn’t been this open since elementary school “hot shots”. He was winning this game all by himself.

On the other end of the court, GOAT SHIT, was missing all the open looks they were getting. When Ian subbed out early in the first half, he came over to brag about his defense that’s strategy was leave guys wide open. However, GOAT SHIT couldn’t take advantage of those looks initially and Myer, was stuck on someone else’s defensive island. Spencer, was locking Myer up and forcing a bunch of tough looks, that turned out ugly as fuck. 

Around the 7:29 minute mark of the first half GOAT SHIT finally called a timeout, about 5 minutes too late to address Clasby skull fucking them on offense every possession, so they went to man. This didn’t work either, as poor AAAAAAAAAAMIR got exposed by Sweetness on the defensive end and they had to immediately revert back to zone, but this time they dropped AAAAAAAAAAAMIR low, next to Myer, which was smart. That didn’t stop Clasby from hitting shots though as he continued to connect from the top of the key. 

While the new defense did nothing to stop Sutton Who?, GOAT SHIT’s offense finally picked up the pace a bit from deep. Silva, AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMIR and even Ghost started connecting from deep. All three combined to hit 5 first half 3s and this was late in the first half where they hit the most of them. All of a sudden we went into the half with Sutton Who? only up 41-26. Momentum seemed to be shifting a little bit, despite Clasby having as many points as the other team. BACK TO THE ACTION!

GOAT SHIT came out of the break like a team that didn’t want to go home for the winter. AAAAAAAAAAAAAMIR nailed a 3 to start the second half and Silva added another. All of a sudden this game was back into single digits, 41-32. That’s when we get stuck into this long stretch of the lead going back and forth between 8–12 points. GOAT SHIT was doing a much better job of knocking down their open jumpers. This random guy with the ref was encouraging AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMIR to keep letting it fly. AAAAAAAAAAAMIR would do so, hitting 3 second half treys. Silva, would hit 4 of his own and Ghost would add another. To the shock of most people, it was Myer, who wasn’t doing the job offensively. His strategy of just trying to out physical Spencer, really sucked and led to a lot of lost possessions. Myer, can usually out physical almost everyone in this league, but Spencer isn’t one of those guys. 

Sutton Who? wasn’t great in the second half offensively, but they did hit a lot of big shots. Ian, continued to be clutch from deep, hitting 3 second half treys. Spencer, added 2 of his own as well and they all seemed to be during big moments to stop any potential runs. Clasby, wasn’t as hot in the second half, but still managed to contribute. It’s hilarious that this kid had this many points and he would still hesitate with his shot. Clasby, could have a million points and still hesitate when he has an open look. Anyhow, let’s get down to crunch time.

A Silva 3 finally broke the 8 point lead barrier, pulling GOAT SHIT within 6 and then after a failed SW possession, AAAAAAAAAAAAAAMIR splashed a 3, pulling his team within 3! We had a one possession game! Clasby answered with a 2, but then Silva hit one of his 4 treys to make this a 2-point game. Then Myer jumped a passing lane and was on the break, but got called for traveling!!!!!!!!! Wow, what a turning point that was. Maybe in the NBA they don’t call that, but in regular leagues, ohhhh yaaaa! 

It was Sutton Who?’s ball with 1:21 left with Myer used his team’s last timeout, Lisella style, to match up for fouling. SW, got the lead back to 4, but Ghost answered with a 2. Manny, went to the line and made both. Huge free throws from someone who barely touched the ball the whole game. Ice Sutton baby. Myer, then threw up a prayer that missed and Ian grabbed the board. GOAT SHIT couldn’t win or tie at that point and that was that. 72-68 Sutton Who? Final. Sutton Who? hangs on to beat the undermanned GOAT SHIT, but there no bad playoff wins and off to the ship they go. 

Grades

Spencer A: Locking Myer up deserves an “A” by itself. He took all of Myer’s best punches and spat them back at him like he had the 6 infinity stones. 

Manny B: Manny, didn’t have his best offensive game for sure, but he was a good team player and iced the game at the end. 

Ian A+: I mean, it’s tough to ask for anymore than 16 points, 6 boards and 6 assists from Ian. 

Clasby A+: The best game of Clasby’s life that I spent a season trying to drag out of him. 

Sweetness B-: His shot was off, but I like the aggressiveness from him.

GOAT SHIT

Myer D+: Myer, didn’t have a bad game, he boarded and passed well. However, 9 points won’t cut it and his strategy of scoring on Spencer wasn’t great. 

Ghost/AMIR/Silva B: This is going to be a group grade, because they all scored well above their weight and did their part on the offensive end of the floor. However, the shitty defense to begin the grade really cost them the win. 

Letalien Stallions 75  Learner No More 77

Call Him Daddy

Coming into this matchup, the biggest storyline was the Koller vs. Harry rivalry and how that would impact the game (spoiler alert it delivered). Two more storylines emerged prior to the start of the game, however. First, I was told that Harry and Cawley were plotting to combine forces as long as Cawley was willing to take Vladi with his first pick. Cawley, seemingly was unwilling to go along with that route and as a result Harry captained his own team and selected Vladi in the first round, while Cawley ended up with Pollock and Koller. That might go down as one of the bigger what ifs in recent B Draft history, depending on what happens next week in the championship. Second, we had a ref swap. In the first game, the ref let a lot of stuff go and wanted both teams to play ball. Now we had a new ref coming in and it was unclear how he was going to call it. There was only one way to find out so let’s get into the action!

I’ve watched a lot of B Draft basketball in my day and I have to say this was one of the better played games I can remember. Both teams started very hot and the game was being played at a really nice pace. The first big moment came when Vladi was fouled on a deep two. Vladi is a streaky shooter at times and when he’s hitting contested shots like that its usually not a good sign for the other team. As for the Harry vs. Koller matchup things started off slow, though we did get an early cackle after a missed layup from Koller. Meanwhile playoff Harry moved faster than he has in years on a backdoor cut for a nice layup off a pass from Vladi. 10 minutes into the game it was 23-21 Learner No More and as you can see by that score, defense was optional. Harry’s strategy of a triangle and one on Pollock was working in that it was limiting Pollock who only scored five first-half points, but it opened things up down low. Cawley, Koller, Cam and Emerson were all getting whatever they wanted near the rim as the lack of size on Learner No More was evident.

We had another flashpoint right after that as Amir told me Koller blew a kiss in Harry’s direction after he knocked down a long jumper (I didn’t witness this, but Amir wouldn’t lie so it must have happened). Soon after that, Cawley knocked down a three and Letalien Stallions found themselves up by a bucket. Learner No More would answer quickly through Vladi and then the complaining started. Both teams were yapping, and it got to the point where the official had to step in and tell everyone to shut up and play basketball. Pollock knocked down one of his two first half shots with five minutes left in the half to take the lead back at 31-30, but the rest of the half was all Learner No More. They would close the half on a 11-2 run which included Vladi hitting a deep three while getting fouled by Koller, another three and an Xavier layup as the half expired. That layup gave us a 41-35 Learner No More lead with 20 minutes of basketball remaining. Cawley, showing no effects from his recent worldwide travels, led the way for Stallions with 10/4/4, while Pollock, Koller, Cam and Emerson all had 5-8 points. Meanwhile, for Learner No More, Vladi led the way with 22, Calvin had 9 and Xavier had 6.

Before we get to the second half, some additional context is needed about events prior to the game. At 10 am, Harry sent a text message to Vladi that said, “I want to shoot tonight.” Vladi had the response most of us would have to that message responding “no no no.” What Vladi didn’t take into account was this was not regular season Harry saying that it was playoff Harry and shoot was what he did to start the second half. Learner No More started with the ball and it quickly found Harry at the top of the key. Without hesitation he pulled the trigger and nailed it extending the lead to 44-35. On the next possession, Koller answered with a two of his own. Harry then immediately answered with another jumper, which Koller followed with a tough fadeaway over Harry. Harry was clearly not impressed with that shot and answered with another three right in Koller’s face. I can’t remember the last time Harry had a sequence like that, but he scored eight points in a few minutes and we were getting the Harry-Koller shootout that everyone wanted to see.

After that explosive start to the half, things leveled off a bit as Learner No More maintained a five or so point lead. With 10 minutes left, Vladi hit a three to push the lead to eight at 60-52 and Letalian Stallions was on the edge. Pollock and Koller combined for a quick 5-0 run with a big and one from Koller making it a two-point game. Vladi answered with a layup to push the lead to four points at 62-58. Soon after that, Learner No More committed their seventh foul of the half, which meant Stallions were shooting free throws for the rest of the game. A pair of possessions with free throws put it at 66-64 Learner No More with eight minutes left and the score remained that way for the next few minutes as both teams got a bit sloppy, forcing shots and committing bad turnovers. Calvin was the first person to find the basket after this period of no scoring knocking down a big three to extend the lead to five at 69-64 with six minutes left. That basket seemed to really open things up for both teams as Cawley immediately followed with a layup, then Calvin hit another three, which Pollock answered making it 72-69. After a big stop, Cam nailed a jumper to make it 72-71 with four minutes left. In this next two-minute stretch, Stallions were getting the stops they needed, but just couldn’t make a shot.

They got plenty of good looks, but they just weren’t falling so at just before the two-minute mark they started to foul. Cawley wasted two fouls prior to the two-minute mark for no good reason and eventually it got to one and one with 1:50 left. Xavier knocked down both free throws to make it 74-71 and Cawley answered with two free throws of his own after he got hacked at the rim. Stallions fouled again and Harry made the first, but missed the second meaning it was a two point game with just over a minute left. After the ball moved around a bit it ended up in Pollock’s hands and he made a strong move to the hoop and finished at the rim to make it a tie game at 75-75! Harry decided to hold for the last shot so for the next 35 seconds people were waiting for Vladi to make his move. He did with around 12 seconds left, but he was cut off and forced to pass to Xavier. Xavier cut towards the middle and then turned around and tried a one footed jumper from just inside the foul line. After he had struggled to defend Vladi all night, Pollock made a great play blocking the shot and it fell to the court. Xavier, Koller and Cawley all went for the ball and nobody could grab it. The ball was batted out towards the three-point line and somehow ended up getting caught in-between Harry’s legs. In one motion, he grabbed it and passed it to a wide open Vladi in the corner (I have no idea how Harry knew Vladi was there, but this was a great pass) who nailed a jump shot as time expired. Learner No More erupted in chants of “daddy, daddy, daddy” for Vladi, as Letalien Stallions fell to the floor lamenting what had just transpired. Learner No More 77, Letalien Stallions 75.

Learner No More
Vladi A+: Carried his team throughout and hit the game winner.

Calvin B+: If there was such a thing as a quiet 20 this was it, but hit two huge threes in the closing minutes

Harry A+: Hit almost every shot he took and corralled the loose ball for the game winning assist.

Xavier B: Quiet game for the most part on offense, but did a great job defending Pollock.

Mike B-: Good defense, but struggled on offense a bit.

Glynn B-: Had a great block and nice pass, but didn’t have many looks on offense.

Letalien Stallions
Koller B+: Started slow, but came on to put up a 21/10/3 is a solid line, but felt he left a few points on the court, especially at the end.

Cawley A: Played great in his return, but his inability to grab that loose ball after the block at the end hurts.

Pollock B: Had a tough job on offense, but still hit some big shots and passed really well. Grade is brought down because Vladi cooked him far too much.

Cam A-: Had some really nice moments on offense and hit some big free throws down stretch.

Emerson B: Had a really nice first half, but very quiet second.

Guns C+: Had a great pass to Cawley for a big three, but would have liked to see at least one of his threes fall.