BuzzerBeater Forums

Hey guys!

Gonna add some discussion to the thread. My league has a contenders/pretenders discussion at this point in the season. I'm obviously not as familiar with this league as I was last year when I was in it, but here's my list of contenders:

Big 8
1. Jiros de Culiacan - Having won the early season matchup with Surfside Corsairs, Jiros is my top pick out of the Big 8. With a starting lineup highlighted by Jan Lukomski, Jiros has the bigs to match up with anyone in this league.

2. Surfside Corsairs - Don't ever sleep on Gerard Colom. With the 2nd highest PPG average and residing in the top 10 in assists, Surfside has the firepower outside and the challengers inside to contend at the top of the conference and the league.

Darkhorse: Arapahoe Arrows - I see Arapahoe as one major transfer purchase away from contending with the big boys. Atoy Tumalaytay is a consistent double-double threat, and though he is coming toward the end of his peak, he still has a few seasons left in him to be a factor for this team. All he needs is a sidekick...


Great 8
1. Buffalo Penguins - Talk about a team built from the inside out. Buffalo has the most dominant frontcourt in the league, highlighted by last year's all-star starters Ormar Ustav and Jamal Muhammed. With a respectable backcourt and solid 6th man, the Penguins are the cream of the crop in the Great 8.

Darkhorse 1.: Noob Squad - Cay Pollmer is ALWAYS in the scoring title and MVP conversation. And while Cay "Kobe" Pollmer has his Shaquille O'Neal in Caca da Bola, every legitimate contender needs a Big 3. Will a 3rd option step up for this team?

Darkhorse 2.: Retroz - Retroz has been the feel good story of the last couple of years. Elevating from a relegation series team to a playoff contender each of the past few seasons, Retroz is still trying to crack through the glass ceiling in the Great 8. Moktar Minkette has this team moving in the right direction though.

Darkhorse 3.: Tallahassee Trees - With the salaries of Bako Utor and Hugo Buhot becoming too much to bear, the Trees seem to be trending away from the top spot. They have (well, had, prior to some of their most recent departures) the pieces to be a legitimate contender, but do they have the money to contend?


Agree? Disagree?

Poll:  Who is your current frontrunner for the title?

Great analysis. Thanks for stopping by and giving us your insight.

It looks to be a 2 way race in both leagues, especially with Tallahassee possibly going into rebuild mode.

Looking forward to how the end of the season will play out !

I keep forgetting to set my lineup haha, twice in a row now (saturday and yesterday)

Not gonna win anything this year, hopefully the real Trees are back next year though

Good to see you back here DJ. Keep adding your take on this league, since it's cool to see you stop by now and again. And real quick, I'll throw in my take on my team's current situation...

TALLAHASSEE, FL. In Florida's capital, one team had been taking USA's Division IV by storm, until money caught up to them. Now, they have countless amounts of cash to spend, but not enough of a wage budget to bring in stars. So what do you do when you have 1.4 million dollars but only $30k left in the wage budget? EXPAND YOUR ARENA.

The Trees are hoping that a big expansion of the Exxon Mobil Arena will not only give enough money to keep stars such as Bako Utor and Hugo Buhot around for a couple more seasons, but also give manager LaRon Jackson's team the flexibility to strengthen the lineup with new players (specifically: a star big man).

Hopefully the Trees successfully expand the arena that already seats 11,280 people, so they can continue to improve and get back into the groove that they had been on for countless seasons.

With the all star game behind us (in which none of my players participated in hmmmm) what are your thoughts and takes on this season as the great 8 conference is as open as ever for anyone to take????

Things have definitely tightened up in the Great 8! With one more game to go in interleague play, my projected standings are:

1. Buffalo Penguins: 12-3
2. Retroz: ??
3. Athens All-Stars: 10-5

I think Buffalo could top Retroz in PD, even if Retroz beats Arapahoe. But I had no idea who to pick in that game. It looks like a complete toss up to me, with one team maybe having a stronger roster but a weaker game shape, while the other has solid contributors but is short a player and has poor game shape for their best player. Mind says Arapahoe, gut says Retroz.

Regardless, that brings us to the home stretch, each team with one more chance to beat its in-conference foes. Athens had two tough losses (not including the Trees, who could still pull off a few "upsets" this time around) the first time through, and I do believe they will end in 3rd. I must apologize to them for excluding them as a darkhorse. Even though they may potentially be 2 games out of 1st heading into the final stretch, you cannot sleep on them as I did. My apologies.

That brings me to Buffalo or Retroz and their marquee matchup (on tv!) on June 27th. This game was hard to predict, as I could see the winner going undefeated the rest of the way and taking 1st place. Difficult task? Yes. Impossible? By no means. They cannot take future opponents for granted, and they have to hope to stay healthy the rest of the way.

With that being said, I think Buffalo is just too much to handle inside, and will take the victory in that game, putting them in the driver seat the rest of the way. Will they go undefeated? That remains to be seen. Cay "Kobe" Pollmer and the high-octane offense Noob Squad pose a slight matchup problem, as the Penguins lost a heartbreaker in OT last time. But when the dust settles at the end, I believe Buffalo will be on top, even if they stumble along the way.

But, it should be an exciting finish!

I can't leave without mentioning my former conference, the Big 8. To probably no one's surprise, whoever wins the Jiros de Culiacan vs. Surfside Corsairs matchup should win the conference, as Surfside trails by 1 game but has a big PD advantage over Jiros. They have a couple of weeks to gear up for their game, and even though Jiros won the first game, I can't quite explain their two losses and have no idea which Jiros team will show up against Surfside. Because of that, and because I think Surfside has the better roster, I'm going with Surfside to take the #1 seed in the Big 8.

Always stick to your gut...

After suffering a four-game losing skid where I forgot to set my lineup each of the four times (whoops...), the Trees uncharacteristically sit in the 4th spot in a very competitive Great 8. However, that doesn't mean we should be completely forgotten about in the playoff picture! I know that these are your projected standings for after Saturday's games, DJ< but what about at the end of the season? What if the Trees go 6-1 in the final third of the season like they should have in the first third (still don't know how I lost to miamiiiii... oh wait! I forgot to set my lineup)? What if Coach LaRon Jackson chooses to pay attention to BB instead of letting his team tank like he is Phil Jackson (same last name too)? What if the Trees actually get a starting big man (or two) to finish off their starting lineup? If all these things happen, I think we may see the Trees back in the top 3 very soon (and if they don't happen, I'm very content with a good draft pick :D ).

As for the violators, our conference is so bad that even when trying to fail I am still in playoff contention.