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lol - all good, friend. Kicked myself for not going normal though!

I can't be mad at him. I would have done the same thing at 0-3 and my game 5 be facing that Philly Buzzsaw. Question is are you gonna go Hail Mary crunch time or go TIE and gain the enthusiasm

Week 2 Power Rankings
Welcome to this week's edition of DIV III.11 Power Rankings! See my previous power rankings post for details on how I'm pulling this ((314150.24)) - without further ado:

1. Gremlins - No surprises here - still undefeated and never really challenged (though Miami at least kept pace with them and only lost by 12). Slight dip in Gremlins efficiency, but is now leading the league overall in that. They also lead the league in allowed Opponents' EFF.

2. Ashkickers - Ashkickers are the closest to Gremlins, but we're deprived of this matchup for another week. No struggles for them this week to remain undefeated after four games. They too saw a slight dip in EFFG while they improved their OPP EFF by nearly 9 points.

3. The Beer Bellys - our first leap up comes from "thatguy"'s squad who've taken to DIV III quite well, though it is admittedly on the heals of defeating what appears to be two of the worst three teams in the Great 8. No shame in getting a win (but great shame in experiencing a loss in a game you should've won - see commentary below). Beer had the second highest EFFG improvement from last week and held even with their OPP EFF, resulting in this ranking.

4. Philly Dribble - our first Big 8 team in the power rankings, though they have an argument to be in the top three overall. Phil_Wings team took care of business with two potentially dangerous foes to be our final undefeated team in this list and this coming week appears to be a cake walk for them. Their EFFG dropped compared to the first week of the season, but they improved their OPP EFF.

5. Linndale This hot up and comer is playing good defense and have surprised a few teams this season with their tenacity. Even though they're middle of the pack in EFFG, they're still top 3 in OPP EFF. They suffered their first loss this week but dominated their other game to come in 5th, up from 6th.

6. San Dominica Warriors This week's largest mover, jumping 5 spots. The Warriors handled the dirty work this week and in the process improved their EFFG by nearly 20 points and their OPP EFF by almost 15. Relatively tough matchups for them this week against Mighty Moose Rockets and the Lion Rebels.

7. pintipv Holding stead in the rankings this week, pint's crew weathered the storm of Melon Collie's squad and then suffered their first defeat to Zubr. However they improved on their EFFG by almost 7 points. They face the true test this week going up against 1 & 2 in these rankings.

8. Mighty Moose Rockets MMR saw a significant dip in their own EFFG but improved on their OPP EFF. Even though they lost both their matchups this week to clunk to a 1-3 start, Walenty Kofan and Jean-Louis Fleurent are nothing to sneeze at!

Last edited by Baine at 5/12/2022 4:28:23 PM

Week 2 Power Rankings Continued
9. Lion Rebels After defeating Linndale in a highly anticipated matchup, Lion Rebels fell prey to the "look past em" fever, getting nailed by SuperSonicz. EFFG stayed even, but they saw a drop in their OPP EFF. They are up a place in this list from last week, but (personally) it feels like a failure. Shame on you Kurt Brown (49430480) for crapping the bed in that game! (Also, great managing by iBeStrugglin).

10. Rip City Revival - I know this is the "middle of the pack" but I don't want to face JBogoroff's squad this week! After handling the War Birds, they got ripped by Philly. Good test this week for them to solidify their ground. They improved their EFFG and stayed even on their OPP EFF.

11. Weather Society - Melan Collie's strategy appears to just try and score as much and as quickly as possible and, in terms of EFFG, it's working! Yes, they're still defeated, and yes, their Defense leaves much to be desired (ranked last in OPP EFF) so I don't anticipate them translating much into wins, but in terms of the "bad" teams, they might be the best!

12. Żubr Białystok - whitestok's team doesn't deserve to be this low, but a week in which you face off against what appears to be the best this division has to offer is going to make you hurt. I fully expect them to bounce back with two wins this week, bringing them to even on the season. They did improve on their EFFG from the first week, but they're still ranked in the bottom half for OPP EFF.

13. Seattle SuperSonicz - time will tell what their roster overhaul will do for them, but after their stunning win against my squad this week, they've bumped themselves up a bit. We'll see what that enthusiasm hit does for them, though I imagine they'll make up some ground in their matchup with Philly this week. iBeStrugglin has improved his team's EFFG while also improving on their OPP EFF rating. Do they have enough to contend for a playoff spot after their early season slump?

14. Miami Cleo - packer_22's squad has a solid youngish core, but they just haven't been able to compete to a high enough level to beat anyone - they're not getting blown out too badly, but they haven't been able to keep it close enough to try for a win in their first four matchups. They're struggling with EFFG, ranking dead last in both weeks of the season, but they rank in the middle of the pack in terms of OPP EFF. They face the other bottom dwellers in the Great 8 this week - who will come out on top of the smelliest hay stack?

15. War Birds - Grimhawke's team took the biggest stumble in the rankings, dropping from 9th all the way here. The first week of the season they were ranked 7th in EFFG, but this week they dropped 10.5 points to 14th and their already high OPP EFF moved up slightly, resulting in their tumble. I am interested in their matchup with Linndale, but Philly is a lost cause. Hopefully they'll enter week four at 2-4, rather than 1-5.

16. Dallas Bomskwad - I'm curious to see what Dallas recent star C acquisition will do for them after selling off their two biggest stars. But for this week, they b strugglin'. Ranked 2nd to last in EFFG (down four spots) and at the bottom of the line for OPP EFF, do they have enough to turn it around? Grigoropoulos struggled in his first DIV III.11 matchup, but that was against the Ashkickers. Will they be able to turn it around against Zubr and Miami?

I'm pretty sure that next week's power ranking will be FAR different for my Bellys...we are not even in the top five right now but thank you for the generous ranking. I think you may have taken advantage of too many of the beer samplers at my arena while writing your rankings haha.

That's fair (and I did). But that's why I like using this efficiency method because it should give us some variance in rankings week to week. I'll probably switch it up as we go to take into account DOMINATION and WEAKNESSES, but we'll see.

Day 5 (Saturday 7 May 2022) : Performances by (https://www.buzzer-manager.com)

Night results
San Dominica Warriors 78 - Mighty Moose Rockets 105
Rip City Revival 58 - Lion Rebels 76
Philly Dribble 99 - Seattle SuperSonicz 65
Linndale 132 - War Birds 124
Gremlins 118 - The Beer Bellys 94
The Ashkickers 100 - pintipv 68
Dallas Bomskwad 83 - Żubr Białystok 109
Weather Society 68 - Miami Cleo 116

Best collective performance of the evening
Points : 132 : Linndale
Rebounds : 63 : Miami Cleo
Assists : 31 : Linndale
Steals : 11 : Miami Cleo
Block Shots : 14 : San Dominica Warriors

Personal best performances of the evening
Points : 45 : V. Sesamo (The Ashkickers)
Rebounds : 25 : T. Armstead (Lion Rebels)
Assists : 10 : T. Lagorce (Linndale)
Steals : 4 : F. Carrillo (Lion Rebels)
Block Shots : 8 : V. Valladares (San Dominica Warriors)

Top 5 of the evening
Point Guard : T. Lagorce (Linndale) (30 Points, 3 Rebounds, 10 Assists, 3 Steals, 0 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 31
Shooting Guard : A. Zakrzewski (Gremlins) (38 Points, 3 Rebounds, 1 Assists, 1 Steals, 0 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 40
Small Forward : V. Sesamo (The Ashkickers) (45 Points, 1 Rebounds, 2 Assists, 2 Steals, 1 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 37
Power Forward : W. Kofan (Mighty Moose Rockets) (24 Points, 19 Rebounds, 3 Assists, 0 Steals, 0 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 35
Center : T. Armstead (Lion Rebels) (17 Points, 25 Rebounds, 3 Assists, 1 Steals, 0 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 31

MVP of the evening
A. Zakrzewski (Gremlins) (38 Points, 3 Rebounds, 1 Assists, 1 Steals, 0 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 40

The bad performance of the evening
A. Huerta (Seattle SuperSonicz) (0 Points, 11 Rebounds, 1 Assists, 0 Steals, 1 Block Shots)C. San Buenaventura (Weather Society) (0 Points, 0 Rebounds, 0 Assists, 1 Steals, 0 Block Shots) : Efficiency : -4

All kinds of statistics
The player who forgot to remove his mittens : N. Spruill (Weather Society) : 7 Turnovers

Player targeted by the referees : G. Chiodarelli (Mighty Moose Rockets), R. Kiaulius (War Birds) : 6 Personnal Fouls

The iron-man : G. Locus (Miami Cleo), J. Fleurent (Mighty Moose Rockets), J. Pugejs (Seattle SuperSonicz), F. Cristancho (Seattle SuperSonicz), B. Lutz (Lion Rebels), Y. Delagnès (Żubr Białystok) : 48 Minutes

The shooter : A. Varpukevicius (Miami Cleo) : 8 Three points

The best performer : M. Velasco (Philly Dribble) : Rating : 16.5

The worst performer : M. Mezzalira (Gremlins) : Rating : 4.5

Week Three Games of the Week
Matchups seem pretty scattered this week, in terms of conference standings (1 vs. 7, 2 vs 8, etc), though I am interested to see if Miami Cleo continues its apparent pivot to dominance by blowing out Dallas Bomskwad like they did Weather Society. At any rate, here are the two match ups I've got my eye on with curiosity tonight:

Great 8's 2 Seed vs 3 Seed
thatguy's squad was predictably easily handled by Gremlins on Saturday night, while Ashkickers kicked ash in welcoming pintipv to DIV III. The Beer Bellys travel to "The Basketball Center" (which, you gotta admit, is original!) in which they bring their top three offense (ppg) against Ash's top tier defense (ppg allowed). Both teams are a half percentage point apart in field goal percentage (43.7% and 43.2%), while Tylormade's 3 point percentage leads the league and is nearly 50%! On paper, it might seem like Ash is going to dominate...but we're talking about (by efficiency still) two of the top four teams in the league facing off. In the end, I give it to Ashkickers. Not a complete domination, but I'm going Ashkickers 97 - Beer Bellys 88.

Big 8's 5 Seed vs. 4 Seed
Sure Rip City Revival demoted and claimed "rebuilding" (which, fine, they are), but they're still competitive, with a great shot of making the playoffs. Mighty Moose Rockets have had a biizarre loss to War Birds, and close loss to Philly, a blow out to newcomer Linndale, and then dominated then 3 seed San Dominica Warriors. I can't get a read on this team. Doesn't help Hutch44 that his prize player is out with a bruised knee (Walenty Kofan averaging 20.4 PTS and 13.0 REBS per game to go along with a 14.5 rating. Neither team are scoring machines and they're both middle of the pack in ppg allowed. But, this is an intriguing matchup because, in terms of efficiency, they're 6th (MMR) and 7th (Rip) in the league. As it is, I think it would be a tight matchup with Kofan playing, based on prior stats)...with that being the case, I'm going Rip City 88 - MMR 83.

Day 6 (Tuesday 10 May 2022) : Performances by (https://www.buzzer-manager.com)

Night results
Mighty Moose Rockets 48 - Rip City Revival 70
Lion Rebels 59 - San Dominica Warriors 68
Seattle SuperSonicz 83 - Linndale 104
War Birds 80 - Philly Dribble 111
The Beer Bellys 79 - The Ashkickers 99
pintipv 92 - Gremlins 116
Żubr Białystok 129 - Weather Society 92
Miami Cleo 82 - Dallas Bomskwad 67

Best collective performance of the evening
Points : 129 : Żubr Białystok
Rebounds : 70 : Rip City Revival
Assists : 32 : Gremlins
Steals : 12 : Żubr Białystok
Block Shots : 17 : Miami Cleo

Personal best performances of the evening
Points : 27 : A. Varpukevicius (Miami Cleo), V. Sesamo (The Ashkickers), D. Minkinen (Żubr Białystok)
Rebounds : 24 : S. Hatch (Żubr Białystok)
Assists : 13 : D. Nava (Gremlins)
Steals : 3 : A. Varpukevicius (Miami Cleo), W. Graf (Miami Cleo), L. Rojas (The Ashkickers), T. Lagorce (Linndale), G. Iachetti (Gremlins), K. Brown (Lion Rebels), S. Dickens (Żubr Białystok)
Block Shots : 8 : A. Gallucci (Miami Cleo)

Top 5 of the evening
Point Guard : D. Nava (Gremlins) (13 Points, 7 Rebounds, 13 Assists, 2 Steals, 0 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 32
Shooting Guard : A. Varpukevicius (Miami Cleo) (27 Points, 11 Rebounds, 3 Assists, 3 Steals, 1 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 37
Small Forward : G. Iachetti (Gremlins) (20 Points, 10 Rebounds, 4 Assists, 3 Steals, 0 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 23
Power Forward : S. Hatch (Żubr Białystok) (14 Points, 24 Rebounds, 4 Assists, 2 Steals, 0 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 35
Center : W. Chan Kiew (Gremlins) (22 Points, 11 Rebounds, 4 Assists, 0 Steals, 1 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 35

MVP of the evening
A. Varpukevicius (Miami Cleo) (27 Points, 11 Rebounds, 3 Assists, 3 Steals, 1 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 37

The bad performance of the evening
Y. Galileos (Rip City Revival) (1 Points, 2 Rebounds, 0 Assists, 0 Steals, 0 Block Shots) : Efficiency : -5

All kinds of statistics
The player who forgot to remove his mittens : A. Langley (pintipv) : 6 Turnovers

Player targeted by the referees : A. Huerta (Seattle SuperSonicz), L. Baião (San Dominica Warriors), W. Chan Kiew (Gremlins), B. Lutz (Lion Rebels), O. Laks (pintipv), D. Donlon (pintipv), A. Langley (pintipv) : 5 Personnal Fouls

The iron-man : A. Gallucci (Miami Cleo), D. Charles (Mighty Moose Rockets), C. Simpkins (Mighty Moose Rockets), K. Brown (Lion Rebels), S. Hatch (Żubr Białystok) : 48 Minutes

The shooter : H. Šapiras (Żubr Białystok), C. Taylor (Weather Society) : 5 Three points

The best performer : M. Velasco (Philly Dribble), T. Grigoropoulos (Dallas Bomskwad) : Rating : 16.5

The worst performer : E. Hess (Miami Cleo), M. Cornwell (Weather Society), A. Langley (pintipv) : Rating : 5.5

Week Three Games of the Week Recaps
Offense (for some of us) seems down this season, when in truth it's up...(one caveat to this - last season's premiere walkover team, Solana Tides, was bot for almost the whole season and only averaged 51.2 ppg...take them away and the PPG for last season jumps 3 points). On the surface, Season 56 had 6 teams averaged more than 102 PPG, 8 averaged more than 95, and 11 averaged more than 91. This season, we have 2 teams averaging more than 102, 5 teams averaging more than 100, 8 with more than 95, and 10 teams with more than 90. What we're really seeing is a more competitive dynamic, even though we have three epically great teams (here's to you, Philly, Gremlins, and Ashkickers), two (maybe three) terriblish teams (sorry Weather and Dallas - still can't believe you beat me Seattle!) and 10 teams slogging it out in the middle with varying degrees of success. From my perspective, it will be interesting to see how the bottom half of the playoffs and top half of relegation series shape up over the course of this season between Linndale (I still don't believe your 5-1 record, though you've spent smartly to get there!), Rip City, San Dom, myself, MMR, Zubr, Beer, and pintipv (you might have a chance Cleo, and War Birds...you gotta pull off a few more wins here or there with how close you're keeping things!)

Beer Bellys @ Ashkickers
Beer came in shooting and Ash came out patiently and the results were worse than I predicted. The Bellys couldn't consistently hit their three ball, going 7-27 from beyond the arc, while Ashkickers waited it out and saw a nice 27 and 25 point performance on the evening from SF Sesamo and SG Gattoni. Ash also dominated the boards, outrebounding Beer by 21 on the night. Down 15 at the half, it seemed hopeless, and then Ash beat them into submission going up 25 by the end of the 3rd, making thatguy's last period effort to outscore the opponents a fruitless attempt. Ash wins by 20 to maintain their undefeated streak.

Mighty Moose Rockets @ Rip City Revival
I should've guessed that MMR would struggle more with star C Kofan out for the night. Andrew ALbrecht filled the hole for MMR on the evening, scoring 6 points in 32 minutes and pulling down only 5 rebounds. Rip, on the other hand, came in with a patient approach, and while this wasn't a high scoring affair (with one team scoring 20 points only once in a quarter the entire game and only 5 players total in double digits, with no one scoring more than 15 points), this game didn't appear very exciting to watch. Both teams scored less than 30% of their field goal attempts, with the determining factor appearing to be Rip City nearly doubling MMRs rebound total (70-38), making it a little comical that they had as many rebounds as they had points on the evening. I'm not gonna bother watching the game because it looks terrible.

As for the fallout from both games, Rip City moved up two spots in the Big 8 to #3 while MMR dropped 2 slots to #6. On the other side, Ashkickers maintained their 2nd place spot despite being undefeated, only 5 PD behind Gremlins, while Beer dropped below Zubr in the standings, but still is in 4th place because of PD over pintipv.

Week 3 Power Rankings coming Thursday or Friday. Good luck in BBM and the Cup!

Week 3 Power Rankings
There's some decent movement in the power rankings this week! Who's at the top? (spoiler alert: not a surprise) Who moved up the most? Who nosedived? Find out in the coming paragraphs below!! *Side Note* Overall ranking will be at the front and actual place in standings in their conference will follow their name in parenthesis.

1. Gremlins (1)
Another week, same story at the top for Gremlins' manager Gizmo, who has his team keeping steady. Good improvement on EFFG with a slight reduction in Opp EFFG, but staying steady at the top and undefeated. Week 4 brings us the eipc showdown, with The Ashkickers coming into The Temple of Doom, where Gizmo hopes to remain undefeated in front of a sellout crowd.

2. The Ashkickers (2)
As I mentioned earlier this week, Tylormade's crew only trails Gremlins in PD by 5 and remain undefeated. They held steady at EFFG and improved their Opp EFFG to stay pat, with the looming matchup on Saturday night. Ash handled 3rd and 4th seeded Great 8 teams without trouble, further establishing that there is an elite two in the Great 8. In season 56, Tylormade edged Gremlins in the first matchup by 1 point, then lost toward the end of the season on the road before succumbing to them in the semi-finals of the playoffs. Have they made up ground?

3. Philly Dribble (1)
Phil_Wings swept out the bottom rung of the Big 8 this week, improving their EFFG and Opp EFFG to move up the rankings one place. Philly gets to showcase against 2nd seeded Linndale on Saturday night before returning to the gutter (but this time on Great 8's side).

4. Linndale (2)
Is Efficiency the best measurement for this? At the top of this rankings, it sure seems to be with 6 games under our belts. Speedtraps acquisition of Kyle Knowles has seemed beneficial so far, scoring 35 points in two games on 15-27 shooting. Will it be enough to compete on the road against Philly?

5. The Beer Bellys (4)
As predicted, thatguy's team had a rough go of it, facing the top two ranked teams in the division, losing ground on both EFFG and Opp EFFG, however, they'd been playing at such a high level, they're still up here in the rankings. Even though they slid two spots, they should still feel good, as long as they play well against pintipv and Mighty Moose Rockets, with both games coming at home. They've also brought in a 36 year old PG, Ignacio Avellaneda from Spain to shore up their backcourt.

6. San Dominica Warriors (4)
Coach Stephenson held his team steady this week, first losing what could have been a winnable game (I think?) to Mighty Moose Rockets and shutting Lion Rebels down, holding them to less than 60 points on the night. Should be an interesting matchup with Rip City Saturday before facing certain death against Gremlins.

7. Mighty Moose Rockets (6)
Sure, Hutch44's squad has four losses and only two wins, and while Tuesday night's loss to Rip City was BAD (only 48 points scored without Kofan), it was indeed without Kofan, who might be the best center in the division. This coming week, they face Rebels and Beer (great name for a bar!), but perhaps their improvement on Opp EFFG is timely to help vault them up the standings in the Big 8.

8. Żubr Białystok (3)
whitestok's group rebounded well after last weeks domination by the top of the Great 8, cleaning up the dustbin at the bottom of the conference, improving by double digits both their EFFG and Opp EFFG to make a pretty big jump (4 spots) in the rankings. An interesting game against Miami Cleo is on the horizon and what will the SuperSonicz bring town after that? Will they continue to climb their way up and prove they're the best of the rest of the wannabes in Great 8?