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Season 58 Final Ranking Predictions
As I mentioned, I gave the highest weight to total salaries, the second tier weight to 6-10 salaries, and then the base weight rating to top 5, top 8, top 10, and average salary rankings, totaled those up and then divided by 6 to get these rankings. We'll see if I learned my lesson from ranking predictions from last season!

16. Is This Heaven? (no): Div IV.62's champs from Season 57 haven't done anything to upgrade their team upon promotion and their salary total doesn't match the current salary floor of $131k. Manager IOWA's star center is on England's U21 team, but his team high salary of $22k isn't going to match up well against the likes of Tachenko, Ashkickers, etc.

15. The Lone Wolf: lonewolf8's squad has a 71% win rate over more than 400 matches, but their team's salary barely breaches the salary floor. They appear to be evenly distributed with 7 players making more than $10k per week, but there is no standout star. Isaac Livingston, a 26 year old American who stands 7'1" had a good rebounding night in game one, but they're gonna need more than rebounds to stay out of relegation this season.

14. Carolina Rebels: Manager Daisy Merollin (great moniker) has done a decent job training up Center Dewayne Allen who looks to lead this team in the paint. A decent supporting cast should net them some wins, but overall, I think it's going to be difficult for Carolina to compete (plus, I hate them since they're the 'fake' Rebels).

13. Mighty Moose Rockets: Hutch44 has been on a selling spree, finally selling Walenty Kofan today ($108k salary) and they've been consistently listing stud Jean-Louis Fleurent who has appeared in every all star game since season 51, and is the Season 54 III.11 MVP. They still should be able to compete with the likes of David Charles and Giorgio Chiodarelli, but the problem is they don't have much of anything else after that. They have made 1.45 million in transfers over the last month, and if they can successfully sell Fleurent, they'll be well primed to start over - the only question is trainee or superstar? Either way, looks like a fight to stay out of relegation for Hutch44 and dem boys.

12. Żubr Białystok: whitestok's got a couple of great trainees, but I think they need one more season to be super impactful. 10 of their 13 players make up 95% of their roster. They sold Center Huang Yuyao after last season and PG Sam Dickens. They have brought in Center Clark Riggins at $54k and have a solid top 5. They made the play offs last season and I wouldn't be surprised if I'm wrong with this prediction. I do think they'll struggle with bench play.

11. Miami Cleo: packer_22 had a valiant effort last season to avoid relegation and their top 4 salaried players are all 25 years old with Marko Maurin and Damon Santana leading the way as key factors for them. Bench play could be problematic for them as they drop off significantly after their top 6. But they should be able to the win the games they should win and maybe pull off an upset here or there to avoid relegation.

10. San Dominica Warriors: The middle seven teams on this list are all going to be fairly well matched up with tactics and effort being key factors in which one of these teams beat the others with all 7 teams being within $80k in total salary of each other.San Dom's strength will be their bench play - while they rank 14th in top 5 total salary, their 3rd place ranking in 6-10 should help them out. Coach Stephenson did bring in Miguel Tercero, a Spanish 24-year old SF to supplement his roster. They have a solid, evenly distributed core group and should be troublesome for most teams.

Season 58 Final Ranking Predictions - Part 2
9. 2 percent: Manager Ray has a stud center in David Wilmink and then some decent background players to fill out the starting five and bench play. They'll be an interesting team to matchup against as long as he's in the starting line up, but somewhat bizarelly didn't play in their first matchup of the season.

8. The Beer Bellys: thatguy is always leaking self-confidence, but proved me right last season by making the playoffs. He's again stuck in the middle, but as long as his pint glass is half-full, he'll be happy. He brought in 35-year old SF Duilio Angius ($37k) and 31-year old C Pavel Kalinov ($20k) to supplement his roster and as what appears to be replacements for Daniel Anguiano and Florian Allain, both spot improvements. Key player Juan Gilberto Segovia will be bothersome, but their starting 5 should win them several games and their bench play shouldn't be bad.

7. The Ashkickers: Tylormade's squad as made the playoffs 3 years running, so I should know better than to think they're going to finish the season 7th just based on their history. They haven't made any real moves excepting selling a 19-year old MVP potential rookie. They've got a very balanced solid core at the top 6 which seems to make up for any inconsistiences from their bench. PG Lorenzo Rojas from Paraguay will be problematic. I really did think they had what it took to knock out Gremlins in last season's semi-finals, but I was wrong once again!

6. Hustlas: Manager Reece has been around the block, taking ownership of Hustlas back in season 17 in V.34 and having previously taken a trip through USA III.15, 13, 3, 8, 2 with their most recent stint in season 53. Recent addition Josef Talman (C - $76k) joins other relatively recent add-ons Fang Congie (PG - $14k) and Davor Žic (C - $17k). Five players have a salary of $25k+ with 6-10 have more than $14k. Though they're a promotee, they've done this rodeo before and appear well tooled for the task.

5. Lion Rebels: My team is far too reliant on Terry Armstead and my trainees haven't taken off quite as well as I wanted...probably another year before Kurt Brown starts to resemble what I hoped he would be. My 6-10 ranking is pretty low, so I don't know that I'll be as good as this prediction is. I will be surprised if I don't make the playoffs, but after last season, I'm kind of expecting to not make them. Time will tell!

4. Philly Dribble: I did not imagine that I would come into this season with Phil_Wings seeming to be the best team getting beat in the finals and then NOT be listed as #1 in my rankings/predictions. But here we are. They're going to be trouble, but Rip City retooled and Tachenko staring down from the other side, not to mention Linndale...the top 4 teams are going to be fun to watch this season. I don't know that Phil_Wings' team is the worst of the 4, but this is where they end up on my preseason list. No transfers so far, so it looks like they're just going to rely on their own training improvements and hammer at it again.

Season 58 Final Ranking Predictions - Part 3
3. Linndale: Again, three of Speedtraps 15 rostered players are up for sale, with Thomas Lagorce the highest rated being listed for $650k. All told, they could shed nearly $90k in salary, but I would guess, there'd be some form of replacement with at least one player. Still, even if they drop all of that salary, they'd still rank 8th in total salary and would be right in the middle of that pack of 7 competing for a playoff spot.

2. Tachenko: A bit of a surprise here and it would take some work, but I could see it with their backcourt being somewhat of a liability (although, not much of one). They will be tough to score on with their two tower tandem down low and Juan Ramón Buendía coming off the bench. I wouldn't be surprised if they win it all, but we don't know kokka's intentions after fighting to stay in II.2 (making the playoffs two seasons ago!) - I'd imagine it would be nice to take it "easy" for a season, much like Rip City last season.

1. Rip City Revival: speaking of the devil, Jbogoroff's team has been retooled a little bit bringing in Frane Matkovic (35 PF - $19k), Elio Pagnini (35 PF/C - $60k) and selling off 31-year old Utopian PG Thomas Paine ($12k). While they do have five players listed at the moment, I'm guessing they're looking to add one or two more mid-level players for more depth. They're going to be a problem for teams this season.

Conference Standings
Big 8
1. Rip City Revival
2. Linndale
3. Philly Dribble
4. Lion Rebels
5. San Dominica Warriors
6. Mighty Moose Rockets
7. Carolina Rebels
8. The Lone Wolf

Great 8
1. Tachenko
2. Hustlas
3. The Ashkickers
4. The Beer Bellys
5. 2 percent
6. Miami Cleo
7. Żubr Białystok
8. Is This Heaven?

Playoff/Relegation Predictions
Great 8 Playoffs
The Beer Bellys vs. Tachenko
The Ashkickers vs. Hustlas

Great 8 Semi-Final Matchup
The Ashkickers vs. Tachenko

Big 8 Playoffs
Lion Rebels vs. Rip City Revival
Philly Dribble vs. Linndale

Big 8 Semi-Final Matchup
Philly Dribble vs. Rip City Revival

Relegation Matchups
San Dominica Warriors over Żubr Białystok in three
2 percent over Carolina Rebels in two
Miami Cleo over Mighty Moose Rockets in three (two if they complete their fire sale)

Season 58 Championship
Rip City Revival over Tachenko in three (mostly because I'm unsure of kokka's intentions, but believe a season of "rest" would be appreciated).

There you have it - can't wait to find out how wrong I am! Final programming note: almost all of my quips and schticks are tongue in cheek meant to have a little fun.

Day 1 (Saturday 30 July 2022) : Performances by (https://www.buzzer-manager.com)

Night results
Mighty Moose Rockets 89 - Linndale 115
Carolina Rebels 62 - Lion Rebels 111
San Dominica Warriors 81 - Rip City Revival 102
Philly Dribble 108 - The Lone Wolf 84
Tachenko 96 - 2 percent 77
Hustlas 102 - Is This Heaven? 84
The Ashkickers 106 - The Beer Bellys 103
Miami Cleo 93 - Żubr Białystok 85

Best collective performance of the evening
Points : 115 : Linndale
Rebounds : 60 : Linndale
Assists : 31 : Hustlas
Steals : 8 : San Dominica Warriors, Lion Rebels, Rip City Revival
Block Shots : 10 : Tachenko

Personal best performances of the evening
Points : 50 : K. Brown (Lion Rebels)
Rebounds : 21 : R. Mason (Tachenko)
Assists : 8 : M. Pinho (Is This Heaven?)
Steals : 4 : J. Brown (Linndale), K. Brown (Lion Rebels)
Block Shots : 4 : L. Shunhao (Philly Dribble)

Top 5 of the evening
Point Guard : C. Kallay (Tachenko) (27 Points, 0 Rebounds, 7 Assists, 0 Steals, 1 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 25
Shooting Guard : N. Neochoritis (Rip City Revival) (25 Points, 3 Rebounds, 3 Assists, 2 Steals, 2 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 29
Small Forward : K. Brown (Lion Rebels) (50 Points, 12 Rebounds, 4 Assists, 4 Steals, 2 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 54
Power Forward : H. Griffin (2 percent) (24 Points, 10 Rebounds, 2 Assists, 3 Steals, 0 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 28
Center : R. Mason (Tachenko) (27 Points, 21 Rebounds, 6 Assists, 0 Steals, 2 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 42

MVP of the evening
K. Brown (Lion Rebels) (50 Points, 12 Rebounds, 4 Assists, 4 Steals, 2 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 54

The bad performance of the evening
B. Buijtels (Carolina Rebels) (5 Points, 2 Rebounds, 2 Assists, 1 Steals, 0 Block Shots) : Efficiency : -8

All kinds of statistics
The player who forgot to remove his mittens : B. George (Carolina Rebels), N. Samuk (Hustlas) : 5 Turnovers

Player targeted by the referees : J. Segovia (The Beer Bellys) : 6 Personnal Fouls

The iron-man : G. Locus (Miami Cleo), D. Charles (Mighty Moose Rockets), T. Plummer (Carolina Rebels), B. George (Carolina Rebels), K. Brown (Lion Rebels), Y. Delagnès (Żubr Białystok), S. Hatch (Żubr Białystok), H. Griffin (2 percent), A. Salinas (2 percent) : 48 Minutes

The shooter : K. Brown (Lion Rebels) : 6 Three points

The best performer : R. Mason (Tachenko), T. Armstead (Lion Rebels), N. Neochoritis (Rip City Revival) : Rating : 15.0

The worst performer : A. Salinas (2 percent) : Rating : 3.5

Good luck in game two tonight to everyone but Coach Stephenson!

Tonight's Potential Highlight Matchups
Should be a good battle between Rip City on the road against Philly with a face off between guards Miguel Velasco (25 pts on 58% shooting, including 4-6 from three) and Nikky Nay Nay (25 pts on 66% shooting, including 2-5 from three.

The other game I've got my eye on is The Beer Bellys on the road against Miami Cleo after thatguy suffered a heart breaking 3 point loss to The Ashkickers Saturday night. Will they be able to temper Damon Santana (39 pts on 34 shots) with Juan Segovia (27 pts on 21 shots)?

I be daggumed. I figured the zone would slow him down but I was still expecting that son of a gun to have a double double. I just hoped it would slow him down enough to get a win but ... Oh I am going to enjoy this one since this is the first time in 5 games the Terror didn't get a double double.

Last edited by Coach Stephenson at 08/02/2022 23:17:34

Yeah...I tuned in for the last quarter only to watch them go something like 4-17 from the field and blow it. Patient was probably a miscalculation - congrats on the win!

Day 2 (Tuesday 2 August 2022) : Performances by (https://www.buzzer-manager.com)

Night results
Linndale 90 - Carolina Rebels 67
Lion Rebels 83 - San Dominica Warriors 95
Rip City Revival 95 - Philly Dribble 90
The Lone Wolf 93 - Mighty Moose Rockets 88
2 percent 105 - Hustlas 116
Is This Heaven? 57 - The Ashkickers 95
The Beer Bellys 87 - Miami Cleo 103
Żubr Białystok 75 - Tachenko 102

Best collective performance of the evening
Points : 116 : Hustlas
Rebounds : 62 : Tachenko
Assists : 30 : Tachenko
Steals : 10 : The Lone Wolf
Block Shots : 11 : The Ashkickers

Personal best performances of the evening
Points : 50 : B. Lutz (Lion Rebels)
Rebounds : 20 : P. Cheatle (Miami Cleo)
Assists : 9 : J. Segovia (The Beer Bellys)
Steals : 4 : C. Hampton (Tachenko), G. Gattoni (The Ashkickers), N. Sharf (The Lone Wolf)
Block Shots : 4 : T. Armstead (Lion Rebels)

Top 5 of the evening
Point Guard : I. Fuica (The Lone Wolf) (24 Points, 4 Rebounds, 3 Assists, 2 Steals, 0 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 19
Shooting Guard : A. Varpukevicius (Miami Cleo) (44 Points, 3 Rebounds, 3 Assists, 0 Steals, 0 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 41
Small Forward : S. Legkauskas (Hustlas) (43 Points, 2 Rebounds, 1 Assists, 0 Steals, 1 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 32
Power Forward : G. Pullen (Tachenko) (22 Points, 18 Rebounds, 3 Assists, 0 Steals, 1 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 32
Center : Y. Semiramis (The Beer Bellys) (25 Points, 17 Rebounds, 1 Assists, 1 Steals, 0 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 34

MVP of the evening
A. Varpukevicius (Miami Cleo) (44 Points, 3 Rebounds, 3 Assists, 0 Steals, 0 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 41

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

All kinds of statistics
The player who forgot to remove his mittens : E. Albright (Mighty Moose Rockets), T. Armstead (Lion Rebels) : 5 Turnovers

Player targeted by the referees : R. Heard (Mighty Moose Rockets), L. Arevalo (Carolina Rebels), D. Wilmink (2 percent) : 6 Personnal Fouls

The iron-man : A. Gallucci (Miami Cleo), E. Albright (Mighty Moose Rockets), H. Espinosa (Carolina Rebels), D. Winkler (Lion Rebels), M. Carrillo (Lion Rebels), H. Quindós (Żubr Białystok), P. Mari Acuña (2 percent), D. Wilmink (2 percent) : 48 Minutes

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

The best performer : R. Mason (Tachenko) : Rating : 16.5

The worst performer : K. Cruz (Tachenko) : Rating : 4.0

I picked the absolute wrong game to experiment with my lineup, while at the same time I cant remember the last time we only hit one three pointer. Good win Cleo, Varpukevicius absolutely destroyed us by himself.

Wow that was wild. Was not expecting that result. Not looking forward to the rematch. Maybe you can experiment in that game too? (Pretty please)

No mercy...ha ha ha. Dude, you had one of your best players injured and went TIE, still smoked me. You obviously have the better team.

Power rankings this week should reflect your strong win...looking at you Baine.