HatchetBall 2017-2018 Playoffs

2017-2018 Playoffs

	1. Yellow

4. Grey		1. Yellow
	4. Grey
5. Light Blue
			3. Red
3. Red			Champion
	3. Red
6. Dark Blue		3. Red

	2. Blue

Round One, Game One: #3 Red (Garmes) versus #6 Dark Blue (Konrath)

-Coming into this game Red opened as 13.5 point favorites. After Luke was ruled out with a sprained ~~puss~~ knee the line swelled to 19.5 points. After the first 10 minutes of this game everything seemed to be playing out as expected with Red hitting seemingly every 3 pointer they took and Dark Blue calling a timeout down 29-17. After the timeout dark blue went on a 20-3 run led by Steigerwald and Dark Blue's 3rd round pick Keith Schuck taking a 5 point lead. Dark Blue led by 4 at halftime thanks to Mike's 24 first half points. With Red putting more of a focus on stopping Steigerwald in the 2nd half the game stayed tight and neither team could pull away. Keith fouled out with about 6 minutes to go leaving an already undermanned Dark Blue team even more vulnerable. Dark Blue up 4 with 4 minutes to go just had to find a way to get scoring from someone else other than Steigerwald. This though wouldn't happen and some key steals and buckets by Red down the stretch sealed Dark Blue's fate with a 72-68 Red victory. This game really showcased how important role players are to winning in the playoffs, Dark Blue's role players were given wide open shots time and time again and couldn't convert enough to pull out the major upset. This game also showed that even though Red is considered a deep team they only have 3 guys that can beat you, 66 of their 72 points were scored by Harrigan, McGinty, or O'Malley. Up next for team Red is a matchup with the 2 seed team Blue which is sure to be a high scoring game. (Guest Report by: Matt V)

Round One, Game Two: #4 Grey (Spadoni) versus #5 Light Blue (Tierney)

-Light Blue came in to this game missing 2 key contributors. The other Harrigan was out with a bad calf and Kevin "Luke-a-Like' Guinane was away on business. This game really lacked excitement with Grey holding a double digit lead for most of the game. Troy did his best to keep Light Blue in this game by scoring 21 points and hitting some key shots, but with only 6 guys and with a full Grey squad it just wasn't enough. Team Grey looked solid but unspectacular in this game but they really didn't need their best effort to win this one. Up next team Grey faces off with the 1 seed team Yellow a team that they handled earlier in the year with relative ease. This is the playoffs though and team Grey even with a lot of solid players only has 1 Hatchetball title between them all, where as Team Yellow has 9 combined titles on their roster. (Guest Report by: Matt V)

Round Two, Game One: #3 Red (Garmes) versus #2 Blue (Vito)

-After Robby moved down ‘Ole Nashville-way, this game was probably a foregone conclusion. Blue kept it close in the first half, exploiting Team Red’s porous defense, but it was only a matter of time before their three-pronged outside attack of Irish shooters pushed this game out of reach. The last time three guys with the surnames of Harrigan, McGinty, and O’Malley combined for such disastrous long bombs, the IRA was terrorizing protestant churches in Belfast. Team Blue didn’t have much to fight back with; losing your first round pick is an insurmountable handicap. Team Blue, technically, lost its first and second round picks. Rob’s career ends with a whimper.

Round Two, Game Two: #4 Grey (Spadoni) versus #1 Yellow (Matt V)

-Team Grey should go down as one of the more disappointing teams to be assembled in HatchetBall history. Depending on how you classify Jerry’s Marcus Smart-like contributions (has there ever been an easier comparison?), this team had 3 of the top 10-15 players in the league. The problem, of course, was that all 3 have critical flaws that render them ineffective in certain matchups. When Team Grey lost some games early, it seemed to be against well-balanced defensive teams that could handle them 1-on-1. Team Yellow, on the other hand, was a good matchup for Team Grey’s strengths. Team Grey had one of the few defenders in the league that could keep up with Pat Statham’s transition game and plenty of bodies to limit the rest of Team Yellow’s (mostly) slow-moving roster. You’re telling me some combination of Spadoni, O’Malley, and Rappold can’t keep pace with Kevin Statham, Matt Koll, and Friendly Freddy? Just a few weeks back, Team Grey handled Team Yellow quite easily, but the reverse bore out in this one, with Team Yellow escaping to an easy double-digit win. In the end, it was likely nothing more than bad team chemistry which doomed Team Grey, which is a shame, because they were the last line of defense for keeping Matt V out of another title game.

Championship: #3 Red (Garmes) versus #1 Yellow (Matt V)

-This HatchetBall season will likely signal the end of HatchetBall as we once knew it. The personnel continues to evolve, changing the way the games are played (and won). Just a few years back, it was a shocking development for a team to risk man-to-man defense. Now, it’s commonplace. At one point, it seemed impossible that Rob and Mark would both miss the title game; it hadn’t happened in close to a decade, but when the ball tipped with the title on the line, Mark was in the stands and Rob was in another state altogether. The years of expected results are behind us. Matt V put together a very similar roster as he did in 2016-2017 with very different results. While Team Yellow was the #1 seed and got to the title game, it took miraculous comebacks all season long to stay afloat and they failed to repeat as champions. Rob was gifted with an extremely strong draft, but injury and an untimely move to Nashville put those gifts to waste. Mark missed the playoffs altogether, swallowed in a miserable roster pit he couldn’t dig himself out of. The champions, Team Red, did not play their best throughout their playoff run. In Round 1, they just barely escaped against an undermanned, talentless Team Dark Blue. In Round 2, they got another lucky matchup against Team Blue without Rob and cruised to an easy win. The title game was close and hard-fought, but Team Red did little more than wait out Team Yellow. Kevin Harrigan may have been held to his lowest scoring output of the season (which is expected in a higher-intensity title game) and his running-mate, John McGinty, struggled all game to finish shots before receiving a baffling technical foul at a crucial moment in the game. Team Yellow got a huge first-half from Pat Statham, who was playing his best ball of the season at the exact right time, but stalled and sputtered in the 2^nd half, struggling mightily to find offense. All those lucky bounces and clutch shots finally broke the other way for this group and the clock literally ran out milliseconds before Team Yellow could right the ship. We’ll have to see if things line up and Matt V & the Stathams Version 3.0 has a chance for revenge in 2018-2019. Something tells me they won’t have that chance. Rob is now an ex-HatchetBaller. There will be new faces next season, without a doubt, resulting in new combinations of teams and matchups. Someone will need to start a new title streak, as there were no champions in 2017-2018…a first for our group. While this was certainly a year of regret for most, the league transition will create new opportunities for almost everyone, which is exciting. Maybe Troy will go in the first round and lead his team to a title. Maybe Bobby will end up as a key contributor on a great team. Maybe Steve will get his life together and find a replacement for Rob to lead him back to a title shot. Maybe Mark will recover from the initial energy drain of two kids and come back stronger than ever. Maybe Rob will have a 10-Gallon hat filled with jizz thrown in his face and he’ll come back to Chicago. It may be none of these things, but we know it won’t be more of the same.