2021-2022: Week 1 Player Reports
Game 1: Team Purple
vs. Team Orange
-The first few weeks of every season can be misleading and unpredictable. We’re often seeing players for the first time or for the first time in a long time. It’s hard to gauge what you’re going to get each year, which makes the draft a dynamic crapshoot. Still, you can usually glean important lessons about a team early on, even if they aren’t deciding factors in the long run. Our opening game of the season was an uneven one. Team Purple took a lead into halftime, led by the sweet shooting of their 2nd overall pick, and seemed on pace to start the season 1-0. Team Orange looked a little clunky in the first half and then their top draft pick twisted his ankle and quickly ruled himself out for the rest of the game. By all appearances, it was Team Purple’s game to lose. But instead, Team Orange went on a huge run and was comfortably ahead all of the second half. What changed? Effort. Conditioning is always a big factor early on in the season, but there is no replacement for effort. Team Purple started to get outworked on every possession and they settled for worse and worse shots each time down the court. Looking from that perspective, it’s obvious why they fell so far behind. It will be critical that Troy’s Boys don’t make a habit of getting lazy in the second half. It will also be critical for Team Orange to not fall behind in every game, as you can’t count on having a huge second half run each week.
Game 2: Team Green
vs. Team Blue
-With a couple of Green’s key players out of this one, including their captain and first-round player, it was no surprise Blue dropped the sledgehammer on them, cruising to a 26-point victory. What was surprising was the hot shooting of first overall pick Chris Soczek. He scored an incredible 39 points in his HatchetBall debut, justifying his draft position and potentially setting up Team Blue as the team to beat in the early season. But we shouldn’t get too far ahead of ourselves on this result, as it was wildly uneven from the start.
Game 3: - Team Black
vs. Team Yellow
-Team Yellow was similarly shorthanded in their season opener and were comfortably behind for most of this one. They will need their first-round pick to be a hell of a player if they’re going to compete with some of these other rosters. They look even smaller than we imagined. Team Black, with perhaps the biggest shock of Week 1, looked relatively…competent. They shared the ball and even worked together at times. Chuck, Declan, and Rappold all scored double-digits, which is essential to this team’s success. However, no one doubted the talent of this team, we doubted their poise under pressure. Week 1 wasn’t a test for them so that doubt still lingers. In Week 2, they’ll play a (hopefully) full version of Team Green and it will be interesting to see if they look like the same team.
Standings
|
Team |
Captain |
Win |
Loss |
Record |
Win % |
Streak |
PS |
PA |
DIFF |
|
Blue |
Matt
Koll |
1 |
0 |
1 - 0 |
1.000 |
W1 |
80 |
54 |
26 |
|
Orange |
Mark
Koll |
1 |
0 |
1 - 0 |
1.000 |
W1 |
85 |
64 |
21 |
|
Black |
Dudek |
1 |
0 |
1 - 0 |
1.000 |
W1 |
73 |
59 |
14 |
|
Yellow |
Vitaliano |
0 |
1 |
0 - 1 |
0.000 |
L1 |
59 |
73 |
-14 |
|
Green |
Knapczyk |
0 |
1 |
0 - 1 |
0.000 |
L1 |
54 |
80 |
-26 |
|
Purple |
Troy |
0 |
1 |
0 - 1 |
0.000 |
L1 |
64 |
85 |
-21 |
|
White |
Hahn |
0 |
0 |
0 - 0 |
#DIV/0! |
NA |
|
|
0 |
|
Red |
Garmes |
0 |
0 |
0 - 0 |
#DIV/0! |
NA |
|
|
0 |