2022-2023: Week 1 Player Reports

Game 1: Team Pink vs. Team Orange

-The most certain thing about Week 1 was that there is a new vibe to the league. It’s hard to say if that is because we’ve roped in a new generation of players that seem to have been infected with our obsessive love of HatchetBall, or if it’s our new home gym, or if every season is like this and we’re just too old to remember. But it feels fresh and exciting in a new way that is hard to pinpoint. For our kickoff game, it was only fitting the two teams involved in a marquee trade should square off against one another. The retroactive consensus is that the trade was a huge mistake for Team Orange. But based on Chuck’s 30-point performance in Week 1, that might look less obvious. What looks more obvious is that Matt Koll’s squad wasn’t going far with Carli or with Chuck. They are thin, disorganized, and were very easy to stop on offense. The 59 points they mustered were mostly from standstill jumpers from Chuck. Konopko is not a bust and I expect him to play better once he gains some familiarity with his team and the league in general. Still, with Matt Koll a shell of his former self on defense and the glass, there is literally no one to take up that mantle. Team Pink abused them time and again on the fast break, getting easy buckets whenever they wanted. It was only one game, but that was certainly the intention behind the team Mark wants them to be. All 5 of the starts should be able to rebound and lead the break. The hope is that those opportunities make up for their lack of overall team shooting. They had 5 players in double figures, which is going to be their template for success. Most teams don’t have the depth to deal with that type of balanced attack. You can’t plug all the holes in the boat. Look out for Team Pink who won this one easily.

Game 2: Team Green vs. Team Black

-Every year, some teams are hard to judge on paper until you see it. I don’t think I was alone in failing to recognize how slow Team Black would be in person. They were stationary and put up very little resistance while Team Green moved the ball around and got an endless amount of wide open shots. Team Green is just as solid as I thought they would be. They will play together and force you to beat them. The question will be how they respond when teams overload on Chris and force the others to make plays. Is Freddy up for that?

Game 3: - Team Purple vs. Team White

-It didn’t escape my attention how small and puny Team Purple was on paper. This team will get almost no easy buckets all year. Aderman looked fine, moving well and shooting with confidence, even if he didn’t make many. The problem is that the quality of his shots will never be great because of all the focus he rightly will get. He’s not going to blow by anyone or shoot over them. The rest of his team needs to have some gravity that will bend the defense slightly away from him so he can get to his spots. They scored only 49 points and it felt about right for this group. Glancing at Jerry’s roster again, it’s likely Aderman will be the only player on the team to average more than 10 points per game. If that happens, Jerry will go from 3 straight title appearances in a row to missing the playoffs altogether. Team White didn’t look much better but were able to stay the course and pull away slightly near the end. Rob was extremely patient and picked his spots en route to 28 points. He might not have it in him to be the primary ballhandler on every play, which is a problem for two reasons: Carter is more effective attacking to score and their shooters (Koll/Maloney) need someone to spoon feed them open shots. Still, if they can find a balance between those shooters, Stan’s work around the rim, and Rob/Carter putting pressure on the defense, they should have an above average offense. Their bigger test will come on the defensive end, but that test wasn’t going to come against the paltry Team Purple.

Standings

Team	Captain	Win	Loss	Record	Win %	Streak	PS	PA	DIFF
White	Rob Knapczyk	1	0	1 - 0	1.000	W1	59	49	10
Pink	Mark Koll	1	0	1 - 0	1.000	W1	79	59	20
Green	Kyle Garmes	1	0	1 - 0	1.000	W1	85	68	17
Blue	Dave Troy	0	0	0 - 0	#DIV/0!				0
Yellow	Matt Vitaliano	0	0	0 - 0	#DIV/0!				0
Purple	Jerry Hahn	0	1	0 - 1	0.000	L1	49	59	-10
Orange	Matt Koll	0	1	0 - 1	0.000	L1	59	79	-20
Black	Steve Dudek	0	1	0 - 1	0.000	L1	68	85	-17