2024-2025: Week 11 Player Reports

Game 1: Team Green vs. Team Purple

-It must be an awkward feeling for a 1-7 team to come in as a heavy favorite for a game, but Troy finally got the “easy” game he was looking for. Of course, that meant it was close for most of the game and pretty much came down to the wire, but the talent differential was a bit too much to overcome for Purple in the end and their Justin-less slide is fully underway. That being said, Purple actually put up a great fight in this one. Almost all of their points came on individual offensive moves that they often finished. “Ethical” basketball you might call it. Green had a size and speed advantage and just leaned on them long enough to generate the winning points. Chris V was also badly missed for Team Purple, as they need his speed and ball pressure, but it still feels like Purple will need to play almost perfect basketball to stay competitive. They won’t be able to withstand absences or off-shooting nights. And that’s a tall order for any team. Green heads into an absolutely critical game against the struggling Team White in Week 12, while Purple takes a week off to dress their wounds.

Game 2: Team Yellow vs. Team Blue

-Basketball is a high-sample game, meaning you can’t get by on just a handful of plays going your way. It’s not enough. Over a hundred combined possession, or whatever it might be, the law of averages usually bears out. Hot shooting cools off. Cold shooting comes alive. You get a fair amount of chances in basketball, which can break both ways. Team Yellow basically dominated the first half, playing great defense and severely limiting Blue’s scoring opportunities. But there was a clear tone shift late in the first half as their double-digit lead was whittled away. Was it a lack of focus? Extra effort from Blue? Or just averages doing their thing and bringing the game naturally back to even? Whatever it was, the second half looked completely different, as Yellow become the team struggling on offense as Blue got whatever they wanted. There might be some growing evidence that Yellow struggles a bit in close games playing from ahead. I’m not sure the answer to that would be to play from behind, but they need to learn to expect adversity. Again, as the game wears on, it’s statistically likely that the tide will turn at some point. You have to be ready for it. Almost expecting it. Yellow got caught flat-footed when the Blue onslaught began and could never get it going down the stretch. Too many turnovers and defensive lapses. We’re in the dog days of the season and hopefully this game serves as a wake up call. Blue continues to be annoying to play against and their players are annoying in general.

Game 3: - Team Pink vs. Team White

-Rob’s teams always seem to have continuity issues. There’s either player attendance issues or injuries that plague his squads to the point that you don’t ever really get to see them at full strength. And by full strength, I mean the same time week after week. Just because we finally saw the “full” version of White in Week 11 doesn’t mean we saw the best version of them. Finley and Rob seemed to struggle at various times in this one and they only mustered 53 total points against what should be a good matchup for them on paper. Pink used a nice balance of Ed/Paul and welcome contributions from Bradley and Pete Les to get the job done. The bottom of the standings is turning into a three-way race where only one team will make it out alive to the playoffs. White better figure things out right away. A loss to Team Green in Week 12 would be an unmitigated disaster that they may not be able to come back from.

Standings

Team	Captain	Win	Loss	Record	Win %	Streak	PS	PA	DIFF
RED	STEVE DUDEK	6	2	6 - 2	0.750	W6	524	470	54
PURPLE	MATT VITALIANO	6	3	6 - 3	0.667	L2	550	510	40
YELLOW	MARK KOLL	5	3	5 - 3	0.625	L1	563	481	82
ORANGE	KYLE GARMES	5	3	5 - 3	0.625	W1	522	518	4
BLUE	LUKE A	5	4	5 - 4	0.556	W3	542	509	33
WHITE	ROB KNAPCZYK	2	6	2 - 6	0.250	L5	399	500	-101
PINK	MATT KOLL	3	6	3 - 6	0.333	W1	587	580	7
GREEN	DAVE TROY	2	7	2 - 7	0.222	W1	577	688	-111