2024-2025: Week 17 Player Reports

Game 1: Team Yellow vs. Team Orange

- Nothing here but a nice stat-inflater game for all those in attendance. It figures that I go out of the way to secure St. Laurence for a couple weeks of the schedule only to play in two absolute blowouts. The bigger court can be such a different dynamic in these games, but was a big nothingburger for Team Yellow’s trips to STL. We’ll see if these teams cross paths in the playoffs.

Game 2: Team Red vs. Team White

- Another key show-me game for Team White, wasted by another unfortunate attendance issue. Without their boastful captain available, Team White never really threatened in a real way for this game. Team Red continues to rely on their depth and are willing to pick on favorable matchups when it makes sense. But overall, their defense is what dominated the day. White couldn’t get anything going and Finley never could quite get it going, putting themselves on the chopping block for the playoffs.

Game 3: - Team Purple vs. Team Pink

- In another instant classic, this game was a great reminder about how poor game theory can really matter and can lead to immediate consequences. Pink led the way for most of this one, as expected, but watched their lead slowly dwindle down the stretch. Up by one, Ed was at the line for the front end of a one-and-one. He missed it and Purple tried to rush the ball up the court for a final attempt. Bradley read the play beautifully and intercepted it cleanly. With only about 5 seconds remaining, he might have been able to just dribble out the clock. Instead, his instincts took over and he took a free two points, increasing his team’s lead to three, but allowing Purple to stop the clock and draw up a play. Sometimes you get away with this type of strategic mistake, but not today for Team Pink, as Dan Brandner pulled off another miracle and hit a 45-foot three point heave to send the game into overtime. The fact that Pink still won the game is somewhat irrelevant; it was just another demonstration of Pink self-sabotaging what could have been a very different season. They’re now in the playoffs, so perhaps there is still time to clean things up and make a push.

Game 4: - Team Green vs. Team Blue

- This game was a big letdown because its playoff implications were squashed moments before it began, but it was still an admirable battle between two teams on a Sunday evening with nothing to play for. Good riddance to another Dave Troy failure team.

Standings

Team	Captain	Win	Loss	Record	Win %	Streak	PS	PA	DIFF
ORANGE	KYLE GARMES	10	4	10 - 4	0.714	W1	943	888	55
RED	STEVE DUDEK	10	4	10 - 4	0.714	W3	905	837	68
BLUE	LUKE A	8	6	8 - 6	0.571	W2	856	818	38
YELLOW	MARK KOLL	8	6	8 - 6	0.571	L1	1007	922	85
PURPLE	MATT VITALIANO	7	7	7 - 7	0.500	L4	833	826	7
PINK	MATT KOLL	5	9	5 - 9	0.357	L1	929	933	-4
WHITE	ROB KNAPCZYK	4	10	4 - 10	0.286	L3	795	938	-143
GREEN	DAVE TROY	4	10	4 - 10	0.286	L1	947	1053	-106