2024-2025: Week 2 Player Reports

Game 1: Team Green vs. Team Purple

-In this early season, pre-holiday clash, we see two teams who have gotten off to very different starts. Team Purple, potentially victim to Matt V’s variable strategy of drafting all new guys, has been solidified by a replacement player who was clearly ready to play. Finnin looks like an ace next to Justin, using his sneaky athleticism to impact plays at both ends of the court. Justin looks utterly comfortable in the lead role, not forcing plays. Last week, with a smaller defender, he attacked the basket more often. This week, with a much bigger defender, he spaced the floor and sought his outside shot more often. That’s the exact type of awareness and adaptability that can influence the outcome of the game. Freeman, Lally, and Chris V are all active players looking to play fast and aren’t afraid to get their shots up. But a huge chunk of scoring is being done by the supposed bench, which is easily the oldest in the league with Bobby, Brandner, and Matt V. They don’t turn the ball over and are ready to shoot when the defenses inevitably give them space. Team Green is getting different results from their new recruits, who are struggling to find workable strategies on the court. If that continues, and Kennedy has an off game like he did in this one, they basically will have no chance to beat anyone. The bigger concern is that they may also struggle to win with Kennedy at his best, which is hard to imagine, but seems almost likely. Tuton displayed some outside shooting that may come in handy and Rob Walus will be stepping in as a replacement player who has shown he can and will score if you don’t pay attention to him. Purple moves to 2-0 without breaking a sweat and Green falls to 0-2.

Game 2: Team Yellow vs. Team Blue

-It does feel like a disadvantage to get a BYE in Week 1. Playing for your first game together against a team that has already had a chance to play together provides a clear rhythm advantage that takes time to overcome. As you might expect, Blue started strong, attacking mismatches relentlessly, while Team Yellow struggled to create anything worthwhile in the halfcourt. But, slowly, Yellow figured out better defensive matchups, which allowed some breathing room while they searched for easier opportunities on offense. Konrad’s bold shot taking and willingness to muck it up on drives to the basket with contact will serve this team well. Even when Mark is fully healed, this team is mostly stuffed with off-ball players. It will be critical for Konrad to play a “clean” game, even if his shot isn’t falling. Limiting turnovers will help keep his teammates engaged and avoid easy transition opportunities for the defense that we likely cannot afford. Brad Foster showed flashes of the dominant player he can be from the mid-post in. He also played reliable defense on Carli in bursts. It might be an underrated advantage to have his size on a smaller court; don’t forget the last time we saw him, it was on the much bigger court at Crestwood. Gulden showed confidence in the post, but perhaps some poor decisions at times, and Yellow’s core of guard/shooters battled to find separation. For Blue, Rodney continues to shoot it efficiently, but it’s starting to feel like his teammates are capped at the current production levels. Carli is going to hover around 15 points per game. Jay is going to hover around 10-12 per game. So where is the scoring going to come from as teams clamp down on Rodney? It has to be Luke and Bob Kelly. Luke has 1 point in two games; it’s hard to express how big of a handicap that is for his team to overcome. Bob Kelly will likely need time to get his legs underneath him, but his form still looks solid and he knows how to drift to open spaces for good looks. He shot poorly, with only one make out of 7 or 8 attempts, but that is very typical of your first time on the court after a long break. They need him to shoot well. Badly. Despite some horrid free throw shooting, which has turned into a league pandemic, Yellow secured the win. Mark’s ankle gets a holiday break and we’ll see what this team can do in 2025.

Game 3: - Team Pink vs. Team White

-It’s early, and Team White only won by 6 against a Pink team playing without two of their starters, but there was convincing evidence that Rob likely nailed all of his picks this year. Finley showed signs he was under-drafted, as we suspected, and Chuck looks effective in a new role exploiting the good matchups he’ll likely continue to get. Ali and Foster are dependable, rugged players that give you good effort and physicality without taking away shots from the top guys. Nice Guy Graunke and Jose Franco both provide a bit of bounce and extra shot-making that might be critical in close games against the best teams. The best thing you can say about Pink is that Paul and Ed seem to fit together just fine. They are giving exactly what they were drafted for from a scoring/shotmaking perspective, with clear understanding of what their limitations would be. It’s important that the production of one isn’t coming at the expense of the other. However, just about everything else on this team is going wrong. They are struggling to rebound and to close out on shooters, which is paradoxical. It’s hard to do both at the same time, but to do neither doesn’t make sense. It was obvious the scoring would be highly concentrated between Paul and Ed, but the current level is unsustainable. If both those guys average 25 points per game, which would be insane and isn’t going to happen, that’s only 50 points total per game. They’ll need 10-20 more points, on average, from the rest of the crew to make up that gap. To get there, they need a bucket or two from each guy, each game. Boxing out on free throws would help quite a bit as well, but expect this team to lose a lot of close games if they don’t get some standout efforts from the reserves more often.

Standings

Team	Captain	Win	Loss	Record	Win %	Streak	PS	PA	DIFF
PURPLE	MATT VITALIANO	2	0	2 - 0	1.000	W2	143	104	39
ORANGE	KYLE GARMES	1	0	1 - 0	1.000	W1	67	54	13
YELLOW	MARK KOLL	1	0	1 - 0	1.000	W1	54	52	2
WHITE	ROB KNAPCZYK	1	0	1 - 0	1.000	W1	67	61	6
BLUE	LUKE A	1	1	1 - 1	0.500	L1	107	108	-1
PINK	MATT KOLL	0	2	0 - 2	0.000	L2	115	122	-7
RED	STEVE DUDEK	0	1	0 - 1	0.000	L1	59	68	-9
GREEN	DAVE TROY	0	2	0 - 2	0.000	L2	99	142	-43