One might think that if they were playing against a team called Pass the Ball to Chris, they would fin out who this Chris guy is and act accordingly. Such wasn't the case on Sunday when SW Skins allowed Christian Hernandez to go for 46 points in Pass's 75-48 win. Chris hit seven threes, went 7-8 from the free-throw line, and grabbed nine rebounds. Adolfo Andrade chipped in with 22 points in the win. For no reason whatsoever, Chris Hernandez is our Player of the Week.

The day got off to a great start on Rob's Court. The first three games were decided by two, three, and two points. Bad Dream Team slipped past Black Mambas, 47-45, behind Frankie Velasco's 17 points. Alec Young scored 20 points for the Mambas. Frosty Hesson got a crazy double-double from Lonnie Lee--17 points and 17 rebounds--in a 48-45 win over The Hurricanes. Casey Dike had 17 points for The Hurricanes. Hey Arnold! got 20 points from Norman Wolfchief in a nail-biting 59-57 win over OV B-Squad.

In one of the day's great games, MedShield and Barrio Benchmen combined for 196 points in MedShield's 101-95 win victory. As for the defense played by the two teams, have you ever seen an NBA All-Star game? Chris Johnson had a double-double (29 and 10) for the Benchmen and hit six straight threes down the stretch to keep the game close. Dalton Groenewald, who went into the game tied for the league lead in individual scoring, had 31 and 10 rebounds for the winners. Austin Nehls hit eight threes and scored 28 points for MedShield.

The playoffs will begin on November 24th. It's a weird situation this year. Last year, Thanksgiving was on November 22nd. (During the Great Depression, Congress changed Thanksgiving from the last Thursday in November to the fourth Thursday in November to increase Christmas spending in those years when the fourth Thursday lands on the 22nd or 23rd.) Anyway, last year, we took the Sunday after Thanksgiving (Nov. 25th) off and had the playoffs on December 2, 9 and 16. This year, however, the Sunday after Thanksgiving is December 1st, which mean that if we did the schedule like last year, the playoffs would be December 8, 15 and 22. 

Over the years, through experience, we have learned that it is not a good idea to have the playoffs the Sunday after Thanksgiving because even if a team is missing just one player who is out of town for the holiday or is entertaining guests from out of town, it's just not fair. So, we're definitely taking December 1st off. And it's not a good idea to have the championship games just a couple days before Christmas Eve. Therefore, the first round of playoff games will be on November 24th, with the semifinals on December 8th and the championship games being held on December 15th. We'll take the 22nd and 29th off and start the Winter 2020 season on January 5th.