Regular Season Ending, Playoffs on the Horizon

November 6th, 2023

The Fall 2023 regular season of the Tucson Basketball League is coming to a close and we've had some absolutely stellar action down the stretch. Last week (October 29th) got underway with one of the best games of the entire season, with 520 Personal Training taking on the Wolves in a 9:00 a.m. tilt. Players on both teams must have gotten their beauty sleep the night before because it was a monster game from the jump. Despite hit 14 three-pointers in the first half, the Wolves held only a four-point lead at the half. It went back and forth the entire second half and the two teams traded the lead four times in the final 90 seconds, with the Wolves winning, 84-83.

Josh Thompson led the Wolves with a 39-point effort, including 11 threes, many of which were beyond NBA range. After the game, one of his teammates (but not him) asked if that was a league record. It is not. Way back in the late 1980s, we started the League at the old YMCA (on Fifth Avenue, just west of the Dairy Queen on Fourth Avenue). The decades-old building was eventually demolished and replaced with upscale apartments for UA students whose parents have money. I was in my early 40s at the time, but I still played every week. One hot August night (as Neil Diamond would say), I hit 17 three-pointers. 

The record stood for a few years, but was eventually broken by Kent Senzee (who still plays on The Hawgs) and Jon Brogan (who played with The Hawgs for more than a decade, but is taking this season off). Both of them hit 20 threes in a game. (Not in the same game; that would be weird.) Brogan would later hit 28 threes in a game, but it comes with a Barry Bonds-sized asterisk. After he hit a few, the other team just let him shoot; they, too, wanted to see how many he could hit. Having been on the court, reffing, during both of those record-breaking games, I must say that his hitting 20 threes in a close game was much more impressive.

It was strange. On the 29th, we had several situations where teams would show up with barely enough guys to play. We even had a rare forfeit. Then it dawned on me. A bunch of guys had apparently gone to Halloween parties the night before and had probably had a bit too much fun. It doesn't happen often, but it does happen. Yesterday (November 5th), things were back to normal--35 games, no forfeits, and some killer close games.

It was cool. When I was reffing the 9:00 a.m. game yesterday on the TMC Court, with a couple minutes left ion the game, the score was 52-52. I looked over the curtain at the CTG Court and the score was 66-66. Both games ended with two-point margins. We're still getting the occasional blowout, which bothers me. Some of them can be traced to certain players not showing up for a particular game or a team just have a bad (or a really good) night, but much of it has to do with my scheduling. I swear, I agonize over this process. I refuse to automate it with an algorithm and I'm bummed when it doesn't work out perfectly.

Skoden is one of our most-consistent winners. (The name is a Native American slang term that basically is a sign of agreement with a statement or challenge, as in "let's go, then." They went into yesterday's game with a record of 4-2, with their two losses having come by two and one points, respectively. But their opponents, Fab Five, were having none of it. Firing away from long range and running the floor, Fab Five built an astounding 29-point lead in the first half and still led by 24 at the half. But Skoden found the range in the second half and began to chip away. With six minutes left in the game, the lead was down to 13. With two minutes to go, it was down to four. But Fab Five tightened and held on for a 90-84 win. It was exhilarating. 

The playoffs are going to be an adventure. We're going to have to get in more than 90 games over a four- or maybe five-week period. We may or may not have to take off November 26, the Sunday after Thanksgiving. We sometimes do because people are traveling or hosting out-of-town guests, but a lot of teams really want to play on that day so that there isn't a gap between the regular season and the playoffs. We can't have late games on December 10th because the venue will be closed at night. And we certainly have to wrap things up no later than December 17th because we can't have games the following week, which is Christmas Eve. I'm working on the playoff schedule now. It will be a challenge.