In this space, I have occasionally (okay, often) cast light on my scheduling skills when we have glorious days of one closer game after another. Yesterday wasn't one of those. Yesterday was an Orgy of Ugly. We had scores of 70-39 and then 80-39. There was also 77-37, 71-41, 60-31, and 63-29. There are always going to be blowouts, but six of them in 26 games played is a hideous percentage.
To be sure, a couple of them came as a complete shock. The Cool Arrows went into yesterday's game with the Girl Dads with a 3-0 record. including wins over Fleet and Splash Pad, two teams that won Division championships last season. Boasting a strong lineup that includes Spencer Grijalva and Fred Simms, the Cool Arrows looked like a team that could run the table in the regular season. Instead, they took a 30-point whuppin'. I saw part of the game. The Girl Dads, with four guys scoring in double figures, looked amazing.
Meanwhile, Fleet, which had a rather pedestrian 2-1 mark (including a two-point victory) going into yesterday, exploded for a 77-37 win over Bench Bros. Johnny Williams led Fleet with 23 points and Jon Brogan, one of the top scorers in the history of the TBL, returned to play after an extended absence to pour in 20 points for Fleet. The Bench Bros fell to 2-2 on the season.
While we had an inordinate number of lopsided scores, we also had some exciting finishes. Blue Coconuts hit a late three to tie their game with Bob Ross In The Paint and it looked for sure that the game was heading to overtime. But Bob Ross scored on a jumper at the buzzer for a thrilling 66-64 win. A couple games later, the Sneaker Squeakers jumped out to a 20-point lead at the half and looked to on their way to a blowout. But the Mansfield Ballers woke up in the second half and made a valiant run before falling, 80-78.
In other games, 5-Ups held off AZ Tropics, 48-43, Zona got by YSL, 53-51, and Storm outlasted Wolves, 68-67.
On the downside, one of the aforementioned six teams left a screaming mess (including dripping ice bags and multiple empty bottles) in their bench area after their game and they will be the first team to be fined under the new protocol. I've decided that a team's first violation will carry a $10 fine. Each subsequent violation for that team will go up by $10. As mentioned, the money collected will go to the venue workers who had to clean up after the slackers. Almost every team does a great job policing their area. But "almost every" isn't good enough. We need all teams to handle their business.
On the way-up side, several teams have shown me their designs for the jerseys that they will be wearing in the Fall League and beyond. They're way cool. One team's design is based on vintage Utah Jazz, circa 1996. They look great. And Jordan pushed off!