When I was but a young lad, I read a logic problem written by the brilliant mathematician Martin Gardner in "Scientific American" magazine. (Yes, I was that nerdy, but the fact that I played five sports just made me...eccentric.) Anyway, the question is "Why would a Swiss barber rather cut the hair of two Frenchmen instead of one German?"

I would love to draw this out (maybe put the answer at the bottom of the page) and give you the chance to deduce the logical reason for his behavior, but that won't work because of the subject matter of part of this post. The answer is actually quite simple. The Swiss barber would rather cut the hair of two Frenchmen instead of one German because he would make twice as much money. The nationalities (in this case, anyway) are irrelevant.

Over the years--decades, even--a distinct pattern has emerged where the most-exciting games of the playoffs tend to happen in the semifinal round, rather than in the finals. I have pondered the reason for this phenomenon, but now I realize that it might simply be that we have twice as many semifinal games as finals and therefore twice as many opportunities for great games.

So it was on Sunday when at one stretch we had consecutive games that went overtime, double overtime, overtime. We had great comebacks, a couple shootouts, and five of last season's Division champions going down to defeat. Some of the highlights:

--Seasoned Veterans 66, Dyin' Breed 63 - I gotta' say that I feel for the guys from Dyin' Breed, who play a great game for 34 minutes. They moved the ball well on offense, they defended well, they grabbed a lead and held onto it, until... With just over two minutes left in the game, Seasoned Veterans were down eight and things were looking bleak. They hit a three to cut it to five, but then saw Dyin' Breed get four straight offensive rebounds. But the Breed didn't score, and the Vets then hit a layup to cut it to three. A late turnover gave the Vets the ball with a few seconds left and they hit a three at the buzzer to send it into overtime. A quick three to start the overtime gave the Vets a lead they would hang onto for the win. 

--Hawgs 49, Average Joes 40 - Fred Simms and Donte Williams led The Hawgs back into a championship game for the first time in a couple seasons. The Joes suffered a really cold shooting day, managing only 40 points for the game.

--JAK and Basketball Junkies will square off for the championship of our top Division. JAK handled the Southern Arizona Military Basketball squad, while the Junkies got a measure of revenge from last season's championship game loss to Splash Pad. 

A COUPLE PLAYOFF ISSUES THAT WILL BE ADDRESSED NEXT SEASON:

1. Because of the number of teams in the League, we needed two weeks to get in the first round of the playoffs. Then, it took a couple weeks to get in the second-round (semifinal) games. Because of the way I had done the playoff scheduling (based entirely on regular-season records), a few of the teams that had the best records in their respective Divisions received byes into the semifinals and thus ended up going three weeks without a game. Not surprisingly, a couple of the teams came out flat and lost their games. Next season, I will figure out a way to reward the teams with the best regular-season records. Yet one more challenge in my eternal pursuit of perfection. 

2. This is a big one. It is an age-old problem in sports leagues when a team, desperate for a win, brings a ringer to the playoffs, someone who hasn't played all season and whose sudden appearance presents an unfair competitive imbalance. Unfortunately, it has happened a few times in the history of the Tucson Basketball League and I hate it. It may have happened on Sunday; I'm checking on it. (If it did indeed happen, the offending team will forfeit the game and the other team will be in the championship on Sunday.)

Starting next season, EVERY TEAM will have their official roster posted online no later than the second week of the regular season. Those teams that fail to do so will simply not be scheduled to play until it is taken care of. One of our scorekeepers will be in the lobby of the venue to help people receive their link and then enter their roster. Once you have your link, it is possible to add or subtract players as the season progresses. However, when you get to the playoffs, only the people whose names are on the official (printed) roster will be allowed to play. And we're going to be checking. 

One last thing: The policy on team jerseys has been a smashing success, but this season, there was a bit of backsliding. One team showed up for the playoffs with some wearing black shirts, others with blue shirts and none with numbers on the shirts. That will not happen again. You don't have to spend a ton of money on jersey, but you do have to match and have numbers. This past season, I got lazy and just told the scorekeepers not to keep stats for teams without as roster (or jerseys). This coming season, such a team will not play.