Sunday night results

Monday, 14 January 2008

The SABL would like to thank the volunteers who came out to keep score and to otherwise make sure that everything was run smoothly this weekend. 5:00pm Game Basketballers vs SWAT This game was all about the Basketballers coming in and dominating the glass vs an undermanned SWAT. SWAT was led by a break out game by newcomer Wasik. SWAT had an early leard but Basketballers stayed close and then took the lead with 8 minutes left in the game, once the Basketballer's took the lead they never relinquished it. Near the end SWAT it was just too much Ballin for SWAT. 6:00pm Game Titans vs Humans In the most discussed match up in the 2007-2008 SABL season. The Titans inside game and outside shooting proved to be too much against the HUMANS. The HUMANS attempted to play small ball and increase the tempo of the game but Stanley of the Titans proved to be too much as he controlled the offense and the defense of the game with crazy rebounding numbers. Titans continue to be the only undefeated team in the league. 7:00pm Game Spartans vs Tigers Proving all of the so called experts wrong, this turned out to be the game of the week as the Spartans barely held off the hungry Tigers. The tigers were missing Thazul and perhaps he could have been the difference as this game came down to the last 10 seconds. This was a very, very, close game. Hats off to the Tigers who are playing just as hard as they were from the first game of the season and were just seconds away from their first victory.

 

Stats

Saturday, 12 January 2008

Stats We are waiting on the HitMen to enter in their old games. We are waiting on Titans to enter in their entire seasons worth of stats Also we are looking for stat keepers and time keepers for this Sunday if you are able to make it on Sunday to keep stats or the clock please let me know at This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it

 

Friday Night's Results

Saturday, 12 January 2008

If you weren't there on Friday night then you missed one great game. Dynasty vs the HitMen proved to be a pretty close game with many lead changes. We began the games 2 minutes early and finished with 10 minutes to spare. Let's keep it organized people! 7:00pm Game HitMen vs Dynasty This game showed the HitMen's dominating inside game as they eventually wore down Dynasty. 8:00pm Game Money Crew vs Dream Team This game found a very balanced Money Crew absolutely going out with thoughts of a blow out against an undermanned Dream Team. Dream Team had other thoughts as they came out behind 5 three pointers by Francisco and stayed with the Money Crew until the very end when the lack of depth of the Dream Team due to being undermanned caught up with them and they just ran out of gas. 9:00pm Triple Threat vs Force This game started out with Triple Threat taking a commanding 10 point lead and they never looked back, the rest of the game was Triple Threat on cruise control against Force being up as much as 21. Force looked to make a mini run to cut the lead to within 13 by forcing the ball inside, but it was too little too late as time expired.

 

Week 5 Preview

Friday, 11 January 2008

Are you on the SABL message board? Well if you aren't this was the topic of discussion this entire week. Dynasty[2-2] vs. Hitmen[1-3] Both teams are on losing streaks and will have something to prove. Dynasty however has not faired well in their losses often getting very stagnant without someone stepping up as the selfless point guard. Hitmen played very well in tough losses to two undefeated teams (not counting Tripple Threat’s forfeit). Kunal’s energy on the defensive end will help against the size of Hitmen but I’m not sure if Dynasty will be able to match the guard play of Hitmen. Dream Team [2-1] vs. Money Crew [2-1] A very intriguing matchup here as we may see one of the leagues best offensive players in Muneeb go head to head against a great perimeter defender in Shawn and neither is a slouch in the visa versa matchup either. Money Crew is dealt a big blow with the loss of Atif and that just makes life easier for the leagues best offensive big man Neil. Per last week’s power rankings this is a pretender vs a top contender on paper but it might just prove to be a close game or even an upset. One thing is for sure after last week’s second half against the Ballers without their star player: Muney Crew is a drastically different team than the Money Crew so I think they’ll pay closer attention to the personal foul situation going forward. Tripple Threat [2-1] vs. Force [0 - 4] Force get another tough matchup this week. Will they make adjustments to their game to give themselves a better chance? Although Koshy John and Tommy John (no relation to the surgery) have been solid contributors from the outside, will they realize they can improve by featuring Sijin Samuel more on the offensive end? This might be a good chance to catch Tripple Threat napping as they finalize their roster with 2 additions and may be looking at this week as a gel session. It will be up to Abdullah to keep the team motivated and not have a let down before taking over like the first 32 minutes against Spartans. SWAT [3-1] vs Basketballers [2-1] Team SWAT sees their first matchup against a higher ranked team since week one’s loss to the Titans. Ballers are coming off of a confidence building victory against Mun___’s Money Crew. This is a statement game for the Ballers to cement themselves as contenders as well as for SWAT to make a claim to be considered one of the league’s top teams. SWAT will need to pay attention to Talha who is coming off of a monster game on the boards last week. Humans [2-1] vs. Titans [4-0] This is what everyone seems to be calling the game of the week. The battle of the two heavyweights. Humans are a Muneeb chuck away from being undefeated. The Titans are undefeated and coming off a big win against the HitMen. Based on match ups it would seem that the guard play of the Humans would be superior to that of the Titans, where the Humans have two true point guards in Saad and Kamran. But the Titans have two scoring guards in Pawan and Raman. In this guy's opinion this game is going to be dictated by the Titan's bigs. If the Humans can keep the Titans bigs namely Stanley and Juby off the boards, then the Humans can take advantage of their superior guard play. But in this person's opinion the Titans are 4-0 because 4 other teams were unable to stop the Titan's bigs, and those teams were all human just like this team. Tigers [0-4] vs Spartans [1-2] Tigers are still trying to develop an identity as a team while Spartans seem to already have. Joe is playing a great PG and his bigmen are giving him solid performances making this a well balanced team poised to build off of last week’s win. Getting to play the 11th and 12th ranked teams back to back may do wonders for their confidence but they still have to go out and execute. Tigers on the other hand have added a solid player in LeRoy and this gives them a good nucleus of LeRoy, Thazul, and Saied. If they can get the rest to play better team ball and identify what they want to do in the half court, they have the talent to dig themselves out of the 0-4 funk against the Spartans.

 

Remembering the Titans

Wednesday, 02 January 2008

This is the first of our weekly or bi weekly power rankings. This time around we find that the Titans have cemented themselves as the #1 contenders for the SABL crown. Contenders: 1. Titans: probably the most balanced team in the league with a strong inside-outside game and good defense. There's no "I" in this "team”. Titans are playing like the HitMen of last year, where players know what their roles are on the team and each player doesn’t try to do to much. Currently the bigs are clogging the lanes and opening it up for Raman and Pawan to drive to the hoop and hit wide open threes. 2. Humans: started off with a heartbreaking game one loss, but nice bounce back win over Spartans. Haven't really been tested yet. That being said they have the two headed point guard combo of Saad and Kamran who are leading the league in assists. Couple that with Khurram a big man who can go coast to coast at will and you are looking at a potentially lethal team. We haven’t even factored in Suleman who is probably one of the better finishers in the league. They are one three point chuck away from being undefeated to start this season and maybe even taking over the #1 from the Ttitans. 3. Money Crew: With Muneeb playing like Kobe in the early going, can teammates step up once opponents adjust? I mean can someone double team him or what? They lead the league in three pointers made per game which is 9. Can any team keep up that kind of shooting? The two other teams that take as many three point shots as the Money Crew haven’t won a game yet. Unless this team develops an inside game this record of 2-0 may prove to be misleading. They also play great defense, but have they really been tested yet? 4. Basketballers: Were really knocked off their perch a bit by the mighty Titans, but 'Ballers are true contenders once again. Usman is the key to this team. But one can ask have the Basketballers lost the intensity of last season? They had the majority of the team show up late against the Titans game. Against the league leading Titans !!! The Ballers were out of rhythm and didn’t have a full team to start the game, this is a far cry from the team that showed up early and was practicing before the HitMen game. The Baller chants can only take them so far with out some real motivation to compete week in and week out. On the fence 5. SWAT: Davis leading the way with defense and tenacity and teammates responding with back-to-back blowout victories but he hasn’t had that one real break out performance to be mentioned amongst the league elite. This balanced attack has this team 2-1. But who have they beaten? Force and Tigers aren’t really pushing them towards the league elite and it is easy to put up gaudy numbers against 2 winless teams. The real stats are the ones against the Titans in which the SWAT team couldn’t keep it up for the full 40 minutes. Adding big man Raman and Wasiq to the squad gives them much needed size but is this enough against the bangers? How deep is that bench and is there aside from the starters who you can really rely on? 6. Hitmen: Chemistry and guard-play are still big question marks with this powerful team. Will they stop themselves? They may have played their best game against the Triple Threat team with a shortened rotation. Is there such a thing as too many players on a roster? Right now the HitMen seem to be just that, Center and Power Forward heavy with no true point guard. Who wants the ball on this team? The real question may be who doesn’t want the ball on this team? But still when you have the biggest front line in SABL chances are your opponents aren’t going to be getting too many second chance points. 7. Triple Threat: Winning games by closing opponents out late, but where are the stats? Who is on Triple Threat? What is their record, informally they are 2-0 based on the two games that they have played. One thing is for sure captain Abdullah is making a claim to be one of the best all round players in the league. Couple that with the rebounding of Omer, the sharp shooting of Arif “Manu” Hussain and Triple Threat can not be discounted, may have been higher if actual stats were in place. 8. Dynasty: Great chemistry in the early going and contributions from all sides, but we're not forgetting about last season just yet... not to mention, can someone pass the ball? How many swingmen can you put on a team? Does anyone know what their role is yet? Who shoots who passed, and most of all who defends? One thing clear this season is that Bhavind Papaiya is the real deal and Kunal Sra has taken it upon himself to defend the basket. What are the rest of them doing? Has anyone even bothered to tell them? Pretenders 9. Dream Team: Can be deadly when allowed to play fast-break ball. Will someone hit a 3, please?) Have the fastest backcourt in SABL history with Shahin and Shaun. Have a dominating big man with Neil Ramani. Solid chemistry guy is being added with Francisco. Sekander made some major contributions against the Tigers. This team has a chance to really move up in the rankings if they can. But can they shoot or pass themselves out of a zone? Aside from those three players who else is going to step up when someone has an off night? But then again who have they beaten so far? Let’s see them do that again. 10. Spartans: Look good in stretches. More consistent play and W's needed before they can move up. Solid point guard play with Joe and Rex is a solid inside game, the rest of the team needs to step up. Against the Humans, Eapen hit 3 threes and was never heard from again, can he be the missing piece to this team? They have added two more players before the deadline and are looking to make some noise. They have showed some spurts of greatness but that isn’t enough to compete, welcome to the SABL fellas. 11. Force: Started off looking great in their 1st game loss to Hitmen. Have been terrible since, what happened to them? Against HitMen they were looking like contenders and now they are pretenders. This team has some solid guard play with Koshy and Tom hitting the shots behind the arc, but it doesn’t help that much when your second best rebounder is also your best three point shooter. Someone needs to help Sijin down low to grab some rebounds. The team has all of the talent now they have to gel quickly before this season gets away from them. 12. Tigers: Usually get down big before they make runs, then they scream and shout at each other and get back in the game. Why can’t they get in to the game from the get go? Doesn’t look like they have enough size and firepower. Thazul Islam seems to be a monster who can jump for rebounds for a good 40 minutes, but can someone else step up? The run and chuck style is fun to watch but hasn’t resulted in any wins, the schedule doesn’t get much kinder for the Tigers who are now going to be facing the Humans. Against the Humans the Tigers should have their new player Leroy suited up but can one person be the missing piece of this puzzle? How soon before the Tigers self destruct? Someone needs to step up and become the leader of this team. Disclaimer, these power rankings are just meant to be used for entertainment purposes only.