SWAT vs Strong Island

Friday, 27 March 2009

VS. ITS PLAYOFF TIME BABY!!!!! Coming into this year, SWAT had a lot of questions marks. With almost their whole team leaving or not playing at all, Solyman had to find some talent to fill his roster and he certainly did by adding Tarek Yasin, Ahmad, Arif and Sijo to name a few. To solidify their inside presence, Stanley and his brother Steve were added mid season to give them the toughness and tenacity they were lacking. With all the different players and different strengths, Solyman has had to juggle the lineups to find players who played well together, prompting the creation of complete line changes. When SWAT is fully armed and loaded they are a deep team with big men that can wreck havoc inside. These teams have played each other twice with the new SWAT team facing Strong Island and losing 65-77, but in that game Tarek went off for 35pts and 20 rebounds. The second time they played, both teams were virtually at full strength with most of the stars playing in that game. It was a close game that came down to the end, but SWAT was able to pull it out by pounding the ball inside with Stanley and Tarek. SWAT has been known to deploy a press which lead to easy points but Solyman has backed off of that in the recent weeks. Will Solyman try to challenge the ball handing and decision making of the SI guards by employing his press? SWAT has had poor attendance which has hurt their chemistry and they haven’t help the situation with continued poor attendance leading into the playoffs. Does SWAT have the talent to win a title, I don’t see why not, but do they have the chemistry and cohesiveness to win a title, that remains to be seen. SWAT's Keys to Victory: 1. Establish the inside game with Stanley and Tarek 2. Stay out of foul trouble 3. Control the glass Strong Island’s season is a tale of 3 parts. Early on, Strong Island looked like an early favorite to contend for a title by smoking their competition and starting off with a 6-0 record. With some inconsistent play and Neil getting injured, they dropped their next 7 games, going to 6-7 and fading fast. Back from injury came Simran (who is hurt again) but more importantly Shaun Ramani who has provided a spark, swagger and toughness to this team that they were severely lacking. It came just in time as Mark announced that he could not play for the rest of the season(serving our country). With Richard Reyes doing his thing on the glass and scoring, and with Franciso’s shooting, Shaun’s defensive intensity SI was able to win 3 out of their last 5 games. They also have barely played with a full squad this whole season so it will be interesting to see how they all play together. Franciso, Richard, Neil and Raman have been staples all season and they have been getting contributions from other players such as Shahin. In this game, they will need to be able to crack the defense of SWAT and try to get Tarek and Stanley in foul trouble to give them an easier time on the defensive end. Strong Island certainly has the players to win this game as well as future rounds but these teams are very evenly matched so it’s going to come down to the nitty gritty plays which may determine this game. Strong Island's Keys to Victory: 1. Ball Movement – get Richard, Shaun, Neil, Shahin enough shots 2. Get SWAT in foul trouble, 3. Don’t settle for the three point shot