BuzzerBeater Forums

Pio Reina here outside of the Linndale locker room with Paul Lutz. Paul, how's the team feeling about this one?

Lutz: It's weird not having Coach in here talking to us before the game. It's been weird not having him at practice. It just ain't right. Everything is off.

Pio: Has anyone spoken to Coach?

Lutz: Yeah, we have. We have a video chat with him everyday before practice. He tells us what we're working on, and the assistants and the Point Guards make sure we get that done.

Pio: Coach has pretty much gone media silent. I'm not asking if he's told you or the team any news on how's he recovering or when he'll be back.

Lutz: Coach said you wouldn't ask! Coach said he'll let everyone know during the game tonight. I think he's supposed to be on the announce team tonight.

Pio: Indeed he is! Any word on what we can expect from the team tonight?

Lutz: I can't tell you any specifics of course, but you know how coach is all about the team and getting the young guys ready for the postseason. I'd pay attention to who doesn't dress. That might tell you something about that other part no one has been talking about.

Pio: Thanks Paul, and good luck tonight!

Lutz: Thanks Pio!

Pio: That's it from the locker room; back to Happy Ourer in studio!

Happy Ourer with the WINO radio Basketball Network, and we see Linndale up on the Ashkickers 57-48 at the half. Pio what are you seeing so far?

Pio: Well, Happy if I'm Linndale, I'm concerned about only 8 steals tonight against 6 turnovers. On the other hand we've caused 10 turnovers and the Ashkickers have 4 steals. However, the battle on the boards are practically even, with the Ashkickers up 27-26 there. Linndale has to force turnovers and get steals, but the need to do that lessens if they can keep things even on the boards. & of 13 shooting from behind the arc looks good. One thing to watch is Paul Lutz in the second half. He usually has a spurt where he takes over the game for a bit, but hasn't had that yet. That despite 8 points, 7 rebounds, 3 dimes, a steal and 3 blocks. Another concern is tha lack of free throw attempts. Ashkickers have a 15 to 2 advantage there.

Happy: Pio, any word from Coach?

Pio: Not yet but we will break it live when it happens.

Happy: Thanks, Pio! Happy Ourer of WINO radioand the Linndale Basketball radio broadcast, and we'll send it back to the game!

Pio Reina live at halfcourt where Coach is making an announcement.

Coach: I just wanted to tell good folks here at home I'm gonna have to step away from basketball for a few weeks, but I'll be back for the playoffs. Doctor's orders and all that. In my absence, the team will continue running things as they see fit. I guess I'll just have to watch and listen to Happy and Pio like the rest of you good folks.

See you guys in the playoffs, and know I love each and everyone of you all. Thank you for your support.

"We are here live for the Hustlas report," says Henry Herd. "And I've got to tell you, before the changes, I would have said the Hustlas would win this game vs Philly Dribble. They had the better team by far. Even after the changes, the Hustlas still have the better players overall, but they also have coach John Walton, who second guesses everything he does. I guarantee that he chooses the wrong defense against this elite team, and wears down his bigs and lose this game. And it won't be close. That's Henry Herd of the Hustlas report, signing off."

"They are playing Look Inside and we went with a 3-2? Come on coach," says Josef Talman at Halftime of the Hustlas @Philly Dribble game. "And Ziehaus is exhausted. He's going to get injured or something. He can't do much out there."

John Walton paces in the locker room. "You heard the GM. There's not much we can do. We may very well lose this game. And come Monday, you all will be on the transfer wire as we search for a new, much weaker team, and next season get demoted. But there is nothing we can do about it."

"You could have at least let us play man to man. We would win this game close in man to man with us in Run and Gun. The bigs can't get us the ball, they are too tired. They'd be killing the boards and insides. We miss Samuk, and the others," says Legkauskas.

"Just do your best. The game plan is my fault. But just do your best," says John Walton.

"We had them, we really could have," says Huk. "If only we had not played that defense and offensive set. The bigs could have rested a bit more, and we could have beaten this team."

The GM Bobby Sparks walks into the locker room. "Tough break guys. I think we'll be getting a lot of those, if we hold out on this roster. Sadly it looks like all of you will be on the transfer wire come Monday. But if not, you'll have a lot of games like this. Good news, you're still tied for first place, for now. I don't see that being maintained, but just keep going. Philly Dribble or Rip City is winning this league. You don't have to worry about that. You won't even make it out of the first round. We'll just have to wait and see."

Linndale News and Notes--- The Rotation
Since training the week of the "backwards lineup" to train guards inside offense, Kyle Knowles has been a house afire. He's scored 47 and 43 points respectively in the two league games since, with a combined 16 of 31 from deep. He's also achieved his first 15.0 or higher ratings of the season in league play, hitting 15.5 and then 16.0 respectively. In that span he's 33 of 64 from the field. with 7 steals, 7 assists, and 1 turnover. In the same period, Bobbie Coenen has 14 assists, 1 turnover and 7 steals. He'a also had his highest ratings of the season with a 15.0 followed up with a 14.5. Since his arrival, he has 65 assists to 5 turnovers in league play. That's a 13 to 1 assist to turnover ratio! That's so insane, we're asking STATS to verify that.

Paul Lutz in the same two game period averaged 24 ppg, with 7 boards and 5.5 dimes, 3 steals and 2.5 blocks.
That trio clearly likes this new style.

Arley Coronado has only played 1 of those games since the backwards lineup going 22pts, 12 boards, an assist and 4 steals. Frontcourt mate Mikhail Klimenkov has also only played 1 game in that period, going for 8 points and 11 boards with an assist. Observers note that during the backwards lineup, Klimenkov averaged 15 pts, 9 boards 2 assists and 4 steals; while never a huge scorer, Klimenkov seems willing to give up shot attempts and focus on what is needed from him for the sake of the team. Privately, coaches wonder how to light that fire and unleash his inner beast.

Árpád Sütöri is said to be working furiously on his inside game. When asked about his goal, he indicated making Linndale's bench more versatile would be beneficial to running the press full time. "I'm just trying to be one of the guys on the floor when we finally explode. We haven't even hit our stride yet..." Joe Brown similarly agrees: "Coach told me what to work on and that's what I'm doing. I don't think they understand what's coming if we get firing on all cylinders, and I say that knowing full well I may not be on the floor for that explosion, but I 'm gonna try as hard as I can to be!" Brown says he's working on his jumper and his work on the boards. Nick Guevara says he can work on both his inside and outside games, but he really wants to on his passing, too. He's hoping to get some time at guard to work on his passing and his perimeter defense. "Gotta tighten that up; I wanna be able to go back and play some small forward if needed." When asked what he was working on, Musa Özol said passing and inside play. He says his goal is to either take the starter's job from Knowles or be a 20 point guy off the bench. He knows he has work to do. Duilio Teti wants another inside camp for the guards. "If we can make our layups, that's huge. Coach figures we win at least 2 and maybe 3 of the games we lost. "We still don't have an answer for Philly Dribble, but maybe the answer is to make them answer us. We'll see..."

Balthasar Gebhardt Datler says he's focused on the inside game right now, but will be working on those perimeter skills too. He says he wants the backup center minutes when postseason comes. Kevin Jung, for his part, says he'll help where he can, but his focus is on tightening up his inside game and finding time to steal minutes to develop his perimeter game. It looks like these two will be going back and forth for that spot come the postseason.

Attempts to speak with Daniel Gale were refused. When asked about him, players indicated off the record he's got a lot of growing up to do. Said one player, "I'd like to take him under my wing, but he's not a kid. He's a professional now. Dancing in the locker room when we think he's injured ain't a good look."

Last edited by Speedtraps at 9/19/2022 12:34:07 AM

Day 14 (Saturday 17 September 2022) : Performances by (https://www.buzzer-manager.com)
Loving the coach drama you gents have added into the conversation!

Night results
The Ashkickers 114 - Linndale 123
Miami Cleo 91 - Lion Rebels 89
2 percent 60 - Rip City Revival 133
Is This Heaven? 89 - The Lone Wolf 103
The Beer Bellys 115 - Mighty Moose Rockets 64
Żubr Białystok 106 - Carolina Rebels 104
Tachenko 69 - San Dominica Warriors 93
Hustlas 97 - Philly Dribble 110

Best collective performance of the evening
Points : 133 : Rip City Revival
Rebounds : 66 : The Ashkickers
Assists : 37 : Rip City Revival
Steals : 15 : Linndale
Block Shots : 8 : Miami Cleo, Linndale, The Lone Wolf, Rip City Revival

Personal best performances of the evening
Points : 43 : K. Knowles (Linndale)
Rebounds : 19 : P. Baker (Is This Heaven?)
Assists : 9 : J. Glicas (Philly Dribble)
Steals : 4 : M. Woesler (Philly Dribble), J. Glicas (Philly Dribble), K. Knowles (Linndale), A. Coronado (Linndale), J. Segovia (The Beer Bellys), V. Laddha (Rip City Revival)
Block Shots : 5 : P. Lutz (Linndale)

Top 5 of the evening
Point Guard : L. Rojas (The Ashkickers) (25 Points, 7 Rebounds, 7 Assists, 1 Steals, 0 Block Shots), I. Fuica (The Lone Wolf) (26 Points, 5 Rebounds, 5 Assists, 0 Steals, 3 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 33
Shooting Guard : K. Knowles (Linndale) (43 Points, 6 Rebounds, 4 Assists, 4 Steals, 1 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 43
Small Forward : V. Laddha (Rip City Revival) (21 Points, 6 Rebounds, 7 Assists, 4 Steals, 2 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 33
Power Forward : H. Espinosa (Carolina Rebels) (25 Points, 14 Rebounds, 3 Assists, 2 Steals, 1 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 33
Center : D. Ziehaus (Hustlas) (24 Points, 14 Rebounds, 1 Assists, 0 Steals, 0 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 36

MVP of the evening
K. Knowles (Linndale) (43 Points, 6 Rebounds, 4 Assists, 4 Steals, 1 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 43

The bad performance of the evening
H. Stark (Tachenko) (3 Points, 1 Rebounds, 1 Assists, 0 Steals, 0 Block Shots) : Efficiency : -7

All kinds of statistics
The player who forgot to remove his mittens : E. Kljajević (Mighty Moose Rockets), H. Stark (Tachenko), F. Torreira (Is This Heaven?), V. Sesamo (The Ashkickers), S. Legkauskas (Hustlas), K. Huk (Hustlas), K. Park (2 percent) : 5 Turnovers

Player targeted by the referees : O. Engler (Carolina Rebels), V. Sesamo (The Ashkickers) : 6 Personnal Fouls

The iron-man : G. Locus (Miami Cleo), J. Cadelago (Mighty Moose Rockets), H. Espinosa (Carolina Rebels), L. Arevalo (Carolina Rebels), M. Carrillo (Lion Rebels), R. Sedonio (Lion Rebels), H. Quindós (Żubr Białystok), K. Park (2 percent), P. Mari Acuña (2 percent), M. Rubin (2 percent), F. Bowie (2 percent) : 48 Minutes

The shooter : K. Knowles (Linndale) : 7 Three points

The best performer : N. Neochoritis (Rip City Revival) : Rating : 17.5

The worst performer : O. Oynak (Mighty Moose Rockets) : Rating : 1.5

Pio Reina live at halfcourt where Coach is making an announcement.

Coach: I just wanted to tell good folks here at home I'm gonna have to step away from basketball for a few weeks, but I'll be back for the playoffs. Doctor's orders and all that. In my absence, the team will continue running things as they see fit. I guess I'll just have to watch and listen to Happy and Pio like the rest of you good folks.

See you guys in the playoffs, and know I love each and everyone of you all. Thank you for your support.

Hope everything is okay and wish you a speedy recovery!

"Coach thanks you for your concern. He assures all concerned that he will be back for the playoffs and ready to go."

- Vikentij Cimovski, Manager of Public Relations for the Linndale Basketball Club.

Last edited by Speedtraps at 9/20/2022 7:43:52 PM

Pio Reina live postgame with Linndale point guard Bobbie Coenen after tonight's 94-66 win over Miami Cleo. Bobbie, we saw a different style than what we've seen recently. What gives?

Coenen: Pio, we knew Miami would try and slow things down a little bit, and since we wanted to work on some things with our bigs, we thought it best to put the press away both offensively and defensivvely.

Pio: To that end Guevara and Jung starting and playing most of the minutes in the paint was planned?

Coenen: Yeah, and though offensively it wasn't pretty for them, they showed up on the boards and defensively. That's what we wanted to see.

Pio: You had a great night shooting the ball, but it appears that Miami was able to take away your playmaking tonight. Why was that not a problem for the team?

Coenen: I actually have two point about that. First, I made shots and got steals. Those are plays. That's the definition of playmaking.

Pio: I get that. What's your other point?

Coenen: Paul Lutz has been the starting small forward ever since he got here, but I think a lot of folks have forgotten he's listed on the roster as a point guard. Always has been. He came here knowing full well he'd be playing there. He's our second leading scorer, second on assists, 3rd in steals, 3rd in three point shooting percentage AND shooting percentage, first in blocked shots; he just does whatever we need whenever we need it. If the point guard is the team's conductor, he's the percussion. Percussion gotta be steady, man.

Pio: Interesting analogy, Bobbie. What's the takeaway from tonight?

Coenen: Just trying to work on fundamentals of Linndale basketball. Defense, rebounding, taking care of the basketball, and free throw shooting. We have to do a better job taking care of the basketball, and we have to get to the line more. The rebounding is a work in progress; it's not nearly where we want it. The defense was nice, but we can be better. Playoffs are a halfcourt game, so we still have work to do.

Pio: Bobbie Coenen, starting point guard for Linndale. Thanks for joining us Bobbie,

Coenen: Thanks for having me.

Pio: Bobbie had a lot of good things to say about Paul Lutz, but Bobbie was the star of the show tonight. Back to Happy Ourer in the studio!

Last edited by Speedtraps at 9/20/2022 10:16:44 PM