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BBTV is on and the Hustlas players are watching in their locker room before practice. They are still fresh, coming off of their big victory. The rotations are working. The players are not overexerting, and in Legauskas'case, not overshooting. But they pay attention to the words of the sports reporters.

"Fresh off of their victory yesterday, Żubr Białystok moves to 6-5 and are looking strong. People are overlooking this team, but obviously they are a team you can't overlook."

"Ain't that the truth," says Talman. "They beat us."

"Yes, but that was before our new additions, and besides, we played in the patient offense," says Huk.

"That's because it use to be our best offense. We focused more on finding the best shot every time down the floor," says Legkauskas.

"Easy for you to say. You always got the best shot," said Denkovic.

"Shh, I'm trying to listen to the TV," says Trepicchio.

BBTV: "Żubr Białystok. That team will make the playoffs. Look who they have beaten. They've beaten Linndell, and they've beaten the Hustlas, who, mind you, have just beaten Rip City. Zubr is a serious team. Taking them lightly is to the detriment of their opponents...."

"We will get our revenge against them. But for now, let's focus on our next opponent, Lion Rebels. And they are chomping at the bit. This is a good team. We must be ready for them," says Andreas Maes.

"And we will be," says Ziehaus. "Just throw it down low to me and Talman, and we will take care of business. Sorry Legkauskas, I know that kills your touches and your shots, but we are all about winning now. And we will win with playing inside against them."

"Easy for you to say," says Layton. "Have you seen Terry "The Terror" Armstead? They call him The Terror for a reason. I know I will have to go against him, and he will dominate me. He will dominate the two of you as well. Ziehaus can possibly contain him a little, but that's it. So stop the arrogance. They are a real team, and he is a real terror."

Legkauskas smiles, "No complaints here. We will get our revenge. But Andreas is right, Lion Rebels is next. And Layton is right. I've seen The Terror play. He is a beast. So, Let's start practicing, before the terror terrorizes us and we have no answers. We will throw it inside because he's the only one to fear along with their small forward, but after that, the inside should be gravy."

BBTV: " Hustlas play Lion Rebels. I see that game being close. The terror will be a terror on them. But I see the Hustlas having just a bit too much firepower. They will win by 8."

The second sportscaster looks over at the first one, shakes his head. "Lion Rebels lost their last game. They will come out firing on all cylinders. I see them winning a close one, 3 points. Hustlas lose. Just like they would have lost if Rip City played normal."

Sportscaster 1: " I disagree. The game would have been close, but the Hustlas are getting better at closing. I think they would have still won, by 7."

Sportscaster 2: "And when the Lion Rebels defeat the Hustlas, I'll look over to you and say, I told you so. They would have lost to Rip. And losing to Lion Rebels will prove that."

BBTV goes off the air.

Hustlas coach: "Keep proving the naysayers wrong. Let's get in a good practice today. We have a Terror we are going to in a couple of days. Have to be prepared. Let's start by working out our bigs. We will need them when that game starts."

Last edited by Reece at 9/4/2022 3:47:06 PM

Congratulations on the “enthusiastic” victory 😁

Lol, I knew you knew what you were doing. Now you have the team, and most of the pundits not believing in the Hustlas, lol. You used that game as a scouting mission. I wonder what they will say next on ESPN and BBTV

"We welcome our special guest today, Stephen A.," says one of the BBTV anchors.

Stephen A.: "There is jokes running around now. It's unbelievable. The first joke, was Linndale switching around their lineup, running a full court press, against Zubr. But the bigger joke is after being down big, they came back and almost won. But th biggest joke of all had to be from the Rip City coach. The coach sent out this tweet to the Hustlas, 'Congratulations on your 'enthusiastic' victory.'

Rip City just lost to the Hustlas and this is what they sent out. And they ended it with a Smiley face. Talk about showmanship. Rip City used that game as a scouting mission. And boy did they come away with a lot. If they face the Hustlas in the finals, you better believe they will be ready for them. But I have faith in my Hustlas. But faith can only take you so far. I had the Hustlas winning it all, but after that tweet from Rip City, that took the heart out of me and of the Hustlas. That was savage. Here we are, feeling good about our victory over the best, over the best, yes they played TIE, yes they kept it close, until the 4th quarter, even took a lead after being down double digits, but they lost by 26. By 26!!!! And with that, with all of that, they sent out this tweet as if the loss was nothing, meant nothing. I am now worried about the Hustlas. Rip City is playing with them. And there is nothing the Hustlas can do. If they keep winning, maybe they can prove themselves, but Rip City is saying that the win means nothing. At the moment, that's how I feel."

BBTV: "Well, it meant something. And the Hustlas will try to prove it by continuing their winning ways against Lion Pride," said BBTV anchor.

I probably should clarify something here. . .I have massive respect for your victory. Yes, I'm being playful, but not in an attempt to minimize your win. Enthusiastic was meant to be a double entendre. Your writing is enthusiastic, and you played a higher enthusiasm. I tend to be a bit more on the jokey side. . but that's hard to tell from static text. So it could come across as indifferent or arrogant. And true, sometimes I'm those things. But not on purpose this time.

I think you should totally feel great about your victory. A win is something to feel great about and 26 points is a great win. I usually account for 10-15 points for enthusiasm and 10-15 points for homecourt. You also guessed the pace correctly and tactical guesses are impacting too. So my takeaway for this is that I'm not overly concerned, and my position is that I have to bank my enthusiasm because I'm out of the Cup. Probably not a big surprise to the league that I'm going to be playing TIE from here on out regardless of matchup. I'm looking at the playoffs and unless I win the head to head with Philly I'll remain in the 2 seed off of the PD.

So Hustlas, overall you had a great plan and executed it brilliantly. My deepest and sincerest congratulations on your win.

Oh no, we liked the original, something to play with, banter with, as you saw in the BBTV and such. All fun. I thought it was an excellent message and one I could play with and expound upon, as you saw. Hope you liked it. Lol. I had fun writing it.

Loved it. I need to bring back my grisly journalist, Irv Crombie. He’s been retired way too long.

That would be excellent. More reports. Fun to read, and then Baine providing other insight league wide. This league is great.

Day 11 (Saturday 3 September 2022) : Performances by (https://www.buzzer-manager.com)
Loved all the activity in here over the weekend! Good luck in tonight's games!

Night results
Linndale 114 - Żubr Białystok 122
Lion Rebels 105 - Tachenko 118
Rip City Revival 105 - Hustlas 131
The Lone Wolf 70 - The Ashkickers 110
Mighty Moose Rockets 36 - Miami Cleo 94
Carolina Rebels 112 - 2 percent 101
San Dominica Warriors 111 - Is This Heaven? 43
Philly Dribble 128 - The Beer Bellys 25

Best collective performance of the evening
Points : 131 : Hustlas
Rebounds : 68 : Żubr Białystok
Assists : 33 : Linndale
Steals : 16 : Linndale
Block Shots : 14 : San Dominica Warriors

Personal best performances of the evening
Points : 40 : P. Mari Acuña (2 percent)
Rebounds : 23 : G. Locus (Miami Cleo)
Assists : 10 : S. Rigaux (Philly Dribble), C. Kallay (Tachenko)
Steals : 6 : J. Glicas (Philly Dribble)
Block Shots : 5 : C. Riggins (Żubr Białystok)

Top 5 of the evening
Point Guard : K. Brown (Lion Rebels) (29 Points, 6 Rebounds, 5 Assists, 1 Steals, 3 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 35
Shooting Guard : T. Begley (Carolina Rebels) (31 Points, 3 Rebounds, 6 Assists, 1 Steals, 0 Block Shots), F. Carrillo (Lion Rebels) (29 Points, 8 Rebounds, 2 Assists, 1 Steals, 1 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 32
Small Forward : P. Mari Acuña (2 percent) (40 Points, 9 Rebounds, 7 Assists, 1 Steals, 0 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 38
Power Forward : G. Pullen (Tachenko) (24 Points, 16 Rebounds, 3 Assists, 1 Steals, 3 Block Shots), J. Talman (Hustlas) (23 Points, 21 Rebounds, 2 Assists, 0 Steals, 1 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 41
Center : G. Locus (Miami Cleo) (31 Points, 23 Rebounds, 2 Assists, 1 Steals, 3 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 51

MVP of the evening
G. Locus (Miami Cleo) (31 Points, 23 Rebounds, 2 Assists, 1 Steals, 3 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 51

The bad performance of the evening
K. McNulty (Mighty Moose Rockets) (7 Points, 2 Rebounds, 0 Assists, 1 Steals, 1 Block Shots)B. Piotrkowicz (The Beer Bellys) (3 Points, 2 Rebounds, 1 Assists, 0 Steals, 0 Block Shots) : Efficiency : -14

All kinds of statistics
The player who forgot to remove his mittens : P. Alvarado (The Beer Bellys), H. Musayyab (The Beer Bellys) : 7 Turnovers

Player targeted by the referees : A. Coronado (Linndale), T. Armstead (Lion Rebels), M. Ulevicius (2 percent) : 6 Personnal Fouls

The iron-man : G. Locus (Miami Cleo), R. Cuberas (Mighty Moose Rockets), J. Cadelago (Mighty Moose Rockets), H. Espinosa (Carolina Rebels), L. Arevalo (Carolina Rebels), D. Harden (Lion Rebels), S. Hatch (Żubr Białystok), W. Huffman (The Beer Bellys), P. Alvarado (The Beer Bellys), D. Villari (The Beer Bellys), B. Piotrkowicz (The Beer Bellys), H. Musayyab (The Beer Bellys), P. Mari Acuña (2 percent), D. Wilmink (2 percent) : 48 Minutes

The shooter : P. Fasselli (Philly Dribble), P. Mari Acuña (2 percent) : 7 Three points

The best performer : G. Pullen (Tachenko) : Rating : 18.5

The worst performer : O. Oynak (Mighty Moose Rockets) : Rating : 2.0

"Happy Ourer on WINO radio here talking Linndale basketball with the one and only, Air Allnite of the Supreme Court Basketball Network! Glad to have you, Air!"

Air: Thanks for having me! You folks in Linndale have a mighty fine basketball team there; be a shame if something happened to it.

Happy: What do you mean by that? There's no trouble in paradise!

Air: That's your first problem; you thinking this is paradise. Look around and tell me how many D3 titles you have. Ya got NOTHING! NOTHING! A BIG FAT ZERO! It's like the media and the fanbase are content to live off of D4 titles! You don't get to be legendary by settling for what ya got when you have a chance to do better!

Happy: Point made, Air. Tell us, what's the national perception of the recent goings on with the Linndale basketball squad.

Air: You've been called a joke. Your coach was called drunk. No one respects your team. You've got to understand, the people talking like that don't see the problem the way you might see it. For me, and I'm guessing for you, you've got access to the players and coaches. You can talk to them and get their mindset. You can see what they're trying to do. The same people calling you a joke thought it was an even bigger joke that your team nearly pulled the win out of that.

Happy: Your take, Air. Is there a split on the team? And are the coaches drunk?

Air: Yeah, there's a split, but not like you think. The guys grumbling are the guys who can't get on the court in their preferred roles.

Happy: That sounds like Joe Brown.

Air: Yeah and the younger guys too. That new center you guys picked up is still learning his way around the locker room culture. Brown isn't; he knows who's buttons to push and how. He's been pissed off ever since you picked Musa Ozol; he felt he had earned that spot and it was unceremoniously ripped away from him. He saw every point guard on the team sold off except Lutz. He thinks he's entitled.

Happy: I know others have told him if he could shoot there likely wouldn't have been an issue with giving him a spot. I also know that he's been getting time as the backup PG as the team's attempts to complete the overhaul of the position has been frustrating.

Air: Defensively, he can handle it. Somebody's gonna have to talk to him about his game and mindset. If he gets his head right and embraces the role, he could be a nice weapon off the bench. I've heard Lutz and Nick Guevara have been bending his ear a bit and he's been open to what they have to say.

Happy: Coach says he lets the players handle player business until it becomes team business. I imagine Coach will have a word with him.

Air: Or bench him for good and shorten the rotation at guard. He does have that option among others.

Happy: We have to go to break Air; can you staick around a while longer and continue this discussion?

Air: Sure; I'd be happy to.

Happy: Air allnite with the Supreme Court Basketball Network talking Linndale basketball, and we'll be back after the break on WINO radio!

560 AM Hustlas Radio station. "Mac Sigh with Abe Lowe here on Hustlas Radio 560AM. The Hustlas come away with a victory against Lion Rebels today. The team fought hard to win this game, and finally, in the 4th quarter, they were able to pull away," says Mac.

"The Hustlas really came through. Lion Rebels took it to them on the inside, but eventually the Hustlas were able to get their act together," says Abe. "But it doesn't get any easier. The Hustlas has their BBM match, then a cup match, and after that, they will be at home to face Linndale."

"We like what Linndale is doing with their lineup, though some do not. I think it would give Hustlas fits. In the end, I think Hustlas would still pull it out," says Mac.

"I hope so. They just jumped to first in their conference and 3rd overall in their league with the latest win. Will they continue their momentum into the upcoming matches going into the all-star break?" Abe looks st Mac expecting an answer. None comes. "And that's it on Hustlas Radio. Till next time, we'll see you when we do."