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"Hello everyone, We are here with Hustla's TV. I am your host, Cash Danger, and I will be going solo tonight. Now, about our Hustla's. To say this season was a disappointment would be a gross understatement. The Hustla's failed at every aspect of the game this season. They have shown a little bit of life in a few games towards the end of the season, but other than that, this has been one of the worst season's on record. And now, the Hustla's is in a relegation match with an opponent that outmatches them. I do not see this team pulling out of this one. They will be demoted again, when this matchup is over, in two games. Though, they did make some big pickups the last few days. But, their main pickup for point guard, the one they had the highest hopes on, is out injured, and so will not make an appearance......"

Bobby Sparks shuts off the TV. "Well, gentlemen, what do you think? Mr. Kerry, Mr. Walton, I have not fired either of you yet because of the lastest, ridiculous moves you have done Kerry. But make no mistake, you are still on the chopping block. So, if the team relegates, you are both fired. And guess what, we have a losing record against Philly Dribble, so relegation is inevitable. So, pack your bags, when this season is over, you will be gone. I can't wait."

Such a tough relegation matchup - will be sad to see you go - loved your additional commentary - hurry back up to Div III (or pull a rabbit out of your hat!)

MR: “Marshall Richards live in studio with Happy Ourer and Happy, tell us what you think about what you just saw!”

HO: “...”

MR: “Well it seems my partner is speechless. Let’s go live to our man on the scene, Air Allnite!”

AA: “What… what did I just… what just happened?”

MR: “Air, the folks at home are hoping you can tell them!”

AA: “…”

MR: “Folks, we’ll see you after the commercial break. Yes folks, your Linndale basketball team is up at the half, but there’s still a lot of basketball left to go!”

Pio Reina: “First off, I have to commend Coach Stephenson on a phenomenal season with a phenomenal team. We knew it would not be easy, and I assure you it was a lot harder than what you think you saw. This was an old school, knock down, drag out heavyweight fight, and whomever was the last one standing would win. That’s exactly what happened.”

Sam Dunkley: “Coach Reina, Sam Dunkley of the Basketball Times. Would you care to talk about what you did differently in this game as opposed to the previous times you faced San Dominica this season?”

PR: “Well, we stress defense and rebounding. They beat us on the boards and shot better than we did, so that didn’t work tonight. (Laughter from the crowd.) We shot the three ball extremely well and attacked the rim offensively. We also drill free throw shooting. The three ball and free throw shooting paid off.”

Air Allnite: “I can’t believe I am even having to say this, but congratulations on a huge win tonight. I noticed a defensive change from your usual playbook at the start of the game and wonder if you thought it worked out.”

PR: “From my perpective, not as well as we would have liked, but we held the Warriors off, so yeah. I think if you ask Coach Stephenson you might get a different answer. If you go box score surfing, you’ll get a different answer. To answer your question without giving anything away, we did what we wanted to.”

SD: “Is this something we’ll see in the next round?”

PR: “I don’t know. You’ll have to ask the next coach of Linndale. I’m told I wasn’t supposed to make the playoffs, I’d find a way to lose this for us, and the team was not even going to make it here. Fortunately for us, that’s why we play the games and you write about them.”

Happy Ourer: “Folks, you’re watching the post game press conference live after an incredible 117-114 victory as over the San Dominica Warriors. As Coach Reina departs the dais, let’s go to a commercial break and when we return, Marshall will break the game down for you!”

Coach Stephenson:
Games like these are the worst when you’re on the losing end. Hmm this one is gonna sting for a bit. But that’s good cuz it means it was a helluva a game and you still care about the game of basketball. (points) Mike

Reporter 1:
Mike McCordell, DSSN. Coach what happened differently in this game as opposed to the two meetings earlier in the season.

Coach Stephenson (gives him a look then shrugs)
To be honest nothing. First, like I stressed earlier, it is hard to beat a team three times in one season, especially a good team like Linndale with a helluva of coach like Pio Reina. On paper the game plan went like we wanted it to. We were dominate on the boards. We had second chance points opportunities and enough of them just didn’t go our way. Hmm like I said to start off these kind of games are the worst to lose because there’s not much you point at and say hey we screwed this up.

This was just a old fashion slug fest where every possession was crucial and the dice just landed in Linndale’s favor. Now could we had played better, yeah. There are some charity stripe shots that I would think we would want back. Begin, a proficient free throw shooter and Blanchet our point guard both went 1-2 from the free throw line. Hit both of those and maybe we win in regulation. Or if we go 13 for 31 from three point land, ehh we advance. So many of those kind of things you can say in hindsight but during, I felt good about us in the second half.

Reporter 2:
Pluck TaPaul, Coach if you had to do over, would you had gone with a different defense other than man ?

Coach Stephenson:
Nah. We thought about using a box defense but decided to trust our players. Yes Guyton got the better of Blanchet, you could say but I wouldn’t agree with that assessment. He went 9 for 22, hit half his threes unfortunately but that’s something you just have to live with.

Again. We lost by three. I know there are some that want a ‘ooh we shoudn’t have done this or we should have done that’ but this game someone had to win and someone had to draw the short straw. It happens. Last season the situation was reversed. Pio Reina was up here trying to give answers for a loss while we were advancing towards the conference title in the playoffs.

Reporter 3:
Coach who will you be rooting for in next week’s matchup.

Coach Stephenson:
Wait who won the Rebel Rassle?

From the crowd:
Carolina.

Coach Stephenson:
Oh well not that it was gonna matter. I mean you root for the team that beat you. But funny I talk about how its hard to beat a team three times in one season and now Pio and Linndale are facing that exact same challenge. However I’m not sure how much I’ll be able to devote to watching with the draft coming and finance decisions to be made.

Hunt Mosley:
That was Coach Stephenson at the post game press conference. Warriors fall to Linndale 117 to 114. We’ll be back with more post game report on the Warrior's Sports Network

The following takes place in a rare post-game appearance by Lion Rebels GM J. Samuels:
J. Samuels
First off, glad to be here, despite the circumstances - I just felt like I needed to show up and address the press to relay a message to our fans. The last two seasons, we suffered through 7-15 records and 6th place finishes after making the playoffs in our first two seasons in Div III.15. This was because we re-tooled, sending off up and coming star Byron Lutz, who I'm proud to say has averaged just over 20 PPPG and nearly a 14 rating in the last two seasons since we transferred him to Gagliardda in Italy...we were at an economic crossroads - we probably could have made the playoffs in Season 58, but I realized that while Lutz and Brown were becoming key contributors, we just didn't have enough depth. Fortunately, we'd drafted Robin Hood Hollins and with the money we made off the Lutz transfer were eventually able to bring in some vets to bring up the floor of our bench play, including getting Singh back into the starting lineup this season. And the results were pretty damn good, if I do say so myself. A 2nd place finish in the Big 8 (a first for us) and a competitive spirit all season, only losing six games and a 255+ point differential. Were we going to win the championship this season? Probably not - not with how competitive our division was, but we're satisfied with where we landed after the last two seasons. Our window is still open with Armstead - we're hoping for two more seasons with him as a dominant big and with the progress of Hollins and the development with Huerta, we have a four season planning we're looking at being ultra-competitive in this league. The goal is to get to Div II by the time Terry starts to diminish.

Petra Torre [D3SN] (interrupting) Mr. Samuels, what happened last nigh...

J. Samuels
Listen - I'm not here for questions - just for a state of the team sort of thing. What happened last night was a bit disappointing. I know our coach Baine was thinking our enthusiasm and home court advantage would put us over the top and we'd at least make it to the semis. But listen, after the last two seasons, this is a step in the right direction. I'm not going to hold one loss against Baine. We're here, we're a mainstay, and we'll continue to be that way. We have a good vision and we're going to keep progressing toward that.

Melanie Kines [FXSD3] (interrupting) But you have to admit that 11 points in the fourth quarter when you started with a 17-point lead with Brown once again not showing up has got to be deflating. What are your plans with Brown - are the rumours true? Are you going to move on from him because he doesn't have that killer instinct?

J. Samuels
I don't know how many times I've got to tell you this: Listen! Kurt's a great player - he's had some ups and downs, but as we continue with the rest of this 5-year plan we started at the beginning of this season, you'll see him continue to develop into the player we've always envisioned him to be - there's a reason we stuck with Kurt rather than Lutz.

That's all I'm gonna say about this. Until next time.

Last edited by Baine at 5/3/2023 10:44:50 AM

HO: “Happy Ourer and Marshall Richards with a a last look at Linndale’s playoff win over the San Dominica Warriors, and the challenge of tonight's game with the Carolina Rebels. I expected a hard fought, close game, I don’t think anyone expected the game we got Tuesday night.”

MR: “Happy, what we saw was a good, old fashioned slobberknocker! Coach Stephenson had his team well rested and ready. Coach Reina’s team was ready to go. This wasn’t going to go down to who made what defensive adjustments, or who outmaneuvered whom; this was two heavy hitters going down with their guns blazing.”

HO: “Was there anything Pio Reina did differently?”

MR: “Yes. What Pio did was switch a couple of defensive assignments. Offensively, they went away from their look inside focus and decided to put the ball in the hands of their shooters. They also tightened the rotation for this game. Pio Reina usually played 10 guys routinely, but that rotation was shortened by one player. It seemed the focus offensively was to let the shooters shoot, and on defense it was to see if we could find a way to make life difficult for Baiao and Granja. The defensive adjustments didn’t work as well as they’d hoped; Baiao was more efficient shooting the ball, and Granja had the most shot attempts he’s seen in the three games.”

HO: “Well, the shooters certainly shot the ball well!”

MR: “Happy, that was the difference, and it wasn’t just one shooter; it was all of the shooters. Guyton was 4 of 8, Knowles was 5 of 11, and Kamp was 3 of 4 from the 3 point stripe. Tovar was 2 of 2 off the bench and Petriukstis was 2 of 3. The shooters shot extremely well from deep, then they made free throws, going 25 of 30.”

HO: “Marshall it sounds like you’re saying that there wasn’t any adjustment that worked except for the shooters making shots.”

MR: “Essentially that’s what happened. We got out rebounded, we didn’t take care of the ball, and we didn’t shoot it particularly well overall. Coach Stephenson pointed it out in his remarks. San Dominica had the unenviable task of trying to beat an opponent 3 consecutive times. Now, that task falls to Linndale.”

HO: “And now key players for Linndale won’t be available for the game.”

MR: “Daniil Kamp was being sold before the Carolina game and Serkan Sokmen went down with an injury in a scrimmage. The organization went all in on trying to salvage this season for the playoffs to the point where they ran the risk of bankruptcy. The owner quite literally tried to spend every cent they had in the belief that the team would make the playoffs. Now Pio Reina has to figure out how to play without his glue guy, and no time to learn how. The late season addition of Eliyahu Hadad looms incredibly larger now than it did at first, and that might be saying a lot.”

HO: “What about Serkan Sokmen, and where does Art Reese fit in?”

MR: “Both have the chops on defense. Offensively, let there be no doubt. Sokmen is far ahead of Reese. Reese’s defensive acumen is what keeps him in the conversation. Sokmen was relied on to play both forward spots; he offered versatility Reese doesn’t have. Clearly that has to change some things in Pio Reina’s rotation, but Art Reese had better bring his A game when he’s on the court.”

HO: “How do you see the game at Carolina?”

MR: “Not having Kamp will change things, but I’m not sure how much. There’s no way to know. The only thing you can know is that Pio Reina has a plan. Expect him to come out of the lab with something. The only thing this takes off the table is a backwards game. Expect another close game. I don’t know that Linndale is gonna pull out a win against Daisy Merollin’s crew, but I can’t bet against them either.”

Pio Reina: “Congratulations to Daisy Merollin and her team. They ran us out the gym. They shut down Floyd Hearn offensively, and really everyone else not named Rod Guyton and Kyle Knowles. They simply whipped us good. On the boards, shooting the ball, and they were the more physical team. I don’t have much else to say. They kicked the crap out of us. You all saw it. Well just go home, rest up, and get ready for the next season. We went from not supposed to even making the playoffs to being one half away from the league finals. We had our issues all season long. We’re here. We showed up. We got beat. Daisy Merollin had her team ready and they dog walked us. No tricks to it at all; they just flat out beat the brakes off us. I don’t like it, but facts are facts. The better team won. We have to go back to work from square one. We have to get better and tougher. We just weren’t good enough. Congratulations to the Carolina Rebels. You guys will have to excuse me. Next year for my team begins now.”

Floyd Hearn is lost in his thoughts…

“Don’t nobody wanna see you shoot, Floyd. That’s my job”, exclaimed Ramon Sanz Garcaa.
“It was a joke”, Floyd said to himself. He picked up a sheet of paper. It was his stat line from the Carolina playoff game.

1-18. That was it. That was all he saw.

“Don’t nobody wanna see you shoot, Floyd. That’s my job.”

“Ramon went 3 for 3 from deep against Philly Dribble. He did it again against Carolina,” Floyd muttered to himself.

1-18. In the biggest game of the season. Floyd couldn’t accept it.



Elsewhere, Ramon Sanz Garcaa was going through a similar thing.

5 rebounds in 33 minutes. He couldn’t believe it. He was beside himself. He was startled by his cell phone ringing.

He answered it gruffly without checking the caller ID. “What?”

It was Harrison Mann.

“You, me, and Floyd. We got to carry this further. We got to be better. What we gonna do about this?”

“Hold on.” Ramon conferenced in Floyd.

“What you want?” Floyd was boiling mad now.
“You to bring the bad attitude,” Ramon said. “I’m bringing the bad intentions. Harrison, what you bringing?”

“The pain. The disappointment. All of it.”

“We got work to do”, Floyd said. “That game can never happen again.”

“Agreed”, replied the others, for very different yet similar reasons.

Well my time is this division was short lived but it was an entertaining season with you all. Good luck to everyone next season, time for the Flamingos to rebuild.

Thank you for a great series, I really expected to be the one relegating. Best of luck on your rebuild!