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We join the Linndale postgame conference already in progress...

Pio Reina: We knew this was going to be a tough task, but I want ya’ll to look at the numbers. You all know by now what Linndale basketball means. We come to defend, we come to rebound, and we come to take care of the basketball. We believe if we do those things, we will win. Tonight, we rebounded the ball. We defended well, I thought. We did not take care of the basketball. We had twenty turnovers and they got thirteen steals.

Sam Dunkley: Sam Dunkley, Basketball Times. Coach, it seems like Pere Vendrell was getting a lot of run early on and has since given way to Gian-Luca Twarduschek who had not only another twenty point game, but a double double. Does this mean that Twaruschek has a starting job, or has this been a function of matchups?

PR: Sam, every lineup decision is a function of matchups. Now does Gian-Luca’s performance change things? His job is to make me make tough decisions. He’s doing his job. Pere Vendrell hasn’t done anything to cause us to lose confidence in him; he’s making us make tough decisions also. Then there’s Joy Beko, who again has done nothing to cause us to lose confidence. I’ll point out as good as Gian-Luca played, his turnovers hurt us. You take the good with the bad, and try to improve the bad.

Jimmy Buckitts: Jimmy Buckitts, WINO radio. Coach, we usually see Roman Bodura start at the shooting guard position, but tonight we got Carlos Frias. What was the thinking there?

PR: That’s very observant of you, Jimmy. We thought about starting Roman, but we wanted to get Carlos in the backcourt to facilitate him getting the ball into his hands a bit more. We thought Walt Pasman could handle the matchup and small forward. I thought their backcourt would make things hard and wanted to give Colenbrander a hand in initiating things on offense. It helped, and so did our ability to pass from the post, but the ball security killed us. We thought we needed to play the perfect game and catch them sleeping. We didn’t quite play the perfect game, but we did catch them sleeping a bit.

Jay Smith: Jay Smith, Swish Magazine and Basketball America. Coach, your starting center finally came through with a big game. Is that what you’ve been waiting for from him?

PR: I assume you mean tonight’s starting center, because we expect whomever we put on the court to perform, and as I’ve stated with regards to other positions, we go with what we think are the best matchups for us. We think we have a handle on which players of our opponent we can’t let beat us, so we put in place our best defenders to try and mitigate that. You saw that with Pasman playing small forward. In the instance of power forward, we wanted to go test Twaruschek and see how he would produce. He did well. Joy Beko can and would start at either of those positions as well as center, but we felt we would need him off the bench, and he produced. We knew what we had to do. We went out there and came close to pulling off an upset, and yes we know it would have been an upset. But again, every lineup decision is a function of matchups.

(shouted from an anonymous reporter): Coach, is it possible to see Twarushcek at small forward, and what improvements does he need to make to be seen on the floor there?

PR: That’s something I discuss with the players. I’m not putting that out in the press. If the player chooses too, that’s on them, but I’d hope that what we discuss privately stays private. You’re welcome to see the results when they manifest. That’s it, no more questions tonight. See you next time.

Day 5 (Saturday 5 October 2024) : Performances by (https://www.buzzer-manager.com)

Night results
The Dachshunds 72 - Anchorage Allstars. 88
GloryBoyz 110 - brooklyn knicks 96
Fondy Cardinals 94 - AZ Sunburn 123
Las Vegas Red Pandas 100 - Defenseless Babies 118
Nanooks of the North 50 - Eternityz Rostah 109
Cleveland Heat Lakers 123 - K8be4L 116
Organization XIII 109 - Linndale 102
Duke Devilz 82 - Andersonville Alligators 152

Best collective performance of the evening
Points : 152 : Andersonville Alligators
Rebounds : 64 : AZ Sunburn, Eternityz Rostah
Assists : 39 : Andersonville Alligators
Steals : 20 : Fondy Cardinals
Block Shots : 14 : Anchorage Allstars., Andersonville Alligators

Personal best performances of the evening
Points : 44 : V. Marchenkov (K8be4L)
Rebounds : 20 : D. Walchshofer (The Dachshunds), L. Janesch (Eternityz Rostah)
Assists : 12 : R. Motti (K8be4L)
Steals : 6 : A. Harrani (Organization XIII)
Block Shots : 10 : J. Yongyi (Anchorage Allstars.)

Top 5 of the evening
Point Guard : K. Telén (Andersonville Alligators) (32 Points, 2 Rebounds, 8 Assists, 1 Steals, 1 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 38
Shooting Guard : V. Marchenkov (K8be4L) (44 Points, 9 Rebounds, 0 Assists, 0 Steals, 0 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 33
Small Forward : L. Salisbury (Cleveland Heat Lakers) (39 Points, 8 Rebounds, 7 Assists, 0 Steals, 0 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 42
Power Forward : J. Yongyi (Anchorage Allstars.) (16 Points, 17 Rebounds, 5 Assists, 1 Steals, 10 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 40
Center : L. Janesch (Eternityz Rostah) (14 Points, 20 Rebounds, 4 Assists, 3 Steals, 1 Block Shots), M. Álvarez (Eternityz Rostah) (25 Points, 14 Rebounds, 8 Assists, 1 Steals, 2 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 41

MVP of the evening
L. Salisbury (Cleveland Heat Lakers) (39 Points, 8 Rebounds, 7 Assists, 0 Steals, 0 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 42

The bad performance of the evening
K. Dupre (brooklyn knicks) (0 Points, 0 Rebounds, 1 Assists, 1 Steals, 0 Block Shots) : Efficiency : -7

Triple-Double of the evening
J. Yongyi (Anchorage Allstars.) (16 Points, 17 Rebounds, 5 Assists, 1 Steals, 10 Block Shots)

All kinds of statistics
The player who forgot to remove his mittens : G. Twaruschek (Linndale) : 6 Turnovers

Player targeted by the referees : J. Pastorell (Organization XIII) : 6 Personnal Fouls

The iron-man : V. Marchenkov (K8be4L), B. Barkley (Cleveland Heat Lakers) : 48 Minutes

The shooter : N. Sheppard (Cleveland Heat Lakers) : 9 Three points

The best performer : M. Álvarez (Eternityz Rostah), L. Salisbury (Cleveland Heat Lakers), A. Roche (Andersonville Alligators) : Rating : 16.5

The worst performer : A. Lott (Fondy Cardinals) : Rating : 4.5

Happy Ourer: Folks, tonight’s pregame show is going to look a little different, as it’s just me and Joshua in studio. Jimmy Buckitts and Sam Dunkley are both on assignment. However, we are joined by Linndale Hall of Famer John Herring. John, welcome to the show!

John Herring: Happy, it’s good to be here! Joshua, good to see you. Thank you guys for having me!

Joshua Doe: Great to see you, John. I’m gonna start off by asking what did you think of the last game?

JH: I actually didn’t get to see the game; I was dealing with some personal things. I’ve heard it was a great effort but it just wasn’t enough. I heard that you and Jimmy Buckitts had it pretty well nailed down, though.

JD: We saw similar things; I thought the score would be a bit worse than it was. Jimmy was almost dead on for that. He thought turnovers would be an issue. I thought not necessarily turnovers, but ball security in general. We were both right. Twenty turnovers and thirteen steals pretty much confirms that.

HO: John, let’s get into ball security. As a point guard, you had a 6 assist to 1 turnover ratio. What’s the secret to ball security.

JH: I don’t mean to sound glib, but the secret to ball security is taking care of the basketball and making good decisions. I look at the roster and I see a good number of guys who can make good decisions when they have the ball in their hands. That’s a big part of it. I think there are a few guys who are careless with the basketball, and that shows up too. If you’re going to be careless with the ball, you’d better be worth that trouble you’re causing. Another thing I‘ve seen is you’ve got a number of good decision makers when they have the ball, but how many of those guys are good handling the ball? It’s great that you can make the pass to the right guy at the right time in the right spot, but if you can’t be trusted to handle the ball so you can make the pass, that’s a problem.

JD: Talk to ‘em, John. Linndale sees passing bigs as a weapon, abd they are, but if I can force a turnover or steal it from you before you can make the pass, I just took away your ability to pass.

JH: Exactly. I’ve talked with the assistant coaches as part of the team’s alumni program, and I’ve had the fortune to be able to come in on occasion and work with the players. It’s no accident that in seasons past, Joy Beko was able to play some point. I don’t think they need to do that again because Colenbrander can take the career assists record down if he sticks around. What they need to do is to get more guys to buy into the ball security aspect. If I can trust you to handle the ball and I can trust you to make a good decision with the ball, that’s something that wins games even if it’s not considered cool or sexy.

JD: Happy, that’s truth; that’s what that is. John, who would you like to see improve their ball security?

JH: I’d have to break that into ball handling and decision making. As far as the ball handling goes, I look at the backcourt and I think the young guys are a work in progress. I’m not even sure Uzek is going to stay at guard, but he, Isarre, Jernigan and Pasman have to pick it up. Up front, that young guy Vendrell, the rookie Carlson, and all the centers all need improvement. For decision making, every guard not named Colenbrander, every forward not named Beko or Bodura, and the big man Ozver.

HO: Every guard, John?

JH: I’m gonna call out Carlos Frias and Leandro Leao specifically. Fellas, it’s clear that neither is the starting point guard. It’s clear the team is high on both players, but where do you fit Frias? He can do a lot of things, but I feel like he should be better than he has been. Leao, I think is too good to be just a backup point guard. I need to see them get it together.

HO: We’ll be back with John Herring after the break on the Linndale basketball pregame show!

Day 6 (Tuesday 8 October 2024) : Performances by (https://www.buzzer-manager.com)

Night results
Anchorage Allstars. 97 - GloryBoyz 91
brooklyn knicks 107 - The Dachshunds 129
AZ Sunburn 101 - Las Vegas Red Pandas 113
Defenseless Babies 130 - Fondy Cardinals 74
Eternityz Rostah 115 - Cleveland Heat Lakers 101
K8be4L 90 - Nanooks of the North 102
Linndale 125 - Duke Devilz 107
Andersonville Alligators 92 - Organization XIII 105

Best collective performance of the evening
Points : 130 : Defenseless Babies
Rebounds : 62 : Nanooks of the North
Assists : 40 : Defenseless Babies
Steals : 15 : Fondy Cardinals
Block Shots : 17 : Defenseless Babies

Personal best performances of the evening
Points : 51 : L. Salisbury (Cleveland Heat Lakers)
Rebounds : 23 : B. Macis (AZ Sunburn)
Assists : 11 : T. Mizoguchi (Eternityz Rostah), W. Colenbrander (Linndale), K. Telén (Andersonville Alligators)
Steals : 5 : D. Aliferovich (Fondy Cardinals)
Block Shots : 7 : A. Di Massimo (GloryBoyz)

Top 5 of the evening
Point Guard : L. Salisbury (Cleveland Heat Lakers) (51 Points, 4 Rebounds, 6 Assists, 2 Steals, 1 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 52
Shooting Guard : L. Rosario (The Dachshunds) (37 Points, 5 Rebounds, 4 Assists, 1 Steals, 0 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 37
Small Forward : A. Viktor (GloryBoyz) (22 Points, 5 Rebounds, 4 Assists, 0 Steals, 1 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 28
Power Forward : M. Parnell (Defenseless Babies) (23 Points, 11 Rebounds, 2 Assists, 2 Steals, 3 Block Shots), A. Roche (Andersonville Alligators) (32 Points, 10 Rebounds, 4 Assists, 0 Steals, 1 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 34
Center : L. Janesch (Eternityz Rostah) (22 Points, 18 Rebounds, 8 Assists, 1 Steals, 2 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 44

MVP of the evening
L. Salisbury (Cleveland Heat Lakers) (51 Points, 4 Rebounds, 6 Assists, 2 Steals, 1 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 52

The bad performance of the evening
D. Aliferovich (Fondy Cardinals) (3 Points, 2 Rebounds, 0 Assists, 5 Steals, 0 Block Shots) : Efficiency : -11

All kinds of statistics
The player who forgot to remove his mittens : K. Trent (AZ Sunburn), M. Milo (Fondy Cardinals), G. Starr (Defenseless Babies) : 5 Turnovers

Player targeted by the referees : Y. Xiao (GloryBoyz), J. Pastorell (Organization XIII) : 6 Personnal Fouls

The iron-man : K. Trent (AZ Sunburn) : 48 Minutes

The shooter : A. Kühn-Rechenmacher (brooklyn knicks) : 8 Three points

The best performer : L. Salisbury (Cleveland Heat Lakers) : Rating : 19.5

The worst performer : D. McPherson (Cleveland Heat Lakers) : Rating : 5.5

Happy Ourer: We’re here after a Linndale 125-107 victory on the road against the Duke Devilz in what was a surprising performance tonight after what could have been a deflating loss a few nights ago against Organization XIII. I’m joined by Joshua Doe and Linndale legend John Herring. Joshua what did you see tonight?

Joshua Doe: Pio Reina’s boys played this pretty free and loose. It looked to me as if there was no weight on their shoulders. They shot the ball surprisingly well, and the outside game was on full display tonight. If they can continue shooting like this and continue to tighten up the inside game, they are going to be a handful to deal with. This almost reminded me of Linndale basketball from their previous D3 run. Almost.

HO: John, what did you see tonight?

JH: The ball security and decision making was excellent. I think that Colenbrander removed any questions about who’s the lead guard on this team. Bodura had a good night shooting the ball. Leao and Frias were wonderful off the bench. I gave the guards grief on the pregame, but I still think can do better. This was a great first step.

HO: I’m glad you brought up Frias and Leao, but we would be remiss if we didn’t mention the bench was fabulous tonight. Twaruschek with 11 points in 15 minutes, Leao in 14 minutes with 15 points and 5 assists, Frias with 11 points and 4 assists, Ozver with 4 points and 7 boards, and Pasman with his stellar defense as usual coming off the bench tonight. This was a total team effort, and I think this was what Pio Reina was waiting for.

JD: This was not a perfect Linndale game by any means though. They didn’t get to the free throw line so the outside shots had to fall, and they did. They got beat on the boards. That’s something to keep an eye on.

JH: It is something to watch, and I do note the 35 three point attempts is atypical for a Pio Reina coached team, but that goes back to decision making, doesn’t it? If your bigs aren’t getting any traction and the outside shot is open, you take the open shot. That, and will the bench continue to produce like they did today? You had four starters and three bench guys in double figures. Pio has long complained about the lack of bench production offensively.

HO: We’ll be back after a commercial break with more on the postgame show.

Day 7 (Saturday 12 October 2024) : Performances by (https://www.buzzer-manager.com)

Night results
brooklyn knicks 85 - Anchorage Allstars. 108
GloryBoyz 108 - The Dachshunds 126
Defenseless Babies 108 - AZ Sunburn 99
Las Vegas Red Pandas 109 - Fondy Cardinals 63
K8be4L 85 - Eternityz Rostah 120
Cleveland Heat Lakers 114 - Nanooks of the North 106
Andersonville Alligators 95 - Linndale 107
Duke Devilz 92 - Organization XIII 118

Best collective performance of the evening
Points : 126 : The Dachshunds
Rebounds : 60 : Organization XIII
Assists : 33 : Anchorage Allstars., Eternityz Rostah
Steals : 22 : Las Vegas Red Pandas
Block Shots : 12 : Anchorage Allstars.

Personal best performances of the evening
Points : 44 : L. Salisbury (Cleveland Heat Lakers)
Rebounds : 18 : D. Walchshofer (The Dachshunds), L. Janesch (Eternityz Rostah)
Assists : 15 : T. Mizoguchi (Eternityz Rostah)
Steals : 4 : M. Milo (Fondy Cardinals), J. Slimani (Fondy Cardinals), V. Corte (Las Vegas Red Pandas)
Block Shots : 6 : J. Yongyi (Anchorage Allstars.)

Top 5 of the evening
Point Guard : L. Salisbury (Cleveland Heat Lakers) (44 Points, 6 Rebounds, 9 Assists, 1 Steals, 0 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 35
Shooting Guard : J. Šlianderis (Organization XIII) (32 Points, 4 Rebounds, 4 Assists, 2 Steals, 0 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 30
Small Forward : R. Stapley (Anchorage Allstars.) (28 Points, 9 Rebounds, 2 Assists, 1 Steals, 2 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 32
Power Forward : A. Roche (Andersonville Alligators) (33 Points, 13 Rebounds, 2 Assists, 2 Steals, 2 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 42
Center : D. Walchshofer (The Dachshunds) (21 Points, 18 Rebounds, 2 Assists, 3 Steals, 0 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 37

MVP of the evening
A. Roche (Andersonville Alligators) (33 Points, 13 Rebounds, 2 Assists, 2 Steals, 2 Block Shots) : Efficiency : 42

The bad performance of the evening
D. Aliferovich (Fondy Cardinals) (3 Points, 4 Rebounds, 1 Assists, 1 Steals, 0 Block Shots) : Efficiency : -6

All kinds of statistics
The player who forgot to remove his mittens : L. Greenwood (Fondy Cardinals) : 7 Turnovers

Player targeted by the referees : B. Macis (AZ Sunburn), K. Telén (Andersonville Alligators) : 6 Personnal Fouls

The iron-man : V. Marchenkov (K8be4L) : 48 Minutes

The shooter : L. Salisbury (Cleveland Heat Lakers) : 7 Three points

The best performer : J. Šlianderis (Organization XIII) : Rating : 17.5

The worst performer : E. Lomax (Eternityz Rostah), D. Kendrick (Organization XIII) : Rating : 3.5

The Big 8 looks to be a serious meat grinder. I guess I'll be finding out how tough soon. Gotta admit, I'm used to being part of a meatgrinder like that. Someone is going to miss the playoffs with a playoff worthy team, and that is going to absolutely suck for someone's relegation match.

Happy Ourer: If I had told you that Linndale would finish this game even on the boards with Joy Beko missing a large chunk of this game, you would have called me crazy. Well, I’m telling you that is exactly what just happened.

Joshua Doe: You are crazy. I know it’s true, but you’re crazy.

Sam Dunkley: Happy, I still say you’re crazy.

Jimmy Buckitts: It’s unanimous. You are absolutely nuts.

HO: Well, thank you all for your belief in my sanity, but I can assure you that’s what happened.

JD: Happy, rebounding was only part of the story. They shared the ball, the ball security was solid, they repeatedly got to the free throw line, the defense was solid, but to me the story of the game was Renato Corro and his near triple double with 16 points, 12 rebounds and 9 assists. The man was everywhere they needed him to be, and he was needed everywgere!

SD: Joshua, Corro had a really good game, but I thought the story of the game was the balance Linndale showed. All 5 starters had at least 14 points, and then Leao added double figures off the bench. This was a team win.

JB: Here’s a game where Gian-Luca Twaruschek wasn’t the leading scorer, but he contributed 15 points and 10 rebounds. Now, he got torched on the defensive end to the tune of 33 points and 13 rebounds, but I’m willing to bet as good as Amaud Roche was for Andersonville, Joy Beko off the bench dampens those numbers some. Initial word is that Beko isn’t expected to miss any time.

HO: That’s good to hear, Jimmy. The bigs were nice out there tonight, but I want to talk about how the back court, led by Walt Colenbrander had Kristian Telen frustrated. Ultimately Telen fouled out.

JB: To be fair, Happy, the Linndale defense showed up and frustrated the Andersonville offense in allowing only three players to score in double figures.

SD: Looking ahead to AZ Sunburn, they have to be concerned with the possibility of having to be without Francesco Di Matteo and Abel Carter on Tuesday. Even without those two, it won’t be an easy task for Linndale. If I’m AZ Sunburn, we’re probably leaning heavily on Barry Macis, Andor Kulacs, and Jesus Imbroda to get it done. Conversely, Linndale should be looking to make life extremely hard on Imbroda and Kulacs primarily. With Silas Shockley also appearing like he won’t be available, that means AZ Sunburn is going to be thin in the backcourt. That could be something to keep an eye on, as Linndale will clearly be going 10 deep against a shorthanded opponent. That depth should come in to play.

HO: That’s Sam Dunkley looking ahead to Tuesday night. After the break, we’ll throw it down to Pio Reina’s post game conference where he’ll talk about tonight’s 107-95 victory over the Andersonville Alligators. We’ll be back on the other side with the Pio Reina post game conference!

Don't get ahead of yourself; keep doing your thing. I think you'll make the playoffs. You're going to have to work for it, but I think you'll make it. I do understand wanting to go back to the drawing board also. I had to do that myself. Took my 3 seasons to get right, and 2 to get back to D3 from D4. You'll figure it out.