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Subscribe to our NewsletterWe are officially at the midway point in the season though based on the weird schedule Red has played 9 games, Grey has played 7 games and all other teams have played 8 (16-game regular season). But this seems like a good time to take stock of where we're at in the season and to again thank those people who make this all happen. First thanks to the refs who deal with all of our complaining week in and week out and do their best in what is not an easy job. Next thanks to the scorekeepers for doing their thing and Josh Tannenbaum for running this league. Big thanks to Matt Ceccarelli for the many hours he spends doing all the stats. Finally, as the "commissioner" of this league I try my best to make everyone happy and I know that there are several teams unhappy with the lack of balance with some of the rosters (all complaints should be texted or emailed to Jonathan Kanarek - just kidding). We will do everything we can to fix this next season because I know everyone is out here to have fun, get some exercise but also to compete and win. With that being said, here is a quick midseason power rankings based on standings:
1) Red (8-1) - Led by their Big 4 of Adam Hynes, Colin Neff, Eric Sass and Ben Carr, this team is the clear favorite to hoist the title at the end of the season (but that is why we play the games). They have had a few games that were closer than expected but if we were to do a draft today they would have 3 of the top 10 picks.
2) Grey (5-2) - The 5-time defending champions have been inconsistent but behind the slashing, driving and shooting of Shamar Mason, the all around offensive game from Matt Ceccarelli and the dominance in the paint from Mike Hughes, Grey finds themself one game back in the loss column in the standings.
3) Black (5-3) - After jumping out to a 4-1 start, Black lost two of their last three games. Black has been led by the MVP caliber performance of Siri Carpien, the rare combo of inside/outside skill of Damian Jackson and the three-point bombing of TJ Farrell. If the energy shown by Gary Levine can carry over to the entire squad defensively on a weekly basis, this team can beat anybody.
4) Orange (4-4) - Similar to Black, Orange came out of the gates with a strong 3-1 start but are going through a bit of a slump in recent weeks (though their losses have been very close battles decided in the final minutes). Orange epitomizes team play and what can be accomplished when everyone is on the same page. Newcomer Michael Gerstein has led the team in scoring but it's really a collaborative effort as you never know if it'll be him, Ben Huber, Rory Schulman, Jake Lillie or Graham Haskell that will lead them in scoring in a particular week. Despite the recent struggles, this is a team that nobody will want to face come playoff time.
5/6/7) There are three teams currently tied at 2-6 and I will discuss them based on the order they appear in the standings
Gold (2-6) - This team has a lot of talent and scoring but have had a tough time playing with consistency throughout a game. Their two wins have both been dominant performances and when they are moving the ball well and hitting their shots they are tough to beat. But their shooting has been very hit or miss on a game-by-game basis. Michael Huberman has led the scoring attack followed by some combination of Jason Narod, Steve Bachman, Jake Granoff, Bryan Minasian and Andre Lewis. Gold's biggest problem has been it's lack of size but Bryan Minasian, as usual, has been playing bigger than his actual height to man the middle and grab rebounds at a very high rate.
Green (2-6) - After starting the season 0-5, Green has won 2 of its last 3 games. In honor of another team that wears Green and is now in the NFC Championship game, Eagles legend Brian Dawkins is credited with saying, "the best ability is availability." This has been a problem for Green as Seth Niessen is the only player to have made every game and he soon departs on his month-long sabbatical in Delray Beach. Green has been led by Kabbendik offensively but have also had valuable contributions from Dan Amsellem, Jordan Perlmutter, comeback player of the year candidate Josh Goodhart and Andrew Merel. This team lacks stability but had impressive wins against Grey and Black which show what they are capable of.
Blue (2-6) - This team has also had issues with attendance (injuries) which has made it difficult for the team to gel. Admittedly this team needs a true number one scorer but newcomer-of-the-year candidate Phil Romero has done his best leading man impression. This team has 5 full-time players averaging between 8-13 points (Phil, Jon Ackerman, Zac Sicherman, Brian Maier and Adam Driansky) but not a guy they can turn to and say get us a basket. But they play hard, have two good victories and if they can mesh better in the second half they might be able to win a few more games.
One last thing before we get to the recaps...I write this weekly recap to add a little something to the league and make it more fun. Please know that any jokes made are merely that - jokes. I am not trying to insult anyone and if anyone has been insulted know that those jokes have actually been made by Jonathan Kanarek. Seriously, I do it for fun and I apologize if you've been the subject of past (or future) comments. Now let's get to this week's games:
Gold 70 - Blue 47: Gold was playing without two of their top scorers in Steve Bachman and Jason Narod (clearly not showing Mark Andrews how to catch a ball - too soon?) but on this night Gold had no trouble putting the ball through the hoop. Blue was missing David Kobiashvili who is still recovering from his hamstring injury. Blue got out to a quick lead in this contest but that would be short lived. Gold played it's best game of the season and the ball was moving as well as any game I've watched all season. Picking up the scoring slack on this night were Neighbor and Jake Granoff, who each contributed 20 points. Gold also got 10 points apiece from Bryan Minasian (to go along with 17 rebounds) and Cory Rothbort (extending his recent scoring efficiency hitting 5/7 shots). Daniel Lantz added 6 points and 5 rebounds while Andre Lewis made his presence felt in ways other than scoring (7 assists, 6 rebounds and 3 steals). Phil Romero continued to make his case for league rookie of the year posting 20 points and 13 rebounds. Phil was flying up and down the court but it wasn't enough to overcome a very focused Gold squad. Adam Driansky added 9 points, 7 rebounds and 4 assists in the losing effort.
Gold vs Blue Highlights 1/13/2025
Grey 55 - Black 53: It was clear even before this game got started that this was going to be a battle. And it started when I entered Nathanson Court and saw Siri Carpien and TJ Farrell sitting on Nathanson (Grey) bench. Now it's understandable being that both TJ and Siri have won past championships with Grey and perhaps just got confused about which team they were on. Fortunately cooler heads prevailed but not before Drew Mandelbaum told me to shoot for it to determine which team would call "grey bench" their home and it just so happens that the cameras were already rolling:
With the bench now decided, it was time for the game of the week. Grey was playing without Matt Ceccarelli who was suffering from cybersickness, nausea brought on from staring at the computer screen for too long calculating the stats (okay he was away for business). Black got out to an early lead thanks to the impressive offensive stylings of one Siri Carpien. Siri seemed to be hitting everything early on, whether it was backing down a defender or launching shots from three-point range. Siri finished the game with 28 points and 13 rebounds. Siri's partner in crime, Dame Jackson did his thing adding 12 points and 12 rebounds. TJ Farrell had a quiet night, scoring just 3 points on only 6 shots for the game. While it took Grey a little while to find their groove offensively, they did take a 7 point lead into the half. It was a very balanced scoring effort from Grey with four players notching double digit points: Mike Korn led the way with 16 points followed by Shamar Mason with 15, 12 points from Ed Seiden and 10 from Rick Auyeung. Rick hit several big shots including a three-pointer just before half as well as this baseline runner which had teammate Ed Seiden yelling from the bench "don't force it, don't force it...okay force it."
The big story for me from this game was Alex Stone, playing with a heavy heart and doing his finest "Round Mound of Rebound" impersonation in honor of his French Bulldog Barkley who died just hours before the game
For the second half, Black switched it up and went to a zone defense which helped them cut into the lead. Mike Korn, as he's been known to do in the past, seemed to get a basket from the high post any time a big shot was needed. The end of this game came down to FTs and both teams really struggled to make their foul shots. Here's how the final 2:00 played out:
- 54-52 Grey lead - Damian got fouled and made 1-2 fts (54-53 Grey)
- Ensuing possession Mike Korn got fouled while driving and made 1-2 FTs (55-53 Grey)
- Damian then missed a three and Shamar got the ball and missed an 8-foot jumper but gathered the offensive rebound and was fouled (missed both FTs)
- 49 seconds remaining Damian got fouled while shooting and missed both FTs but Gary, as he always does, outhustled everyone to grab the offensive rebound.
- Siri found Gary open for a 6-foot jumper in the lane which he missed and Korn scooped up the rebound and was fouled. Korn missed the front end of the 1-and-1
- Siri turned the ball over attempting a pass in the lane to Gary which Shamar stole and called timeout.
- In-bound pass went to Hughes who was fouled and missed front-end. Damian rebounded the miss and passed to Siri who quickly dribbled down the court and found TJ for an open three that just missed as the time expired
Grey vs Black Highlights 1/13/2025
Red 67 - Green 37: The story of this game was Green playing without Adam Bendik, Jordan Perlmutter and Dan Amsellem's shit (which he lost somewhere in the second half - remember all jokes that people are offended by can be attributed to Jonathan Kanarek). But seriosuly this ties into what I discussed at the beginning about the teams not necessarily being balanced and players not being happy about it. This is a league of friends playing together trying to have a good time and in the process win some games. In this game, Dan let his anger get the best of him and he commited a couple of questionable fouls ending with the one below which ended the game. The key to all this is let's just have fun and not get anyone hurt. And on the other end, and I attribute this partially to stats being kept (which while fun I also think there is a clear negative to them), teams should be self-aware and not run up scores. I'm not saying that this necessarily happened here but when up big in games there is no need to be pushing the pace on offensive possessions.
This game was close for the first 10-15 minutes with Red getting out to a lead behind the offensive wizardry of Adam Hynes (23 points on 10/15 shooting) but Green kept the game close thanks in large part to Kabba, who finished with 21 points of his own. The lead was around 5 points when Red went on a big run to close out the half. Gabe Berkowitz (10 points and 5 rebounds) was clearly tired of hearing all about the big-4 on Red, and he made his presence felt by hitting 2 big three-pointers during this run. Eric Sass (15 points and 7 assists) added two threes of his own and Mike Smulewitz made use of his dental skills to drill a three as well. By the time halftime rolled around the lead had ballooned to 19 points. The second half started with Green cutting the lead to 13 thanks to steals and layups by Kabba and Andrew Merel but it would never get closer than that. Red began extending their lead and that's when the game got ugly both on the scoreboard as well as on the court. Dan knows he crossed a line and was suspended for a game. Hopefully we can all move on and just get back to playing basketball. Green only had 4 guys score in the game including 7 by Seth Niessen, 6 by Dan Amsellem plus 14 rebounds, and 3 by the aforementioned Merel. It was good to see Justin Chodos back on the court returning from his hand injury. It was a relatively quiet night for Colin Neff and Ben Carr, who combined for 16 poins and 18 rebounds. Interesting stats from Green - they made zero three-pointers (probably the only time that has happened for any team this season) and were 3/15 from the FT line. The win moved Red to 8-1 and the loss dropped Green to 2-6.
Red vs Green Highlights 1/15/2025
Black 65 - Orange 59: Black was back at it two days later this time taking on the Orange squad. Both teams entered the game trying to get back to their early season success, with Black having lost it's two previous game while Orange had lost 2 of it's last 3. Siri came out on fire again in the first half, scoring most of his 21 points before the break. Black built up a 6-10 point lead and Orange made some runs but couldn't really get over the hump. Michael Gerstein played his best game of the season and tried to carry his team to the victory late hitting two threes and a layup to get the lead below three points. Gerstein finished with 23 points (including 5/10 from deep). Ben Huber had another all around great effort with 12 points, 12 rebounds and 3 steals. Jake Lillie was an uncharacteristic 0/9 from three and the team was just 11/20 from the charity stripe. After a quiet game Monday night from TJ, he was determined to make everyone forget about that game. Gary Levine (5 assists) functioned as TJs caddy - every time TJ needed a ball, Gary was there to hand him one. TJ converted 5/12 threes and also hit all 6 FTs en route to 21 points of his own. Damian Jackson had a quiet game for him but still tallied 10 points, 6 rebounds and three steals. The win moved Black to 5-3 and third place in the standings while Orange dropped to 4-4 and in fourth place.
Black vs Orange Highlights 1/15/2025
No leaders again this week because there are still two games missing stats.
Games this week:
Orange vs Green 1/20 7:15
Gold vs Grey 1/20 8:30
Blue vs Black 1/22 7:15
Orange vs Red 1/22 8:30
