Quick NBA update

Just watched the first half of the Spurs vs. Suns. Spurs went into full Hack-a-Shaq mode at the end of the first half in a close game. Four straight fouls as soon as he crossed mid-court. Pussies.

By the way, he hit 5 of 8.

10/29 - Two courts again

Eighteen of us showed up today so two courts were in play for a while. This was a little unfortunate as my team got drubbed by the same team on the same court three straight times.
In all, there were 12 games played (no doubt some defense was played in at least 6 or 7).

Here are today's stats... Marvena skunked us all...

Haven't shown the two player tandem stats in a few posts. It's slow going compiling games for tandems as there are so many combinations. Here are the stats for only those players that have teamed up at least 10 times...

Here are everyone's cumulative numbers...

I kept the shooting stats for a games I sat out on today and once again the winning team was absurd.

Shad, Marvena, Kurt and Jack shot 10/15 (2/3 from 3) for their winning 22 points.

The losing team, Matt, TK, Jason & Bob went 3/9, that's right, 9 not a lot of shots in that game for them. They were 0/2 from 3.

My new stat is GWS. That's game winning shots. Every one of us thinks he's the guy that should be taking the GWS, and I don't mean to throw more fuel on the fire, but just for fun I started keeping track. Although I didn't get many of the ones on the other court (Don't worry, I did get all the wins and losses).

Today's GWS that I recorded were Don (twice), Grant, Jason, Bob, TK, Kurt and Erik (Erik made 2,467 three pointers in the last game, so he should have made the last one). Of course, this would be a lot more meaningful if I kept attempts at GWS to see your %, but I'm not that motivated.

Nara.

NBA Opening Night

Nice debut by Greg "Sam Bowie 2.0" Oden. Bummer.

Watched all 3 games last night and amazingly, in the Bulls vs Bucks, the refs called 5 traveling violations in the 1st quarter. Too bad after next week they'll never call traveling again.

How in the world does Tyronn Lue - better known as "Point Guard Smurf" - get any minutes in the league?

Oh, and I overnighted Dwight Gooden a razor.

Monday the 27th - abrupt ending

First, I have to apologize to my hoops buddies for ending today in the middle of the last game by re-tweaking my ankle. That's bogus.

Anyway, only one court today, so only six total games. No one went undefeated and no one had more than 3 wins. Nate and Alvin continued their winning ways. Here is the chart of all the guys who have played at least 20 games sorted by Win %. Nate has played 19, he'll shoot to the top next time he plays.





Here's everyone sorted by alpha...

Here's the list of everyone who has shown (57 different guys) and how often they've come. Out of the 57, an amazing 21 have only come once out of the 13 days. On the other end, 12 guys have shown up at least half the time.

By the way, if you didn't see it, there's an ugly NBA flunkie poll near the top of the right column. Make your choice.

Since more guys have started to get some games under their belt, I have a sheet that sums the winning % for the four guys on each team (guys with less than 20 games played are normalized to 50% for this purpose). So, soon I'll be posting about team favorites and underdogs based on the combined historical winning % on two opposing teams.

Oh yeah, and the gloves came back today. I have the "hands of a thousand cuts" and I'm pretty sure no one would appreciate them cracking and bleeding on the ball. So, it's gloves until they heal again. Bummer. I'm gonna blame them for my shooting today as I lost out shooting 4 for 3 and 4 for 1 and had to sit out.

AnkleStorm

Because of my frakked-up ankle injury, I was only there to record 3 games today, so while they are part of the cumulative stats, I'm not gonna bother to post any of the spreadsheets today.

Hopefully, the ankle will get better soon, right now it looks like a snake that swallowed a watermelon.

On the bright side, for the first time today I tracked shooting percentages in a game that I sat out.

The skins were James, BK, Steve & Pride

vs.

The shirts were Marvena, Matt, Erik & Shad

The skins won 24-13. That's right, 24. I'm happy to call out the score from the sideline if someone asks, but if I'm not in the game and no one asks, I reckon it's not of my damn business.

Anyway, the skins shot a remarkable and I do mean remarkable 11/16 from the field for 69%.

They were 2/2 from three point range and 9/14 from inside the arc.

The shirts shot 5/15 for 33%, including the heaving of a slew of threes. They were 3/9 from three point land and 2/6 shooting twos. So 33% on twos and threes each. Pretty interesting.

But again, 11/16 for the skins, crap that's good.

Hope to see you Monday.

Wednesday the 22nd - only one court, ugly last loss

Not so many dudes for a Wednesday. I wound up 3-4 but lost the last two games after having decent leads. It's amazing how much how you finish stays with you. Doesn't matter how you did all day if the last game is ugly. Reminds me of a time I played golf and was 8 over par after 4 holes and then played the next 14 holes in 2 over to shoot an 81 (good for me). Left feeling great, but if the opposite had happened and I'd been 2 over after 14 and finished 8 over on the last 4, the lake would have another set of golf clubs at the bottom.

Anyway, here's the cumulative on who shows up...there have now been 55 different guys (54 and Marvena).




Here are the wins and losses, I alternated colors to make it easier to follow across the row...



Finally here are today's results...




Not near as many games today because we didn't have two courts going.

And for everyone looking to be able to make fun of something, my hands are cracking again and there's no stopping them, so look for the "Return of the Gloves" soon.

Monday - Part 2, Comebacks and Yacks

Forgot to mention a couple of stories from Monday. Both occured in games I didn't see 'cause I was playing on the other court, so I don't know the details. Anyway, Tony was on a team that was down 20-6 and won. Sweet.

On the darker side, poor Ryan yacked his guts out. He walked off of his court (the middle one) and walked over to our court and puked just about two feet off of our court's endline slightly to the right of the basket. Effectively taking away my ball saving and hard driving fast breaks to the right side. I appreciate that no one can help when they have to yack, and I admire that the kid continued playing, but from now on I have a new community center rule... When you are going to puke, don't run over to my court to do it. Puke on your own court. Is that so much to ask?

Monday the 20th - Happy to be back - and our 3rd Zach

I'm way too hyper to not play hoops for 5 days, zoiks.

Some rare faces in the crowd today, here are today's stats - seems like lots of underdogs won today...

Here are the cumulative stats for everyone... There have been a total of 110 games played...

Haven't shown the tandem stats in a few days. These are the wins and losses for tandems of two regardless of who else they played with. Tandems that have played at least 7 games together are on this chart. Jack & I have made our way to 50%.

Tony (and a few other guys before) suggested we compile a list of email addresses so we can communicate when necessary and recruit guys when attendence has been light. I could put something on this site so everyone could list theirs, but I'm afraid that the spyders and bots will collect all our addresses and bury us in spam. So, as an alternate, if you send me your email address (via my profile page), I will collect the list of everyone who sends me theirs and then email it to everyone on the list.

Way too many Zachs....

No Longer a Man

Well, I didn't get to play today and I feel 57% less manly for it. Some guys are trying to reconstruct the wins and losses and that is very cool of them. Thanks especially to Trent who's bugging people for what they remember. If we can put the games together, I'll of course add them to the database.

In the meantime, since sometimes I only post the cumulative stats, several guys wanted to see the daily stats more regularly. So, to that end, here are the daily stats from the last two weeks (of course, today (Friday the 17th) is not included)....

Friday the 17th - I'm Not There!!!!

If you read this before hoops on Friday and want to help out by writing down the results of the games, that'd be great. You can email them to me from my profile page.

If I don't get the results, oh well, it was bound to happen sooner or later, and today's games are just as random and arbitrary as any.

Wednesday 10/15 - Where were you on Monday?

On a side note, I was watching the Hornets vs Wizards preseason game and the Hornets went up 47-9. Holy crap.


Lots of guys (and early arrivers) today. There were 17 total games (most yet). Speaking of when guys come, it's amazing that there were only 5 guys by noon on Monday and yet 15 guys by noon today. If you are trying to figure out when your favorite teammates and arch-nemesis play, here is a chart for you. I've kept stats for exactly 3 weeks now, and here is how often each guy has shown up by day...




For guys who have played more... Here are the w/l for guys with at least 15 games played...

Here's everyone sorted by alpha....

And, teammate tandems for tandems that have played together at least 7 times.

Watch out for those games that start after 2:15, they sure are raggedy.

Monday the 13th - Ghost town

At noon today there were only 5 of us so far. What gives? Columbus Day? Everyone tired from Friday? Anyway, it was crap. There were a total of only 7 games played today and 13 guys wound up coming. Here are the cumulative w/l records...




Jack didn't come so that leaves Alvin and I as the only guys to make it every time. Out of the 45 different guys who have shown up in the eight days so far, 14 of them (almost 1/3) have come only once.



Trent (TK) suggested I try to break down the results by other factors such as age and hoops playing experienc (college, H.S., etc) That's a pretty cool and doable idea if I can get everyone's info. I know some of the guys who are over 40 and over 30, but some I'd be guessing on (and not everyone would like what I'd guess). So maybe I'll ask everyone to compile the info. Interestingly, the top 3 attendees (myself, Alvin & Jack) are all over 40. It's probably a little harder for younger guys to be established enough in their careers to have maximum time flexibility.

By the way there's a little, anonymous survey on the right about your hoops experience if you want to fill it out.

Early Risers - Friday Oct 10th

Got to hoops at 11:45 today and I was the 13th guy! What the hell? Usually I'm somewhere between 1st and 6th. Wound up with 21 players and 15 games played.


Daily stats...





Here are the cumulative w/l records...





Here are the records for two players tandems - those that have played at least 5 games together....





Here's how often everyone has come so far...

Sidebar - A little nostalgia

A couple of years ago, I used to keep track of who came to hoops and (just) my own personal w/l record. I revisited that spreadsheet today and checked out the info. It's from 2006. During that time (Feb-Nov), I was playing in both Open Gym and 40+ hoops (Tue & Thu). To back up my assertion that your personal w/l is related to your skill level within the group, here are my stats during that time...


I was 322-394 (45.0%) during open gym (M/W/F)


I was 149-106 (58.4%) during geezer hoops (Tu/Th)


Obviously my skills were exactly the same no matter when I played, but the crowd on Tu/Th was weaker. I ran up lots of points (literally) but running by everybody a lot.


It's also interesting to see who came to Open Gym in 2006. During the 9 months there were 202 (that's right, 202) different guys who showed up (you try keeping track). Here are the most frequent attendees...





Remarkable how mostly it's the same guys. Haven't seen Ben, Bill, or Chris in a while. You gotta miss Bill pounding the ball before he passed and Chris's quasi-slow motion uncanny finishing around the hoop.

Putting the "I" in Hideous

Today was Wednesday. Lots of games (15). I went a miserable 2-7. Played with Tony, Rob (pony tail) and Joey most of the day. We didn't look that bad on paper but... I played like MJ - except it was MJ Blige.


Anywho, enough about me, on the other side of the spectrum Marvena, Alvin, Shad and Kurt played together a lot and almost ran the table. Kurt lost somewhere else early and Tony and I finally got another win in our last game with TK and Ray Ray to hand Alvin and Shad their first loss. So, Marvena wound up the only one unscathed today.


Here are today's w/l records...








Here are the overall standings thru today...








And here are the updated stats for tandems - two player combos regardless of who else is on the team... There a LOTS of tandems, so this list is only those that have played at least 5 games together.








Jack & I have played the most together. If you do the math, since I'm 7-9 with Jack as a teammate, that means that I'm 8-16 without Jack. Guess I need to stalk him and sign up when he does.


By the way, no Rob (Big) today (hamstring) so that leaves Alvin, Jack & myself as the only 3 who have come all 6 times. In that time, there have been 41 different guys (including several rare faces today).



If you read this crap, it'd be great if you'd comment, or talk some good-spirited trash about someone.



How about that logo!?



Zach

Oct 6th - not a lot of games - Where the frak is Tony?

We had a total of 16 people today, but one of them we "borrowed". While I'd like to thank Bruce for playing when we asked, he was only able to play one game. So, we were left with the dreaded 15 players. Thus, there was lots of sitting out and no individual player racked up a lot of games. Could have really used Tony (or anyone) making an appearance today. By the way, Tony hasn't come since I started this. Here are the results just from today...

Below are the cumulative results for the 5 days I've recorded so far. Bummer for Keith. Remember, you can make any chart larger by clicking on it.

Since the list is starting to get long, here's the same cumulative stats sorted alphabetically...

I always wondered which day had the most players show up on average. After a while, I'll know. Here is a look at the number who have shown up for each day so far. This is the total number, they weren't necessarily all there at the same time.

Oct 3rd - Two courts again

It's amazing to me how the flow of guys in and out of games winds up chasing each other around the two courts. Despite the fact that there are lots of guys, you wind up playing the same guys a lot all day. For instance, I know Sam was here today and yet I didn't play a single game with or against him.

Speaking of two courts, again today I missed the results of a couple of games that ended while I was playing. As I blogged before, statistically speaking, those games have the same chances for wins and losses for any player as the games that are recorded, so in the long run everyone's percentages would be about the same as they would if I were to catch every single game. The only stat really affected is the overall totals for wins and losses. Oh well, it's just a kooky blog about pick-up hoops, what the hell do you expect?

Here are the cumulative W/L for individual players...

Here are the W/L for tandems of two regardless of who the other teammates are (tandems with at least 5 games played together)...

Even though Jack, Alvin and I have been there all day every day, I've played 14 games with Jack as a teammate and only 6 with Alvin.

Gave out the address to this blog to the first couple of people today. If you visit leave a comment or talk some trash. Also, pass the address around to other guys if you'd like.

October 1st - Lots of players

Two courts going for most of today. Which brings up an interesting side point. Sometimes when I'm playing on one court, I can't see or record the results on the other court. Therefore, some games will be missing. All the games I record are accurate, it's just that some are left out (it would be the same if GOD FORBID I miss a day).

Anyway, Nate and Mike were on the same team all day. As a matter of fact, Nate was on the same team as Nick the previous day. Nate's a strong enough player as it is without the benefit of another awesome big guy on his team. The result is that he has a very high overall winning percentage.

Here are the cumulative win/loss records for each player..

It took some crazy-ass formulas in Excel, but I am also tracking the win/loss % for every tandem that plays together at any time regardless of who the other two teammates are. For instance, Jack & I have been on the same team 11 times (with varying teammates) and are 5-6 in those games. Here are the two-player tandems that have played at least 4 games with each other...

In the 3 days (one week) I've been tracking, 29 different players have played. It's still Alvin, Jack, Big Rob and myself who have come every time.

That's all for today, except to say the Big Rob, myself, Gary and Matt were so hungry to run around that we played full court 2 on 2 after everyone else left today (of course, that game isn't part of these stats).