Week 3 Recap

Want to know what happened at the PFL Garden on Saturday, November 21, 2009?

Here's the recap:

Game One

Dayton Flyers (2-1) 47 - St Bonaventure Bonnies (0-3) 37. (Missing Flyer: Rachel Viner (IR)).

Game Two

Temple Owls (1-2) 57 - LaSalle Explorers (1-2) 53. (Owls out: David Duane, Steve Luszcz, Josh Pepin, Ron Vogl, Ed Wolf; Lost Explorers: Chris McIntyre, Dave Stewart.)

Game Three

U Charlotte 49ers (3-0) 43 - St. Louis Billikens (1-2) 26. (49ers out: Nora Dowley, Randy Richard; Billikens absent: Mark Salem, Alex Scutro)

Game Four

Xavier Musketeers (2-1) 50 - Richmond Spiders (2-1) 44. (Musketeer without ears: Siobhan Kelley; Spiders caught up doing other things: Dan Ziminski, Chris Ryan, David Scott, Richie Snell and Bill Carruthers. Other than that, they were all there.)

Game Five

Fordham Rams (2-1) 48 - U Mass Minutemen (1-2) 23. (Ramless: Grace Humphrey; Minutemen amiss: Tania Phelan, Greg Pond)

Regular Season Standings Week Three (thru 11/21/09)

Team	Reg. Season
Charlotte 49ers	3-0
Dayton Flyers	2-1
Fordham Rams	2-1
LaSalle Explorers	1-2
Richmond Spiders	2-1
St. Bonaventure Bonnies	0-3
St. Louis Billikens	1-2
Temple Owls	1-2
U Mass Minutemen	1-2
Xavier Musketeers	2-1

Week 2 Recap

Want to know what happened at the PFL Garden on Saturday, November 14, 2009?

Here's the recap:

Game One

Charlotte 49ers (2-0) 46 - Temple Owls (0-2) 44. This was a great game! An Instant Classic! A PFL game with more assists than turnovers! Let us all rejoice! Let's get right to the point: David Duane (with his dad out with a torn rotator cuff, David is sort of Chief Daddy Owl in-residence) made the niftiest pass of the season: a no-look, almost tip-touch off-the-dribble from outside the right wing to a lone team member (his team) under the hoop on the left side for an easy score. My wife, Ellie, the statkeeper said, "Wow!" Another great play of the game was by Ryan Shuman. With the score tied and but a few seconds left, he defected a pass in the backcourt, grabbed the loose ball and while driving to the hoop looked at the clock saw maybe two seconds remaining, drove faster and flipped up a Rondo-like un-layup layup that kissed the glass and nestled home. Bert Ware and Ron Vogl also really stood out for some nice dishes. (Expect a lot of food references in the next couple of weeks.) Mara Schanfield gets herself ready to shoot BEFORE the catch better than anyone in the league. She thinks ahead. (Missing 49er: Nora Dowley; Missing Owls: Josh Pepin, Steve Luszcz, Ed Wolf [can a Wolf be an Owl?).

Game Two

Xavier Musketeers (1-1) 30 - Fordham Rams (1-1) 14. As good as Game One was, this was bad. Think Detroit Pistons circa 1988 in a pre-season intrasquad scrimmage with no referees in the gym. Bad Boys everywhere. Ugly. Grace Humphrey had a couple of nice steals by getting in the passing lane. Jim Vlahkis threw a behind the back bounce pass that skidded, just as he hoped, along the baseline to an open teammate. John Hurley's dad must be a coach because the kid is oozing fundamentals. He doesn't just think pass first, he thinks pass all the time and knows when to shoot if he's given a nice pass. Other than that - and some nice hustle by Jake and Evan and Siobhan - it was no fun. Next week is good basketball redemption week. (Ram not in attendance: lefty Cody Wilson; Mouseketeers without ears: Jean Millette and Tom Hamel.)

Game Three

U Mass Minutemen (1-1) 50 - St. Bonaventure Bonnies (0-2) 39. Larry Bavis had 6 assists, 0 turnovers, took 1 shot and went home happy. Kayron Wright looked like a 17 y/o Olajuwan; he was shaking the house with his post moves! Jon Frappier is BACK and running the floor and The Minutemen were finding him. But The Bonnies are no bunnies and they will bounce (hop) back from this defeat. Mike Bernstein missed last week so he decided to take double his normal number of shots. Interesting. Sandy Kendall hit a three from the top of the key like it was a game of Streak. Her big bro, Steve, was perfect at the line, and a perfectly fine gentleman, too. Ray "Suavio" Pavio submitted a double-double and Chris Railey sent notice that you let him catch the ball on the right low post at your peril. (Not available: UMM Max Weinstein, Tania Phelan, Bob Aloisi; Bonnie amissing: Josh Kratka)

Game Four

LaSalle Explorers (1-1) 54 - Dayton Flyers (1-1) 50. In the Grinnell system that The Explorers are employing, they seek to keep the tempo up, they press after every score and after every miss, they want to shoot quickly and they want to shoot threes. In short, they want to make the other team play their game. The Flyers obliged and wound up paying the price. (That sounds grimmer than it really is; they just lost the game, that's all!) Biggest problems for The Flyers? Turnovers: 20. And they got whistled 17 times versus The Explorers 7. That's big: check out the free throw discreancy. Lynden Douglas showed a whole lot more than he did last week. Amanda Walling has the best free throw stroke in PFL history. Best play of the game: Timothy Francis-Wright (The Chief") was frustrated by a non-call (he thought he drew a charge - when you don't get that call it hurts in more ways than one) so after running up the court and realizing that he was about to commit mayhem, took himself out of the game, sat next to me, muttered and sputtered non-niceties under his breath before sanity and a smile returned to his ever cheerful face. (Flying out of radar range: Lawrence Sheh, Juan Ortega, Rachel Viner [IR]; All Explorers on board)

Game Five

Richmond Spiders (2-0) 61 - St. Louis Billikens (1-1) 47. Let us state the obvious: the Spiders have the greatest collection of talent ever assembled in a PFL season. They have everything: rebounding, shooting, size, grit, unselfishness, a Kiwi, and "the force known as Carruthers". They shot 51.1% on Saturday. We are looking forward to their first 60% game. (When unnamed league officials assembled this team, Carruthers was limping like Chester in Gunsmoke and David Scott hadn't made a shot since Dick Cheney told a truth.) Anyway, one of the fun things will be when they lose. Big Billiken, Shannon Holmes, showing up near halftime in surfer shorts wasn't going to be the way to do it. Kudos to Alex Doerr who did all he could. And Ryan Shea went absolutely Maravichian in the first half, shooting threes off one leg! Not bad! Plus he had no Ts! Oh, the Spiders netted 13 of 17 FTS. Biilis just 8 of 20. Make 7 more of those and it's a different game. (Absent Spider: Mike Christie; Missed-her Billiken: Neelam Thacker)

Regular Season Standings Week Two (thru 11/014/09)

Team	Reg. Season
Charlotte 49ers	2-0
Dayton Flyers	1-1
Fordham Rams	1-1
LaSalle Explorers	1-1
Richmond Spiders	2-0
St. Bonaventure Bonnies	0-2
St. Louis Billikens	1-1
Temple Owls	0-2
U Mass Minutemen	1-1
Xavier Musketeers	1-1

Week 1 Recap

Want to know what happened at the PFL Garden on Saturday, November 7, 2009?

Here's the recap:

Game One

Fordham Rams (1-0) 54 - LaSalle Explorers (0-1) 32. It was a balanced scoring effort by The Rams: 10, 9, 8, 7, 7 is pretty balanced. Also, they were unfazed by the fullcourt (or intended full-court) pressure of LaSalle. The Explorers seemed to be lost in their own schemes, but player/coach McIntyre has steered his squads to PFL Championshps the past two seasons, and we expect their style of play can make up 20 points before many games pass. (All players in attendance).

Game Two

Dayton Flyers (1-0) 42 - Xavier Musketeers (0-1) 40. The Dayton Flyers have some true aerial sorts and others who are more grounded, like Flexible Flyers, you know, the type that just skids along. Still, it was an impressive display of the game of basketball they put on last Saturday, stamping themselves, I'd say, as league favorites. They shot 1-12 on 3s, turned the ball over 5 more times than their opponents, gave up 5 more offensive rebounds, had 8 fewer steals and still won the game! Hunh? Simply put, the other guys, the Musketeers, could not shoot straight. 1 for 11 on FTs? Blind fold me and I'll make more than 1 out of 11 FTs shooting lefty hooks. Newcomer John Hurley looked good though, didn't he? (All players in attendance.)

Game Three

St. Louis Billikens (1-0) 36 - Temple Owls (0-1) 32. The Owls took a stunning 30 FTs and lost the game. (That guy, Vogl, he gets all the calls!) Newcomer Billiken, Ryan Shea, filled up the stat sheet with 30 shots, 16 rebounds, 4 steals and 1 technical. (Referee teed him up for a "get that 'bleep' outta here" taunt. Except he didn't say bleep. I guess I might have been excited if I'd just had my first career block, too. Let's hope he catches the spirit of the league, quickly.) (Can we get Neelam a few more touches? I'm seeing her open a lot.) Gotta love The Owls. They transition from defense to offense and back again by just rotating their heads. Watch them! It's weird! (Not available: SLB Shannon Holmes; TO David Duane)

Game Four

Richmond Spiders (1-0) 50 - St. Bonaventure Bonnies (0-1) 35. This game was closer than the final score. In the end, the Spiders webbed their way to better shots and turned it over fewer times. Mike Christie, Tom Villani and Rob Black combined for a nifty 5 for 5 FGs! Nice. 'Dr Z' giving them shot opportunities they cannot miss. The Bonnies were fun. We expect more in the coming weeks from Chris Tsai and the Kendall twins. (Absent: RS Marcia Whitehead; SBB Mike Bernstein, Ray "Suavio" Pavio, and, most importantly, Chris Railey)

Game Five

Charlotte 49ers (1-0) 35 - U Mass Minutemen (0-1) 34 (OT) The whole thing was a defensive struggle, if you want to know the truth (with a little rustiness mixed in). It may look like OT was sudden death ("First point wins") but, in reality, only one point was scored in that 5 minutes. Neither team topped 22% FG shooting over the 45 minutes of play. You make 2 out of 9 shots and you win this game. If you added up all the free throws and field goals made (13 + 25), it still does not beat the number of turnovers committed (39). Damn stat sheet! The 49ers won without the benefit of a good assist to turnover ratio by R Wang and S Galloway. Let's chalk it up to "getting to know my supporting cast." (Did Kayron Wright really hit a three?) (Absent: 49ers: Kevin Chin, Nora Dowley, Bert Ware)

Regular Season Standings Week One (thru 11/07/09)

Team	Reg. Season
Charlotte 49ers	1-0
Dayton Flyers	1-0
Fordham Rams	1-0
LaSalle Explorers	0-1
Richmond Spiders	1-0
St. Bonaventure Bonnies	0-1
St. Louis Billikens	1-0
Temple Owls	0-1
U Mass Minutemen	0-1
Xavier Musketeers	0-1

Week 1 Recap / Week 2 Recap / Week 3 Recap / Week 4 Recap / Week 5 Recap / Week 6 Recap / Week 7 Recap /

Game Two

Game Three

Game Two

Game Three

Game Two

Game Three

Game Two

Game Three

Want to know what happened at the PFL Garden on Wednesday, July 22, 2009?

Here's the statistical recap:

Game One

Game Two

Game Three

Want to know what happened at the PFL Garden on Wednesday, July 15, 2009?

Here's the statistical recap:

Game One

Game Two

Game Three