All Aboard the Express: Fantasy Report 1/29

If we are being completely honest, I’ve never actually played fantasy basketball before. I’ve been in leagues with friends where we had drafts and stuff, but I’ve never paid attention and gotten invested in it. Maybe that explains why I stood pat and didn’t adjust my roster this week besides to make sure I took Dylan Sinnickson ’15, who didn’t have a conference game, out of lineup and put in Rashid Epps ’16, a player I thought was going to see an uptick in production. Meanwhile Joe got his namesake Joseph Lin ’15 back into the starting lineup and benched Jaquann Starks ’16. Then he gave Zuri Pavlin ’17 and Hunter Sabety ’17 the nod this week over Hunter Merryman ’15, who also didn’t have a conference game, and Ed Ogundeko ’15.

Lord of the ‘Cac (Adam) Lin and Tonic (Joe)
Player Player
Guard G. Safford Guard J. Lin
Guard D. Wohl Guard L. Hausman
Guard J. McCarthy Guard L. Westman
Forward J. Swords Forward C. Hudnut
Forward A. Santos Forward D. George
Forward Mar. Delpeche Forward Z. Pavlin
Forward R. Epps Forward H. Sabety
Bench D. Sinnickson Bench H. Merryman
Bench J. Brown Bench J. Starks
Bench S. Ajayi Bench E. Ogundeko

No two ways around it, I got thrashed this week. Nobody on my team performed better than expected except for Graham Safford ’15 who had eight assists, six rebounds and four steals to go along with 13 points. Joe enjoyed a solid offensive week especially in the points category where Lucas Hausman ’16 led the way with 24. Joe’s efficiency starts with the efficiency king Luke Westman ’16, but other guys like Sabety were also crucial in overcoming a subpar shooting week from Lin and Chris Hudnut ’16. The only other category where Joe had a significant lead over me was assists where Lin continued to be a dynamo with another casual nine dimes. My down week did not cost me too badly except in points where a 51-point deficit in one week is hard to overcome. Here’s the Week 3 scoresheet.

Category Lord of the ‘CAC (Adam) Lin and Tonic (Joe)
Points 53 104
Assists 16 27
Rebounds 49 52
Steals 8 12
Blocks 7 6
FT% 61.5% (8/13) 73.5% (25/34)
FG% 41.2% (21/51) 45.8% (38/83)
3PT Made 3 3

Even though the conference season is only halfway over, a lot of the categories are already so lopsided that they are unlikely to change hands. Points, once well within reach for me, is now dangerously close to being sewn up for Joe. Free throw percentage and assists are two categories Joe can practically guarantee because he has far and away the strongest individual performers in those statistics. I can look at blocks and three pointers as the only two categories where I am comfortably ahead. So the season looks like it will come down to rebounds, steals, and field goal percentage, with rebounds the closest of them all. Look for us to adjust our rosters over the next couple of weeks to try to fully take advantage of our team’s relative strengths and weaknesses.

Category Lord of the ‘CAC (Adam) Lin and Tonic (Joe) Leader
Points 405 503 Joe
Assists 63 103 Joe
Rebounds 220 220 Tied
Steals 37 34 Adam
Blocks 40 21 Adam
FT% 69.6% ( 87/125) 78.9% (163/213) Joe
FG% 47.8% (153/320) 49.5% (185/374) Joe
3PT Made 36 15 Adam

Overall Score: Joe leads 4-3-1

Fantasy Report Week 7: The Semifinals

The fantasy playoffs got under way this week with a pair of low-scoring rematches of Week 6 contests. Regular season champ Foye Story (MacDonald) matched up with Lord of the ‘CAC (Lamont), while Team Lindholm and The Bantams (Meekins) met for the third time.

1. Foye Story (MacDonald) vs. 4. Lord of the ‘CAC – The Fellowship (Lamont)

Foye Story had its second-worst week of the season while The Fellowship had its second-best, riding the strong legs of running backs Lou Stevens ’17 and Tyler Grant ’17. Only seven players across both teams were in double digits, as it was, overall, a pretty poor offensive week around the league. Lamont moves on to the championship with the easy victory over the top seed.

Foye Story (MacDonald) Lord of the ‘CAC – The Fellowship
Pos. Player Pts. Player Pts.
QB G. Harrington 4 M. Cannone 9
QB A. Lommen 1 C. Rosenberg 13
RB A. Scyocurka 0 L. Stevens 25
RB C. Iregbulem 4 T. Grant 21
RB C. Brady 4 M. Gaines 0
WR M. Minno 28 B. Ragone 0
WR S. Kiesel 0 L. Duncklee 4
WR N. Joseph 0 M. Riley 6
TE B. Kurtz 2 N. Dean 0
FLEX D. Jacobs 0 D. Barone 2
FLEX J. Hurdle-Price 6 R. Arsenault 0
K I. Fuchs 16 L. Scheepers 1
D/ST Middlebury 15 Wesleyan 16
80 97
It was a big weekend for fantasy defenses across the board, including Wesleyan, which swarmed QB Mark Pomella '15 on this play. Courtesy of Williams Athletics
It was a big weekend for fantasy defenses across the board, including Wesleyan, which swarmed Williams all game.
Courtesy of Williams Athletics

2. Team Lindholm vs. 3. The Bantams (Meekins)

It was a tough week for Meekins, whose team fell flat and posted the second-fewest points of any team all season. When your defense is the only position in double figures, you know that there is a problem. You’ve got to hand it to Lindholm though. Despite some questionable draft picks (originally, Williams fullback Qadir Forbes ’14 was in place of Zach Trause ’15, but a mulligan was called on that one; and the early round choice of Trinity utility man Michael Budness ’15, who’s not what you’d called a “fantasy” stud), a complete lack of attention paid and absolutely zero free agent acquisitions, Lindholm’s squad is in the finals. I’m not even mad, I’m impressed.

Team Lindholm The Bantams (Meekins)
Pos. Player Pts. Player Pts.
QB M. Lippe 5 J. Warren 7
QB M. Milano 29 M. Caputi 3
RB J. Semonella 0 N. Kelly 5
RB Z. Trause 10 K. Gibson 0
RB L. Ware 0 G. Ackley 0
WR H. Murphy 0 G. Garay 7
WR J. Hurwitz 1 I. Dugger 0
WR J. Fabien 2 J. McGonagle 8
TE J. Day 0 B. Oliver 0
FLEX M. Budness 0 D. Myers 8
FLEX R. Hislop 0 D. Sime 2
K M. Dola 7 P. Nwosu 0
D/ST Amherst 16 Trinity 16
70 56