• Nike Recess Federation 2010-2011 BASKETBALL SEASON

NRF Power Ranking, 5.5

Generation

Generation has lived another day at the top of the power ranking. Terminator is making moves!

10. Delta Force - A 1-point loss to Huarache sent Delta down the Power Ranking despite yet another big game from Kelvin Coffey (18 points). In many ways, you can't get mad at 'Force for this loss - it was just one of those games when LeKeith Taylor is virtually unguardable, making 7-11 shots for 20 points. That being said, look for DF to get off their slide when they get back on the court against Terminator in two weeks. Sammie Taylor has been heating up as of late - if he and Coffey can both top the 15-point plateau in the same game, 'Force could orchestrate an upset.

9. Foamposite - Foam's problem last week against Dunk - and in general - is not on the offensive end. Mike Tumbarello and Keith Howard combined for 29 points on 10-20 shooting from the floor. But they couldn't put the clamps on an offensive explosion from Dunk. And all of Dunk's buckets were just too easy - they shot close to 70% inside the three-point line.

8. Dunk - I absolutely love to take credit for accurate predictions in the league (while also pretending as if those incorrect ones never happened). Most recently, I said that Bang Takenouchi was going to be the difference-maker for the guys in green. And against Foam last week, he didn't miss a shot from the floor (8-8 FG) for 16 points. But even more impressive than my clairvoyance was Dunk's distribution of the rock. They notched 17 assists as a team, a number that is astronomical in NRF. As a gauge, Foam only had three dimes in that same contest.

7. Hyperflight - Welcome to judgment day. After a couple of weeks of beating Dunk, 'Flight will now get the biggest test of their season, going against No. 1 Generation next week with a lot to prove. Will Niko Klansek stay hot? Will Derrin Woodhouse continue to make a push for some sort of end-of-year award (MIP?) A win here does a LOT for Hyperflight. I'll call it now - if they top Generation, they're Top 3 next week. I'm not sure how that'll shake out, but it'll happen. That's something worth playing for.

6. Huarache - Why is Huarache so tough for Shox? While they have struggled with up-and-down teams like Delta Force, they seem to bring a different level of intensity against their biggest rivals. It feels like we always key in on Christian, Pat and LeKeith from this squad, but their other guys - Ryan Kearney, Richard Ting, Will Perkins, Andrew Simon - will all be big in this one.

5. Air Force 1 - A 5-point loss to NRF's best team only drops AF1 one spot. But are we looking at a sign of greater troubles here, as the former top-seeded squad has gone 1-3 in their last four games? That's the danger of being such a dynamic three-point shooting team. At some point in the season, these guys decided they didn't need to try to get easy buckets, they'd just take deep and deeper shots instead. Might that be coming back to bite them right now?

4. Shox - Bob Knight has a theory about what happened to Shox last week. He calls it a "let-down game." After playing an emotionally-charged 40 minutes against Uptempo and pulling out a close victory, the Red Raiders (pun intended) came out flat against Terminator. They rebounded the basketball well as always, played pretty solid defense as always, but just didn't figure it out on offense, scoring a measly 41 points.

3. Terminator - I've noticed that though Term doesn't always play with a true point guard, they're actually really good with the rock. If they don't make any real mistakes, turning the ball over or taking completely ill-advised shots, they prevent their opponents from getting easy buckets in transition. That's why they've climbed the board all the way into the prized Top-3.

2. Uptempo - The squad with the best record in NRF can't really get bumped out of here during an off-week, especially when the two teams at Nos. 3 and 4 dropped games. They'll have a chance to jump back up to No. 1 this week, though, if they can convincingly beat rivals Air Force 1.

1. Generation - However, odds are that's not going to happen for Uptempo. The Generation train is rolling, clicking on all cylinders right now. Their win over AF1 showcased their most balanced attack of the season, getting double-figures from four guys (Jomo Davis, Rafael DaSilva, Joe Branch and Dan Cherry).

tags:

Comments on This Post:


Reply: