Kobe Didn't End My Fantasy Season

Kobe Bryant’s season-ending injury crushed the title hopes of many fantasy team owners.

I didn’t flinch.  And no, I don’t have nerves of steel or a cupcake matchup.  I play in the league that should not be.

Filled with nonexistent owners, minimal competition and a free agent pool abundant with opportunity, this fantasy basketball league is very pathetic.  But it allows me to recover quickly from what should be a devastating injury.

I’ve consistently played fantasy football and baseball for many years, but I’m a relative novice in basketball.  I joined a 10-team league in 2011-12 that was competitive and fun.  But for the 2012-13 season, only six players joined and we were unable to rally to eight or 10 prior to the draft.

Because of this, each team made the playoffs before we even drafted.   Two teams coasted through the regular season as their managers made minimal moves.  Two others checked in from time-to-time to stay competitive.  And my friend Dan and I dominated the regular season and post-season to meet in the championship.

Actually, Dan and I seem to meet regularly in many fantasy postseason matchups and always have close games -- and we’re currently facing off in a 16-category baseball league where we sit tied at eight after seven days.  But now it’s rematch time after Dan stole the 2011-12 basketball championship.

Not Kobe Bryant.  At All.

Before advanced imaging could reveal the full extent of Bryant’s Achilles injury, I dropped the superstar.  And because of the lack of teams in the league and resulting deep player pool, I managed to snag the surging Raymond Felton (88 percent owned Yahoo) to fill the void.

Felton can’t match the frenetic pace Bryant has maintained of late to carry the Lakers.   But I play in a daily league, so I’ve also been dropping and adding players each day to stuff the stats.  With the depth available, I’ve added the likes of Greivis Vasquez (81%), Andrei Kirilenko (72%), Jimmy Butler (36%) and Corey Brewer (31%) to my team.

The results have been promising.  In our two-week championship, I currently lead Dan by a score of six-to-three.  Our categories favor stat stuffing, so I’m going to continue add/dropping players in an effort to win.

Provided I focus on maintaining high percentages in field goals and threes, I should be able to win points, rebounds, assists, steals and blocks.  That alone should give me a win, plus I currently lead both percentage categories.  I’ll likely lose turnovers, where I currently have less, and threes may be unreachable.  But a seven-to-two win may be possible, and gives me enough leeway to buy into the stat stuffing strategy.

Bryan’t injury should cripple my team, but I still see a road to my first fantasy basketball championship.

Images Courtesy:  LA.RawSignal.com; and ESPN.com.

TUF 17 Finale: Boy Wonder Wins Split Decision

TUF season 17 reached its conclusion on Saturday night with a card punctuated by spectacular fights and surprising results as the season champion was crowned in Las Vegas.

The TUF Finale Fight
Kelvin Gastelum was eager to throw blows with Uriah Hall, who seemed content to allow the smaller fighter chase him around the ring.   Kelvin began scoring with takedowns, but Hall turned the corner in the second round when he started reversing position on Kelvin and scoring on the smaller fighter -- including a stunning suplex late in the five-minute period.   Hall started pushing the pace more in the third round, but Kelvin secured a few takedowns and avoided any significant damage.

Despite being heavily favored, Kelvin appeared to win the fight -- and two judges acted in kind by scoring the bout 29-28 for Kelvin.  Surprisingly, one judge gave the fight to Uriah by the same score.

With his victory, Kelvin became the youngest winner in TUF history and did so as the last pick by his Coach, Chael Sonnen.  Harley-Davidsons are in order for the champs!

The Best of the Rest

Uriah Faber (28-6) def. Scott Jorgensen (21-7)
'The California Kid' won a fight that featured a blistering pace by securing a rear naked choke in the fourth round.  The bout was an entertaining fight between two friends and Jorgenson appeared to rebound and control the fight in the third, but Faber regained momentum in the fourth and secured the win by submission, his 16th-career win by tapout.

Faber likely deserves another bantamweight title shot following the win, but he will have many detractors gunning his direction that still have ammunition -- including five loses in title fights dating back to 2008 -- that will argue others are more deserving, including Michael McDonald and Bibiano Fernandes, among others.

Cat Zingano (8-0) def. Miesha Tate (13-4)
Tate controlled the majority of the fight from the opening bell when she surged at her opponent.  But Zinagno survived multiple takedowns and submission attempts through two rounds and won with a flurry of knees in the third period.

With the win, Zingano will join UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey -- Kelvin’s favorite training partner -- as a coach on the next season of TUF ( and we have a TUF-related surprise below!).

Travis Browne (16-1-1) vs. Gabriel Gonzaga (14-7)
The pre-fight talk seemed to side with Gonzaga and then Browne claimed the first round knockout in spectacular fashion.  While defending a single-leg takedown against the cage, the towering heavyweight fighter dropped a series of elbows to the side of Gonzaga’s head that collapsed his opponent to the mat.

Bubba McDaniel (21-6) def. Gilbert Smith (5-2)
Bubba and McDaniel delivered a solid bout between two TUF contenders, but Bubba’s experience began to show as the bout advanced.  Bubba showed a number of skills against Smith, including a technical sweep from his back, and ended the contest with a triangle armbar in the third round.

And In addition to the aforementioned fights, a number of other TUF 17 contenders fought on the undercard, including:

Josh Samman (10-2) def. Kevin Casey (8-3) (TKO, round two)
Luke Barnatt (6-0) def. Collin Hart (4-2)(unanimous decision)
Dylan Andrews (16-4) def. Jimmy Quinlan (3-1) (TKO, round one)
Clint Hester (8-3) def. Bristol Marunde (12-8) (TKO, round three)

Final Thoughts
Where the hell was the Uriah Hall from the regular season?  Was this a body double?  Uriah looked content gliding and dancing, almost in a rope-a-dope-type manner.  He consistently retreated in an attempt to draw Kelvin in, but never showed his killer instincts that allowed him to dominate his early fights.  But, the runner-up certainly deserves a UFC contract and should be a future force in the middleweight division.

And who was this Bubba?  The training partner of Coach Jon Jones in Albuquerque, N.M. showed why he was favored entering the TUF season and was impressive in his fight with Gilbert Smith.   Apparently, the TUF season was difficult for Bubba, a rather large middleweight, as he had to maintain a low fighting weight during the filming because of the short period between fights.   He showed up at full strength on Saturday.

As impressive as the Cat Zingano and Miesha Tate bout was -- and it was my favorite fight of the evening, a non-stop battle between two driven competitors -- I couldn’t help but think that neither can match up with Ronda Rousey.  Zingano seemed overwhelmed by Tate’s early pace and exploded in the third with superior cardio, but Rousey will likely have the advantage in both pace and cardio in their anticipated matchup.

‘Bones’ Jones was awkward in an interview with Sonnen, who may seriously cut better promos than Ric Flair.  Jones was aloof and detached as talked distantly over Sonnen and the reporter, a fact the reporter pointed out.  Meanwhile, Sonnen just did his thing:  “My name is on the marquee and I'm a bigger draw than Rocky.  I'm soon to be champ and they call me Chael P.”

Oh, by the way, in a surprise announcement from the Big Boss Man Dana White, the next TUF with ‘Rowdy’ Rousey and Zingano will be aired on Fox Sports 1, the network’s new flagship sports channel.  In most regards, this is a big deal.  MMA wil l continue to be an important element of FOX’s future broadcasts and the show should have an opportunity to grow its ratings if the channel succeeds, as many think it may.

And, Kelvin.  Well done.  The youngest ever fighter on TUF has become the youngest champion of the show.  I doubted the young fighter every step of the way.  In fact, I still do because experience is often a significant factor in fighting.  Yet, I’m a fan of Jon Jones, the youngest ever champion, so paint me a hypocrite.   Kelvin impressed every step of the way and proved he was more than a wrestler, in addition to meeting every challenge head on -- which, rather strangely, couldn’t be said about every fighter on TUF 17.   A big congratulations are in order for the unassuming and inspirational young man.

Images Courtesy:  MMAfighting.com; another awesome GIF from FanSided.com; BloodyElbow.com; and NYPost.com.

TUF 17 Ep. 12: Expect the Unexpected, and Expected, to Make the Finale

We quickly started the episode with a giant plug for Harley-Davidson as the coaches and fighters visited a local dealership to customize motorcycles that the winning coach and fighter will receive.

With two fights on the docket, the action quickly transitioned to the first bout between Josh Samman (9-2) and Kelvin Gastellum (5-0).

Josh appeared confident, but the younger fighter opened the fight by controlling the ring on his feet -- and then taking the Team Jones fighter to the ground.  Kelvin continued to ride Josh on the mat and control the top position, but was struggling to land significant strikes.

As the round advanced, Josh attempted to move to his feet, which allowed the wrestler to take his back.  After a few moments of positioning, Kelvin was able to sink in a surprisingly easy rear naked choke for the victory.

After a brief session of tomfoolery -- including a cursing Dana White impression by Dylan Andrews -- the episode maneuvered to the second fight between Coach Jones’ Dylan (16-4-1) against the TUF 17 favorite Uriah Hall (7-2) from Chael Sonnen’s team.

The first round began with both fighters dancing to feel each other out, but Uriah began peppering Dylan with hard jabs.  Dylan attempted to stalk Uriah from the center of the ring, but appeared slow and intimidated and threw a minimal amount of strikes.  While it didn’t appear Uriah landed any outrageously strong punches, the Kiwi left the first round with a swollen face from repeated jabs.

The second round started by mirroring the first as Dylan controlled the center of the ring, yet appeared hesitant to strike -- and gave Uriah continued opportunities to attack.  However, Dylan managed a takedown and secured top position, but the Team Sonnen fighter immediately fought for a kimura and neutralized Dylan’s attack.  With less than a minute to go, Uriah released Dylan’s right arm and began striking from his back before reversing position and securing a ground-and-pound victory.

The results set up a finale between the heavily favored Uriah against the upstart Kelvin in a battle or brawlers on Saturday, April 13.

While the penultimate episode lacked spectacular fights and ancillary action, the TUF 17 season was of the most interesting in recent memory and featured an impressive array of fighters -- and many will be featured on the TUF finale card.

Still Dancing

Off to Alanta ... er, Atlanta ... for the Final Four.

I find it unbelievable, but I’m still dancing.

In a year in which many tried to two-step or go Gangham and fell flat, I continue to do the Spanish Fandango intent to ride the Louisville to the national title.

My bracket is far from perfect.  But it was solid enough to wither the failings of top-tier teams in a horribly-seeded tournament.

I’ve also managed to dance on despite shooting myself as soon as I stepped on the floor.  I took Gonzaga to the Final Four.  A perpetually foolish move I make every year by taking the always-untested Zags further than is sensible.  And I paid for it when they fell to Wichita State.

Similarly, I always bite on Wisconsin.  For 11 months each year, I gripe about the doom and gloom surrounding my sports teams, yet buy into the homer hype each March.  But grinding plodders make for terrible dance partners and they predictably lost to Admirable Ackbar’s Rebel Army.

On the contrary, I sold out on Michigan too early.  The team is filed with pedigree animals bred to rip normal collegiate athletes to shreds.  Sure, they got bored and lost a few games along the way, but the Blue has cold-blooded basketball killers and guards galore -- And they can go inside.  They aren’t plodders.

They lost, as usual, but didn't kill the bracket.

But I had them losing to Kansas.  Welcome to Atlanta and the Final Four Michigan.  My bad.

For some reason, I ignore common sense come tournament time.  I rely on numbers I loathe most the year -- RPI and some professor at Georgia Tech’s nerdy formula -- and convince myself I don’t watch enough basketball to make an informed decision.

But despite All this, I’m still moving and shaking.  I sit tied for second in my pool.

I actually could care less about the championship game from a bracket perspective.  I simply need Louisville to beat Wichita State on Saturday -- and then some luck -- to win my bracket pool.

If Louisville avoids beyond shocked by the Shockers, my bracket pool will conclude with myself and another individual tied for first.  The winnings come down to a tie-breaker of total points in the championship game, and I have the score 75-70 for 145 total points.

(And, of course, I’m tied with the individual running the pool, so I plan to get his final score prior to the championship.  Can’t be getting cheated …)

I complete expect Louisville to win.   They’re more talented, better coached and are playing on after the gruesome injury to Kevin Ware, the Georgia-born guard whose leg snapped like a wishbone in the Duke game.

The Ware injury was among the most disgusting injuries I’ve ever seen.  Writhing in pain with his leg crippled, his teammates looked sickly as they turned away, not even running to help their teammate.

(Click here for a GIF of the injury, but it's nasty.)

But the last image from the injury was Coach Rick Pitino.  He first walked onto the court to gather his men and turn their focus back to the task at hand -- a championship.

From Philly.com.

It wasn’t callous.  Most coaches love their players -- looking at you Mike Rice -- and Pitino certainly cares for his, but he’s a coach and his job was to win a game.  He let his trainers handle the devastating injury, while he helped his other young men recover and refocus.

With Ware now scheduled to travel to Atlanta for the Final Four, his Louisville Cardinals will be playing on for their teammate.

And, in much less important matters, a win by his Cardinals would keep me on the dance floor.   And within Lady Luck’s striking distance of a payout.

TUF 17 Ep. 10 and 11: Working Down to the Final Four

@SaidSimmons Well, I suck.  You’re getting two episodes in one because I managed to leave a post sitting idle in my Drafts folder thinking it was published.  Sorry about that and because of the mistake I have tried to shorten each post into a more digestible single article … but we’re covering FOUR fights!

Tuf 17 Ep. 10 Blow by Blow
We made it to the semi-finals and the episodes are moving at a much quicker pace.

The first one started with Coach Jon ‘Bones’ Jones talking to Bubba McDaniel, who is apparently scared as all hell to go fight Uriah Hall.

Kelvin Gastelum (5-0) feels doubted -- he doesn’t believe the other competitors think he can box.  Coach Chael Sonnen indicated Kelvin has grown significantly over three weeks from the last pick on his team to a competitor, and he sees him as a brawler and a wrestler.  Sonnen mentioned that Colin Hart (4-1) is a difficult opponent, but not for Kelvin and he hopes his fighter can eliminate one of Coach Jones’ better options.

Coach Jones described Colin as “extraordinary” at jiu-jitsu and good at everything else.  Colin indicated he’s eager to prove he can box and isn’t a boring fighter after admittedly sitting on his last opponent.

Rhonda Rousey kept her word and came to the gym to train with Team, Sonnen and an excited Kelvin.  Rousey does a terrible Sonnen impression, but has his cadence down pretty well.  She taught the team some judo throws and more.

Coach Sonnen discussed the Luke Barnett (5-0) and Dylan Andrews fight (16-4-1), stating he thinks is interesting because it’s the first pick versus the last pick, and because Luke has a tremendous size advantage.  But because of the latter, he doesn’t see Luke losing.  Luke also added that, “England is a horrible place,” and it motivates him to get better.  (And, jeez, kind of harsh on the homeland, eh?)

Dylan has been working with Coach Stonehorse Goeman, who was Jones’ first muay thai coach.  Jones sees them as both tribal types and connecting on a spiritual level.  Dylan values his friendship and says Stonehorse has become a father figure.  Coach Jones indicated he thinks Luke is the type that doesn’t like to get punched.   Dylan feels a desire to be great and shuns a Monday to Friday-type life.

Mike Tyson came to watch the Luke and Dylan fight and meets the fighters before the fight.  Understandably, everyone was amped, as Tyson was king of the fight world for a period and is a living legend in many respects.

Fight 1-of-2

From TheUltimateFighter.com.

Both fighters came out swinging and Colin pushed Kelvin to the fence and connected with a hard left hook in defense.  After a quick clinch, the fighters returned to the center of the cage and began exchange haymakers and *BOOM* Kelvin landed a bomb.  He landed a hard left hook in a flurry and Colin went down face first.  Kelvin pounced and began to pound, but stopped his attack before the referee could even stepped in knowing his opponent was knocked out.

Fight 2-of-2
Dylan quickly shot and took Luke down to the mat, but had a hard time pinning down the larger fighter.  Dylan struggled to mount any offense from the top, and Luke scored with strikes from his back before standing back up.  In total, Dylan took Luke down three times on the road, but struggled to keep him down.   He even went for a choke to end the round, but was unable to sink it in for the finish.

The fighters began the second round by boxing for 30 seconds before clinching and moving to the fence.  Luke scored his first takedown of the match, but Dylan soon resversed positions, but again struggled to score from the dominant position.  As the round continued, it strangely mirrored the first and even ended with another failed choke attempt by Dylan.

Courtesy CageWall.com.

Somewhat surprisingly, the fight went to a third round and both fighters looked exhausted to start the round.  Dylan tried to shoot, but didn’t appear to have the remaining strength to manage the takedown.  After a clinch the fighters began exchanging sloppy, tired blows, yet Dylan had more power.    As the round wore on, Dylan started landing big blows and a series of connections took Luk down.  Dylan landed one final hammer fist before Herb Dean stepped in to end the affair.

After the fight, Stonehorse gave Dylan and hug and told him, “I’m so fucking proud of you … you’re going to do this.”


Tuf 17 Ep. 11
The second semi-final episode began with Team Jones training, but Bubba is lying on the sideline.  After a number of fights in a short period of time, Bubba is wearing down -- physically and mentally -- and has some off pain in his back near his kidney.  Bubba feels like he is being given the hardest road possible to achieve his dream.

The attention turned to Josh Samman with is fighting Jimmy Quinlan, the fight that Josh wanted and Team Jones desired as a reward for Josh, who has been a leader for the team.  Bubba believes Josh is the superior fighter, but Gilbert Smith has concerns about the Florida-based fighter defending Jimmy’s takedowns.

Jimmy stated that his confidence comes from his past success -- and likely should, as the young fighter is still undefeated.  Despite his confidence in his jiu-jitsu, Jimmy also explained that he wants to set up his takedown with striking.

After being reintroduced to the fighters, Bubba’s back again becomes a concern -- and Atlanta’s Chris Hester continued training to take his place if needed -- and blood work is done to check his kidneys.

And the blood work came back good, so Bubba was cleared to fight and was left believing the pain was caused by a muscle strain.  His confidence seemed to buoy with a clean bill of health, but Bubba is still afraid of Uriah Hall.

Uriah heard Bubba is afraid to fight.  Uriah provided a comment about twitchy, scared fighters being dangerous, but he knows he has the upper hand before entering the ring.  Uriah even compared himself to The Spider, Anderson Silva – wow -- but Sonnen admitted Uriah is the toughest and hardest working member of TUF 17.

And then the concern for Bubba poured in.  Both UFC mastermind Dana White and coach Sonnen commented that Bubba is in for a tough fight, followed by Luke explaining that seeing a teammate dropped with a devastating spinning kick with mess with you, and he expected Bubba to be thinking about it.

Fight 1-of-2
Both fighters squared up eager to throw punches, but Jimmy quickly shot on Josh after eating a blow to the head.  Despite a strong sprawl, the grappler picked up Josh and slammed him to the mat and took the top position.  However, Jimmy soon began bleeding significantly -- evidence that he did take a hard punch from Josh.

They don't coach you to do this.

And then Jimmy figuratively sat on Josh.  The wrestler fought to maintain position, but Josh was clearly landing the more significant strikes from his back as his opponent climbed across him continuously.

After scrambling up from  the mat, Josh took Jimmy’s back .  With just 30 second left in the round, Josh gave up on a choke and began swinging synchronized punches from both hands at the same time to Jimmy’s head – seemingly boxing his ears with punches -- and the grappler tapped from the pressure.  Yes, TAPPED from bizarre punches.

Afterwards, Jimmy admitted that he simply quit.

Fight 2-of-2

Awesome GIFs come from FanSided.com.  Go check 'em out.

Holy wow.  Does this count as a fight?  In a flash, Uriah started throwing punches and the second one caught and knocked out Bubba -- and seemingly crushed his eye socket.

This was one of the scariest moments in TUF history.  After the referee called off Uriah, Bubba lay motionless on the mat face down.   When Bubba came to, he began stating he couldn’t move and something was significantly wrong with his eye on the inside.

Per FanSided, Bubba's face was broke in three places from Uriah's blow.

Fortunately, Bubba soon regained his own ability to move and met with his team and doctors before going to the hospital.

Uriah was obviously perturbed by another devastating knockout and he seemed to still be learning how good he is -- and still coming to terms with how dangerous he is.  While still in the ring, Sonnen told Uriah he is a contender -- not just for TUF, but the UFC championship as a middleweight.

After the fights, UFC lord Dana met with the coaches and fighters to discuss potential semi-final matchups (and again color-coded for ease of use!):

Josh called out Kelvin for the semis and Uriah in finals. 
Dylan said he does not care.  Whoever.  Wherever.
Uriah wanted Josh.
Kelvin said he wants Dylan.

Jon Jones indicated he wanted their original plan -- Josh v. Uriah and Dylan v. Kelvin -- and Chael seconds that.  Dana said this is the first time the coaches have agreed, which of course meant …


Dana announced that the semi-final fights would be:

Josh v. Kelvin
Uriah v. Dylan