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Allen Iverson kept throwing them up, but shot just 24% from the field in Games 1 & 2 of the Classic Conference Finals, contributing to 131-106 and 133-87 Longhorn losses to the Aces in St. Lucie.

Iverson led Finney with 26 points, but he only made 4 of 18 three-pointers and 8 of 34 field goals overall. Hakeem "The Dream" Olajuwon had 10 rebounds for Coach Doug Dillingham.

Kobe Bryant led all scorers for the Aces with 31 points and 10 rebounds. Gary "Potty-Mouth" Payton scored 22 with 10 assists. Shaquille O'Neal had 13 boards, Chris Webber had 11 boards and Antonio McDyess had 10 rebounds.

Iverson led his team with 20 points, but he only made 7 of 31 field goals. Tyrone Hill had 13 rebounds.

Sudden Sam Cassell scored 30 points and had 16 assists for St. Lucie. O'Neal scored 20 with 10 boards, Bryant had 20 points, Payton scored 24 and Webber had 14 rebounds.

Underdog Tri-City, who just barely made the playoffs at all, defeated Dave Scott's Akron Blimps 4 games to 1 by winning all three games in Tri-City. Hawk Coach Chris Feeney now takes on two-time Royal Conference Champs East Asia, coached by Paul Bennett.

Another record was set in the SABL this season: the longest period of time without a trade being made - 6 months. It's been since November since a trade was made, so who else to break this unusual drought but the Dynamic Dillinghams, father Charlie and son Doug, who did this one, which will take effect this fall:

2. Davenport trades its first pick to Brooklyn for Q. Richardson and Brooklyn's 1st pick.

The final first round match between Dave Scott's Akron Blimps and Chris Feeney's Tri City Blackhawks has started. Akron won one and Tri-City won one.

The action in Games 3-5 will now be hosted by only Amazing Feeney in this year's playoffs, as Chris tries to notch some victories in Iowa. Stay tuned!

Doug Dillingham's Finney Longhorns have eliminated Steve Walters' Galactic Thunder by winning Game 6 119-110. Dynamic Doug's Longhorns now advance to the Classic Conference championship where they will face the St. Lucie Aces, defending SABL champions.

Richmond takes 2 out of 3 games at home to send the series back to Iowa with Richmond up in the series 3 games to 2!!

Game #3 Iowa 102 - Richmond 128

    Richmond takes a 67 - 45 lead to halftime and extends it to 103 - 70 at the end of 3 periods and coasts home to the victory.
    Leading the way for Iowa was both Carter & McGrady who each scored 23 points for Iowa. Latrell Sprewell chipped in 15 pts. and Stevie (Franchise) Francis added 14 pts. and 7 assists. Marc Jackson rounded out the double figure scoring with 12 pts. and 8 rebounds.
    The Raiders of Richmond who had 7 players in double figures were led by Dirk Nowitzki with 26 pts., Predag Stojakovic followed with 19 pts. and Jamal Mashburn had 16 pts., 7 rebounds and 5 assists. Baron Davis, Laphonzo
Ellis and Marcus Camby each contributed 14 pts. (Camby contributed 8 rebounds to the cause). Michael Finley had 11 points to round out the double figure scoring.

Game #4 Iowa 101 - Richmond 110 in OT

    Richmond rallied from an 18 point deficit with 10:38 to play to tie the score with 8 seconds left on two free throws by Ervin Johnson. They then outscored Iowa 14 - 5 in the overtime period to take a 3 games to 1 lead in
the series.
    Iowa was led by 34 points from Vince Carter, followed by 18 points from Tracy McGrady and 14 points from Latrell Sprewell. Steve Francis chipped in 10 points to round out the double figure scoring.
    Richmond was led by Dirk Nowitzki who scored 25 points, followed closely by Predag Stojakovic with 22 points off the bench. Michael Finley scored 18 points and dished out 5 assists, Baron Davis had 12 points, 6 rebounds, and 7 assists, and Marcus Camby scored 11 points and pulled down 8 rebounds.

Game #5   Iowa 126 - Richmond 113

    Richmond fails to finish the series at home as they were outscored 69 to 51 in the first half. Iowa continued to coast in the second half on their way to a 13 point victory.
    Iowa had 7 players score in double figures, led by 32 points from Tracy McGrady, followed by V. Carter with 23 points, and Keith Van Horn with 16 points. Rounding out the double figure scoring was Steve Francis, Latrell Sprewell, Robert (Tractor) Traylor and Jawan Howard with 13, 12, 11, and 10 respectively. McGrady had 8 rebounds, and Francis had 9 assists to lead Iowa in those categories.
    Richmond was led by Jamal Mashburn with 24 points, Michael Finley had 23 points,6 rebounds, and 6 assists. Dirk Nowitzki, Predag Stojakovic and Mark Jackson all contributed 12 points. Marcus Camby led Richmond with 9 rebounds, and Mark Jackson had 11 assists in his double, double.
    The series now heads back to Iowa for the final two games.

Richmond 26, Stockton 22, Malone 13 and 14 rebs. 8 men in double figure scoring for Thunder.

Iverson scores 49(15-31) with 8 steals(11 turnovers) Malone with 21. Galactic had 27 turnovers and Finney stole the ball 19 times.

Malone 27, Richmond 23, Patterson 23. Galactic has 43 assists and only 15 turnovers shooting 63% on FGs.

Series goes back to Finney with Finney leading 7 game series 3 games to 2.

After the results of the first 2 games at Finney, Coach Walters said "we will definitely be trying a different strategy for the final 2 games of the series."

West Division Champ Finney, coached by Doug Dillingham, of the famous SABL Dynamic Dillinghams, has beaten Steve Walters' Thunder in Game 1 and 2 of their Round 2 series.

Finney's Allen Iverson, our new SABL ppg champ with 34.6 ppg this regular season, scored 61 points in Game 1 and 47 in Game 2.

Josh Marquardt has retired as coach of the Garden City Gladiators in our Classic Conference's West Division. Josh was a good guy and we will miss him. Good luck to you, Josh.

That means we have a team open for the first time in almost a year. If you have a friend or relative that would be interested in joining the most competitive, wide-open, trading league in the SOM computer Basketball, have him or her email me ASAP!

Defending SABL champs St. Lucie won games three and four in Holcomb, advancing again to the Classic Conference Championship. St. Lucie will face the winner of the Finney-Galactic series.

Game #1 Richmond @ Iowa

    Richmond pulls out game one with a 4th quarter comeback,126-119, led by Strjakovic. He had 28 pts but shot 77% from the field. Also 57% from 3 pointers. Davis also had 22 pts for Richmond. Camby led Richmond with 18 rebounds.
    Iowa was led by Vince Carter with 44 points but ran out of gas in the end. Steve Francis also added 20.
Team Stats of importance: Richmond shot 108fg vs Iowa's 84. Iowa shot 42 freethrows vs 8 for Richmond.

Game #2 Richmond @ Iowa

    Iowa wins when McGrady hits a shot down low against Davis. To give Iowa there 1st playoff victory 116-114. Richmond got the ball back with 2 seconds left but missed a last second shot. Iowa was led again by Vince Carter with 32
pts. Steve Francis was next with 18 pts. Richmond was led by Mashburn with 23 pts against his old team. Finley also
add 20 pts. Davis had 12 assists.

Defending champs St. Lucie won the first two games in their Round 2 playoff series vs. Holcomb:

Holcomb shot just 36% to St. Lucie's 58%. The Heat's Tim Duncan scored 20 points and Jason Terry had 22, but those were the only two Holcomb players that could find the bucket.

The Aces' Gary Payton led all scorers with 31 points, followed by Shaquille O'Neal with 23. Shaq also had 16 rebounds. Chris Webber had 11 boards. Sudden Sam Cassell had 11 assists

The Aces nailed another playoff win as Shaq scored 32 points and had 13 boards. Kobe Bryant scored 24 and Payton made 22 points. Cassell had 13 assists.

Leading all scorers was Jason Terry, who almost alone kept the Heat in the game with his 42 points. Tim Duncan had 11 boards, but was miserable from the field with only 9 points and a 20% FG percentage.

In the playoffs' most challenging match-up yet, Steve Walters' Thunder defeated Bob Storey's Nats 4 games to 3. Here's Coach Walters' report:

Mclean takes game 6 121-117 to even series at 3-3 behind a 50 point explosion from Jerry stackhouse. Stackhouse was 20-30 from the Floor and 8-10 from the free throw line. He also had 6 rebounds and 4 assists. Rose added 13 points and 8 assists. Divac had 14 points and 5 rebounds in 26 mins.

Galactic was lead by Malone with 22 points 7 rebs, 3 assists, 2 blk. Stockton added 10 assists and 5 points before fouling out in 29 min.

Galactic Thunder win 7th game 113 to 103 to finally put away Mclean. Said Galactic GM/Manager Steve Walters, "This series took Galactic to the limit. We feel very lucky to be advancing to the next round."

The Thunder's defense held Stackhouse to 'only' 33 points on 9-19 from the field and 12-16 fts, he also added 5 assists and 3 rebs. A.Miller had 19 points and 4 assists. Rose had 13 points 7 assists and 5 rebs but fouled out.

Galactic was lead by Brandon with 21 points and 7 assists in 24 mins. Patterson with 20 points, 5 rebs, and 3 assists. Stockton had 20 points 7 assists and 5 rebs. Malone had 9 rebs, but only 12 points(5-14 FGs). Richmond added 15 points.

Galactic 55 12-15 43 34 10 12 4

Galactic moves on to Round Two of the playoffs, taking on West division winners Finney, coached by perennial playoff leader Doug Dillingham. Finney has home-court advantage in this one because Doug won the divisional title.

Charlie Dillingham's Holcomb Heat swept Chris Gertridge's Good News Roosters 4-0 and have moved on to tackle defending SABL champs St. Lucie in Round Two of the 2002 playoffs.

The Nationals won games three and four in the series before dropping game five to the Thunder, but they kept slim hopes alive at the series returns to Galactic.

                        FG%    FT-FTA    Rbd TOs    Fls    Pts
    Galactic          56        20-22        32    19      32    111
    McLean         54        30-46        40    18       26    112

The last of Jerry Stackhouse's 31 points put the Nats up by three with under 30 seconds to play. Then Karl Malone responded for the Thunder; it was 112-111 with 13 seconds left. But Galactic was unable to commit the intentional foul and time ran out. Foul trouble limited Malone to 12 points in 23 minutes, but Gatling stepped in with 21 to lead six Thunder in double figures. Andre Miller added 23 for the Nats and Jihidi White had 12 (8 for 16 on free throws).

                       FG%    FT-FTA    Rbd TOs    Fls    Pts
    Galactic        58           14-17     38    23      36    139
    McLean       52           46-56     44    27       25    141

This may have been my most exciting game of all time - a double overtime, wire to wire knuckle biter. The twists and turns were too numerous to describe. But a couple stand out. Andre Miller scored with five seconds left in regulation to tie the game. Galactic called time, and tried to get the ball to Malone; but he didn't get a shot off against the double team. Stackhouse's three point shot in the last minute of the first overtime was critical to the Nats holding on. Stockton and Malone both fouled out in the second overtime, and the Nats took a six point lead into the final 30 seconds, but Galactic made two baskets as they would not give up. In all, five Thunder had between 18 and 20 points, led by Malone. Stackhouse was exciting with 41, including 14 of 14 free throws. The Nats had six in double figures themselves, including Maggette off the bench with 17.

                       FG%    FT-FTA    Rbd TOs    Fls    Pts
    Galactic         52         28-33     45    12       32    136
    McLean        51         33-44      42    20       23    116

The bubble burst as Stackhouse blew a gasket - four for seventeen from the floor (10 of 13 free throws). Malone had 29 and Patterson 22, many off steals as the double team kept him reasonably in check. Maggette with 22 was high for the Nats.

Interestingly, Mitch Richmond, Galactic's starter at strong forward, outscored Divac 43-41 in the three games in 20 more minutes. He hit 38 percent from the floor (3 for 13 on threes) and Vlade outrebounded him 15-8.

Richmond advances to the second round of the SABL playoffs, taking two of three games from the Miles Bulldogs before a spring-break crowd at the Mayo Civic Center in Rochester, Minn.

Richmond wins the series, 4-1, and advances to play Iowa.

In Rochester, Richmond took Game 3 convincingly, 124-114. The Raiders opened the game outscoring Miles 40-23 in the first quarter and never looked back. Stojakovic led a balanced attack with 23 points. Finley and Mashburn added 20
each, and Nowitski pitched in 18. Bibby led Miles with 21 points and 11 assists; Walker added 20.

Miles avoided a sweep by taking Game 4, 98-94. Baron Davis hit a three-pointer for Richmond to knot the game at 91 with 2:47 left. But Miles scored the next six points -- two jumpers by Ron Mercer and two free throws by Antoine Walker -- to pull out the win. Walker had 20 points, while Mercer added 17. Stojakovic scored 22 to lead the Raiders.

Miles came out flat as Game 5 went to Richmond, 103-85. The Raiders turned a 6-point halftime lead into a 14-point bulge after three quarters en route to victory. Stojakovic and Finley scored 21 apiece to lead Richmond. Miles, which committed 27 turnovers, was led by Walker's 15 points.

thundering back to out score Mclean 78-47 in the second half.

Mclean was lead my Stackhouse with 30 points and 6 assists as well as A.Miller with 27 points and 6 assists.

B.Miller lead team with 7 assists. White lead both teams in rebounds with 9 and added 7 points.

Galactic had 7 players in double figure scoring and was lead by Malone with 25 points and 8 rebs. Patterson had 23 points and 7 rebs. Stockton lead both teams in assists with 13.

After being a close game for the first 3 quarters, Galactic but the game away in the 4th quarter out scoring Mclean 45-30.

Mclean was lead again by Stackhouse with 28 points and 6 assists. Rose added 17 points and 4 assists. A.Miller had

16 points and 3 assists. Divac lead both teams in rebs with 10 and added 15 points.

Galactic was lead by Malone with 28 points, 6 rebs, 5 assists and 2 blk. Richmond had 26 points. Brandon added

20 points and 6 assists. Stockton lead both teams in assists with 16 and added 8 points.

Two-time Royal Conference Champion Coach Paul Bennett of the East Asia Dragons is starting up a summer Strat basketball league that will run in the summer during our SABL off-season. He's giving first dibs to all SABL members that want to join. Please contact him via email if you're interested.

Paul, we all wish you the best of luck and good fun in establishing your new league!

Game #1
Miles 115 - Richmond 129

A. Walker led Miles with 27 points & he collected 8 rebounds, but it wasn'tenough to lead the Bulldogs past the Raiders. Mike Bibby contributed 18points & 10 assists, Ron Mercer had 17 points & 5 assists, A. Daniel had 11points, Patrick Ewing had a double double with 10 points & 10 rebounds off the bench, and Keon Clark had 10 points off the bench. D. Mutombo was in constant foul trouble & fouled out after only playing 13 minutes & RonMercer fouled out as well to help the Raiders pull away down the stretch.

Richmond was led by Baron Davis who scored 28 points to lead all scorers(he also pulled down 7 rebounds). Michael Finley scored 21 points, PredagStojakovic scored 18 points, and Jamal Mashburn had a very nice game with 17 points, 9 rebounds, and 8 assists. Dirk Nowitzki contributed 15 points, and Marcus Camby scored 11 points and snared 12 rebounds to lead everyone in that category.

Game #2
Miles 98 - Richmond 104

Miles was led by Ron Mercer's 17 points, he was followed by A. Walker's 16 points and 8 rebounds. Mike Bibby had 13 points and 8 assists, and Patrick Ewing had 12 points and 7 rebounds. D. Mutombo had 2 points and a game high 15 rebounds.

Richmond was led by Predag Stojakovic with 27 points, followed by Michael Finley with 22 points. Baron Davis had 15 points, 6 rebounds and 7 assists. Jamal Mashburn had 12 points, and Dirk Nowitzki had 11 points, 6 rebounds, and 5 assists. This game was pretty close throughout, but the Raiders pulled away somewhat by outscoring Miles 28 - 20 in the 3rd period.

Since I did such a good job predicting our regular season team placements, I thought I'd make a hash of it again and take a look at our playoff matchups in our April Anarchy competition. Here's how the Terrific Twelve look . . .

Akron vs. Tri-City - Hard not to pick Akron here. The only reason the Blackhawks are here is because of winning their last eight games vs. Davenport. Blimps Garnett and Allen can beat Mr. Marbury and company. Dave Scott should make it to Round 2 and face East Asia

Richmond vs. Miles - The Bulldogs made it to the playoffs, thanks mostly to the unnoticed coaching efforts of mild-mannered Tom Jargo. But Frank Rowleys' Raiders are just too strong and Richmond should make it to Round 2 vs. Iowa. In fact, Richmond should also make it past the Tornadoes and into the Royal Conference Finals, probably against the Dragons.

Holcomb vs. Good News - Things are finally looking up for long-suffering Heat Coach Charlie Dillingham. He isn't trading as much as he used to, but he did pick up Tim Duncan via a trade and he drafted Jason Terry. Those two helped propel him into the playoffs and he should have enough to beat a talented Good News squad. After that, however, Holcomb will meet St. Lucie.

Galactic vs. McLean - Tough one to call here. Steve Walters' coaching abilities are legendary, but his hodge-podge team of winning weirdos are unpredictable. Rob Storey's Nats have talent and they are getting better every year. We'll say the Thunder in seven. Whoever wins this goes against West winner Finney and that's gonna be a close one, too.

The Dave Plisko/Blocher Bombers/East Asia franchise just keeps on racking up divisional titles. This year, it took it's record seventh divisional win. Our league has been around for eight years.

The Heat's Tim Duncan had 3.8 blocks per game, besting the 3.3 blocks per game averaged by Diekembe Mutombo in 1997-98. Duncan also obliterated the 178 defensive stops record set last year by St. Lucie's Grant Hill. Titanic Tim had 207 stops this year.

McLean's Jerry Stackhouse played 3,357 minutes this season, beating the record of 3,347 minutes set by Allen Iverson of the Philly Super Freaks in 1999-2000.

Patrick Ewing's long-standing record of 34.5 ppg, set in the league's first season (1994-95) by the Burns/Weinstein franchise, was bested by Allen Iverson of the Finney Longhorns this year. Iverson answered with 34.6 ppg for Doug Dillingham's West Division winners.

This also is the first year in SABL history that two players averaged 30 ppg or more. Tri-City's Stephon Marbury had 30.0 ppg.

The Brooklyn-Bettendorf series ended with Steve Feldheim's Tigers winning 4 of 6 autoplayed games. That made Brooklyn's final record 22-60. Mark Feeney's Druids finished 21-61, just like Davenport and Josh Marquardt's Gladiators did. But, just like Garden City, Bettendorf had 2 penalty points. The Dazzlers had none.

Garden City will draft ahead of Bettendorf because the Druids were on autoplay for half the season. Even though River City also finished 22-60, the Renegades had the most penalty points in the league this year (11), and will draft eighth. Brooklyn will draft fourth.

Tri City and Good News both finished with 41 wins, but Tri City had 7 penalty points to the Roosters' 2, so Good News will draft ninth.

Akron and McLean both finished with 45 wins, but McLean had two penalty points and Akron, for the first time in several years, had none. That means Akron will draft 11.

Is there hope in Brooklyn. the Tigers DID NOT finish with the WORST RECORD in the SABL. Perhaps the rebuilding project is finally bearing fruit. The Tigers finish 2001-2 with a 22-60 record (.268), the first time they've been
over .250 since 1998-9. An INCREDIBLE 22% ! improvement over last year. OK it's only four games, but we also get to look down at two other teams, OK - again, only 1 game separates us from the Druids and Garden City, and yes the
Tigers were 52 out of 1st, but we must find hope.
For 2002-3 the Tigers..
Hope: for a good 1st round draft pick : that Kenyon Martin can play well without mauling his opponents and incurring multiple suspensions : that Lamar Odom can get clean yes all that along with McGinnis and Mobley (a 20ppg scorer on the team) and this team might become competitive.

The following is based on won-lost records and includes penalty point adjustments. Where won-lost records were tied, penalty points and autoplaying were used to break the ties. Also, divisional winners and the World Champions draft last, so the draft order is not final until the playoffs are over:

1. Davenport 2. Garden City 3. Bettendorf 4. Brooklyn 5. Tulsa 6. Bakersfield 7. Chapel Hill 8. River City 9. Good News 10. Holcomb 11. Akron 12. TriCity 13. McLean 14. Miles 15. Galactic 16. Richmond 17. Iowa 18. St. Lucie 19. East Asia 20. Finney

Congratulations to all our 2002 playoff entrants. It looks like we have a great playoff season coming up. All SABL playoff teams should send our their first round instructions now! It's time for our 2002 SABL playoffs, our April Anarchy! Here are the brackets:

All playoff series are 7 games, in a 2-3-2 format. Two games at the home-court advantage team's court and then three games at the other team's court. Then the last two games are back at the home-court advantage team's court. The team with the home-court advantage is the one that won the most regular season games or the one who won a division title. If both teams won a divisional title, then the team with the best regular season record has home-court advantage.

Send our your instructions and play ball! It's the second-season in the SABL and Round 1 games must be finished by April 15!

Dues have been $20 per coach ever since I took over as commissioner in 1996. Well, they are going down to $15 for our 2002-03 season, for two reasons:

1. The cost of running the league has went down. Most of our business and gaming, except for the draft, is conducted via email. And with the help of Dave Scott, I hope to hold the draft online this fall, too.

2. I haven't done as good a job as commissioner this season. When Ted Williams had a bad season near the end of his great career, he turned down a pay increase because he felt like he didn't deserve it. I don't deserve it, either and I hope to do a better job next season.

All indications are that Strat is doing a Windows version of its basketball game this fall. If that happens, we should stick with Strat and see how its new game plays. I don't think any of us wants to leave Strat, we just want Strat basketball to join the modern gaming world and allow us to focus on playing rather than programming.

We don't have the fanciest website in the world, but thanks to the quality and vision of its coaches, the SABL was the first national Strat computer basketball league to make it to the World Wide Web, in December 1996. Even though our website may not look fancy, we have the best league, best coaches and most competitive free-wheeling and wide-open organization in Strat basketball.

Now, the rest of Strat is with us online. Here are some great sites you might want to check out:

Strat-O-Matic Forums - http://www.vicksburgmarine.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi - A really great site with some great observations from other Strat players, including basketballers. I've been reading the basketball forums and some of the posters are very knowledgeable.