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SABL

Scott Ellis, Commissioner

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The SABL BS

Issue 96 November 2002

FROM COMMISSIONER SCOTT ELLIS, 2^ND AMER. BASKETBALL LEAGUE

Who's Trading?

THESE DEALS TAKE EFFECT JAN. 1, 2003. DO NOT ADJUST ROSTERS UNTIL YOU'VE PLAYED YOUR DECEMBER GAMES WITH THESE TEAMS. I WILL NOT ADJUST ROSTERS ON OUR WEBSITE UNTIL JAN. 1.

62. St. Lucie trades Kirilenko & Claxton to Quad City for R. Lewis & George

61. Galactic trades Gatling & its 1st & 2nd picks in 2004 to Davenport for M. Jordan, Davenport's 3rd in 2003 and Davenport's 3rd in 2004

60. Good News trades Snow & Moore to East Asia for Best & Outlaw

59. Good News trades E. Johnson & East Asia's 2nd and 4th to Brooklyn for S. Walker & Brooklyn's 3rd

Thunder 135, Miles 95 at Galactic

Miles shot only 37% on FGs. Walker was a horrid 2-18 on 3's and shot only 23%(6-26 from the floor. despite that Walker lead Miles in scoring with 16 and Rebs with 10.) Leading the way for Galactic was Gary Payton with his first Triple Double!! 13 points, 11 rebs and 18 assists. Wells had 24 points, 5 rebs and 3 assists in 22 min. Paterson had 24 points, 5 rebs and 1 steal in 26 min. Malone added 20 points, 7 rebs, 3 assists and 2 steals. Galactic had 54 rebs, 42 assists and shot 60% from field. Galactic actually shot better on 3's(7-11 64%) than from the free throw line(8-13 62%).

Thunder rolls over Brooklyn 110-82 at Galactic

Brooklyn was lead by Gasol with 24 points. Mobley was only other player in double figures with 16. Brooklyn shot just 38% from field had 25 turnovers and was out-rebounded 57-37. Galactic was lead by Payton with 26 points, 9 rebs, 7 assists and 2 steals. Marshall added 16 points and 8 rebs in 24 mins.

Tigers 97 - Jams 84 at Brooklyn

A tough defensive contest. The Jams too many turnovers and fouls did in Chapel Hill. McGinnis led Brooklyn with 20, Gasol had 4 blocks and Samaki Walker hauled in 13 rebounds. Jamison has 23 for the Jams (Thomas with 11 was the only other Jam to reach double figures.) Wallace had 13 boards.

Dazzlers dazzle Tulsa at Davenport in OT

Despite 29 by J. ONeil and 21 by A. Davis, the Dazzlers prevail, 101-96, in overtime. Tulsa is now 0-8.

Chapel Hill opens the year with a win over Brooklyn at home

The Chapel Hill Jams scored 40 points in the first quarter, and then held on to survive a late rally to defeat Brooklyn 115 - 107. Antawn Jamison had a strong double-double with 24 pts and 12 boards. Cuttino Mobley led Brooklyn with 22 points.

Heat takes Tri-City at Holcomb

Holcomb comes back from a 14 pt halftime deficit behind 24 points by Garrity and Jones to beat Tri City 101-97. Tri City was led by Marbury who had 30 pts. Fortson had 16 pts and 12 rebounds.

Thunder opens season with 4-game sweep of McLean at Galactic

 Game one

Mclean 108
Galactic 111

Key plays in game were two fastbreak Dazzlers by Brandon in last few minutes and a missed 3 point shot by Stackhouse on last shot of game. Stackhouse lead mclean in scoring with 28. Rose had 19 with 5 assists and 4 rebs.A.Miller had 17 with 8 assists. Galactic was lead by Malone with 29 points, 9 rebs,
6 assists and 4 steals. Payson added 22 points and 18 assists.

Game Two

Mclean 122
Galactic 159

I used the press defense for the first time in this game. It worked pretty well as Mclean turnovers sot up to 27 and Galactic had 18 steals.
Mclean was lead by Stackhouse with 31, Rose with 30 and A.Miller with 11 points and 15 assists. Galactic lead my Payton who went for 44 points, 9 assists, 4 steals and 3 BK. Wells was on fire and scored 32, 7 rebs, 6 assists, 2 steals. Maone had 22 points, 5 rebs and 8 assist. Paterson chipped in with 18 points, 7 rebs, 5 assists and 3 steals.

Game Three

McLean 118
Galactic 125

I stayed with the press defense but it did not work nearly as well as in game 2. McLean did have 25 turnovers and Galactic 12 steals but A.Miller probably had around 10 assists on dazzlers off the press defense. Miller finished with 21 assists!! Stackhouse scored 27 and Rose 23. Galactic was lead my Malone with 27 points, 10 rebs and 5 assists and 3 steals. Payton had 18 points and 14 assists. Gatling had 15 points in 17 mins.

Game Four

McLean 89
Galactic 109

I still used the press defense post of time except for the 4th quarter. McLean only shot 37% from floor. Stackhouse had 19 points 5 rebs and 5 assists.
Rose 18, Miller had only 6 points but 6 rebs and 13 assists. Galactic was lead by Malone with 25 points, 12 rebs, and 6 assists and 2 steals. Payton had 11 ponts and 9 assists but also had 9 turnovers. Marshall added 18 points and 7 rebs.

For the four game series:
A.Miller averaged 14.5 assists per game.
Payton averaged 12.5 assists per game.
Galactic averaged 14.3 steals and 36.5 assists per game

Dragons 114, Tigers 85 at Brooklyn

Davenport beats the Twisters 99-90 at Tulsa

 Coach Philip Creider's team has started the season 0-7.

Holcomb wins three at home

Holcomb wins three at home, beating 116-114 Davenport on a shot at the buzzer by O'Neal. Beating River City 97-95 when Houston missed a shot at
the buzzer, and beating Quad City 109-101.

Finney takes 2 of 3 against River City, Davenport, and Quad City

Finney beat davenport 96-90 behind 24 points from Cliff Robinson. Finney beat Quad City 99-96 as Jason Williams with 18 led 5 players in double digits.
Finney lost the last game to River City as Hamilton and Houston proved too much.

Happy Thanksgiving from the SABL!!!!!

Tigers take two of three from Davenport at Brooklyn

Game one ,Tigers 107-105 as seven , yes 7, Tigers score in double figures. Number 1 draft pick, Pau Gasol led brooklyn with 19, Kenyon Martin had 10 rebounds. Troy Hudson 22 and Jordan 20 led Davenport. Brooklyn won the game as Steve Smith fouled Mobley in the waning moments and Cuttino sank the pair. This win felt awfully good after being beaten up by the league bullies in the 1st three games of the season.

Game two: The Brooklyn Tigers for the 1st time in at least three years, were able to clear the bench in the 4th quarter with a big lead. leading by 26 with 4 minutes left the scrubs came in as the Tigers trounced the Dazzlers 110-84. 7 Tigers again were in double figures, Jaques Vaughn led the team with 18. Jordan led Davenport with 27, Chris Whitney had 10, the only other Dazzler in doubles.

Game three: The Tigers in the unaccustomed position of looking for a sweep had early game jitters and trailed 36-17 midway through the 2nd qtr , shooting a pathetic 4-20. They struggled back to within 3 at the end of the 3rd, and eventually tied the game late in the 4th quarter. Michael Jordan scored the dazzlers last 5 points, and led the team with 19. Cato had 5 blocks. Mobley and McGinnis led Brooklyn with 17 points.
Davenport 86 - Brooklyn 83

If you have an Instant Messenger/AOL IM name, send it to me!

Another great idea from one of our charter coaches, Brooklyn's Steve Feldheim: Listing our Instant Messenger names on our website. If you have Windows Messenger or AOL Instant Messenger, send me your IM name and I'll post it on our Rosters & Stats and our Members links.

McLEAN TURNS DOWN THE HEAT

After dropping three at Holcomb, the Nationals found home cooking more to their liking, sweeping three games 110-101, 115-104, and 110-106. There must have been loose rims at Holcomb, where the Heat hit 24 of 39 threes. Nat coach Bob Storey instructed the maintenance staff to tighten up the rims here. It worked, and Holcomb hit only eight of 42 (19 percent). Nick Van Exel, a Nat last year who should know the rims well, hit only two of eighteen threes and had only ten assists in the three games here compared to 23 at home.

The Nats double-teamed Shaq incessantly, holding him to under 24 points, but more importantly to just 50 percent shooting. At the same time, Jerry Stackhouse averaged 31.3 points and hit 54 percent from the floor and 28 of 32 foul shots. Rose averaged 20.3 and Andre Miller averaged 12.7 assists.

St. Lucie 137, Tigers 106 at Brooklyn

The Aces have started the 2002-03 season at 9-0.

Roosters 91, Quad City 88 at Good News

For the third straight night, the Roosters waited for a 4th quarter comeback to win. Tonight was a 25-17 margin which fueled the 3 point victory. The Roosters were outplayed statistically but won the game by making 23-27 free throws, compared to The 'Rockers 10-15. Iverson was great once again. scoring 38 in 39 minutes, while making 6-17 treys. Terry and Hassell each had 15 to lend a hand.

Rashard Lewis had 19 but was held to 8-23 shooting by the duo of Griffin and Hassell. Posey had 16 and was the best looking Rimrocker. Game stats are posted under the files section. Take a look anyone. Roosters are looking great defensively, winning all 3 games while resting Al Harrington and Eric Snow. House has done fine, but the coming additions Bo Outlaw, Samaki Walker and Travis Best should help greatly.

Roosters 98, Davenport 84 at Good News

The Good News Roosters held Davenport to 36 second half points and used a 17 point 4th quarter advantage to escape with the win. Davenport shot 39% and made only 27 baskets as Jordan was smothered by Griffin and Hassell, and shot 3-18. Steve Smith made 4-5 deep and scored 21 in 27 to lead 4 Dazzlers in double digits.

Iverson had 33 and shot 14-20 on the night. Terry had 22 and Hassell 10 to round out any remaining scoring. Another night of stellar matchups in the post, lol. The Roosters get the job done using 6 different big (beast?...) men. Stepania and Doleac were both strong in limited minutes, wow.....

Aces take all three from Twisters at St. Lucie, 108-93, 119-93 & 114-104

Roosters 105, Renegades 94 at Good News

AI dropped a 54 point bomb (on only 28 attempts) on the Renegades, leading a huge 4th quarter comeback in the Henhouse last night. Iverson and Terry combined for 78 points and 14 three pointers (AI 10 of 21) as the Roosters somehow held of the Renegades, who were led by Hamilton with 19. The Renegades led 81-73 after 3 and then watched Iverson and Terry lead a 32-13 4th.

"It looked like my poodle could have scored 30 on Houston tonight. He sagged all night and still allowed Iverson to blow by for 16 free throws. Guys should be waiting all season to play/score on Houston.", said one fan who described himself as a Knicks fan. (ed. may be extinct altogether and migrated to NJ next year).

Dragons hold off Walker's Explosion In 120-102 Win

Walker shot 8-14 treys and scored 32 but it wasn't enough to off set a balanced Dragon attack. Asia shot 54%, made 10-16 deep, dropped 50 boards and had 6 players score more than 10. Pierce had 26, Armstrong 24 and Best 16 in 19 minutes. Kerome and mutombo each had double-doubles. The Admiral saw limited minutes as coach Bennett tried to use Outlaw and Williams (in vain) to play Antoune tight. When you're hot, you're hot. However Asia's new attack looked awesome at home, let's see what happens on the road.

Aces take all three in Tulsa, 113-104, 124-102 & 106-103

Ace Steve Nash sunk a three-pointer during the final minute to win Game 3.

Dragons open season with win vs. Brooklyn at East Asia, 129-99

East Asia used a 74-42 second half to break open a game close at the half. A much improved Brooklyn team shot 52%, but Asia took 93 (making 50) shots to their 67. Pierce had 41 and Armstrong 25 on 10-11 shooting, while Asia enjoyed a 45-30 rebounding advantage, led by Wallace with 17.

Heat sweeps McLean 3-0 at Holcomb

Aces beat Bulldogs at St. Lucie 130-111

Miles shot just 40% from the field in this loss and was out-rebounded 61-47. Mutombo had 13 boards and 14 points, but no other Dog boarded in double figures. Antoine Walker scored 28 points to lead all scorers, but he had to hoist 19 three-point attempts to do so (he made 6 of them).

For the Aces, three rebounded in double-figures: Tim Duncan and Abdul-Rahim (12 each) and Popeye Jones (10). Jones also added 11 points, Duncan scored 23 and Rahim scored 12. Kobe Bryant had 25 points and John Stockton scored 20.

Druids take two at home

By Dearrel DeCoop
BETTENDORF NEWS

With some cagey veterans inside and a trio of run-and-gun point guards, the Bettendorf Druids got off to a fast start by taking games from the Holcomb
Heat and the Finney Longhorns before a crowd of about 2,000 people at Bettendorf High School gym.The Druids were left scrambling for a new home after the Quad-City Rimrockers, in a move that might be challenged in court, pushed the Druids from their former home -- The Mark of the Quad-Cities -- which seats about 10,000 people for basketball.

Game 1
Druids 101, Longhorns 89

A combination of a tough Bettendorf defense and poor shooting by Jason Williams locked out the Longhorns.

"We decided to double-team Jason Richardson and make Williams try to beat us," Druids new Coach John Thompson said. "Like my teams at Georgetown, we apply plenty of pressure and aren't afraid to put a body on a guy. We pick up a lot of fouls that way, but we also wear the other team down."

Williams obliged the Druids by putting up 23 shots and making only eight. He was 1-for-12 from behind the three-point arc.The game was close until the Druids went on an 9-0 run at the end of the first quarter and hit the first basket of the second quarter to take a 31-23 lead. Sam Cassell had 22 points for Bettendorf, and Turkoglu had 18 on 9-of-10 shooting. Many of his baskets came on fastbreak dazzlers from Charlie Ward and Anthony Carter, who finished with 13 assists between them. Horace Grant and Scott Williams grabbed 11 rebounds apiece to help the Druids to a one-rebound advantage for the game. Despite the double-team, Richardson finished with 21 points on 8-of-15 shooting, including 3-of-4 three-pointers. He also had 5 rebounds and seven
assists.

Druids 117, Heat 111

The Druids played a sort of half Hack-A-Shaq and half Penny-Pinching defense to hold off the Heat.
"We like to press all over the court and double the other team's best player," Thompson said. But when the other team's best player is someone like Shaq
(Shaquille O'Neal), doubling up on him does little good. He still gets his points."

So the Druids put the squeeze on point guards Penny Hardaway and Nick Van Exel, leaving the small forward spot open. The strategy had a so-so effect: Penny shot only 1-for-6, while Van Exel was 5- for-11. But the Heat's small forwards, Ira Newble and Michael Curry, combined
for 22 points by going 10-21.

"We really won this game inside," Thompson said. "Shaq only shot 40 percent and had only two offensive rebounds. We were worried that he'd have some easy stuffs on second shots, but Patrick and Horace did a good job of blocking him off."

Ewing, who rested the first game because of his aching, arthritic knees, scored 11 points and grabbed 8 rebounds in only 17 minutes of play. Jerome James helped Ewing dominate the inside defensively. He blocked 5 shots in just 13 minutes of play. The points were provided by Vashon Lenard with 23 in just 19 minutes, and Charlie Ward, who scored 16 in his 17 minutes. Hey Turkoglu had 20. Eddie Jones led the Heat with 27, while O'Neal, who made 10-of-16 free throws, had 22.

Aces open SABL season with 164-117 drubbing of Brooklyn

Last year's Classic Conference champions shellacked Steve Feldheim's Brooklyn Tigers in the SABL's 2002-03 season opener in St. Lucie. Scott Ellis's Aces scored at will, shooting 61% from the field and 70% from behind the arc. Every Ace shot in double figures except Popeye Jones. Leading the way for St. Lucie was Kobe Bryant with 31 points and 13 assists. John Stockton had 11 assists and 19 points, Tim Duncan had 27 points and 13 rebounds, Steve Nash scored 26 points and Abdul-Rahim scored 22 points with 10 boards. The Aces pressed the entire game.

Cuttino Mobley had a stupendous game, scoring 43 points, while Pau Gasol had 20 points and 11 rebounds.

Our annual Season Preview is now posted

Miles Coach Tom Jargo has written this year's annual Season Preview, available on our 2002-03 Season Preview link. Thanks again Tom for the great write-up!

Official 2002-03 SABL League Disk is posted. Play ball!!!!

Yep, the drafting and trading are all over now. It's time to take it to hoop. Our official 2002-03 SABL League disk is now posted on our 2002-03 League Disk link. The file's name is 200203X.exe. I am emailing this file to you, but if you ever need to download a pristine, unused league file, it will be here for your use. I've also uploaded it to our Yahoo! Group at our Message/Chat Board link, in my membership area in a folder named "Official League Disk". If you haven't done so you, please respond to an earlier email I sent you and join our private Yahoo! Group. This group is becoming a major communication channel for the SABL. Information gets up there that doesn't make it to our website.

Our regular season schedule is more evenly spread this season, which will end in Mid-March. Check every day of the schedule, because you never know who you will be playing when and sometimes you will be playing two teams in the same block. You are responsible for keeping your team on schedule. LATENESS KILL LEAGUES. Don't be late, we don't tolerate it. Let me know when you can't stay on schedule, or you may find that your team will be autoplayed by me or the opposing coach.

YOU CAN START SENDING OUT INSTRUCTIONS AND START PLAYING YOUR DECEMBER LEAGUE GAMES ASAP!!!!

Now, without further adieu, here are my annual League Disk, playing and reporting instructions, which are being reprinted from earlier newsletters:

200203X.exe is a self-extracting file, so all you have to do after downloading it is double-click on it (or single-click, depending on how you have your W95/W98/WinME configured) and it automatically installs our SABL league (labeled 2002-03 X) into your SOM game for you. No muss, no fuss, just start your game, it'll be there.

IF YOU DOWNLOAD THE FILE AND IT HAS NO ".EXE" ON THE END, RIGHT CLICK ON THE FILE AND RENAME IT, ADDING THE ".EXE" FILE SUFFIX. THEN THE FILE WILL WORK.

The best way to understand how our SABL schedule works is to print it out and study it. Then you'll know what you have to do when. I suggest doing that ASAP and highlighting your team's games. Here's how to get to it: Click on General Manager Functions, then League Management, then Schedule League Games, then Print Schedule.

For all our new coaches, here's brief instructions on how to import & export game files & plans:

TO SEND INSTRUCTIONS AND RESULTS:
Step 1 - Attach the file to an email message. Your email program should have a paper clip icon or words that say attach or insert file. Look in your SOMBK\LEAGUES directory for files that end in .gfl and .gpl. GFLs are game files (box scores/stats) and GPLs are game plans (computer instructions).

Step 2 - Send them to your opponent and send the game files only (box scores and stats) to the commissioner (ME).

TO IMPORT GAME FILES AND PLANS FROM OPPONENTS:

Step 1 - Save the attached gfls and gpls to a floppy disk.

Step 2 - For .gfls, start the SOM game and go to Statistical Functions, then Process Game Files, then Import the game file. For .gpls, start the appropriate League Game and then import the game plan under your opponent's lineup.

When folks get traded during our season this year,  USE THE TRADING FUNCTION TO TRANSFER PLAYERS FROM ONE TEAM TO ANOTHER. DO NOT DELETE PLAYERS OR YOU WILL MESS UP EVERY GAME PLAN (gpl) AND GAME FILE (gfl/box scores/stats) THAT YOU SEND OUT FROM THEN ON. IT WILL COST THE LEAGUE A LOT OF TIME AND ME A LOT OF EXTRA WORK AND YOU WILL GET PENALTY POINTS FOR IT. IF I IMPORT A MESSED-UP DISK FROM YOU INTO OUR LEAGUE STATISTICAL DATABASE, IT WILL MESS IT UP AND I'LL HAVE TO REDO EVERYTHING MANUALLY!!! IF YOU SCREW IT UP, I MAY BE LOOKING FOR A NEW COACH.

You can only have 12 active players on your roster, per series. You have to let your opponent know who is on your roster via your instructions. Include player names and real-life NBA teams. If you send a computer game file, of course, all this stuff is already on it and you don't have to send written snail or email instructions with it.

You can send players up and down by each individual 2, 6 or 8-game series, but you can't do it by individual games.

As you examine our league disk, you'll notice that all the players on your team are exact clones of their NBA counterparts. Strat programs players and NBA teams to try and ensure that they finish about the same as they did in the previous real-life season. If you decide to let the computer run your team, to make your team play better, you'll most likely have to rearrange the minutes played so it will substitute players as you wish. You can even program in how you want your players to shoot and whether or not to shoot on the fastbreak.

Just remember - you can never play a guy out of his carded positions and you can never add more total minutes per game to his profile. HOWEVER, A GUARD CAN PLAY EITHER POINT GUARD OR SHOOTING GUARD IN THE SABL. WHEREVER IT SAYS YOU CAN PLAY ON THE CARD, YOU CAN PLAY.

While you can't play anyone out of position on offense, thanks to the "Assign" function in our computer basketball game, you can assign anyone to cover anyone else on defense. This means that you could assign Shaq to cover Earl Boykins. I don't know why you'd want to do this, but you could.

A word of caution, however: Like a lot of other things in this game, the Assign function doesn't always work correctly. Sometimes the computer game will refuse to assign the player where you want them to go. Ditto for the Double-Team function. Have fun.

Also, it is your responsibility to keep up with all trades from now on yourself during the season. Watch our website for the trades, look on the instructions you get to see who your opponent is playing, and make the changes via the TRADE function in the computer game.

NEVER, AND I MEAN NEVER, USE THE DELETE A PLAYER FUNCTION OR CLONE A PLAYER FUNCTION IN OUR OFFICIAL SABL LEAGUE.

For those of you new to our league, please trust me on these restrictions. SOM's basketball game is a programming mess and it's not at all like the baseball game, where every manager can create their own leagues and stats can be easily added and deleted. THIS IS THE ONLY WAY IT CAN WORK IN AN SOM BASKETBALL PBM LEAGUE EFFICIENTLY. I have reprinted a ton of material from our past newsletters below on the proper ways to do things in our league, but if you have any questions, please phone me or email me.

The proper way to make trading adjustments on your official SABL league (the 2002-03 X league) is this:

1.    Teams that have made trades that take effect Jan. 1 should not adjust their rosters until they have played all their games in December. Teams that make trades which take effect Feb. 1 should not adjust their rosters until they have played all their December and January games. Likewise, the trading teams cannot send out any January or February game plans (disk) instructions until their rosters are adjusted and until all their December and/or January games are played. This is for SABL league statistical reasons. TRADING TEAMS, YOU'LL HAVE TO BE ON THE BALL OR IT WILL CAUSE ME AND EVERY OTHER COACH IN THE SABL EXTRA WORK! YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR MAKING THIS HAPPEN, NOT ME. CONTACT LATE COACHES TO GET THE JOB DONE. LET ME KNOW IF THEY AREN'T COOPERATING. THIS IS THE PRICE YOU PAY TO TRADE DURING THE SEASON.

2.   DO NOT DELETE OR CLONE THESE PLAYERS! YOU MUST USE THE TRADING FUNCTION TO MOVE THESE PLAYERS FROM ONE TEAM TO ANOTHER. IF YOU DON'T IT WILL MESS UP OUR OFFICIAL LEAGUE DATABASE AND COULD MESS UP STATS OR GAME PLAN INSTRUCTIONS AN OPPONENT WOULD SEND TO YOU OR THOSE YOU WOULD SEND TO AN OPPONENT. IT WILL ALSO CAUSE ME A LOT OF EXTRA WORK AND COST YOU PENALTY POINTS.

A word of advice - get ahead on your game-playing schedule. You never know who is gonna be late back to you, so if you have time to send our schedules and play your games early, DO IT! In fact, if it's more convenient for you to email me results at the same time you email results to your opponents, go ahead! That would be great!

These are excerpts from our SABL Constitution with regards to when instructions should arrive at your opponents's place. If you are a week late, you get penalty points unless you have a darn good excuse.:

It’s the responsibility of each coach to keep his own team stats and e-mail them to the statistician (the commissioner) during the season. Individual game files (.gfl) and box scores (.prt) must be sent to the statistician. They are due to be in the statistician's hands by two weeks after the game was due to be played, during the season (Example: Dec. 1 game, in statistician's hands by Dec. 15). If you don’t send in or are late with your stats, you won’t be listed in the league leader reports and you’ll get two penalty points. If you’re late two months in a row, you’re expelled from the league. Accumulation of 21 points means expulsion from the league.

Also, it’s the responsibility of each coach to get series stats to his opponent within two weeks of the day the games are scheduled. Individual game files (.gfl) and box scores (.prt) must be sent. If a coach has not received results within two weeks, he should call his opponent to see what’s happening. At this time the offending coach will receive 1 penalty point. For every week after that, if a coach is late with results, the coach will receive a penalty point. If results haven't been received for two weeks, the waiting coach should call the commissioner, who then must notify the coach within another week on how to proceed. It is the responsibility of coaches to inform the league and commissioner of circumstances which may cause lateness. It’s not the responsibility of the commissioner to nursemaid coaches.

Every time a manager is late with instructions, he incurs one penalty point. For each three points that are incurred, that coach will drop down one place in the draft order. Accumulation of 21 points means expulsion from the league.

Coaches should follow mailed instructions to the best of their ability and when instructions are unclear, to manage the team as they think their opponent would wish it to be managed. All computer coach vs. computer coach games will be played under the "Neutral Court" and "Static Fatigue" options. All instructions must have the team’s active roster and the real-life NBA team he plays for by his name. Failure to do this earns an opposing coach 1 penalty point.

If any coach is 30 days late with either instructions or results, autoplay their team, play the games and get me the game files (.gfl). Before doing so, however, try and contact the offending coach twice. If he has not, or cannot get you the goods before the 30-day deadline, autoplay the late team, play the games and send the coach and me the game files. Please let the commissioner know if the games are autoplayed.

Instructions should reach a coach by the day the games are scheduled to be played.. If they don’t, coaches must phone the opposing coach to find out what’s happening. If no instructions are received a week after that, the coach should contact the commissioner, who must notify the coach within another week on how to proceed. For each week a coach is late with instructions, he receives one penalty point. Accumulation of 21 points means expulsion from the league.

If a coach gets a month behind schedule, unless a special circumstance exists, he will be expelled from the league. The commissioner must authorize autoplayed games or whatever it takes to keep the SABL running on time. It is the responsibility of coaches to inform the league and commissioner of circumstances which may cause lateness. It’s not the responsibility of the commissioner to nursemaid coaches.

The SABL schedule consists of 82 games. 8 games will be played against vs. teams in your own division, 6 will be played versus teams in the other division of your conference and 2 versus teams in the other divisions outside your conference. The SABL has two conferences and four divisions of 5 teams each."

Timely and easy-to-understand instructions are what makes play-by-mail leagues go round. If instructions and results are late, then a league becomes sluggish and managers lose interest.

We won’t be late in the SABL. Every coach needs to send on time strategies and results to their opponents. Instructions should be in opponents hands by the dates indicated on the schedule. Results should be in opponent’s hands a week after the schedule date.

Paper box scores and exported game files onto floppy disks should be sent to every coach following every series. For two of our coaches, Paul Bennett of East Asia in Thailand and Chris Gertridge of Good News, there is only one option - you have to email them instructions and results.

Pre-Season trading period is over! Next trade deadline date is Nov. 30

Whew, what a wild dealing ride we've had this pre-season! As you can see below, we had a record 58 off-season/pre-season deals in the SABL, cementing our reputation as the craziest bunch of general managers in Strat basketball history.

From now, Nov. 18, until 11:59pm on Nov. 30, all trades made will take effect on Jan. 1, 2003.

Our official 2002-03 league disk, with copious instructions, will be on your way very soon.

Who's Trading?

58. Bettendorf trades M. Jordan, Peterson and it's 2004 1st pick to Davenport for Cassell, Turkoglu & Davenport's 1st pick

57. Good News trades M. Taylor, Willis and its 2nd pick to East Asia for A. Griffin, Doleac & East Asia's 2nd & 4th picks

56. Good News trades B. Barry, A. Mason & Galactic's 1st & 2nd picks to Bakersfield for Terry, Medvedenko & Bakersfield's 3rd.

55. Good News trades J. Crawford, A. Griffin, Doleac & East Asia's 2nd to East Asia for House, Hassell, M. Moore & Good News' 3rd pick

54. Holcomb trades Jason Collins to Finney for R. Strickland & Finney's 2nd pick

53. St. Lucie trades its 2004 1st & Lynch to Davenport for Kukoc

52. St. Lucie trades Richmond's 2nd, Bender & T. Thomas to Chapel Hill for Kirilenko & Gugliotta

51. Holcomb trades Atkins to Miles for L. Wright

50. St. Lucie trades M. Curry to Holcomb for Claxton

49. Davenport trades Potapenko and Q. Richardson to River City for Hudson and Ostertag

48. St. Lucie trades Olajuwon to Chapel Hill for Chapel Hill's 2nd pick & Lynch

47. Holcomb trades Christie to Finney for E. Jones

46. East Asia trades P.J. Brown to Akron for C. Williamson

45. Chapel Hill trades Nash, M. Curry and its 2004 1st round pick to St. Lucie for Kirilenko, B. Knight & St. Lucie's 2003 1st pick.

44. St. Lucie trades Earl Boykins to Quad City for Etan Thomas.

Drafting uncarded players in 2003 has been defeated.

With Iowa's vote against it, 10 coaches have now said they do not want to draft uncarded players next year. That makes it impossible to get an 11-coach majority for this proposal, so it's been voted down.

However, since many coaches have also said they wouldn't mind drafting uncarded players beginning in 2005, we will vote on that idea next month. Stay tuned and thanks for participating!

Drafting uncarded players proposal one vote from defeat

Nine coaches have voted against drafting uncarded players in 2003. One more negative vote kills the idea, which is being debated on our Message/Chat Board link. You might want to check out our message board, it can get quite lively and there's information there that's not on our website.

But while this measure might get voted down this year, it could be voted on again, but this time, to take effect in 2005, three years from now. Why in 2005? Because there's 2003 and 2004 draft picks have already been traded. Here's Bakersfield Coach David Squires' thought on it:

"By the way, I vote no on the changes regarding the draft. It would make next year's draft a monster draft and some people traded away their draft picks that might not have had they known next year's draft would be a "double" draft. I know this would benefit me, but I don't think it's the right course for the league."

I'm beginning to think the drafting of uncarded players is overrated. Yao Ming could be the next Yinka Dare. At least now we have the benefit of seeing these play in the NBA first. And sometimes, in the case of a Earl Watson, Kedrick Brown or Gerald Wallace, even a year in the NBA hasn't told you much. They could still flop or be a star or something in-between.

I don't think this would change anything except make us study college basketball a lot more and pay more attention to the NBA Draft and preseason. And you should be doing that anyway. We'll just have to wait a year longer for our guys to flop. Hmmm . . . perhaps we could subscribe to some European newspapers, too.

In any case, this is not a big deal one way or the other, as long as we start it in 2005. I think the majority should rule, with one caveat: I don't want anyone to quit the league over something this minor. If drafting uncarded players would cause someone to leave us, I need to know now. Cause majority or not, if it drafting uncarded players means we lose even a single coach, we ain't doin' it.

Iowa votes "No" to drafting uncarded players

Davenport votes "Yes" to drafting uncarded players

Brooklyn votes "Yes" to drafting uncarded players

East Asia votes "No" to drafting uncarded players

Good News votes "No" to drafting uncarded players

St. Lucie votes "No" to drafting uncarded players

Tulsa votes "No" to drafting uncarded players

Miles votes "No" to drafting uncarded players

McLean votes "No" to drafting uncarded players

Galactic votes "No" to drafting uncarded players

Chapel Hill also votes "No" to drafting uncarded players

"Histories" link now includes Year Eight

Our Histories link now includes the story of last season, 2001-02, in all its glory. Check it out.

First vote is in on drafting uncarded players - it's "No"

Bakersfield Blades Coach David Squires is the first to vote in this issue and he says "No." He made a very good point in explaining his vote:

"By the way, I vote no on the changes regarding the draft. It would make next year's draft a monster draft and some people traded away their draft picks that might not have had they known next year's draft would be a "double" draft. I know this would benefit me, but I don't think it's the right course for the league."

Now it's your turn to express yourself !

Strat has goofed up the team roster disk this year

Some of us who got our basketball games in the first shipment Strat sent out got inaccurate NBA divisions and schedules. Here's how you can find out if your game is messed up: If Memphis is in the Eastern Division, then you have the screwed-up version.

I downloaded a patch from the Strat-O-Matic website a couple of weeks ago that fixed this, but I don't see it on their website today, Nov. 9. Maybe that means they've fixed this on subsequent shipments, or maybe they are just screwed up themselves, as usual.

This should not affect our SABL league anyway, because I will sending you all and posting our official league disk to use after our Nov. 17 pre-season trade deadline. But if you want to play real NBA replays, of course it will affect that. Anyway, if you notice Memphis in the wrong division and can't find the patch to fix it on the company's website, contact me and I'll email the file to you. It's only 283K.

Yep, several coaches over the years have brought up the idea of us drafting anyone on a current NBA roster at the time of our annual draft. That would mean we could've drafted Yao Ming, Juan Dixon or Caron Butler this season, instead of waiting for their terrible Strat cards next season.

This is an official SABL vote! And we haven't had a vote in a while, so this should be fun. Please vote Yes or No on this proposal and email me on it by Dec. 15. We must have 11 votes in favor of this proposal for it to pass.

Our roster size will still be 14 players. And you still must have enough minutes to complete an SABL season. If you can do that with just 11 or 12 carded/computer players, that's OK. If you need 13 carded/computer players to do it, then you could only draft one uncarded player. Also, you can still draft any carded/computer player you want, even if he's retired from the NBA in the current season.

What you are voting Yes or No on is this Constitutional amendment:

"SABL coaches can draft any Strat carded/computer player or any non-carded player on an NBA roster at the time of the SABL's annual draft."

Send me your votes today!

Coach Philip Creider had this to say about his team this pre-season:

“Once again, I think that we got a major talent in the draft by selecting PG Tony Parker with our first-round pick (#5 overall). In the past 3 drafts, we have selected
Shawn Marion, Darius Miles, and, now, Parker. Last year, we also picked up
Alvin Williams (via a trade of Joe Smith). Pleased as punch, with these picks.”

“I must admit, though, that I am already having regrets about my second-round pick in this year’s draft (Wesley Person at Pick # 25). My preference for this pick was at SG but was hoping that Joe Johnson would fall this far. When he didn’t, I went with Person who has a strong strat card. My fear is that Person may not have “much in the tank” beyond this year’s card. I am still trying to figure out why the Memphis Grizzlies signed him as a free agent; cannot see much in the way of playing time for him this new NBA season. In retrospect, I now wish that I would have selected the talented Gerald Wallace instead. He could end up having a career like Jermaine O’Neal: sit on the bench for a couple of years and, then, explode upon the scene. Oh well, not going to beat myself on the head over the pick. Who knows, the addition of Person may result, this year, in a few more victories and improve my chances at a post-season berth.”

“About the new season, it has been a spell since optimism has run this high in T-Town. For a change, I’ve got some depth so I should not experience a major drop off when I bring in my bench players. Still have many more practice games to play, but, now, it looks my starting five will be: T Parker (PG); W Person (SG); S Marion (SF); A Davis (PF); and J O’Neal (C ). Bench players include Chris Childs and Alvin Williams (PG);
David Wesley and Eric Piatkowski (SG); Darius Miles and Jumaine Jones (SF & PF) and Raef LaFrentz (C ). I am confident that I will definitely score more points this year; the test will be how well my defense plays.”

“Let’s play ball!”

Who's Trading?

46. East Asia trades P.J. Brown to Akron for C. Williamson

45. Chapel Hill trades Nash, M. Curry and its 2004 1st round pick to St. Lucie for Kirilenko, B. Knight & St. Lucie's 2003 1st pick.

44. St. Lucie trades Earl Boykins to Quad City for Etan Thomas.

The Raiders are looking for a backup power forward and Coach Frank Rowley has some good point guards to trade for it. Contact him today!

44. St. Lucie trades Earl Boykins to Quad City for Etan Thomas. Davenport Coach Kevin Feeney is helping his daughter, Kathleen, run this team, so this trade was made through his auspices. Anyone wishing to make trades with Kathleen should also contact Kevin, too.

In their continuing effort to take over the Second American Basketball League, the Feeneys have steamrolled yet another of their kin into our coaching ranks. Let's welcome Kevin Feeney's daughter, Kathleen Feeney, as the new coach of the Garden City Gladiators. Here's her email, address and telephone number:

Kathleen Feeney, 2115 Nevada, Davenport, IA 52804, 563-388-3913, LeenerzK@aol.com

Kathleen has renamed the franchise as the Quad City Rimrockers. She now has full control of the team, so let's all send her a welcome email to this craziness known as the SABL.

"She plays the game much like her Evil Druid Uncle, and takes no prisoners," says her father, Kevin, coach of the Davenport Dazzlers.

Along with Mike Resnick (a cousin), Mark and Chris, that makes five Feeneys in the league. And now that there's five Feeneys, you know what's coming next . . . an all-Feeney, all-the-time division . . .

Get your pencils out because the addition of our latest Feeney to the SABL means some teams will be moving to new divisional locales. Last year was the first in SABL history that no teams moved at all. This year, the Garden City/Quad City franchise is moving from the West Division to the North Division, allowing all Feeneys to compete against each other.

Phillip Creider's Tulsa team, which is more West than South anyway, will move from the South Division back to the West Division. Iowa will move from the North back to the East Division and, in the biggest move of all, the defending SABL World Champion East Asia Dragons will move from the East to South Division. Paul Bennett's team is in SOUTHeast Asia, so it makes sense. His Thailand team defies all geographical boundaries. And the coach he was planning to recruit in Thailand is not going to be able to join us, after all.

If our Royal Conference now kinda looks like the NBA's Eastern Conference and if our Classic Conference now kinda looks like the NBA's West Conference . . . well, there goes the neighborhood . . .

The next important date our SABL calendar is at 11:59 pm on Sunday, Nov. 17. That's when our post-draft, pre-season trading period ends. Any players traded before that date can be used this season. Any players traded after that date but before 11:59pm on Saturday, Nov. 30, can be used beginning Jan. 1, 2003.

Any players traded between Dec. 1 and 11:59 on Dec. 31 can be used beginning Feb. 1. Any players traded from Jan. 1 on cannot be used until next regular season.

Once our pre-season trading period is over on Nov. 17, I will post and email our official SABL league disk to all of you. You must use this disk or be summarily executed.

Well, I guess we won't have a Draft Day on Nov. 3. Our draft is over! Wow! We will probably do this again next season.

Now that our draft is complete, trading can resume. An important thing to remember: You can trade draft picks a year into the future, so now that the 2002 Draft is over, our next draft is 2003. That mean as of today, Nov. 1, you can trade 2004 draft picks.

The Bulldogs make their one and only pick at the very end of the 2002 SABL Draft.