Monday, June 30, 2014

PCTI Players' Poll: #4 Skillz

The Brat's Preamble: I'm not sure PCTI knows what to make of Skillz at the moment. Notorious for building a persona as a bad boy/disinterested participant, it's difficult to know how much of that is legitimate and effects his plans to stay with or bow out of PCTI in the future. Is it part of a permanent exit strategy? Perhaps. Certainly one can see how being a part of all of this riff-raff could be construed as a risk for someone making a career out of basketball. Combine that with someone who doesn't enjoy the social aspect as much as many of the brethren and it starts to make even more sense.

Let me be clear, if that's the case, I'm not casting judgment. In fact, I would totally understand and I bet most others would, too. People change, interests change, jobs change, priorities change. It happens. What I am saying is that I really don't know. PCTI will certainly have a spot for Skillz in the future if he's interested/able to continue. 

What's easier to understand is what Skillz brings to the table when he does lace 'em up in PCTI. Due to some sort of combination of his coaching background, his existence as somewhat of a curmudgeon or simply a better grasp than most of common sense, he has an unmatched hatred for the stupid play. He loathes players who make stupid plays and he butters his bread by doing little more than continuously making the next easy play.

It's a ridiculously easy approach that is almost impossible to execute, especially in PCTI when nerves get easily frayed and teams lack cohesion. Coupled with a unique set of skills (good handle, wide frame, great vision, craftiness around the rim) and a shortcoming that rarely has any effect in PCTI good or bad (speed/quickness) and it makes for one of the league's top players.

Voting Breakdown: highest vote: 1. lowest vote: 10. There it is, the first number one vote. Three guys got a vote for top overall player.

Lifetime Record: 3-1, a great number. His lone loss was while he was captain in PCTI II. He was outwitted by The Brat.

Lifetime Stats: 7.2 ppg (T-10 with BMac), 7.5 rpg (1st, one of three guys in PCTI to average over 7 boards a game), 17 steals (T5), 14 blocks (2nd), 73 assists (1st, the title of PCTI Assist King figures to be Dan The Boy's after IIIII, unless Sabin starts including per game averages in his composite stats. The Brat ain't about to crunch those numbers on his own. Also, three of PCTI's top four assist guys won't be on the floor in Denver.), 48.8 percent shooting (1st, only seven guys in PCTI shoot north of 40 percent, Skillz is two misses below 50 percent) 47.4 percent (1st, Only 19 attempts lifetime. In most cases, you'd disregard this stat on account of the limited shots taken but considering the wealth of missed threes in PCTI the fact that he refuses to shoot more is commendable. Last season he was 0-3. Only Smo shot fewer)

Lifetime Bests: 16 points, (PCTI III, game 3), 19 rebounds! (PCTI I, game 4), 8 assists! (PCTI I game 4)

Other Notes: Another epic moment from PCTI's most famous game. Wes was getting loose offensively, cramps were annihilating half of the brethren and Skillz was putting together the most impressive stat line in PCTI history. 14 points, 19 rebounds and eight assists. With his famously thick legs showing no signs of cramping, he took down the single game records for rebounds AND assists while scoring the second most points of his career. Spectacular.

It should be noted, Skillz continuously logs a ton of minutes. I guess he figures he does enough sitting on the bench at work to do it on vacation. If I took that approach imagine all the magic you would lose on the videos...

Last year Skillz struggled, averaging 4.3 points and 5.6 rebounds on 37 percent shooting. But his reputation for making positive plays clearly did not take a hit. To that point, he led PCTI IIII with 25 assists. Only seven guys had double digit assists a year ago.

Three guys appear to have their doubts as he got 18 percent of the votes for Most Overrated, putting him in a tie for second place. He's part of the four-way tie for second place in Best Teammate. He also got one vote for playing above his ability level.


2 comments:

  1. Really looking forward to getting this guy in Boston and teaching him how to shoot the 3BALL

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  2. Eskildsen is as good as a competitor in this thing. My favorite thing about him is truly how dirty of a player he is and yet nobody harps on that, which should go to show you just how highly everyone thinks of the tactician.

    Additionally, he gets more out (read: his body type) of less than everyone in PCTI.


    I think next year, if this vote should happen again, that we add to see who is the dirtiest player in this whole thing.

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