PCTI7 AWARDS

What a great way to follow up Sabin’s series of SPERM with announcing the awards for PCTI7! I love how we continue to add layers into this weekend to improve it each year! PCTI gives all of us a nice outlet for our competitive juices and while we all want to win and the way to accomplish this is accomplished by everyone on the team, we all want to compare ourselves to each other. SPERM does a great job of how people play, but it doesn’t tell the whole story usually. This is where the awards come in (at least for the high SPERM count players).

This was the most competitive PCTI in my book so kudos to our captains for their picks. Not really any surprises here, so I decided to give out some other awards to go along with All Tournament and MVP.

Most Encouraging – Wes – I hated to see Wes go down to injury after he had played well up to that point. Kudos to Wes for staying engaged with his team and being a positive re-enforcement.

Best Apology – Bruise – For some reason I found it hysterical that Bruiser apologized on camera for hitting me in the head. It was even funnier because Deuce played the proverbial role of a parent and asked, “is there anything you want to say to Hops?” right after it happened. I definitely wasn’t made at him as I knew they were trying to foul, but I did want to punch that ref.

Most Unique – Rainbow – I just couldn’t get enough of Rainbow. He’s weird but not in a bad way. He fits in well with the group and he’s also fun to be around solo. He bratted out multiple times which I love. He tried to steal BC’s look, which I still laugh about. Finally, his game is different as well. His body twists and turns in peculiar ways. The bounce passes he had to DK really made my day. Being most unique is an honor with this group.

Best Fake Gameshow Host – AHOP – There wasn’t anyone else even close to this award.

Mr. Hustle – Donley – There’s no bigger compliment to a Cincinnati man than comparing him to Charlie Pete Rose. Donley was active all weekend and crashed the boards hard. I loved it. Best chef was his runner up award.

Best Shot of the Weekend – Joe – I may be forgetting another one and I’m not even sure when this happened, but Joe made a layup where he got fouled twisted threw up the ball with some much spin and banked in the shot. I was on the bench at the time and I thought the shot missed by a foot. I’m still trying to figure out how it went in.

Best Catchphrase – Beas – Back to back years Beas has come up with something I (and probably everyone) walk away from saying all the time. Last year it was “OoooOooo” (hard to spell it out). This year it was *hack a loogie noise* “WET!” I still find myself saying it to myself.

Rookie of the Year – TP – Rainbow had a great weekend, but TP edged him out for ROY. Him putting up a 13-15 game was awesome (especially since he told Ben coming in he would definitely have at least one double double). TP was a big time impact player and next year will be interesting to see how he plays with a year under his belt and not having an injury to rehab from.

Comeback Player of the Year – Sabin – Sabin was really good games 1 and 6, but was consistently good throughout. Having one less sub hurt him, but he was still giving 100% the entire time. This was a toss-up between he and Bruise, but his first and last games helped him pull this one out.

Got Votes, but missed the Cut

Spotlight – 3 AT Votes

Just to touch on SPERM quickly, there were 5 guys that got votes in any capacity and they were the top 5 SPERM players. Hard to hate on SPERM with those type of results. Anyways, congrats to MY DUDE Spotlight on getting a few well deserved AT votes. Spot is very consistent on both ends of the floor and shoots the ball as good or better than anyone. Will his team in 8 recognize this and try and get him more shots? Since he didn’t make the AT team, his award is Most Stylish. Been saying this for years and it really showed this year, Spot is a true hipster and most of us just wish we could look as good as Spot.

BC – 4 AT Votes

I loved playing with the Brats this year. We seemed to connect well before PCTI and would send each other vids of us working out or hooping leading up to this. BC was the ring leader of this. I also thought BC and Beas were two guys that were always upbeat and positive for our team. Sure he yelled “I F*CKING BLEEDING!” to the ref after a “missed call” (even though the blood was drawn a few possessions earlier). BC had some incredible moments: carrying our team day 3 and beating his bare chest after each bucket, jumping up in the stands after a near steal, and who can forget the series clinching bucket that was underrated but is now approaching properly rated. Just a great steady performance all weekend from BC. Best Cig Smoker is his award and he stole it from Spot. Wow! What a performance on that square Saturday night!

All Tournament

Abe – 9 AT Votes, 2 MVP Votes

Most decorated player in PCTI history adds (DJ Khaled voice) Another one! What can you say about this guy that hasn’t already been said? He’s just a very skilled player that is bigger than most of us and has a ton of energy. The hardest part about guarding Abe is you can never let up. He had come up a little tender on one possession I was guarding him and looked to be struggling a little on the way down the next play. While I lighten up a little and someone kicks it to him for a 3 he knocks down. The fact that most defenses are focused on him, he has to defend tough opponents on the other end, and is usually one of the top rebounders and still shoots a high percentage is incredible. If his team won (or possibly even went 7) he easily wins MVP. Just as a side note, I thought his shot was in at the end of game 6.

Ben “JD” Wilson – 9 AT Votes, 3 MVP Votes

I have to admit; I was getting frustrated with Bin at PCTI. There were times it just didn’t seem like he was in it. I get to play with him more than anyone else in PCTI and I know how impactful he can be on both ends, but especially offensively when he is doin his thang. Unfortunately, he gets taken out of games at times by refs or occasionally with shitty teammates (this happens in our pickup games). I walked away thinking he had a subpar tournament. Then I went back and watched the videos, and he saved our team. He hit so many big shots and was a huge presence for us. His 26-7 is a game for the ages. He then distracted everyone except BC on the biggest play of the weekend with his duplex on the Oscar the Grouch. He also had the best brat out (my opinion) of the tourney after his blatant charge. In the end, it shows how good of a player he is that I could think he underperformed and he made AT with MVP votes.

MVP

Dan “the MVP man” Krow – 5 AT Votes, 10 MVP Votes

Then there was Dan… Unlike Abe, you could say a lot of things that haven’t been said about him. Things like, “wow what a scorer!”, “yeah he led the tourney with 3s made and 3 point %”, or even “yeah that haircut looked good, I didn’t want to punch him as soon as I saw him.” But those were things that Dan did. Dan has worked hard at getting his game better. He has always been a great defender, distributor, and a pleasure to play with. In order to become a more complete player, he needed to become a good shooter AND actually shoot often enough to be really impactful. Welp, that’s exactly what he did this year. Most of us have thought DK could shoot well in the past but only if he was really open. This year he was a shoot first player and it paid dividends. Shooting a gaudy 68% from 3 the first 3 games, scoring 23, 18, and 10 is one of the greatest 3 game stretches in PCTI history. As he tired and start to lose his shot, he of course picked up in other areas. The last 3 games he had 19 boards and 10 assists. All of this while playing excellent defense on Abe. We joked this was a “Lifetime Achievement” MVP, but I actually didn’t want to vote for you because of you “acheivements”. Honestly this was a well deserved MVP.

Congrats Abe, Bin, and Danny boy!