PCTI Players' Poll: #3 Beas

The Brat's Preamble: Beas's grip over PCTI can be described only one way: a force of nature. Combining a mix of athleticism and competitiveness that is almost unmatched with a team-first attitude, he is overwhelmingly one of the most highly regarded players.

The biggest thing going for Beas may be that he looks the most like a ballplayer at all times. Really it's a landslide. He scores a 1600 on the eyeball test. He's always in a stance on defense, he attacks the rim on offense and he's clearly naturally good looking in general (more on that in a moment.)

What's not as striking, by and large, are his numbers. Name the stat, and there's a guy in the bottom half of the balloting who does it just as well.

But the vast majority of PCTI clearly believe the best is yet to come for Beas. I certainly count myself among them. If you are able to combine talent with consistent effort, by PCTI standards you are elite. And few do it better than Beas.

Voting Breakdown: highest vote: 2, lowest vote: 7. The top three ranked players were the only ones to not receive any votes below seven.

Lifetime Record: 1-1, loss in the KD and a win last year.

Lifetime Stats: 7.7 ppg (T-8 with Cockboy), 4.5 rpg (11^th), 10 steals (11^th, for perspective 8 steals in PCTI IIII tied for first with Sabin), 0 blocks (16^th), 24 assists (10^th, 14 assists in PCTI IIII, tied for third with The Brat), 35.5 percent shooting (11^th), 28.1 percent from three (7^th), and the all-important Sabin productivity number: 61 (14^th, not sure if this stat builds over time)

Lifetime Bests: 21 points (PCTI III, game 4), 7 rebounds (multiple times), 7 assists (PCTI III, game 4)

Other Notes: My favorite Beas stat through both PCTIs: On both final days he has matched his point total from the first part of the weekend. In PCTI he had 21 points combined in games 1-3 and closed impressively with a 21,7, and 7 line in game four. A performance that was marred by the final score (106-80 loss) and Actor's 30, 5 and 4 line.

In PCTI IIII he had 24 points combined in games six and seven, matching his 24 points through the first five games. This was big in helping his squad take the series.

How is this explained? Certainly with only two PCTIs where every lady would like to wind up, under his belt there is a limited sample size. But for our purposes where is the fun in that? Is he a superior athlete who hits his stride while others are fading? Is it a competitive streak that makes him well fitted for the role as his team's closer? Or is he simply a really slow starter? How annoying is it that every sentence I'm writing is a question?

I look at Beas taking home the title of Best Looking as a win for all of us. He got eight votes and the rest of us shared eight votes. I don't think there's a guy in here who wouldn't be proud of keeping it that competitive.

You would think that perhaps Beas would make a case for most disappointing player considering how highly regarded he is among the brethren, yet he did not receive a single vote. He did get three votes for Best Off The Court (sharing second with fellow quadpoders Spot and A-Hop) and got a pair of votes for Favorite Teammate.

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 (1^st, one of three guys in PCTI to average over 7 boards a game), 17 steals (T5), 14 blocks (2^nd), 73 assists (1^st, 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 (1^st, only seven guys in PCTI shoot north of 40 percent, Skillz is two misses below 50 percent) 47.4 percent (1^st, 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.

PCTI Players' Poll: #5 Sabin

The Brat's Preamble: Behold, the full evolution of PCTI. Sabin began as a mostly unknown and quickly evolved in to an upper tier player. Then from the upper tier to to the target of scorn, mockery and humiliation. Out of that he made it through the fire and reaffirming his spot as a solid player. And now, back to a spot in the upper tier.

It's been a Homeric journey for one of PCTI's most controversial and indispensable members. Yet the one thing missing from this odyssey is what he desires most: a winning weekend.

Despite the losses, Sabin is one of the big winners to come out of this exercise. It's overwhelmingly clear that any negative feelings - either genuine or embellished for our entertainment = as well as any questions about his ability to be a winning player, simply do not exist.

Over the years I've spent more time talking and writing about Sabin than probably anyone else in PCTI short of myself. There's two reasons for this. One, because I know he's at times been divisive - and that makes for entertainment - and two, because I know that at all times he can take it. In fact he can take any criticism far better than anyone in this thing or really anyone I've ever known and certainly way better than I can. But as you know if you paid any attention to me through these years of rambling, I'm typically speaking out in his defense or in agreement with him. So for me now, what more is there to say? Only this: IT'S A DAMN SHAME you won't be with us when we invade Denver, you'll certainly be missed.

(Do keep in mind, the voting happened before Sabin's injury, so no sympathy points awarded)

Voting Breakdown: highest vote: 2, lowest vote: 8. How about that? If there's any Sabin haters still around, the worst they think of him is as eighth. Only four guys avoided a double digit vote.

Lifetime PCTI Record: 0-4...sigh...

Lifetime Stats: 11.4 ppg (T-3 with a former player), 5.9 rpg (6^th, the low man in the top tier of PCTI rebounders), 17 steals (part of four way (pause) tie for 5^th), 9 blocks (5^th), 60 assists (4^th), 42.9 percent shooting (6^th, of the five ahead of him, four would be classified in PCTI terms as bigs), 35.6 perecent from three (2^nd), and the all-important his productivity number: 216 (3^rd)

Lifetime Bests: 24 points (PCTI III, game 1), 12 rebounds (PCTI II, game 1), 5 assists (PCTI I, game 4)

Other Notes: Sabin's stats are among the most consistently good in PCTI. The same can be said for his effort. The irony in looking back at Sabin's PCTI history is that few if anyone is wiling to make the necessary personal adjustments year-to-year, team-to-team to get a W as him. We've seen him as an attacker/tempo maven, a rebounder/defender, a spot shooter/Rip Hamilton type and as a guy who's willing to gladly acquiesce to his teammates. Impressively, he's played each roll well. And yet, still and 0-fer by his name.

Looking at his PCTI's through the years, I saw a lot of big games early in the weekends (With PCTI being a bit of an exception.) This speaks volumes about his talent relative to the rest of us, as those games are often the hardest times to put up numbers, with everyone bringing maximum focus and energy and teams often yet to gel.

One does have to wonder, does Sabin's history of tailing off at the end of the weekend stem from an over exertion of energy (both physical and mental) in those first few games? Certainly his advanced age does not help. Another question to ponder, how much of it is Sabin trying to continually adjust to his team's changing style rather than taking more of the alpha dog approach in hopes that they will adjust to him? For a guy who has been bombarded at times with negative press and uncertain relationships with some of the brethren, perhaps seeing where he stands in the eyes of his peers through this exercise will change that.

Sabin barely registered in the superlatives. The only category where he received more than one vote was in the guy who has played most above his ability level category. He picked up two votes, putting him in a tie for second with Donley and a former player. Of course, Beas, BenWilson, DTOMFS and Wes were the only guys not to get a vote in that category.

Sabin got a single vote in underrated, overrated, best teammate and the guy who you most enjoy seeing lose.

PCTI: Mile High on the 4th of July

Ah hem...

Few would argue to the tumultuous off season
Key players dropping out, some for no apparent reason.

Donley broke his forearm probably jackhammering gaps
And when BC arrives, bitches throw in their cervical caps.

Sabin tore his groin with his son playing soccer
And the Doctor's got more drugs than Michael Irving's locker. 

Skills left to wipe sweat at some community college
And Pitto's absence no one cares enough to even acknowledge.

Ben and Abe both drafted squads mediocre at best
And when Spotlight leaves Denver half that city will need an STD test.

Excited to watch the Brusier perfectly sip on a cold beer,
Or listen to Ben's music which to no mans taste does he adhere. 

Chic Fila cancelled the Honey Biscuit and Wes wrote a letter to corporate
Haven't seen a grown man cry like that since Sabin's Kittens forfeit.

Fruit nearly had a coup on his hands from his lack of leadership on the BORED,
Cross Fit training McKinneys got every muscle in shape except the vocal chord.

Whether Beas takes his shirt off or A Hop pokes holes in his rubbers
NOTHING comes between this band of brothers. 

"They say your latitude determines your attitude, we're mile high as a motha fucka and fly as a motha fucka." - Kanye West

PCTI Players' Poll: #6 Pitto

The Brat's Preamble: The timing of his quitting sucks because it effected everyone.

New Squadrons for IIIII. NO MORE BACKING OUT

To say the past couple weeks or so have been rocky (see what I did there employing our destination?) for all of us here in PCTI would be an understatement.  Injuries and defections have robbed us of 25% of our usual playing partners, which sucks to all high heaven.  The injuries are tough to swallow, and I guess congrats are in order for Brian on his new gig, but couldn't have picked a worse time to make the jump...although Brian seems to be teasing retirement with each passing PCTI, so maybe this is his way of expediting the process and pushing us to excommunicate him instead of him having to come out and actually retire so his bad boy persona doesn't get damaged.  I'm not buying any of Pitto's claims outside of Brian isn't there so he didn't want to come, and that pissed me off (like that weekend is your one chance to ever see your niece).  But whatevs, you don't want to be there you don't want to be there...and not being a member of the BORED, I'm just talking out my ass here but this development probably won't go unnoticed for future years.  I know I don't speak for just myself when I say that the non-injured nonparticipants' reasons for not coming are a much tougher pill to swallow than our injured participants.  I suppose we'll see how it all plays out after IIIII is complete.  I'm mainly just pissed knowing that I'll never see that $40 Pitto owes me for getting my wedge stolen, I could reeeeeeally use that $$$ right about now because I'm the poorest.  END RANT.

But what's done is done, so allow me to introduce you to your final teams for IIIII.  This whole process has just been comical really, but like my main man Kevin Rudolf once said, "I We made it!"  Joshua and I put our nose to the grindstone on Friday and picked our team during a grueling 2 minutes of back and forth, using the other more important 11 minutes of the phone call to talk about things such as time/space exploration and what guard number we both use to trim our ballsacks.  Having only 10 candidates to choose from and missing 4 of the top 9 ranked guys (with another of those potentially hobbled), the decision was made to just go back and forth between selections rather than snake it like we normally do.  I'll go round by round so that Smo and Wes can feel worse about themselves some more.  Without further Freddy Adu:

Round 1, FIGHT:
BenWilson selects Big Brent Carney
JoshStephenson selects Dr. Joe Thompson
Analysis:  A bit of a surprise at the top, but it seems the idea of playing with BBC for the first time was too much for BenWilson to pass up (that's quite the [big] pun, I don't pass you idiots!).  JoshStephenson's decision to pass on his QP brethren to select the Actor will hopefully bring about the spectacular demise of PCTI's most hated group of people, unless he believes he will be able to procure the remaining members with his next picks.

Round 2, FIGHT:
BenWilson selects Nature Boy Beas
JoshStephenson selects Ian Van Horne
Analysis:  JoshStephenson's plan is all for naught as BenWilson scoops up Mikey.  Hopefully the Nature Boy has been cutting back his 1080's to just 360's in an effort to stay healthy heading into IIIII.  JoshStephenson responds with the Stickman, hoping that the rage boiling inside of him at Pitto's betrayal of PCTI will unleash a performance from the Bruiser the likes of which we have never seen.  I personally am hoping for the opposite.

Round 3, FIGHT:
BenWilson selects DTOMFS
JoshStephenson curses and selects Sir Anthony Hopkins
Analysis:  BenWilson's selection of DTOMFS garnered a "fuck!" from JoshStephenson, presumably because he wanted to snatch him up in this round too.  I'll admit I was a bit shocked, as I panicked and reached for DTOMFS here, but maybe I'm onto something if it bristled JoshStephenson that badly.  Still reeling from the blow delivered by BenWilson, JoshStephenson attempted to quell the chaos by going the comfort route and selecting his pacifier and longest tenured friend in PCTI, Ahop.  No surprises here, and judging by the talent in Round 4, it seems we both REACHED here.  Oh well!

Round 4, FIGHT:
BenWilson selects Spotlight
JoshStephenson selects Crossfit Tempest
Analysis:  As noted before, the round 4 selections probably should have gone a round earlier, but that's neither here nor there nor here.  BenWilson's selection of the most handsome individual in PCTI in his opinion gives him an experienced cutter and intensely hyped rebounder, while also further splintering JoshStephenson's plan to unite the QP.  Crossfit Tempest will provide his team with ample energy/soft noises and a mirage of contributing more to games than he really does.  Do not sleep on this guy...he's primed to be this year's breakout player in Danver.  Could be best value in draft when all said and done.

Round 5, FIGHT:
BenWilson "selects" Milky Mike Orr
JoshStephenson hangs up
Analysis:  BenWilson decides to round out his team with Smo in round 5 after hearing from Dallas sources that his game and general pickup game attendance are at an all-time low.  But I'll be goddamned if he's not gonna look like a fuckin' BAWSE out there in his new uni.  We were also once best friends so this will be the first meeting since the split.  Really looking forward to licking those teeth!  Someone print this paragraph out and carrier pigeon it to Wes so he knows what team he is on, thanks in advance.



In conclusion:
TEAM BENWILSON:
BenWilson
BC
Beas
DK
Spot
Smo

TEAM JOSHSTEPHENSON:
JoshStephenson
Joe
Bruise
Ahop
Bmac
Wes

See you guise in Danver!  Can't wait!

PCTI Players' Poll: #7 The Brat

The Brat's Preamble About Himself: As several guys can (Ron) attest, Bratting out is not a new thing. I've done it my whole life. I suppose it shouldn't come as a surprise that I acted childish when I was actually a child. There's one especially memorable Brat-out session I can recall from sometime when I was elementary school age. I was in a hotel room during an AAU weekend complaining to my old man about my lack of minutes (despite my team winning.) My dad (the infamous DC) told me something then that is so simple but so often overlooked at every level of sports. By no means a pearl of wisdom from my dad but something that for whatever reason has always stuck with me. That is, for me to go in the game, someone has to come out of the game. In other words, it can make perfect sense that I should be playing more but it also has to make perfect sense that someone else should be playing less.

How does this apply to PCTI? Even though some of my numbers seem to point to a player that is better than seventh, you'd have a hard time arguing that one of the six higher rated players should move down the list below me.

There's also several factors working against me.

-I run funny. I look funny standing around. There's nothing I do that looks even vaguely athletic. Deep down there's probably a lot of people that feel like if they tried like I do they could consistently put up 11 and 7...and if they were 6-4 and left handed? They could do it in their sleep.

-At one point or another, I've picked apart everyone else's game. And really, who am I to talk?

-I'm consistently a high draft pick for reasons difficult to explain.

-As much as we joke, the Brat-outs often are incredibly annoying.

This next paragraph is important: I'm not saying any of this looking for a love fest to breakout in the comments section. I'm not fishing for compliments. As I've demonstrated before, I have no problem pointing out the good parts of my game. In fact, I probably do it more naturally than anyone else in PCTI and I'll do enough of it in the writing that follows. So don't worry, my sense of self worth is just fine. 

Voting Breakdown: highest vote: 3, lowest vote: 15. Fifteen definitely stings but I know I've got my fair share of detractors. In fact, I was a little surprised I didn't register more in the overrated vote, considering the reasons I listed previously. 

Lifetime PCTI Record: 2-2, captained a winning squad in PCTI II and on the right side of the KD

Lifetime Stats: 10.7 ppg (5^th), 7.2 rpg (2^nd, pretty good battle between Skillz and me for top rebounder. I have more lifetime boards but because he missed a few games when he got his face smashed, he narrowly has the better average), 9 steals (T-12 with Bruiser), 18 blocks (1^st), 54 assists (5^th), 45.7 percent shooting (2^nd), 24.1 percent from three (13^th, oooouch) and the all-important Sabin Productivity number: 231 (2^nd)

Lifetime Bests: 26 points (multiple times), 14 rebounds (PCTI I, game 3), 5 assists (multiple times)

Other Notes: I had a monstrous PCTI I. When they create a PCTI Hall of Fame they'll have to build a separate wing for my stats from the second session pf PCTI I: 26 and 14 followed up by 26 and 10, 18-27 shooting and six assists. The problem for me is, since then the hall of fame performances have been few and far between and PCTI I was eons ago. I've been solid since then but few things about what I've done have stood out as elite.

The most pleasant surprise looking back at my PCTIs: I have pretty good assist numbers. Kinda surprising since the game is rarely “played through me.” (Although I have a very pedestrian 1.4 a/t) The most troubling stat: the inability to make a three pointer. I go from (arguably) PCTI's best garbage guy to an actual game changer if I can make a jumper, it opens up other things (read: straight line lefty drives) for me if my defender feels the need to contest my jumper.

As for superlatives, I barely was a factor. I was pretty surprised I didn't figure higher in the overrated (2 votes) or playing above his ability (1 vote) categories considering my ranking. Someone is especially fond of a Brat-out and voted me as the guy he most likes to see lose. Lastly, chalk up a vote for best looking. (← thanks Beas)