Mandatory AAU Basketball Rant: Week 6

Certain words come out of our mouths during these tournaments.  The words "point differential" were the culprits this weekend. 

We returned to the Philly suburbs for last weekend's tournament.  Unlike the logistical nightmare last time, everyone of our games for both girls (heck almost all of the games for the club's 14+ teams) were played at Competitive Edge in King of Prussia.  Essentially five basketball courts in  a small warehouse building with bathrooms and a snack bar.  Parking could be problematic at times, but a minor quibble compared to 40 minute drives between games.  

So many games in one site meant one could position yourself to cheer on the 5th and 6th grade girls at the same time.  

 Millie:  Despite being worried about opening against the previous champion Comets, they discovered it was a different, and almost as talented team from the same club.  They won a tight game 28-25, continued their dominance of District 1 27-11 and waited to see if the final team in the pool  actually showed for the final Sunday pool game.  They were no-shows for the weekend, so they decided to move up the championship game to the game 3 morning time.  There was a surprise rematch with District 1, and the Clutch proved victorious, 18-6.  

It's a lot easier to win championships when you always make it the championship game.

For some parents, it meant an earlier drive back home, or a chance to do something in the area without coming home too late.  With a second child, that was never an option.

Maja:  The 6th grade team had the misfortune of having five teams in their pool.  This meant that, with a three game play format and no playoff, you could go undefeated in pool play, but a second team you did not play might also go undefeated and it would go down to tie-breaker criteria, the dread Point Differential.

For the uninitiated, Point Differential is just combined margin of victory (loss) for each team.  The stat caps off at 20 (-20) to prevent soul-crushing embarrassing losses for the sake of victory.

Of course, at the end of the Saturday, but the Clutch 6th grade and team, LM Fire, were undefeated.  The Fire had ripped through the lesser teams in the pool, maxing out their +40 point differential in the two games.  Maja's team blew out the one team, but opened with a tough Femcor team and only won by 7.   

That night at the hotel, it was fun with statistics as we tried to explain to parents how we could win all three games, and still not move on to the championship game, thanks to tie-breaker criteria.

Assuming we would defeat our last team by more than 20 (we beat them 41-4 in our last encounter), it would come  down to the Fire playing Femcor.  Our +47 in three games meant if the Fire won by eight or more points, they would advance.   It was possible, and we waited for updates during Millie's championship game.  

After all the hand-wringing and math, it was moot point.  The Femcor team overwhelmed the Fire, and we were the only undefeated team in our pool.

Of course, the other pool was no picnic, in fact, it was a nightmare scenario of teams who had either won championships, or had beaten the 6th grade team earlier in the Spring.  All but one game were hotly contested, but a new team (to us) out of Bensalem emerged from their undefeated pool champ.  

Like their tournaments two weeks ago, shots would not fall, plays seemed methodical,  and Bensalem took advantage of the few good opportunities they had.  Despite keeping them to under twenty points for the first time in the tournament, they fell 17-11. 

Next week is an off-weekend, so outside of a local clinic run by a family friend, I'm hoping both girls get a chance to chill out and ice down some sore points.  Maja's suffering from double plantar fasciitis and is proving to be an unruly patient with ice, rest, and stretching.