COLORADO SPRINGS, CO: Week 4 Preview | Will Hand Down Man Down Meet The Browns With Open Arms?

“People Want To Follow Positive Leaders…Unless A Teammate Is Really Out Of Line Stay Positive” – Unknown

Good afternoon Ultimate Hoops Nation. Here we are with the week 4 preview as we look to pick up where we left off minus all the extra shenanigans. As we near the midway point of the season this is where teams will get a shot to get payback from their week 1 short comings or remind their opponent that they just aren’t on their level. Oh before I jump off into the preview I just want to remind everyone that this is the last week to sign a free agent to your roster, so make sure they get signed up before tipoff Thursday.

(2-1) Meet The Browns vs. (3-0) Hand Down Man Down 6:30pm
In their previous matchup Hand Down Man Down showed how great they could be when playing with confidence or playing against the shell of a dominate championship team. Meet The Browns (formerly known as Team Wes) sent out the bat signal and were able to get some help before their season went downhill quick. Now it’s time to see what both teams can do playing with a full hand.

With Meet The Brown’s Wes McKenzie making his return after a two week hiatus and some legit scoring power in tow the confident level of the team should be pretty high. The last time Wes stepped on the court at Ultimate Hoops Arena he dropped an effortlessly 37 points on 56% shooting from the field. The reason I say effortlessly is because I don’t think the defense could have been any tighter unless they happened to be the soaked jersey clinched to his skin. While that could be solely directed at Hand Down Man Down’s Michael Harper the fact of the matter is they pretty much cancelled each other out that game given the fact that he dropped 31 points of his own on 52% shooting though his team did a more efficient job of finding him open shots.

The big story here will be the matchup between former MVP Ranell Green (MTB) and Seth Thompson. Ranell is more aggressive and makes his living dropping double doubles with his soft midrange jumper and bulldog like post moves. Seth on the other hand who has no problems playing in the trenches scoring with his back to the basket is more comfortable in that Scottie Pippen type roll doing what’s needed at that particular point of the game. So maybe you don’t agree with these two being the focal point of the game…who do you have then? Meet The Brown’s Marco Clark by default is going to cause a mismatch with whoever is guarding him because of the attention he will receive and if Hand Down Man Down’s Chuck McKenzie started to string together a couple of back to back high performing games maybe this would have been the matchup.

Both teams have pretty decent guard play and they will in turn cancel each other out though it would be a plus if they could give their teams at least 10 points and 6 assist with a couple of cookies (steals for the tardy people).

Prediction: Having a reloaded team with three potential 30 point scorers that play solid defense is scary, but given the fact Meet The Browns struggled against a smaller Dem Boyz makes hard to go against the team that has done what they are supposed to do in HDMD. Meet The Browns 88 – Hand Down Man Down 93.


(0-3) Free Agents vs. (1-3) Dem Boyz 7:30pm
These two teams have gone through a lot so early in the season that there really is no clear cut advantage heading into Thursday late game matchup. On one side you have injuries that have taken their toll and on the other side players being released due to conduct detrimental to their team. It’s going to be interesting to see who comes ready to play as the fight to get out of the cellar of the league begins.

In their previous matchup the Free Agents played with a gift and a curse kind of attack. They had two players Joel Garbe and Nikita Smullen put on a shooting display that nobody has seen from these two since they stepped on the court in Ultimate Hoops Arena combining for 54 of the teams 82 points on 22-43 shooting. If they can have a repeat performance while keeping their teammates involved there is no reason they don’t walk away with their first win of the season. Dem Boyz put on a show of their own in the first matchup making sure everyone got their touches and shots with everyone getting at least 13 attempts while shooting above 42% from the field. The players to keep an eye out for on this young ball club are Seth Hawkins, Grant Morin and Chance Matlock who remind of Run TMC from back in the late 80’s early 90’s. Grant has that elusive speed that will give the slower Free Agent guards ankle issues, Seth is the spot-up shooter guaranteed to make it rain if left open and Chance rounding it out being that athletic combo guard who the Free Agents don’t really have an answer for.

This time around the Free Agents do provide a little more of a threat with Amelia Yates honing in her long ball and DaMarcus Forney being able to get to the cup with ease (just has to make sure to make those bunnies). Unless Dem Boyz get a last minute signing or trade a lot more responsibility will fall on the lap of Benjamin Cohn who his having a pretty productive sophomore season with three consecutive double doubles, but will need to up his subpar shooting performance at 38% a game.

Prediction: This game could truly go either way as it will depend on who shows up and how well they play as a team. Dem Boyz 67 – Free Agents 73.