MONTVALE, NJ: Put On Your Big Boy Pants – It’s Playoff Time

Just like that… The regular season is over. While the final four are hardly a surprise, will we be in for a surprise come next week? Or will the Ballerz hold steady and repeat?

Going into the final week of the regular season, we pretty much knew how the playoffs were going to line up. Sure, the Bergen Tropics had a chance to get in. Ferrall did his best to build up the excitement with Alex Benisatto and Joe Ventresca, but after the Ballerz took care of business, the Tropics once again made an early exit.




By the way, Happy 50th Ferrall! Dropping 20+ and 30+ on your birthday week…Not too shabby for the old man. Hopefully he has enough left in the tank to get him through next week.

Speaking of…

Our postseason format is very simple. #1 plays #4 and #2 plays #3 on Wednesday. The winners advance to the title game the following night. Here are your match-ups, complete with predictions.

#1 Ferrall Ballerz vs. #4 Bad Boyz

Simply put, it would be a real stunner if the Ballerz don’t win. Their strength is defense, and the Bad Boyz will likely force the issue if they don’t get easy looks at the basket. In their lone meeting this season, the Boyz only scored 47. Getting Gurbir Grewal (absent in the first meeting) the ball in the post sounds like a good idea to get easy looks. However, the Ballerz should pose more than enough problems with their own bigs. It’s just not a good match-up.

Prediction: Ballerz 70, Bad Boyz 55

#2 Team Banner vs. #3 Flint Troopers

The one contest these teams played at full-strength came earlier in the season, a three-point Banner win. The thought process in picking them again is that their margin of error is not as small as that of the Flint boys. First off, it’s anyone’s guess as to whether or not Flint will field a full team for this one. Team Banner not only has a bench, but they have more strength in the paint.

Prediction: Team Banner 65, Flint Troopers 56

If, in fact, we see a Ballerz-Banner final, look out. They split the season series, but key pieces were missing from each game. So what do we make of a potential title game between these two?

Here’s a wild guess, but the Ballerz won’t leave Ryan Matthews wide open and allow him to go off (like the Bad Boyz just did). As Ferrall discussed in the video, Jeff Fazio is a huge key. He can make things miserable for you as a scorer. In all, superior defense and depth should be enough to take it.

Prediction: The Ferrall Ballerz will repeat, 65-61.