Fantastic Foto Finish!

Bill Krieger... May 6, 1999

Cap City, Elk Grove advance

The NIBL 1999 regular season was short, but sweet. Hotly contested matchups in both conferences went down to the final NBA games of the season before playoff matchups were determined. Speaking of... here's the matchups:

Well, what happened?

• Baghdad 287, Manila 255 - This was probably the most-watched game of the week because of the heated rivalry that has existed between the DogEaters and the CrossDressers for so many years. Insults and profanity aside, it came down to Patrick Ewing and Joe Dumars taking a night off for Manila and Ron Mercer and Tim Duncan showing up big for Baghdad. But Baghdad didn't have their playoff fate in their own hands... that was up to Cap City.
• Capital City 291, Matunuck 274 - Johnny Rai steps up and beats the Breakers to snatch second place and a playoff spot from Baghdad. "I'm not losing to somebody from flippin' Maine for god's sake," said the engmatic owner of the Tool. Cap City has a date with Aruba in the playoffs.
• Vegas 258, Sioux City 233 - Vegas did their part and won, but couldn't overcome the tiebreaker.
• Elk Grove 273, Diablo 263 - C-Web sits and Elk Grove wins... again! Kendall Gill poured in 64 nibls as the Cougar sixth man to bring Elk Grove home to the playoffs.
• Joliet 192, Bolingbrook 176 - Joliet beat the hapless (and winless) Hops, but the Byrd's horse left the barn last week in their loss to the playoff-bound Cougars of Elk Grove.
• Aruba 302, West Chicago 295 - Aruba claims the regular season NIBL crown and must have a rabbit's foot collection or something. Needing a last-game 47 nibls fom Stephon Marbury, the punk from Jersey puts up a 54 spot and Thong win.

Let me break down the Eastern Conference tiebreaker for you. Three teams were tied with 8-5 records: Baghdad, Cap City and Vegas. The first tiebreaker is head-to-head competition. Each team is 1-1 in the this bermuda triangle, so on to the second tiebreaker, head-to-head points. Go:

Look at the total nibl points in head-to-head competition: Baghdad 570, Cap City 581, Vegas 555. Cap City wins on the second tiebreaker with 581 nibl points. Yow!

One last regular season note: I take my cap off to the the NIBL's battling losers...

• Diablo Danny (4-9) beating Don Fenton in week 12 and almost knocking Elk Grove out of the playoffs,
• Steve and the Salsa (1-12) always putting up a battle despite somehow picking 1 (or maybe 2) healthy starting NBA players in a 10 man draft.

And then there was Bolingbrook, who capped off a season of non-lineups with the perfect ending. Rob didn't turn in a lineup (again) and lost to Joliet 192-176. That's right, he lost because of the 25 point lineup penalty. Bolingbrook would have won his last game and avoided becoming the only winless NIBL team by just saying the magic words... "same lineup, first two games for each."

"Man, you are one pathetic loser... no offense"

- J Carrey in Dumb and Dumber

Playoffs start Saturday. I will post playoff info (like a review of the playoff rules and a list of remaining players for the playoff draft) tonght! YOW!

yow, bill