Game Picks: Week 4

Hegeman (2-1) vs. Fotino (1-2)
Last week Team Hegeman received a huge contribution from Baller of the Week Award winner Max Cormier who scored 27 points. This week they will be without their best player, and #1 overall draft pick Anthony Cotoni. Saaid Arshad and Cormier will need to step it up again against the struggling Team Fotino, but I can't see them overcoming the loss of Cotoni two weeks in a row when Team Fotino really needs this game for both the standings and their confidence.
Fotino 53 Hegeman 41

Wright (0-3) vs. Lavallee (1-2)
In a matchup of two underachieving teams, this game should come down to who wants it more. Team Wright who hung with #1 ranked Calderan throughout the game last week, although a valiant comeback effort in the closing minutes came up short, should be hungry for their first game of the season against a Lavallee team that will be without one of their most energetic players in George Lavallee. Nonetheless it should be a close game, but Wright gets it done this week..... finally.
Wright 45 Lavallee 42

Burke (2-1) vs. Dion (0-3)
The swinging door of Team Dion means Noah Burkholz is gone, replacing him will be Liam Barberich, a lethal shooter. Barberich should pay immediate dividends in the rebounding column, against the best rebounding team in the league. Although the move is an upgrade, Team Burke is playing really well together right now, while Team Dion was blown out of the water by #13 Team Dawson... not a good sign for them.
Burke 46 Dion 37

Stevens (1-2) vs. Bailey (1-2)
For the purpose of being the unbiased blogger that I am, I will go against what I think is going to happen in this game and pick Team Bailey to win. That doesn't mean I think we'll lose, but on paper Team Bailey has played better to this point despite a record identical to Team Stevens, and until we can show that we can play well consistently, then we're going to have trouble winning games. And it's win-win for me on this. If we lose at least I made the pick correctly, if we win then we win even more.
Bailey 51 Stevens 47

Smith (2-1) vs. Jarboe (2-1)
(Okay, I thought this one over for a while and decided to change it). These two teams have both played above my original expectations up to this point, meaning this is quite an intriguing matchup. Zach Dhionis should dominate inside against a very finesse team, their only big man being Ben Hack, who will need to step it up to be able to just slow Dhionis down. On the other side, Aaron Honkonen and Doug Smith lead one of the best guard duos in the league, and one of them will have a mismatch in their favor. But in the end Dhionis and Lamy should be able to prevent Honkonen from having success driving to the basket, which should really slow Team Smith's offense down and lead Team Jarboe to victory.
Jarboe 43 Smith 39

Debreceni (3-0) vs. Calderan (3-0)
In the biggest game of the season thus far, it's really a coin flip on who will win. Debreceni has overachieved to the standards that I expected from them, while Calderan is at the top of the pack where everyone expected them to be, as usual. For college football fans out there, in my opinion this is the big-bad-BCS team Alabama/Texas (Calderan) vs. the super-duper underdog TCU/Boise State (Debreceni), and although I might be rooting for Debreceni as the underdogs (not to say they aren't worthy of a number 1 ranking, which they have been given), I think Calderan pulls it out in an OT thriller.
Calderan 62 Debreceni 60 (OT)

MacLeod (2-1) vs. Dawson (1-2)
It's pretty late... almost forgot about this one. I'm just gonna go with MacLeod I guess.
MacLeod 43 Dawson 38