Season Obituaries - 2nd Place — Protector Of The League

(Robby D passed out on the bus in Ecuador during the Sophomore Experience, circa 2008)

Kens 20 Min Backroad Brisket (9-4):

Overview:

Coming in second place with a regular season record of 9-4 and 1,607 points scored is Kens 20 Min Backroad Brisket, owned by Robert of the House Demagistris. It was another great year in the league for Rob D, his second straight finals appearance. Unfortunately, he was unable to capture the GW Bush League title and ended in second place.

What Went Right:

Robby D’s WR and TE groups carried him throughout the season. His WRs were downright dangerous, as Julio Jones, Jordy Nelson and Brandin Cooks all finished within the top 10 of WR scoring. The most underrated part of that is that Jordy Nelson finished as the #2 scoring WR. In the year of our Lord, Two Thousand and Sixteen, a white skinned wide receiver finished in the top 2 of WR scoring…..and led the NFL in touchdown catches. What a year to be alive.

Back to his WR group as a whole - if you think that having three top 10 WRs is hard to believe, that’s because it is. No other team in our league has three in the top 10 and only one other person has 2 in the top 10 (Keetz). One other person, coughCOMMISHcough, has three top 15 WRs, but no one else besides Robby D and myself had 3 in the top 15.

Bob’s TE, Jordan Reed, finished 9th in TE scoring. He did all that despite missing 4 games and being used as a decoy in two others. Even though his 4th round pick wasn’t usable for 6 weeks, Reed was still worth the high draft pick. He had three games with 20+ points and including those, had 8 games with 9 or more points. The tight end position was a disaster this year, so having a good one was necessary for fantasy success.

What Went Wrong:

It’s hard to say much went wrong for a team that finished 9-4 and finished second, but therein lies the problem. Losing in the finals has to suck. To be honest, I’d rather not make the finals game than make it and lose. While Robby D got a solid chunk of change ($250), getting that close and not making it would be too much for the Commish’s tiny heart to handle. I’ve lost championships in other leagues and it still bothers me to this day. This league is even more important. Getting that close to the GW Bush trophy only to fall short would be brutal. I’ll never know because I’ll never make it past the semi-finals, but I can’t imagine it feels very good.

So how did this happen? Long story short, Robby D went out the same way Keetz went out. Short story long – he got Ken Boned.

Kens 20 Min Backroad Brisket came to play championship week and put up 127.5 points. That was higher than his season average of 123 and was the 5th highest total he put up all year (out of 16). Unfortunately, he got ambushed by FLACCOPiAN TUBES, the team of destiny. Lamone put up a 160-burger and snatched the trophy right out of Robby D’s hands. As we say when playing Mario Kart – BURGER!!

Best Owner Move:

I was going to go with Jordan Howard, but that would be so lazy. I already did two sections on him in my own writeup (FML) and we all know the deal. Robby D picked him up and by doing so, stabilized his RB corps and helped him make it to the title game. Instead, I’ll take two other pickups that Robby D made and look at those.

Robby D added Jacquizz Rodgers off waivers on Saturday October 8th. Doug Martin and Charles Sims had gone down and Rodgers was the new starting RB for the Tampa Bay Bucs. Robby D’s RB corps needed the help, so he took a gamble and started him. The gamble worked, Rodgers scored 24.4 points on 30 carries and 100 yards rushing (THIRTY CARRIES!). Rodgers was huge for Rob D the two games after that as well, scoring 25 and 18 points before going down with an injury himself. It was a small window, but Robby D took advantage of every point. The flame that burns twice as bright burns half as long.

The second one was Tim Hightower, a guy Robby D picked up for 0 Puerto Rican dollars on Wednesday, November 2nd. He was coming off a 100 yard performance in week 8, but Mark Ingram wasn’t hurt or anything. It seemed like a really random output and no one was sure if he’d back it up. Hightower did back it up and scored 21 points the following week. Over the next 5 weeks, Hightower scored 21, 9, 19, 20 and 2 points. Some very usable weeks in there and it helped Robby D piece together his RB group. Overall a good pickup.

Worst Owner Move:

This one is probably the worst move of all the “Worst Owner Moves”. Even worse than the Jordan Howard one. The worst of the worst.

The worst move Robby D made all year was dropping Jay Ajayi on Friday, October 14th. As we all know, Ajayi went on to rush for 200 yards just two days later. A week after that, he rushed for 200 yards again. Gay Ajayi would go on to finish as the 10th highest scoring RB in fantasy, with 274 points. In the 11 games after Rob D dropped him, Ajayi scored 10+ points in all but one. He had 5 games with 15+ points and HAD FOUR GAMES WITH MORE THAN FORTY POINTS. Let’s let that sink in…………. Jay Ajayi had 4 games with 40 or more points…….

The final coup de grace for Robby D was the championship game. When Robby D dropped Ajayi, guess who picked him up? Lamone. Guess who Robby D lost to in the finals…Lamone. Guess how many points Ajayi scored in that matchup……39.8…...That is terrible. That is heart.....wait for it.....breaking.

Historical/Pop Culture/Literary Comparison:

Like Keetz, Robby D’s historical comparison will also be a whole team. Not just one individual on that team, but the whole team. Also, it won’t be just the one year that team had. This one will be two separate years by the same team. Those teams are 2010 and 2011 Butler University Men’s basketball teams.

Butler University is a small private school located in Indiana. It was founded in 1855 and currently has six different colleges within the University – business, liberal arts, arts, pharmacy, etc. The school is not widely known for their sports, but all sports programs they have compete at the Division one level. As I mentioned above, the program we’re focusing on is the basketball program.

The school made its first NCAA tournament appearance in 1962 and made it past the Sweet Sixteen round. Unfortunately for them, they wouldn’t make the tournament again until 1997. From 1997 to 2010, they made the tournament 8 times. That’s pretty good, but they only won 6 games in that span and never made it past the Sweet Sixteen. That all changed in 2010, when they made a Cinderella run to the National Championship, before falling to Duke. That 2010 team was highlighted by their young head coach, Brad Stevens and some unknown stars, namely Gordon Hayward and Shelvin Mack.

The 2010 team came into the tournament as a #5 seed, and proceeded to beat UTEP, Murray State, Syracuse (FML), Kansas State and Michigan State on its way to the finals game. They then played in one of the best finals games in recent memory, but unfortunately lost to Duke 59-61. The game was back and forth the entire time and the score was 33-32 Duke at half. The second half was just as close, with Duke edging out a 1 point second half margin of 28-27. Check my math, but that gets us to our final score of 59 Butler, 61 Duke. It was a crushing loss for the small school and ended their 25 game win streak. Gordan Hayward would declare for the draft, hurting their chances for the next year.

In 2011, they entered the tournament as the 8 seed. They went on the exact same Cinderella run in 2011, defeating Old Dominion, Pitt, Wisconsin, Florida and VCU to make it to their second consecutive NCAA finals appearance. In doing so, they became the first team in history to make it to consecutive finals, without being a #1 or #2 seed in either year. Cinderella indeed.

This finals game did not go as well, as they scored just 41 points and lost by 12. The worst part? They were actually winning by 3 at halftime. They just totally shit the bed in the second half, scoring a pathetic 19 points in 20 minutes. Two years in a row, they had the chance. Two years in a row, they were beaten by a superior opponent.

So how is this like Robby D? Let’s start with the low hanging fruit. One, Butler’s mascot is the Bulldogs and Robby D is a Bryant University Bulldog alum. Made too much sense not to mention it. Two, Butler University has the same initials as Bryant University – BU, duh. Three, the student populations are pretty similar. Bryant U has somewhere near 4,000 students while Butler has just north of 4,000 students.

Going on to actual similarities and not just coincidental ones….. How about the fact that both teams lost the finals in two consecutive years? The last team to do that was Michigan in 1992 and 1993. Besides Michigan losers, only 2 other programs have done that in NCAA men’s history. That has never happened in our league.

As for the players, there were small similarities as well. In 2010, the Butler team was carried by Gordon Hayward. That’s like Robby D’s 2015 team, who was pretty much carried solely by Devonta Freeman. Looking back at his team now, I can’t believe he made the finals. Only takes one player sometimes, just ask Lamone about David Johnson.

In 2011, Butler was a more balanced team. They ran through Shelvin Mack, Matt Howard and Andrew Smith. This was like Rob D’s WR trio this year, which consisted of Julio, Jordy and Brandin Cooks.

Last but not least, the leaders of these teams. Brad Stevens was the coach at Butler during those two years and at the time, was around 33-34 years old. He was relatively unknown, but quickly became a known commodity. That’s like Robby D, who was a somewhat unknown owner when he re-entered the league in 2014. He had taken a year off and no one really knew what to expect when he came back. He had a tough first year, but quickly established himself as one of the best managers in the league. Another quick similarity in here – doesn’t hurt that Brad Stevens now coaches the Celtics, Robby D’s hometown NBA team.

Commissioner’s Prediction:

Goes 5-8 and misses the playoffs. Again, I like most of Robby D’s team, but ignoring the RB position is a questionable decision. I could be wrong, maybe having 3 good WRs is enough. Having said that, most other teams also have 3 good WRs.

Damn, wrong on that one. Shooting 5 for 9 and not good at this point. Honestly, I just didn’t think Robby D had a great team coming out of the draft. I thought he had a solid team, but apparently I didn’t think he’d even make the playoffs. The Commish was wrong, Bob willed his way to the championship game. Despite not drafting any good RBs, Robby D managered his way to a finals appearance. Very impressive.

Final Notes:

Another year, another second place for Robby D. While 2nd place in a competitive league is really good, it has to hurt getting that close and missing two years in a row. I’m sure he’s happy winning $300 and not paying for fantasy each of the last two years, but still, has to hurt. The money doesn’t matter to me, I’d donate all my winnings to charity if I could win this league. All that matters is who won the league, if you aint first you’re last.