By: Tommy Rossettini / April 4th, 2021
The third season of Penthouse League basketball is winding down, with the playoffs set to begin this week.
The perennial favorite, the #1 seeded Anaheim Bullsharks look to make another playoff run, against the #4 seeded Fort Lauderdale Fortune. Honestly, the only question with this 3-game series is whether it’ll all be over in less than 7 minutes or not. Anaheim vs Boston would’ve been a more intriguing series. Unfortunately, Mikey K opted out of PHL III. Anaheim’s Kyle Cooper seems to have an easy path to winning back-to-back Cups.
#2 Seattle might be an interesting finals opponent for Anaheim, as he came closer than any team to beating the Sharks. Matt “Snakes” Kaskel is extremely physical in the paint and unofficially has the longest wingspan in the PHL, which has led to his red-hot finish to the regular season. Seattle’s commanding win over the Howell Hammers, to close out the season, would make me nervous if I was a Hammers fan, before this semifinal series.
#3 Howell’s Eric Areman “Hammer” has an uphill battle in his quest for his second Infinity Cup Championship. He’ll need to first take down the Seattle Snakes in the semifinals, and likely (certainly) the Anaheim Bullsharks in the final. Eric has had recent trouble dealing with Seattle’s Matt Kaskel in the paint. If Eric wants to win this series, he’ll have to be on from long range in every game. I’m not into analytics, but I’d say his chances in this series are good if he can hit at least two 3-pointers in each game. Good luck to both “Hammer” and “Snakes” in this next edition of the Founders’ Cup.
#4 Fort Lauderdale made news in them hiring the first head coach in PHL history, Youssuf Elbakry. The fact that the coach left the game early during Brian’s beat down against Howell, says a lot about Fort Lauderdale’s chances this postseason. It’s gonna be rough, but best of luck to Brian and Coach Elbakry.
My Prediction: Anaheim beats Seattle in the ICF 3 games to 1. Mark that down!
Enjoy the games!
-Tommy
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