#pose ref was the dance scene from the bad guys

[marblescorner]

40-year-old teenager and his adopted daughter/sister having the time of their lives 🕺

[leagueofleaguesff]

NFL SMACKDOWN LEAGUE 🤼‍♂️🤼‍♀️

In keeping with the theme of week 2️⃣ with of course lean on tag teams. As opposed to going solo, you have to have complete trust in your teammate. It's just you and your roster. The perfect meld of strategy and result will hopefully being you gains worthwhile. Ring the bell and....

WEEK 2 SLEEPER RECAPS

1. Jermaine 🤜🤛Juan

Making it to the ring for Jermaine.....

Part of the "Bloodline" (BlkQban Style-Williams) these twin brothers rep "We The Ones". Day one-ish Jermaine has always brought an A game but to mix results. Making it 2 the ring for Juan...

The Lucha Bros. Since before joining AEW, the 2 have been paving themselves as tag team modern legend luchadors. Wild sh#t. They have a saying "Animo!" "Cero Miedo!" Meaning zero fear.

🔔

Juan came off the ropes with a clothesline cuz Micah Parsons is a beast wit it! 21 points early for IDP in the Thursday night affair. Jermaine came back with a flurry of offense with Tyreek going h.a.m. How the hell he got 190 yards if his fellow player got 170 - sheesh!

A hot contest back n forth but Jermaine came with the better move set (Kupp dropkicking 34 points on Juan). Juan tried some reversals with Evans and Devante but Jermaine reversed back with Montgomery Haymarkers (22 points).

Down but not out, Juan tried a desperate missed dropkick from the turnbuckle with Josh Allen (57 points). A near fall, but Jermaine had enough for a surprise roll up pin for the win

1️⃣2️⃣3️⃣✋

Juan had zero fear putting in Taysom due to the week before, but that netted him almost zero points against the Usoooooooos.

Your winner .... Jermaine (The Usos)

With the "Ones" Jermaine now is 1-1 back in the game in wildcard for now while Juan is 2nd to last.

Next matchup

2. Carla 🤜🤛 Johnny

Coming to the ring for Carla....

The IIconics *strikes pose*

These 2 aussies from down under 🇦🇺 were two true modern female tag teams in wwe (a rarity). Speaking of rare, very rare Carla doesn't do well in this Sleeper league. She is prominent throughout the season in the few years of existence for this league. Making it to the ring for Johnny....

Too Cool 😎...get it 2 cool *crickets*

Two guys with hardly any rhythm don in hiphop garb accompanied by Rikishi (Bloodline fam member of Dwayne the Rock Johnson). Lets see if the corny moves were enough to take down the iiconics in this rare intergender match.

🔔

Too cool being the gentleman they are offered the male shovanist stance of allowing them the first hit. Expecting one slap, Too Cool gotnit with a double dose of Higgins and Jamar Chase. Chase punch was sort of botched (9.4 fantasy points) but were definitely enough to stun Johnny. So much so, a swing and a miss by Johnny (Zeek 7.5 points) was so bad, there was a tumble out of the ring. To make matters worst, both iiconics did a suicide dive onto Too Cool outside the ring hitting the men into the fan barricades (Chubb & Mahomes over 60 points for Carla early game slate). Too Cool managed trip both iiconics and slide back in the ring to attempt a count out (Robinson 19 puts for Johnny). IIconics best the count (IDP 27 pts) but by the time they got in both guys put a Sleeper hold on them (Murray over 40 pts). Even with crowd support and hogan-esque rally, the hold was enough to earn a knockout call by the ref (Johnny Bills D 46 pts).

In the end Godert and Diggs was too much to overcome and Too Cool (Johnny won the match).

Carla at 1-1 still in wildcard position (6th) while Johnny jumped to the top. He is the bloodline after all (team name)

Of course the usual winning dance routine ensued for Too Cool

Next matchup

3. Laura 🤜🤛 Slick

Coming to the ring for Laura...

Sasha Banks & Naomi (Boss N Glow)

The commish repping by these two incredible talents. Controversy (or insider knowledge) aside, these two performers brought legitimacy back to the women's tag championship scene...for a short time...maybe the future 🤷‍♀️

Let's see if their pedigree and athleticism can be enough to conquer in the 2nd intergender match of the week. Now coming to the ring for Ricky...

Another group of hall of fame individual talents coming together toward a common goal. This one plus one equals 2 combo is as legitimate as they come. After coming in style, the match begins

🔔

A slow build of crowd cheering and applause The 2 teams lock up to tangle. First the ladies flip both men over for a headlock takedown (Kirk and McLaurin double digit points) but both men countered an arm wrench to the back and a side headlock of thier own (CEH & IDP for Slick). The 2 ladies tried to get out but were ineffective in doing so (Connor & Patterson single digit pts) and so both Eddie and Rey trip them up for a pinfall (Ekler 17 Hunt 10 pts each)1️⃣✋........2️⃣✋......both ladies kick out simultaneously (Rams Def 35 Herbert 43). Both former L.W.O. (Latino World Order) wrestlers did the 3 consecutive suplex maneuvers called the 3 amigos (Bateman Williams Andrews 30 pts each). It was enough to seal the victory for Ricky.

As the fellas celebrated the ladies got an stand up ovation for their efforts. The looked at the titantron on the ramp to see that Laura despite the loss still managed to stay above Slick in the standings in 3rd place.

Rickys tag team reps had to look on in the shocking revelation thier win got them into 4th and finally in a win column but not over the opponent in standings

Next matchup

4. Oliver 🤜🤛 Delmar

Coming to ring from Detroit repping TNA for Delmar...

As a Lions fan , it was appropriate that the Motor City Machine Guns ripped as his tag team. These two former X-Division (cruiserweight) champions Alex Shelly/Chris Saban formed a Impact Hall of Fame tag team. Known for high flying antics z they are a formidable team going against the other Hall Of Fame tag team from now defunct WCW. For team Oliver coming to the ring.....

Harlem Heat 🔥

Great to have representation in form of these two hall of farmers on tv. Before Booker T solo success, he and his brother Stevie Ray tore through the WCW tag team division.

Onto the match

🔔

Booker T tags in first to hit a few lariats (Lamb 13 pts) on both MCM members. His brother Stevie stomps his feet to rile up the crowd. When Booker T goes to tag his brother, both TNA guys hit him with a jump springboard forearm to The back of his head (Burrow 21 pts). This was enough to cut the ring half and keep the onslaught on Booker with repeated tags and stomps in the corner. Literally stomping the hell out of him (Sanders 12 pts Waddle 47 pts). Both guys took turns doing high energy offensive moves on Booker, but they got winded. This was enough of an opening for Booker to hit his spinning high kick (Harris 13pts) and scissor kick (Dionte 12 pts). The crowd roaring for a tag..the slow crawl...finally he tags to crowd eruption! Stevie picks up both men at the same time and slams them down (Fournette 12 pts Boston 21 pts). He flexes to the crowd to show his strength. Both Sabin and Chris slide out the ring to regroup. They recover a bit while they plan. They both slide in. One runs at Stevie as he reaches to grab but slides between his legs behind him. In that instant he turns he gets super kicked in the face (McPherson 13 pts) and stumbles. When he stumbles around he gets super kicked in the head by both men (Cooper 28 pts). They go for the pin but Booker jumps off the turnbuckle onto them to break the tag but they move last minute thus he hits his own brother by accident (swift 19 pts). Both Sabin and Shelly go to opposite sides of the ring and pose on the turnbuckle. They both do a 450 splash on Harlem Heat.

1️⃣✋...2️⃣✋....3️⃣✋

Harlem Heat extinguished by Broncos Defense (30 pts). You winners....motor city machine guns! At the end, they got the shot that doomed Oliver

Delmar had some clunkers but his key players more than made up for those blunders to overcome and win week 2. Delmar avoided last place with his win (8th) but Oliver is now winless in last place.

💥💥pyro💥💥

Time for the Main Event

Ring announcer: This is a triple threat match. Each tag team associated with tables, ladders, and chairs. No DQ rules.

This match is basically a car crash. Why 3 teams? Injuries and subpar performances. We all have been plagued by these factors in at least one way or another.

Representing Injuries/bad performance...

These 2 where Notorious for using chairs. Their double swing "conchairto" is a brain scrambler. HOF as single competitors and multiple tag team champions these injury bug partners look to impose the will on fantasy rosters.

5. Taurean🤜🤛Matt

Out next for Matt...

The Dudley Boyz

These ECW originals were beloved crossovers from that organic brand to WWE. No one kicked out there 3D move. And most notably, almost without fail, someone was going through a table.

Out next for Taurean...

Hardy Boyz

Team extreme always rose to the heights of success and literal height of ladders. Climbing to the top is what its all about. But the crash down can be spectacular in good or bad ways.

🔔

Injury duo Cristian and Edge come out swinging early with chairs in thier hands. Lots of swings and misses tho as the other teams of Taurean and Matt go outside the ring. The Hardy Boys set up a big ladder but are hit immediately by the dudleys (AJ Brown 10pts / Mixon 12.30). They suplex both Hardys on the outside (ertz 12pts / Barkley 14pts). That move keeps them down a bit then they slide back in. Cristian swings his chair again but Bubba ducks and catches him with a full Nelson bomb (IDP 17pts). Meanwhile the "bad performance" Edge spears Devon dudley (Dalvin only 6 pts). Bubba comes to help his brother and shoulder blocks edge to the outside of the ring (Browns Def 22 pts). He helps devon up and pushes him *rumble* yells DEVON....GET THE TABLES!

Devon complies much to the enjoyment of fans. Dudleys set up the table but behind them both hardys have been climbing the 20ft ladder on the outside. Both Hardys leap off the ladder into the ring right on top of both dudleys (CMC and Sutton over 25pts)*crowd yells Holy sh#t holy sh#t*. Getting Cristian up to prepare for a move not knowing he is holding a chair behind him and he takes out Matt hardy *hit to the head* (Schultz .2 points only). Injury keeps Matt hardy out as trainers tend to him for concussion. Jeff hardy going solo whips Cristian to the turnbuckle. Runs across the ring to splash on him (Patriots 31pts). As he celebrated dudleys got back up. When he turns around Jeff gets hit with a 3D into a table! (Hurts 54 points). That hurt.

1️⃣✋...2️⃣✋....3️⃣✋

Winners Matt and the Dudleys!

Matt remains undefeated in 2nd while Taurean drops to 7th but at least at .500 record.

Tag Team Fantasy PPV feed cuts because ...well its the end.

Rankings:

🤼Johnny 2-0

🤼Matt 2-0

🤼‍♂️Laura 1-1

🤼‍♂️Ricky 1-1

🤼‍♂️Jermaine 1-1

🤼‍♂️Carla 1-1

🤼‍♂️Taurean 1-1

🤼‍♂️Delmar 1-1

🤼‍♀️Juan 0-2

🤼‍♀️Oliver 0-2

Week 1 recaps of other leagues below in post👇

[junker-town]

Duke refused to let the haters watch them crash and burn

After a turbulent season, the Blue Devils pulled out a death spiral at just the right time.

BROOKLYN, NY — The opening scene in Garden State takes place inside a crashing plane. Zach Braff sits in the middle seat as a beverage cart topples over onto his lap and people on either side cry in fear. Everyone’s wearing an oxygen mask except for him. He calmly reaches up and adjusts the flow of air from the circular vent above his head.

If you replaced Braff with sophomore Luke Kennard, the other passengers with the rest of Duke basketball’s roster, and the pilot with coach Mike Krzyzewski, it would’ve been an apt metaphor for the program heading into the ACC Tournament. Duke’s season would’ve ben turbulent for any team, let alone one ranked No. 1 in the AP preseason Top 25.

Thanks to injuries and other curveballs (ahem, Grayson Allen, ahem), the squad resembled at least four different versions of itself in terms of starting lineups and styles of play this year. What seemed like it was going to be an easy flight turned into a no, no, we swear that No. 1 ranking wasn’t bullshit — we’re just going to take the most difficult route possible to prove it to you.

"Crazy as it may sound, I think we're still evolving," Krzyzewski said Duke’s second-round win against Clemson last week. "I don't know who we are completely, but I have good kids. I have really good kids, and they play hard, and they share the ball. Maybe we'll develop a little bit more of an identity."

It wasn’t supposed to be this way. The roster looked shiny and sturdy in the summer: They had Allen, a superstar many thought could’ve gone in the first round of the 2016 draft, returning as a captain. They also had senior leadership in the form of Amile Jefferson and Matt Jones, and fresh blood with the debut of much-anticipated freshmen Harry Giles, Frank Jackson, and Jayson Tatum. The reliable Kennard was returning for his sophomore season. Coach K was buckled into the cockpit. You may hate him, but you have to admit he knows how to work the controls.

And while almost everything that could go wrong did over the course of the season (more on that soon), it was a fully functioning team that showed up to the ACC Tournament last week.

“Well, we’re winners, and I think we showed that we didn’t give up,” Allen said after winning the championship.

Anthony Gruppuso-USA TODAY Sports

Allen stood on the court at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn surrounded by reporters, blue and white confetti littering the wood beneath his feet. The piece of the net he’d cut off was tied to his Championship snapback. He spoke quietly, with a slight southern twang, and seemed slightly awkward in the spotlight. He made eye contact reluctantly.

“Four games in four days is not an easy task,” he continued. “Especially playing four great teams. But we fought, and end of the day, it was all emotion and heart leading us through those games.”

Winning the ACC Championship with four games in four days isn’t an easy task. But it was what the team had to do — making ACC history in the process — if they were going to pull out of what looked like an almost certain death spiral.

The engine light came on before the season even started, as injuries postponed Giles’ and Tatum’s debuts. The team seemed to be getting back on track when the freshmen finally began to play, but then Coach K underwent back surgery (probably after attempting a few too many dunks in practice) and had to parachute out for seven games. Jefferson and Allen were also hurt.

Luke Kennard emerged as the team’s superstar, averaging 20 points a game and acting as a constant when almost nothing else was. Even though he’d broken LeBron James’ high-scoring record as a high schooler in Ohio, he didn’t have the kind of fanfare attached to his name that a player like Allen, or even Tatum, did heading into the season. But Kennard ended up playing the role of the doctor who happens to be on the plane and saves everyone’s life, though he’s reluctant to take that credit.

“I think for me it started in the summer and in preseason,” Kennard told me after the semifinal win against UNC. “My coaches, my teammates, being able to play against players like Grayson and some upperclassmen and the freshman class coming in. Competing against them made me better as a player. And the confidence that my coaches and teammates built within me has been great. They want me to continue to do what I’ve done.”

If Kennard steadied the ride, it was Allen who created the bumpiest air.

If Kennard steadied the plane, it was Allen who created the bumpiest air.

Because if you didn’t hate Duke already, Allen was the guy who gave you good reason to. He lent a despised Duke team an even more villainous sheen when he intentionally tripped a player during the game against Elon in December and then raged on the sidelines when the ref gave him a technical. This would’ve been bad on its own, but it was the third time the captain had played so obviously dirty; he tripped two different opponents in two different games last February. Coach K stripped him of his captainship and suspended him indefinitely for his third offense.

That indefinitely suspension didn’t last very long. And by “not very long,” I mean one game. Which makes Coach K look pretty hypocritical, doesn’t it? A coach who says he cares about character and his players puts someone who clearly needs to learn discipline and work through his on-court issues right back in the game.

If last week was any indication, Allen does seem to be keeping it together. He had a great four games off the bench after a disappointing season compared to his 2016 performance. He behaved himself in the tournament. His teammates seemed to genuinely like him.

As he sat in the locker room after the win, the 21-year-old with patchy stubble seemed calm. He wasn’t combative or defensive, and seemed aware of — but not bothered by — the fact that he’d made his bed and was lying in it.

“I mean, I know I’m going to get booed no matter where I am,” he said. “It happened last year, so you really just get numb to it. You don’t let it change you, you don’t try to play into it or play softer because of it. You just go out there and play your game. And when you win it gets quiet.”

Given that Allen is probably the least liked player in college basketball, Coach K the least liked coach, and Duke the least liked program overall, there were a lot of people ready to point to the team’s beleaguered season and say, “See? They were overrated this whole time!”

But Duke wasn’t about to give that to them. They somehow fixed the plane mid free-fall and pulled off a miracle at the ACC tournament.

Anthony Gruppuso-USA TODAY Sports

Duke had no choice. It needed an inspired run in Brooklyn if they were going to even begin to be competitive in the NCAA Tournament, both physically and mentally.

“It’s amazing, after everything we’ve been through this season, the ups and downs, it makes you wonder what’s going to happen when we get to this time,” said sophomore Chase Jeter in the locker room after the team’s fourth win. “Our journey this season has set us up for nothing but success.”

Watching Duke over the past four games was like watching Zach Braff wake up and realize the plane crash was all a dream in the next scene of the movie. After three late-season losses that seemed to signal another tailspin, the players got to the ACC tournament, took off their oxygen masks, and started to fight.

Each game had moments of the rocky season within in; there was no reason the Blue Devils should’ve been tied with Clemson at the half. They were down by 11 with 13 minutes left in the second half of the Louisville game. They trailed UNC at times, and Notre Dame gave them a real run for their money.

But, ultimately, they did it. They hit threes, they blocked shots, they communicated, and they made it through the storm, nabbing a No. 2 seed at the Big Ol’ Basketball Dance in the process. In true Duke-against-the-world fashion, they didn’t give the haters the satisfaction of watching them flame out.

So: Duke back? Allen laughed when I posed the question.

“I think we’re getting there,” he said. “We’re forming into the team that we need to be, and it’s at the perfect time. We just showed that we know how to win basketball games, really. It’s more than hitting shots, getting a stop. It’s playing together.”

Obviously, anything can happen in the NCAA Tournament. This is, as the saying goes, March. Allen could lose his cool again, players could get injured. There’s always a chance these guys crash and burn because they can’t manage to land the plane. But if the past week showed us anything, it’s that there’s reason to believe they just might.