CLAWSON, MICHIGAN – Every time Coach Mike hosts cornhole, it’s pure fire. From me waking up on Barker’s couch hungover and needing to walk back to Coach’s house to get my car Friday morning, to JV posing and playing topless (more on that later), things are always entertaining.
Week 11 was no different. Eight players arrived in Clawson, like kids on Christmas morning, eager to unwrap the glorious presents at Coach Mike’s house.
This week’s present was unbelievable talent on display – 5 of the 8 players registered a KPM above 10, including 4 players above 12. Traditional weekly recaps would include a summary from the Game of the Night, but this week’s recap will focus on the Week of the Year since the collective performance was the best we’ve seen in 2018.
Joe – His KPM may have only been 5.3, but in Game 5 he partnered with Adam to pull off a big upset of Barker and Coach Mike, and it wasn’t close – 21-9. Joe went head-to-head with Coach, and outscored him 24-18, including the kill shot in the 11th round. Adam had just finished upping the lead to 18-9 and Joe stepped in to finish things off. He drained a cornhole and knocked two more bags on the board on his way to outscoring Coach Mike 5-0, giving his team the 21-9 victory. In Game 7 Joey Buckets and Jack faced off against Preseason Kick-Off Champions, JV and Barker. The Champs were heavy favorites, but Joe held his own against JV, losing 24-18 in gross points for the match, helping keep his team in the game. Ultimately they lost 21-14, which was much closer than predicted. Joe finished the night 1-3, with a 5.3 KPM, 35% shooting and 1.8 gross points per round.
Jack – Making his 2018 debut after returning from a one-year Polish hiatus, Jack came out of the gates firing for a 10 KPM. He faced some tremendously tough head-to-head match-ups on this night, and represented himself well. Highlights include:
- Game 1 – outscored Coach Mike, 16-11
- Game 2 – outscored by Justin, 38-34, an impressive performance considering Justin finished the night at 12.2 KPM
- Game 7 – outscored by Barker, 35-32, and Barker finished the night at 13.4 KPM on 76% shooting
- Recorded 4 footsnags in his first night back in the league
For the night, Jack fell short of his 10 KPM goal, finishing at 8.3 KPM. He was very accurate after more than one year away from the game, hitting on 52% of his shots. Jack’s biggest downfall was not making cornholes at a high enough rate (only 0.37 cornholes per round). He also battled moments of inconsistency, which is understandable given the long layoff. The highlights above prove Jack is capable of playing with anyone in the league when he gets out of his head and lets muscle memory take over.
Jack finished the night 2-5 with an 8.3 KPM, 52% shooting and 2.8 gross points per round. He ended the night with two tough losses, which prevented him from having a winning record:
- 21-18 to JV and Barker when partnering with Justin (Jack and Justin rallied from a 16-7 deficit to claim a late 18-17 lead before losing the match)
- 21-18 to JV and Justin when partnering with Adam (Jack and Adam held an 18-17 lead, but once again couldn’t close the match, losing 21-18)
Coach Mike – It took Coach a while to get the back-handed taint tickler going. Through his first four games, Coach averaged only 16.5 gross points per game, translating to an unusually low 1.9 gross points per round. Not surprisingly he went 0-4 in those games, the closest of which was 21-10. However, in his fifth game of the night (Game 11), he partnered with KP to duel Barker and Adam. Coach tickled taints all game, averaging 3.9 gross points per round while battling Barker, and kept his team in the game by damn-near drawing even with Barker, losing only 37-31 in head-to-head gross points. Barker slammed a 10-point round on Coach, winning that round 10-1. Excluding that round, Coach outscored Barker 30-27 during the rest of the match. He and KP earned an impressive 21-16 victory over Barker and Adam, giving Coach his first win of the night.
Two games later (Game 13), Coach hooked up with KP in a showdown with Barker and JV. Coach and KP pounced on the Champs early, 10-2 after three rounds, thanks to Coach contributing 6 of those points by outscoring JV 13-7 during that period. The Champs responded with a crushing 16-1 run to take an 18-11 lead late in the match. On the ropes and needing a spark, Coach and KP slowly chipped away at their deficit, closing it to 20-16. In the end, they didn’t have enough to come all the way back, losing 21-16. However, Coach matched JV punch for punch, losing only 39-37 in head-to-head gross points. He averaged 3.6 gross points per round in this game until the final three rounds, which is when he went cold and scored only 1 gross point during that stretch. That cold streak hurt his team’s attempt to walk away with a win, but Coach played well enough to feel good about how he ended the night.
After an 0-4 start, Coach finished the night 1-5 with a 7.5 KPM, 39% shooting (unusually low for him) and 2.4 gross points per round.
JV – After week 5, JV decided to change his toss from his traditional bowling form to a stationary lower body. He hoped this would improve consistency because since winning the Preseason Kick-Off he had struggled mightily through week 5. In week 11, JV recorded a 10.8 KPM, his third KPM above 10 in four appearances since changing his toss. Clearly, he’s started to figure things out, which is just in time as the Postseason Tournament approaches.
He lost his first match of the night, then reeled off four straight victories in dominating fashion, with three of the four wins by double digits. JV finished the night 7-2, easily the best record of the evening, and was in the Labatt Light zone. He scored 3.5 
gross points per round, shot 58%, dropped 0.61 cornholes per round, and even posed topless…SEVERAL times…the best of which was when he was so cocky going head-to-head against Joe, he was convinced he could play with his shirt over his face and still kick everyone’s ass (which may have been true).
JV’s game is on an upward trend, and yet he still finds himself at #10 in the Power Rankings with a 9.8 cumulative KPM. He’s a force to be reckoned with during the last month of the season.
Justin – Wow. Justin was a STUD this week. He posted a 12-point round and two additional 10-point rounds this week, and earned the week 11 Mushroom Stamp Moment (“MSM”). In Game 8 he partnered with KP to contest JV and Adam. With his team down 17-8, Justin went H.A.M. averaging 6.3 gross points per round over the last 3 frames to bring his team all the way back to win 21-18. His MSM occurred in the final frame when he crushed Adam 8-3 to close the game 21-18. Justin outscored Adam 19-10 during those final three frames.
Justin’s 12-point round was against JV (won the round 12-6), as were both of his 10-point rounds (won the rounds 10-6 and 10-3, respectively). Poor JV, victim to Justin’s dominating hot streak. His dominance, however, extended beyond these three big rounds and the MSM. He shot 60%, averaged 0.77 cornholes per round and 3.9 gross points per round on his way to a 12.2 KPM. He was on fire all night, finished with a 4-3 record, and outscored all of his head-to-head opponents except KP (narrowly lost 42-36), including:
- 32-21 over Adam
- 66-59 over JV
- 106-85 over Jack
Justin sits at #7 in the Power Rankings with a 10.3 cumulative KPM. He’s having an excellent rookie campaign and one of the top contenders for 2018 Rookie of the Year.
Adam – The Pizza Tosser can make cornholes. Adam’s A-Game is as good as anyone in the league, and tonight he proved it. He averaged an incredible 0.85 cornholes per round, which powered him to a 12.4 KPM. Adam was excellent all night, but what is most impressive is that he won his cumulative head-to-head battles with the Preseason Kick-Off Champs, JV and Barker. He outscored JV 54-49 for the night, and got the best of Barker, 54-46.
Adam finished the night 3-4 overall, but he clinched the victory in two of his three wins. Additionally, Adam posted a 10-point round, a crushing 10-0 advantage over Coach Mike in the fourth round of Game 9, which helped his team to a 21-7 win.
When talking about Adam, we can’t forget to mention footsnags. He has been the league leader all season, and tonight he recorded 8 footsnags, including FIVE in one game (Game 5). This guy is unbelievable, and after narrowly losing out on the 2017 footsnag title (JV edged, 35-34) he has been on a mission to claim the 2018 crown. Thus far, he’s posted 43 for the year with the next closest player at 22 (Erik). It’s safe to say that Adam is the footsnag champ this year, and one of the top all-around players in the league. He sits at #5 in the Power Rankings with a 10.9 cumulative KPM.
Barker – This guy is great. He always plays his best against the best, and tonight was no different. When 5 of the 8 players were above 10 KPM, of course Barker was one of them, coming in at 13.4 (third-highest KPM recorded this season). Barker is always accurate, but at times he doesn’t make cornholes at the rate of some other top players in the league. Tonight? He had it all working. He sank 0.70 cornholes per round, shot an incredible 76% and scored 4.4 gross points per round.
Barker was a beast, as evidenced by his stats, and also a killer. He dropped a 10-point round on Coach Mike (poor Coach, he was also the recipient of Adam’s 10-point round) in round 6 of Game 11, winning that round 10-0. Interestingly, Barker went 3-2 and all three wins occurred when partnering with JV – he was 0-2 without JV. So, can Barker win without JV as his partner? I wouldn’t test that theory if I were any of you.
Thanks to his 13.4 KPM, Barker has climbed from #8 to #6 in the Power Rankings with a 10.8 cumulative KPM. Think about this for a moment – our Preseason Kick-Off Champions, Barker and JV, are currently ranked #6 and #10, respectively, in the Power Rankings. If that isn’t an indicator of how deeply talented LEG is, I don’t know what is.
KP – Thanks to KP, we have a new KPM record. Previously Galz held that honor when he posted 14.7 KPM in week 6. This week KP recorded 15.0, which is pretty incredible considering he did it without a 10 or 12-point round.
He was remarkably consistent at 67% accuracy. Normally KP doesn’t knock down cornholes at a high clip, but this week he was an animal. He averaged 1.06 cornholes per round this week (in other words, 1 in every 4 tosses went in the hole), and when combined with his accuracy he scored 4.8 gross points per round.
His great numbers also helped him to a 5-2 record. Here is the interesting thing about KP’s performance – yes, he was great when you crunch the individual statistics. But, his head-to-head match-ups were strangely close all night:
- Outscored Adam, 66-46
- Outscored by Barker, 61-58
- Outscored Justin, 42-36
- Outscored JV, 87-83
Other than the head-to-head with Adam, all others were extremely close, which is a fantastic indicator of how good the other guys were on this night. KP’s 15.0 KPM looks great on paper, and certainly looks much higher than the other guys (Barker – 13.4, Adam – 12.4, Justin – 12.2, and JV – 10.8), but all these phenomenal players elevate their game when playing head-to-head.
Week 11 was the Week of the Year, and the 8 players who participated witnessed something special.