BEVERLY HILLS, MICHIGAN – It’s a celebration, bitches! This week was centered around Coach Mike’s birthday bash – with Coach Mike on the beats and 12 guys in attendance, the party atmosphere was off the charts, and the cornhole performances were largely subpar because of it.

Two individuals who were anything but subpar were the birthday boy and Jack.

Let’s begin with the guest of honor – Coach threw a 13.0 KPM this week, a drastic jump from his 11.8 season average entering the night. He’s unlikely to be a guy who throws a KPM in the high teens due to his style of play – dirty, muck up the board approach so that his opponent has to execute more difficult shots. Because of that, Coach’s cornhole rate is naturally lower than the players who prefer to slide in the hole on a clean board. So, the most effective version of Coach will be on display when his KPM starts to creep into the mid-teens because that means he’s tossing more accurately and with that, littering the board with obstacles for his opponent to navigate.

This week’s version of Coach Mike was damn near perfection, for the style he wants to play. His 13.0 KPM is nice, but it’s about how he posted that number – 73% accuracy, 4.3 points per round and 0.68 cornholes per round. He’s capable of increasing the cornholes per round without sacrificing his style of play, and when he does, Coach becomes a tough player to beat.

Coach earned a 2 – 2 record this week, which included a +3.3 scoring differential across his four games. He got the best of KP head-to-head in Game 5, outscoring him 33 – 26 to help his team to a 21 – 13 victory.

In Game 3, he neutralized Nick in the head-to-head battle as he was narrowly outscored, 32 – 31. Playing Nick to a draw is impressive for anyone, but when Coach Mike pulls that off, it’s almost certainly a recipe for victory – in this game, it was recipe for a 21 – 6 blowout for Coach’s team.

In Game 6, Coach took a bite out of another top five player in the league, this time going head-to-head with Turley and holding his own. Turley barely held a scoring edge in this game, winning it 52 – 47. Coach and Steve-O almost pulled a pretty big upset against Turley and Bob, losing the match 21 – 18. But without Coach holding serve against Turley, this game is a blowout.

If the above synopsis of Coach’s night still doesn’t impress you, then think about this – forget the fact that he handcuffed three of the top five players in the league from a head-to-head standpoint; he also held them below their season average in points per round.

• Game 3 against Nick – coming into this week Nick averaged 5.7 points per round, and was held to 5.3 points per round in this game. In Nick’s final round of the game, he threw a 10-point round (Coach threw an 8). Nick had averaged just 4.4 points per round prior to that 10-point outburst.
• Game 5 against KP – coming into this week KP averaged 5.9 points per round, and Coach locked him up, allowing him to score a meager 3.25 point per round in this game.
• Game 6 against Turley – coming into this week Turley averaged 5.2 points per round, and thanks to Coach’s stingy defense, was held to 4.7 points per round in this game.

This is filthy Coach Mike, a tough SOB on the boards. The key is for him to bring this level every week, and especially in tournaments.

Let’s flip the script to Jack, who had arguably the best night of his career with a 15.1 KPM. He appears in the Power Rankings for the first time this season (this was the first week he played), and enters with a loud bang at #6. He averaged 4.8 points per round due to 65% shooting and 1.08 cornholes per round. His +8.5 point differential on the night was absurd, and easily the highest of any player this week.

Jack capped his night with a masterpiece, almost doubling Bushie in their head-to-head match-up, 32 – 17 and averaged 5.3 points per round while leading Steve-O to a 21 – 7 cakewalk over Bushie and JV.

Far too often the focus and talking points are centered around the higher ranked players in the league. However, when players like Coach and Jack up their level of play, the entire league becomes stronger and game results become even more unpredictable. Seeing these guys grow is part of what makes this league so much fun, and it makes us all better players.

GAME OF THE NIGHT

This week’s Game of the Night featured Steve-O and Bushie against Bob and Paul. Bushie began the game scorching hot with rounds of 7, 6, 7, helping his team to an early 10 – 5 lead. Paul, to his credit, withstood Bushie’s flurry, not flinching when the early haymakers were coming at him hard and heavy.

In the fourth inning, Paul got the best of Bushie, 8 – 5, to cut his team’s deficit to 10 – 8. Bob added three more points in the sixth inning, with Paul chipping in another and suddenly the game was tied, 12 – 12.

Bushie found his zone again in the sixth inning, draining two cornholes and piling two more bags near the hole to win the round 8 – 4, increasing his team’s lead to 16 – 12. But in the seventh inning Bob and Paul manufactured a quick 6-point burst to take an 18 – 16 lead, powered by four points from Bob after he hit a ridiculous airmail drag for six points (he won the round 6 – 2), and Paul scratching out two points in a rare low-scoring inning (3 – 1 in favor of Paul over Bushie).

In the strangest rollercoaster you’ll see, Bushie recovered from his 1-point round in the seventh inning with an 8-point round in the eighth inning. If you’re counting at home, that’s an 8, 1, 8 stretch from the sixth through eighth inning for Bushie, causing the game to seesaw from 12 – 12 to 16 – 12, then 16 – 12 to 16 – 18, and finally from 16 – 18 to 19 – 18. Meanwhile, Steve-O was washing rounds at the other end with Bob, including the bottom half of the eighth inning, leaving the score at 19 – 18.

With the majority of the game’s scoring dependent upon Bushie’s ups and downs, the top of the ninth inning was primed to be the deciding moment of the game. Bushie started the round with a cornhole, followed by an errant bag by Paul. Bushie’s second bag landed on the board, followed by another errant bag by Paul.

With the score 4 – 0 after two bags, Paul was in a serious hole with the game on the line. Bushie let him off the hook by missing his third bag, unfortunately Paul’s third bag was out of play on the board. Bushie’s fourth bag also missed the board, requiring Paul to make a cornhole to tie the round and extend the game. His final toss rolled up the middle of the board and stopped just shy of the hole – 4 – 2, Bushie wins the round and clinches the game, 21 – 18. It was a rather anticlimactic finish to an otherwise thrilling game, but a win is a win!

Bushie finished the game with 50 points and 12 cornholes, averaging 5.6 points per round. Without his stinker rounds of one point and four points, Bushie averaged 6.8 points per round!

Paul tried to hang with Bushie, scoring 42 points and 7 cornholes, averaging 4.7 points per round, but didn’t have enough firepower in the end.

At the other end of the boards, Bob scored 33 points and 7 cornholes, averaging 4.1 points per round, while Steve-O scored 28 points and 4 cornholes, averaging 3.5 points per round.

MUSHROOM STAMP MOMENT (“MSM”)

Game 8 incorporated four of the top five players in the league with Nick and KP partnering to battle Brent and Turley. This game started as a knife fight, with points hard to come by. But Nick blew the game open with back-to-back 10-point rounds in the third and fourth innings, netting him 10 total points and driving his team’s lead from 7 – 4 to 19 – 4. Nick and KP closed the game shortly thereafter, coasting to a 21 – 11 victory.

Nick’s back-to-back 10-point rounds were the turning point in this match, and are enough to earn this week’s mushroom stamp moment.

NEWS AND NOTES

Given the large group, the “News and Notes” section will be rapid fire and recap this week’s statistics for each player.

• Dibble limped to a 14.3 KPM, but the sample size was small enough (two games) that it didn’t cause him to lose his grip on the #1 spot in the Power Rankings. He averaged 4.5 points per round and 1.0 cornholes per round on 63% shooting.
• KP posted a 17.0 KPM and 4 – 2 record while averaging 5.4 points per round, 1.26 cornholes per round and 71% accuracy. He remains #2 in the Power Rankings.
• Nick recorded a 17.1 KPM and 1 – 3 record while averaging 5.4 points per round, 1.21 cornholes per round and 75% accuracy. He holds steady at #3 in the Power Rankings.
• Brent was the leader in the clubhouse with an 18.8 KPM and 1 – 1 record while averaging 5.8 points per round, 1.50 cornholes per round and 71% accuracy. He also holds his spot in the Power Rankings at #4.
• Turley posted a 14.8 KPM and 3 – 2 record while averaging 4.8 points per round, 0.94 cornholes per round and 72% accuracy. He came into the week at #5 in the Power Rankings and remains there after this week.
• JV had a pretty good week with a 14.9 KPM, despite an 0 – 2 record. He averaged 4.8 points per round and 1.0 cornholes per round on 69% shooting. He dropped from #6 to #7 in the Power Rankings thanks to Jack’s emergence in the Power Rankings.
• Bob also made his first appearance of the season, posting a 14.3 KPM which was good enough to secure the #10 spot in the Power Rankings. He averaged 4.6 points per round, 0.97 cornholes per round and 66% accuracy while going 1 – 4 on the evening.
• Steve-O just wins games, baby! He went 3 – 1 with a 13.3 KPM, earning him the #12 spot in the Power Rankings. He averaged 4.4 points per round and 0.77 cornholes per round on 70% shooting.
• Bushie went 1 – 2 with a 13.2 KPM, good enough to lockdown the #13 spot in the Power Rankings. He averaged 4.3 points per round and 0.76 cornholes per round on 70% shooting.
• Finally, Paul posted a 14.3 KPM and 1 – 2 record while averaging 4.7 points per round, 0.76 cornholes per round and 80% shooting. Overall, a great statistical night for Paul. Unfortunately for him, he dropped from #10 to #14 in the Power Rankings thanks to the newcomers making their first appearance in the Power Rankings this season (Jack, Bob, Steve-O and Bushie).