In March of this year, the Big Bangs organized an under-17 basketball league.

All the participants were kids who were no older than juniors in high school.  These kids were desperate for a tournament which wasn’t being dominated by seniors, college students and adults (sadly that includes the Big Bangs).  It was no fun for them to register in a tournament just to lose every game by 50 points or more.  These kids wanted fair and even competition and the Big Bangs gave it to them.

8 teams participated in a season, playoffs and a classic B*B all-star day.  32,000 taka (approximately $450) was raised from this event for charity.

Division 1                                                     Division 2

W       L                                                    W       L

Oxford                     3        0                          Tigers                3        0

Mastermind             2        1                           Knights             2        1

Scholastica              1        2                           Underdogs        1        2

Demon Daggers       0       3                           South Breeze     0        3

Season:

Oxford 18 Mastermind 17               Underdogs 24 South Breeze 20

Tigers 21 Knights 20                       Scholastica 32 Demon Daggers 24

Knights 41 South Breeze 15            Mastermind 36 Demon Daggers 26

Oxford 45 Scholastica 29                 Tigers 35 Underdogs 20

Tigers 34 South Breeze 19                Knights 33 Underdogs 29

Mastermind 49 Scholastica 17          Oxford 33 Demon Daggers 20

Playoffs:

1 Oxford 32   4 South Breeze 15       1 Tigers 42   4 Demon Daggers 19

2 Knights 37   3 Scholastica 12         3 Underdogs 33   2 Mastermind 29

Semifinals:

1 Tigers 39   3 Underdogs 31            1 Oxford 33   2 Knights 25

Finals:

Tigers 32 Oxford 15

Every team put up a good fight, but it was the Tigers (majority of the players from the Green Herald school) who emerged as the champions.  Small Bangs played a big part as the Tigers were coached by Hanif and captained by Angelo.  But it was the League MVP, Rayan Quddus (14.8 pts, 14.4 rbs, 3 blks per game) who dominated the competition.

The All-Star Day was a great success as always.  Here are the winners:

Sniper (3-pt contest):   Dhrubo from Mastermind

Flash (Skills challenge):  Mahin from Knights

Terminator (Knock-out):  Nabin from Oxford

Shooting Stars:   The Demon Daggers Squad

All-Star Game Box Score:   Red 37 Green 34

MVP:   Ashiq from Team Red representing the Knights

Team Red

Pts    Rbs

Rakeen       6        5

Tazaki        5        5

Zubair        1        1

Akash         6        3

Ashiq         13      9

Raivi          6        1

Anil            0        1

Team Green

Pts    Rbs

Angelo       7       1

Quddus      12     5

Azmi          4       1

Sakib          0       0

MK            6       2

Muba          3       2

Nabin          2       1

All the kids showed tremendous potential and true love for the game of basketball.  Special thanks to Hanif, Angelo, Dhrubo, Tazaki, Zaheen, Kirthan, Julian, MK, Ashiq, Quddus, Raivi, Anil (and anyone else we forgot to mention) for helping out with statistics, scores, and refereeing.

Asif Islam
Big Bangs Bangladesh