Funny thing happened when I showed up to play rec-league basketball last night... I get to the gym, walk over to my friend to say hi, and before I can say a word he tells me "We're playing Mike Barrett tonight."  How do you respond to this?

We play in PortlandBasketball.com in the B-league division.  For a reference point of the competition, a few weeks ago we played a team that was college players trying out for this IBL team...

http://www.oregonlive.com/sports/index.ssf/2009/05/former_college_players_hope_to.html

Currently the league is running a single elimination tournament for teams in the A-C leagues, similar to March Madness.  Somehow we ended up in the tough part of the bracket, and had to play the #2 ranked team last night.  It was a good game, and lining up across from MB was pretty funny because you feel like you know him a bit after watching so many broadcasts....

Overall, MB had a decent game. Hit a few 3's to space the floor, drove by a close out when appropriate, rotated the ball, helped on d, and grabbed a few boards.  He's probably 6-2 or 6-3, didn't seem to get winded (although he probably sat the most on his team), and strong enough to fight through a little contact and keep his balance and poise.

Primarily they had some 6-8 or 6-10 guy dominating the post and a strong slasher cutting through lanes.  When we collapsed too much, they got open 3's.  MB shot a few of those 3's, and drove for a pull up j or two.  Our offense is based on lots of penetration and ball movement, so MB's contribution was mostly playing straight-up d on the wings to slow down and funnel the penetration.

In the end, they won.  We had a few new faces, only 5 players (to there 6 or 7), and they had size when our tallest player was 6-3 or 6-4.  They got out to a huge lead (35-10) before we figured out how to play together.  Then the game got close... something like 73-70 with 1:30 left and our press causing turnovers.  But without any margin for error, they hit a shot or two and our desperate play could get us any closer.

MB seems like a nice guy, but is all business on the court.  Didn't talk smack or anything like that, just played with focus.  The funniest part of the night was when my teammate was taking some important free-throws near the end and MB was lined up to his right.  "I know it's just MB, but I got a little nervous taking those shots."

"That's just because you've heard him say how critical these shots are.  If we're going to win it, we need to make them."

He missed...