NEW UPDATE ON 11/10!
Last year, Raytheon Missile Systems in Tucson invited IBM to play in their basketball league. Raytheon is the largest employer in Tucson, supplying over approximately 10,000 engineering-related jobs. Their basketball league is therefore a formidable one that must be separated into 3 leagues: A, B, and C. In 2013, Raytheon invited us to be a team that plays occasionally teams from both A and B league. We were simply a filler team and thus they asked us not to send an all-star team and implied that we wouldn't be eligible to actually win their tournament. As such, we sent an average team and went about 50% playing mostly teams from both A and B league.
This year, Raytheon told us that there was a full spot open in A League, their highest league. There were no restrictions this time, so at IBM I invited everyone who wanted to play a chance to play, and we ended up sending a lot of better players this time around. The A-League in Raytheon is still very challenging (I'd say it's as good as your average city league) and the challenge most of the season has just been having all of our players available to play each night.
Tonight begins the 3-week single elimination tournament in Raytheon Basketball's A-League! We'll already be down one key player, which makes it tough, but it's now win or go home. Good luck to team IBM representing in the Raytheon League!
FIRST ROUND RESULTS:
Unfortunately, team IBM was not only without it's starting power forward but also it's starting point guard on this night, leaving us without 2 of our top players and scoring options. IBM fell into a double-digit hole in the first half. A good run by yours truly hitting three 3-pointers in a row cut the lead down to single digits with minutes to spare, but the opponent hit their free throws to close the game out and IBM lost 44-54. Thus ends our run in the Raytheon A-League. :( It was still a lot of fun for me to be able to play alongside my friends when I don't usually get the opportunity to!
