2019 All-Ultimate Hoops Team

Tunde Ogunleye

Tunde Ogunleye

Here is the 2019 All-Ultimate Hoops Team. These five players are not selected based on the parameters the NBA sets. This is a positionless team that focuses on players that are dedicated to Ultimate Hoops and were one of the best players in their respective regions. This is also not a team that is put together solely based on stats, although they obviously help. Participation, stats, championships and performances on the national stage were all considered. Here’s who made the cut.

Christian Bower - Arizona

Bower has been featured a lot on this website this year, as you can find three different articles praising his play. This is also the second straight year he’s secured a spot on the All-UH team. As long as Bower is playing in UH games, he’ll likely be a candidate to make it on each year’s All-UH Team, and that was the case this year. He was in contention with DJ Hurd, Sean Boston and a few other players in Arizona for a spot on this team, but it was his fall season that put him above everyone else from the region. He helped lead Run It Up on a seven-game win streak to end the fall season, earning him his third draft tournament championship.

The Arizona Draft Tournament is the hardest title to win each UH season, and winning one of them can be as impressive as winning three to four titles in a year in other leagues. Bower not only won the fall title, but he got to the championship game in the spring and the semifinals in the winter. He did it all while averaging 28.7 points, 5.6 rebounds and 9.6 assists with shooting splits of 59/46/79 in 66 games.

Andre McFarland

Andre McFarland

Bower dominated in Arizona, but he also had his most successful run in the Las Vegas National Tournament. He was a pivotal part of Private Lessons’ run to the semifinals, and Bower had career-highs in points per game (14.4), assists per game (7.4), field goal percentage (57%) and 3-point percentage (39%) in this year’s tournament.

Andre McFarland - Las Vegas

This selection came down to McFarland and BTE teammate Jordan Cannon, and there really isn’t a wrong answer. Here are their combined stats from the four seasons in the Summerlin Open League this year:

McFarland: 26/11.9/4.8 with shooting splits of 52/43/79

Cannon: 27/6.7/8.7 with shooting splits of 61/47/82

Not only were these two the lifeblood of a dominant BTE team, but they both played for the Villains in the Las Vegas National Tournament this year, each putting up 20 points per game or more on 57% shooting or better.

They both helped BTE win three titles this year, and McFarland had a record of 31-2 in games he played in Summerlin this year.

You could make the argument that they both should make this team, and I would be fine with that, but I like to get as much region representation as possible, so that limited this to one player from Vegas. I decided on McFarland over Cannon for two reasons. First, McFarland won two MVPs this season to Cannon’s one, so I’ll trust L.C. Comine and the rest of the Summerlin Open League who sees these guys play every week. Second, Cannon was on this team in 2018, so when it’s as close as this, I’ll favor a new selection.

Bryant Marmol - Minnesota

Marmol has played in Ultimate Hoops since 2011, and this may have been the best calendar year of his long career. He was consistently good in all four seasons across both Fridley and Bloomington South, but his peak was reached in the fall. This was the first season since the Fall of 2017 that Minnesota had a combined playoff, and both teams Marmol was on reached the championship game. He averaged 18.9/5.8/5.6 while shooting 54% from the field and 49% from deep in the fall, earning his 14th career title. The highlight of that title run came in the first two rounds of the playoffs for the Guerrillas, where he scored 29 and then 23 in back-to-back games, shooting 11-12 and then 9-10, making all 12 3s he shot in those two games.

Marmol also rolled into the fall season with two titles under his belt in 2019. He helped lead the Guerrillas to back-to-back championships in the spring and summer in Bloomington South, defeating their bitter rivals, the Rebels, in both title games.

Marmol played in both Fridley and Bloomington South in all four seasons. Here were his averages when you combine all eight seasons: 18.2/5.8/4.7 with shooting splits of 52/42/82.

Tommy Hubbard - Boston

Tommy Hubbard

Tommy Hubbard

Hubbard only played three full seasons in Boston this year, which would typically disqualify him from being eligible of getting selected for this team. He sat out of the spring season this year, but he did play in MetroWest and Burlington in the summer, but only played in two games in Burlington.

The reason Hubbard makes the cut is because in those three full seasons, Hubbard won the championship in all three, and he was the best player on all three teams. In those three seasons he averaged 30.7, 28 and 26.3 points per game, shooting 45% or better from the field in each season.

Hubbard went 13-1 in the winter and summer seasons in MetroWest, including a 7-0 run with Buckets Galore as they won their second straight title. In that undefeated summer season, Hubbard scored 21 points or more in every single game, shooting 47% or better from the field in every game. The fall season went a bit differently, as he and HIDIA started the season 1-5. It looked like his run of titles was going to end, but he helped lead them on a six-game winning streak to end the season with his third title of 2019 and fourth of his career.

If you combine his numbers from MetroWest and Burlington, here were his averages this year: 28.6/8.5/3.9 with shooting splits of 46/39/91.

Hubbard also made his national tournament debut this year, averaging 15.3 points on 50% shooting from the field and 53% from deep in New York this summer.

Tunde Ogunleye - New York

You could argue no one had a better year in UH than Ogunleye. The pinnacle of 2019 for Ogunleye came in late August, when he helped lead FMB to the New York National Tournament championship. He averaged 19.4/5.4/4.2 with shooting splits of 49/52/75. Those numbers put him in serious contention to win Tournament MVP, but that was won by his teammate Spencer Smith.

Ogunleye makes this team over Smith due to his regular participation in the Westchester Draft League, and his consistent domination in that league. Ogunleye played in all four seasons in Westchester this year, and he averaged 33.8, 31.7, 36.7 and 34.4 points per game in each respective season. In the 26 games he played in this year, he scored under 20 points once and scored over 30 points 22 times. He shot under 50% from the field two times and shot over 60% from the field 14 times.

Just a month after winning a national title in NYC, Ogunleye led Man Down to the Westchester Draft League championship, where he scored 38 points on 12-21 shooting from the field, 4-7 from deep and 8-9 from the free-throw line, adding nine rebounds in the title game. That was Ogunleye’s best season this year, as he averaged 36.7 points, 13.5 rebounds on 64% shooting from the field and 51% from deep, all year-highs. Ogunleye went 6-0 that season in games he played in, and he finished with a personal record of 20-6, making it to three championship games and winning one title.

2018 All-Ultimate Hoops Team

Adam Bickerstaff - Arizona

Christian Bower - Arizona

Jordan Cannon - Las Vegas

Adam Hoven - Minnesota

Michael Kouser - Philadelphia

2017 All-Ultimate Hoops Team

Steve Bertrand – Arizona

Michael Cox – Laguna

Adam Hoven – Minnesota

Michael Mastro – New York

Chase Skinkis – Las Vegas