Every season since the Summer of 2018, the most anticipated game in the Summerlin Open League has been when BTE faces the Villains.

They met again last night, both coming in with undefeated 3-0 records. The defending champions, BTE, came away with a 75-70 victory in what will likely be a preview for this season’s championship game. To commemorate a game of this magnitude, L.C. Comine got Ultimate Hoops Hall of Famer Joe Neuenfeldt to provide his commentary for the live stream of the game. I watched the entire live stream today and picked out a few highlights from the broadcast.

Right in the beginning of the stream, as Neuenfeldt was trying to learn the names of newer players in the league, he looked at Andre McFarland and said, “Is he a cop?” Comine confirmed that McFarland is indeed a police officer. “Don’t ask me how I know that,” Neuendfeldt responded. He would end the curiosity a few minutes later and explain that he played against McFarland in a dodgeball tournament for work.

To create some additional interest in the game, Neuenfeldt made Comine come up with some lines for the game. He had already set BTE as seven-point favorites in an article last week, so Neuenfeldt asked for an over/under, which Comine set at 162.5. A few minutes into the game, a referee heard them discussing this and asked what the over/under was. “Take the under,” the referee responded after hearing the number. “Refs like the under,” Neuenfeldt said. “Refs getting involved is always a bad sign.” The under did end up comfortably hitting, as the final point total was 145, but I don’t think the refs had anything to do with that.

You can see Comine (left) and Neuenfeldt (right) at the broadcast table behind Allen McFarland

A little over halfway through the first half, Nick Rainey checked in for the first time for BTE. “He can’t hit a shot on Tuesdays, but on Monday’s he can hit a shot,” Comine said after Rainey buried his first shot of the game, implying he plays much better in the open league on Mondays than he does in the rec league on Tuesdays. The numbers back that up, as Rainey has shot 43% in the open league and 29% in the rec league this season.

A little later in the half, Rainey was close to the camera and Comine chirped at him saying, “Can’t hit a shot on Tuesdays.” Rainey responded with a made jumper on the next possession, which Neuenfeldt blamed on Comine. “(The Villains) are your team, you don’t want to motivate a guy like that,” Neuenfeldt said. On the next BTE possession, Rainey hit a 3, and Neuenfeldt doubled down. “This is all your fault,” he said, “L.C.’s the MVP for BTE.”

During the second half, they both started talking about the impact Tij Von Nieda was having for the Villains, which got Neuenfeldt entranced with the name Tij. “I’ve heard some good names in my UH days, but that might be the best,” he said. Tij Von Nieda is an objectively awesome name.

At the end of the game, Comine asked Neuenfeldt for his final thoughts on the game. The first thing he brought up was the lack of timeouts taken by the Villains, as they still had two left when the game was over. During the game, he brought up about 15 different times when he thought the Villains should’ve used a timeout and they didn’t. The three you get to use in a UH game are valuable, and it wasn’t something the Villains utilized. There were a couple cold runs during both halves where the Villains could’ve used a quick rest to reset. Good point by Neuenfeldt.

As for the game itself, this continues a long trend of BTE’s dominance over the Villains. These teams have faced each other 13 times since the start of the Summer 2018 season, and BTE has won 11 of those games.

Andre McFarland led the way for BTE, as he had team-highs in points with 20 and rebounds with 15. Chase Skinkis finished the game with a triple-double of 12/14/13 for the Villains.

Highlights from Joe Neuenfeldt and L.C. Comine's broadcast of BTE's win over the Villains