No surprises, the Fan-Final of the season and emotions

No surprises please, we’re Finnish!

Men’s Korisliiga has been very short on surprises so far in the playoffs, out of the Top 4 teams three made their way to the semi-finals without any trouble.

And the last pair in the quarters (Vilpas vs Korihait) – well, that offered excitement worth more than one series (unfortunately might also have been most in the playoffs??).

With Seagulls, Karhu, Kataja and Vilpas being the Top 4 after regular season, they now head into the semi-finals – of which the first round was played (without surprises! last night).

Whether there will be any surprises- remains to be seen and as a photographer/content creator of the game I always love a good surprise result or two in the playoffs!

So – just a hint to the 3rd and 4th seed teams in the playoffs – get those four wins and book a spot in the Finals!

Fan Final of the Korisliiga season

The quarter-final series of Vilpas and Korihait – also saw the ‘Fan Final’ of the season.

There few reasons for this, both Korihait and Vilpas do have a rather young core of a fan group, the towns are situated on a reasonable distance from one another and there is a nice rivalry between the two teams and sets of fans.

It was great to see the Best of 5 series go all the way to Game 5 and all games being closely contested ..

What was not so great, was that possibly the two ‘best’ sets of fans met in this stage of the competition … and yes, I do know that KarhuBasket has possibly the biggest set of fans both at home and also traveling to away games.

So IF we were to get Vilpas vs Karhu in the Finals – now THAT would be the Fan Final as well!!

And no – no disrespect to KatajaBasket or Seagulls – but from the games I’ve attended or seen, their supporters do not travel in the same amounts. Joensuu of course being fair distance from any other Korisliiga team, and in Helsinki the people who watch sports.. well – they do not need to leave Helsinki as there is a top flight game in some sport every night.

Emotions – no thanks??

Now – this comes once again from the point of someone who creates content from sports – and this really is constant bug for me .. the emotions in the Korisliiga are very well kept under check ..

Why? Now that I can not answer, as the answer would have to come from the referees and the way outwards shows of emotions are handled on the court (and apparently also OFF the court with the way fans behave – in the game in Helsinki yesterday).

It is the same every season, the new imports who are playing their first games, they show big emotions after a dunk/block/three pointer … etc. BUT… BUT!!! And this really gets to me, there is often a little ‘telling off’ from the refs for this.. and yes, it is constant and same rules for everyone (well – mostly.. as one podcast about a different sport said.. some players with the their longevity EARN the right to play differently…) – so one can’t complain about that.

And just one very small example – in the Game 05 between Vilpas and Korihait – near the end of the game, when it was still pretty close.. there was a foul called on Korihait Bojan Sarcevic – and Bojan just always wears his heart on his sleeve… he covered his face with two hands and faced away from the court… not towards fans/players/referees. And for this – he gets called over to the refs to tell him to tone it down. WHY?? Close game, Game 05, deciding game, win and continue, lose and go home …

Another from Karhu vs Kataja last night, Karhu had had a warning for time wasting (touching the ball after scoring) – and once again, in a pretty tight situation near the end of the game.. a Karhu player does the same or even a bit more .. so by the rules of the game.. that should have been a technical foul for Karhu .. but no.

Coach Petri Virtanen questions the call initially by just shouting why there was no call, and OK – then he does get a bit over the top and after calling time-out walks to the court to confront the referee.. and gets a technical foul himself.. (OK – that was NOT a good example)

Lastly – and this is something that Finnish basketball Forum and social media have had a field day with over the last 24 hours.. in the Helsinki Seagulls vs Vilpas game the Vilpas fans were heard chanting ‘Moscow Seagulls…’ (the reference to this is a long story..). And as far as the story goes, the referee tells Vilpas bench something about the chant .. now Seagulls is an ‘easy’ target for the opposition fans for many reasons.. they are from Helsinki, they might have bigger budget than other teams, and so on…

Five weeks and summer time!

Still – there is a max five weeks to go in the season and let’s hope it s good one! In the end – usually the best team does win!