BuzzerBeater Forums

Happy New Year managers of BB Singapore!

First I'd like to thank everyone for putting your faith in me once again. After some in depth scouting and talks with some managers, I have updated our U21 shortlist. The good news is, we seem to have a decent supply of players for the coming years, and a lot of them with MVP or higher potential. The bad news is, only a little over half of them have confirmed training plans. I actually messaged the managers of every player on the shortlist and the U21, and there was quite a bit of no replies. I will continue to bug them periodically I guess xD

That said, we have finally finalized our U21 roster for this season, just before the U21 enthusiasm reset! Initially we were going in with 13 players, but I had to drop one tonight as his manager has been inactive for a while and his game shape seems to have suffered (due to not having any games). I will keep monitoring the said manager, and hope I will be able to bring the said player back once the game shape issues have resolved.

That said, without further ado, let's look at our team for this year! The team will be led by Poon Su Jing, who is spending his third season in the team. Do note, positions are based on their best position as listed in the roster:

Back Court:
Hasibul Muhammed
Mok Dong Ting
Chng Kuan Choon
Mohammad Uddin
Chenbagarajan Ali
Ong Yeng Soon

Front Court:
Koo Wee Yao
Chua Chee Da
Tan Su Tong
Cheung Nie Jin
Kwok Lai Loong
Poon Su Jing

Just as it is suggested on the surface, we have a really balanced team this year, and I'm really proud of the work put in by all the managers who trained them so far. I have set sights on a couple of players who might make the team later on, so don't worry folks, we will decide when they're ready to join the team, be it to cover injured players or bad game shape (let's hope these stuff are minimal). But for now, we shall roll with these 12 players.

As usual, I hope all managers who have players in the U21 or shortlist (whom I've contacted) have a habit on maintaining their player's game shape.

We face Pakistan U21 in our opening match. They might have less quality, but their game shape seems pretty great, especially on their star player. Let's wish our boys all the best!

U21 requirements:
I kinda realized that I haven't really put any requirements, but here is a guideline to use for potential players:

Point Guard:
OD/HA/DR/PA at sensational.
OD is a must (requirement might even go up as the season goes). Other 3 skills might be slightly lower.

Shooting Guard:
JS/OD/HA/DR: tremendous
JR: prominent
IS/ID is a bonus.

Small Forward:
OD+ID/JS+IS: 18, minimum cut off at strong. Meaning if your OD is strong (8), you need prominent (10) ID to balance it out.

Power Forward:
IS/ID: sensational
JS/RB: prominent
OD is a bonus.

Center:
IS/ID/RB: Sensational
SB is a bonus.

Special archetypes will also be a bonus. Note that the above skillsets are just a guideline, and is something you can aim for. It does not meant that your player is guaranteed a place in the U21 if you hit these requirements. If you have a player whom you feel can make the U21 and have not received a BB-Mail from me, do drop me a BB-Mail.

Thank you!

Singapore U21 vs Pakistan U21
Our boys got off to a rosy start in our campaign this season, outplaying themselves to wreck Pakistan U21 by 124-83. Despite our opponent's preparing themselves for a fast paced offense from us, their coach actually expected us to play Look Inside against them, and deployed a very inside defense against us. This saw us torch them from outside with 52.9% from 3 (18/34).

Ong Yeng Soon was our leading scorer, despite coming off the bench, hitting 8 of 14 shots, including 5 of 7 3s. Hasibul meanwhile led the scoreboard for the starters, finishing the game shooting 50% from everywhere and bagged 18 points. It was a smooth offensive night for us as only 2 players failed to hit double digits last night.

Mohammad Uddin impressed off the bench, dishing out 8 assists and blocking 2 shots to go with his 12 points, while captain Poon Su Jing managed to get a double double with a game high 18 rebounds and 10 points.

Our next opponent will be Vietnam U21, who seems to have a pretty decent squad there. Let's hope we manage to come out tops.

I congratulate victory.
I risked the zone, but in a match with a much stronger opponent, who doesn't risk it, doesn't drink champagne .
this time it failed, I hope we will meet again someday. congratulations and good luck in the next matches.
Greetings Paweł

Hahaha, yes, I can see why, you had nothing to lose and frankly speaking the result might have been different had I played look inside. Thank you and good luck for the rest of the campaign :D

Early loss this time, against Vietnam U21. To be fair, our opponents were in quite good form, and their squad just managed to match our player's outside shooting. I guess I can say that it was a bit of an oversight that I missed out that their top players were mostly outside oriented players. Tan Su Tong being injured also helped them a bit, however I should say that Chua Chee Da did a fair bit of contribution on the offensive end, but he was quite a defensive liability. But there were still quite a bit of question marks. How did Giang Nguyen perform well against a monster C who earns 5 times his salary?

That said, Hasibul Muhammad was our top scorer today, scoring 24 points from 11 of 23 shooting. Not the best shooting night for him, but he got the job done. Meanwhile, Chenbagarajan Ali was the shocking floor general tonight, dishing out 5 assists, despite usually not being this generous. However his vision can be questionable as he turned over the ball 3 times.

We'll have a chance to redeem ourselves against UAE U21 next week. Let's hope things go as planned.

Our boys bounced back this week with an impressive 117-67 win over UAE U21 tonight. Hasibul Muhammed played a big role in this win, finishing the game with team high points (19), assists (7), and steals (3). He didn't really have an efficient shooting night though, hitting only 8 of 18 from the field and only 33% from the arc. Mok Dong Ting however, made use of a rare start to almost match Hasibul in points scored, scoring 18 point from 70% accuracy from field and hitting 1 of his 2 three point attempts. He wasn't too impressive at the line though, as he missed half his free throws.

Our opponents were buoyed by the impressive performance of Hamal Sleiman, who picked up a double double with 23 points and 10 rebounds. He was tasks with keeping tabs on Poon Su Jing on defense, who had a pretty quiet game for his calibre. He was also smart on offense, constantly dragging Cheung Nie Jin out of his comfort zone to the arc. While Cheung Nie Jin got torched by his man outside, he still managed to pull off some positive defensive play, rejecting his opponents 4 times, amounting to almost half of our blocks. He also came out with a double double of his own - scoring 12 points from 50% of his field goal attempts and pulling a game high 17 rebounds.

Our last 3 games will be our 3 toughest games. Let's hope the loss to Vietnam will not haunt us too much.

gogogo keep it up!

Thanks bro. I am hoping for the best. That loss to Vietnam really changed a lot. But we have to take one game at a time I guess.

We were caught out tactically last night against Taiwan U21. Not to say that it was unexpected, given that our team relies more on shooters and lacks much element of surprise. That said, kudos to the manager of Taiwan U21 for his in depth scouting.

Our boys generally had a pretty bad game all round, being limited to 6 and 7 points in the first and third quarter respectively. Tan Su Tong was probably our best player on court. Despite being the only one to hit double figures, he scored a game high 28 points at a 52% clip, which was almost half of our total points scored. His defensive ability also proved valuable to us tonight, as despite opposite number Tan Ming Teck (why does this name sound so local, shouldn't it be "Chen Ming Te" instead?) hitting a team high 20 points, it was from a pretty inefficient 8 of 21 shooting.

Meanwhile, Poon Su Jing managed to redeem himself after two poor showing on the boards by picking up 13 rebounds. Together with Cheung Nie Jin, our frontcourt had a combined 23 rebounds, which amounted to slightly more than half of the rebounds of our entire team, and one less than our opponent's frontcourt. It's quite a promising progress, especially when our U21 has been weak in this department all along.

Our next match will be against Philippines U21. We had a pretty decent defensive game last night. Let's hope our boys step up on offense this time.

WE DID IT!

With barely 30 seconds on the clock, the Kiwis shaved off the 6 point lead we built in the first three quarters to trail us by 1. Kwok Lai Loong failed to finish that run but we were gifted a second attempt which was ran through Kwok Lai Loong again. No good.

With 17 seconds to go, New Zealand U21 took back possession with the defensive rebound and called their last timeout. The end seemed near as their manager drew out their game winning play to snatch away the win from under our noses. 17 seconds and all that hard work our boys poured in at the first 38 minutes would all go to waste.

Then came Hasibul. What a clutch! He read their play well and cut them off midway with a steal. This saw our opponents foul him and sending him to the charity stripe for two - and he sank them both. 9 seconds left on the clock and the Kiwis tried to get back in the game with two successive threes. Thankfully, our boys held on and we walked through to the next round on point difference.

Yes it was an intense game. I had a bad headache after the game and am just starting to recover from it. It was crazy man.

Chenbagarajan Ali played one of his best NT games so far, stuffing the stat sheet with an impressive stat line of 15 points, 8 rebounds, 4 blocks and 2 steals. Cheung Nie Jin was also impressive as the anchor of our defense. His defensive work rate and efforts in providing help defense paid off, as he picked up 5 blocks and 2 steals to make up for his inefficient offense (4 of 14 from the field). Poon Su Jing, who was expected to be the centre of attention, had a surprisingly bad game, netting only 4 of his 13 attempts, lost the ball 6 times and got fouled out in the fourth. However, he was still quite an asset when he was on the floor, as he grabbed a game high 13 rebounds to finish the game with a double double. While most of our players gave their all and stepped up in this game, one player was a surprise package that night. It was none other than Ong Yeng Soon, our elite shooter. Usually the last person to touch the ball in a possession, he suddenly switched his offensive mentality and became our floor general. It paid off, with him dishing out 9 dimes to keep our offense going. Something must have awoken in him while he was injured last week. Either way, it gave us the boost we needed.

We shall now go against our neighbours, Malaysian U21, next week. Let's hope our boys don't gain a few pounds from all the new year cookies!

Last edited by BuzzRBeater at 02/09/2021 11:33:44