BuzzerBeater Forums

Hi,

new season is approaching fast and it will again be exciting one. As usual, we will play in the consolation tourmanent, where 82 teams compete for hosting the next area championships. For us, European teams, that usually means needing to win the tournament. However, now not all teams are eligible for the main (and only) prize. If some team won any medal in the last five seasons, it only plays "for fun". Such teams in this seasons tournament are France, Serbia, Germany and Greece. There are still many very competitive teams left, so we cannot realistically compete for the only trophy of the tournament. A nice success would be qualification in the playoffs, which wasnt accomplished in the last try. Given our schedule, it will be difficult, but definitely feasible. Our opponents are as follows:

Albania (home). A game that shouldnt be very difficult, although first games are always a bit risky. But we are strong favourites in this one.

Russia (away). Contrary to the first game, this one will be very tough to win. Russia beat us in the last EC, although we were close. But now they will have the home-court advantage (HCA), which will put them further ahead.

Senegal (home). Team which I am not very familiar with, but given our HCA, I definitely see us as favourites. In any case, if we want to get to the playoffs, this is a must win game.

Columbia (away). Another difficult away game, where we will be underdogs. But we will try to increase our odds.

Brazil (home): A strong opponent, but at home. This is one of the two crucial games, which will decide our fate.

India (away): Long journey to New Delhi and low energy after game against Brazil will not do us any good, but still I see us as favourites in this one.

England (home): Similarly to game against Brazil, this will be one of the decisive matches. England is slightly better in quality, but our HCA should negate that, and a close score is expected.

Pakistan (away): Consolation tournament is really one of the least eco-friendly competitions ever created, instead of playing back-to-back games in Asia, we fly back to Sweden, than back east... In any case, this one shouldnt be difficult, but Pakistan will most likely attack us with crunch time, so we will have to stay focused.

Bottom line, four easy(-ier) games, two games, where win will be very difficult to get, and two very unpredictable games. Score needed is usually 5-3 with good point difference, so every game we will have to do our best.

As for the draft, the number of promising draftees is much much higher this season then it was in the last draft. Some are also on the market now (Im talking about MVP, HoF and even AtG potentials). I want to highlight specifically Alexander Eckhult ((53065707), who is on the market right now (until sunday 9 am), and is truly a perfect trainee with All time great potential (I believe the only one in Sweden). It is best, if he stays in Sweden, so I hope some really dedicated manager will buy him. I also contacted other managers with promising players (and some will be contacted soon), this generation really looks very promising

Once again I invite you to our discord channel (https://discord.gg/xZNmX6jdX7). First it was three of us, then four, five and now I dont count anymore. Debate got quite lively. Since much of it is in swedish, I dont follow everything anymore, but it is definitely worth to join.

Good luck in the upcoming season to everyone

The first game was somewhat easy for us, home court advantage and better quality gave us enough push, that the winner of our match against Albania was decided in minute 0 (74072).

We started the game with Dallius, Börjesson, Fyhrhult, Egghall and Giltorp. Although Albanians scored the first two points (from the free throw line) of the game, this was their only lead. By the end of the first quarter, we managed to break the 10 points difference, by half-time it was already +26. Although we stopped pushing afterwards, the our lead was still slowly increasing, and got to +37 (109-72). Without the unfortunate injury of Börjesson, our win would probably be even higher.

As usual, Tommy Fyhrhult lead the scoring table with 31 points, and is now 3rd on the all-time scoring table. Frank Jonasson collected 19 rebounds and was a very adequate replacement for Börjesson.

Next week, we will be quite an underdog against Russia. But game shapes can alter things quite a lot, so I hope we will get an edge here

Our trip to Moscow was not successful, Russians took the match very seriously, thus it ended with their win 120-99 (74147).

Given the fact, that our GS wasn't great nor terrible, and the same could be said about Russians, who were maybe slightly better, I wasn't very optimistic about the game. So we went into it with double prediction, hoping for that sweet sight of double green dots. Unfortunately for us, it was a double miss, and Russia even played with higher attitude, which erased all our hopes in the first minute of the game.

But BB is sometimes very unpredictable, so you are never 100% sure. In fact, first ten minutes were quite good for us, as we kept the score tied. Before the end of Q1, the home team managed to get some advantage, but even afterwards, in the beginning of Q2, we were still close. The real difference was made in the second half of Q2 with 19-2 score for Russians. 20 points difference at the half-time already meant that the game was decided.

But since the points difference also counts in consolation tournament, we were quite lucky not to loose by even more. We were trailing already by -32, but the garbage time in Q4 got us back to the acceptable difference of -21. I believe it was worth to try to get something from the game by risking double prediction, but with Russia's higher attitude, it would have been difficult even if we got it right.

Next week we play a home game against Senegal. They surprisingly lost the first game of the season against Wales (due to Wales playing crunch time), and then they won at home against Luxembourg, but even that was not a very convincing win, since they played with a higher attitude. So, judging by their games so far, we are definite favorites. But still we need to be well prepared, since it is a must win game for us, and a good point difference would also serve us well.

Best regards

In the past two weeks, we played two games with a different outcome. In both cases, the power of the home court advantage was quite evident. First, we beat Senegal, even easier than expected (74174), but two days ago we were nowhere close against Colombia, even though we gained some tactical advantage (74193).

The home game against the respected african nation was decided in the second quarter, when we managed to get away with a score 42-18. However, all other quarters also went smoothly, so we managed the get a very nice point difference of +53. Veteran Markus Andersson came from the bench and managed to become our best scorer by playing only 21 minutes. We had very solid stats in both FG% and 3pt %, as well as passing, rebounding and even defensive stats, so no complaints about this game.

Contrary, the game against Colombia proved to be much more challenging. Although I cannot point to any interval during the game, where we were much worse than our opponent, the difference was steadily increasing through all 48 minutes. Our main problem was, that we didn't have any positive streak. Our attack was decent, but the defense was very weak, as was our rebounding, where Columbia "won" 50-37. Although some of these difference can be attributed to their high FG%, I still expected 2-3 zone to give us some advantage in rebounding, as well as being more efficient against their inside tactics. But to be fair, their inside rating of 16 (high) is so good, that their brilliant scoring percentage is somewhat logical.

Our odds might have been better without the unfortunate injury of Håkan Dallius , but it is hard to imagine, that we would have been able to close the gap even with him. Tommy Fyhrhult was, again, our best scorer, and can still climb a place, or even two places higher in the all-time scoring table. But he needs to stay focused.

Next week we are facing another South American team, Brazil. But this time at home, so it should be a very close game, and, as I mentioned before, one of the most important ones. So keeping fingers crossed for our game shape

Finally we managed to get two consecutive wins. The first one, a home win against Brazil (74256), was especially important and meant a huge step towards playoffs. This could all be lost in a tricky away game against India, who played some decent games recently. But luckily, we exceeded expectations and not only won, but also gained some important points difference (74302).

Before the clash against Brazil, South Americans were on the very top of the consolation tournament table. This doesn't mean much, since it is very dependent on the quality of past opponents, but along with their higher rating, and also slightly better quality, it labelled them as favorites. Luckily for us, they went too easy into the game, probably because we were still missing injured Håkan Dallius , which made us look quite vulnerable.

The first quarter was very close, but Brazilians managed to get a good run at the very end, gaining a 9 points advantage. We were slightly better in the most of Q2, but it took us quite some time to catch the away team. This was achieved 3 minutes before the half time, with a two pointer from Lasse Lundell. Afterwards, neither team was willing to risk much until the half time, which saw result 49-47 for Brazil.

We opened the second half much better, 10-0 after first 4 minutes put us in a decently safe lead, which went to +10 several minutes later. By the end of Q3 Brazilians managed to get closer (73-70), but we again demonstrated very strong start into Q4, which got us back to +10 after four minutes. Afterwards, guests didn't manage to seriously threaten our win, so the final minutes (luckily) weren't very dramatic.

The next game against India was easier than expected. Since they played some good games recently, I was a little bit nervous whether they would maybe go crunch time on us. In combination with their HCA, that might be dangerous. Although they actually played with a higher, but not CT attitude, we demonstrated a solid strength and didn't leave any doubts about the winner already by half time. So most likely we are qualified to the playoffs, where we will get also with a good enthusiasm.

Next week we again play against the leading team in the consolation tournament table - England. We play at home, a win is possible and would move us somewhat higher in the table (currently we are 27th). But I doubt even two wins will get us to the top 16, which would mean a HCA in the first round. But hope remains, our last game is against Pakistan, where we shouldn't have any problems.

Best wishes