BuzzerBeater Forums

Firstly, thank you to the people out there who voted for me to continue my reign as the coach of the U21 side. Despite being less active these days, I still have the same commitment and dedication levels to succeed as a coach and make sure the squad gets as far as possible.

This season's squad is looking nice and rounded and there's no reason why we cannot achieve back to back qualifications in the Euros. The draw has been made for the group and it does look a fiercely competitive group with three times (including us) ranking in the top 25 in the rankings and only two teams ranked outside the top 50. Our opponents are Belgium, Cyprus, Finland, Armenia, Greece, Estonia and Portugal.

Congratulations to the seventeen players that have made the team, we've got a lot of nice talent this season with a couple of players that have the potential of representing the NT later on in their careers so I look forward to monitoring their progression throughout the season. Can I just re-emphasise the importance of game shape to all managers too. This is absolutely crucial in giving your player the best chance to play.

Now it's confirmed my tenure will continue, I will begin scouting the new draftees of this season along with updating the skills of the 19, 20 and 21 year olds. I have also received the help of ex-coach, Morwood, who is a fantastic addition to the staff and will work tirelessly to scout players and suggest training plans to all of the scouted talent. Just a shoutout to other managers who are willing to get involved with helping me, please feel free to drop me a message and something can get sorted.

Last season, I didn't do a match report after each game due to a high work load but I'm hoping to get back to old ways and keep you all updated with a brief update of each match, keeping you intrigued with the results.

I hope we have another successful season and thanks again for receiving your support.

Last edited by js8 at 02/23/2016 17:35:40

awesome to have you for another 2 seasons

The return of the woody!!

Good to see you back js and an updated u21 team page too.. nice! If you need any help over the season give me a shout

Good luck for the upcoming season buddy!

Well done JSB looking forward to another great few seasons. Morwood is back in the house welcome mate looking forward to catching up.

Thanks to you all for your kind messages, hopefully we can enjoy some more success together as a community.

Good Luck! :D

BELGIUM 111 - 112 ENGLAND
The campaign started welcoming a strong Belgium side who looked very powerful inside as well as containing a lot of depth in all positions. We started the first quarter the better of the two sides and quickly established a good lead with decisive attacking play getting shooters open for jumpshots as well as preventing the Belgian's getting into a rhythm by playing solid defence. However, in the second quarter, Belgium managed to carve out some good opportunities and found themselves back within a single point game, mainly thanks to their big men who started to get hot from the field. At half-time, we led 55-48. The third quarter was a replica of the first seeing us get a variety of team-mates open from the three point line with Centre, Stu Feldman, nailing 4-4 from downtown to see us cruise to a sixteen point lead with one quarter to play. For some bizarre reason, we let the game slit and allowed Belgium a pathway back into it with the Belgian's rediscovering their pizzazz and draw level and take the game to OT. In overtime, it was closely contested with both offences getting the better of each other. In the dying seconds of the game and from an improbable position, we hit our three last three-pointers, one coming from Phil MacNeish and two from Dirk Witten to snatch the win and get the campaign off to an illustrious start.

What can I say? What a game that was to watch. So up and down and demoralising how it looked like we let all the good work slip because of a horrendous last quarter but thanks to our great three point shooting (21-36 for the game!) we managed to pick up the win and start the campaign well.

Next week we have Cyprus.

Last edited by js8 at 02/29/2016 17:43:28