BuzzerBeater Forums

2. Ive not kept a record of the new managers that have contacted me on how to get their team started or get training set up in the game, but it seems to be a common place for new managers to bbmail the u21 coach for help. Once again this communication is not seen to other managers, but is a regular occurrence. Im doing all i can checking through teams that are asking for advice and dealing with each individual situation depending on their money and players. But as a brief overview its usually setting up with a good trainer and aussie trainees if they can to hook them into what hooked me- getting a player training and developing as quickly and efficiently as they can. The simple answer to this question is by talking to them- communication. showing that no question is silly and that im available for them to keep firing question after question as they go and trying to answer quickly so they can adjust. These people are the future of our nations success so im happy to spend as much time with them as they are asking for.

For the more experienced manager (and the ones that will currently help our nation rise in world ranking) ive tried my hardest to help with more advanced levels of training, and in particular rapid training to produce the best 21yr old we can. Gotta tread lightly on advice as we have some really experienced managers and the advice id offer to an ABBL manager is quite different to one just starting out Ive set up a discussion on how to do this in the offsite forum and set up a template for how other nations are achieving this. The results of our improvements are evident too, with our highest tsp u21 players being trained in the last 5 seasons.:

Wally Chick broke the record for highest PG by 9 points- previously held by Epic Garmston. 9 extra pops in a 21yr old is HUGE!
Walter Densi in the following season broke our highest ever tsp as a SG, once again smashing it by 7 pops!

Tori Cull and Lori Feaster are our best ever SFs and Feaster was trained last season, Cull in the last 5

At PF results in the past have exceeded our current results, with Dewen and McFlynn our strongest TSP PFs.
At C Meehan being our highest ever tsp was trained 3 seasons ago and is our up and coming big man in the NT.

Now you dont necessarily need to know these things, the point here is, as current u21 coach im taking improvement seriously by keeping track of these trends and doing what i can to improve as a nation and the results of the last 5 seasons indicate that we are. Im also aware that changes in the game are allowing tsp to increase and better players are able to be trained now than before, but we are making use of these additions and improving our training which is evidence that we are knowledgeable. And the results will filter through to our NT as the best prospects for our NT, no surprises are Chick, Densi, Cull, Feaster and Meehan.

My real life outside of BB has been well documented and there are times im away on holidays with a family of 4, sometimes in areas of no reception. I always try to give people a heads up on the offsite if im going somewhere. But my dedication to the game of BB since winning a couple of ABBL titles has been devoted to training of our Australian trainees, from 18yrs through to the NT. And i think this leads to my final point- the u21s we are producing that have HOF talent have all been looked at for the bigger picture of training for the NT- just look at Densi, Chick, Meehan, Feaster. The advice i give to each individual is specific to their situation in the game, but ive always got a focus that they need to be adding secondaries to put them in a good position at the ages of 23-24yrs. At the end of the day it is the managers own decision if they use that advice or not, as some want to just pump primary skills which is their own decision.

Last edited by whitewind at 1/12/2022 7:00:18 PM

3. First I would GAZE over the table to make sure it hadnt already been served by someone. Id serve it late in the night so that everyone was craving LONGLEY for it, lay a nice COTTON table cloth in SLOW-MO JO, and serve up home made woodfire pizza, with dough made from the best aussie MILLS of our country, topped with a drizzle of ANDREW Yoghurt. Finally, id make sure we all said amazing GRACE before we GIDDEY up, downing the feast!

If we couldn't get a starting 5 discussion out of that meal, then id not read the crowd!

Last edited by whitewind at 1/12/2022 7:17:57 PM

In all honesty it's quite difficult to make a whole forum more active, I mean even if I'd open multiple threads talking about the game engine or the training or the tactics to use etc.. It's hardly going to get the forum more active, imho what you need is two or more manager that don't think alike, that don't share the same vision about the game, something that get people fired up, something (or someone) controversial.
This debate thread is probably the proof of what I mean, having someone different it just... generates interest, cause some of you might want to listen to me, some might want to tell me that I'm not welcome, some might want me to f off... whatever you're reason is, there will be different points of view hence why this will probably go down as one of the debate threads with the most messages.

I think all i can do is show them the possible ways you can play this game; some might find the training aspect more fascinating and would like to train as many players as possibile, some might enjoy the psychological aspect behind tactics and gdp and might want to get to the top and compete with the best managers, there's more than a way you can play this game, and it would be my mission not only to help your u21 develop but the whole community.

It would be rude not to bring something typical, prosciutti, salami and cheese as a starter, maybe a nice pasta, something like a Carbonara or an Amatriciana (aglio, olio e peperoncino for the vegans), glass of wine, obviously, though it would be nice for you to prepare a dessert, I haven't had a Lamington in quite some time ;)

Last edited by SpongeboNG [ITA] at 1/12/2022 7:33:29 PM

In every season since i started in season 28 ive also kept an accurate MVP season count for managers as an extra to increase current players managers to join in the season. The list is available on the u21 team page (https://www.buzzerbeater.com/country/17/jnt/overview.aspx). This idea has been grabbed by several other NT managers

It was indeed a great and nice idea, I myself saw it on your forum and copied it

Surely you have more questions, you can't be this boring ;) :P

Question to the both of you:

What's your preferences for training plans? Do you prefer players have reasonable secondaries or do you prefer that managers focus on primaries regardless of salary impacts (if theyre willing)??

I like secondaries and salary efficiency, but at some point I need to advise for high primaries to do the u21 job properly. I've been following up on high potential u21 yr olds after their u21 campaign to advise for secondaries at 22-23yrs to catch them up a bit where primaries might have had more attention at 21yrs. This way players can have the best of both worlds- u21 and secondaries/ salary efficiency. Above all though I'm happy to suggest both options to owners, get a gauge on what the manager wants and go from there.

Very interesting question, unfortunately the u21 world is dominated by triskill bigman (Center with IS 17+ ID 17+ and RB 14+ that cost around 80-100k), so if i had to chose between a 17-17-14-10 (IS-ID-RB-SB) with no secondaries or a 15-15-12-8 with 10+ in JS-HN-DR and decent OD and PA, I would probably go with the first one
But simply cause with the enormous pool of players that Italy has, we were lucky enough to have the opportunity of "testing" both out, and the guy with more primaries was simply better.
Obviously things would change if i had a guy like Mastrodonato, who was 17-17-15-10 guy with 11 JS and 11 DR, although we had Padula and Stefanelli with more inside skills, Mastrodonato was a nailed on starter every time he was in decent GS.

With this being said, I wouldn't force anything, I would layout to the manager multiple training plans, the pros and cons of each one and I would let him decide what path he'd like to take

On exterior players (PG and SG) you don't have this problem since my players rarely have huge salaries, and it's easier for them to be balanced since 1on1 provides a good amount of IS training