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(y)

Ok so this week is a bye week for us and I just remembered that I actually have to book a scrimmage on the bye week (otherwise I'll look like a fool). A search through the national team tournament brackets led me to Uruguay still needing a scrimmage themselves this week, so I have sent the scrimmage invite to them. Assuming they accept in time, I believe they can provide a tough test for our current squad.

Referees have campaign against touring Australian side in loss

(35626)

The fix was in. Leading by one point on what was going to be the final possession of the game, Australia played great defence to deny Uruguay an easy look. But just when it looked like Uruguay would have to settle for a contested fade-away to win, Michael Wayne was pulled up for an alleged foul that looked like your standard jostling for position in the low post on the replay. Of course, the pro-Uruguayan crowd cheered the referee for this blatant bad call that gave Uruguay two free throws with two seconds on the clock.

Ramon Moyano sank both free throws, leaving Australia with just two seconds to win off the following play. This wasn't nearly enough time to draw up a proper play, so the play ended up being Dwight Catic receiving the ball and attempting a contested three... which was missed. Uruguay managed a 120-119 victory on their home court, much to the delight of their fans, and disgust of the visitors who had the game won save for a referee that was clearly showing bias for much of the game.

I will not be awarding MVP points this week, as this was ultimately a scrimmage that doesn't mean anything in our Asian Championship campaign. However I will highlight the 3 stars nonetheless:

Keith Anderson (28 points, 13-21 FG, 16 rebounds)
Dylan Scoggins (26 points, 13-18 FG, 14 rebounds)
Poluta'u Brar (20 points, 10-13 FG, 5 assists)

Gives it a Davis Cup like atmosphere lol

Our next tournament game against Pakistan is underway. If you're interested in watching us get another easy win, come and watch the game here:

(35429)

Questionable team selection in 58 point win

Whilst I was afk for much of last night's game, I did read the chat after the game and understand that mllama questioned my decision to start Mahurkar over Wayne, whilst someone else (either whitewind or balev) felt that I was too biased towards game shape across the board.

Well, if being GS-biased is a crime then I plead guilty. During the easier games this season, I want to reward the players and managers with the best GS levels with more game time, hence why Ryder got another game, and why Grief got the start over McMillan and Brar. As for Mahurkar, my logic was that since Wayne played last weeks scrimmage, it was Mahurkar's turn to get more game time. If he and Wayne are on the same GS again next week, I will favour Wayne next time.

Anyway, whilst the Motion offence wasn't quite firing on all cylinders, the team as a whole was in the win, outclassing Pakistan in all four quarters of the game and limiting them to a dismal 18-85 FG. Dwight Catic and Ryan McMillan were the best players on offence, whilst Luka Cicvaric excelled on defence by smothering his opposing man who was trying to play Kobe ball, and Dylan Scoggins constantly crashed boards throughout the game.

3 points: Dwight Catic (22 points, 9-14 FG, 4-5 3PT, opposing SF 0-8)
2 points: Ryan McMillan (19 points, 6-9 FG, 5-7 3PT)
1 point: Dylan Scoggins (8 points, 3-4 FG, 19 rebounds, opposing C's 2-11)

Luka Cicvaric gets an honourable mention for 9 points, 6 assists and the opposing SG shooting 4-34, but I felt that giving him points wouldn't be entirely fair to Gordie Waldron who likewise performed well at the SG spot, not to mention the cries of nepotism I would've received...

the game shape comment was from me, and was not aimed at your decision. I made comment that game shape does not always warrant a start over better skilled players. The comment was actually made in reference to my own findings in u21 team, with Snyder playing well despite his game shape dip.

My knowledge of Wayne/Mahurkars skills and game shape was not strong, it was just a comment adding to discussion on team selection.

Btw good choice on playing Macmillan over Brar. At first i was shocked you chose Rmac as a PG backup over him, then looked at offense chosen and it made sense. I believe you were rewarded in his output!

I just want to see my boy play. I'm not sure that playing 11 minutes in a scrimmage means that a better player should be benched in favor of an inferior one. Besides, that should really be applied consistently if you are going to do it - Wayne has played 11 minutes this season before tonight's game, while Scoggins had played over 50 - so going by that argument Wayne should have started ahead of Scoggins (I'm not suggesting he should have, for the record).

To be honest, I'm not terribly fussed for a one off game - these games are pretty meaningless at the moment. But I have my chip on my shoulder that Wayne is being pretty underrated at the moment, so I gotta push my boy ;).

(I'll note that Wayne backed me up by having a pretty darn good game in the minutes he played - 6 points and 9 rebounds in 16 minutes is handy, plus the fact that the opposing centers combined to score a grand total of 0 points while he was on the court).

I think the gameshape comment is fair to, but I'm not concerned if you want to reward good gameshape at this stage. I'd hope that, once the crunch games hit that, for example, RMac in strong GS starts ahead of Grief in proficient.

You also got to keep in mind that you should also reward good work ethics. Sometimes you give your boy 48 to 65 minutes every week and game shape still fluctuates. Its random like that.

(35433)

It's half time in our match against an Arab oil giant at Bay Stadium. Come and watch the 2nd half if you so please...

No clear MVP in routine win over United Arab Emirates

Princeton offence is an offence that is very hit or miss in this game from my experiences using it. But with Michael Wayne starting at PF for this game, I felt that this would be an example of it working well. And with the team shooting 46-89 FG (51.7%) and 8-25 3PT (32%), my gut feeling appears to have been proven right, though to be fair we were facing a team with almost no backcourt presence whatsoever.

(seriously, their starting PG had a 14k salary)

The win puts us 3-0 in the group, and with Hanguk aka South Korea up next, we should make that 4-0 to leave us with two matches that will only affect the seeding for the second round draw against Malaysia and Japan. I found it very difficult to name one MVP for this game, as no less than four players present a solid claim to being the MVP of the match. They'll each receive one point, and I'll leave it in the hands of whoever replies to this thread between now and the next game to tell me which two players receive an extra point, which will make it add up to 6 points awarded.

1 point: Ryan McMillan (10-17 FG, 2-6 3PT, 22 points, 2 rebounds, 2 assists)
1 point: Luka Cicvaric (7-14 FG, 3-6 3PT, 19 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists)
1 point: Michael Wayne (5-9 FG, 2-3 3PT, 12 points, 9 rebounds, 5 assists)
1 point: Will Williams (5-9 FG, 10 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists)

Last edited by Jay (OTT) at 12/16/2015 10:16:09 AM