BuzzerBeater Forums

(68414)
Norway u21 62 England u21 89

Arrows excelled again by predicting a normal pace (Norway went for motion) while using Inside Isolation on the offensive side to avoid a possible prediction there, though in fact Norway didn't make a prediction.

Similarly to last week England took the lead from the start before a few changes of lead before retaking the lead in the 6th minute with a Bunce 3 which we then never gave up. The first half saw constant attempts by England to extend the lead but Norway kept fighting back.

Two threes to start the second half saw Norway pull within 3, and following the panicky timeout actually closed to within 2, before England held Norway scoreless for over 5 minutes in the second quarter while scoring 12 of their own to get a much more comfortable lead, which never looked threatened.

A highlight was Boddie's 25 rebounds, good for 3rd best all time single game performance, which also lifted him to 7th all time. Boddie also scored in the 20s, as did Clarke and Bunce. A stat line I particularly appreciated was our SF McAvoy who had 8pts, 7 rebs, 5 asts, and 3 blocks. Allison who started at PF contributed 6 blocks an outstanding defensive performance.

(68658)
New Zealand 82 England 111
A clash between the two teams I famously coached. (What do you mean you didn't know I was England coach, let alone the New Zealanders!)

For the first time this season an England team didn't score first. New Zealand gaining an early 2-0 advantage but it would be their only lead of the game. The legend Banuelos scored our first points, a vicious dunk following a Cassell pass, Kanjilal on his debut put us ahead from close in to make it 4-2, then England pulled away through a strong first quarter leading 32-18 after the 12 minutes were done.

The lead remained around the same mark for much of the second quarter until a very strong last two minutes for England, stretched the lead to a comfortable 22.

The third quarter was much like the second and by the fourth the starters were all having a rest, England finally running out 29 pts winners.

Points, rebounds and assists were all shared around with no individual standing out, a real team effort. Kanjilal impressed on his debut, Cassell impressed me with 5 assists playing C and Smith top scored with 17. The bench also contributed, and all 12 players managed to score.

Two games both teams were expected to win but reassuring to see two promising performances from both sides to kickstart the season. Thanks for the write ups mate, enjoying them!

Two good wins for the NT teams. Nice to see my guys performing well for each team. Boddie with a monster 20/20 game, Allison blocking everything, but seeing Kanjilal’s performance was the highlight for me! 8 seasons of training paying off!

Two very good write ups again Gully! Let’s hope both teams keep up the good start to the season.

I'm sure you noticed I "borrowed" some of your comments from the discord.

I thought you’d find them interesting ;)

Two more wins! MVP voting:

NT = (https://strawpoll.com/polls/poy9Wk10DgJ)
U21 = (https://strawpoll.com/polls/ajnEO1l00ZW)

Thanks to testudo for the polls - please vote, it pleases our imaginary players no end.

(68728)
England 124 Saudi Arabia 76

Very short review of this one (stop cheering, my posts aren't that long!) as it was one of England's more comfortable wins, despite Saudi Arabia holding the lead for 10 seconds in the 1st quarter. A glance at the teams ratings show the two teams defences about equal, but our offence was much better, a fact borne out by the statistics with us shooting 51% from the field compared to Saudi Arabia's 31%.

Kemp top scored with 25, led the team with 13 rebounds and also led the team in 3 pters and FTs. As a team England commited only 2 turnovers, an outstanding effort.

(68419)
England u21s 92 Georgia u21s 76

What a game this one was, with both coaches making inspired defensive choices, arrows matching our 3-2 against Georgia's patient offence, and Georgia choosing the 2-3 against our look inside.

The first quarter was exceedingly tight, England twice having a 4 pt lead but in general there was more often just 2 points in the game. Our points were fairly evenly spread but after one quarter Lekishvili had 15 of Georgia's 19 pts.

The second went much the same way until with 6:42 left in the half we increased the lead to 6 for the first time with a Clarke jumper. We then did not score for the next 3:07 as Georgia scored 10 to give them a 4 point lead. By half time their lead had increased to five, causing a fair bit of concern amongst the England fans, though at least two did confidently state we would go on to win. By the way one of them wasn't me, and neither was the other one.

Slowly in the third we tried to chip away at the their lead, never allowing them to increase it, and keeping them under pressure. Bunce eventually gave us the lead for the final time with 5:18 left in the third, a jumper to give us a 54-52 lead.

We increased this to 8 by the end of the third and finally had 12 comfortable minutes as we ran out 16 point champions.

Clarke was our top scorer with 23, Bunce had 22 (including 10 FTs) and 5 assists, and MacLachlan played well defensively contributing 6 blocks.

Accusations of stat padding were heard from somewhere as Boddie got a double double after a strong fourth quarter. Asked for a comment later he said "Big Boddies have a lot of gravity, so rebounds just come to me."

Comfortable wins in both games. Limited minutes for the starters means fewer stand-out performances, but I'm sure you can find a couple of players to vote for in the latest polls:

MT MVP: (https://strawpoll.com/polls/BJnX8777Onv)
U21 MVP: (https://strawpoll.com/polls/QrgebPPPLZp)

Am I late? No. In fact, like Gandalf, I've arrived exactly at the time I meant to.

(68421)
Switzerland u21 62 England u21 84

(68759)
Cyprus 74 England 111

Just one review to cover both games as they were similar games. The seniors gave up the first points but by 5 minutes in they'd established a 10 point lead, which just increased throughout the game. While the juniors scored the first 12 pts in their game and led by 27 at half time, and by 33 after the 3rd quarter, before giving up some of their lead during garbage time in the 4th.

As we've come to expect now Boddie was dominant for the u21s with 23 pts and 24 rebs (5th highest ever by an England u21 player), either of which would be noteworthy contributions. Even more he added 5 blocks in an excellent performance on both sides. Boddie is now 4 behind legend Jeremy "Big Mac" MacAusland who is 3rd all time in the u21 career rebounding rankings, and only 18 behind leader Robbie Cook.

Much more difficult to pick the outstanding performances for the senior team with 6 players contributing 12 or more points and the highest scorer only hitting 16. Kemp led the starters with 6 assists, Catty had 5, and Banuelos, the twitter star, added 5 from the bench.

We've reached a significant stage of the u21 season so I'm going to mention the standings this week, which is why I'm doing this on tuesday instead of monday (you see? there was a plan all along? i'm not just winging this!).

We're in 3rd on points difference behind Israel and Greece, two very strong BB nations and a game ahead of Ukraine who llost to Scotland this week, and who we play next week. Since that means Israel and Greece play each other on monday, that makes next week the most important week of the tournament so far.

The standings for the senior NT team are somewhat different as there are no groups, and the top 32 qualify for the next stage. Points difference can make a huge difference here as multiple teams will finish with the same record.

We're currently 9th, there are 15 unbeaten teams (4-0) and 16 teams on 3-1. The Czech Republic are 32nd at the moment with a 2-2 record. For reference a 5-3 record is usually enough to qualify but home court in the knock out rounds are a huge advantage so the higher we finish the better.