Subject: Senior NT

Congrats to our new manager Fluff79!

Congrats Dude !

Congratz

Thanks guys, I'm very pleased to have been voted NT manager for season 5.

This season, we are in group 5 of the qualifiers.

basketball.powerplaymanag...

We have been drawn with Czech Republic (rank 3), Finland (rank 12), Slovenia (rank 20) and Denmark (rank 35). We are currently ranked 31 but last season we scored a similar number of ranking points as Slovenia and Denmark.

My aim is to qualify from the group stage. I think I can do it, especially with the help of Beddington Park (Silver Sentinels, I.1), The Kop (Dallas Mavericks I.1) and Ho0ligan (Hooker Horny Toads LA, II.2). I am sure there are others who will join and help us too.

I also have a longer term aim to develop the NT team and this means helping to develop the stars of the future and trying as far as possible to increase the depth of players at all positions.

If we can bring our "A" game to the Group Stage and develop some good relationships with all the managers out there developing young talent, I will be a very happy NT manager!

Please watch this space...

OK, I'm looking for any English PFs and Cs out there - fully grown and ready to play. Lets start with OVR > 375 send me a message thanks

Hi everyone

I've picked my roster for this campaign. I want to thank Beddington Park, Apollinaire, The Kop and RossP for their valuable advice. It was tough to make the final call, but I think i've got the balance right.

I've swapped a few players in and out to give us some more depth and defensive capability. I've also added the best youngest talent to benefit from the National Team's coaches and training facilities. One or two of them are already very close to making the bench.

We have some 'quirky' older and experienced players for sure and i found it very challenging to decide who should stay and who should go.

We don't have much depth at SF, PF and C right now and generally speaking, in my opinion, there is too much shooting training at these positions and not enough blocking training. There are also deficiencies in technique, which is particularly important for the bigger players and the types of offenses and defenses i like to run.

At SF, i might call up another player, particularly if any of the ones i have picked pick up an injury or play poorly.

If anyone wants to know why i have picked, not picked or dropped any particular players, just ask here, or in a private message and I'll get back to you.

Now we are busy scouting our opponents in the group stage. If anyone would like to lend a hand with their scouting staff, please let either Beddington Park or I know.

Thanks

UK vs Greece friendly 24 April 2015
basketball.powerplaymanag...

Earlier this week, the UK played its first friendly game against Greece.
Both teams fielded strong rosters and played very different styles.

Offensively we experimented with our set play offenses (3 out 2 in) taking our time to take good shots, whilst the Greeks moved the ball quickly on offense always looking for the fast breaks, taking the first open look they could get, and crashing the boards (2 out 3 in).

Defensively we ran a zone, opting to man-mark one or two of their key threats. They ran a straight man to man and played really hard - they weren't afraid to put our players at the free throw line.

In the first quarter we found some good spaces mid and close range and scored our shots. We drew a lot of fouls this way from their aggressive defense, but turned the ball over less than they did which is a credit to our guards. We did well to keep them out the paint, but they started to find success from downtown that caused us a concern. Score UK 19-Greece 21

In the second quarter they collapsed in on us some more on defense, but we took advantage by finding and capitalising on our 3point shot opportunities. I think every guard and small forward scored a 3 pointer each scoring 5/5 and opening up a nice lead. The Greeks focused more on their 3 pointers too, but we closed them down much better this quarter. Score UK 50 - Greece 38

In the third both teams stepped up their defense. We didn't concede a single 3 pointer but we only scored one - and what was worse is that we struggled to score inside. So far this game we have 6 steals to their 3 and 2 blocked shots to their zero. They have the edge on rebound numbers. Not bad fellas. Score UK 63 - Greece 52

In the last quarter the Greeks clicked and started to mount a comeback. They kept finding the open man and started to sink a lot more of their shots both inside and outside the 3 point line. 7 assists tied to a great shooting % is no coincidence and something we need to work on preventing in future. For us, it was a big man's game. Our guards weren't making their shots so fed it to the big guys. Their shooting wasn't good with the aggressive defense in their faces, but we got looks especially from some great offensive rebounding and managed to put some away as well. Only one point up coming into the last couple of minutes, Jack Walker (never in doubt) took a scary 3 pointer (remind me to take out the 'Centre 3 point shooting play' out of the set play book!) and Sheldon and Craddock pressed home the advantage. Final score UK 83-Greece 79.

UK: Craddock 17, Hennessy 15, Carpenter 11
Greece: Rorris and Rigopoulos 13, Stroggylis and Spiridakou 10

Rigopoulous was man of the match mainly due to his ridiculous rebounding. (mental note - boxing out for next training session!)

A really enjoyable game and thanks to the Greek players and fans who came all the way to play at Sandynest Arena, UK.

Great commentary Fluff, enjoyed reading that! And a solid win to start your tenure, well done.

Now that's what I call a write up !

Superb Stuff there buddy

Now, we have these Slovenians. This is probably going to be the hardest game of the whole campaign. We'll give it a shot. I feel that the team is pulling the right way, we have a decent base, some specialists and a nice crop of rookies on board.

Stay tuned fellas !

N

Thanks! BP called the tactics so he deserves a lot of the credit. Ive set ours for tonights game, but if we lose I might have to promote BP ; o)

More by chance than judgement on my part - - As you can see by the Sentinel's recent performances !

Fluff picked em and I kind of threw a plan together .. Now enough back slapping ! We haven't even started yet

Lets go UK! Lets see some great shooting!

They're getting the hairdryer for their poor defence at the end of Q1!

I'm truly very disappointed about our result tonight.

We got off to a horrible start and even though we clawed it back in the fourth quarter, we couldn't quite go all the way.

Looking back, I picked the wrong series of offenses - we shot very poorly - especially inside - which is surprising because i didn't rate the defence of their starting 5. By the time we put them in foul trouble it was too late.

I'm sorry about that.
I will do my best to win our next game.

Hi everyone
Just to let you know that I am still working hard to try and turn our performances around in the World Cup qualifiers. We got a good result against Finland (first team to beat them) in our own National arena, but unfortunately could not do the same vs Slovenia.

Its going to be an uphill struggle now, but there are a couple more games we *might* be able to win if we play smartly and shoot well.

There may be a point by which i think we will not qualify and in that case i will be choosing junior players over others to build their chemistry and experience.

Another point - I made a mistake today by "adding" a player of mine to the roster when i meant to "add" a jersey number to him. Silly mistake, but i am looking to rectify it as soon as i can. ( i havent dismissed him until i can clarify whether this will adversely affect the rest of the team).

I hope the rest of your season goes well. Not long to the play offs now - save some energy for them!