BuzzerBeater Forums

I thought id just do a bit of a 'my thoughts and impressions' on Div II as it was my first season. No offence to anyone intended obviously.

I could very easily to get carried away and think that Div II was easy, after finishing 4th. A quick glance will let you know that only 1 game seperated 3rd to 7th. Also was the quickly announced tanking from VictoriaMages early in the season as well as Haggards going bot later on, and Docs patients 'tanking' - for lack of a better word.
In saying all that though!, what a tough Div II league to get put in. Vios' pre-season review said it all, and I knew id be in for a struggle team wise. My team salary was towards the bottom end, my arena lacking a little bit, and playing against a few ex-Div I teams, and other guys who have been entrenched in Div II for some time, i thought i had very ltitle chance.

And again in saying all that, i lost some stupid games. Like i lost to Haggards the day before they went bot. Do'h! i lost to Victoria Mages just before he decided to sell up ... Double Do'h! I got knocked out of the cup in the first round (which actually turned out to be a bit of a clessing in disguise really). All in all though, ive probably finshed up with about as many wins as I shoud have, and the team performed as per my initial expectations, and probably above others.

Things ive learnt about Div II.
Rebounding - Hooly dooly, you guys LOVE you're rebounding! Particularly the $100k C players, who probably have Legendary rebounding and nothing else haha. I got smashed on the offensive boards in a few games, so yer, thats something i wasnt expecting.
Crunch Time - People actually use CT during the season! And not because they are a noob! In Div III some little smart-ass who just got promoted and is in their first season decides that he will CT you, just because he wants to see what it does! But for everyone else, its an enthusiasm killer. In Div II when you have guys CT-ing, it makes the complexities of managing enthusiasm much more difficult, and that game at home that you think is in the bag, suddenly becomes a loss and you're left spewin about it.
Arena prices - I did some research because i wanted to know what prices to set my arena at. Man you ALL have such a different pricing structure its not funny. No guidence there! Obviously everyone is in different personal/team situations so obviously this will vary, but i didnt think it would vary as much as it does
Point Guards - Nobody really (correct me if im wrong) has a PG who is their top scorer. But this is probably a symptom of everyone having guards with ridiculous OD.
OD - see above.
Steals - I just found that guards don't steal the ball as much in Div II? Yet forwards steal more. go figure.
Staff - I think there are a few teams who still havent learnt about the joys of having great staff :)
Value - So this was a concept which comes under different names, I call it value. Getting bang for your buck in terms of player performance and the salary of that player. Coming into Div II with a team salary of roughly $50k - $100k less than MOST (not all) other teams, (and starting 5 difference quite large as well).... i thought i was going to get smashed in most games. But not true - I always thought, even in Div III, that I had an excellent 'value' team and there are some other teams in this division who, not only understand this concept but do it really well and im not naming names :) i was surprised to see the number of teams who had massively-priced players (particularly at C, see above about rebounding!) yet the performance was comparable to other C's who had a salary 40%-50% less..... I did expect in Div II that most users would know inside-out the concept of value. Maybe not? Maybe they know more than me and know something i dont! haha.

anyways. thats my little Div II first impressions review. OH and the other thing is that ur all so nice to each other. Its pleasant to go into the forums hoorah!

Well written mate. :)

I think considering I finished 3rd and my starting 5 is cheaper than yours that I must be one of those folk that understand bang for buck? :P

Whenever someone in Div2 sells a player i'm nearly always surprised at the skill set.
Seems to me that people buy single pos role players.
like SG's with JS/JR/OD and almost nothing else.

I'm really hoping to finish 5th next season and to save as much money as possible so that I can compete in season 21 or 22.

well done on your season Regan.

Good to see you both enjoyed your seasons. You both came prepared for the div, which is good. Personally I think this season was a very easy one though considering the number of tankers/bots etc, I managed to save millions and still stay up which is a little ridiculous.

yes i think at the start of the season it was touted as being tough and competitive, which, at the time, was true.

But obviously with the fade away of teams, and, (not neccassarily this division) the tactic of "ill just finish 4th/5th/6th and save $$$... even to the point of 'ill just demote this season, then come back bigger and in 2 seasons time'...those kind of long term tactics can make it very difficult to measure this league and competitiveness etc.

but this is the nature of the game now i believe.

Great write up and it is excellent to have such great minds as you and Rad Ranga joining the ranks of my old division II which I think already had a ton of very smart managers (I wont mention them for fear of missing one).

Rebounding is big. My C Jared Sherwin has it as his highest stat and my PF Gary Lawrance has it as his second highest. It is great but it is always expensive.
Crunch Time is a very important weapon especially later in the season when you have a match against a key rival who you are fighting for a position. It becomes less painful these days when there always seems to be a tanker or two so you can recover your enthusiasm easily.
Arena prices is the biggest black science in this game.
Point Guards are means to pass, but Lordy has certainly done some unusual things with his over the years.
OD - is probably one of the three big keys to the game, even with so much LI offence the number of the outside shots you take that are made into misses can be critical. Even better when few guards have good JR.
Steals are hard to get when most teams have great passing and handling. The WORST PA or HA on any player on my entire team (besides 1k scrimmage scrubs and one backup big man who had one stat inept) was average.
Staff are boring but need to be correct for your team. I pay a lot for mine but I want good training and don't want $100k players out injured.
Value - my second best player is on a $56,000 salary, my 3rd best $37,000. This season my best starting lineup was 37, 63, 56, 136 and 62 yet I went 20-2 (should have been 21-1 but didn't take the last game seriously enough). It can just take a long time to find value. I spent about a month tracking a ton of players before I finally bought Sperbert.

Overall great work and you have done really well, but don't underestimate your opponents in this division there are a lot of very clever managers here.

thanks yoda.

yar they are all a crafty bunch of managers in this league. just when u think u have it all worked out... bam. Crockers goes and ruins it for everybody.
im joking, love ur work bevers

I think it was about 8 seasons ago that I thought I had a chance at promoting. What also needs to be considered is how seriously some managers take the season. I had no chance of promotion so this season was about building up for seasons to come. As it was so close I was forced to bring in a player to try and avoid a relegation series.

Div II is so tough because every one of the managers knows enough to be promoted, but there is only 1 out of the 16 that will get the job done. Well done on your first season in Div II. I remember I made the playoffs the first season I promoted (season 11). You are going to flick between different strategies and team structures until you promote. You are going to think you have it all worked out and then find yourself back at the drawing board. If you don't then I will look up to you as one of the more intelligent managers I have seen in this game.

Best of luck

A good write up and certainly a tough division to land in with Avalon Jets, Hadders and Team Akuma with his expensive starting 5.

Give yourself a bit of credit, it wasnt until after spending 4 seasons in our beloved II.3 and my first season in the ABBL that I obtained anywhere near the amount of knowledge that you already have.

What are your plans for this season given the apparrant stranglehold Team Akuma has on promotion?

wow talk about resurrecting an old thread...what are you doing sid lol

and...i would like to reiterate...both you and I are in the same position on the ladder - 8-0. Our PD difference isnt even that big. I don't think I have a stranglehold on this league at all. If anything, I am suspecting you are trying to shift all the heat on me so you can slide under the radar :P

I won't argue that my starting 5 is expensive though. Well really, starting 4. My SF is pretty cheap, but has worked out to be pretty good value for money.

wow talk about resurrecting an old thread...what are you doing sid lol

Wow I didnt even realise it was an old thread. I must have been hungover as I actually thought the thread was in the Wombat Federation

and...i would like to reiterate...both you and I are in the same position on the ladder - 8-0. Our PD difference isnt even that big. I don't think I have a stranglehold on this league at all. If anything, I am suspecting you are trying to shift all the heat on me so you can slide under the radar :P

Not like me to speak pooiiisssson to try and lull you into a sense of over confidence, mind you the smart thing for me to do would be to sell off a few of my older players, restructure the team and tank after I get another 4 wins

yer nearly a year ago to the day!
Happy birthday to the thread!

I wrote that with retrospect to my first season in Div II. I think i was quite lucky, VictorianMages tanked early and then went bot, Docs Patients pretty much tanked and then went bot, and Stone Slashers tanked, Haggards tanked and went bot,

so yer thats some big name talent pretty much giving up in my first Div II season - was very lucky. in saying that, my boy Alcide finished second in scoring and 3rd in MVP, so yey me.

Yer no offence to TAK, but he is bleeding cash and even if he does keep his team until the final's AND he promotes, then he will be going into the ABBL with an undersized arena and probably a debt, so he really isnt my main concern.
Smart move for him would be to offload his guys post-all-star break, other teams will want them for their finals campaigns and he will get max dollar for them.
which pretty much leaves you or Northcote or MJP to make a move for the finals. And i know who has the most cash out of all 3 of those guys :)

So what are my plans? Not sure at this point, im still sussing out a few options. If i can get past Fashion Victims and his Crunch time on me this week in the cup, then I will have won 3 away games in a row, which is not a bad effort.

If i lose, well.. we shall see.