BuzzerBeater Forums

Let me start off by giving a word of thanks to GM-brianjames.

It was a pleasure to work with you the next two seasons.

Now, for the next group of candidiates:

Can you work closely with me?

To have the USA program be a success we need to have great teamwork between the managers of the NT & U21 squads.

Please briefly explain how you would accomplish this.

Can you work closely with me?

Juice and I have been working in collaboration for the past few seasons to develop the US player tracking database, so I think (and hope!) the answer to this is yes.

Specifically in terms of NT/U21 interaction, I think this is an evolving question. As I stated in the speech thread, I don't think player competition is much of a factor any more. There are rarely U21 players these days who have received enough training to beat out the quality 23-26 year old players currently manning the NT squad. But, in the case where one pops up and would make a real contribution to the NT squad I would defer to him (but if they're going to be DNP-Coach's Decision, get them back to U21!).

But, I think that the two teams can work together to strengthen each other. Player tracking is an obvious case, as is player development--I would absolutely pick a slightly less talented player who's being actively (and quickly) trained over the more talented player that's stagnating since the former is more likely to contribute at higher levels.

2) In case of conflicts of interest, the interest of the NT overrides the interest of the U21 team, in every decision.

I'm not a fan of that - if we're playing in Americas qualifying and the U21 is in the Worlds, we can afford to let them have a player that would play for the NT.

We want both teams to be dominant, and not have the U21 be the little brother.

At the same time, you were the one who got to call Harrell two seasons ago

This is a good example of why this isn't really an issue anymore. The best U21 PG is now likely around the #6 NT PG overall, for shooting guard it's #11 (which is actually the same player, excluding him the next best U21 SG is #30 overall), at SF it's #10, PF #10, and C is #11. So I really think it's a moot point. Sam Anderson is really the only U21 guy that might make the NT squad, unless they're looking for specialists, in which case Hank Vogel I suppose could be in play.

The point is really that there's far more the teams can do to work together than to be in competition with each other. I'd be interested in gathering opinions on experience, but I think that getting future NTers some experience boosts early on could be very valuable (this means making the team not the all-21 team, but finding ways to get some top 20 year olds, and maybe even the occasional 19 year onto the squad, even in end-of-the-bench roles).