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alrighty, time for some PO/PD predictions:

PO's
Big 8
Angels vs Tool Belgium
Tool has sold quite 2 key players to his squad and is in rebuilding mode. Angels on the other hand have been battling one injury after the other on their starters. First Bari went down. Bari was yet to be cleared for a game, or Marichal had to be sent to the infirmary. And Marichal wasn't on the court yet, or Vanhaewaert went down (he'll be missing the entire postseason). Yesterday's game gave the latest scare for the Angels when Ottevaere had to be carried off on a stretcher, but other than some bruises, he seems fine. If the Angels can finally leave their injury problems behind them, then they could be a force to be reckoned with. 66% of the managers who voted have picked the Angels as their conference winners, so they'll be the team to beat while playing in their conference. Many questions remain unsolved. Where will their latest addition, Karmanas, end up playing? Angels already had a 6 man strong rotation, now they've got 7 strong players with 3 addition Bench players. That means they are 10 guy's deep. How will the coach play? He's got studs to play an outside game, but with the addition of Karmanas, the Angels can really get some large rotation going up front... With Marichal as the new Franchise player, will the Angels be able to live up to the expectations placed on them at the beginning of the season? only time can tell.

Falco Gent vs Beerschot Bears
Coach Steven has dug himself a hole here. 4 of his 5 starters all have played 48 minutes and have yet to get any PO action. That means that they'll have to train GS for sure and training GS is no miracle solution... Never the less, they face Beerschot Bears, who just sold of their PG ( weird timing...) Falco has changed from being an inside team to an outside team. But falco's biggest problem is it's rotation. they've got no bench, and that could be their greatest weakness. Still Falco have ulrap who's a player that should be reckoned with. He would be very close to making the NT if he were a Belgian player, so that say's enough. His starting line up is one very few teams can hope to match up with, but the question is, what will happen if a player gets into foultrouble... Beerschot Bears shouldn't count themselves out just yet, and the fact that Falco has played to many minutes on his starters could force him to take some risks against Beerschot Bears. Falco has to play PO Normal if they want to try and overpower the Angels on their own court, who will most likely make it to the conference finales. And Beerschot Bears has the reputation of being a pesky opponent, so this should be a pretty interesting game. Bears are strong on the inside, something which Falco isn't. Falco's strong on the outside and has to take some risks. So all in all, this should be a very interesting game.

Great 8
TBS Wolves vs Bxl Mussels
BXL Mussles is a team with a bunch of SF's. that means they could play any tactic, but it also means they don't have any real weaknesses except for not having any strengths either. TBs Wolves on the other hand has that monster player Beykan in their team. On any given night, he can drop 40 points if he feels like it and he recently dropped 70 against Tools former A line up to get the conference title. TBS also made some changes to their line up after the intra conference games, adding another guard to their already pretty nice rotation. Question remains if they can keep up defensifly once a team with a couple of bigs starts banging on them. But that with SKW's big injured, they might not be tested inside untill the PO finals...

SK Wabeke vs Thomas Cook
SKW had a very painfull last game. Not only did they lose HCA in the PO's, but they even ended up losing an important player to injury aswell. So the question now is, has SKW got a good doctor to whip him back into shape, or is he down untill the PO finals ( provided they make it that far). They face Thomas cook at home, but Thomas Cook has got a pretty deep team. So that could provide plenty of troubles for them. futhermore, since they missed out on the HCA, they'll have to play PO normal in their first game, something which they might not be able to afford, given the injury to their starting bigman: Horaicoechea. However, considering Thomas Cooks horrible GS i think they should be able to get pasted that first round pretty easely

Predictions for conference finals:
Angels-Falco
TBS-SKW

Play Downs
C for Cookies vs Rubo Niel
C for Cookies got the HCA, but i really wouldn't be confident agaisnt Rubo Niel. Rubo Niel is a very offensif orientated team and if all their players get hot like they did against T-stars, then they can drop 150 points in a game, something which C for Cookies isn't build for to do. This said, with HCA on C for Cookies side, i think that C for Cookies should end up winning this regulation series.

T-stars vs Armstrongs
T-stars might have HCA, but they've put their entire team for sale. if they lose some players, then Armstrongs will have won this regulation series before the first game is played. Cause BB rules state that no new players behind 15.00 hours on the sunday prior to the PO games can be entered for the PD games. And in the event that T-stars does keep all his players, then Armstrong knows all the weaknesses and strengths of his opponent. So Armstrongs really has got an edge over T-stars...

Predictions for regulation series:
Cookies and Armstrongs win their series in 3 games each.


Next predictions will be made on Friday.

regarding Boubous warriors, she's probably going to priorise the training of Sam Draye i think. i've heard some stuff about Ingkor but didn't want to see his skills untill i'm sure i don't need to face him anymore. i dislike unfair advantages. i could have called up any Belgium player in our conference to find out their skills, but i haven't. i asked for Coecks skills because he was a big and we're short in that departement, but i could have checked on Nick Maljers ( of Cookies) or a couple of others for that matter.

Even tho i'm a NT coach, i tend to be as fair as possible in that regard.

as far as that vote goes, i think you should have waited longer with it. you started to early with it. i voted when SKW was still the team i was expecting as my opponent, the recent TL activety has totally shaken it up. would be fun if we could reset the poll and see how the results would be this time around :D

I'd love to hear everyones predictions on who will win the MVP award this season.

I've got:
1) Arno Coeck (Saint Servais)
2) Valt Tiber (Falco Gent)
3) Wijnand Marichal ( Antwerp Angels)

i'm pretty sure Marichal would have ended higher if he had been able to play all the games. his last 2 games after his injury really have hurt his chances ( already the fact that the MVP has always played all the games in the competition means that Marichal shouldn't win it).

Marichals state line would be 4.6 Rbs, 4 assists, 1 steals, 1 block and 20 points a game. Considering that Coeck and Tiber have close to no assists and that despite being a guard, Marichal averages twice the amount of blocks they do per game, i think Marichal had a great chance to win it this season. But MVP voting always needs players who do well in ratings, RB, assists, point and play all 22 games, so i reckon that Marichal will come in 3rd despite his beautiful statline...

Coack leads the league in rebounds and second in assist with an average of 40 minutes played per game, so i reckon i got a safe guess with Coeck as my #1

Last edited by AthrunZala at 2/19/2013 1:27:06 PM

This is where it begins! the real fights.

no offence meant to the other teams, but the 4 teams who remain in the hunt for the title are the teams that stood above the other teams this season.

it all comes down to the next 4 games.

Angels - Falco
The long awaited and predicted conference final. Altho presidents from both the Angels and Falco's fanclub were cocky enough to dub this game the 'real' final of the II.2 division, many consider this to be the first real test for both teams. In the regular season, the mission for both teams was not to lose any unnecessairy games, something in which Falco did a better job than the Angels ( this is based upon the fact that Falco has a 17-3 record against all other teams, where as Angels have a 16-4 record against the other teams). However, when facing eachother in the individual match-ups, Angels ended up taking home the victory on both occasions in this season. The first game was won by 88-77 on Falco's turf ( where Marichal had a mounstrous double double by grabbing 11 rebounds and dropping a franchise high 63 points!). The second game was also won by the Angels, this time beating Falco by 94-80, the game in which both teams played all their starters to ensure getting HCA through-out the PO's.

If we include the rich history between both clubs, well noticed that both clubs have faced eachother 16 times! of those 16 games, 14 were league games, 1 cup game and 1 PO game. As it stands now, all of the Angels 8 victories have come from league games against Falco. Falco has won 6 league games against the Angels, but the most important games (being the Cup game and the PO game) were both won by Falco.

It must be said that Angels are 6-2 in the last 8 games against Falco, and the 2 losses comming from the season in which they went down from the BBBL to ease up the training of Marichal and J-J.

When comparing both teams, you'll see that Falco have a 5 starters and 1 big for rotation. That means that if they are to win, they'll need to get huge preformances from all their starters. for this to happen, it means that all starters have to stay out of faul trouble. That will put an enormous pressure on Falco to play. Angels on the other hand have 7 worthy starters on their team, which 3 guy's worthy of comming off the bench. Since the last game, Angels have strengthened their frontcourt with Karmanas, who will be bringing more experience to this already very seasoned Angels team. However, this doesn't change a lot to the team. It merely provides more rotation for the bigs, something which they have been missing since the injury wave hit them late this season, which forced them to miss Bari for 4 games and has forced Vanhauwaert to sit out these PO's due to injury. Falco will be counting on their big 3 consisting of guards Ulrap and Kazenbeais allong with PF Tiber, where as Angels will be countering with a big 3 of there own, with NT star Marichal in the lead, followed by Former NT and homegrown SF Ottevaere with Bari anchoring the defense.

For both teams, it's a do or die scenario. Falco has an aging squad and needs the better financial state of the BBBL to rejuventate his team. Angels need promotion to keep Marichal happy in both the financial and competitive departement. The game is expected show and in a little over 9 hours, we'll know which team will represent the conference in the divisons final. Both teams deserve the spot, however, only one will be able to go thru to the next round. the other team will be forced to take some harsh financial and competitve decision...

the other conference final sees 2 equally fine teams ( which less cocky fanclub presidents) facing eachother:

TBS Wolves vs SK Wabeke

There is no love lost between these 2 teams. Since season 19, these teams have always met eachother in the PO's! in seasons 19 and 20, they faced eachother in the conference semi-finales, games in which SK Wabeke was both victorious. However, since season 21, the Wolves seems to have gained the upper hand against SKW. First by defeating SKW on their homecourt in last seasons conference finales, and this season, TBS Wolves has won both league games against Wabeke.

If you have a quick look at both teams, then TBS should be the obvlious winner in this confrontation. Wabeke is missing their best bigman due to an injury, something which they would need against the Wolves. It's a well known fact that the Wolves have a strong outside rotation, yet they aren't very deep in their frontcourt.

However, upon looking closer to both teams, you shouldn't count Wabeke out just yet. The Wolves could end up losing a game they should win if they don't give it their all against Wabeke. Wabeke has outstanding form, where as Wolves are missing their offensif superstar Beykan ( the one who dropped 70 points in 35 minutes before fauling out against Tool Belgium!) He's the division leading scoorder, but has had some trouble with his game shape as of late. With Wabekes guards in prolific shape, you have to wonder who will be able to make the points for the Wolves. Wolves hold the slight advantage by having HCA, but any underestimation from the Wolves could prove extremely costly for their chances of reaching the Divisions finals.



predictions:
Angels - Falco ==> Angels win by 10
Wolves - Wabeke ==> Wolves win by 15

situation analysis
In the event that the Angels win, then Angels will have HCA in the finales. With their large rotation, there should be no question that they are the favorites due to their deep team. However, with the recent injury wave that saw several players key players bench, it is rumored that Revo wants to win these PO's in as few games as possible. he fears for injuries potentially decreasing his PO chances and thus wants this to be over with.

In the event that the Angels lose against Falco, then the outcome of the other game decides who gets the HCA. Due to Wolves trashing of Laeken in their last game, they have managed to get a better point diference that Falco, thus enabling them to get HCA in the event of an Angels loss. However, if the Wolves underestimate Wabeke and go easy on them, they will probably pay the price for underestimating their opponents and that would see Falco having HCA against Wabeke in the finals.

So several options are possible. Choice will have to be made by all managers, but as it stands now, the managers of the Angels and the Wolves will have the largest amount of pressure on them. They have all the tools to make the right decisions. If they make the right decisions, it should see them thru to the division finales, regardless of the choices made by the other managers. That means that those managers have the most to lose in tonites games. Should be interesting to see how things will unfold from here on out.

Another interesting analysis indeed.
If you promote, II.2 will surely lose it's finest forum entertainer!

May the best win tonight!

Well, i'm surprized by how i overclassed Falco. I gotta give it to Falco, i wasn't expecting the 2-3 zone, but i fear that Falco doesn't understand how the 2-3 zone works. i know for a fact that his bigs don't have the skills required to play a 2-3 zone.

anyhow, congratulations to Coach Steven. thank you for being such a good opponent. I like facing Good opponents. And now, i've got TBS as my opponent. Heyland, best of luck on tuesday.

you've got a good team with an unpredictable player on that squad. i'm not looking forward to face Beykan. I still don't understand how on earth he was able to drop so many points in several games.

Allright, we're getting some finals action this season. The first time for us.
Beykan is already preparing to drop another 70 :-) If we may believe the analysis, our team only has 1 player who makes a real impact. Lately he has cooled of though, which means others have taken over! Beykan's good, but not the only good player on the team.

Congrats to the MVP Marichal! Good luck in the finals, however our guys are not planning on letting go easily.