Analyzing the situation of India U21
Now that I am India U21's new coach for a few weeks and got an overview i want to share a quick analysis about my thoughts.
First of all: The support was and is great, a special thanks goes to the users bball champ and harsh who support me wherever they can. Great work guys!
I think over the last weeks we really changed something. Me and my staff members were writing and supporting every owner who has a potential U21 player. And the really positive thing about that: The large majority of owners are really helpful and cooperative. That makes this job very pleasant and that's why it's also so much fun right now for me (or for us).
Hundreds of mails were written and the positive consequence is: We were able to help many owners and improve the training of our Indian talents. We are headed in the right direction!
Looking at the short term perspectives: The 21 year olds are really a good age group. Not very good, but good for Indian standards. We will be able to win our third game in the Asia U21 Championship Tournament. One more than everyone expected. Sadly we will probably also be the only team with three wins who doesn't advane to the next round. But that's no problem, we are so to say the "best of the rest" which is very good for India. But much more important is that our players are very well trained and they are developing very good. Some of them could be an option for the A-Team in the future and that's what it's all about!
Don't expect too much wins next season. The 20 year olds are a pretty bad age group. Not in he back court, not at the SF position(both solid), but at PF and C. We really don't have many good players there so we have to be realistic and say: OK next season not many wins. I'll probably give some roster spots to some guys who are now 19.
Why?
Well our 19 year olds are really looking very very good! Maybe kind of a golden generation! We'll have lots of fun with these guys!
Finally i want to announce one change: India U21 has a higher level now. That's why I won't nominate player's who have star potential or lower from next season on. Why? Well in my opinion they have absolutely no chance to get to the A-Team and i would rather give a roster spot to a guy who is worse and/or younger but has the potential to be a better player long-term. bball champ once called me "potential obsessed" (he didnt want to offend me with that ;) ). Maybe I am. But for our A-Team this is positive.
If you have any comments, additions or questions please write it in this forum! I would love to see a discussion about my thoughts here.
Thanks for your time :)
Regards,
Daniel
India U21 coach