BuzzerBeater Forums

OK, as has obviously been mentioned, the team is out of the race for the world cup. We'll enter the consolation tourney, but since we start it at 0-2, we'll need to basically win every game to make the finals of that.

But the consolation tourney isn't a big goal of mine. Obviously I'll still try to win, but the priority now is to set the team up for next season, so we can hopefully make the world cup then.

With that in mind, I'm going to be adding some young players, who are the future of the team over the coming weeks. These players will be given a chance to prove themselves for next season.

First cab off the rank, is Steve Pierce. Pierce is a 25 year old PG, who plies his trade with Black Label Society. Prior to joining the Society, Pierce was trained by the since botified Alderly Albatrosses, and prior to that, the Glenelg Tigers. As can probably be seen by his numbers in division 2 this season, Pierce probably isn't going to light up the stats sheet. But he'll add some much needed defensive toughness and teamwork to the team.

Welcome to Pierce!

I should note that I've been too lazy to do detailed writeups this season, and with the world cup gone, I'm less inclined to do MVP votes etc. But I'll try get back to doing a short writeup each week.

First up, we play the Bahamas. If we lose that, something is wrong.

Congrats to Pierce and BLS, an exciting young player.

Does that mean Lionel walker is on the chopping block?

Grats to direwolf.

Walker has probably still got another season left in him. Maybe.

just a reminder to all that our first game of the consolation tourney is tonight, at the user friendly time of 6pm.

My merch just jumped 45k wit anderson starting last wk, keep starting him plz

Don't give me an excuse not to start him

i'll keep his GS and DMI as high as i can SIR!

Well, Steve Pierce was given the chance to impress on Monday night, starting in the game against Bahamas. And impress he did, shooting 60% from the field, scoring 12 points, and giving off 7 assists. But most impressive was his defense, as he held the opposing PG spot to a paltry 32.9 point per hundred rating, which is pretty damned good considering they played run and gun. It remains to be seen if he can replicate this sort of effort against the top teams, but early signs from him are good.

In regards to adding a player for this week, a poll was started in the federation with 3 of the best young guns in Australia, to determine who would get the add this week. There was a runaway winner, however he's sadly had a bad gameshape roll, so there won't be an add this week. I hope to be unveiling a new young gun this time next week ;).

(Shameless fed plug - if you want to be involved in discussing which players should be added to the team: http://www.buzzerbeater.com/community/fedoverview.aspx?fedid=19765)

On another note, the team has continued to improve in rank this season, and we are now knocking on the door of the top 10 teams in the world, despite missing the world cup. Our rank has risen from 21st at the beginning of this season, and 34th at the beginning of last season, to now sit at 14th. So good signs there!

Our next game is against Bosnia at the rather Australian unfriendly time of 2:40am Tuesday morning.

Go Anderson!

Our NT campaign continued tonight with a win over Croatia. After looking like the game was going to enter garbage time early in the 4th, they pulled it back to within 10 points, before we ran out 14 point winners.

Croatia are a pretty strong team, with some monster bigs on their roster, so this was a good result.

Especially good given that we started two new prospects. Following polls in the federation, Ryan MacMillan of rimmers, and my own boy Michael Wayne were added to the team and started in this game. This meant, along with Burl Barth, we had two 24yos and a 25yo starting. To win against a quality opponent, given the youth of our team, was very pleasing.

Both of the new boys played solidly, without setting the world on fire. R-Mac had some shooting issues, but his defense, rebounding and passing was quite pleasing. Wayne was our leading rebounder of the night, scored a few buckets, and made a couple of assists as well. Both did enough to suggest they have a decent future in the NT, if they keep developing.

On another note, I don't put a huge stock in player ratings, but I'm not sure if I've seen a higher rating for a NT player than Anderson's 22.5 tonight. His ability to nail 3s from the center position tonight played a big role in us winning the game.

We'll continue to add more prospects to the team as the season goes on to give them a shot, so if you have a young player you feel is on the fringe of NT selection, please get in touch.

R-Mac had some shooting issues, but his defense, rebounding and passing was quite pleasing..

Outside offense certainly didnt bring out his best game first up, throwing him in the spotlight. But by pleasing defense, ill add that Croatias SGs combined for 5-21, and their starter shot 2-12 with a -26 +/-. Thats some lockdown D right there.