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Why do you think the Americas will only have 3 good teams? Curious as to which teams you think they will be.

Also, why do you think LI is harder to stop than RNG? (besides the zone comment you made which is debatable but plausible). Obviously, the two finals teams were LI teams and at least 3 of the final 4 were (not sure about Germany?), but what about Italy upsetting Poland?

Couple questions for every candidate:
1. Let's say you start with 12 players on the roster. How do you plan on choosing those 12 players?
2. Name two goals for your term that don't include: win the Americas, win the Worlds or avoid repechage.
3. Lets assume you had two of the best big men in the world. Give me two ways you could try to get their managers to stay in good GS

and the always fun question:

4. If I gave you 90 skill points (not including FT or ST) how would you allocate them?

I'll start with fun, plus I'll do the others tomorrow.

I came up with 10/10/15/10/13/15 7/4/4/2.

Cause who doesn't love a good defensive passer who flourishes in an LI. We saw with Selby that even with low JS/JR, players can score with adequate driving/IS. Although you could defend any way you make a good player, one that plays well in the best offense in the game is a good idea.

Last edited by Panic at 11/1/2011 10:50:19 PM

So we won gold last season. Question to the candidates, how do you plan on improving on gold? Could we have done better last term? Platinum?

I promise to lobby BB-Charles for the following changes to the trophy:

Champion: The winner of U21 Worlds will win a platinum, diamond-encrusted trophy, as well as enough money to support two (2) monster big men for the NT.

Rambo just settled for gold. I won't.

Seriously though, I believe no country has gone back to back in the history of U21, but some teams have established themselves as perennial Worlds contenders. Do you think we are part of this group now, and if no, would you change anything about the system we have in place to help us get there? Mainly wondering what you think of the pipeline tracking Rambo set up, the way we do domestic scouting, mentoring, etc.

Scouting is one of the most important parts of U21 success. Some credit of this past Worlds’ win goes to the season 13 scouts. Good thing we have a real stand-up guy coordinating the initial scouting.

I don’t want to change scouting all that much. Sure, I’d like it to be different, but a lot of that is unrealistic. We have hundreds of prospects and not enough people to scout. I could say better communication with the managers of the top prospects, but if they don’t respond, there’s nothing you can do. We had the most talented team at Worlds this season, and our pipeline looks really solid. We’ve needed stellar scouting to get there.

So you guys can talk about your vision for the roster, and what type of players you are looking for in specific offenses that maybe differed from what we did last term, or have ever done.

This completely depends. Obviously need OD on every guard, the more PA the better. Outside offenses need the extra JS and JR, while the inside offenses don't. For bigs, I'm not picky about subs. It's a race to the top, and I'll take Merrill and Hammond any day. I think a lot of this is what's available. How many guards have enough OD to be called up? And of those, how many are in high 8 or 9GS? In a good week, that probably leaves 5-6 call-up options. And of those, which skills complement the rest of the team. If we're short on passing, might have to put more weight on passing when deciding a call-up...

1. Let's say you start with 12 players on the roster. How do you plan on choosing those 12 players?
2. Name two goals for your term that don't include: win the Americas, win the Worlds or avoid repechage.
3. Lets assume you had two of the best big men in the world. Give me two ways you could try to get their managers to stay in good GS :P

and the always fun question:

4. If I gave you 90 skill points (not including FT or ST) how would you allocate them?

1. Bigs: 5-6. I think the potential for the bigs are really important. I would theoretically like to limit them to 8 potential and higher, but depending on GS the first few weeks, might have to call up a 7pot big. 7 Potential bigs won't be good enough towards the end of the season. 9 and 10 potential bigs that can continue to improve in season, when everyone else's bigs are capped is crucial.
Guards: 6-7. I would need 7 potential or higher. And there would probably be a minimum level of OD.
SF: 1, maybe.. that would depend on skill set.

The things I would take into account are current GS, and how the manager has previously managed the players GS. If the guy played 48 minutes every game last season, I won't call him up until I'm confident he'll have the proper GS. Also have to take into account the managers training plans. The roster will be chosen based on how the skills can work together. There were a few shooters that we left off the roster this season because we were going to run LI so much.

2. Increase the number of people training players for U21 and discussion on the off-site tactics threads by doing more PR on-site. Get jfarb to be vice president of the Ricky Logsdon fan club. Leave the pipeline of talent in even better shape than it is now.

3. Convince them that they only way they're effective for his club team is if they are in good GS. And merchandise! Allow him to keep the players in 7 and low 8 GS for much of the season, in exchange for training GS when it matters at the end.

4. Why do people always create SF type players with this question?

I want this guy:
3/1/4/1/1/4 - 30/22/23/1

or this guy:
20/18/18/10/10/7 - 1/3/2/1

or:
15/9/7/4/4/8 - 7/17/16/3

...that guy would torch Hammond in a outside offense.

So we won gold last season. Question to the candidates, how do you plan on improving on gold? Could we have done better last term? Platinum?

Seriously though, I believe no country has gone back to back in the history of U21, but some teams have established themselves as perennial Worlds contenders. Do you think we are part of this group now, and if no, would you change anything about the system we have in place to help us get there? Mainly wondering what you think of the pipeline tracking Rambo set up, the way we do domestic scouting, mentoring, etc.

Also Rambo has only an 83% approval rating after winning gold? I still disapprove of his performance. Our gold wasn't gold enough. What can we do to build the community more and get Rambo's approval rating to where it belongs (40%ish)?

I do not think we can be considered as perennial Worlds contenders yet. We took a big step in that direction this past season when we won Worlds but it doesn't take winning it one time to be considered a "perennial Worlds contender". It takes competing every season at the top level for that to be considered and we have not been able to do that just yet. I mean we have only won gold once, and that was this year. I want to be winning golds consistently then we can talk about being considered that.

As far as the system goes, I believe we are on the right track with everything Rambo has set up. I have looked at the future players coming up and the U.S. is in a great position. We just need to continue the efforts that have been done so far and we should be able to compete for many seasons.

Why do you think the Americas will only have 3 good teams? Curious as to which teams you think they will be.

Also, why do you think LI is harder to stop than RNG? (besides the zone comment you made which is debatable but plausible). Obviously, the two finals teams were LI teams and at least 3 of the final 4 were (not sure about Germany?), but what about Italy upsetting Poland?

Couple questions for every candidate:
1. Let's say you start with 12 players on the roster. How do you plan on choosing those 12 players?
2. Name two goals for your term that don't include: win the Americas, win the Worlds or avoid repechage.
3. Lets assume you had two of the best big men in the world. Give me two ways you could try to get their managers to stay in good GS :P

and the always fun question:

4. If I gave you 90 skill points (not including FT or ST) how would you allocate them?

1. First thing I will do is look at every potential candidate to be on the team. From there, I will narrow it down by potential. From there I will look at getting the top 5 guards and the top 5 bigs. When choosing those players the number 1 thing I will look at is defense. If some arent the best at defense they better make up for it in their other abilities otherwise they wont be called up. For the last 2 spots I will look for hybrid players who can do a mix of everything. A lot like a PF or SF. That doesn't mean I will find any though, so if I cant find then those last 2 spots would be filled with the next best players available.

2. My number 1 goal is continue building the U.S. community on both the offsite and onsite.My second goal would be working to make our training of players even better by utilizing each and every scouts specialties and coming up with lists of scoutees for their specialties. I believe this will provide even better training for the U.S. and will also help the individual owners become more aware of ways to train players that effectively work.

3. Kick them in the arse! Haha not really. First thing is communication. Communication is the key to success. I would continue talking with that owner until we both can come up with a way to help the U21 team as well as their own team.

4. PG: 11/9/16/12/12/15/5/5/4/1
SG: 15/12/15/11/11/11/5/5/4/1
SF: 11/8/13/9/9/10/9/10/9/2
PF: 8/8/8/6/6/7/14/14/12/7
C: 6/3/6/5/5/7/17/17/17/7

. So you guys can talk about your vision for the roster, and what type of players you are looking for in specific offenses that maybe differed from what we did last term, or have ever done.

Overall I think Rambo did a great job at roster choices throughout the season. The only changes I would have made would be benching Jimmie Brown in the LI offense as well as call Goddard up earlier than we did. Both were suggestions I made throughout the season, and both eventually happened. (Brown wasn't until the finals when he was finally benched).

As for the kind of team I would look for if I am the U21 coach, it would all depend. You can only play the hand you were dealt. Just like this past season due to GS issues and injuries the U21 was forced to play LI basically every game. Everything will be looked at before deciding a definite direction. Ideally though, I would try to get at least 2 players at each position. The goal for that would be to have 1 player fore a LI offense and the other for an outside offense. By doing that you are left with 8 more roster spots. Throughout the season I would use those roster spots for call ups when we need a specific type of player. Whether that means an outside shooter, or a rebounder, or a defensive player. I would also use those spots for call ups when we have GS problems or injuries. The goal would be to field a team that could play both inside and outside though.

Two questions:

1. You'll have an U21 player this season. If you are elected, what is stopping you from abusing your position and playing him unwarranted minutes?

2. Why didn't you capitalize your team name when you signed up?

4. If I gave you 90 skill points (not including FT or ST) how would you allocate them?

If I may, to make this question more specific, which one of you actually appreciates the value of driving so I can vote for you?