BuzzerBeater Forums

G'day team,
Thanks for the votes of confidence in the recent election. I am under no illusions that I have some massive shoes to fill being left behind by Lord Woody, who I think we can all agree has done a sterling job. I'm going to be doing my best to grow the National Team profile - only having 21 players vote when the game tells me there are more than 140 active Aussie players shows me we have untapped potential out there.

If you have a player who you think is in the mix for a spot on the National roster, either right now or in a few season's time, I'd love to hear about them. If you want me to have a look at them please send me a cut and paste of their skill set, including age and potential. I'm planning on building a comprehensive data-base of National (or close to) level players to make it easier to make informed choices about who goes on the team and what skill combinations will fit better together. The more you guys work with me the easier it will be to get the team right and give us a decent chance of winning some games.

I'm going to ask you to be a little patient with me, this is my first crack at the National Team gig, but I think I'm a fairly quick learner and I hope to make this as much fun for as many of you guys as possible while ensuring we've got a team that can take it up to anyone.

Stay turned for some match reports and I cannot stress this enough, if you've got something to add to the mix just get in touch. I won't promise to say yes to everything, but I've got massive ears so I will at least listen.

Let's ball!

Congrats Deano. Loving your enthusiasm mate. Good luck 👍🇦🇺

I have a tendency to stay out of the election process even when I probably should vote, but in this case when I saw that the other candidates weren't really attempting to campaign I had to help make sure you got in. I can say from experience that it's not something you can just let anyone do. Even when I did enjoy success, I still didn't do enough for the community to do the position justice, hence why I haven't shown much interest in running again.

Players on the other hand, are something I am very good at contributing to the NT. So look forward to Laga'aia becoming a genuine contender for a spot on the team ;).

Cheers mate,
I'm going to give it a crack and do my best to get more of the community involved. Obviously I can't put everyone's players on the roster, so the trick will be how do I get people interested in a team that might not feature their players yet?
I'm going to put a fair bit of time into communication and just see what happens. Try and build this into a genuine community.

G'day Aussie community.
We kick off our Season 51 campaign tomorrow night with a match against Saudi Arabia. Quite a few Aussie managers may have seen their players added and then removed from the National roster in preparation for this. Up until today's enthusiasm reset I've been scouting fairly broadly and making a skills data resource to help manage this season. For those who are unaware, before the enthusiasm reset at the start of the season scouting players comes with basically no penalty, however once players start getting dropped from the National side it hurts the team's enthusiasm and generally speaking causes them to not play together as well. This is why at this stage the only players on the roster are the ones I'm confident will feature in the team from the start. I'll be adding four more in the next 12 hours or so, likely three guards and a big, and am open to feedback from managers around that.
To be clear, feedback of the nature of "Put my player in the team, bro, what's wrong with you?" isn't that helpful. Feedback like, "You might have missed Jones, he might only have 16 rebounding, but he has 20 ID and good secondaries, should he be in the mix?" actually gives me something to think about.

The initial side at this stage is not what I thought it would be, largely due to a handful of players with good skills in important areas being in average game shape for the first round. If those players step that up in the next week or so I'm leaving room in the roster to bring them in. I'll only be starting the season with 12 players on the roster to allow that flexibility of a young player whose skills increase nicely or an out of shape player coming good being able to be added without having to drop someone and hurt the team enthusiasm.
For what it's worth, here is how the side looks like it might start for tomorrow night, though I'm still weighing up the bench guards and have yet to decide on the two reserves.

PG: Hongjing, Matus
SG: Sage,Nayyar
SF: Grunter, Unzi
PF: McFlynn, Omu
C: Dawes, Bill

I know there are Aussie players out there with skill sets to put pressure on spots in this team. One thing I'm looking for this season is a side with reasonable passing because of the boost it gives every players' offense, and good defense overall. But if a player is playing 90+ minutes every week for their club they are not likely to consistently be in the sort of game shape they need to be to play NT Games.
For those who haven't had a player on the NT before it is handy. Their experience improves more quickly, which helps your team in tight games, and you get a boost to your merchandise sales, which effectively cuts down on their high salary for you.

My goal is to communicate as much as I can with the community, help out where I can and get more players interested in the National Team. If you like how my approach sounds, feel free to approve it via the NT page option to do so. If you don't like how the plan sounds, feel free to disapprove of me - but do me a favour and let me know what you think I could be doing better. I'm keen to learn and while I won't promise to meet every demand sent to me I will at the very least listen to every opinion and add it to my thinking.

Let's win some games and try to push the Aussie NT squad up the rankings.


Coach Deano

One game down, one win in the bank.
Saudi Arabia came out firing tonight and at quarter time it was looking shaky.
Their shooting guard came out firing and rumors were swirling that he and Neal-Sturgess had come to a mutual agreement to not get within 10 metres of each other. At quarter time we were down and down badly and when Saudi's SG continued to be lights out with his shooting in the second something had to change. Aussie captain McFlynn called a brief oncourt huddle and on the next play strangely appeared to set a brick wall screen on Neal-Sturgess, who had to be carried off the court mumbling incoherently. He would see no further action in the game as the Aussie's hit half time marginally down.
That stroke of "bad luck" worked out fairly well for the Aussie side, with Sage getting more minutes in the second half and completely shutting down their leading scorer.
The hit seemed to fire up McFlynn as well, who had been napping in the first half but surged back to finish with a double-double.
Dawes was a beast at centre for the first three quarters before hitting the bar in the fourth, where it's reported he wouldn't get out of Hongjing's ear about hitting more threes at a better percentage than the reigning MVP.
Hongjing was again solid, particularly in the opening quarter when Saudi was coming hard.

Lessons learned. Defense is key and moving forward I'd love to get one more guard and one more big with high defensive skills and decent passing.
If you watched the game tonight and would like to send me your 3, 2, 1 MVP thoughts I'm open to feedback.
If you have a player who missed out on a game this week but you think he's close, look after his minutes because there are definitely spots available.

We now move to preparing for Prathet Thai next week, who look to be a stronger opponent coming off the back of a stinging loss to world number 1 China. We need the team in good shape this week.

Last edited by Deano25 at 09/21/2020 10:31:03

hey deano, given these forums can be read by anyone in BB, maybe it's not a good idea to post lineups before games and give too much insight on the team? ;) It's why we have to offsite forum

Fair call, I've already had someone suggest that to me. I guess my idea was to try to make the team as accessible to Aussie managers as possible to try and build on the engagement with the program, but I can see how tactically that's a problem. I'll refrain going forward.
It's a hard balance. I want managers who have a player who is missing the cut to understand, as best as possible, why so it reduces that feeling of being ignored and keeps managers interested and involved, but then as you say you make all of that available to the whole world....

I'm learning. Shifting my focus to the Thai team now. Should be a tougher game this week.

G’day Aussie community!
Game 2 tonight and we play Prathet Thai at 8:30 eastern Aus time. Get online and watch the game - even if you don’t have a player in the line up - and then feel free to give me your 3,2,1 MVP votes afterwards (either on here on in direct message, whatever you’re comfortable with).
The boys are fired up. Captain McFlynn held an impromptu closed door “pep talk” after our slow start in a solid win last week. The Manster responded to questions he’d deliberately knocked teammate Neal Sturgess out just prior to half time with a bone crunching screen, saying as captain his job was to make his team function better. He then turned to Neal-Sturgess and asked if he had a problem with the treatment, to which Sturgess simply continued his conversation with the fire extinguisher. The message was heard loud and clear by the squad, except perhaps Hongjing, who appeared to be blow drying his hair with the automatic hand driers.

It should be a cracking game tonight. Let’s make it 2 from 2.

G'day Aussie fans,

We have a cheeky little scrimmage against our old northern mates the Canadians in the wee hours of Tuesday morning (3am - sheesh! Good thing I have a toddler at home and will probably be up then anyway!)
We've made an ok start to the campaign so far but this should give us a good look at how we are really travelling compared to a nation ranked similar to ourselves.
The line up might change around a little this week - might even be a debutant. Hopefully it follows the grand traditional of Australian Debs and waking up in a cheap suit wondering why they're covered in vomit and cheetos. Ahhhh, good times....

Anyway, I digress. Should be a cracking game - if you're in a different time zone check the game out, if not catch the replay or box scores and hit me with what you think were the 3,2,1s for best on court.