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After 8 seasons of building and fighting, we have returned to the Worlds Semifinal. This week in Poland, Team USA is Public Enemy #1, as we will face off with the host nation, #2 Poland, on Monday. Jairo has been making quesadillas for us all week, because we don’t want to eat out for fear of food poisoning.

There is an angry mob waiting for us at all hours outside our hotel. Today, in order to get to the arena to practice, we sent Charles Dube out front to distract them while we slipped out the back exit. No one has seen Charles since, and I don’t think anyone cares.

It has been a long journey for us this season, there have been arrests, fights between teammates, fights between coaches, SpF was homeless, wozz was given a restraining order, and I was assaulted by a Polish toddler and am now facing fines and suspensions for betting on NT games. In the end we’ve faced the best teams in the world, climbed steadily up the world rankings, and proved that we belong.

This week namssor and I decided to forgo scouting reports and opponent analysis, instead focusing on making sure the team was mentally prepared for the battle ahead. Sensing our enthusiasm was low, I gathered the players and the staff for one last speech,

"Alright boys. No more tricks, no more magic, on Monday we will face the best team in the Worlds, and a crowd that wants our blood. We have overcome a lot this season, not many predicted us to even be here, but here we are. I want you to remember how hard you worked, except for you Madrid, you ate chips and watched Glee for 2 months. I want you to remember how we were there for each other, except for you Ricardo, you played about 90 minutes and you gained about 90 pounds. Basically what I am trying to say is…F%#@ you Ricardo!!! I hope you…"

Namssor quickly interrupted me,

“I think what jfarb is trying to say is that we are all proud of you, and your country is proud of you. We have a great future ahead of us, but right now we have an opportunity to do something special. I expect all of you to go out there and fight, and to continue to represent your country with honor. Anything you want to add Rambo?”

SpF held up Jairo’s iPad and Rambo’s painted blue face appeared before us over skype.

“Sons of Scotland, I am William Wallace.”

“Oh god…” I whispered to wozz, as Rambo hit play on his boom box and the dramatic music began.

“And I see a whole army of my countrymen, here in defiance of tyranny. You’ve come to fight as free men, and free men you are. What will you do without freedom? Will you fight? Aye, fight and you may die, run, and you’ll live, at least a while. And dying in your beds, many years for now, would you be willing to trade all the days, from this day to that, for one chance, JUST ONE CHANCE, to comeback here, and tell our enemies, that they may take our lives, but they'll never take OUR FREEDOM!!!”

From the awkward silence cheering began. Ismael Grubbs grabbed an American flag and started chanting USA, and Jairo dumped a tank of Gatorade on me. Soaked and probably delicious, I pondered the future of the US National Team program, and I knew that this was another step towards greatness.


Join us, Monday the 18th, at 12:30pm Eastern, 9:30am Pacific, for the Worlds Semifinal.

Last edited by jfarb at 7/16/2011 2:31:18 AM

Join us, Monday the 18th, at 12:30pm Eastern, 9:30pm Pacific, for the Worlds Semifinal.

One of your "pm"s should be an "am". Which is it?

Oops, 9:30am pacific, will edit

i LOVE Scotland. Oh wait, i'm from Scotland, no wonder I love it. I miss you....

You are so beautiful, i miss your streams and trees, I miss your NEDS and clowns. I will return.

What is a NED?

NED is a derogatory term applied in Scotland to youths who wear casual sports clothes,[1] with the stereotypical implication that they engage in hooliganism or petty criminality.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ned_(Scottish)

Yup, it stands for Non Educated Delinquent, but it applies much more broadly than that. I don't think they consider it derogatory though, :D.

I dunno, I just searched it up on Wikipedia. :-)

Game's on: http://www.buzzerbeater.com/match/15722/reportmatch.aspx

And it ain't pretty.

Hello, I have few cents about whole tournament and our matches.
First of all: Congratulations for Your NT Manager - Jfarb, Your staff and Your community. After 8 seasons USA came back to top-4 and won medal in World Cup. It was good cadency for You, two tournaments and two medals. It was great job. Congratulations.
You have strong team. But we had our dreams and they are different than Yours.
I think You have the best perimeter on whole BB-World. And without HCA it will be of course harder for Poland, I know it. But please remember, in 6th season USA had HCA in WC so sometimes we must play with HCA and sometimes against HCA ;-)
After our match in semifinal I was really confused. I have lot of respect for Your team and I had many concerns before this match. You have strong guards, and... Grubbs ;-) He is playing in club which owner is BB-Charles ;-) So he is dangerous for every team ;-)
Our first match resolved in last minute.
And therefore I decided to play CT in semifinal. Result exceeded my expectations. And after match I scared that I won silver but lost gold in semifinal. But fortunatelly final match was happy for us.
Good information for You is that Your team is close to Chile. If I compare our matches in group phase I think match with USA was the hardest for us (Chile defeated us but please note that Chile used more effort). Semifinals and final aren't good examples because every team had different enthusiasm.
I know You like statistics (USA teached all Europa count assist, blocks, steals, etc, etc, etc). I made statistics of all WC, You can find them here:
http://bbtools.x10.mx/files/BB-Stats-WC-NT-s16.ods
Congratulation for Bronson - the best assistant and the best stealer in tournament.

Regards from Poland
May the Force be with You ;-)

Thank you for the kind words BB King and congratulations on winning the gold! I loved your guys previews with the whole Star Wars/Star Trek themes haha!

I don't blame Poland for being given HCA or anything, and yes we did have HCA in S6. I'd like to point out that S6 was a very different time for us and BB as a whole than S16. In S6 HCA was not enough to close the large talent gap between everyone inlcuding ourselves and Italy/Spain. If we had HCA in S16 I can confidently say that we would've won the Gold as well.

I just think that the BBs need to think harder in the future about who they give HCA to. Its not your fault they gave it to you, you did exactly what you were supposed to do and it resulted in a gold medal. HCA allowed you to TIE every single game so you had an overwhelming enthusiasm advantage against us and Chile. I give you credit, you made the correct decision to TIE everything. No offense, but I think it goes beyond just saying that it would be "harder", I think it would be fair to say that it would've been nearly an impossible task for you to win Worlds Gold without HCA.

You guys have a great team and I hope you don't take that as criticism. I just think that looking at the final scores of the semifinal and the final, it appears to me that the entire season was pointless and that this whole season was over before it began. Considering this is my only Worlds as the manager, I'm kind of annoyed that I walked into a Worlds season with practically 0% chance of winning it, and everyone was just playing for second. Beating us by 45 in the semifinal, and then beating the best team in the world by 25 in the final...I just hope those scores opens the BBs eyes to the advantage they are giving away with HCA.

Don't even get me started on Joe Bronson's statistics, I can show you some more of his stats that will make you think twice. Thank you though for that link it is interesting stuff to look at!

Again, I don't mean anything I say as any offense to you or Poland, you guys are the champions! I understand that in real life, just like in the World Cup, someone gets to host the tournament and has an advantage. Problem is that in real life soccer, HCA might be worth one goal a game or might not result in anything in a game. In BB HCA gives you a 10 point advantage, and allows you to choose "Take It Easy" which adds to that advantage as the weeks go on. Can't "take it easy" in real life.

EDIT: I see that in the suggestions thread, you claim that HCA is not as big of an advantage as one might think. I agree. With = enthusiasm, HCA is not a 45 point advantage or a 22 point advantage. You know what is a significant advantage? 14 enthusiasm vs 7 enthusiasm + HCA. Thats a huge advantage.

While you were just cruising along doing PTB/m2m/TIE with a blank lineup every game, the rest of us had to fight desperately, normal games, and be creative tactically to even reach the semifinal. You think Wisnewski typically pulls 23.5 player ratings? He's an amazing big man and I'd love to have him, but at this point in BB, no player should be pulling a 23.5 rating.

I would like to reiterate the fact that you guys have one of the best teams in the World and I very much respect that!!! Hopefully some good will come of this season and HCA in the Worlds will be rethought.



Last edited by jfarb at 7/28/2011 5:53:37 PM