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Team

I have nominated a small group of only eleven players to start into the Consolation Tournament because I want to have some options if there are players injured or in shapetrouble.

Please watch the minutes of your players. I'm going really crazy if players with around 60 minutes play more than 30 minutes against a botteam in the national cup.

NT Guards: Smart, Lawrence, Dove, MacInroy

NT Bigmen: MacShimes, Luke, MacWhirr, MacCondy, Hendry, MacLamond, Cullen

NT Aspirants (Guards): MacWattie, Foulis, MacFadzean, Leisk, Synge

NT Aspirants (Bigmen): Bowie, Peterkin, MacNider, Trotter, MacTary, Breslin

Game 1: Scotland - Macedonia 82 - 116 [0 - 1]

We had a tough first game in Macedonia. I tried a crazy offence with Nicholas Dove at the center spot which worked good in the first half, but sadly we struggled in the offence in the second half. In the defence we had problems during the hole game also caused by a wrong prediction.

Game 2: Albania - Scotland 87 - 88 [1 - 1]

Yes! We had the first victory in a regular game since I became nationalcoach. The game was very thrilling and we won it by a buzzerbeater-freethrow of Phil Hendry. Fortunately our 2-3 defence with 3 big guys worked very good. It was the first time our opponent scored less than 90 points.

I'm really happy having the first victory and I'm looking forward hopefully to the next six games in the consolation tournament. I don't think that we will make a 5-3 record to reach the round of last 32, because there are four opponents above our level (Venezuela, India, Montenegro, Canada) and two opponents at our level (Azerbaijan, Tunisia). But I will do my best; maybe we will make another surprising victory.

Good Job.

Congratulations on back to back wins!!

Game 3: Azerbaijan - Scotland 70 - 99 [2 - 1]

We had a back to back victory against Azerbaijan. It was a must-win-game because the manager of their national team has not loged in for some weeks. So we were benefiting a lot from knowing their tactics.

I'm still not happy with the shape of the team. I had to nominate Matthew Clement (24357679) who was not on the list of the national team aspirants because the shape of the small guys is not good at the moment. Under normal circumstances I don't think that we will have good chances to win another game with only two players with shape 9.


Future of the team

We have six players with salaries over 85.000$. Four of them are 31 years old or older. So there has to be a generation change during the next seasons.

That are the all guys between 22 and 25 who I have on my focus now:

John Lawrence (29070483) - PG, 25

Mitchell Leisk (30333324) - PG, 24

Bobby Denune (32356713) - PG or SG, 22

Aengus Cullen (30333300) - PF, 24

Raymond Breslin (31305131) - PF, 23

Derek France (32356726) - PF, 22

Mark MacLamond (31770945) - C, 23

Thomas MacCaskill (32356672) - C or PF, 22

I hope that at least 2 of the big guys will reach 100.000$+. On the smaller positions I'm not sure. What we definitivly need are more managers who want to train a young player especially on PG, SG or SF. Every player with 100.000$+ and good shape will be a player of national team in the future!

Game 4: Scotland - Venezuela 82 - 118 [2 - 2]

Before the game started Airlie Foulis (17058563) became a part of the team because of a constantly good shape. Against a superior team from Venezuela I was gambling by playing outside offence and 2-3 zone defence. That tactics did not pay off so we lost the game clearly.

Nevertheless I hope to find the right tactics in next two games agianst superior teams. So maybe we could make a surprising victory.

Heads up - I'll be putting (19909248) on sale by end of this week, in case anyone wants to raise money for NT Center.

Game 5: India - Scotland 112 - 85 [2 - 3]

Before the game started Allen Peterkin (21390132) became a part of the team. He payed it back with the most points in the game, but we were not able to make a surprise.

The shape of some keyplayers is still not that good, so Jimmy MacNider (25402970), Mitchell Leisk (30333324) and Raymond Breslin (31305131) will join the team for the game against a strong team from Montenegro.

During the last weeks I had sadly not the time to write about our games in the consolation tournament, but I will do that now.


Game 6: Scotland - Montenegro 99 - 128 [2 - 4]

Against a superior team from Montenegro I was saving some enthusiam for the next game against Tunisia. During to shape trouble the guys who joined the team after the fourth and fifth game had to play and did their job at least in offence well.


Game 7: Scotland - Tunisia 80 - 90 [2 - 5]

This was the last game with realistic chances of winning. So we played will full enthusiam, but we were not able to equalize the homecourt advantage of Tunisia. This game showed me that we have serious problems if some keyplayers are in bad shape.


Game 8: Canada - Scotland 93 - 76 [2 - 6]

We played our last game with full enthusiam against a team of Canada which was already qualified for the next round and didn't make a surprising victory.

Last edited by Dr Freia Wurf-König at 4/3/2015 7:11:28 AM