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Hard hit against Poland. As expected.

We were facing one of top teams (13th in world ranking), away, so no chance to even tickle them. Although we had good shape (finally!) and some reasonable pops, we were still missing one of our Trio, Jorg Schartner, to be recovered also in shape (of course, destroyed to 6 in just 10 days... ).

Poland was simply too strong for us. Although our defense played decently, allowing 88 points, we scored just 41 against Polish wall.

It is, but again expected, the worst loss in this mandate. As being so bad, no MVP will be declared this week. It would not be the Most Valuable, but ... the Less Horrible (it would probably be Juggie Wagana).

With Al Jazair losing again vs India, the race to home field advantage is still open. All African teams lost this week, leaving only Al Jazair (2W) and South Africa (1W) with no zero's in victory spot.

After the obvious large loss against Poland (88-41), now it's time of a large won against Republica Dominicana (103-42).

I decided to play with almost all normal starters. This is because I wanted to recover scoring gap hoping that will be relevant in head-to-head race against Al Jazair. I apologize with all managers of non-starters for not having used them at the beginning of the match - I understand how it could be relevant when spending time and efforts to train a talent! - but I am sure you will understand.

Too obvious the match to name our MVP. 36-9 in Q1 with a devastating opening 11-0, 15 points scored by our opponents along all first half: no match at all. Let me just highlight the good performance of Neimand, Mbangwa, Mtolo among the others.

Al Jazair faced at home Hayastan, winning by 50 against a team we defeated away. Ghana won against Bolivia (third win in a row!), Tounes against Luxembourg, while senegal was defeated in Vietnam and Maghrib was defeated at home against Malaysia (before this match Maghrib was 85th on 86 teams!!!).

Surprising Ghana is now second in Africa-only classement, same record of Al Jazair (3-3), we are third (2-4), with Tounes, Maghrib and Senegal mathematically excluded from the race (0-6).

Ghana has probably better chances, having to pay visit to Senegal next week and host Ecuador after. Al Jazair will host tough Osterreich and will pay visit to solid Norge. We will have a tough match in Island next week before facing Puerto Rico at home, closing tournament. I am very impressed by Ghana, leveraging each single opportunity offered by favourable scheduling, as already done to enter final-four in last African cup: my congratulation to their staff... but race is still open.

Congrats. Do you think you have a good chance of being the last African team?

Congrats. Do you think you have a good chance of being the last African team?

against al Jazair I think we have better momentum, although challenging. I am very worried about Ghana: their coach is doing a wonderful job leveraging a lower than average roster, but he's smart and he's taking the best out of scheduling, as done so far. We have to try to win twice, then we'll see.

I have reviewed once more our first bad loss, but there was no way to understand he would have put a SG as SF, as in the first games he did not set the roster

Congrats. Do you think you have a good chance of being the last African team?

against al Jazair I think we have better momentum, although challenging. I am very worried about Ghana: their coach is doing a wonderful job leveraging a lower than average roster, but he's smart and he's taking the best out of scheduling, as done so far. We have to try to win twice, then we'll see.

I have reviewed once more our first bad loss, but there was no way to understand he would have put a SG as SF, as in the first games he did not set the roster

after last nigh update, our ranking jumped 10 slots ahead.

South Africa is now #54 in U21 worldwide ranking, the best spot ever (at least since when I can check it).

Congrats. Do you think you have a good chance of being the last African team?

against al Jazair I think we have better momentum, although challenging. I am very worried about Ghana: their coach is doing a wonderful job leveraging a lower than average roster, but he's smart and he's taking the best out of scheduling, as done so far. We have to try to win twice, then we'll see.

I have reviewed once more our first bad loss, but there was no way to understand he would have put a SG as SF, as in the first games he did not set the roster :/

Well good luck. Congrats on the rating improvement and I hope you can possibly get it into the top 50. :)

Congrats. Do you think you have a good chance of being the last African team?

against al Jazair I think we have better momentum, although challenging. I am very worried about Ghana: their coach is doing a wonderful job leveraging a lower than average roster, but he's smart and he's taking the best out of scheduling, as done so far. We have to try to win twice, then we'll see.

I have reviewed once more our first bad loss, but there was no way to understand he would have put a SG as SF, as in the first games he did not set the roster

Well good luck. Congrats on the rating improvement and I hope you can possibly get it into the top 50.

thanks. top 50 looks like now as something tough but feasible, if everything will go well. it was impossible even to dream at the beginning of the mandate. as mentioned, all that is possible because managers and staff are performing very very well. we just need some luck, good shape, no injuries, smart tactics

Congrats. Do you think you have a good chance of being the last African team?

against al Jazair I think we have better momentum, although challenging. I am very worried about Ghana: their coach is doing a wonderful job leveraging a lower than average roster, but he's smart and he's taking the best out of scheduling, as done so far. We have to try to win twice, then we'll see.

I have reviewed once more our first bad loss, but there was no way to understand he would have put a SG as SF, as in the first games he did not set the roster :/

Well good luck. Congrats on the rating improvement and I hope you can possibly get it into the top 50. :)

thanks. top 50 looks like now as something tough but feasible, if everything will go well. it was impossible even to dream at the beginning of the mandate. as mentioned, all that is possible because managers and staff are performing very very well. we just need some luck, good shape, no injuries, smart tactics :)

Well good luck. Hopefully you can get home court for next season and then take that all the way to the World Championships. :)

Our NT is at #36 now and the U21 is at 54. I think we all know where the credit is due...wonderful job NT coaches. We are one of the least active nations and yet our NT is better than so many others. Great work!

Unfortunately, I have not received a decent trainee in a while, so Steve Ellsworth and Thimbellike Nxu will be the only potential NT stars I have, and only Ellsworth at this point even looks to have a chance. He's 6'7 with skills that are about 6 or 7 across the board, so he'll be trained to be a SF.

Last edited by jclebeaux at 8/19/2010 10:23:14 AM

Our NT is at #36 now and the U21 is at 54. I think we all know where the credit is due...wonderful job NT coaches. We are one of the least active nations and yet our NT is better than so many others. Great work!

Unfortunately, I have not received a decent trainee in a while, so Steve Ellsworth and Thimbellike Nxu will be the only potential NT stars I have, and only Ellsworth at this point even looks to have a chance. He's 6'7 with skills that are about 6 or 7 across the board, so he'll be trained to be a SF.

Much appreciated edit: even more, considering my poll slipped down to 40%

We are doing our best to capitalize as much as possible. Without my staff, and without patient, contiuous work of talented managers there would not be any possible result. That's true for U21 and even more for NT, as it takes much more time to grow NT players. It is also a side effect of previous coaches' work (Jordan and Trex): Jordan did a great job, and is doing the same in his new NT.

About draft, well, there is nothing to do. It's question of luck. With no impact by bots, this season we picked just one single tall man! And some potentially good players were picked by managers who have left the game afterwards, loosing many training sessions... To improve here, there is nothing to do but having a larger basis. At the end of the day, if NT is less dependent on a good draft session (even in the long term there is a difference), U21 definitely depends on it. If you look at a well managed U21 (Nigeria), last season they had several 20 and 19ers as one draft session was simply horrible. And it is hard to compete with young guys.

Last edited by GM-BlackMouse at 8/19/2010 12:47:47 PM