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Keep fighting. Too bad game shape wasnt good for us.

The day afterit is easier to review a loss

In Island, we had to fight to win and keep chances to get home field for next African Cup. We faced this match with a mess in PG spot: Schartner was back from injury, recovering to a miracolous 6 in shape, not enough against good opponents; Resha, his natural backup, went broken Saturday; Adam, our SG backup, was 6 in shape. I felt simply crazy to try to attack in motion, as in plan, so I changed to an aggressive LI with Issa in SF spot: it was risky against a probable R&G (as we were short of guards), but I was to leverage better rebounding and internal attack to compensate. Attitude was a critical factor, so I spent a MOTS. Finally, I shifted Kolane in PG (as we had no PG...) to leverage is shooting and defense, as Neimand was too low in primaries to be a starter, and Mbangwa as "heavy" SG.

Everything went as expected, apart of Island's MOTS. Evaluations are the best we ever had, probably in SA history. (11595) Attack was good, rebounding was expected to be better than Island's (it was, and we capture 2 rebounds less ^^), lost balls were not bad (13 against Island's 14), but at the end we took not so good shots (32/94, with 0/13 3prs), and we forced not enough fouls. Let me name Diliza Issa as our MVP: I hope that will be appreciated by his new manager, who was able to recover an almost lost talent and prepare him to a match like this. Thank you to jclebeaux for having given Schartner in passable condition - unfortunately, not enough to compete.

However, nothing more could have been done. Island had a better roster. Even looking at whole db, there were no suitable alternatives. Our biggest problem is that we can even build a somewhat competitive roster (we are #54, don't forget!) but with a minimal number of players. If you fail or is unavailable for whicever reason, we don't have backups. At this moment, we have just 5 guards (schartner, kolane, mbangwa, resha, adam) + an incomplete prospect (neimand) that we can put on the field in an international competition (consolation, qualifiers, or top matches in Africa).

Ghana won against Senegal, while Al Jazair lost again, so we can still top the seconds while Ghana is unreachable. We will work to close the official matches of this mandate with a third won.

Good job. Too bad we didnt have good game shape.

Next Monday, we will play the last official game of this mandate.

We will play to gain the third victory of this consolation tournament (the fourth in the history!!!), and the fourth in official matches this season.

Almost all 21's will leave the team after this game. It is the opportunity to say goodbye to our Trio Schartner, Kolane and Wagana, and to many other players that push South Africa at its higher ranking in the history, and have been the pillars of this mandate. I will miss them, we will miss them.

Don't miss the game!

The "heroes den": what better place to host the last match of this mandate, the last exhibition of the best U21 team of SA history?

Puerto Rico went in our court to look for a second victory, spending a mots to balance the number of very young players selected in the team (even an 18!). On my side, the match did not scare us. I decided to honour this wonderful team, you great managers, my wonderful staff, playing at best.

So, our most shining Look Inside + Man, MOTS to compensate the low TS after previous, unlucky icelandic MOTS, with the Trio Schartner-Kolane-Wagana on the field, and the only change between Wagana (back to PF) and Rabutla (as C) to match typical Puerto Rico starting five.

As mentioned, Puerto Rico decided to play with young players, but hard. We started with a shocking 0-8 before Rabutla dunk assisted by Wagana. We paired at 10, after 6'30 in Q1 of hard fighting in a true match. Chipako Mbangwa scored the first advantage 14-12, and Schartner scored the final 20-19 at the first buzzer. Match was balanced because tough Puerto Rico offensive rebounding, while we are attacking far better.

Q2 proceeded on the same way, although with some more momentum on our side. Wagana assisted Schartner to 31-27, and head to head first half closed 40-36, with satisfactory shooting and some missed rebounds.

At Q3 start, Wagana decided to sign his last game in U21: dunk, rebound, two-hand dunk, rebound, hook. 6-0. Then again the Trio, with Kolane and Schartner and Wagana again to boost South Africa in a 14-3 start that broke the match. Since then, showtime: the weak Puerto Rico defense was overwhelmed by our attack (we closed with 27 team assists and 46/80 shooting), till 2.25 to the end of Q3, when a standing ovation closed the history of our Trio in U21 jersey.

The gap raised to about 40 points, before being stabilized in the final minutes of the match. All roster on the bench played some minutes, 11 scored (only Mahabane missing, sorry). Final score was 98-68, a large victory, the third in this consolation (and fourth overall in consolation history!!!), against a team ranked #74 (as we were at the beginning of this mandate!).

The MVP of the last game of this season (friendly matches excluded) is, again, Juggie Wagana, who broke the match in two parts at the beginning of second half. I am proud of good performances of Schartner, Kolane and Mbangwa, and all the other team members.

With Algeria defeated 116-85, we are the second team of Africa, behind Ghana, sustained by a very favourable scheduling (but of course able to keep all the best out of it, great job indeed), and of course excluding Misr and Nigeria.

Now, all the 21 years old players will leave the roster. With them, few others "saved" by bottification. Roster will be rebuilt around new guys, and the few 20's in current roster. A separate thread will be open about it, the seed of next mandate (whoever will be the coach, you'll decide). Here, I will post again some notes about players that will be released. Another separate thread will be dedicated to this mandate analysis. Any question or comment will be welcome (there).

Last edited by GM-BlackMouse at 8/30/2010 2:55:41 PM

Great season and a great game to end it. Now lets get ready for next season and go for the world championships this time. :)

Great season and a great game to end it. Now lets get ready for next season and go for the world championships this time.

that will be tougher... in short timeframe

Great season and a great game to end it. Now lets get ready for next season and go for the world championships this time. :)

that will be tougher... in short timeframe :)

It is still possible though with hard work and maybe a little luck.

Great season and a great game to end it. Now lets get ready for next season and go for the world championships this time.

that will be tougher... in short timeframe

It is still possible though with hard work and maybe a little luck.

...and MANY drafted players

The final result of consolation is an unprecedented 50th.

Al Jazair is 56th, while Ghana is 31st and advances to playoff against Belgium (#2!).

Great season and a great game to end it. Now lets get ready for next season and go for the world championships this time. :)

that will be tougher... in short timeframe :)

It is still possible though with hard work and maybe a little luck.

...and MANY drafted players :(

Oh I think you are misunderstanding me. I meant to qualify to World Championships. Should have just said try to get to the African finals.