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Thank you Jordan.

I will do my best to keep Wagana for the consolation, and will him with pleasure to NT as soon as my season will be over (I cannot figure out to advance much in consolation).

Schartner will grow, and became as a certain Scalambrieri (8077122) (may be a mentioned him one day or the other ).

Kolane is a great talent as SG with lot of secondaries, only question about training and potential in his future.

In PF, with good training on IS/ID/RB (but not so much on ID) Kevin Mauley can be a devastating PF! Others (Mtolo for instance) can grow, but the "guards" skills of Kevin can make him one of top talents in Africa.

This is why you're awesome!

Schartner will be a star and I have more guys coming in the draft.

This is why you're awesome!

Schartner will be a star and I have more guys coming in the draft.

this is the minimum I expect.

After having picked up a decent C that will bring some cash to me, I can look at SA draftees with some serenity

I just finished to check all draftees. News are not so good unfortunately.

Of course, that depends on trainers. I developed "stars" to very good players and with a lot of cash after reaching potential, and I can say that even them could have a chance to enter U21. But figures are figures.

Among 48 draftees, only 12 were above threshold:
- potential star or above
- 3K or higher salary

Six are 19, so their growth will be limited by age.

Distribution is reported below:
- 5 star
- 4 all star
- 1 perennial all star
- 2 superstar

The best picks to me are:
- Kwayera Kaoena (Bleck Stars), 6K+ salary, a lot of red skills, 185 cm... but star only and 19. What a great pity. But he should be well trained or sold, he deserves.
- Mpondombini Lata (Devil Kings), superstar, 18, but probably more a PF than a SG as starting skills. A decision should be taken very soon, to be trained anyway
- Masamba Sephoa (Dreamsters), star, 19, 185cm, a great PF but at the end he is likely to be a SG with secondaries (not bad anyway, apart of age)
- Kefentse Rammupudu (africasouth), 19, 185cm, perennial allstar, I hate his age, not bad but will take some time to mature
- Stoffel Kilngeman (africasouth), star, 19, 206cm, to be grown as Center
- Thembekile Nxu (Jaywalkers), all star, 18, 183cm, he must be grown as PG, although I understand that it is a long story before having him competitive
- somewhat Dingane (pazi outsiders), superstar, 18, 193cm, will take sometime but he must dress this jersey

Other draftees are:
Hondo Tefu (Jaywalker), skills and height and two opposites
Mbongeni Rathebe (kimberly diamants), I don't know what he could be
Jordi Osterman (uchala), train him and you will have a great Center - but he is 188cm....
Thabo Hlalele (AND1 Ballas), lots of patience
Sipliwo Nkabinde (pantyhose), he can became a decent player, may be not so bad

Probably, Fooly Cooly had one of worst draft I have ever seen

I would ask you support. I need it. We need it.

About your players, let me (or the scout you are in contact) know which are your intentions. If you want to sell him, sooner is better. Open to discuss details with each of you.

About others' players, I would appreciate if we could open a direct discussion with their managers (new ones included). As you know, my staff and me put our experience at your service. If managers will not train these players, it will be a great pity. And probably you can talk each other better of what I can do (I am not South African, at the end of the day)

About community, it is clear (unfortunately) that we need more teams, more managers, more draftees. This add excitement and passion to the game, even bringing you to losses (look my end of season...). I am open to support you, but frankly I would not know where to start from to find South Africans interested to join the game, this wonderful game. Any comment, idea, contributions is welcome. I can make you sure that I will support you on them.

Last edited by GM-BlackMouse at 6/28/2010 2:37:02 PM

Tefu is on the market now.
I think his skills can actually make him a very valuable forward if someone does rebounding training for a season on him. Unfortunately, I am going to be training guards, so he will not be getting any work with me. Nxu will be getting trained though.

Tefu is on the market now.
I think his skills can actually make him a very valuable forward if someone does rebounding training for a season on him. Unfortunately, I am going to be training guards, so he will not be getting any work with me. Nxu will be getting trained though.

great to hear! much appreciated, in common interest.

I have to say that I am a little surprised. I was allowed to arrange a friendly match against Saudi Arabia... and this morning I was informed that tomorrow we will start World Cup qualification! A day as no other, I wrote elsewhere.

Well, let's be focused on official matches. I would like to say "we have chances, we will fight for a place". Frankly speaking, we have not a minimal chance to advance.

Our tournament is very tough:
- first match will be against Italy, third in last two European Championships, third (with my Scalambrieri as PG) in last World Cup. The defeat of Italy in Euro semifinal was taken here as a big surprise, and many criticisms were moved against coach. But Italy is still a superpower, with a huge amount of teams (5 full series!), a solid mechanisms, and a great staff. We can win against them only if they will forget to set the team. May be
- second match will be against Argentina. I just say that Argentina is 21st in world ranking, and my Italian mates are not so happy
- third match will be against Honk Kong, 30 places ahead in the ranking, and famous for last season impressive expansion of managers (and consequent current deflation)

So far, South Africa have never won any single WC match. We will try to do something, but as already stated, consolation is our goal.

I am pretty well satisfied of this day "like no other".

I decided to bring just 10 players with me. Last season I called 12 at the very beginning and lost some flexibility. This one I will be more careful on using slots - somebody calls it "experience"

It is difficult to comment this very long day. I would not enter in the matches. Against Italy, there was no chance, as expected. Against Saudi Arabia, our opponent was too poor to be true (although I am checking with their coach how "poor" the team was).

In our first match of WC qualification, Italy took leadership almost immediately, but we kept match balanced for almost all first quarter! Sabatha Resha inspired Jabulani Machungo for a two-handed dunk at 4.10, for the first and last advantage of South Africa! Yes, we led the match, and not at the first shot. However, after just ten seconds Altomonte definitely broke balance with a jumper, and we had no additional chance. The match slipped away since half of the second quarter. In the fourth quarter, in pure garbage time, South Africa showed its pride. A good defense, point by point, kept us in line with Italy, slightly reducing gap till final shot by Medagliani, closing 107-71.

Considering same attitude, it is a reasonable result, as this is more or less the gap we gave to almost (but two!) opponents in last African Cup. Juggie Wagana was again our MVP, playing head to head againts well known Spedaliere (playing against my team in my series) and Medagliani (trained by one of our scouts!). His 10/15, 20pts + 17rbs is a great performance against a top team.

I much appreciated Schartner's progresses in defense (just 3 fouls and quite good defense against a fiece opponent), and Machungo added an acceptable performance. Moreover, if you compare this match with SA-Misr last season, you could appreciate major improvements in average performances in attack and defense, while ball circulation advanced and rebounding is still our Achille's heel. But the proof that Italy was afraid of us is in the injury occurred to Kolane caused by a bad foul

With 5 minutes to go, South Africa set a record starting a parallel match against Saudi Arabia. I decided to do the other way round than against Italy. Starters and rotations were inverted, shifting the attack to a motion. Defences dominated the beginning, with a balanced match till 3-pointers by a good Mahabane at 0.11 in Q1. That was our break. The match proceeeded with some breaks by us and long balanced periods. This time, our MVP was Chipako Mbangwa, 10/19 26p in a very interesting performance, although pushed by poor opponent. I liked Changa Mahabane, opposed to a good counterpart, 8/12 18p and 12r. Defense was reasonably good, causing many lost balls in our opponents.

Next time we will play against Argentina, not as good as Italy, but far ahead of us. Final match will be against Hong Kong, that showed some weaknesses today.

With the beginning of the official season, our top 10 were included in the roster. There are no big surprises, as excluded will have further chances over the seasons, and this is the best team we can set.

By end of qualification, we could add 1 or 2 players, to reach the optimal number of 12-13 at the beginning of consolation. Ideally I would add one guard and one center/forward.

Among guards, the most probable is Hendrick Adam. Themba Mthebe has very good chances too with his secondaries, although Adam is slightly ahead.

Among tall men, we have the unbelievable condition of abundance. Kevin Mauley is a very promising talent, with a big need of IS and some RB. The same for well known Diliza Issa, a step behind Mauley but with defensive specialty. The 20's Bhekimpi Chisiza, Lucky Hintsa and especially Laurent Bernard are more than good prospects. Let me also add outsiders Junaid Basinyi and Baruti Dingane. If I should choose today, probably Mauley, Issa and Bernard would join the team, but it is unlikely I will add 3 tall men soon, and skill increase and shape will make the difference.

One season ago, we didn't have all these chances. I am very happy for dealing with this problem.

I invite all managers to do the best for our increasing talents!

It is my first delay in publishing match report: it is an effect of staying focused on matches while summer period + real life require some attention.

Against Argentina, ranked #25 in the world, the match was decided before starting. With two starters with 5 in shape and Wagana just 6, we had not enough power to be effective. It never happened, and it made no sense to include additional players, as Wagana cannot be replaced in our roster, and Argentina stayed far beyond us.

Dingane Kolane led South Africa at the beginning, giving us leadership with a 3 pointers. Then Argentina, dominating rebounding, took slowly but inesorably match leadership. Defense made all the difference, and we could not increase it as much as to compete against them.

Chipako Mbangwa, our MVP, played an impressive match, scoring 26 points with 10/21, adding 6 rebounds, against a solid SF. It was our match surprise, although I expected some good performance, and could be more than an option in our future. Very good match by Schartner, while our tall men was overwhelmed by their opponents.

Final result is a more than honourable 101-86. slipping over 10 points gap just in fourth quarter.

In the other match of our tournament, Hong Kong committed suicide, trying a fooly MOTS against superpower Italy. Final score was a disastrous 136-106, adding a tremendous impact on TS. If shape will assist us (I personally wrote to all managers about it!), we have good chances to catch our first victory in this tournament, before entering consolation.

Great win against Hong Kong. 1-2 is not too bad considering the group we were in.