BuzzerBeater Forums

G'day team,
Due to the fact I ended up running unopposed this time around I'm going to assume I'm either meeting the needs of most of the community OR simply no one else wants to invest the time, but either way, thank you to those that endorsed me for the job again.
The challenge this season is to maintain good communication and scouting given some of the tools that have been effective in the past are no longer functional. I'm hoping those with Aussie guns on their rosters can keep me updated as their players develop. I won't promise to always pick your guy, but I'm mathematical about my approach as much as I can be and open as I can be about where players are and what they need, so the more information I get my hands on the better.
I'm more than happy to work with any coaches around training plans if they want - I've already made contact with a number of newer and division 3 sides to try and give them a boost.
I'm seeing part of my job as helping guys build some success for their players or Franchises because I think that is a way we will continue to grow our Aussie BB community, which ultimately makes the game more enjoyable for us all.

The first goal is to finish top-2 in our first pool and reassess from there. We have a good squad right now and I think this season and maybe next are going to be a good time to maybe take down one or two of the bigs boys, but to do that we'll need game shape from all of our managers.
Feel free to talk to me about how we can work together to make that happen while still allowing you your best shot with your own Franchises.

Let's get at em lads!

Deano

We've got our first two serious hit outs of the Asian Cup under our belts now with two solid wins, which currently has us sitting on top of the table in our pool.

Votes from the games so far

Scrimmage vs Slovenia
3: Duffield
2: McFlynn
1: Hongjing

v UAE
3: Houghton
2: Payne
1: Laga-aia

v Prathet Thai
3: McFlynn
2: Laga-aia
1: Payne

We have a bye week this week, but I'll be looking to secure a scrimmage as soon as I can.
For all managers of players and potential players, that means we have two weeks to really polish up on game shape. I'd like to get our full squad into strong or better in that time if we can - you're guy will certainly stand a better chance of game time if he's as close as possible to proficient.

We've done what we needed to do so far this season and chalked up wins in games, realistically, we were expected to. The first of the tougher encounters starts tomorrow night.
We've had some game shape issues through the early weeks of the season but I'm hoping we can put that behind us in the coming weeks. Given our depth guys really can't afford to be playing their man 80-90 minutes a week and expecting him to continue to get game time - we simply have too many other options to be forced to run poor game shape.

It's been a couple of our younger guys leading the charge so far in recent rounds and the MVP voting is looking very tight indeed, with 4 guys separated by one vote and another two just two votes behind them.
Indonesia has been a tough challenge for us in the past so here's hoping we can chalk up another win over them to lock up a top-two finish in our pool before we take on our former coach and now Philippines main man, LordWoody, in the last of the pool games.

With the demise of some of our scouting tools this season I'm inviting any coaches who think they have a player around the mark, or who have a younger player they think might get there, to message me a cut and paste of their skill sets, age and potential and we can see if we can work together to get them on the team at some point.

Hi team,

So we're travelling along ok, though to be honest it would have been nice to get over Philippines in the last of our pool games to end up in the other half of the round robin.
But one game into our second pool and we're continuing to roll along, picking up the win over Lubnan.
Great team effort but it was really sparked by Omu, who shot the lights out early to snuff out an early challenge by a plucky Lubnan outfit. Omu ended up our leading scorer after shooting an incredible 11/12 to finish with 25 points and 7 boards.
Houghton was great early while Payne continued to pressure for a starting gig back with a great game as the sixth man off the bench.
We had the luxury of great depth in our guards and small forwards this week, with basically everyone in proficient game shape, so there would have no doubt been some frustrated managers. What I'd say to you if you feel your guy should be getting more minutes is stick with us - having more than two guys in any position in proficient is what it is going to take to earn a semi final spot.
We just need some of our bigs back up and firing like the outside guys are and we might be in business, thought it was nice to see former U21 star Mitch Nagata come in for his first game in a long time and hold his own off the bench.

A quick update on the MVP leaderboard at this stage:
Payne: 10
Hongjing 9
McFlynn, Laga-aia 8
Omu 7
Houghton 5
Duffield 3
Grunter 2
Rajandran, Dawes 1

As you can see it's very tight but it's been the guys consistently in better game shape that are leading the way.
We have a VERY tough clash next week against Hong Kong, who went down to China tonight in a close one so will no doubt be keen to make amends.

Season 53 has come and gone with Australia performing well but ultimately falling just short of our goal of a Semi Final or better finish. There were a number of factors in this, but certainly injuries to key players at key times and a late run with game shape certainly didn't help.
Our squad developed across the season however, with some genuine depth in 60% of our positions, however there are definitely some positions that will likely open up in the next season or two.
We finished the season with 10 wins and 4 losses and were unlucky in a number of ways.
This season saw one of the tightest races for the MVP award, with a handful of players right in the running until the final match.
In the end it was the emergence of a new breed of versatile SF that was rewarded, with Jay's Josh Laga-aia finishing on 14 votes to claim his first National MVP.
Laga-aia had a breakout season for the National side, playing in 12 games, scoring 171 points, dishing out 41 assists and pulling down 74 boards. He also stole the ball 11 times, which is a good season tally at that level.
He narrowly pipped the all time most capped Aussie player, Dwayne McFlynn, on 13, who had another bullish season with 13 games, 153 points and 114 rebounds.
In equal third were the future our of guards, Houghton and Payne, who split the season to each poll 10.
Houghton grew into the season, playing 13 games and scoring 145 points, dishing a season high 57 assists. Payne also played 13 games, scoring 151 points, dishing 42 assists and pulling down 34 points.

Final vote tallies were:

Laga-aia: 14
McFlynn: 13
Houghton: 10
Payne: 10
Honjing: 9
Omu: 8
Grunter: 5
Duffield, Rajandran, Dawes, Bill: 3
Gibbins: 2
Nagata: 1


We have, however, earned ourselves a crack at the Repechage, with games over the next three weeks against Uruguay, Belgium and Misr to try and snag a place in the World Champs.

Scouting for the future will start in earnest, so if your player disappears from the roster or briefly appears on the roster, please understand it's part of the scouting process to try and find the next group of National heroes. If you have a player you think is ready or who could make it into the squad in the future, please get in touch with a cut and paste of their skills in a direct message to myself or Whitewind.

Maybe it's because I'm so friendly, I don't know.... or my rugged good looks?

I've still got to win them. The first up game is a tough one. You should do ok in yours, though. I was surprised to see you go down in that semi. You had a great run last season.

Hi Aussie Community (or coaches of Aussie players overseas)
When the training update drops this afternoon and we get our first game shape update for the season, if you think you have a guy who is a contender to make the squad this season direct message me his skills and game shape as a cut and paste (don't post them here unless you want the world to know your guy's build - if you're ok with that, go for it!).

I'll be finalising the starting squad for the repechage over the next 24-36 hours and the aim is to start with the guys playing round one and leave some spaces open for players who develop later in the season or to cover injuries/game shape issues.

Let's try and sneak this Aussie side into a World Cup again!

With one game to go in the Repechage we are still alive, though needing a few things to fall our way.
So far we have split the Rep at one game each, going down in the season opener in a truly odd result to Belgium 98-122 before comfortably accounting for Egypt 116-86. With Belgium getting rolled by Uruguay early this morning it puts Uruguay on top at 2-0, with Belgium and ourselves on 1-1.
We play Uruguay this coming week. If we beat Uruguay by 5 points or more we will go above them on points difference, but then we need to get past Belgium, who have the relatively easier Egypt to come and an 15-point buffer on us, meaning we have to beat Uruguay by 10 points more than Belgium beats Egypt.
I'd say it's a less than 50-50 chance at this stage due to that truly odd round one result, but it's still a chance.

Dennis Omu has really stepped up his game this season, stepping into the starting spot as veteran big man McFlynn takes a back seat on the pine, while Gibbins and Dawes have been beasts in the C spot.
Game shape will be essential this week if we're to be any chance. Feel free to leave your thoughts here or in a direct message to me.

In team historical news, we had a player bring up a big milestone in the opening game, with Homer Dawes becoming the 17th player to go past 1000 career points. He is currently third on the active players list with 1014, behind Hongjing, who is 10 points off breaking into the top-10 on 1255 and McFlynn, who has overtaken legend Darby "Doug" Walters to move into third on 1548. Dawes is also closing in on becoming only the second player in Aussie history to have a better than 1000-point finish in Points Difference, currently sitting on 913 to be in third place overall behind Simon Thomas and Ryan McMillan.