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The senior NT squad are under new leadership for the first time since season season 51 as Vycka takes over from Bergkamp. Bergkamp had a successful reign as he was able to increase the world ranking from 50th to 37th, finishing with record of 37 wins and 17 losses over his 4 seasons.

Vycka comes in to the role with a strong resume with BC Zalgiris, 4 time back-to-back EBBL champion between season 49 and 52 and a 2 time NT cup winner

Vycka’s squad looks similar to the squad Bergkamp has success with last season. Notable additions to the squad are SF Sean Hargreaves, C Desmond Thomas and C James Fotheringham. Veterans SG Phil Marichal and SF Aarumughasami Lai make the squad at aged 36 and 35 respectively. Last seasons top scorers SF Alexey Sanders and PF Ken Greene return as does leading rebounder and assister C Hank Easton.

The NT squad begin their European campaign against 70th ranked Iceland. Vycka will be looking to pick up his first win as England coach. The other teams in our group are: Switzerland, Germany, Finland, Armenia, Bosnia & Herzegovina and Cyprus. England find themselves the 4th highest ranked team in the group, so Vycka faces a difficult challenge to qualify from the group.


Last edited by arrowspg5 at 10/18/2021 01:21:59

The U21 squad looks to build on from 2 successful seasons which saw them come within 2 points of qualifying from the groups in the season 54 European competition and successfully qualifying for the knockout rounds in the season 53 world consultation tournament, before losing to eventual winners Israel. This seasons squad sees 5 players return for a 2nd junior season, Sivasekaran Kanjilal, Andy King, Jamie Hermann, David Hughes and Gilbert Harrison.

The u21 campaign starts off in the same way the senior squad do, with an away trip to 83 ranked Iceland. Despite Iceland’s low ranking, they shouldn’t be underestimated as they have 2 star bigs who will cause a lot of problems for their opponents this season. Js8 and Arrows will be hoping Hermann and King can limit their effectiveness.

The U21s then face 35 ranked Belgium in the second game of the consultation tournament. Belgium will be hoping to emulate their senior rankings rise which saw them rise from the 19th to 7th best team in the world. The junior squad hasn’t been as successful, but still pose a difficult threat for the England U21 squad.

Coach js8 and assistant Arrows are excited for the season ahead and have high hopes of qualifying for the knockout rounds in the world tournament for the second time in a row.

one correction...

In season 43, Tide of Fire reached the quarterfinals of the B3...

My apologies! I missed that on the B3 participation history on the England overview page.

First game went smooth as probably everybody expected.

Just to update some news! Arrows stay close to NT ,his enthuasiasm Is huge to this game so could way faster to learn about u21 & NT.
His scouting skills about the opponents Is thrilling so to make everyone more intrested about NT he make some description about each game.

Hopefully wil have good reading and activity In this Topic!

Regards,
Vy

England got off to a slow start in their European campaign against Iceland as they found themselves down 24-21 at the end of the first quarter. SG Magdalene Banuelos got the scoreboard going after the team went scoreless for nearly 3 and a half minutes!

The England offence caught fire in the 2nd quarter as they blew the game open winning the period by 19 points. 8 points each for PF Ken Greene and SF Alexey Sanders in the quarter led the way as England head in to half time off 62-46.

Iceland made a push at the start of the second half to bring the deficit down to 7 points until PF Ken Greene decided to take over with a couple baskets, rebounds and assists to get the lead back to 13. England continued the run to end the quarter up 20 points and comfortable heading in to the final period.

The offensive flurry didn’t stop in the 4th quarter as England scored another 35 points in the period, including a couple of 3s from SG Phil Marichal off the bench.

England cruised to a 130-99 victory over Iceland in the first competitive game in the Vycka era. The senior squad face Switzerland in their next game.

Players of the game:
3 points- Magdaleno Banuelos- 27 points for the SG on an efficient 11-19 shooting led the way for the squad.
2 points- Ken Greene- an dominated all round game of 17 points, 11 rebounds, 5 assists and 2 blocks.
1 point- Phil Marichal- 16 points in only 17 minutes off the bench including 4 three-pointers providing important buckets when needed.

The junior squad completed an Icelandic double as they beat the Iceland u21’s 107-81.

The U21s got off to a quick start as PF Andy King scoring 4 points early on. Iceland pulled it back to a 1 point game but an 11-0 run, including 5 points from SF Sivaskaren Kanjilal in the run. Iceland were able to close the gap slightly as the quarter ended 26-21 to England.

3 dunks early in the 2nd quarter set the tone from the England junior squad. 8 quick points off the bench from SG Gilbert Harrison stretched the lead to 13 as the half ended with the score at 51-38.

The 3rd period was a back and forth period as both teams made small runs but neither could take hold of the quarter. The England advantage went in to the final period at 15.

The first 6 mins of the final period England held off any Iceland run and maintained a 15 point lead. The bench unit came in and took care of business to finish the game strong as they extended the lead to 26 to end the game.

Players of the game:
3 points- Andy King- 10-13 shooting on his way to 22 points along with 9 rebounds. He also had the job of guarding Iceland’s best player
2 points- Sivaskaren Kanjilal- 21 points, 6 assists, 4 rebounds and a game high +18. A solid all round game for Kanjilal
1 point- Johnny Waite- The backup C had 10 points and 8 rebounds in only 14 minutes of action to help the bench unit maintain the high level of play.

Congratulations on a victory in your first game in charge!


I wasn't sure how NT tournaments worked, so I'll post snippits from the manual below in case anyone else is in the same boat.

Our group (with global ranking) is as follows:

Pool D:

4th Deutschland
15th Bosna i Hercegovina
28th Suomi (Finland)
37th England
47th Cyprus
56th Schweiz
70th Ísland
87th Hayastan (Armenia)

The national team competitions take place over the course of two seasons. During the first season, teams will compete in a continental championship tournament that also serves as the qualifying tournament for the World Championships. Continental qualifying takes place for the National Teams in odd-numbered seasons, and the World Championships take place in even-numbered seasons.

Europe Schedule:

There are 48 teams in BuzzerBeater Europe. The 48 teams are drawn into six groups containing eight teams each. Each group will play a round robin from Week 2 to Week 8. The top two teams will advance into two second-round groups of six, with no teams from the same 1st Round group drawn into the same 2nd round group. Results will not carry forward from the 1st Round to the 2nd Round.

These groups play a round robin from Week 9 to Week 13. The top two from each group play in the semifinals in Week 14 and finals the Friday of Week 14. The two finalists qualify for the World Championships. The remaining two semifinalists as well as both teams finishing third in a second-round group qualify for the Second Chance Qualifiers.

World Championships:

12 teams qualify for the World Championships, and are drawn into two first-round groups of six. Each group will consist of two continental champions, two continental runners-up (the preceding four teams will all be from different confederations), and two Second Chance Qualifiers (with no regard to confederation).

Consolation Tournament:

National teams that do not qualify for the World Championships will enter the Consolation Tournament.

The England senior squad dominated the second half to come out on top 105-85 over Switzerland.

The first half was a game of runs. England made the first run going up 4 midway through the first quarter before Switzerland tied the game at 16-16. A 10-4 run by England, including back to back 3s from SF Ken Greene, ended the quarter at 26-20.

The lead was extended to 10 early in the second period but Switzerland again battled back to reduce the lead to 1 point before 2 free throws from SG Magdaleno Banuelos ended the half with England up 3.

Banuelos came out on fire in the second half as he scored 8 straight points and claimed an assist to PF Ian Needham as the lead went up to 8. The England offence stayed hot as the lead increased to double figures as they led 74-62 going in to the final quarter.

PG Kim Bujalska and Needham opened the 4th quarter scoring as the lead extended to 19 points with 9 minutes to play and Switzerland looked dead and buried. The score line ticked along to the end of the game with the final score being 105-85.

Players of the game:
3 points- SF Ken Greene- Greene once again produced an impressive all round game. Team high 25 points, 7 rebounds and 6 assists on 10-17 shooting, 3-3 from downtown.
2 points- SG Magdaleno Banuelos- 21 points on only 13 shots in another efficient scoring game. Banuelos also had a game high +21
1 point- PF Ian Needham- 17/8/5 stat line for Needham lands him 1 MVP point.

England u21s make it 2-0 in the consultation tournament with a solid home performance against Belgium.

Belgium came in to the game with powerful inside scoring and that showed at the start of the game as their two bigs scored 8 out of their first 10 points to claim an early 10-4 lead before 6 points from SF Sivasekaren Kanjilal reduced the lead to 3 as the bench unit came in to the game. The bench started strong with a 9-1 run put England ahead 20-14 but Belgium clawed the lead back, heading in to the end of the quarter 24-23 up.

The 2nd quarter was very much back and forth with neither team able to pull away. SG David Hughes hit a 3 in the final seconds to give England a 3 point lead heading in to half time.

A 9-2 run by England put them up by 9 points and in pole position in the game. England continued the strong run in the period. PF Andy King showed his dominance as he hit 5 shots in a row and grabbed offensive rebounds to increase the lead to
78-61 after 3 quarters.

England managed to push the lead up to 23 points but Belgium put up a bit of a fight to end the game 97-83 in favour of the England junior team.

3 points- PG Jordan Birtwhistle- 21 points and 6 assists on 8-13 shooting dominated the Belgium PG who shot only 1-9FG.
2 points- PF Andy King- King had a 11 point 11 rebound double-double. He also had a dominant run in the 3rd quarter during the run that effectively won the game.
1 point- SG David Hughes- game high +16 and a tied team high 21 points is good enough to give Hughes 1 MVP point for the season.

Thanks for the write-ups. Belgium U21 are ranked slightly ahead of us so that's a nice win.

Based off previous U21 consolation tournaments, five wins and a good PD is the minimum to qualify for the next round. We have two home games vs very small nations (Barbados and Pakistan), so if we can get one or two wins from the other four games we'll be in good shape.