Hey everyone!
I thought I would write up a summary of what happened in buzzerbeater basketball in the USA this season. I hope this will be both exciting for users to read about this season as well as promote more activity in the community. Before I begin, I want to invite USA users (and anyone else who wants to) to join the BB discord at https://discord.gg/cKpNkt2. The discord is a great place to get advice from other users, learn about the national teams, and talk trash when your team is winning.
Anyway, here is a summary of what happened in USA BB basketball this season:
U21 National Team
Season 56 saw the debut of Antwon as team manager. Antwon is a long time buzzerbeater player and was most recently the runner-up in the cup in season 55. He wasted no time in preparing the team to crush the competition at the America’s U21 championship tournament. In the initial group stage, the squad went 6-0 with an average margin of victory of nearly 60 points. Dominant big men such as Joseph Hobbs, Vincent Polk, and Bud Cates lead the way in a primarily inside attacking team.
The second of the round robin groups went similarly to the first. While the competition was higher, the team stayed undefeated with 5 more victories and an average margin of victory of 44 points. This squad seemed unstoppable with guards Lonnie Miller and Eldridge Webster adding a scoring punch to the dominate inside game.
Having dominated group play the team advanced to the semifinals to face off against Canada U21. Canada tried their best, but no amount of maple syrup or tactics trickery could stop Antwon and the USA U21. The team pulled out the victory 92 – 69 led by a dominant performance from Joseph Hobbs (17 pts, 5 ast, 13 reb, 5 blk). This secured a spot in the World’s championships for this next season.
Finally, the championship. Argentina. The other dominant America’s force. Set to be a match between two giants, this game went through some crazy twists. Antwon went into more detail in his U21 thread, but an hour before the game, teams game shape reset. Days of planning went out the window as new players were now viable for the lineup and the United States advantage disappeared. The team seemed in trouble. America needed a hero.
That hero was Joseph Hobbs. He dominated the paint with 17 points and 21 boards and hit a 3 in the 4th quarter to break Argentina’s spirit. USA won 67 – 52 in one of the ugliest BB games ever!
Congratulations to Antwon on leading us to Gold and an undefeated season! Next season is the World Championships where the United States will look to beat the other best nations in the world.
National Team
For the USA NT this season saw competition against the other best national teams in the world. Having secured the Gold in the America’s in season 55, manager Dubness sought to lead the team to success at Worlds. However, the team would face some heavy obstacles. Placed in what could be labeled a “group of death” the United States was immediately matched up against China, one of the most dominant National Teams in buzzerbeater history. China poured it on by normaling in game 1 and the squad was outmatched falling 128 – 101.
After game 1 things stayed difficult. A heartbreaking loss to Poland (107 – 113), a defeat at the hands of Germany the eventual runner-up (84 - 99), and finally a last second loss to Serbia (120 – 122) resulted in the United States failing to move onto the next round for the second straight season. Season 56 was also full of injuries for the National Team with stars such as Ty Maxwell, Calvin Webb, and Tyree Graham missing games due to injury.
While the team faced a down year, there was some room to celebrate. Philip Mrosla passed up National Team greats such as Alton Johnson, Shawn Bowens, and Otto Reedy to become the number one all-time scorer for the USA national team. Thanks to tough for training that monster!