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The schedule is out and here's what our competition looks like.

Game 1 - Argentina (5th ranked U21 team)
Game 2 - Italia (3rd)
Game 3 - Polska (4th)
Game 4 - Philippines (11th)
Game 5 - Lietuva (2nd)

For comparison sake, we're currently the 48th ranked U21 team in the world. Needless to say, this isn't going to be easy so we're just going to try and put up a fight!

In other news, I've also decided that I will not be running for re-election as South Africa's U21 coach after this season. While I've enjoyed every moment of training and coaching for the team, it's time for me to free up a little bit of my time and to give someone else the opportunity to run the team. We've accomplished a lot during my tenure that I'm proud of, such as winning South Africa's first back-to-back U21 African championships, recruiting several good managers to train for the team and developing strong U21 players who can hopefully bolster the National Team in the future. Now I'm simply hoping to have some fun with this last season!

It's a very difficult schedule as often in the world cup. GL!

Sad to learn that you won't run for reelection. You have been doing a great job. :(

Before I recap this season, I wanted to share how we got here as we had set about with a very ambitious plan 3 seasons ago, which was over a year now. Myself and a handful of great trainers - Ezio, DRoss, mathews13693, Rapper, Sandy and McGrady - decided we would work together to get our team to Worlds in Season 57 and attempt to pull off some upsets!

Because of the size of South Africa's draftee pool, we knew that we'd be working with less than optimal talent so we would have to do something different to make an impact. While larger nations can develop top skilled talent, we knew that our talent had to be a bunch of unique specialists who came together as a cohesive unit. We decided to build our team's identity around elite outside shooting and elite interior defense and see if top-notch shooting could overcome strong outside defenses. Unfortunately, the draft didn't prove favorable to us as our best players were all quite flawed as here's a look at the starting points that had to be overcome for the 6 players that became the core of the roster this season.

Sekgoma Ramasodi - Less than 50 TSP
Landuleni Saruchera - Less than 40 TSP
Katiza Matsangura - Less than 50 TSP and PAS potential
Asanda Mbhele - Less than 50 TSP, only 6'7'' for a big and PAS potential
Thandiwe Majola - Less than 50 TSP and only 6'8'' for a big
Hondo Madzikela - He was the primary bright spot prospect-wise but he went more of a traditional balanced NT SF training route than a specialist for the team

Season 56 - The primary goal of this African season was to punch the ticket to Worlds by winning the semi-final so that our year of training at that point would not go to waste. This explains our Playoff Crunch Time against a Nigeria team in the Semi-Finals that we were the favorite against as I felt I couldn't risk anything crazy happening that would cause us to lose our spot at Worlds. Unfortunately, this was also probably the reason why we lost to Senegal in the Finals by 4 points to come up just short of our 3-peat but it was the risk I decided to make. Thanks again to aforementioned trainers who helped us to make sure we could advance to Worlds.

Then Season 57 came and as noted above, here was our schedule,

Game 1 - Argentina (5th ranked U21 team)
Game 2 - Italia (3rd)
Game 3 - Polska (4th)
Game 4 - Philippines (11th)
Game 5 - Lietuva (2nd)

It was a very outside chance but I didn't just want a single win so I made a plan to give us the best shot at winning 3 games so we might actually advance out of the first round of Worlds for the first time in South African history. With that in mind, I circled Argentina (the first game), Philippines (the seemingly "weakest" opponent) and Lietuva (the final game) as the games we would give it a crunch time go. Unfortunately, we needed GDP guesses and defensive tactics to all go our way to give us a shot and it just didn't pan out. We managed to keep the games close as we lost by 15, 14 and 9 but we just couldn't pull off any wins, even with some 20 JS guards and 19 ID bigs.

Sorry we couldn't accomplish more, but I know it wasn't for a lack of effort. Regardless, it was a valiant effort and much appreciation to all the trainers, especially Ezio, DRoss, Rapper and McGrady - who were willing to try something new and gave me the chance to take a shot with this team!

Accolades

To the starting 5 that made this season possible and etched their names in history.

- Katiza Matsangura trained by DRoss ended his tenure with the U21 team as the all-time points scored leader (955), which was expected for this one-man show! He also had the 2nd highest  single-season's scoring effort (481). To further punctuate his offensive brilliance, he scored 50+ points on three separate occasions this season, including a 56-point performance against the Philippines and a 54-point performance against Lietuva, which go down as being tied for the 4th and 6th highest scoring performances in U21 history. He surpassed the legendary Shafilshuna Machemko and rightfully earned his place as South Africa's greatest offensive U21 player. 

- Asanda Mbhele trained by A Warrior leaves the team with less fanfare than Matsangura but quietly put up some of the most astounding and unique records for the squad as the ultimate glue guy. His name is written in the record books as he is the all-time rebounds  leader (493) and 3rd all-time in assists (196) through 44 appearances for the U21 squad, which is good for 7th all time. He is tied for 5th highest single-season rebounding efforts (190), which was one less than what he had last season (189). He also put up the 3rd best single-game rebounding total with 28 in his final appearance of his career. Additionally, he ended tied for the 3rd highest single-season assist total (87). He truly was a one of a kind player that held the team together.

- Sekgoma Ramasodi trained by Rapper was the engine that made this machine really go as he finished his career with the U21 team as 8th all-time in points (567) and 6th all-time in assists (153). He also cracked the single-season scoring list by coming in 9th (302). On top of that, he tied with Mbhele for the 3rd highest single-season assist  total (87) and sits on top of the records with a 15-assist game, which marks the highest assist total in a single game for any South African U21 player. 

- Thandiwe Majola trained by A Warrior and Ezio finishes his time on the team being 4th all-time in rebounds (429), 3rd in the single-season rebounding total (210) and tied for 6th for rebounds in a single game (24). He was the anchor in the middle alongside Mbhele and they proved their reign in the paint as this was the first season where there were two players that made the top-10 single-season scoring records.

- Landuleni Saruchera trained by DRoss was Matsangura's training partner who left his own mark in the history books. He leaves the team as the 6th highest scorer ever. In an incredible feat, he is the 3rd member of the Ramasodi-Saruchera-Matsangura trio to break into the highest single-season scoring records in the same season as he landed 4th (415) on the list. In the team's final game against Lietuva, he scored 54 points which tied him for having the 6th highest single-game scoring performance. Fun fact, that Lietuva game boasted two 50-point performances from Matsangura and Saruchera, which is the only time this has been accomplished in our U21's history.

Acknowledgments

- The team also bids farewell to the following players who also aged out, Hondo Madzikela, Scotty Young, Ravi Mbityi, Ungapake Blayi, Sekani Sibande, Scott Weir and Banabakhe Msimang.

- Special thanks to all our trainers of players and managers who assisted with gameplanning - Ezio, Sandy, Rapper, DRoss, mathew13693, spaciulis, rhyminsimon, FeelThePressure and McGrady. It always takes a community effort!

Job well done!

Very interesting summaries. Thanks. :)