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Here is your S57 summary of what happened in buzzerbeater in the USA community!

A lot happened, so this might get long.

U21 National Team
Season 57 was a legendary season for the USA U21. Coming off an undefeated Americas season, Antwon had set the bar high. The season 57 roster was compiled of players trained by some of the best trainers in the USA (Sleet, DexterMorgan, Moosey, WarJunky, Dangrel, and Shulty to name a few). The first few weeks saw some scrimmages and then the Worlds competition began. The USA U21 was on a 28-season drought (7 and a half years!). Could this be the season where the gold was finally brought home?

The team started off promising grabbing victories over Senegal and Israel while running a Motion offense. The guards on this season’s roster seemed more dynamic then ever giving the team more options than in the past. Thomas Bunn and Jae Colon led the way as teammates trained by DexterMorgan. The USA faced their first real test against Spain. The game was back and forth and went down to the wire as both teams attacked inside, but the USA came out on top 85-82. This was followed up by wins over Hungary and Hong Kong to advance undefeated from the first group. Big men Cameron Penn and Carlos Alberto Calderon locked down the paint for the team.

The second group saw more competition than ever as the USA faced off against Poland scoring only 43 points through 3 quarters. However, 4th quarter comebacks quickly became their thing as they put together a 28-6 4th quarter behind 20 points from Chris Polk in order to win 71-59. This was followed by a blowout of Lithuania and a grind it out inside battle with the biggest U21 force in Italy. John Kelly (picked up by longtime u21/NT trainer tough) shined throughout the run with a strong combination of both scoring and passing on the interior. The team finished off the group stages with a 75-63 victory over Argentina and advanced to the semi-finals as the team to beat!

In the final four match against Hungary, the USA again went to a Motion offense and was able to pull out the victory 71-59 with 19 points from Elroy Pool. We advanced to play Poland in the Finals in a chance to bring home the coveted gold medal.

The final match was a thriller. Poland jumped out to an early lead with their Push the Ball offense that avoided the inside guess from the United States. At times it seemed that they could not miss, but the USA fought back. Donnell Ransom, who was picked up by the U21 manager Antwon only a few weeks before the game, carried the team early scoring many of his 22 points. Late in the game Penn came alive blocking multiple shots. However, the real clutch player was Larry Dowd who hit a clutch 3-pointer late as a big man. The USA was down 10 coming into the 4th quarter, but this team knew how to handle a comeback and outscored Poland 92-86 winning the gold medal! Motion was the offense of choice by Antwon and went along with many great tactical decisions throughout. Thank you, Antwon, for bring home the gold for us and thanks to all who trained for U21 and helped out! We are champions once again!

National Team
The USA NT had an up and down season that ended in a small controversary. Longtime NT manager khenry returned to oversee the team in Season 57 after managing the team from Season 45 through 52. The team started off the Americas tournament strong, racking up wins over Canada, the Dominican Republic, Bolivia, Puerto Rico, and Brazil. Longtime NT players Calvin Webb, Philip Mrosla, and Greg Lackey lead the way as veterans of the team and the top scorers. However, the team ran into stiff competition earlier than expected when Mexico came prepared for the unorthodox Princeton by the United States. Unable to beat the 3-2 zone, the United States lost 92 – 79 but still advanced to the next stage as the top team in the group.

The 2nd stage of the Americas brought more competition to the United States in the form of another zone. Argentina prepared for the United States inside attack with a 2-3 zone that held the United States to 86 points and a loss. This loss meant that every game was now a must win for the National Team in order to advance.

The United States bounced back with a revenge win over Mexico 89-83. Reinforcements came in during the middle of this run including veteran Tyree Graham and the relatively new Alex Corbett. Both players helped power the USA offense later in the season as the United States won against Uruguay, Peru, and Costa Rica by double digit points.

However, this was not enough. After Mexico beat Argentina, the group came to a three-way tie between Mexico, Argentina, and the USA. As the USA had the lowest PD in the group, our NT was eliminated. Both Mexico and Argentina faced a TIE from their opponents on the last game of the group while the United States faced a CT. This brought to light how unfair and uncompetitive the current NT tiebreaker is. Hopefully in the future we will see some slight alterations to how the NT continental tournaments and worlds tournaments are organized.

BBM and B3 Competition
The USA community saw great success in BBM this season. Here are a few of the highlights

Tier 1
In tier 1, 4 NBBA teams were finally able to make the knockout stages. Not a single one had made it this far in past seasons which highlights how tough the competition was at the top of the USA this season. Triple Double was knocked out in the round of 64 by a top seed and The LA Lions went out next in the round of 32. Splash Gang’s sale of a few players limited the team’s rotation, and they were knocked out in the round of 16. Wasted Potential had a key player go down in the round of 16 to injury, but still brought the game down to the wire losing at the buzzer on FT’s. Hopefully next season we see NBBA teams make it even further!

Tier 2
ETBU Tigers made a nice run to the top 32!

Tier 3
Sofuegg made the round of 32 but couldn’t quite pull off the big upset. Looks like the teams promoting to the NBBA tend to do good in BBM. Two seasons in a row where 2 promoting teams have made the knockout stages.

Tier 4
Great representation here. Archers of Loafcross top 32! Kiwi Sheep Pimps and WHAIGH (shoutout BB-Will!) also made the top 64!

Tier 5
We are doing good on every tier! Rad Dads top 32, Allied Precise Gunmen top 32! Grand Ma Mas, Warroad, and SK Wolves top 64. Nice job to all of you!

Tier 6
Wow! Each tier I look at gets better! Bullets Forever made a great run all the way to the top 8 where they lost in double OT! What an awesome run from manager Naincom. D2 better watch out. Also making the knockout stages were New York Nugs, Missouri City Sounders (top 32), Fenway Flyers, Bloom County Boingers, Pittsburgh Peacocks (top 32), Sophys Slammers, and HumanFund. Nice representation by the USA in this tier.

From here down, in order to save time for myself I will only mention those that made at least top 16. This goes to show how good we did this season for BBM though, where many teams are making the top 64 and it is hard to keep track of all of them.

Tier 7
McKinley Marauders made the top 8. This was an awesome run lead by some young NT prospects. Keep an eye on Tristan Vickers, he might be a regular for the NT soon.

Tier 8
Now this was a tier dominated by USA teams. Florida Champs led the group stage at 7-0 and advanced to the top 16! Porch Pirates made the semifinals getting passed R3AP3RS in the top 8 (another USA team). Persevering Pride went on a huge run all the way to the final but ended up being knocked out by the same team as Florida Champs and Porch Pirates. These were tremendous runs by some great d3 rosters, and they almost brought home the gold. Congratulations to Persevering Pride on being the 2nd USA team to win a silver medal in BBM!

Tier 9
Slabs made the top 8! You may not know it, but Slabs had one of the most legendary seasons of any USA team this year. This BBM was awesome, but not even their best accomplishment. More to come on Slabs laters.

Tier 10
Blacksheep(Janopol) made top 16! CA Foreigners did one better and made the top 8 losing by only 2 points and barely missing the semifinals.

Tier 11
Resurrected Fury made a run to the top 8 on the backs of some strong young talent. Mortars made the top 16 losing to the same team that beat Resurrected Fury.

Tier 12-14 we had some good teams make the knockout stages, but nobody in the top 16.

Keep up the good work in BBM. I think the USA has gotten more competitive each season in BBM. We now just need somebody to take home the first gold BBM trophy and become a USA legend!

B3
Atelier made another solid showing for the USA, advancing to the knockout stage as a 3 seed. Unfortunately, they were upset in the round of 64.

National Tournament
The National Tournament. The only tournament where any USA team can play any USA team. You may question if any USA team can beat any USA team, but this tournament showed that was possible.

The first 2 rounds of the tournament went by quietly with bots getting defeated by the real USA users (with the exception of one unnamed NBBA team). However, round 3 would go down in history. In what looked like it would be a routine win for 3-time defending cup champion and million-dollar payroll Atelier, the game became anything but. Slabs, while in division 4, came to play. The game went back and forth all throughout and came down to the wire. Slabs grabbed the lead and held off last second comeback attempts by Atelier’s players to win 100-99. The secret to their victory? Free Throws. They shot 29-29 from the FT line in a one-point victory and the biggest upset in the history of the USA tournament. Congratulations to Slabs.

The rest of the tournament saw a lot of early draws between NBBA teams. Telecasters knocked out Triple Double and then was knocked out by Wasted Potential (myself) who proceeded to knockout F.Day Internet Lovers Club and Splash Gang before the top 8. Only two NBBA teams survived into the top 8 but ended up meeting in the finals after D2 standouts ETBU Tigers and Deportivo Saprissa were dealt with in the semis. The LA Lions met Wasted Potential in the Final in what would be one of 3 matches the teams would play over the next 5 days. Wasted Potential elite outside shooting and NT guards Calvin Webb and Philip Mrosla carried the day in the Run and Gun offense where they combined for 62 points on 8-14 shooting from downtown. The LA Lions own Zach Ernst put up 24 points and 12 rebounds in his final game for the team. Wasted Potential won 106-91 and became cup champions for the first time!

NBBA
Without the cup to worry about, the NBBA was dominated by Atelier. 21-1 record with the MVP Greg Lackey leading the way, Atelier entered the playoffs with homecourt and as the team to beat. However, some new talent was emerging in addition to many NBBA teams upgrading their rosters. Telecasters (lead by NT guard Ty Maxwell) came in as the second seed in the Big 8 and newcomer to the NBBA Splash Gang came in 3rd lead by NT big man Luis Turland. Delaware 87ers who spent the least amount of money on their players of any NBBA team (due to their elite training) grabbed the 4th seed on the last night of the season.

In the Great 8 things were more balanced with Triple-Double coming into the 1st seed led by NT forward Tanner Knott. However, manager Sixth decided to retool just before the playoffs leading to the team coming in not at full strength. Wasted Potential beat The LA Lions on the last game of the season to secure the 2 seed despite a bad PD. The LA Lions came in 3rd and F.Day Internet Lovers Club stole the 4 seed at the last game with a 120-point victory. Longtime NBBA team (and I mean they have been in the NBBA a lot) Arizona Cacti ended up in the 5th seed.
In the playoffs The LA Lions pulled off the upset over Wasted Potential, taking advantage of the injury of Philip Mrosla. Alex Corbett (a NT small forward) tried to carry the team to victory, but it wasn’t enough against The LA Lions balanced roster. F.Day Internet Lovers Club knocked off Triple Double but then fell to The LA Lions in the semi-finals. In the Big 8 Atelier made quick work of the competition, beating out Delaware 87ers and then Splash Gang who had defeated Telecasters. The Finals went to 3 games, but in the end, Ateliers monster of a roster (1.4-million-dollar payroll on the last week) was too much. NT bigs Greg Lackey and Christopher Stepp dominated supported by the deepest roster the NBBA has seen in many seasons. If only Slabs had been there to stop them. Congratulations to Apex on the 3rd straight NBBA title and a great dynasty!

End
That is about it. All I have to say now is if you aren’t already on the USA discord then come join us https://discord.gg/QHEpuEAV. Here you can show off your trainees, ask for advice, and trash talk the competition. You can also get involved with the U21 and National Team where we always need more help.

If you hadn’t noticed, the NBBA was dominated by the NT level players. This has been the case for many seasons, and you have to go back years before you find a team that didn’t have a NT player and won the NBBA. Our top NT players are coming to the end of their careers and will need a new generation to take their place and be even better. If you are interested in helping out or training the next USA legend then message khenry to see how you can help (you can also message me if you want!).

Great writeup. Thanks Mediocrity!