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Hey everyone! We are back and better than ever for another term, and another season of Americas competition. Our group for this first half of competition consists of Peru, Paraguay, Uruguay, Panama, Costa Rica and Ecuador. Peru and Uruguay look to be the most formidable opponents but we do not plan to take anyone lightly. We had our first game of the group yesterday, in a battle vs Ecuador.

Truthfully, Ecuador is just not a good team and it showed on the court. They only have 2 players above 10k salary, so as you could expect, this game was a stomp. We ended up taking the 111-67 victory, which saw a nicely balanced scoring effort from our team. Nicolas Gardner led the way with 17, followed closely behind at 16 from Gilbert Hendrickson and then Troy Holbrook off the bench. One takeaway from this game is that we need to relax a little bit on the fouling. We gave them way too many free points from fouling so we will try to clean that up for next week.

Next week we go up against Costa Rica. Despite starting off with an 0-1 record in a loss to Peru, Costa Rica actually has a much better roster in comparison to previous seasons. They used to struggle to roster players above 10k salary, but they have 9 this season with the highest being a 20k C. We are going to come out next week and take care of business.

Go USA!

United States 119-88 Costa Rica

Very clean game from the squad today, scoring 119 points on above 62% shooting from the floor. Costa Rica put together a nice game for themselves, but I was happy to see us come out and simply dominate. Rodney Parham in particular had an incredible game, shooting 13-17 from the floor scoring 27 points with 9 rebounds. However, we severely lacked in the FT department, shooting only 57% from the line so that will certainly be our main focus going forward.

Up next is Uruguay. Uruguay sits at 0-1 due to their bye week occurring week 1, and are coming off a loss last week to Peru. They have a pretty solid roster overall, with their top salaried player being a 22k center, followed by a few PFs before hitting their guards at 18k. They are able to roster pretty much an entire team above 10k salary, so it will surely be a good battle for us early. Let's go get that dub.

Go USA!

United States 94-72 Uruguay

Solid win from the team overall today. Uruguay is a pretty good team and we managed to come away with the 22 point victory. Not the best offensive performance, but the defense really showed out and holding them to 72 points is nice to see. Kraig Miller led the team with 20 points, although had a poor shooting performance. New member Ade Ledesma went a perfect 6-6 from the floor, coming in and making his presence instantly known on the court. He added 5 rebounds and 2 assists to go with his 13 points. There was a FT shooting performance increase from last week up to 75%, but still not where we want to be.

Next week we have Paraguay. Admittedly, Paraguay really just does not have a team to compete in the group this season. They are one of the weaker rosters, but given their player base it is one they can at least try to pull some interesting things off with. We are going to come focused next week and push to 4-0.

Go USA!

United States 125-58 Paraguay

Really not much needs to be said about this game, we knew coming in that it was going to be an absolute stomp and that is what we got. A 67 point victory is always nice, with tons of scoring from a bunch of players, led by the one and only JVI with 23 points. We also had all 4 of our bigs get double digit rebounds so that wasn't really a competition, they had a total of 8 rebounds at half...yikes. So yeah, dominating performance as expected.

Next week, however, we have ourselves our first real challenge of the season when we go up against Peru. Peru has a very nice roster, led by their 33k salaried center Rafael Rico. They have yet to have any real competitive game, with their closest game to this point being a 15 point win over Costa Rica. This is surely going to be a good game, and we are going to show up and take care of business.

Go USA!

United States 105-71 Peru

Very comfortable win this week against the toughest competition of the group. Peru got entirely outcoached which led to a pretty straight forward and easy game. Holbrook was letting it fly from downtown, going a perfect 5-5 from the 3 point line, and finishing at the top of the team with 21 points. Since it was a blowout game, we were able to see an equal distribution of minutes across the whole team, with all starters and backups playing between 22 and 25 minutes. It is always nice whenever everyone gets a nice chunk of playing time in a game. Overall a good, solid win and team moral is high.

Next week we have our bye week, so we will not see the court again until 9/19 where we will match up against Panama. Panama is currently tied for the worst record in the group at 1-3. They have some decent roster pieces, with a couple 20k salaried guys, but overall they do not have much depth. Should be a pretty straight forward game to close out the group.

See you all in 2 weeks!
Go USA!

United States 109-54 Panama

It has been a little while but we are back! After a nice and relaxing bye week, we came out and smashed Panama. This game was decided before it began and the team showed why. Pure dominance from start to finish, with quality production coming from everyone that stepped on the court. Really not much to say about this game, the lead just kept growing and growing as the game went on.

That concluded our first group, with us sitting at the top at 6-0. Our 2nd group has been announced, and we will be going up against Brazil, Mexico, Costa Rica, Canada and Argentina. We for sure got placed in the tougher group of the 2, but are still very confident we can put up good results and make the playoffs. We start off the group next week against Mexico. Mexico finished their first group at 3-3, and look to have a very solid group of guards holding it down over there. It should be a good game to start out the 2nd half of this Americas run.

Lets start the 2nd group strong!
Go USA!

United States 134-77 Mexico

We start out the group with a very strong win over Mexico. Gardner came out the gates hot shooting 4-4 with 9 points within the first 2-3 minutes and the team took off from there. Very efficient shooting performance, with a 56% shooting percentage from both the field and the 3 point line. It was also a rebounding masterclass as all 4 bigs grab double digit rebounds. We need to clean up the fouling though and will work on that into next week.

Up next is a rematch with Costa Rica. In our first matchup, we took the victory 119-88 in convincing fashion. Truthfully we expect more of the same, so just going to come out and take care of business.

Go USA!

United States 102-53 Costa Rica

Yeah, 49 point win. Expected and not much to say, pretty standard game when you have such a massive skill differential between the teams. Onto the next!

Up next, we finally run into our first big competition of the season against Argentina. Argentina is coming off an impressive win against Brazil earlier today, but sit at 1-1 in the group. Argentina has a nice set of bigs, starting with a 50k center. With it being our first real test of the season, we are going to get in a good week of practice and come out next week ready to win!

Go USA!

United States 70-53 Argentina

Good win! Defense was the name of the game this week as we take the low scoring 17 point win. Offense struggled a little bit, but the defense held them to 25% from the field which is very encouraging. Iragui struggled shooting wise, but led the team in points along with 4 rebounds and assits, as well as put on an incredible defensive performance. We only got to shoot 1 foul shot today, Argentina was incredibly disciplined and did not allow us to get any free points only fouling us 3 times total. Wish the team could have shot a bit better, but a win is a win!

Next week we get Canada. Canada currently sits at 1-2 in the group, with a win against Argentina but losses to Mexico and Brazil. They have a solid team, leading with a 33k PF, followed by a good group of guards. It is going to be a good game as we try to keep the streak going!

Go USA!

United States 86-61 Canada

What a win! Canada comes into the game being the only team actually trying and they got absolutely manhandled. 25 point win for us on much less effort is always a great feeling. We completely shut them down on offense, as they could only score 61 points on 24% shooting from the field. 26 of their points were from free throws, which is not ok by the way, but that means they only actually scored 35 points shooting the ball which is very dominant. Our team could have shot a little better, but we also weren't even trying so it is all good. We absolutely need to clean up the fouling though, and will work heavily on that going forward.

Next week we close out the group with Brazil. Brazil sits right behind us at 2nd in the group at 3-1, with their only loss coming from a tough Argentina team. Brazil has a complete team from top to bottom, starting with a 46k PF, and then they have 2 stellar PGs at 42k and 38k salary. They will definitely be a tough team to beat, so practice this week will be critical in preparation for this game.

Lets close out the groups on a positive note!
Go USA!

United States 87-65 Brazil

Another 20+ point win for the team this week, as in back to back weeks our opponents come into the game looking like the only ones trying. We played well on both sides of the floor, but especially on defense as we held them to just 65 points on 28% shooting from the floor. They ran a patient offense, with their main shooter shooting 6-28. That is lockdown right there. On the offensive side, Simms lead the team with 8-12 shooting and 16 points, along with 11 rebounding. A nice double double from him, as well as from Parham, who came in off the bench after Urban was fouled hard and had to come out of the game. Parham provided some very nice minutes, finishing with 12 points and 16 rebounds in his extra time. Well done from the big men this game.

And that does it for groups! We finish atop our group at 5-0, and go into the playoffs facing the 2 seed from the other group, who happen to be Peru. Peru managed to sneak their way into the playoffs, after winning their game yesterday by 2 points after entering the final minute of the game losing. We played them way back in the first group, in a game that resulted in a convincing win for us, but we know they have improved a lot since then so we are excited for a great game. Short week, as the game is Friday night, so that means we will be putting in extra work at practice to make sure we are ready for the game.

Let's get this final!
Go USA!