The Bulgarian Brothers – A College Hoops 2K8 & NBA 2K20 Dynasty

[studbucket]

The Inside Scoop is based on TheDominator273's awesome spreadsheet to add random events to your MyLeague.

The Nuggets will sell the future to win now
After a disappointing first round exit, the Nuggets know their window to win a title is closing. Mike Malone is on the hot seat, players are getting older, and contracts are running out. The Nuggets are very happy with their top 4 of Nikola Jokic (C, 90 ovr), Bradley Beal (SG, 90 ovr), Jamal Murray (PG, 86 ovr), and Bol Bol (C, 84 ovr) but they want to add someone on top of that. Their best trade chip may be future firsts and perhaps the 25^th pick in last year’s draft Bryan Wade (SF, 77 ovr).

Look for the Nuggets to add better bench depth or a 5^th starter that’s an improvement Lance Stephenson (SF, 79 ovr).


The Grizz Goes Under the Knife
Varney Grizzard (SG, 74 ovr) might be the next J.J. Redick for Minnesota, but first he needs to recover from a small hernia surgery that will see him miss three weeks. Reports out of Minneapolis have insisted this is a small issue and not part of a larger problem or something to worry about.


Casey Zahn is less athletic than expected
Casey Zahn (SG, 72 ovr) was picked by Orlando with the 17^th pick of the second round, but was immediately released. Rumors started to float around that his physical skills were lacking and even worse compared to NBA players than was expected. This is bad news for the shooting guard from Georgetown, but it didn’t stop the Sacramento Kings from taking a chance on him, picking him up off of waivers shortly before free agency.


Emerson Ortiz needs surgery and will miss months
DePaul’s Emerson Ortiz (SG, 68 ovr) was selected by the Hornets in the second round, but just a few weeks later they discovered he needed major surgery on his knee and would be out for 4 months. Charlotte chose not to offer him a contract and Ortiz is now recovering and may not find himself on an NBA roster ever again.

Please take the Bulgarian brothers 2023 survey. Your responses will help shape the future of this dynasty! https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=DQSIkWdsW0yxEjajBLZtrQAAAAAAA AAAAAMAAII8-q9UM0FHNko3RkZWNE8yOVg5MzRaQkU2Q0lYNS4u

[kibaxx7]

Sorry, I can't believe trek is back

[studbucket]

It is KDKA Channel 2’s distinct privilege to present Coaches’ Corner with Pittsburgh’s adopted son, Ognyan Dragomirov. Live from DeLand, Florida, here is the coach of Stetson University.

-----

Oggy:
Welcome and ‘zdraveyte’ to all of the viewers tonight. We’ve officially made it to a third episode, which is a privilege and an honor. With tonight’s esteemed guest, I’m sure we’ll make it to a fourth.

Our guest on this episode is Norm Roberts, the current coach of Southern Methodist University and can claim ‘National Champion’ as a title due to the wonderful 2012 season he had while coaching at St. John’s. I was just a sophomore at Robert Morris, sitting on the end of the bench when you won that title, and I remember being really impressed by how good freshman Eduardo Roller was and envious of the impact he was already making as an 18 year old.

But enough gushing and reminiscing from me, let’s get back to the present. I am really glad you’re here with us today Norm.

Norm:
Thank you very much for having me and I appreciate the kind words. That National Championship team I hold near and dear to my heart and Eduardo Roller was definitely a huge piece of the puzzle.




Oggy:
To kick things off, I’d love to have you talk a bit about your move to SMU. I remember being shocked when I heard that you were moving, I thought you’d be like Jim Boeheim and stay at St. John’s forever. Personally, I would have loved to rack up title after title in a market like New York.

Norm:
I will say that the move from St. John's to SMU was not an easy one. I thought I would be coaching the Red Storm for the rest of my career. Add in the fact that we were bringing in two five star recruits - center Kerry Rohde and point guard Ulrich Lamkin - and it was setup for the success to continue far into the future.

At one point I thought to myself that I had completed one of my goals and that was bringing a national title to St. John's so it was time to move on and rebuild another team. I loved watching Coach Cal's Memphis Tigers team in the C-USA, but wanted to knock them off. SMU had an opening and they kept calling and calling...so I finally bit.

Oggy:
I see…that’s admirable and a challenge, though I admit it’s probably not how I would have approached the problem. But you have the title, and I don’t, so who am I to question things?

Norm:
Haha well Oggy, if I’m not mistaken you left your last gig to jump to Stetson on a whim so maybe you’re more like Old Norm than you think!

- coaches have a laugh together -

I think we as coaches need to realize that at the essence of what we do, we are just problem solvers. Whether it’s figuring out how to dissect a defense, put in an entirely new offense or completely rebuild a college basketball program, at the end of the day we are just solving problems. Sometimes we look at the biggest problems to solve - like completely rebuilding a lower program - and say to ourselves ”I can do that!” and jump at the opportunity.

Oggy:
You remind me of Dinko, except you’re better looking. There are things I know and understand to be true, but I don’t often find them at the front of my mind or articulate them well. You are exactly right when talking about us as problem solvers.

Norm:
Speaking of problem solving, I want to ask both you and your brother a simple, yet complex, philosophy question: do you recruit players to fit your offensive system or do you tailor your offensive system to fit the talent on your roster? I know you say that you don’t question me since I have the title but this is a struggle I have on an annual basis.

Oggy:
With only 4 years of head coaching experience, I probably don’t have this figured out yet. I must admit that my recruiting philosophy was similar to my dating philosophy in college: are they pretty and is the interest reciprocated? I spend time looking primarily at three-star players that express that Stetson is a school they could see themselves at. Scheme fit, even positional needs, is not really top of my mind. In my view, basketball is becoming more and more “position-less” and if I can get 5 talented players on the court, I’ll make it work.

I’m fortunate to have players like Arnaud Dahi that can play both guard spots and players like Brendon Pocius that could play the 2 through 5 in a pinch. That lets me get the most talent on the floor and let some of my players who are more specialized – like Lennox Evertsen or Marko Nevill – shine best.

With all that said, I do tend to prefer scoring via “Inside-Out” basketball. It’s almost like a football coach who uses the run to set up play action. I get the post-game working so I can set up corner threes and kick outs.

For my brother, he’s too busy being responsible, so he’s not here tonight, but we’ll take a note on the question and use it the next time he’s on, I promise. However, he has a bit more of a system mindset than I do, but I’ll let him talk to it.

And with that, I wanted to extend an enormous thank you to our guest and national champion Norm Roberts. It was truly a privilege talking with you today and I wish you luck this season with SMU.

Have a great night, this is Ognyan Dragomirov signing off of Coaches’ Corner or KDKA Channel 2.

-----

If you haven’t, check out R1zzo23’s “Taking the Big East by [Red] Storm” dynasty to learn more about coach Roberts’ journey.




Please take the Bulgarian brothers 2023 survey. Your responses will help shape the future of this dynasty! https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=DQSIkWdsW0yxEjajBLZtrQAAAAAAA AAAAAMAAII8-q9UM0FHNko3RkZWNE8yOVg5MzRaQkU2Q0lYNS4u

[R1zzo23]

Great experience and love the community building you are doing here among other legacies!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[studbucket]

I was doing some scouting for opponents next season and stumbled across this, sharing for you Trekfan, just to get the Tennessee-Florida rivalry juices flowing.

[studbucket]

I have migrated 56 prospects from College Hoops 2K8 to NBA 2K20 for the 2024 NBA draft. Not all of them will go pro, but this is the starting point for next season. With all this fresh in my mind, I wanted to give you a preview of 10 interesting players that may be available in next year’s draft. These are not the 10 best players, rather they are 10 players that I find interesting.

J.B. McCroskey, SF, senior, Hartford
McCroskey is interesting because he’s from a relatively small school, in fact he would be only the second NBA player ever from Hartford. The first? Vin Baker. The 6’5” SF is a good three point shooter and stands out with his curly red hair.

Taquan St. Fort, C, senior, DePaul
DePaul has a much richer basketball history than Hartford, but St. Fort is one of the best players to come through the Chicago school in the last two decades. The seven footer from Peoria averaged 18.5 points and 6.1 rebounds last season.

Marcello Barber, PF, senior, Duke
Barber was the #2 recruit in the 2020 recruiting class and won the National Freshman of the Year award and two national championships while at Duke. Through three seasons he’s scoring nearly 12 points per game. The #1 overall recruit in that 2020 class was Malcolm Nahra (PG, UCLA) who was drafted 32^nd by the Bucks last year. We’ll see if Barber’s stock is higher than Nahra’s. This class is deep with power forwards, so he has a lot of competition.

Leighton Byerson, SG, senior, Boston College
Byerson was also part of that 2020 class and was the 5^th ranked recruit. Coming from the Bronx, he’s been a scoring machine for BC but has not been able to lead them to meaningful success. At 6’7” he has good length and a solid stroke for shooting.

Fab Pratt, SG, senior, UCLA
Honestly, he’s just here for his name. Part of the talented-yet-always-underperforming UCLA trio alongside Stewart Mobley (C, Brooklyn) and Malcolm Nahra (SG, Milwaukee), Pratt was solid last year, scoring 15.3 points each game.

Darius Lovelace, C, senior, Washington
The 21 year old decided to stay 1 more year and it looks like the decision has paid off as he’s gone from a second round projection to a possible lottery pick. You may remember Lovelace from the beatdown the Huskies laid on St. Francis. Lovelace has the ability to impact the game on both ends – this was clear in their round 2 loss to Boston College last year as he had 27 points, 10 blocks, and 6 rebounds.

Dan Diaz, PG, senior, Arizona State
With that beard, how could you not be intrigued? He’s also on the stockier side for a point guard, and towers above some of the other guards that are 4 inches and 60 pounds lighter.

Bronny James, PG, NA, IMG Academy
Yes, this is LeBron James’ son. No, he’s not very good. Yes, the open secret about LeBron wanting to play with his son is what makes Bronny interesting. Will a team spent a draft pick on him and use that as leverage to get LeBron to come to their city? Does this mean that the relatively raw Bronny will actually get playing time?

Ashton Uthoff, SG, NA, Australia
Last year we had Artie Tyler, this year we have Ashton Uthoff. Different names, but the same player. Sharpshooting two-guards that look like they could be impactful players in the NBA. The Honu drafted Tyler last year, but they won’t be so crazy about Asian/Pacific talent to draft an Artie Tyler clone next year, right?

Joey Robbins, SF, junior, Florida State
Robbins was a member of the 2021 recruiting class and one of two players in the top 20 to commit to Florida State. It was surprising to see two top 20 players commit to FSU in an offseason, and it brought up questions of how scrupulous the actions of FSU were. Putting that aside, Robins has been solid but not spectacular through 2 seasons (much like FSU) but finds himself one of the more intriguing prospects in the draft thanks to his size (6’9”), well-rounded game, and leaping ability.




Please take the Bulgarian brothers 2023 survey. Your responses will help shape the future of this dynasty! https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=DQSIkWdsW0yxEjajBLZtrQAAAAAAA AAAAAMAAII8-q9UM0FHNko3RkZWNE8yOVg5MzRaQkU2Q0lYNS4u

[R1zzo23]

How do you go about adding these guys into your draft classes?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[studbucket]

Quote: Originally Posted by R1zzo23

How do you go about adding these guys into your draft classes?

First, I take a copy of my MyLeague and sim ahead to the offseason. I have draft quality set to 40 now (was previously 42/43) and when it asks me about creating, exporting, or importing a draft class, I auto-generate one there and then save/export the draft class.

Then I go through every single team in the NCAA and look at players rated 80+ and look at their draft projection (via the "right click player menu"). Anyone who is projected for Top Pick or Lottery I put into a spreadsheet. Any Seniors who are first rounders I also put there (but not juniors or sophomores as they usually don't go pro).

In the spreadsheet, I log their "vitals" and take notes on any and all ratings that are A- or higher. I also jot down their tendencies.

I then go to the NBA 2K exported draft class outside of the MyLeague and I start editing players. I sort the spreadsheet by 1) Projection, 2) Position, 3) Potential, and 4) Overall.

I then go position by position and edit the players using the fictional draft class as a base. So I edit their name, number, height, and weight. If they look radically different (or if I care) I'll edit their appearance, but I usually don't care. So players were white in college, and black in the NBA, oh well.

Then I go and look at their top ratings and give all of those attributes a boost so they are at least 70+. Sometimes I go 80+ (for shooting attributes). Durability I go 90+.

For the most part, I don't touch potential. Sometimes I will lower attributes as well.

Then I re-import the draft class and get ready to start the season.

Honestly, it's part of why I milk the offseason with articles, the draft class portion of this takes some time, so I amortize it.