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

[studbucket]

Quote: Originally Posted by marshdaddy

Evertson is that dude. Love what the Hatters are doing. That loss to UConn is tough, would’ve been a huge win to have for tournament consideration if they don’t win the conference title

Lennox is quite something, I agree. I knew I was getting a shooter, I didn't expect him to be such a good finisher.

I had the same thought about getting an at-large bid somehow, going to be tough though.

[Dawgfan1]

Man, I did not know about the St. Francis (NY) Brooklyn news until I caught up on this thread. As someone who's done a legacy with them before and was checking on them every year hoping they'd finally make the dance, that is SO SAD to hear. Fun fact, they were one of 4 teams who's played D-I since the tournament started to never make it (others are Army, William & Mary, and The Citadel). This will bring boos here, but they'll always be the real St Francis in my heart.

On a more related note, nice to see both brothers' years going well headed into conference play. Will Dinko play Fairleigh Dickinson (or FDU as I guess they want us to call them) this year in honor of their historic upset? I'm sure we all look at them differently now after they beat Purdue, it's really cool to be able to do that with this game. Also, Evertsen is a beast.

[studbucket]

Quote: Originally Posted by Dawgfan1

Man, I did not know about the St. Francis (NY) Brooklyn news until I caught up on this thread. As someone who's done a legacy with them before and was checking on them every year hoping they'd finally make the dance, that is SO SAD to hear. Fun fact, they were one of 4 teams who's played D-I since the tournament started to never make it (others are Army, William & Mary, and The Citadel). This will bring boos here, but they'll always be the real St Francis in my heart.

It is totally sad. I like to call them Fake Francis in this universe, but I'd never want a school to get rid of their athletics, it just sucks :/

Quote: Originally Posted by Dawgfan1

On a more related note, nice to see both brothers' years going well headed into conference play. Will Dinko play Fairleigh Dickinson (or FDU as I guess they want us to call them) this year in honor of their historic upset? I'm sure we all look at them differently now after they beat Purdue, it's really cool to be able to do that with this game. Also, Evertsen is a beast.

Yes, Dinko usually gets FDU twice in a season! Unfortunately I don't have them scheduled for a game I will play. The rest of Dinko's games I will play are Robert Morris, Sacred Heart, St. Francis (NY), and Mount St. Mary's.

[studbucket]

On January 1^st, two franchises decided that they weren’t getting the kind of leadership they needed.

First, the Thunder fired Billy Donovan after 5 seasons. They have a very talented roster and were only 17-14 and in seventh place in the West. While he seemed to be a fine coach for a team that didn’t have big aspirations, growing consensus in the building was that he didn’t have what it took to get the most out of this roster. Having finished 38-44 last year, much more was expected this season.

Donovan is being replaced by the younger Edgar Washington, who will be bringing a much more modern offensive approach to the Thunder.

Then, just hours later, the New Orleans Pelicans ousted Luke Wallace. He had only been the head coach in New Orleans for 24 months, but after a terrible 32-50 opening season and a 13-20 start to the year, ownership decided they could no longer waste the talent of Zion Williamson (PF, 94 ovr), Adrian Stewart (PF, 84 ovr), and Victor Oladipo (SG, 88 ovr). Wallace was hired midway through the 2021-22 NBA season after Alvin Gentry was fired and didn’t do any better than his predecessor.

To replace Wallace the Pelicans promoted assistant coach Stephen Dawkins, who is expected to open up the offense more than was seen under Wallace. To assist him, the Pelicans hired Dwight Howard to help mentor young big men Williamson and Stewart.

While these were the only two coaching changes made, there are rumors that several teams are looking to make meaningful changes including Brooklyn, Toronto, Dallas, Denver, and Memphis.

[studbucket]

Robert Morris has had losing streaks of 5 and 6 games already this season and we just hit the new year. The Colonials are 5-11 but managed to get 2 conference wins thanks to playing the abysmal St. Francis (NY) and Quinnipiac teams that have a combined 2 wins between them.

Ever since a heartbreaking loss in the conference tournament to his brother’s alma mater back in 2020, Dinko has been ruthless when facing the Colonials. In the 3 seasons since then, he has gone 6-1 against Robert Morris, winning by as much as 40 and the only loss being by 1 point. The Red Flash are major favorites coming into this game, even being on the road. Only senior P.J. Boatner (PG, 65) seems to be of concern and they have some very poor players in their starting lineup including freshman Jovan Markham (SG, 54 ovr) and senior Bucky Henning (C, 52 ovr).

For the Red Flash, Vern Quick and Willis Holman are still dealing with nagging injuries that will last another week or two, but the team should be fine even with them operating at less than 100%. The Red Flash have 4 players scoring 8 points or more per game and are seeing freshman Erwin Willingham and Bobby Valdez lead the team in assists. Vern Quick may be the team’s leading scorer, but they are proving to be deep and well-rounded.

The beginning of the game was not at all how Dinko wanted it to be: his team started out sloppy and was committing fouls and making dumb mistakes. After another foul resulted in a 3 point play and an 11-7 deficit, Dinko called a timeout and tried to get his players to settle down and focus. Coming out of the timeout, he went with a 3-guard lineup, subbing Bobby Valdez in at the 2 and moving Vern Quick to the 3 for Stephane Diakite. He’s hoping to space the floor and hit some more shots.

The strategy had mixed success for the Red Flash, but they did manage to finally tie the game up at 20 about 2/3rds of the way into the first half. Robert Morris called time to take a break and kill any momentum that St. Francis was building up.

Unfortunately for the Colonials, they weren’t able to regain control of the game as the first half closed out. Despite being tied at 30 with 2 minutes left, the halftime score was 36-32 in favor of the visitors. St. Francis was shooting an astounding 70% from the field but not playing well, which was reflected in the scoreline. Scoring was well distributed for the Red Flash with Floyd Akindele, Stephane Diakite, and Vern Quick combining for 25 points but none of them had scored more than 9.

The biggest concern for Dinko was P.J. Boatner who had 8 points and 4 assists for the home team, and he needed to figure out a way to slow him down as his playmaking was causing problems for St. Francis’ defense.

Despite a series of exciting and emphatic dunks in the second half, St. Francis largely struggled to make shots and found the game tied at 52 midway through the second half.

The dunks were great, but the score wasn’t

After struggling to pull ahead, the Red Flash finally strung together two good possessions to get a commanding lead. With less than 2 minutes to go and St. Francis up 60-56, Vern Quick hit a three pointer. After a defensive stop, the Red Flash got the ball to Stephane Diakite on a fast break who made a beautiful reverse layup while having his off-hand hooked by the defender. The foul was called, the visitors were up 9, and Dinko felt great.

Still frame of the obvious foul on Diakite’s reverse layup

Replay of the key basket from Diakite

However, Dinko was in disbelief as he saw this 9 point lead nearly evaporate. Thanks to a series of dumb passes, the lead was cut to 3 points and Vern Quick was fouled with 6 seconds left to send him to the line to shoot a 1-and-1. Quick was cold-blooded as always and drained both to give St. Francis the 72-67 win on the road in Pittsburgh.

Around the NCAA

• In a game later this week, St. Francis improved to 4-1 in conference with a 79-63 win at Long Island. 5 players scored 11 or more points, including Bobby Valdez with 13 points, 6 rebounds, and 10 assists off the bench. Erwin Willingham had 5 assists and 5 steals as well.
• Stetson had two games this week, losing the first one at Florida Gulf Coast by 3 points 61-58. Lennox Evertsen and Brendon Pocius combined for 33 points and Jerimie Scott added 10 points and 5 rebounds off the bench.
• The Hatters rebounded with a big 76-58 win at Lipscomb. The star of the game was Jerimie Scott with 22 points off the bench. Brendon Pocius had 16 points and 9 rebounds as well. However, Lennox Evertsen separated his shoulder and will miss 2.5 weeks.
• North Carolina destroyed rivals Duke 97-61 and remained undefeated. Warren Mayes (PF, 88 ovr) had 22 points and 9 rebounds for the Tar Heels. Duke was held to 34% shooting and committed 21 turnovers.
• Washington beat Oregon 76-69 in a battle of top 10 teams as Darius Lovelace (C, 86 ovr) scored 35 points.
• Marquette has lost 3 straight games and fallen to #4, which is still higher than many would expect. The Golden Eagles are now 12-3 on the season 1-3 in conference. Their losses have come to Rutgers, #25 DePaul, and Notre Dame.

[HarkTheSound]

Thrilled to see this back at the top of these boards. LFG!

[marshdaddy]

Pretty surprising score considering the discrepancy in overalls between the two teams. What went wrong, and is that any reason to be concerned moving forward?

[studbucket]

Quote: Originally Posted by HarkTheSound

Thrilled to see this back at the top of these boards. LFG!

Appreciate it!

Quote: Originally Posted by marshdaddy

Pretty surprising score considering the discrepancy in overalls between the two teams. What went wrong, and is that any reason to be concerned moving forward?

Very surprising. 2 things went wrong:
1 - Rebounding
They outrebounded us despite the talent and size advantage. Only Floyd Akindele had more than 4 rebounds and our starting PF had 2. Just a lack of positioning and floor awareness that prevented us from getting second chances or keeping them from getting theirs.

2 - Off-ball defense
Robert Morris had 67% more assists than St. Francis. This was primarily due to drive-and-kicks and the point guard hitting some cutters. We fell asleep off the ball and it hurt us. 72 points isn't bad, but allowing this team to score 67 is not acceptable.


I do think there is reason to be concerned going forward. If Vern Quick and Bobby Valdez aren't hitting threes, this team needs to rely on its defense and some less consistent scorers. Thompson, Holman, and Akindele need to be doing the little things right. The box score can look OK, but that doesn't mean they played well.