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

[studbucket]

The Red Flash are coming off a lighter week, only having played Fairleigh Dickinson last week in a game that turned out to be more of a scrimmage than any real competition. St. Francis won 92-42 and no FDU player managed to score more than 8 points while 6 of Dinko’s boys scored 12+ points, with the star being Floyd Akindele and his 12 point, 11 rebound double-double.

The dominant win puts SFU at 9-1 in the conference a half game ahead of Long Island (9-2). The Red Flash have been fantastic this year and are 15-6 overall and Dinko is looking to rival his 2021-22 season where he led the Red Flash to a 23-12 record. Tonight’s home game against Sacred Heart will determine if St. Francis can keep hold of first place or if they will drop into a tie.

The Pioneers are 4-7, sitting third from the bottom in the conference and have not had a great season as they continue their slow downward trajectory. Since winning the NEC regular season title in 2020, they’ve finished fourth, sixth, and seventh since then and have only won a single NEC tournament game in those four years. Head coach Anthony Latina is likely feeling the hot seat as he has seen his team get worse and worse over the last 5 years.

It was already going to be a tough game for Sacred Heart, but it’s gotten even harder as they are missing starting big man Martin Harvey (C, 72 ovr) as he’s out for another week with a back injury. With Harvey out, the Pioneers have a huge height problem. Backup center Lamar Collum (51 ovr) is a huge step down and arguably not ready for D1 basketball. This means the Pioneers will likely have to rely heavily on freshman Leslie Larranaga (SF, 69 ovr) and sophomore Robin Timmer (SG, 65 ovr) if they want to have any chance in this game.

The game started a bit slow in DeGol Arena, but then the Red Flash woke up and found themselves up 16-5 before coach Latina finally called a timeout. Sacred Heart’s offense was awful and it didn’t get any better. With just 7 minutes left in the first half, the Pioneers had only scored 8 points.

They managed to score 14 more points in that half, but went into halftime down 44-22 and shooting only 20%. Dinko had already put in the backups and the fans were just hoping for some highlight plays in the second half. Unfortunately, much of the second half was a low-energy and lackadaisical affair and the fans were treated to Dinko loudly blowing up on his players from the bench during a timeout.

The talk seemed to work as the Red Flash regained control of the game and coasted to a 77-47 victory. The Red Flash have 8 straight wins with an average margin of victory of 26.3 points. The Red Flash look like giants in the NEC and nearly impossible to stop.

After the game, Dinko was stopped as he neared the tunnel and asked “Coach, another big victory as your team has won 8 straight and looks like the class of the conference. What’s been the difference this year that has resulted in so many lopsided wins?”

Dinko responded “It’s really been a fantastic season. I can’t say it’s because we are clearly more talented than teams in the past – think about Mo Payne’s last year. I think it’s more about truly being well-rounded and having depth. We’ve had a number of games where our leading scorer has been someone off the bench, and our length can really give other teams problems.”

Chris Thompson had 23 points and 7 rebounds on 11-12 shooting and was very solid and consistent today.

Around the NCAA

• Stetson played 3 games in the last few weeks, all of them wins. Oggy’s boys are sitting at 9-1, first place in the Atlantic Sun, and a game ahead of Belmont and Lipscomb. Their 17-7 record overall isn’t too shabby either.
  • 79-71 win vs Belmont. This helped Stetson take a lead in the conference and gives them a tiebreaker advantage. Despite 4 of Belmont’s starters scoring 12+ points, the Hatters overcame a 7 point halftime deficit and scored 52 second half points to win. Brendon Pocius led the team with a very solid 22 and 13 double-double. Marko Nevill had 7p, 5r, and 6a, while Arnaud Dahi added a well-rounded 3p, 3r, 7a, and 2s. Lennox Evertsen came off the bench to score 11 in a smaller performance.
  • 75-60 win over Mercer. Pocius had another big game: 23p, 6r, 3a, 2s. Lennox Evertsen came back and had his first start in a month, which was rough as he had 3 points on 0-5 shooting.
  • 77-76 win at Eastern Tennessee State. This was a tight game all the way through. Dane Matheus (C, 69 ovr) had huge game with 29 and 11. Stetson overcame that via 18p, 10r, 3a from Pocius and 15 points (on 4-14 shooting) from Lennox Evertsen.
• The top 2 teams in the Pac 10, and the country, faced off as UCLA took on Washington. It wasn’t even a game as the Bruins won 86-55 behind Fab Pratt (SG, 88 ovr) had 20 points and 7 rebounds while UW big man Darius Lovelace (C, 86 ovr) was held to only 17 points.
• Duke vaulted up to #5 in the polls with a huge 101-89 win over surging Florida State. Marcello Barber (PF, 91 ovr) outdueled Spencer brown (SG, 82 ovr) 28-26 to lead the Blue Devils.
• North Carolina moved up to #2 in the polls after beating Maryland 82-78. Warren Mayes (PF, 88 ovr) led all scorers with 28 points.

[JoshNormanMane]

Trevor Merchant seems like a problem, ideally this is what I'd imagine the career arc of real life D-Rose to look like had he not gotten hurt.

It's cool that you've kept your 2k20 universe at the same pace of where we are in real life.

Also, did you create the guys in your CH universe or are they CPU generated? I've never played the game so I'm not too familiar with how good their system is.

[studbucket]

Quote: Originally Posted by JoshNormanMane

Trevor Merchant seems like a problem, ideally this is what I'd imagine the career arc of real life D-Rose to look like had he not gotten hurt.

Absolutely. That's how I think of it too.

Quote: Originally Posted by JoshNormanMane

It's cool that you've kept your 2k20 universe at the same pace of where we are in real life.

I wish I hadn't It mostly got really slowed down by my wife's health issues and getting busy with family stuff (playing other games together, youth sports, etc).

Quote: Originally Posted by JoshNormanMane

Also, did you create the guys in your CH universe or are they CPU generated? I've never played the game so I'm not too familiar with how good their system is.

They are almost all auto-generated by CHoops. I can create a few recruits a year, but I make them mostly for flavor. The system is pretty good, with just 1 major flaw: all the best recruits are guards.

[studbucket]

Posting this as its own separate update as the previous post would have been very long with this added to the bottom.

• The Warriors won by 44 over the Pelicans with Steph Curry (PG, 96 ovr), Jarrett Pressley (PG, 81 ovr), and Jimmy Butler (SF, 86 ovr) combining for 31 assists and DeAndre Ayton (C, 91 ovr) had 25 points, 20 rebounds, 4 steals, and 4 blocks. The Warriors have won 8 of their last 10 and are in command of the Western Conference.
• Bol (C, 84 ovr), Beal (SG, 91 ovr), Murray (PG, 86 ovr) and Jokic (C, 90 ovr) combined for 101 points as the Nuggets beat the Pacers 137-122. Ever since trading for Zubac (C, ) the Nuggets have been playing more consistent, higher quality basketball.
• Trevor Merchant (PG, 88 ovr) had 41 points and Marvin Bagley III (C, 85 ovr) had 31 rebounds as the Pistons defeated the now-tanking Cavaliers 114-99.
• The Wizards managed to beat the Bucks despite missing R.J. Barrett (SG, 84 ovr) due to injury, but then got Barrett back and had him drop 40 points to help them beat the Pistons, followed by wins over the Celtics, Thunder, and Grizzlies. They are still outside the playoff picture but have proven to be quite dangerous.
• Brandon Ingram (SF, 85 ovr) dropped 49 points (and only had 2 rebounds and 2 assists lol) but the Knicks lost to the Trail Blazers in OT as only 2 other New York players scored in double digits. Malcom Brogdon (PG, 87 ovr) led the Trail Blazers with 31 points, 5 rebounds, and 7 assists.
• The Miami Heat took the Brooklyn Nets into two overtimes, but lost 136-141. Even with Kevin Durant missing half the season so far, the Nets are doing quite well and seeing unlikely scorers step up like Jace Tarpley (SF, 79 ovr) and Nickeil Alexander-Walker (SG, 81 ovr).
• R.J. Barrett won the Eastern Conference January Player of the Month award despite missing a few games. The Wizards went 9-7 this month and Barrett averaged 34 points per game in the games he played in (excluding the game he left after a few minutes with an injury).
• Zion Williamson (PF, 94 ovr) is also injured, but was averaging 30 points and 16 rebounds before his brief trip to the injured list. This gave him Western Conference Player of the Month for January.
• Jameer Trammell (SF, 81 ovr) of the Magic and Sherman Turner (PF, 79 ovr) of the Clippers won the Rookie of the Month awards. Trammell is finally starting to look like the player that fans expected of the #1 overall pick out of Kansas State while Turner’s great January is a result over the opportunity given to him via the Zubac trade. “Big Oklahoma” is giving the Clipper fans something to cheer for in what has been an otherwise miserable season.
• Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (SG, 85 ovr) will miss most of the rest of the season for the Heat as he tore his left meniscus.
• The Timberwolves will be missing D’Angelo Russell (PG, 86 ovr) for 4-6 weeks due to some right knee tendonitis.
• The Chicago Bulls won 7 of 8 games, including big wins over Boston and twice over Phoenix, but then have lost 3 straight games.
• The Celtics have dropped from second to fourth in the East, squandering their comfortable buffer as they’ve gone 3-7 in their last 10 with losses to bad teams like the Spurs and Wizards.
• The Lakers and Timberwolves are hot on the heels of Golden State for the top seed in the West. LA had 8 straight wins at one point in January while the T-Wolves are winners of 5 straight and 7 of their last 8.
• The Phoenix Suns are barely hanging on for their playoff lives as they weather a stretch that saw them go 2-11 in December and January before managing to go 4-2 in the games before the All-Star break.

[Careless Whisper]

Little trouble for Dinko and the Red Flash in the NEC at the moment. Wish conference realignment was a thing in College Hoops 2K8 - that'd be an interesting wrinkle for Dinko's next move, where instead of going to a better mid-major or power conference school, SFU could be that school for him.

Glad to have this back!

[studbucket]

Quote: Originally Posted by Careless Whisper

Little trouble for Dinko and the Red Flash in the NEC at the moment. Wish conference realignment was a thing in College Hoops 2K8 - that'd be an interesting wrinkle for Dinko's next move, where instead of going to a better mid-major or power conference school, SFU could be that school for him. Glad to have this back!

Yeah, the NEC has been a cakewalk this year. The Red Flash are much stronger and CCST finally got a bit weaker. Dinko has a really good chance to finally win a regular season title in year 5 and Oggy is right in the running to win one as well.

I do wish we had conference re-alignment as well. It would be a tough sell for a tiny school like SFPA to move to anything too big, but enough sustained success and it could absolutely happen.

[studbucket]

It might be 2024, but you’d be forgiven for not knowing that as we see Steph Curry and Giannis Antetokounmpo once again captain the All-Star teams. This year’s All-Star game is in Seattle, and features Jerry Sparks and Donovan Mitchell as first-time All-Stars and Kevin Love returning after several years off as his career has been revived in Chicago as he leads the surprising Bulls to the top 4 in the East.

Bol Bol (C, 84 ovr, DEN), R.J. Barrett (SG, 84 ovr, WAS), Markelle Fultz (PG, 84 ovr, HAW) and two Timberwolves, D’Angelo Russell (PG, 86 ovr) and Arnold McNurlin (SF, 84 ovr) are the biggest snubs for this year’s game.

Team Steph	Team Giannis
Steph Curry (PG, 96 ovr, GSW) – 10 time All-Star	Kyrie Irving (PG, 92 ovr, BRK) – 11 time All-Star
Ben Simmons (PG, 91 ovr, PHI) – 5 time All-Star	Luka Doncic (SG, 97 ovr, DAL) – 4 time All-Star
Zion Williamson (PF, 94 ovr, NOP) – 4 time All-Star	Kawhi Leonard (SF, 93 ovr, TOR) – 7 time All-Star
Anthony Davis (PF, 97 ovr, LAL) – 11 time All-Star	Giannis Antetokounmpo (PF, 99 ovr, MIL) – 8 time All-Star
Nikola Jokic (C, 90 ovr, DEN) – 6 time All-Star	Joel Embiid (C, 90 ovr, PHI) – 7 time All-Star
LeBron James (SF, 89 ovr, LAL) – 20 time All-Star	Khris Middleton (SF, 86 ovr, MIL) – 4 time All-Star
Jayson Tatum (PF, 88 ovr, BOS) – 2 time All-Star	Trevor Merchant (PG, 88 ovr, DET) – 3 time All-Star
Devin Booker (SG, 90 ovr, PHX) – 2 time All-Star	Kristaps Porzingis (PF, 89 ovr, DAL) – 5 time All-Star
Bradley Beal (SG, 91 ovr, DEN) – 6 time All-Star	De’Aaron Fox (PG, 87 ovr, CHA) – 2 time All-Star
Bam Adebayo (C, 88 ovr, PHX) – 3 time All-Star	Donovan Mitchell (SG, 92 ovr, UTA) – 1 time All-Star
Ja Morant (PG, 90 ovr, MEM) – 2 time All-Star	Jerry Sparks (PF, 88 ovr, CHA) – 1 time All-Star
James Harden (SG, 94 ovr, HOU) – 12 time All-Star	Karl-Anthony Towns (C, 90 ovr, MIN) – 5 time All-Star
Kevin Love (PF, 84 ovr, CHI) – 7 time All-Star	Trae Young (PG, 94 ovr, ATL) – 5 time All-Star

[Careless Whisper]

Quote: Originally Posted by studbucket

Yeah, the NEC has been a cakewalk this year. The Red Flash are much stronger and CCST finally got a bit weaker. Dinko has a really good chance to finally win a regular season title in year 5 and Oggy is right in the running to win one as well. I do wish we had conference re-alignment as well. It would be a tough sell for a tiny school like SFPA to move to anything too big, but enough sustained success and it could absolutely happen.

Yeah, SFPA couldn't realistically move to the Big East or anything like that, but a step-up to the A-10 or CAA would be realistic. I think the EA Sports' versions of college basketball games had some sort of conference realignment in them based on how much success you had, which is probably the lone plus they had over 2K at the time.