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

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Quote: Originally Posted by RolePlayer

Is lebron going to miss the entire series?

No, I think he's day-to-day, and 2K temporarily removed him from the starting lineup, but I'd count on him being available for the series.

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Stephanie listened as Kostadin wrapped up his phone call.

“Yes sir, I’m sure.” Dinko said. He listened and nodded. “I am truly flattered, but my family and life situation are what matters the most right now. However, I do think you are right to consider Oggy. He is talented, learning, and much more flexible about where he lives.”

Dinko paused and listened. “Mmmm hmmm, you too, goodbye.”

He sighed and looked at Stephanie. “I knew that would happen, and I knew my answer, but it didn’t make it any easier. Stetson called and offered me the head coaching job.”

“Who or what is Stetson?” Stephanie asked, confused.

Dinko laughed. “I suppose that is re-assuring. Stetson University is a college in central Florida. I’m not sure their team is any better than ours, but their conference is stronger, they have a much larger student body, and they have more money.”

Stephanie laughed too at her own ignorance. “Now I understand,” and she kissed him on the forehead. “It would have to be something amazing for it to be worth uprooting our family and your parents…and that doesn’t sound amazing” she paused. “Stetson.” Letting the words hang in the air. “What a dorky name for a school.”

Kostadin couldn’t help but laugh at that.

He pulled out his phone and called his brother. “Oggy. I think you’re going to be getting a phone call…”

Ognyan Dragomirov is now the coach of Stetson University, making a move that was a surprise to Northern Colorado athletic department, and is leaving more than a few fans feeling embittered. Stetson’s coach, Donnie Jones, left to take over the head coach position at Miami of Ohio after Jack Owens retired. With their vacancy their #1 option was Kostadin, but he rejected their offer before even going through an interview process.

Oggy knew his brother was their first choice, but he wasn’t the only coach they interviewed and Oggy beat out all the rest. Dinko was always more cautious and slow than him, and Oggy couldn’t wait for a fresh start. The incoming recruits at Stetson are disappointing compared to what he had lined up for the Bears, but he knew that this school was a better launching pad for success. The Atlantic Sun conference had more money, better players, more exposure, and was in much more fertile recruiting ground.

Stetson went 21-10 last season, finished 3^rd place in the Atlantic Sun, and made the NCAA tournament as a 13 seed (and lost to Arizona in round 1). Nearly every talented player is graduating Stetson and there is very little experience or talent left over. It’s certainly a better conference, but it’s a worse situation for Oggy.

His work was cut out for him, and he knew this season would be very hard, but he was looking to years 2 and 3 to be a launching pad for something much greater, maybe even a “Power 5” conference school.

Brandon North, Taron Guy, Andres Swanson, and some of the incoming international recruits were gutted, but that was just the cost of doing business. Oggy wasn’t afraid though, he’d be sure to book a game against UNC this season. Maybe they could even get revenge against him.

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It was a relatively quiet offseason, with only 4 teams changing head coaches. Two of these were retirements and the other two were replacements for coaches who had moved to replace those retired coaches.

School	Previous Coach	Reason	New Coach
Miami (OH)	Jack Owens	Retired	Donnie Jones (Stetson)
Stetson	Donnie Jones	Left for new job	Ognyan Dragomiro (Northern Colorado)
Jackson State	Wayne Brent	Retired	Franklin Fray (Bowling Green assistant)
Northern Colorado	Ognyan Dragomirov	Left for new job	Kudjo Legans (College of Charleston assistant)

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One piece of good news for Oggy is that his weak recruiting class at Stetson was supplemented by a 6’11” transfer from UConn: Daron Wagner. The Junior will need to sit out a year (transfer rules), but struggled for playing time at Connecticut but has the pedigree to do well in the Atlantic Sun, and is now much closer to his hometown of Atlanta, GA. Next season, he’ll bring interior scoring, shot blocking, and surprising athleticism to the Hatters.

Elsewhere, there a few other meaningful transfers, including other players leaving Villanova and UConn.

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St. Francis saw a lot of players graduate, and UNC had a few of their core players finish up school.

[RolePlayer]

Woah big things happening in Dragoville

I like the dynamic you're building between the two brothers. Oggy the careerist not afraid to burn a few bridges to get to the top and Dinko the family man who values building things. Of course, Dinko will move up when the right opportunity comes. Would be interesting if he sticks around Pennslyvania maybe landing a job at Pitt, Villanova, or Penn St.

For Oggy, I think he might've been better suited sticking around at Northern Colorado for another year or two. I don't think Stetson is quite the stepping stone to a power conference he thinks it is. However, Florida will give him more talent to bring into his program which should allow for long term success.

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Quote: Originally Posted by RolePlayer

Woah big things happening in Dragoville I like the dynamic you're building between the two brothers. Oggy the careerist not afraid to burn a few bridges to get to the top and Dinko the family man who values building things. Of course, Dinko will move up when the right opportunity comes. Would be interesting if he sticks around Pennslyvania maybe landing a job at Pitt, Villanova, or Penn St. For Oggy, I think he might've been better suited sticking around at Northern Colorado for another year or two. I don't think Stetson is quite the stepping stone to a power conference he thinks it is. However, Florida will give him more talent to bring into his program which should allow for long term success.

Yeah, Oggy is definitely taking the "greedy algorithm" approach (a computer science term that refers to taking the best immediate option without looking at the bigger picture), and it's not clear if Stetson was the right thing or not. However, with UNC finishing last in the conference, I think he wanted to take another opportunity and not repeat that again.

For Dinko, Duquesne is the "realistic dream", and Pitt is the biggest he's allowed himself to think. However, if a team like UNC, Kansas, or UCLA came calling, he may be willing to relocate his family. But I think he'd prefer to see if he can stay within a 2ish hour drive of Pittsburgh and be successful there. It'd be something if he can get St. Francis to be the "Gonzaga of the East".

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The first round of the NBA playoffs is in the books and there were two amazing series, two big surprises, and a lot of snooze-fests.

Milwaukee Bucks (4) vs Indiana Pacers (0)
Milwaukee won every game by 20+, including a 162-115 closeout win.

Philadelphia 76ers (4) vs Orlando Magic (0)
Embiid scored 31, 48, 25, and 33 points in the 4 games, absolutely eviscerating Vucevic.

Los Angeles Clippers (4) vs Phoenix Suns (0)
Monty Williams may be done in Phoenix. Kawhi had 46 in game 2, and Devin Booker didn’t get enough help to win any games.

Toronto Raptors (4) vs Brooklyn Nets (1)
Brooklyn has no real excuses, they just got whooped. None of the five games were closer than 15 points as the Raptors shocked Brooklyn.

Golden State Warriors (4) vs Houston Rockets (1)
The Warriors showed their quality and depth as Steph Curry, Eric Paschall, Klay Thompson, and DeAndre Ayton took turns leading Golden State to victory. They handled the Rockets easily without seeing Jimmy Butler score more than 17 points.

Boston Celtics (4) vs Atlanta Hawks (2)
The Hawks put up a good fight, but lost Trae Young in game 5 to a sprained knee and fell 4-2 after tying the series up.

Dallas Mavericks (4) vs Los Angeles Lakers (3)
This series was an Instant Classic. After going up 1-0, the Mavs fell behind 2-1 after a two-point and one-point loss despite Kristaps Porzingis scoring 49 and 65 points in those two games. Porzingis then scored 45 in game 4 to tie the series up 2-2 and then came back down to Earth as the two teams traded wins until the Mavs won game 7 by 27 points.

Denver Nuggets (4) vs Memphis Grizzlies (3)
Mike Malone saved his job. The Grizzlies, despite missing Valanciunas, found themselves up 3-2 after a game 5 that saw Ja Morant score 38 and Bradley Beal score 41. However the Grizzlies offense dried up as their youth exposed itself and they fell in 7 games.


Round 2 Preview

The Celtics played well in round 1, but Milwaukee is in a class above almost every team in the league. Unless Boston can start playing a level of defense we haven’t seen yet, this is another foregone conclusion. Prediction: Bucks in 5.

The Raptors turned heads with their round 1 drubbing of the Nets, but the 76ers are extremely hot as well. The 76ers own the season series 2-1 and have the best 2 players in the series. Prediction: 76ers in 6.

Los Angeles owns the season series 4-0, though only 2 of those games were after the mega-trade, and those were decided by a total of 3 points. It would seem that the Clippers defense and stars should win this series, but the Warriors are a very good and deep team. Prediction: Warriors in 7.

The Nuggets exceeded expectations in round 1, but the Mavs won the season series 3-1 and nobody is playing better basketball than Kristaps Porzingis right now. Prediction: Mavericks in 5.

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This is a big offseason for both brothers as they each need to replace a larger number of departing seniors. Dinko will be hoping to get a lot of complementary players to put around Mohamed Payne and he has 7 scholarships to use.

Here are the seven players that St. Francis has offered a scholarship, along with the likelihood that each will sign.

Recruit	Pos	Height	Home	Sign Chance	Sign Notes	Prospect Notes
Vern Quick	SG	6’6”	Philadelphia, PA	High	Only offer. Very high interest in Loyola (MD)	3* HS SR. #326 overall.
Cassiano Alujevic	PG	6’3”	Serbia	Medium	Only offer. Only some interest, but high interest in Pittsburgh.	3* HS SR
Gerardo Bethel	SG	6’4”	Euclid, OH	High	Only offer. High interest in Robert Morris.	3* JuCo Sophomore
Stephane Diakite	SF	6’7”	Mali	Medium	Only offer, only interested school. May choose to stay overseas.	3* HS SR
Fernandez Markovic	SF	6’5”	Montenegro	Medium	Only offer, only interested school. May choose to stay overseas.	3* HS SR
Geary Doss	C	7’2”	Kansas City, MO	High	Only offer. Some interest in Southeast Missouri.	2* HS SR
Fernando Santos	SG	6’2”	Brazil	Medium	Moderate interest. Also offered by Northern Colorado. May stay abroad.	3* HS SR

Oggy came in with one player already committed, three outstanding scholarship offers, and one available scholarship. He was grateful to see Brendan Pocius committed, but was less thrilled about the other players offered to. He had 5 weeks to see if he could work some magic to get better prospects signed.

Recruit	Pos	Height	Home	Chance	Sign Notes	Prospect Notes
Brendon Pocius	SF	6’6”	Miami, FL	Lock	Committed	3* JuCo Freshman, committed to previous coach
Cornell Palmer	PF	6’8”	Fort Myers, FL	Lock	Only offer	1* HS Sr. Offered by previous coach
Qumar Lampley	PF	6’9”	Tampa, FL	High	Only offer. Charleston also interested.	1* HS SR. Offered by previous coach
Ibrahim Pilgrim	SF	6’5”	Sunrise, FL	High	Only offer. BCC, FGCU interested.	2* HS SR. Offered by previous coach
Jerimie Scott	C	7’0”	Detroit, MI	Low	No offers, but significant interest in Kent State and closer schools.	2* JuCo freshman
Floyd Jacobsen	PG	6’0”	Bolingbrook, IL	Medium	No offers. High interest in EIU.	2* HS SR
Renardo Rodriquez	C	6’11”	Venezuela	Medium	No offers. Moderate interest.	2* HS SR

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Round two was absolutely shocking out West and somewhat expected in the East. The giants have fallen out West and it seems like our mid-season mega trade has paid off as we have a conference finals matchup involving two of those teams.

Golden State Warriors (4) vs Los Angeles Clippers (0)
Jimmy Butler looked more like the DPoY than Kawhi, causing the superstar to struggle all series, including an 8 point outing in the 4^th game. The Warriors continued their trend of having different players carry the load as Steph Curry, Jimmy Butler, Jerrett Pressley, and DeAndre Ayton all stepped up in big ways.

Milwaukee Bucks (4) vs Boston Celtics (2)
Milwaukee was up 3-0 and Giannis was averaging over 38 a game before Boston made it look like it might be a series, but Milwaukee closed it out in game 6.

Denver Nuggets (4) vs Dallas Mavericks (2)
I don’t know what Mike Malone’s playoff meal routine is, but he shouldn’t change. After defeating the spunky #2 seed Grizzlies, the Nuggets won by letting Kristaps get his but by getting even more themselves. Denver was up 3-1 after scoring 147 in game 4 and closed it out with a close victory at home in game 6. Porzingis scored 42, 32, 30, 24, 36, and 27 in the losing effort.

Philadelphia 76ers (4) vs Toronto Raptors (3)
Philadelphia took a 3-1 lead back home, but lost two straight as the combo of Marc Gasol and Hassan Whiteside mostly outdueled Joel Embiid. However, Philly completely throttled Toronto in game 7, holding them to 76 points (only 43 from starters) on 36% shooting.


Conference Finals Preview

The 76ers were only 1-3 against Milwaukee this year, but they won the only game played since January. These are two teams with extreme length, two-way players, and freaks of nature. Prediction: Bucks in 7.

Since the mega trade, these two teams played twice with Denver winning both times. This series could be anyone’s, but it’s hard to bet against a Warriors team that has yet to lose. Prediction: Warriors in 6.

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We’ve now made it through two weeks of the offseason signing period and seen a few players sign for each of the brothers.

St. Francis

• Gerardo Bethel has committed to the Red Flash. The JuCo sophomore from Ohio is a decent shooter and will help replace the production lost by Tyler, Almond, and Roberson.
• Dinko has found a Casey Tyler replacement in 6’7” shooting guard Vern Quick. The Philadelphia native was the 326^th ranked prospect in the country and Dinko’s top target.

Dinko still has 5 outstanding scholarship offers and is getting nervous. He remembers the experience he and his brother had last year with many scholarships being unused and did not want a repeat this year. He began searching for some local 1 and 2 star prospects he could consider offering to in case it seemed like some of the more ambitious prospects were going to fall through.

Stetson

• 1 star recruit Cornell Palmer has signed with Stetson. He’s a 6’8” PF.
• 2 star recruit Ibrahim Pilgrim has also signed. He’s a 6’5” SF out of Sunrise, FL.
• Oggy rescinded the scholarship offer from 1-star PF Qumar Lampley and made an offer to JuCo Sophomore PG Uche Kounkorgo. With only 1 PG on the roster, Oggy desperately wanted a ballhandler.

Oggy has 1 scholarship offer left and decided to go all-in on Jerimie Scott, attempting to get a big man to play for him. He started out as an outside chance, but has been working doggedly and Scott is getting more and more interested.