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

[studbucket]

Quote: Originally Posted by Careless Whisper

Catching up from the last few weeks - absolutely shocked that both St. Francis and Stetson bowed out in their conference tournaments. Really thought both brothers would be dancing and making some noise with an upset win or two. Would've loved to see a Dinko Derby in the NIT, but as marshdaddy said, I do admire you for sticking to your guns and staying with the play one, sim one policy. This is going to be a fascinating offseason despite neither coach making NCAAs, because I think they both have the resumes to move onto greener pastures. Can't wait!

Yeah, it really was a shocker. Both brothers just kept doing the same things all season long, much to my joy and frustration. Both teams did so well in simmed games all season, that losing to bad teams like Lipscomb was not expected.

As for the offseason, I feel OK giving spoilers because I should have the coaching carousel up over the weekend. I have gotten past that, and well...results for both brothers were unexpected. I think you'll see an NBA season recap (it has been a good one) and then get that post.

[studbucket]

The top of the league remained relatively static over the last 2 months of the season as we finished with Golden State and Milwaukee easily claiming the top spots in each conference, and perhaps setting up a rematch of the 2021 NBA Finals that was an amazing 7 game win for Golden State. Giannis Antetokounmpo dominated the league once again and Steph Curry turned in a vintage performance, looking like he was 26, not 36.

Despite the lack of movement at the top, there still was intrigue in the middle of the conferences as an astounding 5 teams (4 in the West) finished with exactly 50 wins. This means that the 3 seed and 6 seed in the West have the exact same record and the league had to go deep into the tiebreakers to work this one out. In the end, Minnesota won all the tiebreakers and Denver lost, putting the Lakers and Trail Blazers in between.

However, the real drama of the last 2.5 weeks of the season came as teams fought for the bottom 2 spots in each conference. Here’s a week-by-week breakdown of how things went in April.

April 1-7
Thanks to losses to New Orleans and Toronto, Utah falls out of the playoffs while the Suns and Thunder move into spots 7 and 8 in the West. Phoenix had a big win over Minnesota and then Devin Booker dropped 58 to beat the Clippers while OKC beat the Lakers in a key game.

Out East, the Raptors rebounded from a big loss to Boston to dominate the Mavericks and then defeat the Jazz. Toronto moved all the way up to the 5^th seed. Despite Memphis waxing Charlotte, there wasn’t much movement in the rest of the East.

April 8-14
Out East, the Hawks and Raptors clinch playoff spots and eliminate Chicago. This leaves Memphis 1.5 games behind Charlotte for the final spot, with the Grizzlies needing to win both of their games and have Charlotte lose their final game.

In the West, Dallas was eliminated which leaves Utah, Phoenix, and Oklahoma City all tied at 43-37. Those 3 teams are fighting for 2 spots and each has 2 games, including a big Utah at Phoenix showdown. However, Devin Booker twisted his knee in the Suns most recent game and will be out for 1-2 weeks. The Suns will have to clinch without him. Utah is losing the three way tiebreaker, so they really need to get the wins.

April 15-17
The Grizzlies lost to Detroit, which clinches the 8 seed for Charlotte.

In the West, the Jazz rolled through the Suns and Cavaliers, locking themselves into a playoff spot. OKC lost their first game against the Cavs, putting them and Phoenix in a tie that Phoenix holds the tiebreaker in. The Suns lost to Boston, getting destroyed, meaning that the Thunder control their destiny: win and they are in, lose and they are out.

The Thunder must have felt that urgency and jumped out to a 38-9 first quarter lead over the Clippers and never looked back, winning by 56 points. Phoenix misses out due to Booker’s injury, which is a killer. Will interim coach Kenny Atkinson get to keep his job?

Standings

Awards

5 time MVP. 4 straight awards. There’s nothing more than can be said about Giannis that hasn’t already been written. He’s back above 30 ppg again this season (the 4^th time in his career), his rebounds are up to 13.6 per game which is a career high (he’d never been above 12.8) and he even set a career high in assists per game this year and tied his career high in steals per game. The only criticism to level his way is the fact Milwaukee only has 2 titles, but he has several more years to get a third, fourth, or more.

It was not an exciting moment 4 years ago in June of 2020 when the Celtics selected an unknown Croatian point guard with the same last name as Dino Radja with the 24^th pick of the draft. Selected in the midst of a bunch of forgettable players (Iker Glover, Quentin Stallworth, Roderick Christian, and Sarunas Dabanovic were some of the names around him), the Celtics picked him and Euro-stashed him for 3 seasons. When he finally joined the Celtics it was on the heels of acquiring Damian Lillard. Little did anyone know that Radja would send Dame to the bench and become one of the better point guards in a stacked league.

Damian Lillard took away Jarrett Pressley’s 6^th man crown, though it was not easy as Pressley put up another great season. Vince Carter has been lauded for his work since taking over the Timberwolves, finally getting production from KAT and D-Lo. R.J. Barrett narrowly edged out teammate Goga Bitadze for most improved as Barrett dropped over 27 points per game for the Wizards.


All-NBA Teams

1st Team	2nd Team	3rd Team
Steph Curry, PG, Warriors	Trevor Merchant, PG, Pistons	Ja Morant, PG, Grizzlies
Luka Doncic, SG, Mavericks	James Harden, SG, Rockets	Kyrie Irving, PG, Nets
Giannis Antetokounmpo, PF, Bucks	Anthony Davis, PF, Lakers	Jerry Sparks, PF, Hornets
Zion Williamson, PF, Pelicans	Bam Adebayo, C, Suns	Kristaps Porzingis, PF, Mavericks
Nikola Jokic, C, Nuggets	Joel Embiid, C, 76ers	DeAndre Ayton, C, Warriors

All-Defensive Teams

1st Team	2nd Team
Ben Simmons, PG, 76ers	Dejounte Murray, PG, Suns
Matisse Thybulle, SG, 76ers	Donte DiVincenzo, SG, Bucks
Giannis Antetokounmpo, PF, Bucks	Kawhi Leonard, SF, Raptors
Anthony Davis, PF, Lakers	Jonathan Isaac, SF, Nuggets
Andre Drummond, C, Mavericks	Joel Embiid, C, 76ers

All-Rookie Teams

1st Team	2nd Team
Bruno Radja, PG, Celtics	Ndudi Colter, SG, Knicks
Uros Dragic, PG, Honu	Jerald McLaren, SG, Pelicans
Jameer Trammell, SF, Magic	Matthew Carroll, SG, Bulls
Bobby Drake, SF, Sonics	Horace Wolfe, PF, Spurs
Sagana Dupree, PF, Sonics	Sherman Turner, PF, Clippers

Playoff Matchups

The Hornets are an exciting team that fans love playing in 2K. The problem is that they can’t stop anyone and struggle to control the paint. Against Giannis and Capela, it’s hard to imagine they will do well. Matt Forney will be out 1-2 weeks, but Milwaukee should persevere. Bucks in 4.

What a 2-7 matchup! Philadelphia is looking to finally break through and has their best team in years with the emergence of Thybulle and the addition of John Wall. Toronto has underperformed but started playing better and better this season and you can bet against Kawhi in the playoffs. 76ers in 6.

With Andrew Wiggins hurt, the Pistons will need a monumental performance from Trevor Merchant and Marvin Bagley, and even then it will be tough to outduel Irving, Durant, and Ernesto Parkinson. Nets in 5.

While a 4-seed is disappointing for Boston, they are a very dangerous team and even with DeMar DeRozan back for the Hawks, Boston is so talented and features a bench better than some teams’ starters with Lillard, Hayward, Kevin Knox, Romeo Langford, and Tacko Fall. Celtics in 6.

You never know what you’re going to get with OKC. It’s not inconceivable to think they could win this series, but odds are that they’ll end up winning 1-2 and every game will be decided by double digits. Warriors in 6.

Houston isn’t sexy, but they got it done all season and face the streaky Jazz in round 1. The veterans Harden, Westbrook, Randle, and Favors lead the way with young backups and should be too much for Mitchell, Gobert, and friends. Rockets in 5.

This may be the single most tantalizing round 1 matchup. The talented and possibly over-achieving T-Wolves against the top-heavy and under-achieving Nuggets. Can this be an Arnold McNurlin coming out party, or will the Big 4 of the Nuggets overpower Minnesota? Nuggets in 6.

This may be LeBron and the Lakers lasts run, and they’ll have to do it without Paul George. However, they have infinitely more playoff experience than these young Blazers. Portland excels at perimeter defense with Brogdon, Brown, and Cousinard, but don’t have any obvious go-to scorers unless Cousinard or Brown decides to exceed expectations. Starting rookie David Bruff over Domatas Sabonis is an interesting gamble for Portland. Lakers in 7.

[JoshNormanMane]

Jeesh, lots of exciting playoff matchups here. Charlotte looks like the most exciting first round exit team of all-time, Richaun Holmes most average 20 points alone from Fox & Lonzo dumpoffs lol.

I'm predicting a Warriors - 76ers Finals matchup but Philly versus Milwaukee in the ECF will be an interior defensive bloodbath between all of the guys both teams have upfront

[studbucket]

Quote: Originally Posted by JoshNormanMane

Jeesh, lots of exciting playoff matchups here. Charlotte looks like the most exciting first round exit team of all-time, Richaun Holmes most average 20 points alone from Fox & Lonzo dumpoffs lol. I'm predicting a Warriors - 76ers Finals matchup but Philly versus Milwaukee in the ECF will be an interior defensive bloodbath between all of the guys both teams have upfront

You got me to look at the stats. The other guys were so ball-dominant and Holmes that he only scored 8.7 ppg.

Jerry Sparks: 23.8
Zach LaVine: 21.7
De'Aaron Fox: 17.9 (8 assist per game)
Lonzo Ball: 13.1 (10 assists per game)
Bobby Portis: 13.0

Charlotte had the 10th ranked scoring offense in the league, but actually allowed more points per game than they scored. They had the 6th worst scoring defense in the league. The next worst team to make the playoffs was the Hawks at 12th worst.

Philly would be thrilled to finally make a finals. They keep having great regular seasons and flaming out in the playoffs. I think Golden State is a great prediction from the West, they are so talented and consistent.

[studbucket]

Dinko was watching the TV with a mix of horror and pride. While he was glad his brother had his back, he wasn’t sure this is how he wanted it to go down.

Oggy: “…you had the perfect candidate. An alum. One of the greatest up-and-coming coaches in the country. Someone who LIVED IN YOUR CITY. You had him right down the road. He wanted to come. AND YOU DIDN’T EVEN INTERVIEW HIM!?”

Newscaster: “Coach Dragomirov, could we talk about your new ro-”

Oggy: “there’s a time and place for that, and it’s not now. I am beyond grateful for my new opportunity, but I am so pissed. I am so pissed off at Duquesne. I’m sure Mike Hope-”

Newscaster: “Mark Pope”

Oggy: “Yeah, Pope. I’m sure coach Pope is a fine coach. You don’t get one of these 300 jobs if you’re not. But you have an alum. A guy who lives for Pittsburgh basketball. And you choose a guy from High Point who grew up in Omaha!? Duquesne hasn’t made the dance in over 50 years. Their basketball program sucks. It’s an embarrassment, and it’s decisions like these that just further that embarrassment. I’m livid.

...and I’m done. I’m sure that’ll increase your ratings. What questions do you have for me?

Newscaster: “Thank you coach. As I was asking earlier, I’d love for you to talk more about….”


Dinko turned off the TV. This wasn’t how he wanted to get attention, but he was grateful his brother would say out loud what he wouldn’t dare say. He heard from some friends at the university that he wasn’t even in the top 6 coaches that the Dukes were considering, which was unbelievable. He was ticked off, and all of his opponents – especially Duquesne – were going to feel that reality next season.

-----

Oggy couldn’t believe the real estate market out here. For the price of a simple condo he could live like a king back in DeLand. But he needed to shake that off and realize that’s part of the deal when you move to Los Angeles. Loyola Marymount had a fun history – it was ancient history, but it was still special – and he loved the idea of being in school with a beautiful campus right by the beach in a talent-rich area.

He was hoping for a bigger school than LMU, but the WCC was easily a better conference than the Atlantic Sun and had a lot of history between Gonzaga, San Francisco, and fun moments from the other schools. When he had surveyed the NCAA landscape, he expected 6-7 major jobs to open up, especially some from the Atlantic 10 and Mountain West conferences. Unfortunately only 1 job opened up and those nitwits at Duquesne decided to pass over his brother. So Oggy easily declined offers from Canisius and Wright State to take his next step in Southern California.

It was going to be a big project. The Lions were 4-24 last year and 1-13 in conference and haven’t made the NCAA tournament since the years of Hank Gathers and Bo Kimble (1989). They were an objectively bad team, and it’s not like Oggy could re-stock via recruiting. LMU had a single scholarship and it had already been used on a 3-star JuCo sophomore: Ervin Brooks, a 6’6” SF. Oggy wasn’t sure he was even talented, but he’d withhold judgment until training camp.

He’d be facing off against NIT finalists Gonzaga as well as both San Francisco and Santa Clara who made the NCAAs this season. The good news is that he’d be doing it with a relatively experienced roster and a fresh transfer who had to sit out last year. Looking at his roster, there were 4 players he thinks would be locked into starting roles:

1. Herbert Nashif (senior, PF, 77 ovr) – at 6’10”, Nashif is a decent interior scorer and athlete.
2. Immanuel Kahrimanovic (senior, PG, 76 ovr) – the undersized guard is a transfer from UNLV and a good 3 point shooter. Despite his size, Oggy may put him at the two.
3. Evan Harris (junior, PG, 71 ovr) – Harris has good size for a point guard and is the fastest player on the team.
4. Skip Salow (junior, SG, 71 ovr) – Salow is long at 6’6” and is a pretty good all around shooter. Maybe he could be a dollar store version of Vern Quick for the Lions.

Who was Oggy’s fifth starter? Maybe recruit Ervin Brooks, or perhaps 6’7” PF Reid Christensen who is brimming with potential but still quite raw. Oggy was sad to be losing the only 7 footer on the roster as senior Ted Harvey is graduating. He’d have to find a way to make due this year.

He didn’t bring either Stetson assistant with him to LA, starting fresh with the offensive-minded Clayton Bowen and a well-rounded, disciplined veteran coach in Dominic Fearing.

-----

Back at Stetson, there were no hard feelings toward Oggy. He had been very transparent about his desires and very clearly gave his all to the program. They were on track toward getting some very solid recruits and were in the midst of the greatest 4-year run in program history. New Hatters head coach Shane Havens comes from UConn where he was an assistant for the last few seasons and is expected to continue to compete for NCAA tournament berths the next few years with the core of Evertsen, Dahi, Nevill, Rowe, Causey, and Mulic.

-----

There was a lot of movement of coaches from small schools this offseason, with 30 schools experiencing coaching changes. The most notable change was the absolute ridiculous coaching swap between High Point and Duquesne. Not only did Duquesne hire Mark Pope from High Point, but High Point hired fired Dukes coach Keith Dambrot. NCAA basketball is a weird place.

School	Previous Coach	Reason	New Coach
Duquesne	Keith Dambrot	Fired	Mark Pope (High Point)
Canisius	Reggie Witherspoon	Fired	Laurie Allison (American)
Wright State	Scott Nagy	Fired	Avi Shumate (Utah Valley State)
Loyola Marymount	Mike Dunlap	Fired	Ognyan Dragomirov (Stetson)
New Orleans	Mark Slessinger	Fired	Chris Ogden (UT-Arlington)
Youngstown State	Jerrod Calhoun	Fired	Bruce Johnsen (Bethune-Cookman)
Stetson	Ogyan Dragomirov	New job	Shane Havens (UConn assistant)
High Point	Mark Pope	New job	Keith Dambrot (Duquesne)
American	Laurie Allison	New job	Courtney Bonner (Toledo assistant)
UT-Arlington	Chris Ogden	New job	Greg Kampe (Oakland)
Coastal Carolina	Cliff Ellis	Retired	Abdul Schafer (VCU assistant)
IPFW	Jon Coffman	Fired	Tremmell Spooner (Temple assistant)
Oakland	Greg Kampe	Fired	Brian Riggs (Oakland assistant)
Morehead State	Preston Spradlin	Fired	Jaron Dahi (George Mason assistant)
Utah Valley State	Avi Shumate	New job	Mike Brennan (Old Dominion assistant)
Lehigh	Brett Reed	Fired	Kirsten Leadbetter (Western Michigan assistant)
Western Illinois	Billy Wright	Fired	Horace Stewart (Pacific assistant)
CSU Bakersfield	Rod Barnes	Fired	Georgy Hehn (Oral Roberts assistant)
Jacksonville State	Ray Harper	Fired	Tiras Atuahene (Southern Utah assistant)
UL-Calcutta	Adam Walsh	Fired	Jayce Law (Oral Roberts assistant)
The Citadel	Duggar Baucom	Fired	Philip Wade (UC Irvine assistant)
Eastern Washington	Shantay Legans	Fired	Mark Byington (Georgia Southern)
Arkansas Pine Bluff	George Ivory	Retired	Joe Moss (George Washington assistant)
Winston-Salem State	Cleo Hill, Jr.	Fired	Leonard Gogerty (George Washington assistant)
Brown	Mike Martin	Fired	Scott Nagy (Wright State)
Princeton	Mitch Henderson	Fired	Bryan Gibson (UC Irvine assistant)
Southeast Missouri	Rick Ray	Fired	Nicholas Love (Akron assistant)
Georgia Southern	Mark Byington	Fired	John Bing (Georgia Southern assistant)
McNeese State	Heath Schroyer	Fired	Elijah Kabba (Missouri State assistant)
Texas Southern	Johnny Jones	Fired	Halston Rhodes (unemployed)
Bethune-Cookman	Bruce Johnsen	New job	Michael Scheer (Long Beach State assistant)

-----

For the Hatters, both Brendon Pocius and Jeremy Scott have graduated.

For St. Francis, Cassiano Djordjevic graduated but Geary Doss left the program, frustrated with playing time, and transferred to Maryland Eastern Shore.

[Dawgfan1]

Very unfortunate end to the season with both brothers missing the dance, I was cheering for them to make it and enhance their chances of landing the jobs they were looking for. Jumping past the mid-major level into major conference jobs is hard to do and I feel like making the tourney would've had to be the bare minimum to have any real chance, since the game values your most recent season highly in the carousel. And maybe that wouldn't have even been enough. I will admit I don't have much experience making several tournaments in a small conference though, so my knowledge is limited.

I'm not surprised Dinko didn't get the Duquesne job, but hiring the High Point coach is a strange move. I've always felt like CPU coaches are valued differently in the carousel than User coaches and that might prove it. HPU made the tourney this year, but have they done anything else? Hopefully the Dukes suck out loud and Dinko gets another shot in 2-4 years when his resume is even better.

For some reason I've always wanted to coach LMU in 2K8 (maybe their Elite Eight run and 30+-year tourney drought entices me, RIP Hank Gathers), I am excited to see what Oggy does there! The West Coast is always so fun and challenging in this game, there should be more opportunities for at-large bids than other mid-major confs.

[ChosenOne58]

LMU looks to be a good move. It will be interesting for sure.

Can't wait to see how it all pans out.

[studbucket]

Quote: Originally Posted by Dawgfan1

Very unfortunate end to the season with both brothers missing the dance, I was cheering for them to make it and enhance their chances of landing the jobs they were looking for. Jumping past the mid-major level into major conference jobs is hard to do and I feel like making the tourney would've had to be the bare minimum to have any real chance, since the game values your most recent season highly in the carousel. And maybe that wouldn't have even been enough. I will admit I don't have much experience making several tournaments in a small conference though, so my knowledge is limited.

I do think making the tourney would have made a big difference for sure. My closest previous experience was going:
2 years Eastern Illinois
3 years Boise State
Hired at Wisconsin

The sliders were easier and I played every game for that one, so there was much more success (made the Sweet 16 once with BSU), but getting to Wisconsin in year 6 made me think that getting somewhere in a major conference may be possible, but I was wrong.

Quote: Originally Posted by Dawgfan1

I'm not surprised Dinko didn't get the Duquesne job, but hiring the High Point coach is a strange move. I've always felt like CPU coaches are valued differently in the carousel than User coaches and that might prove it. HPU made the tourney this year, but have they done anything else? Hopefully the Dukes suck out loud and Dinko gets another shot in 2-4 years when his resume is even better.

Yeah, the High Point hiring was weird for a few reasons:
He spent 3 years at Utah Valley State, got fired, and went to High Point. At High Point, he was only there 2 years. Year 1 he finished second and then lost right away in the conference tournament. In Year two he won the regular season and postseason title in the Big South, the lost in round 1 to Villanova.

Not an especially great track record.

Quote: Originally Posted by Dawgfan1

For some reason I've always wanted to coach LMU in 2K8 (maybe their Elite Eight run and 30+-year tourney drought entices me, RIP Hank Gathers), I am excited to see what Oggy does there! The West Coast is always so fun and challenging in this game, there should be more opportunities for at-large bids than other mid-major confs.

Yeah, there are a lot of random teams you could end up at that don't really have a lot of history or interesting background (San Jose State, Southern Miss, etc) but there are a few that have a history that make them more exciting. I am glad to get the LMU job (even if they were terrible) and it'll be my first time in the WCC, which is exciting.