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

[Tovarich]

Re: December 12, 2025, Loyola Marymount vs Stetson [non-conference]

Yowza, I've seen insane shooting, but 85% for a half is beyond anything I've witnessed. Is Oggy full court pressing on every possession all game, every game?

[infamyice]

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

That late game surge be a soul crusher sometimes

[studbucket]

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

Yowza, I've seen insane shooting, but 85% for a half is beyond anything I've witnessed. Is Oggy full court pressing on every possession all game, every game?

He presses after makes, but they only had 14 fast break points the whole game. Most of it came in the half-court offense with just insane shot making and Dahi and Evertsen getting to the rim with ease. The Lions are just a bad defensive team.

(and I don't mean defensive ratings, those are fine. It seems like size, strength, and quickness matter more than the defensive rating in many ways and I think this group is deficient there)

That late game surge be a soul crusher sometimes

It's starting to feel like no lead is safe for this Lions team. They got out to a big lead over Gonzaga last year and then lost by double digits as well.

[Careless Whisper]

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

Another tough loss for Oggy - as you just mentioned, it seems like those big leads aren't big enough at times, and I can imagine how frustrating it is to see his team squander those opportunities. At least he can point out that he built the majority of that Stetson roster. 101-90 must have been fun for a neutral watching though!

[studbucket]

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

Another tough loss for Oggy - as you just mentioned, it seems like those big leads aren't big enough at times, and I can imagine how frustrating it is to see his team squander those opportunities. At least he can point out that he built the majority of that Stetson roster. 101-90 must have been fun for a neutral watching though!

It's definitely a small solace that this Stetson team is still Oggy's handiwork and he knew they'd be more talented than LMU in the short term. But it still stings to lose like this.

[studbucket]

Responding to feedback

Thank you to everyone for the survey responses, I really appreciate it! I wanted to address a few points of feedback that I received.

Highlights and livestreams
3 people gave feedback on my highlights:

• I'd love to see a longer highlight reel with no music after each game. Maybe 5-10 minutes if possible, I think it would be cool just to have a video recap.
• can you livestream games by any chance? I'm not a huge fan of commentary, but if you just posted the full games on the forum after, that would be cool
• Just one: can you post the full Drago Derby on your YouTube after the game? Just like normal, but do the full game

I will adjust my highlights style:

1. Less music, more in-game sounds and announcers
2. If I remember, I’ll grab more highlights from the other team and can make the reel a bit longer

I will not be livestreaming any games, however, I will record the entirety of the Drago Derby, edit it down to exclude all my pauses (I pause a lot for life reasons, taking notes, etc), and will post that a day or two before posting the full results of the game.


Simming tournament games
This was a big piece of feedback last year, I decided against changing anything, but it bubbled up again:

• I know you already decided not to sim the second round of the playoffs, but in my opinion, it is hurting the progression of the dynasty. I understand wanting to make things more realistic, but I think you should make a rule that if either brother earns a #1 seed in the playoffs, you should be allowed to play through all of their games for the postseason
• I said this last year, but please stop simming playoff games. Oggy and Dinko both deserved to make March for the last two years, but it didnt work out because the CPU seems to hate them lol

I think we can do a compromise:

1. If I am top 2 seed and expected to make the conference tournament finals, I will play all the conference tournament games. If I am an underdog, I will continue to simulate every other round.
2. I can apply this the NCAA tournament as well, though I am not sure of the exact heuristic.

Simulated game updates
One note was provided here:

• A few more updates about all the simulated games in between games played would be helpful.

I do provide scores and stats for every simulated game, but it might be lost as I do it:

1. in the intro to a played game
2. In the Around the NCAA recap section

St. Francis and Division III
This was a very interesting suggestion

• Time for Dinko to move on from SFU, especially with the news that they're going to DIII. I think you should add it into the storyline, its an interesting plot twist...Dinko gets the rug pulled out from under him and has to decide if he's going to only play one more season or stay on at DIII...hoping he chooses the former.

If CHoops allowed more customization and I could easily replace SFPA with another school, I’d consider this. As it is, I can’t do that and I think I’ll come up with some storyline, like the rest of the school moved to DIII but basketball stayed at D1 because of the program Dinko has built.

[Tovarich]

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

Hopefully one of the jobs Dinko is interested in becomes available this offseason and it'll be the perfect opportunity to move on. They just dropped the program down after making the tournament, so an unprecedented leaving of one sport in D1 because of the state of the program doesn't really sound realistic. All that said, reality isn't entirely a necessity. In this alternate universe, perhaps they just don't move down. It would be nice to customize conferences and such after the legacy starts. That's always annoyed me.

[studbucket]

Player Spotlight: Sidney Dunnington

As I play games, I will take time to periodically spotlight some of the fictional players in my NBA. Today we are learning about Sidney Dunnington, former two-time National Player of the Year in college and a 4th year big man for the Oklahoma City Thunder.


College Career and NBA Draft
Dunnington is best known for being a 2-time Naismith award winner while at Notre Dame, only the second player to ever do it – Ralph Sampson is the other. In 2021 he won the award by scoring 26.7 ppg and grabbing 8.1 rebounds and decided to withdraw from the NBA draft and return for his senior year as he was projected to go mid first round in the draft. He won the award in 2022 as he once against averaged 27 and 8.

College Hoops Tonight featuring Dunnington winning Player of the week thanks to scoring 66 points across 2 games.

Unfortunately, his individual plaudits did not result in team success. After losing in the second round in 2021, they were a 10 seed in 2022 and lost in the first round to Kentucky as Dunnington scored only 9 points and was outdueled by Horace Wolfe and others.

The lack of team success did not help his draft stock, as he was the second-ranked center and 23^rd overall prospect in the draft, being compared to Will Perdue of the 90s Bulls. Mock drafts had him going 27^th to the Heat, but when the draft came around Oklahoma City made him the second of two college standouts they took by drafting him at pick 20 (the other was Milos Jeffers from Davidson at pick 14).

NBA highlights for Sidney Dunnington

Player Overview

Dunnington barely saw the court his first two seasons as he learned in practice and sat behind Jarrett Allen, Dana Bright, Derrick Favors, and other big men. However, he came into his own during the 2024-25 season as he was Allen’s primary backup and stepped up to score 14 points per game and play in all 82 games during the season. He was even considered as a candidate for Most Improved Player that year, but teammate Seth Valsin deservedly won that award.

Through a quarter of the season so far, Dunnington has been fantastic, usurping Allen as the team’s starter and is the second most-reliable player on the Thunder, exceeding Kevin Durant or Vytas Kowalczuk in that regard. The Thunder have been a bit disappointing but nobody is pinning that on Dunnington who has far exceeded the expectations of draft pundits who expected him to be another Jarek Kickert: college star, NBA “meh”.

As a player, he’s a more traditional big man. He works hard on the inside on both ends and can score and defend the post well. He’s considered a top 5 low post defender in the NBA, is almost Dennis Rodman-like in his willingness to dive for loose balls, and has a surprisingly good drop-step and post spin move for a modern big man.

He’s likely at or near his ceiling as a player, but “starting big man” is a pretty good ceiling for anybody.

NBA Stats

Season	Team	GP	GS	PPG	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	TOPG	FG%	3P%	FT%	PER
2022-23	OKC	3	0	2.0	1.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	.750	.000	.000	N/A
2023-24	OKC	11	0	7.5	2.8	0.5	0.3	0.4	0.7	.500	.000	.923	14.8
2024-25	OKC	82	16	14.3	7.1	0.8	1.0	1.3	1.4	.538	.123	.886	18.9
2025-26	OKC	26	22	19.0	8.5	0.8	1.4	1.7	1.9	.580	.000	.871	19.7
Total		122	38	14.4	6.9	0.8	1.0	1.3	1.4	.550	.080	.860	18.7

Bonus trivia
Which real-life player does Dunnington represent from College Hoops 2K8?

Spoiler

Luke Harangody: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luke_Harangody

[studbucket]

Drago Derby Preview

Note: this post was written based on your responses to the pre-season survey. Thanks to those who responded!

Parts of Western Pennsylvania are abuzz for what’s becoming a regular attraction: the seventh annual Drago Derby between twin brothers Kostadin and Ognyan Dragomirov. “Dinko” and “Oggy” – the diminutive form of their names – spend their college careers in Pittsburgh at Duquesne and Robert Morris respectively and now both coach Division 1 programs. Historically this matchup has been all Dinko’s as he has a 5-1 record in the contest and has won by a double-digit margin every time.

It's now been 2 straight seasons since we’ve seen either brother make the NCAA Tournament and both are feeling the pressure to return after making it 3 of their first 4 seasons. Dinko is still local, coaching St. Francis University out of Loretto, PA. They are off to a strong 9-1 start that includes wins over Pittsburgh and Penn State and are considered strong favorites to win the Northeast Conference (NEC).

Oggy is coaching in the more prestigious West Coast Conference (WCC) at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, a team he took over before last season. It’s been a rebuilding job for him but he’s already shown good progress, putting up a respectable showing last year and coming into this year’s Drago Derby at 5-5. His most recent game was in Pittsburgh as he easily dispatched his alma mater Robert Morris 85-58 thanks to star freshman Lucious Estrada scoring 30 points.

Before we look into details on the game itself, we are going to go over the results of our 6^th annual Drago Derby fan survey.

The first question is the one we always start off with: Which brother is your favorite? This one has seen a lot of movement over the years, with each brother having been a fan favorite for 3 of the 6 years and Oggy taking a large lead in the question this year, with 73% of respondents favoring the “elder” of the twins. The primary reason for the sentiment shift seems to be fans tiring of Dinko’s time at St. Francis and yearning for him to go to a bigger school, as well as appreciating Oggy’s more outspoken nature.

The results of that poll correspond strongly with expected success for each brother with each of the next 3 questions favoring Oggy in a very strong way. Fans expect him to make the Sweet 16 first, win an NCAA or NBA title first, and be the first to have a player drafted into the NBA. With Loyola Marymount being in a better conference and Lucious Estrada looking like a future star, paired with Oggy’s transparent ambition, fans expect him to reach higher heights sooner than his brother.

When looking at who could get drafted first, fans overwhelmingly chose Oggy. Many were thinking of Lucious Estrada when making this prediction, though a few had a more cynical take on why this would be true. See this comment from Dave in West Virginia: “Oggy will probably get a player drafted first, but likely an inherited one when he bounces to his 6th different job.”

This brings us to a question that saw responses much more evenly distributed: who is the best player that either brother has coached? St. Francis legend and current Real Madrid starter Mohamed Payne received nearly 50% of the votes thanks to his stellar last two seasons in Loretto. Herbert Nashif’s single season under Oggy got significant praise, as he was a dominant force in a tough conference on a bad team. As one respondent put it: “Nashif was the best player on a bad team, if he had the same help as Evertsen or Payne, he'd be the obvious GOAT here.”

While I disagree he had less help than Evertsen or Payne: many of their teammates wouldn’t start for LMU, it is true that the Lions were shallow last year and he had to take over games for them to win.

Game Preview
For tomorrow’s game, we have what looks like a very good matchup on paper. Despite the difference in record, both teams are scoring in the mid 70s and have a very similar roster composition when it comes to the quality of their recruits. The Red Flash have been better defensively this season and have played a bit slower and more carefully with the ball which shows up in both their record and turnover statistics. The team comparison below shows how close the two teams are.

Looking at the lineups and matchups, St. Francis will be without their best shooter in Bobby Valdez and backup point guard Tanoris Houston as both are injured. This puts Fernandez Markovic into the starting lineup at the 3 and we’ll see more of Jameel Clinton as a backup point guard. Markovic will have his hands full guarding the dynamic Lucious Estrada and the intermixing of matchups between the 2 backcourts of Willingham, McGuire, and Markovic vs Kahrimanovic, Salow, and Estrada.

In the frontcourt, the talent and experience of Chris Thompson and Taj Hailey match up with the thickness and size of Reid Christensen and Allen Wentt. Wentt’s 7’1” frame should pose issues for St. Francis, but he’s been shown to be foul prone and the Lions only have 1 backup big on the entire roster: walk-on freshman Vakeaton Mbaha Moute. If Chris Thompson can get Wentt into foul trouble, the Lions would be in trouble.

Looking at the fan predictions, the public is strongly in Dinko’s favor, with two-thirds of respondents prediction a St. Francis victory at home. However, there were those who think Loyola is a better team, like this response from a fan who thinks the 9-1 Red Flash have had a bad start to the season: “St. Francis has had a pretty poor start to the season, considering the Duquesne loss. LMU beat that same team”

If this is a fast-paced game, I predict the Lions get a win. If it stays in control and in the 60s or 70s, I predict a Red Flash victory. Either way, I think it will be the most competitive Drago Derby we’ve seen yet and my guess is a 75-71 Red Flash win at home.

[Tovarich]

Re: Drago Derby Preview

I predicted St. Francis originally, but I would probably change my mind based on injuries

[studbucket]

Drago Derby #7: Full Video

Per request, here’s the full game video for the Drago Derby. Game recap coming tomorrow.

Feel free to comment/react in spoiler tags for those who may want to wait for the recap post.

A couple notes/thoughts from me in the spoiler below. This game wasn't the highest quality basketball I've played

Spoiler

There was a weird mix of:

1. LMU shooting terribly
2. Performance anxiety because you all would be watching how I play
3. Just playing too fast and loose

That made this pretty bad basketball, especially for the Lions. Hope this is somewhat enjoyable though. I tried to smoothly transition over all my pauses. I stopped the game quite a bit. The CPU also did some strange subs that I had to try to fix.

[Tovarich]

Re: Drago Derby #7: Full Video

Spoiler

Coach Tovarich is a little horrified at the clock management at the end of the first half with everyone turning the ball over multiple times instead of holding for the last shot...and then there not even being a last shot. Beyond that, yes, everyone, you and CPU, seemed a bit out of control with the pace. Team unity wins again.

[studbucket]

Drago Derby: December 15, 2025 Loyola Marymount at St. Francis

This seventh edition of the Drago Derby has Loretto hosting the event for the fourth time and Dinko looking to bring home the dragon head trophy for the fourth straight year. Dinko and the whole family was in attendance for the Loyola win over Robert Morris earlier this week and this is the first time that Oggy’s fiancé Kate has attended Derby festivities in Pennsylvania. She got to spend much of the week of Stephanie, the 3 kids, Dragomir, and Zhivka, eating Bulgarian food, visiting Primanti Brothers, and getting to know the city.

Both brothers are very motivated for this game every year, but it just means more to Oggy this time around. Coming in at 5-5 (vs his brother’s 9-1 record) on the season and being only 1-5 in this rivalry series, he needs this win more than his brother. He’s been very complimentary of Dinko, but you know it has to be eating at him to be 24 career wins behind and to struggle to beat him in their matchups. To get the win, he’s going to need his bigs to stay out of foul trouble and take advantage of the size advantage he should have with his wings for at least part of the game as both Skip Salow and Lucious Estrada are 6’7”.

For Dinko, he knows his team has been playing together longer, is more disciplined, and can rebound and defend better. They can’t get into a track meet – even if they could keep up – as that plays right into the Lions hands. He reminded his team to play their game: work the ball around to get good shots, grab rebounds, and get their bigs into foul trouble.

Before the tip off, both brothers gave each other a big hug then focused on the task at hand.

After the first few minutes of the game, it could safely be said that neither brother was thrilled with how things were going. The game felt disjointed, there had been a number of fouls, and both teams threw several passes straight out of bounds.

However, where the Red Flash started to make about 60% of their shots, the Lions were hovering around 40% and the St. Francis lead extended up to 18-10. The defense wasn’t bad at all for Oggy’s team, but their calling card: high-scoring, fast-paced offense, was nowhere to be found.

E.F. McGuire was on fire for the home team.

At the mid-point of the first half the Red Flash were up 20-14 and E.F. McGuire had scored 11 of those 20 points. All 14 of the Lions’ points were from Christensen, Wentt, and Mbaha Moute: the guards and wings hadn’t scored once and were missing their shots.

That needed to change, but things didn’t get much better for the rest of the half as Oggy watched his offense struggle to score. Losing 40-29, his team was only 1-6 from three, being outrebounded 8 to 16, and no player had more than 6 points. For the Red Flash, McGuire had 16 points and they were shooting 61% from the field.

Oggy needed Estrada and Salow to get going in the second half and Dinko needed his team to keep doing exactly what they were doing: play smart and efficient basketball.

At the beginning of the second half, the Lions looked better. They managed to cut the lead to 8 several times, but as the benches came on and the Red Flash started to pull away and the second half looked like a clone of the first.

The game ended with the exact same score as last year’s game: 78-60. So far we’re 7 for 7 with the rule of “if you get past 70 points, you win the Derby.”

Chris Thompson celebrates the win.

The Lions were sad and exhausted

The Lions were only 4-16 from three while the Red Flash were 6-9. The Lions shot 48% from the field, the Red Flash 63%. St. Francis also had a 29-16 rebounding advantage. Not going to win many, if any, games with statistical differences that big.

Obviously, it was the E.F. McGuire game with his 31 points. He led the way for the Red Flash while the Lions struggled. Kahrimanovic went 0-5 from three, Lucious Estrada only had 10 points, and the 3 post players hardly did anything in the second half.

Shot chart comparison of E.F. McGuire and Loyola’s starting backcourt

[studbucket]

Re: Drago Derby #7: Full Video

Coach Tovarich is a little horrified at the clock management at the end of the first half with everyone turning the ball over multiple times instead of holding for the last shot...and then there not even being a last shot. Beyond that, yes, everyone, you and CPU, seemed a bit out of control with the pace. Team unity wins again.

I think the brothers need a coach Tovarich on their bench, screaming at the team to slow things down. And yeah, the pace was really frenetic at moments. E.F. McGuire thrived getting to the rim, not everyone did.

[studbucket]

Other photos from the Drago Derby

Here are a few photos from the game.

E.F. McGuire launches a wide open three.

Allen Wentt throws down a monster dunk and is fouled by Taj Hailey.

It was that kind of night. Taj Hailey blocks Immanuel Kahrimanovic with his armpit. It was 1 of 3 three-pointers that was blocked by St. Francis in the second half.

Lucious Estrada rises up for a dunk in traffic.