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

[studbucket]

In-Season Signing Results

The in-season signing period has wrapped up, and there was a first for Dinko: he signed a player during this window. It was not just any player, either. His #1 target, PG Tanoris Houston, has committed to St. Francis and will likely start push for a starting role at point next season, perhaps allowing Gerardo Bethel to play shooting guard.

There was not much movement on other prospects of note, though the brothers do continue to compete for a few players. Here are the outstanding scholarship offers for each brother. All prospects below are three star recruits. Angounou is Alabama’s Mr. Basketball.

Dinko (SFU)		Oggy (STET)
Clarence Bowen, 6’11” JuCo Freshman, Jacksonville, FL (2nd)		Iker Starkey, 6’2” HS Senior, Savannah, GA (2nd)
Lorenzo Angounou, 6’6” HS Senior, Mobile, AL (5th)		Clarence Bowen, 6’11” JuCo Freshman, Jacksonville, FL (3rd)
Chris Thompson, 6’8” HS Senior, New Zealand (1st)		Pierre Schafer, 6’2” HS Senior, Atlanta, GA (2nd)
Willis Holman, 6’7” HS Senior, Paterson, NJ (2nd)		Michael Rost, 6’11” HS Senior, Orlando, FL (1st)

Top 20 Recruits
17 of the top 20 prospects have been signed and amazing 3 of the top 10 have all signed for Louisville despite their awful start to the season. Of the remaining three prospects, here are the schools still in the running:

• Jasko Bowman: Duke, UNC, Tennessee, Memphis
• Brooks Demanby: Texas, Memphis
• Blake Slater: Providence

Prospect Name	Position	Rank	Hometown	School
Max Crawford	PG	1	Chandler, AZ	Arizona
Raphael Borges	SG	2	Philadelphia, PA	UConn
Jermaine Faulk	SG	3	Biloxi, MS	Louisville
Derik Matera	SG	4	Virginia Beach, VA	Duke
Timon Ravello	PF	5	St. Petersburg, FL	Florida State
Paris Laluba	PG	6	New Orleans, LA	Louisville
Jasko Bowman	PG	7	Atlanta, GA
Brooks Demanby	SG	8	Lawton, OK
Terrance Delgado	PF	9	Bloomington, IN	Louisville
Jerald Armstrong	PG	10	Norman, OK	Kansas
Ben Millar	PG	11	Brooklyn, NY	UConn
Francisco Jefferies	SG	12	Charlotte, NC	North Carolina
Romas Williamson	SG	13	Spokane, WA	Washington
Blake Slater	PG	14	New York, NY
Brennan Powell	SF	15	Scottsdale, AZ	Baylor
A.D. O'Hara	PG	16	Modesto, CA	Stanford
Niemer Jones	SF	17	Detroit, MI	Michigan State
Brandyn Clark	SF	18	Corpus Christi, TX	Texas
Larry Boykin	SG	19	Canton, OH	Indiana
Dominick Coles	PF	20	Dallas, TX	Texas

[studbucket]

December 5, 2021 St. Francis at Robert Morris [NEC]

This is the second Northeast Conference game for the Red Flash, after they lost their first game to Fairleigh Dickinson in an awful showing, scoring only 45 points. Dinko will be looking to rebound before they play a few more non-conference games and then dive in headfirst to the conference schedule.

Robert Morris is in a tough spot. They have very little talent and much of it is injured: Derrick Mark is out with a broken toe and Cyrus Callans and Carl Hopes are both nursing some injuries. Despite the state of Robert Morris, Dinko still always gets up for this game and wants revenge for that gut-punch loss back in his first conference tournament. The Colonials are 2-6 so far this season and Cyrus Callans is clearly their best scorer and a solid 3 point shooter.

For St. Francis, Stephane Diakite is still out for 4 more days and won’t be available this game. Mohamed Payne moves from the 3 to the 4 and has been on fire as he scored another 15 points and grabbed 14 rebounds last game. Dinko knows that Payne is probably the best player in the conference and the freshman have been playing better than was expected. As pre-conference play has continued on, Dinko has begun to wonder if his team could get another tournament berth, if not a regular season title.

However, that’s for the next 3 months to determine. For now, the Colonials.

Turns out there was nothing to worry about. Cyrus Callans did nail 2 threes to start the game, but after that the Red Flash went on a 16-2 run thanks to solid contributions from Vern Quick, Gerardo Bethel, Geary Doss, and Muhamed Payne. It was 16-8 and the beginnings of a blowout.

Vern Quick was playing with freedom and creativity

The lead extended to 28-11 as the Red Flash were absolutely dominating and they took a 41-21 halftime lead. Payne had 13 at half, both Vern Quick and Geary Doss added 8 points.

The game ended with a final score of 85-48 as St. Francis outscored the Colonials 50-14 in the paint, outshot them 73% to 38% and forced 14 turnovers.

St. Francis did all this only taking 5 threes as they had no trouble getting the ball into the paint or onto fast breaks. Mo Payne had 26 points and Vern Quick added 17.

Around the NCAA

• Louisville lost again, this time to Oklahoma State, to fall to 3-3. They are the most talented team in the country but have not played like it. Oklahoma State is 7-1 and their only loss is to Northern Colorado.

[studbucket]

College Hoops Tonight – December 13, 2021

Here’s the College Hoops Tonight show for December 13, 2021 which has a focus on the mid-major top 10 (no Gonzaga) and a 1 point upset of the #4 team in the country.

[studbucket]

Atlantic Sun and NEC Conference Previews

A few conference games have occurred, but they are just the appetizer for the main dish that is conference play. Both brothers have their teams playing solid and a bit above expectations so far, but we know conference play is a different beast. St. Francis was expected to be a middling NEC team and Stetson was expected to drop to the basement of the Atlantic Sun. Both of those projections are looking a bit bearish at this moment, but we know that the rigors of a full season can wear down freshman.


Standings
So far, Fairleigh Dickinson is atop the conference as expected, but St. Francis and Wagner are both performing above expectations, while Long Island finds themselves struggling compared to their projected third place finish.

In the Atlantic Sun, things are topsy-turvy. The top 3 projected teams were Mercer, Campbell, and East Tennessee State, and all three are in the bottom five of the standings now, below even Stetson. Jacksonville is clearly having the best season so far.

Northeast Conference
School	Wins	Losses	%
Fairleigh Dickinson	8	4	.666
St. Francis (PA)	9	5	.642
Sacred Heart	8	5	.615
Wagner	6	5	.545
Quinnipiac	7	6	.538
Monmouth	6	8	.428
Mount St. Mary’s	4	6	.400
Long Island	5	8	.384
Central Connecticut	5	9	.357
St. Francis (NY)	3	10	.230
Robert Morris	2	11	.153

Atlantic Sun
School	Wins	Losses	%
Jacksonville	11	3	.785
Gardner-Webb	6	3	.666
Belmont	7	4	.636
SC Upstate	7	6	.538
Kennesaw State	6	6	.500
Stetson	6	6	.500
Lipscomb	6	7	.461
Campbell	5	7	.416
Mercer	4	8	.333
North Florida	3	7	.300
Florida Gulf Coast	3	7	.300
East Tennessee State	3	9	.250

Leaders
Campbell and Sam Zeigler are clearly the class of the Atlantic Sun conference, at least from a statistical perspective. While Jacksonville may have a better point differential, Campbell is scoring more, grabbing more rebounds, and getting more assists than anyone else in the conference and Zeigler is nigh-unstoppable at 26.3 points per game. In the NEC, Fairleigh Dickinson and Sacred Heart are excellent in opposite ways: FDU plays great defense, while Sacred Heart moves the ball and scores it better than anyone in the conference.

Dinko is fortunate to have three players leading the conference in various statistics:

• Mo Payne is a scoring machine and averaging over 21 points per game.
• Geary Doss may not be talented, but when he takes shots he makes them, using his 7’3” frame to his advantage.
• Gerardo Bethel doesn’t take many threes (only 30 on the season so far), but he’s making half of them.

Oggy is seeing similar efficiency from Jerimie Scott, who regularly takes high quality shots inside.

Category	Northeast	Atlantic Sun
Best offense (PPG)	Sacred Heart (77.1)	Campbell (77.0)
Best defense (PPG)	Fairleigh Dickinson (61.3)	South Carolina Upstate (64.7)
Best differential	Fairleigh Dickinson (9.0)	Jacksonville (10.4)
Rebounds per game	Wagner (33.4)	Campbell (34.8)
Assists per game	Sacred Heart (13.5)	Campbell (12.9)

Category	Northeast	Atlantic Sun
Scoring	Muhamed Payne, SF, SFPA (21.6)	Sam Zeigler, SG, CAM (26.3)
Rebounds	Nic Carroll, SF, QUIN (10.5)	Sam Zeigler, SG, CAM (26.3)
Assists	Rich Meyers, PG, FDU (7.5)	Loren Nahra, PG, ETST (7.3)
Steals	Ugonna Madera, SG, MON (1.9)	Kentrell Emmett, PF, KST (2.2)
Blocks	Tay Ryan, C, WAG (1.9)	Tommy Zwikker, C, CAM (2.3)
FG%	Geary Doss, C, SFPA (62.2%)	Jerimie Scott, C, STET (62.6%)
3P%	Gerardo Bethel, SG, SFPA (50.0%)	Jacob Amerson, PG, JU (53.6%)

[studbucket]

December 31, 2021 Stetson vs Lipscomb [A-Sun]

It’s been a rough few weeks for Oggy and Stetson. Things started off well enough as he absolutely destroyed his alma mater Robert Morris 89-43, with Jerimie Scott getting 29 points and 9 rebounds. However, after that they flew to Hawai’i for the Hawaiian Island Classic tournament, where they promptly lost 3 straight games: 2 point loss to #23 LSU, 14 point loss to St. Mary’s, and a 19 point loss to Miami (OH). The Redhawks only had 1 win all season.

Leaving Honolulu, Stetson then took on High Point and lost by 22 points. That’s 4 straight losses, with each loss coming to a team that was worse than the previous and by more points each time. The team’s morale was down and Oggy was hoping to turn things around in conference play.

Oggy’s very first Atlantic Sun game will be at home against the Lipscomb Bison. The visitors were only scoring 59.2 points per game and had a -10 point per game differential. Despite that, they were 6-7 and had two solid players: freshman shooting guard Dedrick Swoger and 7 footer Jeremie Barisic. Oggy would need to limit those two in order to guarantee a win today.

Through the first few minutes, the game was close, but the Bison’s only points were 4 free throws from Barisic. For whatever reason, their coach sat him just a few minutes after that and the Hatters built up an 8 point lead. That wouldn’t last long as Oggy watched the lead slip away and the Bison pulled ahead 18-17 thanks to sloppy play and turnovers.

Jerimie Scott was struggling and missing bunnies, but Adam Baynes picked up the slack, though it wasn’t quite enough. At halftime Stetson was down 29-27 despite shooting 11% better from the field. They were playing sloppy and had yet to make a three pointer. Baynes had 10 points and Brendon Pocius added 9.

In the locker room, Oggy exhorted his team to up the tempo and play faster. They are more talented, at home, and shooting well. The change in strategy works as they started hitting threes and quickly built up a 39-34 lead. Just 30 seconds later, Rex Fischer hit another three to extend the lead to 42-34 and caused the crowd to erupt. Lipscomb called a timeout to regroup.

Lipscomb managed to creep back to within 5 points a few times, but Adam Baynes and Brendon Pocius both stepped up to make key shots and great passes to shut down any comeback. Pocius extended the lead to 9 points with less than a minute left, then dished out two dimes for Kann threes as the Hatters sealed the game.

Brendon Pocius had 21 points, 3 rebounds, and 3 assists. The passing displayed in the final minute was encouraging to Oggy and something he may try to encourage Pocius to do more of in the future. Adam Baynes also added 18 points in one of his best outings.

The Bison struggled this game, with starting PG Shawan Russell shooting 2-9 from deep, SF Jeremy Dancy going 2-6, and Swoger going 0-3. Swoger should have taken more and Russell should have taken far less.

Around the NCAA

• St. Francis went 2-2 in this stretch with wins over Cornell and Long Island and losses to West Virginia and Colgate. However, Mo Payne continued to play great, even scoring 35 and grabbing 9 rebounds in the loss to West Virginia.
• Unfortunately, Vern Quick has separated his shoulder and is out for 2 weeks.
• There are only two teams in the country that remain unbeaten: #1 Florida and #3 Texas. The Gators have wins over 3 ranked teams in non-conference play and have some exciting upcoming matchups against #2 Tennessee, #14 Mississippi State, and #11 Kentucky. Texas has played no ranked teams, but have upcoming games against #9 Kansas, #25 Oklahoma State, and #20 Texas A&M.
• The only two teams yet to win a game are Alcorn State (0-10) and Lamar (0-7).
• Campbell’s Sam Zeigler has torn his ACL and is out for the season. What a huge blow for the conference’s best player and NBA hopeful.

Around the NBA

• The Hawks and Bucks struck a deal, sending Brook Lopez to Atlanta in exchange for Taurean Prince. With Khris Middleton hurt, the Bucks had a need for a wing player and the Hawks have been hurting down low since they let Juan King walk. The teams played immediately after the trade with the Hawks winning 114-113, but Prince scored 22 for Milwaukee.
• The Charlotte Hornets seem to be inspired by the early 2000s Phoenix Suns. Their starting lineup now consists of 3 point guards: De’Aaron Fox, Collin Sexton, and Lonzo Ball. When they started using this lineup, they were in the middle of the playoff picture. After a few games of that and some injuries, they now find themselves 12-18 after losing 7 straight.
• The Orlando Magic feel that they should be much better than they have been and currently are and have fired Steve Clifford. In his place, they’ve hired former Jazz head coach Quin Snyder. They were 11-16 when making the change and have finished the month at 13-19.
• Similarly, the Pelicans front office was very frustrated with the last few years of squandering Zion’s talent. They’ve parted ways with Alvin Gentry and hired the offensive minded grit & grind disciple Luke Wallace. The Pelicans were 10-15 when the change was made and are now 12-18.
• LaMarcus Aldridge has a high ankle sprain, knocking him out for 4-6 weeks. However, Juan King, and then Isaiah Hartenstein, stepped up in his absence and the Rockets are 18-13 and in 3^rd place in the West.
• Luka Doncic broke his left thigh and will miss 6 weeks. In his absence the Mavs have gone into a free fall, losing 6 straight and falling out of the playoff picture.
• The Detroit Pistons are 17-15 and 5^th in the East. Trevor Merchant is nearly single-handedly leading this team and is making the fans excited for what the team could be with more talent around him.
• The Golden State Warriors have recovered from their awful start and have gone 8-2 in their last 10 games and are 5^th in the West.
• The Los Angeles Clippers are 16-17, on the outside of the playoffs, and greatly underperforming. Dennis Schroder is the second best player on the team, but that also means he is outperforming Paul George.
• The Lakers are also just outside of the playoffs at 15-16 and are struggling to find enough talented players to surround LeBron and AD.
• Trevor Merchant and Kristaps Porzingis won the December Player of the Month awards.
• Jerry Sparks won a second straight Eastern Conference Rookie of the Month award. Out West, a different Trail Blazer won it this time as Gordon Cousinard took the award home to meet the bar set last month by Christophe Perben.

[studbucket]

Inside Scoop – December 2021 Edition

The Inside Scoop is based on TheDominator273's awesome spreadsheet to add random events to your MyLeague.

Markelle Fultz needs a small surgery
The 23 year old point guard is having a career year, scoring 22 points per game. Unfortunately, he needs a minor surgery to correct a varicose vein issue. He’ll miss 9 days.

Leonard Long can’t hit the broad side of a barn
The Florida Gulf Coast big man wasn’t that good to begin with, but video emerged of a shooting competition between him and other young players at Blazers’ practice. The result was…disconcerting as his three pointers regularly went over the backboard. He appears to have zero touch on his shots.

[kibaxx7]

Re: Inside Scoop – December 2021 Edition

Huge victories for both brothers. It's great to see this dynasty still alive!

[studbucket]

Re: Inside Scoop – December 2021 Edition

Huge victories for both brothers. It's great to see this dynasty still alive!

Yeah, they are both exceeding expectations, which is great! Dinko is definitely in the running for the conference title and Oggy just needs to be good enough to make the conference tournament.

[Dawgfan1]

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

I try to look at as many good CH2K8 threads as I can cause I love the game and reading about it, and this one was totally worth the read, great story going on! Also interesting to chronicle two coaches at the same time. I will say though, as someone who has coached St Francis Brooklyn/NY in a legacy before I am insulted at them being dubbed the "fake" St. Francis. Too bad they suck too much to do anything about it lol :wink:

I do wonder if Dinko would be willing to travel to eastern Ohio to coach a mid-major team if the opportunity presents itself? Akron and Kent State aren't too far away, and Youngstown State is only a little over an hour from Pittsburgh I think.

[studbucket]

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

I try to look at as many good CH2K8 threads as I can cause I love the game and reading about it, and this one was totally worth the read, great story going on! Also interesting to chronicle two coaches at the same time. I will say though, as someone who has coached St Francis Brooklyn/NY in a legacy before I am insulted at them being dubbed the "fake" St. Francis. Too bad they suck too much to do anything about it lol :wink:

I do wonder if Dinko would be willing to travel to eastern Ohio to coach a mid-major team if the opportunity presents itself? Akron and Kent State aren't too far away, and Youngstown State is only a little over an hour from Pittsburgh I think.

Wow, thanks for the feedback! I'm certainly having a lot of fun with these two and am almost as much "along for the ride" as I am crafting this story.

How did your SFNY legacy go? Any major successes or rivalries?

Regarding Dinko - yes, Eastern Ohio is definitely a possibility and I've scouted the area and looked at those schools. For him, it would need to be a clear and obvious upgrade and he may feel like he can build SFPA into something better than Akron (for example). However, we'll have to see how good the jobs are when they are offered. Last season there were hardly any openings.

[studbucket]

January 9, 2022 Stetson at East Tennessee State [A-Sun]

Oggy recently got some bad news: his best player Brendon Pocius has strained his abdomen and will be out for 2 weeks. Freddie Brazzle will need to step into the starting lineup but Pocius will be missed. In his absence the team has lost two straight games to South Carolina Upstate and Gardner Webb.

Fortunately, East Tennessee State is not having a good season. The Buccaneers are 4-10 overall, 1-1 in conference and are greatly underperforming their talent. Senior SF Lyndale Guerrero is their best shooter but JR PF Jose Darby leads the team with 9.4 ppg. On paper, Stetson is less talented but is playing better and is much taller. As is usually his strategy, Oggy will try to lean heavily on that height in this matchup.

The Hatters started the game off on fire, getting the ball down low and getting their big men easy looks. After Jerimie Scott kicked the ball out to Atila Kann for a three, Stetson found themselves up 11-5 just a few minutes in and their full court trap had forced 2 turnovers already.

The Hatters struggled a bit when both Adam Baynes and Jerimie Scott had to sub out, but Kann kept the team afloat with several three pointers and they started to pull away. Stetson had a 39-22 halftime advantage and were playing extremely well on both ends. Stetson were absolutely dominating in the interior, led by Jerimie Scott’s 16 points, 2 rebounds, 4 assists, and 3 blocks.

In the first 3 minutes of the 2^nd half, Scott managed to get Dane Matheus (the Buccaneer’s starting center) to foul him 3 times and got him sent to the bench. He took advantage of this and helped stretch the lead to 20 points. The game eventually ended 74-49 in an easy win for the Hatters.

Jerimie Scott finished with an astounding 30 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists, and 3 blocks. The Buccaneers just had no idea what to do with his size.

Atila Kann shot 5-6 from three, as did Lyndale Guerrero, but most of those were in the second half garbage time. ETSU’s best player, Donny Sneed, went 0-6 while their PG Nahra shot 5-16 including 1-7 from three.

[Careless Whisper]

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

All caught up! Congrats to Dinko on pulling the 2/15 upset with SFU, seems like he's building something great in Loretto and I appreciate his willingness and want to stay in the area. I honestly don't blame Oggy for making the move to Stetson - better conference as you said, and probably a better recruiting base there as well. Think there's more potential to grow and take that next career step with success at Stetson than Northern Colorado.

[studbucket]

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

All caught up! Congrats to Dinko on pulling the 2/15 upset with SFU, seems like he's building something great in Loretto and I appreciate his willingness and want to stay in the area. I honestly don't blame Oggy for making the move to Stetson - better conference as you said, and probably a better recruiting base there as well. Think there's more potential to grow and take that next career step with success at Stetson than Northern Colorado.

Yeah, I'm really excited about what Dinko is building as well and spent some time in the shower this morning pondering his motivations and career path. Would he be more tempted by a big college job (say, UConn) or an NBA job? Realistically, when would he be offered one of those? What makes it worth it to move?

For Oggy, you can squint and see that he may have taken a short term step back for longer term gains. What I wonder is if he will stick around Stetson long enough, and did he need to move to Stetson to reach whatever step he had next? However, the Atlantic Sun is more talented than the Big Sky, likely due to the more fertile recruiting.

[RolePlayer]

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

I need to catch back up but Oggy might be proving those who doubted his move to Stetson wrong, the team has been rolling as of late even with the lack of talent.

[kibaxx7]

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

Huge game by Scott in an even bigger victory. This has to be your best dynasty so far, Stud, keep it up!

(Oh brother, I can't wait until I'm able to start mine)