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After progressing to the second round of the European Championships two seasons ago, we will look to do the same again this season and maintain our ranking in the top 20 and in Pot 2 of the European teams. Our draw is difficult and features the host nation, Czechia, who will fancy their chances of advancing given the success of achieving home court advantage, thanks for last season's consolation tournament.

Our fixtures are as follows:
- Czechia (away)
- Montenegro
- Ireland
- Bosnia
- Norway
- Serbia
- Latvia

As mentioned above, the draw is difficult but with some good game shape, tactical choices and a bit of luck, it is possible for us to progress into the second round. Our challengers for second spot will be Bosnia, Latvia and last season's beaten finalists in the Consolation tournament, Serbia, who actually defeated Czechia in the semi-finals. The draw has been kinder to us than it has to Latvia and Bosnia, but is still challenging with two of our most important games coming at the end of the schedule.

England 116-134 Czechia
This game was always going to be one where the odds were stacked against us, due to Czechia having home court advantage for the Championships and the strength and depth of their squad. This was amplified with the game shape of the two teams, with Czechia's squad in better shape, despite three of our key players being on 9GS.

The first games of the season can always throw up some surprises with teams on equal enthusiasm, so I thought I would throw a GDP guess in to see where it would take us. Unfortunately my GDP guess was incorrect, which made the game almost impossible to win and it was a case of damage limitation. Our situation worsened just two minutes into the game when Ad Harris went down injured - this was a key loss as he's our primary rebounder and offers so much more than the backup Centres we had available to us. Czechia took full advantage and destroyed us in the first half, making the result slightly embarrassing but we recovered things in the third quarter to reduce the deficit.

Next week we face our easiest opponent, Montenegro. We will be looking to bounce back with a big win. Despite using more effort, Latvia lost to Bosnia which makes qualification extremely difficult for them. Serbia and Norway registered comfortable wins against Ireland and Montenegro respectively.

In the other groups, Hungary won a close fought game against Israel after the game went to overtime and Italy beat Estonia in another close encounter.

Montenegro 87-151 England
As mentioned last week, this game was all about building our PD as much as we could, in case it came down to those sorts of margins at the end of the group.

Montenegro have deployed the same tactics for almost two seasons now, so a double GDP guess of PtB was an obvious choice, along with our selection of RnG as an offence with Kemp and Duguid in good shape. +64 is a nice PD to gain against our weakest opponents, but with Montenegro likely to normal every other game this season, the difference in enthusiasm between them and our direct opponents will be bigger, meaning the PD could also go that way. Nine of twelves players scored in double digits, with Duguid top-scoring with 25 points. Buchan missed only one shot all game, shooting 10/11 adding 22 points.

Next week we face our neighbours across the Channel, Ireland. They picked up a nice win against Norway yesterday, but it was at the expense of enthusiasm using CT so it should be another easy win and a chance to boost our PD. Bosnia used more effort to beat Serbia in a game which further widens the interest of how this group will develop, as the latter will face hosts Czechia next week and another loss would make put a serious dent into their qualification hopes.

In the other groups, Spain beat Germany which almost seals their qualification, whilst Israel kept their Championship hopes alive with a win against Finland, whilst Portugal defeated Hungary in the same group to make Pool-C one to keep an eye on.

England 129-103 Ireland
The score line doesn't tell the entire story of this game, as it looks to be a comfortable win, but it was anything but. Going into the last five minutes of the final quarter, Ireland were level with us and threatening to totally derail our season and leaving me sweating. A 29-5 run put us out of sight and allowed us to move on and forget the game pretty quickly.

With Ireland using CT vs Norway last week, I expected this game to be a foregone conclusion, given the enthusiasm advantage and the strength of our players. The ratings and PP100 maybe show that we were robbed of an easier win and an opportunity to sure up our PD, just in case it did come down to that, which is frustrating. Duguid, Kemp and Kanjilal continued their impressive starts with to the season.

Next week is our biggest game of the season yet as we play Bosnia. We do have an enthusiasm advantage due to their use of more enthusiasm vs Serbia two game weeks ago, but their ratings clearly show they are a great team and are a lot better than their ranking suggests. A loss and our campaign is virtually over, so it is a must win game. Serbia's campaign is almost certainly over now as they lost a crunch game to Czechia, who are all but qualified.

In other groups, Finland egded past Portugal to leave Pool-C open and Bulgaria continued their perfect start beating Slovenia who are eliminated.

Bosnia 111-118 England
A triumphant win as we defeated Bosnia to put ourselves in pole position to qualify for the second round. Our destiny is now in our own hands, but we have three tough games left so it's still all to play for.

Analysing which way Bosnia would go was difficult. With several key players on their side in great shape, they had the option to attack in any way, but I always felt they would opt to go balanced or outside, due to the game shape of our guards, and use one of the Iso offences or Motion, hence my normal GDP guess, which proved to be incorrect. Offensively we didn't have many options with several key players low on game shape. I did expect an Outside Box from Bosnia and with their SB-bigs, Sare and Hercegovac, being in low game shape, I felt that was the best way to attack them. We managed to cause them serious issues inside with Harris, Albrighton and Kanjilal all scoring efficiently and the Bosnian bigs in foul trouble. I do think we were slightly fortunate to win this one, with the FT differential being so big and with how few turnovers we had, but the ratings and +/- suggest we were the better side.

Next week we face Norway who gave today's opponents Bosnia a tough game, so I expect the same for us next week.

In the other groups, there were some interesting results as Spain edged out Belgium to take control of Pool-E. Portugal lost to Slovakia, making the game against Israel next week crucial and Moldova pulled off a shock win against Russia.

England 111-85 Norway
A comfortable win takes us to 4-1 with two difficult games left to play! A huge couple of weeks is coming up.

Norway were hit with poor game shape, which made this game a lot easier than what it could have been. They tend to line up with four outside orientated guys and one big, leaning towards a balanced or outside offence, so my immediate thoughts were to use a 3-2 zone and protect the perimeter. We did a decent enough job of doing this, but with Buchan and Harris both lacking SB, it did allow a fair few easy second chance points as they managed to gobble up 14OR's. Offensively we were efficient shooting 51% and dishing out 25 assists, with Kanjilal top scoring with 18 points.

Next week we face up against Serbia who are eliminated after Latvia produced a 4th quarter comeback. The Serbs have nothing to play for now, apart from pride and ranking points but they will present a tough test for us. The dynamic of who'll qualify alongside Czechia has swung back in favour of Bosnia. We are ahead by +30PD, but with the Bosnians facing Montenegro next week, they should climb above us with one to play. Whilst Latvia aren't mathematically eliminated, they would need to overturn a huge PD deficit.

In other groups, Belgium look hot favourites to qualify from Pool-E after their win against Romania and Germany losing to Switzerland. In Pool-D Greece got an important win against Slovenia keeping them in contention to qualify and Israel edged past Portugal which looks to have secured their passage to the second round.

Serbia 78-62 England
A game which promised so much ended in grave disappointment and ended our hopes of qualifying for the second round in back to back competitions. Everyone in the game of BuzzerBeater knows that Serbia always deploy two SB bigs and a 3-2 zone, making them tough to attack, but with the crop of players we had available to us I decided to try exploit the lack of OD on their bigs using Low Post but it failed dramatically with Serbia dominating the game from start to finish. I did think it was possible Serbia would go for a CT and that left us vulnerable as it wasn’t an option for us, with Latvia at our final game. Taking the ratings and PP100 into consideration, maybe that extra use of enthusiasm made the difference and meant it was always going to be a challenge to beat a team that made the Consolation tournament finals.

Latvia 132-120 England
After the loss of Serbia, this game meant very little in terms of jeopardy but was one that would have been nice to win and finish the season in third place. Instead, we were dominated on the rebounds and that felt the deciding factor in the game as it could have gone either way. Latvia had more enthusiasm than us so I expected it to be difficult but a disappointing result to end the campaign with. We were limited in options offensively due to some managers being unable to manage game shape at key points in the season.

Overall, finishing 5th is extremely disappointing and I take sole responsibility for the poor season. Ultimately we were drawn in a group against a host nation and then three really strong European teams, so qualification was always going to be difficult. A key factor in our demise was the loss of one of our greatest ever national players in Jonathan Kemp. The double OD drop he suffered early into the season left us limited in offence. We say goodbye to the legend who finishes his international career 2nd in the all-time scoring charts with 2363 points in 127 games. Throughout periods of the season we’ve also had some key players in poor shape, particularly in key weeks which has unsettled the balance of the squad, but as I said earlier, my tactical choices for some games was also poor and ultimately it’s my job to make sure I maximise the use of the crop of players we have.

If anyone has any questions, suggestions or observations, please feel free to drop them in this forum or message me personally. It’s now a time for recuperation and testing with the squad to make sure we’re best prepared for next season. We have some exciting talent coming through, so I hope to see those players grow and enhance the crop of players we have available to use now.

Last edited by js8 at 2/18/2025 6:17:22 PM