Season 60 review
After defeat to Portugal in the last 32 of the knockout rounds, this seasons NT campaign has come to an anti-climatic end.
Once the schedule was declared for this seasons consolation tournament, my aim was to finish in the top half of the standings to secure a home tie in the first knockout round. Things started positively with us winning our first six games very comfortably, albeit against teams we should be beating, but the offence looked dangerous with Kemp and Banuelos leading the pack and notable contributions from Catty and Smith. Then came our two toughest games in the round robin stage - an away tie to Belgium and a home tie to France. In the Belgium game, we started well but were outclassed in the next three quarters, with the home side showing why they're one of the top European nations by winning at a canter despite a correct GDP. For the French game, I tried something different and for three quarters, the tactics were spot on as we took a 12 point lead into the final quarter, but unfortunately we were unable to hold on with the French strength in depth really coming to fruition and overturning the deficit to win by 9. Our 6-2 record left us in 17th place, meaning an away tie to Portugal in the knockout rounds.
We had once again started the game against Portugal in great fashion, leading at half time by 7 but with the offence and defence lacking the same fluidity in the second half, we were never able to put the game out of reach and were in for a tense finish. We led by six with 1:33 to go, but two clutch free-throws and back to back buckets swung the momentum in the favour of the home side, reducing the deficit to 2. Dave Smith missed an important free-throw with 42 seconds left to make it a two position game and we were punished with Monteiro hitting a 3 to send the game into overtime. Once Portugal got their noses in front, we were never able to claw it back, putting an end to the season.
Overall, I'm slightly disappointed with how the season has ended, especially after a narrow defeat to Portugal. As everyone knows, HCA is huge in the knockouts so an away tie was always going to be tough to overcome, but when I saw CT v TIE, I had faith we could do it but it wasn't to be. I do think we have a nation that is heading in the right direction over the last couple of seasons, climbing 9 places in the rankings.
Our game shape for the majority of the season has been fantastic but unfortunately, for the three games that mattered, a couple of our key players weren't in the best shape. On a more positive note, we've also seen some great progression from the younger guys in the team and congratulations go out to Darren Curran, David Albrighton and Rab Gillespie for all making their competitive debuts for the national side this season.
We end the campaign saying goodbye to a national team legend in Alexey Sanders. At the ripe age of 35, Sanders closes out a glittering international career with 1618 points, ranking him 7th all time.
Also, big thanks to Gully for the match reports and Testudo for the MVP voting, we try to do this to keep as many users who aren’t on the discord channel engaged as possible. Feel free to drop any of the guys in here a message if you’d like to be added to the channel.
Last edited by js8 at 4/18/2023 7:07:37 AM