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SF is not our weaknesSS but great choices!!

Agree with this, two fantastic choices. Suresh is handy too.

Elliott Lamont has more tsp than any u21 guy ive ever had at this point in season, yet we cant use him because his game shpae continues to go down

Yeah, this is an absolute killer.

ESTONIA 82-96 ENGLAND
Entering the last couple of games of the round robin pool stage, England traveled to the home of Estonia who were undefeated. The game started with both teams showing their intent in getting the W under there belt to aid in their qualification with England leading by 2 points and Mark Halflife once showing his pedigree, scoring 14 points. One down note was that we lost Clint Hood early who bagged two three pointers in two minutes off the bench. We continued the second quarter in the same vain, as did Halflife who continued to torment the Estonia guard to extend our lead to 9 at the half. Within the last two quarters, we didn't ever come under severe pressure and managed the game superbly with George Storie and Phil MacNeish slowly joining the party to bag double-digit points to support the excellent Halflife who finished with a season high 41 points, to see the score end at 96-82.

After a tough loss last week, we battled back superbly this week to keep our chances of qualifying alive. After numerous chats with Morwood, I felt we got the lineup spot on with all of our starters ending up as the top scorers. I also took a risk that paid off by predicting them and after the disappointment of last week, I was absolutely chuffed with the performance.

In order to qualify, we firstly need to beat Portugal and overturn a point differential of 70 so it's a very very tough ask but I still believe we can qualify. Let's pray for good game shape next week.

Smashed that prediction js, well done! Sorry Halflifes only been at Strong most of the season, struggled a fair bit with game shape now i'm in an actual league...

Sorry Halflifes only been at Strong most of the season, struggled a fair bit with game shape now i'm in an actual league...

Strong is good enough for a player to be in contention to start mate, so you don't have to apologise about that. It's just mega frustrating when the best two players on your team have been at average/respectable all season when we're coming up classy sides like Portugal and Estonia.

Yep, definitely what we needed!!

I thought i'd messed up Halflifes again this week after my starting SG in my scrimmage fouled out after 9 minutes.. Still, fingers crossed for monday

How is the Utopia training project going, are all the players involved going to be 21 next season? I'm definitely interested in training a couple of guys next season, might be worthwhile getting a thread going to advertise to other managers who might like to join the cause. Should also try to stagger the trainees so we are building players for every season of u21 competition. Cheers.

How is the Utopia training project going, are all the players involved going to be 21 next season?

Unfortunately it's not gone as well as I would have liked but there will be 6 or 7 players make the team next season.

might be worthwhile getting a thread going to advertise to other managers who might like to join the cause

Should also try to stagger the trainees so we are building players for every season of u21 competition

Both very good ideas and maybe we will have to get something sorted to organise them.

PORTUGAL 70-82 ENGLAND
The final game of the round robin saw England and Portugal battle it out. The game started with both teams scrapping to gain an early advantage but both defences on top early leaving the score at 17 each at the end of the quarter. The second quarter finally saw us get our offence working with Halflife and MacNeish both starting to dictate the pace of the game and creating scoring opportunities to gain an eleven point advantage to lead 43-32. The penultimate quarter played out in total contrast to the second as both teams really struggled to get the better of each others defences as a total of only 18 points were scored by both teams with Portugal scoring 11 to claw themselves back into the contest and dent England's chance of overturning the point differential. The final quarter saw both sides start to tire, meaning both defences started to weaken allowing both offences to convert their chances. George Storie topped the scoring charts for the first time this season with a brilliant all round performance, bagging 20 points, 8 rebounds and 3 assists.

Unfortunately, despite the best efforts of me, Morwood and the players, we were unable to qualify for the next round as Estonia beat Greece meaning no team went undefeated in the round robin stage in what was a highly competitive group. Overall, I think we've had a good season and once again, we're challenging for the top two spots of the group in Europe. It's been an absolute pleasure coaching the team this season and a special thanks to all managers for their efforts in making us qualify.

As for now, I will begin scouting the 19/20 year olds that may be on the team next season and dropping all players with potential of Superstar and lower. I look forward to next season and if anyone has any questions/queries, please feel free to message me.

One final thanks goes out to Morwood for his help throughout the season, the work he does behind the scenes is unbelievable and goes unrecognised and England are very lucky to you.