We are not yet at a level where we can expect to win most games.
Most of the top countries have been training their young players for years, and alot of them have large pools of managers doing it than we do!
Looking at the results as being either a win or a loss is not the best way to view how the team is improving, and seeing we are improving is more important (and that's obvious by looking at the box scores) considering it takes 3-4 seasons for a player to reach his peak at U-21 level, and then he's finished.
Starting out in Matt's reign there were very few good players. Our U-21 NT was at a level where it was difficult for us to win even a few games, and we were very uncompetitive in most games.
We are nearly through 2 seasons of Matt's reign and we've gone from having no hope in many matches, to being competitive in nearly all games.
There is a big difference in getting beat 116-100 (Versus Moldova (Rank 56 Season 11 Rank 65 now) in Season 11, where we tried harder than them and still lost) and 70-68 (Versus Belarus Season 13, when they tried harder than us)
Edit:
As I said previously there were also a few key plays in the last 3 games in the final quarter where we missed a shot and the other team went down the court and scored. A bit of luck and your talking about a great season for the U-21's!
Not to mention the fact we beat Iran who are currently ranked 27.
If you don't have good enough players you won't win many games, especially against good teams. We are a developing team. Season 15 is when we will see just what a good job Matt did, in terms of wins
Last edited by Tom_Nolan at 8/24/2010 9:00:25 PM