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Hi All,

First off, thank you for re-electing me as your U21 manager. I take great pride in the role and I am pushing as hard as I can to improve our standings in the game.

As with any European Championship, my goal is to reach the 2nd round group. However, this season I believe will be very difficult as we don't have the strongest group this season and we have been drawn in to a very tough group. Here are the teams we have drawn:

#6 Italy- 7-time EC champions, with medals in both of the last 2 EC championship, Italy are a U21 powerhouse and will be favourites in our group. They had a poor season last season by their standards, but under new leadership I'm sure they will have high expectations.

#10 Israel- Israel are a nation that have a pretty strong NT and U21 program which sees both their teams ranked in the top 10. They will be strong again this season and will be in the fight for that 2nd place, maybe even 1st place, in the group.

#27 Greece- Greece are a large nation in BB, and are led by long time manager Cobra Kai, and we have faced off a few times in recent seasons. Last season we got an impressive win against them in the first game of the season, and we will need another opening day victory to have a chance of getting that 2nd or 3rd place. But I expect Greece to be fighting Israel and Italy for those top 2 spots

#53 Czech Republic- The Czech's have recently began a new focus on their U21 team and look to have built an impressive team this season. Could be a surprise package this season if they get their tactics right.

#56 Norway- Always have solid teams, but never exceptional. I'd expect this to be a game we can win, but definitely won't underestimate them

#78 Sweden- Another team that won't be fighting at the top, but are generally a solid team, despite their low ranking. Should be a game we win, and hopefully we can end this 1st group on a high

#83 Georgia- Georgia are team that have beaten us in the last EC which derailed our season. Would like to get some revenge this season! We play Georgia in the 3rd game.

We will do our best this season to win as many games as possible, but I don't have too high expectations with this group.

England 107-104 Greece (76484)

What a way to start the EC with a shock win over Greece who are the 3rd seeded team in the group! Complete shock to me as I had pretty much written the game off as damage limitation given their GS and higher quality, so to get the win with less effort is a massive surprise. Hopefully we can kick on now and continue to perform at a high level.

The standout performer in the game was Woodhouse who scored 44 points (1 point shy of a top 10 all-time scoring performance) on 74% true shooting percentage. Harris also impressed by almost achieving a rebounds/assist double double finishing with 9 rebounds and 12 assists. In the defensive end, Hudson anchored the team with 11 rebounds and 6 blocks. Final shoutout to Provanzano who scored 9 points in 8 minutes with perfect shooting in the game.

Elsewhere in the group, top seed Italy showed their strength with a 24 point win over Sweden to put them top of the group after 1 game. Israel struggled passed Czech Republic despite an incorrect GDP guess from the Czech manager. Meanwhile, the lowest seeded team Georgia picked up a 10 point win over Norway with the use of more effort to put them 2nd in the table after gameweek 1.


We next face Israel in what will be another tough test for our team. Israel were pre-season 2nd seeds and with Greece now dropping a game they will be looking take advantage in the chase for qualification. It will be a big ask, but if we can pick up another shock result that could put us in the running for that qualification place too.

England 85-82 Israel (76485)

Back to back upsets as we make a miraculous comeback to win in overtime. We were down 4 points with 12 seconds left before 3 pointers from Watson and Bernard either side of 2 Israel FTs sent us to overtime. Bernard also coming up big by getting the big defensive stop at the end of overtime to give us the win! Once again we have probably got lucky in that Israel's backup PF got injured early on and their awful FT shooting (20 missed FTs!), but a win over the 10th ranked team is an incredible achievement for us.

I had a feeling Israel would look to use their bigs to attack us given their clear advantage there. Hudson and Hay did a great job to limit their inside scoring with 13 blocks between them. I didn't want to fully commit to an inside guess as it felt obvious and they may switch it up, which they did by going with II.

Great start to our season getting wins over the 2nd and 3rd seeded teams in the group. Puts us in a strong position for a shock 2nd place. But we still have 5 games to go, including some tough games.

Elsewhere is our group, Italy beat Norway by 25 to cement their place at the top of the group after 2 games. They're looking good as expected, but haven't faced any of the stronger teams just yet. Greece picked up an expected win against Sweden to put them at 1-1. Finally, Czech Republic beat Georgia by 24 points as they recovered from their loss to Israel last week.

After two games our group stands as so:
1- Italy 2-0 +49
2- England 2-0 +6
3- Czech Republic 1-1 +20
4- Greece 1-1 +15
5- Israel 1-1 +1
6- Georgia 1-1 -14
7- Norway 0-2 -35
8- Sweden 0-2 -42

We do stand in a strong position after being 2-0 after beating 2 of the stronger teams in the group, but there is still a long way to go and I expect the 2nd place will be strongly contested in the coming weeks.

We next face Georgia who will pose an interesting challenge. They are definitely better than their ranking suggests this season. I'm not underestimating them at all, especially after they did beat us in the last EC. We have revenge in our sights!

England 144-109Georgia

Unbeaten start continues after an incredible offensive display against Georgia. 144 points, 51 assists(!) and 63% FG is an incredible job done by the team. Woodhouse once again impressive with 31 points in only 25mins with his backup Anderson also adding 20 points in 21mins from the bench.

Georgia are one of the lower seeded teams in the group, but do appear to have some good u21 players this season, so I didn’t want to take them lightly. I had clocked that their manager liked to guess GDP so decided to switch up the offence this week, which they almost predicted still! But our offence were just too strong in the game. A +35 win is great for us in the push for that 2nd qualifying spot.

Italy held off a 2nd half push from Czech Republic to maintain their unbeaten start, and give Czech Republic their 2nd loss of the campaign. Israel and Greece cruised passed Sweden and Norway respectively as they move on to a 2-1 record.

After 3 games the table stands as follows:
1- Italy 3-0 +54
2- England 3-0 +41
3- Greece 2-1 +42
4- Israel 2-1 +37
5- Czech Republic 1-2 +15
6- Georgia 1-2 -49
7- Norway 0-3 -62
8- Sweden 0-3 -78

There are some big games next week that will define how the table plays out as we face Italy in a battle of the unbeaten teams. Greece face Czech Republic in what is a pivotal game for both teams as a loss for either side could effectively eliminate them from qualifying contention. Israe face Norway in a game they should win comfortably. Finally Sweden look to get their first win against Georgia

England 74-78 Italy

The unbeaten start comes to an end, but at the hands of the powerhouse Italy. This was a game with the sole target of damage limitation of our points differential, so to only lose by 4 points is a great effort by the team. Great defensive performance to hold them to only 78 points, with Hudson and Hay combining for 10 blocks and 30 rebounds. Offensively we did struggle, but Woodhouse and Speakman did their best to cause an upset, but fell just short.

Elsewhere in the group, Czech Republic used more effort against Greece to keep their season alive, while handing Greece their 2nd loss of the season. Greece still have Italy and Israel to play, so they need a very strong run to give themselves a chance of qualification. Israel claimed 2nd spot in the group with a win against Norway. They also still have Italy and Greece so have their hardest part of the season to come. Finally, Sweden got their first win in dominating fashion against Georgia.

Here are the standings after 4 games:
1- Italy 4-0 +58
2- Israel 3-1 +52
3- England 3-1 +37
4- Greece 2-2 +29
5- Czech Republic 2-2 +28
6- Sweden 1-3 -38
7- Georgia 1-3 -89
8- Norway 0-4 -77

Huge game for us next week as we play Czechs Republic which will have a big effect on the final standings. Czech Republic with 2 losses already can’t afford another loss, while a win for us puts us in a great position with two games remaining against lower ranked teams. Another huge game in the race for 2nd as Greece and Israel face off. With Greece’s loss to Czech Republic, they can’t afford another loss while a loss for Israel would also harm their chances of qualification. Italy play Georgia as they look to maintain their top spot. Sweden and Norway will battle in the other game in the group.

England 78-82 Czech Republic

So close yet so far…

We came up just short in the game against Czech Republic which puts our chances on getting the 2nd place spot in doubt. A win would’ve put us and Israel on a 4-1 record with Israel still having to play Italy. Now Israel can afford to lose to Italy and still finish 2nd due to their higher points differential and game against Georgia which will further strengthen their points differential.

Elsewhere, Israel came out on top against Greece which has made them favourites for the 2nd place spot. As expected, Italy took care of Georgia as they prepare for two tough games against Israel and Greece where they look to go unbeaten in the group. Finally, it was Sweden who came out on top over Norway.

The standings after game-week 5:
1- Italy 5-0 +114
2- Israel 4-1 +62
3- England 3-2 +33
4- Czech Republic 3-2 +32
5- Greece 2-3 +19
6- Sweden 2-3 -28
7- Georgia 1-4 -145
8- Norway 0-5 -87

We now go to to face the Scandinavian duo of Norway and Sweden, two games which we will need big wins if we want to snatch that 2nd place.

England 93-80 Norway

Back to winning ways, but it’s not going to be enough. After two losses to Italy and Czech Republic, we turned our fortunes around with a 13 point win over Norway. As we needed a big points differential win to have a chance of finishing 2nd I decided to go with more of an offensive lineup going with Watson over Harris but our offensive still struggled so this didn’t work as hoped.

Elsewhere, Israel got a big win over Italy which has pretty much confirmed their qualification as they play Georgia in the last gameweek. The loss does now put Italy at risk as they play Greece where a loss could give Czech Republic a chance to overtake them on points differential. Unfortunately, despite only having 2 losses ourselves, it would take a miracle for us to achieve the points differential required to overtake Italy and Czech Republic. Czech Republic won their game against Sweden 108-70 which gave them a big points differential boost for an outside chance of qualification. Finally, Greece got a big 131-63 win over Georgia, but as they have 3 losses already have no chance of qualifying and will have to settle for 5th place in the group.

After 6 games, the group stands as:
1- Italy 5-1 +111
2- Israel 5-1 +65
3- Czech Republic 4-2 +70
4- England 4-2 +46
5- Greece 3-3 +87
6- Sweden 2-4 -66
7- Georgia 1-5 -213
8- Norway 0-6 -100

We will face Sweden in our final game of the group. To have any chance of qualifying we’d probably going to need a win of 70+ points which is unrealistic. But we will look to end the group with a win in what has been a close and entertaining group.

You did an excellent job this season your win almost put us in a tough spot. I hope your squad in the coming years will be even more successful, and you'll be able to have an even better campaign. In any case, after the wins over us and Greece, I wanted to give you some well-deserved praise for your work so im doing it now

Thanks, very much appreciated!

I had low expectations for this group as I felt we didn’t have enough firepower, but we were defensively pretty strong which meant we were able to stay close in games. Against the other 4 top teams we won 2 by 3 points (you and Greece) and lost 2 games by 4 points (Czech Republic and Italy). So easy to say if we’d won the close games that we lost we could’ve been unbeaten, but just as easily 3-4.

England 84-69 Sweden

Well the competitive aspect of the season is now over as Italy managed to beat Greece which gave us no chance of qualification, but even then this result wouldn’t have been enough to pull off the miracle. Almost perfect 1st quarter defensively as we held Sweden to 0-21 FG, but the refs were very whistle happy for them to keep them somewhat close in the game. Offensively we weren’t efficient enough to put up a big score.

Elsewhere, Italy got the win they needed against Greece to confirm their qualification spot. But it turns out a win wasn’t needed as in the same position as us, Czech Republic won against Norway but couldn’t reach the required points differential to overtake either of the top 2 teams. Finally, thanks to a 57 point win over Georgia, Israel topped the group by 2 points. Congratulations to Israel and Italy on qualifying for the 2nd round. But also a shout out to Czech Republic and Greece as this was one of the most interesting EC groups I’ve been a part of with 5 teams all closely fighting for 2 spots.

The final standings for the group are:
1- Israel 6-1 +122
2- Italy 6-1 +120
3- Czech Republic 5-2 +90
4- England 5-2 +61
5- Greece 3-4 +78
6- Sweden 2-5 -81
7- Georgia 1-6 -270
8- Norway 0-7 -120

We now move on to the next phase of the season, which will be scrimmages for the rest of the season. I have decided to run a u20 team for the remainder of the season in preparation for next season. Our group of 20year olds are looking to be a true golden generation for the future, but likely more for the senior team than the u21 team. We will hopefully have a reasonably strong team again but don’t be expecting any titles!