BuzzerBeater Forums

Happy Ourer: Hello and welcome to another season of Linndale Basketball! I am Happy Ourer, and joining me as usual will be Joshua Doe, Sam Dunkley, and Jimmy Buckitts. Let’s get right to it! Joshua, what are you looking to see this season from the team?

Joshua Doe: After a disappointing finals, I want to see coach Pio Reina go deeper into his bench and bag of tricks. I want to see Carlos Frias all over the court. I also want to see Walt Pasman improve his offensive game and see Petey Buckets play a little defense.

HO: Sam, what are you looking for?

Sam Dunkley: I want to see how Lecian and Craig improve this season. There is an opportunity for Lecian specifically if he can improve his ball handling and shooting. I also want to see Joy Beko progress on offense.

HO: Jimmy, you’ve been with the team in training camp. What have you seen?

Jimmy Buckitts: Happy, the coaches told me they like that they can move Joy Beko around on the floor and want to be able to that with more players. The key will be how the younger guys develop. We’ll see how that plays out. Air Allnite was particularly excited to see Petey Buckets working on his defense and rebounding. He also said Leandro Leao isn’t where they want him to be, but he’s close.

HO: Well, let’s find out what the General Manger of the team, Roberto Gurgone expects to see. Roberto, thanks for joining us.

Roberto Gurgone: Thanks for having me. Great to see everyone back for another season!

HO: Explain what the plan for this season is.

RG: We’ll deal with the playoffs when we get there. This season is all about versatility. We need to get back to being unpredictable offensively and defensively, and versatility allows you to do that.

JD: Roberto, the team already appeared to be pretty versatile as it is, what exactly are we going to see?

RG: There’s being able to do something, and being able to do something at a level expected. We want to get to the point where you know who’s on the court but you don’t know where. We want our guys to be able to play a variety of positions at a high level. We have a guard we can put in the paint defensively and a power forward we can put on the perimeter at the same time. That kind of versatility is a weapon. We want more of that, but we also want them have the skills needed to play multiple positions on offense. Beko or Pasman defensively anywhere isn’t a surprise, but on offense you largely know where they will be. That’s going to change. Guys are going to be able to guard multiple positions and be a threat on offense at multiple positions. That protects us against injury and gives our opponents nightmares. How do you game plan for that?

HO: That sounds like the return of a fan favorite could be in the offing. Will we see a backwards game this season?

RG: That depends on both the matchups, and if Coach Reina says our guys are ready for it. I think he’d want to see two, maybe three more players improve in certain areas before he pulled that out. That’s his call. I’ll allow that we’ve told Pio to go into his bag of tricks to find out who can do what. Last season, he wasn’t as willing to do so, and played things pretty conservative. I think he’ll be more aggressive this season. He won’t care about losses as long as we make the playoffs. Let the players play.

HO: We’ll be back with Roberto Gurgone when we return from this commercial break! When we return, we'll find out if Pio Reina is on the hot seat.

RG: That's ridiculous! I'll explain why he's not when we return! Come on, Happy! You can't be serious!

(laughter on set from everyone)

HO: About Pio Reina on the hot seat? No. About the commercial break? Totally! I told you I'd get you! We'll be back in 90 seconds!

Jimmy Buckitts: Jimmy Buckitts with head coach Pio Reina. Coach, what was the plan for tonight’s game?

Pio Reina: We just wanted to get started with a good half of basketball, and get the work in our guys need to get them where we want them to be. We wanted to focus on our ball handling specifically; I’m sure you noticed the guys in the backcourt tonight are all guys we want to see improvement from in regards to ball handling. Particularly, we need to see improvement from the guys that ran on the second unit tonight. If you can’t take care of the basketball, that is going to affect playing time, so you’d better improve if you want playing time.

JB: Was this first half offensive production a function of the defense for the Eagles being good tonight, or was this a function of a bad shooting night for your guys?

PR: Give them credit. Neither team is going to be the same at the end of the season, but give them their credit. We do not care who is on the floor for us, we have expectations. We did not meet those expectations in the first quarter on offense. Credit their defense. We did not meet those expectations in the second quarter defensively. Credit their offense.

JB: What did you see that you liked out there?

PR: I liked Pasman’s aggressiveness on offense. I thought Beko and Kops were both aggressive on the boards. I thought defensively we forced turnovers, and made it difficult at times to shoot.

JB: What improvement do you want to see?

PR: We have to stop giving away free points at the foul line. They’re comfortable when they shoot the three ball. They’re attacking the offensive glass. That’s three right there. Let’s see how the game goes on, and give both teams a chance to put their best foot forward.

JB: Thanks for your time, Coach, and good luck in the second half.

PR: Thanks, Jimmy.

Jimmy Buckitts: I’m here with coach Pio Reina after a 109-89 victory over the New York Eagles. Coach, what did you like out there tonight?

Pio Reina: I like that we cleaned up our free throw shooting as the game went on. I liked that we were able to keep turnovers to a decent number while working on our ballhandling. Our starting backcourt combined for 1 turnover, the number 2 backcourt combined for 2. We were also able to briefly get the third unit on for a moment, so that went well.

JB: Was there anything you didn’t like?

PR: There was a lot to not like, but I’m not going to weigh it too heavily. First game, and I don’t think anyone out on that floor had a particularly sharp game. There were things I liked and a lot more of things I didn’t. I liked Pasman in the first half. I thought he kind of disappeared in the second. He’s just one example; I thought there was a lot of inconsistency out there, though I expected it.

JB: Are there reasons that we didn’t see Carlos Frias or Gao Rongjing tonight? Their absences were noticeable.

PR: Carlos wasn’t needed with what we wanted to do tonight. With the focus of the game for us, Carlos is where we wanted him. Kops and Bolibok were also, which is why they didn’t play in the backcourt; they’re working on other things. Leao looked sharp, Pasman was solid, Enfes was acceptable, Uzek looked a bit shaky.

JB: Congratulations on the win, Coach, and thank you for your time. We’ll see you back home Tuesday night. Back to Happy and the guys in studio!

Happy Ourer: Thanks, Jimmy. Joshua, I saw your eye twitch when Pio pointed out the disappearance of Walt Pasman in the 2nd half.
Joshua Doe: If you mean he disappeared on offense, I can buy that. On offense, he gave you nothing in the second half. Defensively, he was his usual fantastic self. The bigger picture is his offensive output. I don’t see him putting up 17 a night every night, or even every other night; this team has too many players who are better offensively than he is. If he can improve his outside game and finishing around the rim and also improve his ball skills, the versatility we talked about on the pregame show gets unlocked. Pasman is a huge key for what Pio Reina wants to do.

Sam Dunkley: Joshua, I agree that Pasman is important, but don’t undersell Leandro Leao either. For whatever reason, Pio Reina and Roberto Gurgone both indicated he wasn’t up to their minimum at the point guard position, but he was close. If you want to play Carlos Frias off the ball, you need another ball handler on the floor. Eight assists and no turnovers tells me he wants the ball in his hands.

HO: I don’t think either of you gentlemen are wrong on this, but I also think the performances of Cafer Enfes and Midas Kops bear watching. Kops had a sensational night rebounding for him, and Enfes in the backcourt had a pretty good night himself. Pasman is very good defensively, but those two might have something to say about his playing time as well. Pasman is the best defender of the trio, but Enfes can match him on the boards and is stout defensively. For his part, Kops is the most versatile of the three offensively and not as stout as the other two defensively, but still a very, very good defender.

JD: Well, let's hope the improvements continue for the boys Tuesday night when the URI Rams show up at The Speedway! I'm pretty sure we'll see Gao Rongjing and Carlos Frias then. We're out of time, so we'll see you Tuesday!

HO: Hey, that's my line!

SD: You snooze, you lose! Dinner's on Happy tonight!

HO: We'll see you Tuesday night, folks! Tonight's final Linndale 109, New York Eagles 89.