I am very familiar with the group of possible U21 players heading into season 14, and I think we should have a solid team. It reminds me a lot of the season 12 team, although we probably won't have the same big man depth (Moran, Perkins, Guest, and Yazzie is a tough act for us to top). With that said, I think the most likely outcome for us in season 14 is exactly what happened in season 12, only with one modification; we won't have home court advantage this time. If you go back over the season 12 schedule, and adjust all the scores as if we didn't have home court, then I think that's a reasonable set of expectations for the upcoming season.
In season 15, I'm expecting the team to be one of the best we've ever had. The current 20 year old prospects have a chance to form the core of a very, very good team. That means that even if we end up in the consolation round for next season, I still like our chances of qualifying for world's out of the repechage, unless we draw a dominant European powerhouse team (which is possible, but not guaranteed). If I'm elected for another term as U21 manager, however, my goal would still be to do everything I can to help the team make a run at direct qualification to world's.
On the issue of preparing for games, lineups, tactics, an so on, I plan to continue spending a lot of time preparing for games. What I've tried to do with the team the last couple of seasons is probably a good guide to what I will continue to do, although I'm always open to input (especially on the off-site forum).
One thing that I'd love to see would be more community interest / involvement with the national teams. Interest was much higher in season 12 than it was in season 13, although I suspect this was due to how well season 12 went. I plan to continue to do what I can in terms of writing about the team, in various places, and do my best to make following the team as fun as possible. :)
Last edited by The Mogul at 10/9/2010 10:59:43 PM