BuzzerBeater Forums

I should also mention about rotation. :) You say in last few seasons there was no rotation at all, I don’t even get how you can write such statement when it’s enough to open last season’s team stats and see that 26 players were used and tested, such statements just make me laugh. The season before that 22 players were used. The whole idea, which I communicated, is to give young players and those close to NT level a chance, give their coaches motivation so they want to train them and aim for NT spot. But often, like I see, we hit the same wall because of your statements, where result means everything, even when you just don’t understand how far we are from top 50 teams. Your talks about beating Latvia only proves you don’t understand where we are as a country.
This part just shows how out of touch you are. Are you seriously measuring rotation variety based on which random guys played in the 11th or 12th spot in garbage time? That’s unbelievable.
And sure, you organized a charity game at the end of the season (I genuinely appreciate that, it was a nice community effort). But that has nothing to do with actual rotation variety.
I looked back at last season, and there was no rotation at all.
Tone played PG in every game. Farquharson started SG in every game. O’Rourke started at PF in every single game. O’Dea played SF in all but one game, where he was a backup SG. It was always the same players, on the same positions, with only the tiniest end-of-the-bench changes.
The tactic was exactly the same for the first 4 games — and 3 out of the 4 opponents predicted it correctly; the fourth didn’t even try. The same setup was used again in the last 3 games too.
So we can safely say that anyone who faced the Irish team could be certain about our setup: Tone at PG (with Cummins in consistently bad form), Farquharson at SG, O’Rourke at PF, most likely O’Dea at SF, and Haverty at C. The lineup and tactics barely change.
No sign of a fast-paced “Villanova-style” 4-small-1-big offense. No low-post-focused attacking setups. Nothing.
Rigol Rockets complain that our guards aren’t good enough and that this is all we’re capable of. I don’t buy that. I think there’s more potential in this team than what we’re showing.
Sure, our guards aren’t monsters with insane skills, but with proper rotation and variation, we could get more out of them. In my opinion, our PF position is weak. The only guy who’d be a good fit there — Fahy — isn’t even on the roster. Neither is Kelleher, his teammate, who’s also clearly better than Holmes.
For example, Tone could even be pushed up to PF in certain matchups because of his strong IS, especially when we’re playing inside-focused offense. But here? There are no matchups. No game-specific tactics. Just one "tried and tested" saved starting five — occasionally with one bench guy swapped out.
With a weak roster like ours, we should be exploiting the opponent’s mistakes and weaknesses. But instead, there’s zero adaptation to any opponent. You just send out what you decided at the start of the season is the "best rotation" — barely even tweaking it in friendlies

I fully understand the situation and where we are and really it does not matter if we fight against Israel or Latvia, because for now we have no chance against such teams.
This is honestly unbelievable. "We had no chance anyway, so why bother setting a lineup?" We actually did want to get more out of the first two games than our opponents and that effort drained the team. That’s what cost us the Georgia game, we had little left in the tank.
It’s crazy that you don’t see what a series of missteps this was.
About this season. same as you last 3-4 weeks I was super busy and missed chance to prepare the team and rotate it, I admit my mistakes and I don’t pretend it was accidental. It is how it is, now there will be more time and rotation again. By the way sorry for your loss.
I see you were able to set your own club lineup — just like I set mine.
So it clearly wouldn’t have taken much more effort to do the same for the NT, especially considering that’s why you ran in the election in the first place.
But instead, you derailed the whole season right from the start.
This isn’t my loss — it’s the loss of all 38 managers who were expecting you to log into the NT page at least once in over a month.
And I just want to wish you good luck and start looking at things more wide, it’s not only about winning, especially when you cannot win. these elections were my last, you can candidate in next ones and show class how we can beat Latvia and other similar teams with just a couple of player changes and I HOPE IT HAPPENS! About discord link, I will send you in PM.
This is pretty frustrating.
You get elected, then do absolutely nothing and when someone points that out, your first reaction is to take offense and talk about stepping down, right at the beginning of a two-year term. That’s a problem.
You’re misunderstanding the whole point here this isn’t about me. It’s about having the most competent person in charge of the team.
And maybe it’s time to seriously think about what each of us considers a wide range of perspective.
And for the end. As a NT manager I have full rights to choose players I want to play and use, once you will be a NT manager you will be able to do that too :) Ofc, you have right to hate it or to love it :)
You have a pretty strange sense of humor.
The lesser issue would be that you put in whoever you want, but this year you haven’t put anyone in anywhere at all. The game itself automatically sent the team out for the matches. There’s nothing to smile about there, and it’s definitely not why the 4-5 people voted for you.
Obviously, I don’t have full insight into everything, but I think I raised valid questions, and none of them have been meaningfully refuted.
I’ll briefly outline my main problems so the discussion doesn’t get sidetracked by all these Holmes debates:
1. You did absolutely nothing this year and ruined the entire season.
2. There’s no rotation (see above).
3. There’s no vision for the future.
4. You’re missing key players (Kelleher, Fahy, Cooney or even McEvoy, Castle, Magauran).

You’re in your own world with all respect. O'Rourke is a multi-dimensional player, just like the guys from the top national teams. His IS is low, so he can’t be used in all situations, but in many cases, he can be the playmaker and the heart of the defense. In the NT, none of this is utilized — he’s just randomly thrown in as a PF where he performs poorly. Your own argument proves just how completely lacking in tactics the NT team really is.

So this is how you evaluate players and teams — by how many points someone scores? As far as I know, the match engine generates that randomly based on skills and team tactics. It’s the skills that matter, not how many points someone scores. The score is just the entertaining result of the engine simulation.

As for the "life happens" part,If someone doesn’t have 5 minutes a week, they shouldn’t apply for the role.

I agree and even though that wasn't the original topic, the biggest issue is that the only person who missed the election was the new coach himself. But I don’t think there’s any need to take offense, the main goal should be to move forward, not backward.

You’re in your own world with all respect. O'Rourke is a multi-dimensional player, just like the guys from the top national teams. His IS is low, so he can’t be used in all situations, but in many cases, he can be the playmaker and the heart of the defense. In the NT, none of this is utilized — he’s just randomly thrown in as a PF where he performs poorly. Your own argument proves just how completely lacking in tactics the NT team really is.

To be honest, I think your in your own world. You keep on saying that O'Rourke is "multi-dimensional" and "just like guys from the top teams". Here you are trying to apply a standard template of squad creation that the top teams use to the Irish NT. Those require other specialist players (particularly scoring specialists) to go along with the specialist lockdown centre. One of the first things I said was "you should understand what the entire NT squad is like before you know if a player is good enough for your NT". you are ignoring the fact we do not have those other players to make that style of template work. I'll give you a quote from a famous book and movies that deals with the differences between the haves and have nots in sport.

"You're not even looking at the problem"

" The problem we're trying to solve is that there are rich teams and there are poor teams. Then there's fifty feet of crap, and then there's us. It's an unfair game"

Unfortunately, you are not looking at the problem. We are not at the level Yankees of BB, we are more like the Oakland A's. Its a sad fact I know. We don't have the specialist players to run a system like the top nations do. We just don't have the player base and the interest in the NT to do so. You can say people shouldn't be near an NT cause you think their skills are so low, yet where are all the players that should replace them? honestly, we don't have the players, we are unlikely to ever have the players. Recognise the problem and you'll recognise that O'Rourke might not be the best fit.

O'Rourke can be played in a good few places and it will work for the club team, but when he steps up to NT level, its gonna be different. Can we really play a guy with 13 handling at PG or SG against players with like 20+ OD that your gonna get on NTs? He's only gonna see that level of player in the Super League a handful of times a season if we're honest about it. SF might even be a push at NT level as well.

So this is how you evaluate players and teams — by how many points someone scores? As far as I know, the match engine generates that randomly based on skills and team tactics. It’s the skills that matter, not how many points someone scores. The score is just the entertaining result of the engine simulation.

Honestly man, apparently you evaluate players on how well the fit a system that doesn't actually fit our NT.

And no, I don't just look at scoring. I like at things like Scoring stats, Defence stats and Rebounding and Offensive flow stats (assists and turnovers), etc. In fact I'm a D first kind of coach myself. I can look at stats that allow me to compare players and not just "cause they're like some of the best players for the best NTs" which is misleading when you don't have the other specialists to go with that system.

Do you know O'Rourke is No.4 in blocks per game in the Super League? Haverty is 1, Bradley is 2.
O'Rourke is No. 4 in Rebounds, Haverty 5th and Bradley 6th.
To be honest I haven't got Haverty's game shape right so far this season, and Bradley is only got to 9 now - They were the leaders in blocks and rebounds in the Super League last season, and will probably be so again once their form levels out.

Yes I know club level performances wont always lead to positive results for the NT, but they are some stats that we can actually compare as all players are in the same league. Is O'Rourke really the best C when other players outperform him in plenty of comparable stats, and actually have more of a scoring threat?

What we really need is to evaluate the NT situation like what it is. We need to find a squad with a certain amount of scoring potential, and a certain amount of defence potential if we are to win games. Personally I don't think that's

As for the "life happens" part,If someone doesn’t have 5 minutes a week, they shouldn’t apply for the role.

Like in all fairness I'm gonna have a little rant on this.

1) Things can happen in life, and can drain your time away. My mother got sick a couple of months ago, and to be honest I have very little time. I have to use the little time gaps I have to write a response. If someone has a heart attack for example, they will be in hospital for a few weeks to recover, and wont have access to a phone even. Plenty of things can happen to people to rob them of time. People go into an election with the best of intentions, but hey, life happens. Grow up.

2) Lol, this is rich coming from you. In a very strange set of circumstances 2 teams threw games in the last couple of weeks of last seasons Super League. One chose to throw their last two games, against the 1st seed and the 2nd seed of their conference. You choose to do the same with your final game against my team, the 3rd seed in your conference. Not only did it mess up minutes for those teams going into the playoffs, it somehow was exactly what the team with the 4th worst record in the league needed to nab the 2nd overall pick. The guy must have felt like he won the lotto or something, lol. I know for a fact you were online both the day of, and the day before, the game you threw, as I was scouting your team multiple times due to your squad changes so I kept checking your squad daily for changes. You bought 1 player 2 days before the game and sold 2 or 3, 3 days before the game. I've since heard your excuse was you sold players and forgot to set your lineup.

I don’t think I said anything offensive or untrue, so the vehement reply was unnecessary

Like you guys seem to be in lockstep trying to run down the NT boss just after an election.. All you guys are really doing is undermining the NT coach quite publicly for the next 2 seasons, instead of going onto the discord and asking whats happening. It could have been handled far more easily and politely on the discord for the NTs - literally post "Whats happening with the NT at the moment?". Its like major sour grapes. You could really have just waited 2 seasons and brought things up then and won an election then.

I'm also, mainly, replying to the other guy, and I'll use the same tone he was using. If people want to use that style in a chat forum or even in real life, I'll use the same style back.

The reason I posted the first message in a direct manner was simply to make the point clearly, that if people do not train players for an NT there wont be a good NT. Not joining the discord and then voting down the NT boss without addressing issues either through DMs or the discord, and at the last resort, the forum, is not constructive at all.

These were the two things I pointed out, in my opinion, respectfully. Without any personal attacks, and without the rough Dublin-style tone from either side.

Well, I'm not from Dublin, but your distaste for a "rough Dublin-style" is noted. What has Dublin got to do with it?

Personally up until a few years ago, I would entered any conversation respectfully and politely even if I was up against someone that was an aggressive piece of trash. I have since learned that that tends to get you walked all over and taken advantage of, so again apologies, but I'll make my arguments in the same tone that is being used by others, or if I want to make a point.

Since our other elite centers earn about the same amount, and because they have better Inside Scoring, it’s obvious their other three defensive skills are much weaker. That seems clear.

You do know that the higher levels of certain stats cost a lot more? Like passing is a really expensive stat for example. Like going over 20 costs a good bit for every pop as well. A little bit less here and there in O'Rourkes build and he could have had much more IS for a very similar salary. As I have said previously, he is a great lockdown centre that suits the standard template thats used by the top teams, yet we don't have the other players needed to run such a template.

And he could well be defending the C spot even if picked as a PF offensively. That tactic choice does exist in the game.

Last edited by Rockets at 8/7/2025 12:00:22 PM

One of the first things I said was "you should understand what the entire NT squad is like before you know if a player is good enough for your NT". you are ignoring the fact we do not have those other players to make that style of template work.

So in your world, this NT roster can only start Tone at PG, Farquharson at SG, O’Dea at SF, and Rourke at PF? We don’t have a good enough team to try anything else? That mindset is completely baffling to me. But more and more it seems like once you make up your mind about something, then that’s the only way it can be — end of story.
Whether it’s an NT team or a Division V. team, you have to work with the players you’ve got and adapt to the situation to get the most out of them. Not just sit around complaining about what you don’t have and deciding that this is the only lineup or tactic we can use all year long… Bizarre.

Can we really play a guy with 13 handling at PG or SG against players with like 20+ OD that your gonna get on NTs? He's only gonna see that level of player in the Super League a handful of times a season if we're honest about it. SF might even be a push at NT level as well.

What are you even talking about? The whole point was that he should be playing center, not PF! How did you derail the conversation so badly that now we’re talking about starting at PG/SG?

Do you know O'Rourke is No.4 in blocks per game in the Super League? Haverty is 1, Bradley is 2.
O'Rourke is No. 4 in Rebounds, Haverty 5th and Bradley 6th.

Please, just stop… These are random numbers generated by the match engine based on tactics, form, opponent, and skills. Do you seriously think a player should be defined by the fact that he's 4th instead of 3rd in some arbitrary stat?
It's a fun element in the game — like being smiley or having blonde hair.

Things can happen in life, and can drain your time away. My mother got sick a couple of months ago, and to be honest I have very little time. I have to use the little time gaps I have to write a response. If someone has a heart attack for example, they will be in hospital for a few weeks to recover, and wont have access to a phone even. Plenty of things can happen to people to rob them of time. People go into an election with the best of intentions, but hey, life happens. Grow up.

I’m genuinely sorry. That does explain your anger management issues to some extent.
So let me get this straight — if someone’s given a responsibility and then doesn’t touch it for months, we’re not even allowed to ask why? Because life happens, right?
Is that how things work at a real job too? Since we’re talking about "growing up"...

You choose to do the same with your final game against my team, the 3rd seed in your conference. Not only did it mess up minutes for those teams going into the playoffs, it somehow was exactly what the team with the 4th worst record in the league needed to nab the 2nd overall pick.

How many games have you set your lineup based on worrying about your opponent’s minutes?
It wasn’t intentional, nobody rage-quit against you with 4 players or anything. Honestly, I didn’t care who I was playing — you or anyone else — my season had been over for ages.
As I already said on discord, two of those four players were sold in the meantime, and since I was dead last and only setting my lineup once a week for simplicity’s sake, the old setup stayed in place. I only logged in to buy Blake anyway.
Not everything revolves around you. If I’m not mistaken, this isn’t the reason you didn’t win the title.
And this whole draft pick conspiracy theory of yours is just nonsense. I got the best player in the draft — you can see it yourself — and he was my 1/1. I could’ve easily gotten screwed, but the supposed "lotto winner" ended up picking someone worse, so it gave him zero advantage.
What would’ve been the point of this "evil cheating scheme"?

Like you guys seem to be in lockstep trying to run down the NT boss just after an election.. All you guys are really doing is undermining the NT coach quite publicly for the next 2 seasons, instead of going onto the discord and asking whats happening. It could have been handled far more easily and politely on the discord for the NTs - literally post "Whats happening with the NT at the moment?". Its like major sour grapes.

Wow, this part is honestly just mind-blowing.
The NT boss didn’t log into the NT team even once, and when I pointed that out, I’m suddenly the bad guy for supposedly trying to "run him down"? Come on, think about that for a second.
Undermining? He didn’t need anyone to undermine him — doing nothing at all did that by itself. That doesn’t mean he won’t do a great job for the remaining one and a half seasons, but let’s not start blaming others for him losing interest.
I get it — you feel like you’re operating on some higher level, not just because of your “NT knowledge” but also because you’re part of the discord inner circle. I wasn’t on discord and neither are about 25 other managers. They also have a right to know if someone has stepped away from managing the team or if "life happens." That’s exactly what the forum topic was made for.
And funny enough, now you’re posting here too, even though I was told I should’ve gone to discord instead.

You could really have just waited 2 seasons and brought things up then and won an election then.

This is probably the most important point. I didn’t write this because it’s about me or because I want to win in two years — if that were the case, I would have done things differently.
I thought this couldn’t go on like this because the season was messed up, and I wanted to change that.
It’s nice that you stand by your friend, but he didn’t touch the NT team at all this season — both you and he admitted that. So the observation was completely fair.
And if that was mentioned, it would have been much more constructive to just say he’s busy or unavailable, instead of turning it into a personal issue over messed-up minutes.

Things can happen in life, and can drain your time away. My mother got sick a couple of months ago, and to be honest I have very little time. I have to use the little time gaps I have to write a response. If someone has a heart attack for example, they will be in hospital for a few weeks to recover, and wont have access to a phone even. Plenty of things can happen to people to rob them of time. People go into an election with the best of intentions, but hey, life happens. Grow up.

I’m genuinely sorry. That does explain your anger management issues to some extent.

Like I knew you are a troll, but this is so far across a line its unbelievable.

You literally come into a forum and go after someone with vitriol when you had ample opportunity to do so quietly via DMs or discord, and when someone gives you logical rebukes, with the same tone as you (remember the old saying - "always treat others like how you want to be treated"), then you resort to try to shit on someone's hurt with that type of cheap shot.

You are the one who introduced the vitriol to this forum chat. You are annoying people. I will respond in kind within reason, but I wont stoop as low as you. I'm done even responding to you.