Why do all the trees in New Hampshire lean east?

[Mikaelinho]

Welcome to my first attempt at a Dynasty Report! I'm gonna try to make it both fun and informative, but keep in mind that it's my first attempt at both playing the game and writing a report like this.

BACK STORY
Mike Berg, a 35-year old soccer coach from Stockholm, Sweden, suddenly finds himself without a job after a streak of bad results. This is nothing new. Every coach's career has it's ups and down. He's been in this situation before and it usually results in him getting a new job when another coach gets fired somewhere else. However, this time is not like the ones before. The phone is silent. Dead silent. No calls from any top flight clubs in Sweden. No interest from second tier clubs either. A few years ago there was talk about interested clubs in Holland and England. Now there's nothing. Growing desperate, Mike starts calling the local clubs, but there are no openings there either.

After 9 months without a job, the phone rings. "MY WORTHLESS AGENT" the display reads. Mike has grown tired of his agent, not being able to secure him a job or at least an interview in the last nine months. He plays around with the thought of not answering, but after six signals he presses the green button.
"It's me, Leonard" the agent says, and quickly adds "Leonard, your agent" like he needs some sort of introduction after months of complete silence. Mike thinks that he at least sounds a bit apologetic. "I know who you are, Leonard. What do you want?". "What I want? What do you think? I have a job for you!". Mikes heart skipped a beat. A job. A JOB! Could this be for real or is it simply his mind playing him the ugliest of tricks? Had he slowly gone insane during the last couple of months? "Hello? Are you still there? the voice on the phone said. "Are you listening to me?". "Yes, yes." Mike replied. "What's the job?" First there was silence. Then Mike heard his agent take a deep breath before he answered. "Well, it's a bit different". Ok, different is ok, Mike thought to himself. "And you have to move". That's ok as well, he thought. His wife Louise won't love it, but they've been through it before. "How far?" he asked, and the agent went silent again. "How far, Leonard?" he asked again. Another deep breath. "The United States" he replied. "Of America?" Mike asked and immediately realized what a stupid question it was. What else would it be? The United States of Candy Land?. Well, he had always dreamt of moving to the US so this was actually good news! "That's great Leonard. I'd love a chance abroad! Is it the MLS? Oh my god, Leonard, you're amazing!" Mike's thoughts spun around in his head and he started laughing as he daydreamt about winning the MLS with DC United or San Jose Earthquakes or whatever team he was gonna coach!

"No Mike, it's not the MLS. It's the NCAA!" NCAA? He'd never heard of it. He knew of the Premier League, La Liga, MLS and Serie A. But not NCAA. "It's the college level. I hope that's ok for you. I know you want a top flight job, but this is at least a paid job and an adventure". "I'll take it" Mike heard himself say, almost automatically. "I'll take it" he said once again. "But, you don't even know where you're going" his agent said. "I don't care" Mike replied. "I'll take it anyway. Alaska, California, South Carolina. I don't care"

"Ok then, Mike. You're going to Maine"

At this point Mike had no idea why all the trees in New Hampshire lean east, but he was about to find out.

Because Maine sucks.

And that was going to be his smallest surprise.

[Mikaelinho]

INTRODUCTION
So, as you've guessed by now I'm going to run a save using the University of Maine, aiming to turn them into a basketball powerhouse. Since I know just as much (or little...) about basketball as fictional coach Mike Berg does this will probably go to hell. Hopefully it'll provide a fun read along the way though!

"WELCOME TO ORONO, HOME OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MAINE"
Mike Berg passed the sign in his newly leased car and navigated towards the University campus. Things had been moving fast since that call from his agent just a week ago. Their Stockholm house had been sold in a rush and now he was cruising down the road with his family asleep in the car. He was full of hope, but felt a bit worried. He had really struggled to find any real information online about the soccer program. Therefore he feared that the program might be in an abysmal state, but he wasn't a person to shy away from a challenge!

As he entered the gym he felt that something was wrong. He hadn't seen a single soccer field on his way there and didn't have any real hope that the building he had just entered would hide one either. Had he somehow been tricked into coming here under false pretenses? He was about to ask one of the basketball playing students where he could find the soccer fields when he was approached by a friendly looking man.
"Mr Berg, I presume" he said. "I'm Kevin Reed, your first assistant coach. It's great having you here". Finally, Mike thought. Finally a person who knows where the soccer fields are. Instead of guiding him out of the building coach Reed continued. "And these are your players" he said with a sweeping gesture towards the basketball court. Mike Berg was gobsmacked. Kevin Reed saw that his new head coach looked uneasy and continued again. "Perhaps this is not what you hoped for. We've been told that you are a highly acclaimed basketball coach from Sweden and you must be used to a higher level. But the players are willing to learn from you and we look forward to great things from you!" Basketball coach. Basketball coach. Oh ****, they think I'm a "highly acclaimed basketball coach", Mike Berg thought. He felt dizzy and a bit nauseous. He sat down on the bench behind him. Sure, he'd been to the odd basketball game at home and he knew who Michael Jordan was. But that's pretty much where his knowledge ended. Well, he wasn't a person to shy away from a challenge, so he'd better play along!
"Do you wanna lead today's practice or are you still a bit jet-lagged?" Kevin Reed asked. "You do it. I just wanna watch today" Mike Berg replied as he felt his chest tighten with every breath. He was sure he was going to faint. So, now he was a college basketball coach. If anyone would have told him this a week ago he would have dismissed that person as a lunatic. But, now here he was and he better make the best out of this if he wasn't gonna get fired in his first day at the job.

[PointGuard]

LOL...good premise and great start! Welcome to the land of CB dynasty reports.

[Mikaelinho]

INTRODUCTION
I'm gonna speed through the first couple of seasons at least. I'll probably lose a lot of games and make several mistakes. If I manage to keep Mike Berg from getting fired it will hopefully get more interesting in a few seasons when results (hopefully) start turning around after Mike (and myself) has managed to bring in some new players and actually learn a bit more than pure basics about the game of basketball in general and DDS:CB19 in particular.


"Do you want to go with the Flex like the old coach or change it up into perhaps Princeton or Motion?" his 1st assistant asked. Flex, Princeton, Motion. Newly appointed Maine basketball head coach Mike Berg thought they all sounded like products from a TV commercial. "Motion, deodorant for the man in...motion!" Perhaps not the greatest catchphrase, but then he wasn't a marketing guy, he was a basketball coach. Well, to be perfectly honest he wasn't that either. He was a Swedish soccer coach pretending to be a college basketball coach. Luckily he had at least quickly browsed through his newly bought book "Coaching Basketball for Dummies" before he fell asleep last night. Flex and Motion were offensive setups. Or defensive. He couldn't remember, but he was fairly certain that it had something to do with tactics. And Princeton was a school. That he knew. And probably an offensive setup as well, based on the question from his assistant. However, he hadn't gotten far enough in the book to know what the difference between them was. He replied in the same manner he had replied to all questions in the last couple of weeks. "Let's do it like you did before" or "Yes" were sure-fire (well...) ways to keep his head above water and not expose himself as the fraud he actually was. He appeared weak and perhaps strange, but then again, they already thought it was strange that a Swede had been given the head coach position in the first place. One guy had actually asked him if they even played basketball in Sweden. Wasn't it all ice hockey and polar bears? Well, that's closer to the truth than you think, he had thought to himself, but he had replied in a way that would attract the least suspicion possible. He answered "Yes", since "Let's do it like you did before" didn't really apply here.

So Flex it was gonna be. With a bit of Princeton. Just like last season, the 2017-18 season that ended in an abysmal 3-13 conference record. Just like the 2016-17 season. Slightly worse than the 4-12 results from 2015-16 and 2013-14, but slightly better than the 2-14 from 2014-15! The 2010-11 season was the last time they managed to climb over .500 in conference play. They have actually never made it into any Division 1 NCAA postseason tournaments.

Why do all the trees in New Hampshire lean east?

Because Maine sucks.

INTERLUDE
This is the exact reason that I picked Maine. A fairly large University without any success whatsoever. Ever. I wanna see if I can turn it around and make them a powerhouse. I don't know if it's gonna take 5, 10 or 20 years. It might not even be possible, but at least I'm gonna try.

MAINE BLACK BEARS
Conference: America East
Location: Orono, Maine
Arena: Cross Insurance Center (Capacity: 5,800)
Budget: $149000
Prestige: 15
Academics: C+
Facilities: C

So basically we're dealing with a Swedish soccer coach at the helm of a basketball program without any prestige, on a small budget and with lousy facilities. I'm so excited! Let the fun begin!

[Tim Moungey]

Beat me to the Maine punch. Setup is hilarious. Will be looking forward to following this.

[Mikaelinho]

Firstly, thanks for the encouraging words guys!
Secondly,

SEASON 1 - 2018/19
I told you that I was keeping the first few seasons short, so here it goes;
Mike Berg managed to replicate the Black Bears IRL 2018/19 conference record of 3-13. Most of the time he had no idea what to do which made him heavily rely on his "Let's do it like you did before" or "Yes" strategy. He wanted to improve though and spent countless hours watching old March Madness tapes and read the entire "Basketball Coaching for Dummies". By the end of the season his understanding of the game had increased to the point where he suddenly realized that not a single player on the roster understood the Princeton offense they had been running. Instead of using 75/25 Flex/Princeton Berg changed it to Triangle/Princeton for season no2.

Focusing all of the recruiting on Maine saw Mike Berg secure #236 C Eddy Medley for the single scholarship.

Well, that's it for the first season. It probably can't get much worse than this!

[Mikaelinho]

SEASON 2 - 2019/20
Conference: America East
Budget: $149000 (Same as last season)
Prestige: 11 (15)
Academics: C+ (C+)
Facilities: C- (C)
Recruiting class: 204th (68th)
Players in: PG Nick Smith, PG Tony Lane and C Eddy Medley
Players out: PF Rick Attaway

Even though the team lost last season's best player in graduating PF Rick Attaway their performance was much better. They seemed to enjoy themselves more in the new Triangle/Princeton setup and finished 6-10 in the conference just to get knocked out of the conference tournament in the first round. The overall record landed on 15-15, which is evidence that the team has taken leaps and bounds towards where we want to be in a couple of years.

Recruitment wise we really hit the jackpot when we secured the signatures of Maine born and raised top prospects #79 PG Henry Hahn and #129 C Gerald Williams along with two others. It feels like we managed to shop from at least one shelf higher than we're supposed to and hopefully these two players will turn out to be exactly as good as the scouting reports indicate. On the down side we lost quite an influencial senior class, even though it is nothing compared to what we'll lose in a year from now.

Finally, with a slight degradation of the facilities we asked for an upgrade but were turned down with the motivation "We think the facilities are appropriate for this program. If you grow the prestige of the program we may reconsider". Well, we'll simply have to improve then, won't we? With a strong senior class next season combined with what appears to be top notch freshmen we can hopefully break .500 in conference ball for the first time in ten years!

New Hampshire, what do you say? Aren't the trees standing slightly more straight this year?

[Mikaelinho]

SEASON 3 2020-21
Conference: America East
Budget: $149000 (Same as last season)
Prestige: 13 (11)
Academics: C+ (C+)
Facilities: D+ (C-)
Recruiting class: 74th (204th)
Players in: PG Henry Hahn, SG John Purvis, SF Brad Stanley and C Gerald Williams
Players out: SG Joel Dyse (Overall rating 2.5/4), SF B.J. Gibson (OR 1.5/2.5) and PF Bart Benton (OR 2/2.5)

Oh my. What a gem we found! Freshman Henry Hahn carried the team on his shoulders throughout the season to its best record since the 1999-2000 season. A 13-3 conference record saw the team finish top of the standings, which means that they entered the conference tournament as favorites and #1 seeds for the first time in ages! After solid wins in the round of 8 and semi-final the fairy tale abruptly ended as the team lost to Vermont in the final after an atrocious performance. So close and yet so far away from the school’s first NCAA tournament appearance ever! Despite the disappointing end this became a historical season anyway. An invite to the CBI tournament saw the team enter their first post conference tournament in the history of the university.

We proved ourselves more than worthy of the invite by beating Stephen F. Austin and Massachusetts-Lowell on our way to the semi-final against James Madison. They were massive favorites, but we put up a real fight. With 8 minutes left we were 21 points behind, but we managed to get back to 81-81 with 50 seconds left on the clock. Unfortunately the last five points of the game were the Dukes’, so we lost 81-86.

In the NCAA tournament MICHIGAN Beat DUKE in the final.

Freshman PG Henry Hahn was our best performer throughout the season with 14.9/5.5/3.7/0.9/1.1 which won him “Freshman of the Year”. He also made Conference 1st team.
Coach Mike Berg won Conference Coach of the Year, quite an achievement from a guy that barely knew the difference between a basketball and a water melon a few years ago!

We ask for a facility upgrade again and this time it’s approved! This means that we go from D+ back to C where we started off.

[Mikaelinho]

SEASON 4 - 2021-22
Conference: America East
Budget: $149000 (Same as last season)
Prestige: 15 (13)
Academics: C+ (C+)
Facilities: C (D+)
Recruiting class: 162nd (74th)
Players in: SG Luke Rowe, SG John Purvis, SF Brad Stanley and PF David Greene
Players out: PG Tony Lane (Overall rating 2.5/3), SG Donell Bell (OR 2/2.5), SF Kurt Charity (OR 3/3.5) and C T.J. Miles (OR 3/3)

After quickly going through the first three seasons it’s down to dig a bit deeper. We’ve been able to make a bit of our own mark on the Maine basketball program with changes in strategy and tactics combined with a couple of decent recruiting classes. This is where it starts to get interesting! In this post I’ll go through our roster and look at expectations going into the 4th season with coach Berg at the helm

The team
As you can see above, we lost four more or less influential seniors and didn't really manage to replace them, which is reflected in our 162nd place in the recruiting class ranking. Especially SF Kurt Charity willbe sorely missed. We have decent players in almost every position (Except for SF, a big worry) but overall it looks slightly worse than last season. Let’s begin by looking at our starting line-up and potential subs:

PG Henry Hahn (SO) 6-0/194 (Overall rating 4/4) Our star playmaker! So well-rounded you fall off your chair! His only weaknesses are his small stature and the lack of an inside game. He started each and every game in his freshman season with an impressive 14,9 PPG and 5,5 APG. He will play a pivotal role this season as the players around him are of slightly worse quality than last season. This will probably be a season of rebuilding and development. Reaching the post-season tournaments will be a bit of a stretch I think.
Nick Smith (SO) 6-6/205 (OR 1.5/4) will sub for the PG spot.

SG David Jackson (SR) 6-1/198 (OR 1.5/3) He is a strong midrange and outside shooter with a decent court intelligence but lacks pretty much everything else. Spent last season off the court because of his poor grades and will certainly need to step it up in his senior year to keep his spot throughout the season.
John Purvis (SO) 6-2/193 (OR 1.5/4) has developed nicely and is not too far off reaching the levels of Jackson. Keeps fighting each and every practice and has a lot of development left in him.

SF Brad Stanley (SO) 6-5/198 (OR 1/1) This is where we struggle the most. We lack a good SF which will seriously hurt our game. Stanley is not really good at anything but he is still our first choice SF. Not good at all.
Walk on Samuel Monroe (SR) 6-8/277 (OR 0/0) is even worse. Don’t even get me started on this guy.

PF Zach Murphy (SR) 6-6/229 (OR 2.5/4) is a force to be reckoned with under both baskets. Good rebounding skills with nice inside shooting will probably be enough to secure double figure points this season.
This is our deepest position, with both Peter Garner (SR) 6-6/214 (2.5/3.5) and David Greene (FR) 6-7/227 (OR 1/4.5) as more-than-decent replacements.

C Gerald Williams (SO) 6-9/276 (OR 1.5/1.5) is a well-rounded yet slightly underwhelming big guy. Managed a 9,7 PPG in his freshman season in 1 start out of 30 appearances.
Eddy Medley (JR) 6-8/269 (OR 1.5/3.5) is a down-grade to Williams in every aspect. Hopefully we won’t have to use him too much.

Expectations
The expectations have certainly been raised from the last three season’s ”Win 10+ games, don’t finish last” to ”Win 15+ games” and ”Win Conference tournament”. The first goal is very much achievable considering that we won 22 games last season, but I think winning the Conference Tournament is going to prove to be too tough.

In the next post we'll go through the pre-conference games!

[Mikaelinho]

Pre-conference play
Our plan going into pre-conference play was to start out a bit on the easy side, building confidence before going on a run of playing evenly matched teams. We end the pre-conference play with a couple of really tough opponents. We’ll probably come away from these games empty-handed but I think we need the experience of playing against the best to understand what it takes to get there ourselves!

@Wright State 95-75
An emphatic first win. We were the better team from start to finish. FG .583 and 3P .563. PF Zack Murphy was our best player with 24/1/10.
1-0

@Murray State 77-67
Another easy and predicted win. FG .519 and 3P .500. SF Brad Stanley stood out with 18/1/6.
2-0

@Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders 69-80
Our first loss of the season. We fell behind early on and never made a serious comeback attempt. Henry Hahn made a solid performance with 13/5/4.
2-1

@South Carolina State 94-77
A tight game from beginning until 4 minutes left where we managed to pull away and win quite comfortably. C Gerald Williams had a great game with 22/3/7.
3-1

@ Norfolk State 71-91
Things were looking ok at half time with a 1 point lead, but we were absolutely overrun in the second half, struggling both offensively and defensively. Henry Hahn was our best performer with 14/6/3.
3-2

@Delaware State 77-66
Another tight game with one point separating the teams at half time. In the second half we improved our outside shooting and managed to secure the win. Henry Hahn was once again our go-to guy with 16/3/7
4-2

@Georgia Tech 69-72
We fell behind early on, but the difference never grew bigger than 12 points. We looked better in the final five minutes but didn’t manage to make a full comeback. Zach Murphy had a good night with 18/0/7
4-3

@Providence 57-64
Pretty much the same deal as the last game. We manage to turn a 12 point deficit into an even score with 2 minutes left, but then they ran away with it. No real standout player, but Henry Hahn was our best (least bad) performer with 9/4/1.
4-4

Davidson 87-72
After an even score at half time, two periods of 11 straight Maine points each saw us win quite comfortably in the end. It sure felt good to be back home and two players looked especially thrilled. Gerald Williams 26/1/5 and Henry Hahn 17/3/4
5-4

@Marshall 68-80
Not a good game for us. We weren’t in it from the beginning. We simply looked tired, which is a bit worrying. Henry Hahn is carrying the team most of the time. He had 11/3/6 for the night.
5-5

@Tennessee 82-83OT
Our best performance so far. We started off a bit slow, looking afraid of the big boys, but we quickly grew into it. We actually outplayed the Volunteers in the first part of the second half and were up by 11 with seven minutes left. They came back and equalized on the buzzer. The over-time was as tight as the rest of the game. We lost by a single point but still put in a performance to be proud of. Zach Murphy 20/0/10
5-6 is our final record in pre-conference play.

So, going into conference play I actually feel quite confident. We did fairly well against the evenly matched opponents, but struggled a bit against the better schools, which was no surprise. I hope that we can reach a .500 record in conference play and maybe cause an upset or two in the conference tournament!