The Bulgarian Brothers – A College Hoops 2K8 & NBA 2K20 Dynasty

[studbucket]

In Sofia, Bulgaria in 1992, twin boys were born to Dragomir Asenov and his wife Zhivka Lukov. Ognyan (which means fire) was born first, and he was followed a few minutes later by “younger” brother Kostadin (“Dinko” being his diminuitive name).

As the boys grew up in Sofia, they soon outgrew their parents, with the elder Oggy (as his parents and friends referred to Ognyan) reaching 6’7” by the time he was 17 and the “little brother” Kostadin towering over everyone at an imposing 6’10” and 240 pounds.

By this point, both boys were all in on basketball, as their size and strength made it come naturally. Dinko was the mild-mannered big man with soft hands who drew looks from shocked citizens wherever he went. Oggy was more of a bulldog, both in demeanor and playstyle. He was aggressive, loud, and used his strength all over the court. Being the shorter of the two led many to think that he would have better ball skills, but it was the taller brother who had the handle and soft touch. To make up for what he lacked in skill, Oggy would never stop and tenaciously pursue the ball for rebounds, recoveries, and steals.

Dragomir and Zhivka, seeing that Dinko had a chance to do something with his basketball talent, inquired with some friends they had in the city government. It turns out that Sofia is a sister city with Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and the colleges and universities in Pittsburgh will regularly recruit students from Sofia to attend school in America. Several months later, Kostadin had a scholarship to play basketball for the Duquesne Dukes. His parents were thrilled that their son was attending a good Catholic school in America and the news got even better: Oggy was going to walk on to the Robert Morris Colonials team and they were granted visas to come stay in Pittsburgh and watch their two boys play basketball and get a great education.

Two Pittsburgh private schools, one color scheme. (Dukes on the left, Colonials on the right)

Unfortunately, after just 2 seasons for the Dukes, Dinko and his then fiancé Stephanie were in an awful car accident on the Pittsburgh freeway. Pinned between a semi and the guardrail, the car crumpled, but not enough. Stephanie would be paralyzed from the waist down and Dinko’s basketball career was over. He lost function of 2 fingers in his shooting hand and had an everpresent limp in his walk. However, Duquesne honored his scholarship and kept him on as an assistant. He loved basketball and had the kind of quiet and steady demeanor that helped to calm the nerves of other college boys. He and Stephanie got married and his parents moved in with them to help care for Stephanie – they were growing to love Pittsburgh and this gave them one more reason to put down roots here.

Across town, Oggy never played much for Robert Morris. He had the height of a small forward but the mobility of a big man. He stayed on for 5 years, managing to get a B.A. and M.A. in Organizational Leadership from the university and effectively serving as a graduate assistant his last two years on the team (while still getting a few minutes of game time each year). Oggy was not the best basketball player, but he was determined to be the best coach Bulgaria had ever produced. He was driven, motivated, and loud; just like most college coaches. When asked about his goals at graduation day, he responded “I will be winning NCAA and NBA titles as a coach…and if my brother doesn’t have a title yet, I’ll bring him on as a coach to get one as well.”

That drive served him well as he worked his way up to the primary assistant coach at Robert Morris before he was given a great opportunity: take over as the head coach at rising Northern Colorado. The Bears have tasted small amounts of success, which saw their coach get poached by a bigger program. He relished the opportunity, he felt he could bring domination to the Big Sky Conference and loved the chance to live next to the mountains. The Bears had a big man and a good shooter, and he felt that was something he could build on for this year…though with his ambition you couldn’t be sure how long he’d be around for.

Oggy is the new head coach of the University of Northern Colorado at 27 years old.

Meanwhile, Kostadin was having success of his own. With his post-accident pain mostly managed and his parents helping out, he and Stephanie had adopted a young girl of their own. He continued to serve as an assistant coach for Duquesne and really wanted to be a head coach. His intelligence and humility was highly valued by all those around him, but he was unwilling to relocate his family. It was hard enough for his parents to move across the world, he wasn’t going to ask them and his disabled wife to move across the country for a job he might lose in 2 years.

Fortunately, there was another Catholic school not too far away that was interested in Dinko. St. Francis University was just 80 miles away in Loretto, PA and was looking for a new head coach. The Red Flash have only ever appeared in 1 NCAA tournament, and that was nearly 29 years ago in 1991. It wasn’t a great program, but Dinko loved the opportunity. It would mean long hours, but he’d make the commute back and forth a few times a week and would take advantage of the extended college offseason to spend time with his family back in Pittsburgh. Deep down Dinko wanted something more prestigious and was a bit envious of his brother, but he also knew he had his priorities right. Maybe someday Duquesne, or even Pitt, would come calling and he could lead them to glory. Until then, he was going to work as hard as he could where he was.

Kostadin “Dinko” Dragomirov is the new head coach of the St. Francis Red Flash for 2019-2020 season.

This is just the beginning of their story, read on to see where they go and what happens in the NCAA and NBA during their tenure.

[studbucket]

Some of you may remember my fantasy dynasty that combined my CHoops 2K8 coach (“Coach J”) with my love for Alonzo Mourning, as I put him in charge of the 1992-93 Hornets in the modern NBA (with Coach J’s college players added into draft and league). I had an absolute blast running that and only stopped because 2K shut down the servers and I lost all my progress…it was unrecoverable.

The pain has subsided and I’m ready to run something again. I had tried to do dynasties with Football Manager, which is my favorite sports game, but the game and format doesn’t lend itself as well to storytelling as 2K does (my opinion). I have the most fun when I have a story in a game, so I figured I may as well start a game where I play CHoops and NBA 2K with the other game in mind. Making twin brothers as coaches, following along with them and seeing how their careers played out sounded like a lot of fun.

Sliders, settings, and tendencies
College Hoops will be played on All-American using custom sliders I tuned over many seasons of playing my previous closed legacy. I have started a closed legacy with both coaches and have a set of career goals for each which will determine what jobs they take and if/when they make the leap to the NBA.

NBA 2K will be played on superstar using EccentricMeat’s sliders, Shady Mike’s tendencies, and schnaidt1’s MyLeague settings. This will be a 30-team MyLeague where I control all 30 teams but have set most things to Auto (except for staff hiring and G-league decisions). Once one of the brothers is hired to the NBA, I will set all of those things to Manual for that team.

House Rules
In CHoops, I will play ~10 games per team in the regular season.

• All early season tournament games (like the Hawkeye Challenge).
• 2 additional non-conference games
• 6 conference games
• All postseason tournament games

I will attempt to book games against each other each season, and maybe even join up in the same in-season tournaments, though this may not be possible (I’m 0 for 1 so far), so I may do a “home and home” series each season with the two. When the teams play each other, I will either watch the game or will play each team for 50% of the game (in case watching the game is problematic as the CPU does dumb things).

I will also look to book several schools each year: Duquesne, Pitt, and Robert Morris because of their Pittsburgh connection, as well as any other schools which end up being stops for the coaches.

For NBA 2K20, I will play ~10 games per season: 1 game per month and 4 flex games chosen by me. (this is only true once one of the coaches is in the NBA).

In the playoffs I will play 2 games per series, with the games being determined by using a random number generator to generate 2 numbers between 1-7, with at least 1 of the numbers being 4 or less.

I will also watch any games in which the 2 coaches face off against each other.

Tracking and administrative work
I plan to track, use, and write about the following information

• Who are the top NBA draft prospects each year, how did they perform, and where are they projected to go? I will then manually import those players into NBA 2K.
• Who are the brothers’ top recruits (whether they get them or not), where did they end up, and how did they do?
• Coaches at key schools across the country and how they change out.
• NBA coaches across the seasons
• Top 20 high school prospects each year, where they end up, and how they do.

As with my last dynasty, I hope to extensively use videos and gifs to help tell the story. If you have any feedback or questions, let me know!

[studbucket]

This post will be kept up to date with key posts, major updates, and events that happen over the course of this dynasty. If you’re coming into this late, feel free to just read the linked posts here to catch up.

2019-2020 Season

Spoiler

• Oggy and Northern Colorado pull out a double-OT win over Dartmouth in the Hangar Challenge championship game.
• Drago Derby #1 is complete, as Dinko dominates "big brother" Oggy.
• 2019-2020 regular season recap
• St. Francis loses their 1st tournament game on a gut-wrenching buzzer beater to Robert Morris.
• Oggy flips the script from his brother and wins his second conference tournament game by a single point.
• Oggy and the Bears win the Big Sky conference tourney in dominating fashion. They are headed to the dance.
• North Carolina has won the 2020 NCAA Tournament. The Milwaukee Bucks are your 2020 NBA champions.

2020-2021 Season

Spoiler

• Drago Derby #2 is in the books, as Dinko dominates again.
• Northern Colorado defeats Idaho State on a last second slam dunk.
• 2020-21 regular season recap
• St. Francis books their ticket to the NCAA tournament after beating Wagner.
• #15 St. Francis defeats #2 Providence in the first round in a stunning upset.
• The 2021 NCAA Tournament champion is Villanova and The Golden State Warriors are your NBA champs.
• Ognyan leaves Northern Colorado to become the head coach of Stetson University in Florida.

2021-2022 Season

Spoiler

• Dinko wins his 3rd straight Drago Derby in dominating fashion.
• St. Francis helps Dinko get his very first victory over alma mater Duquesne as they hit 2 free throws with just seconds remaining to get the 64-63 win.
• The Stetson Hatters shoot 100% in the first half, score on 26 straight possessions, and absolutely destroy North Florida.
• Oggy narrowly beat Jacksonville in the Atlantic Sun tournament final to make his 2nd NCAA tournament.
• Dinko destroyed the competition and won the NEC tournament, making March Madness in consecutive years.
• The Red Flash win a double overtime first round game vs 4th seeded UConn, in a game Dinko will never forget.
• The Duke Blue Devils have won the 2021 NCAA Tournament. The 2021 NBA champions are the Brooklyn Nets.

2022-2023 Season

Spoiler

• Oggy finally triumphs over his brother, winning the Drago Derby at home.
• Oggy and Stetson win a double OT thriller at FGCU.
• In the first round of the NEC tournament, Dinko goes from being down by 15 points (45-30) to winning the game in the final seconds.
• Stetson overcame an up-and-down season to win the Atlantic Sun tournament and make it back to the NCAAs. Marko "Spicy K" Nevill brought a lot of sizzle in this game.
• St. Francis overcomes a big deficit and long odds to win the NEC conference tournament over Central Connecticut State.
• Duke wins their second straight NCAA title with a stacked roster.
• Giannis Antetokounmpo wins his third straight NBA MVP and his 4th in 5 years. He's been absolutely dominant.
• For the second time in four years, the Milwaukee Bucks have defeated the Dallas Mavericks to win the NBA Finals.

2023-2024 Season

Spoiler

• Dinko wins his fourth Drago Derby easily at home.
• Dinko and the Red Flash continue to torment the Central Connecticut State Blue Devils with a 1 point win at home.
• Oggy and Stetson win the Atlantic Sun regular season title in dramatic fashion. Playing against the last place Campbell Fighting Camels, they score a basket with 1.5 seconds remaining to get the 1 point win and clinch the conference title.
• In a less thrilling fashion Dinko also won the regular season conference title, as the Red Flash only lost 1 conference game all season.
• However, both brothers lost in round 2 of the conference tournament in close games. As a result, they made the NIT, not the NCAA tournament.
• Stetson's Jerimie Scott scored an and-1 with 1.3 seconds left to defeat DePaul in round 1 of the NIT.
• Giannis Antetokounmpo has won his fourth straight NBA MVP.
• The Kansas Jayhawks are the NCAA champions and the Milwaukee Bucks win their 3rd title in 5 years and cement themselves as a dynasty.
• Oggy leaves Stetson for Loyola Marymount, while Dinko is spurned by Duquesne and stays at St. Francis.

2023-2024 Season

Spoiler

• St. Francis opens the NCAA season with a 96-94 overtime win at Tulane, giving Dinko his 100th career victory.

Drago Derby all-time record
Dinko 4 - Oggy 1

Date	Context	Kostadin team	score		score	Ognyan team
12/7/2019	2019-20 non-conf	St. Francis	72		56	Northern Colorado
11/26/2020	2020-21 non-conf	St. Francis	81		65	Northern Colorado
11/24/2021	2021-22 non-conf	St. Francis	77		60	Stetson
11/24/2022	2022-23 non-conf	St. Francis	63		71	Stetson
12/1/2023	2023-24 non-conf	St. Francis	71		57	Stetson

Player Spotlights

1. Feb 2023, Vytas Kowalczuk (OKC)
2. Mar 2023, Shaddean Christopher (MIA)
3. Dec 2023, Rashad Konare (HAW)
4. Jan 2024, Trevor Merchant (DET)
5. Mar 2024, Jarrett Pressley (GSW)

[studbucket]

Staff
Knowing he had a lot to learn, Kostadin was not afraid to look for experience when hiring his assistants, especially to lean on in the recruiting space as he was new there and was hesitant to travel.

• Jevon Allison, a decent recruiter and defensive mind
• Ol’ Randy – Randall Fofana, who has a knack for recruiting and is happy to leave the tactics to Dinko

Roster
With little-to-no talented big men on the roster, Coach Kostadin will be starting a lineup with 1 big surrounded by a slasher and 3 under-sized shooters. It’s unconventional, but he feels it’s the best lineup for his team to get wins.

There are no seniors on the entire roster, so this is a chance for this young team to grow together and perhaps compete for an NCAA tournament berth next year, especially if an impact freshman big man could be brought in.



Schedule
Preseason tournaments
None (when I scheduled the tournament for UNC attempting to get both teams in the same tournament, it kicked SFU out of that tourney. Now I know for next year).

Played games

1. November 16 vs Eastern Illinois [non-con] *extra game because of tourney mishap
2. November 28 vs Youngstown State [non-con]
3. December 7 vs Nothern Colorado [brother]
4. December 8 at Robert Morris [NEC]
5. December 21 at Duquesne [non-con]
6. January 19 vs Robert Morris [NEC]
7. February 7 vs Long Island [NEC]
8. February 14 vs St. Francis (NYC) [NEC]
9. February 23 vs Mount St. Mary’s [NEC]
10. March 1 at Fairleigh Dickinson [NEC]

Highlights
Coach Kostadin Dragomirov will face off against many familiar opponents this season. In December alone he faces off against Pittsburgh (local school), Northern Colorado (his brother), Robert Morris (his brother’s alma mater), and Duquesne (his alma mater).

[studbucket]

Staff
Charismatic and relatively good at recruiting, Oggy arrived and hired 2 seasoned assistants to help him out:

• The stern, grumpy, and defensively-minded Damien Mbyirukira
• The experienced and well-rounded Jeff Hamilton

Roster
The Bears have a talented shooter in Delvon Jahnke and a decent big man (Donovin Mascoll). Look for a lot of inside-outside combination play between those two seniors as Coach Oggy looks to be as successful as possible this first season to bring in better recruits and build up his name in the coaching ranks.

He has a lot of guards, probably a few more than he needs, and very few big men, so it will be interesting to see how he chooses to rotate players.



Schedule
Preseason tournaments

1. Hangar Challenge in Colorado Springs, CO (Northern Colorado, VMI, Air Force, Dartmouth)
2. Hawkeye Challenge in Iowa City, IA (Northern Colorado, Eastern Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana-Monroe)

Played games

1. November 9 vs VMI [Hangar Challenge]
2. November 23 vs Duquesne [non-con]
3. November 30 at Eastern Illinois [Hawkeye Challenge]
4. December 4 vs Robert Morris [non-con]
5. December 7 at St. Francis (PA) [brother]
6. December 28 vs Sacramento St. [Big Sky]
7. January 17 at Eastern Washington [Big Sky]
8. January 26 vs Montana [Big Sky]
9. February 7 at Idaho State [Big Sky]
10. February 20 vs Portland State [Big Sky]
11. March 1 at Montana State [Big Sky]

Highlights
The hungry Bears of UNC will look to rule the mountains, both through conference play and non-con matchups vs Denver, Boise State, Oregon State, and Portland. Oggy also faces off against his brother’s alma mater (Duquesne), his former team (Robert Morris), and his brother (St. Francis) in non-conference play.

[LopaKa]

Loving the start to this one bro, I’ll be following along!

[studbucket]

Quote: Originally Posted by LopaKa

Loving the start to this one bro, I’ll be following along!

Thanks, I appreciate it! I have less time than I used to, but trying to get into a groove with the posts. Hope to have a season preview up today and then games and other info starting soon.

Having a story makes playing the game much more fun, so I hope this is compelling for me, and maybe others.

[studbucket]

NCAA
The 2019 college basketball season is kicking off soon, and there’s no clear favorite for the title this year. Kansas starts the year off at #1, but have no preseason all Americans, while #8 Tennessee have 3 preseason All-Americans (SG Vytas Kowalczuk, SG Dor Pettyjohn, and SF Arnold McNurlin); though Kansas has a great coach in Bill Self and they are expected to be a great team. North Carolina’s Jarek Kickert (PF, Senior) is one of the best players in the nation and will be looking to lead them to an ACC and national title as he leads the frontcourt for the Tar Heels. Elsewhere, UCLA will hope that their inside-outside combination of Issa Leslie (6’0” PG) and Stewart Mobley (6’10” C) can lead them to glory while Georgetown will be relying entirely on their towering 7’2” center Juan King to help make a deep tournament run this year.

Here are some season predictions for the top conferences and the NCAA tournament from this uninformed author.

ACC	North Carolina
Big 10	Michigan State
Big 12	Kansas
Big East	Georgetown
Pac 10	UCLA
SEC	Tennessee
NCAA	Tennessee

The Dragomirov family will be cheering on their adopted city, as they hope Pitt outperforms their #14 ranking and their predicted 4^th place finish in the Big East.

Week 1 season preview from Greg Gumble and Clark Kellogg

The Dragomirov Brothers
The national picture is great and all, but momma Zhivka cares a lot more about her boys. How are they predicted to do this year? Not well is the short answer. Both teams are among the least talented in their conferences and have first year coaches. Those things have combined to put them projected to finish 2^nd from the bottom in their conferences.

	Northeast Conference	Big Sky Conference
1	Robert Morris	Portland State
2	Wagner	Montana
3	Sacred Heart	Northern Arizona
4	Fairleigh Dickinson	Weber State
5	Quinnipiac	Eastern Washington
6	Central Connecticut	Idaho State
7	Monmouth	Montana State
8	Mount St. Mary’s	Northern Colorado
9	St. Francis (NY)	Sacramento State
10	St. Francis (PA)
11	Long Island

Looking around the Northeast Conference, the best player is Armond See, PG, for Central Connecticut, and the most talented freshman is likely Quinnipiac’s shooting guard Gene Cranford.

IN the Big Sky, Portland State’s center Maarty Pinkalla is the class of the conference, while the huge (6’10”) small forward from Montana, Lodrick Giles, is the most talented freshman.




NBA
In the NBA, it’s the beginning of a very interesting season. Injuries to Klay Thompson and Kevin Durant have reduced some of the intrigue, but there are 10 teams who think they have a chance to win the title this year, and how players step up and mesh with each other will be fascinating to watch.

Projections
Based on Erick Boenisch’s power rankings, here are the division projections (playoff teams bolded) and who he predicts in the NBA Finals.

Atlantic	Central	Southeast
Toronto Raptors	Milwaukee Bucks	Miami Heat
Boston Celtics	Indiana Pacers	Washington Wizards
Philadelphia 76ers	Cleveland Cavaliers	Orlando Magic
Brooklyn Nets	Chicago Bulls	Atlanta Hawks
New York Knicks	Detroit Pistons	Charlotte Hornets
Northwest	Pacific	Southwest
Oklahoma City Thunder	Los Angeles Lakers	Houston Rockets
Portland Trail Blazers	Los Angeles Clippers	San Antonio Spurs
Utah Jazz	Sacramento Kings	Memphis Grizzlies
Denver Nuggets	Golden State Warriors	Dallas Mavericks
Minnesota Timberwolves	Phoenix Suns	New Orleans Pelicans

While the East looks good, I find his West rankings to be suspect, especially with the Jazz and Nuggets missing the playoffs. In his projections, he has the Lakers beating the Bucks in the finals, which would be an amazing and exciting matchup.