Episode One – The official podcast of Basketball and Everything in Between

This is the first ever episode of The TO – The official podcast of Basketball and Everything in Between.  This has been inspired by The OT with JR and DJ Rod.  We are nothing compared to them but we are attempting to make our contribution to the NBL community.  Hopefully you all enjoy.  I am not sure about the site that it is hosting it yet but we will see how it goes. 

And then I saw her face
Now I’m a believer
Not a trace
Of doubt in my mind
I’m in love
I’m a believer
I couldn’t leave her
If I tried

I think that it is finally safe to say that the NZ Breakers are certainly the real deal.  One of the major hurdles that basketball people wanted to see them overcome is if they could win in Australia.  They are currently sitting 2nd on the ladder with a 10-3 win/loss ratio.  Out of the 9 players of the week that the NBL has awarded, they have won 3 (two for Kirk Penney and one for Rick Rickert) and they seem to be playing a very team orientated style of basketball.

So why are they being successful?  Last season, they started off fantastic and were going great guns.  We were all happy to finally see Kirk Penney in the league after so many years of hype.  They lost Wayne Turner early to injury (which was a big loss) but the bigger loss was when Rick Rickert went down with his back injury.  Orien Green came in to a lot of hype and was pretty good and Derek Alston  was a servicable mid season acquisation.  But come playoff time, the wheels seemed to fall off a little bit and they just couldn’t get over the line.

The biggest adjustment they made this season was the return of Rick Rickert and the recruitement of CJ Bruton.  We are all aware of how CJ got a release from the old Bullets, said he was going to Europe and then ends up with the Breakers.  From the Breakers point of view they attained one of (if not) the premier PG in the competition who has been around for ages and knows how to win.  Due to the points system, they are only running with one import and it seems to be going great guns for them.  After looking at various boxscores from their games, the minutes and points production seems to be shared around.  Yes Kirk Penney is leading the league in scoring but after that CJ, Ronaldson, Rickert, Forman and Jones are all scoring. 

Head coach Andrej Lemanis seems to be a pretty level headed guy and not a lot seems to phase him.  In this interview after the Crocs game he is pretty philosphocial about things and this seems to be helping his team.  The group that he has is a veteran group who all know how to play the game.  Another thing that I enjoy is the fact that their official website is always kept up to date (which some franchises do not!) and it is easy to read.  The NBL site has a great interview with CJ Bruton and it gets his thoughts on his teams progress. 

So can the Breakers continue to challenge and make a solid playoff run this year?  I think that if they stay healthy, they should!  Are we believers?  Well this guy certainly is and whilst he isn’t the most attractive man on the planet, I guess I will join him and say that I am as well!  But I am not in love with them and I could leave them if I tried! 

Has there ever been a player in the NBL who has had more questions asked about him than Daniel Joyce? Everybody has had a say about this guy and many Wollongong Hawks fans are not overly endowered with him.  So why is he so disliked and bagged out?  Let the information begin!

Daniel started his career with the Hawks in the 2006-07 season with his dad Brendan Joyce as coach.  Part way through the season Brendan got the chop from the Hawks and assistant coach Eric Cooks took over for the remainder of the season.  At the end of the season, Daniel followed his dad to his new job with the Gold Coast Blaze and has played the 2007-08 and 2008-09 season with the Blaze.  Throughout his career Daniel has averaged 4.8ppg, 1.3rpg and 2.0apg.  His career free thrown percentage is 65% and his 3pt% is 29%.  These aren’t exactly earth shattering numbers and to be fair, his career has been plauged with inconsistency so far. 

So now that I have successfully got Education Queensland to unblock JR On Fire, I am able to search through everybody’s favourite Australian bloggers site.  I remembered ages ago that JR had wrote a post titled ‘Coaching  Your Son’ This post was wrote on the 7th of September.  In the post JR states: 

Let me make it clear that I am not a Joyce-hater, and I know there are plenty of you out there. I will also admit to having defended Joyce Jr many a time to a group of his peers. I believe the kid has some skills that could see him become a serviceable NBL player.

I believe he is critiqued from a slanted view on most occasions. He plays for his father and that is a tough gig. Not even the legendary Andrew/Lindsay Gaze relationship went without criticism.

Daniel is doing what anyone in his position would,…making the most of the opportunity that has been presented to him. Would you knock back a chance to improve yourself if you were en route to making your dream a reality?

I agree with this post 100% and think that it is not Daniel’s fault for all of the scutiny that he receives.  In this same post JR goes on to state:

Joyce Jr, as I mentioned, is an up-and-comer with potential. His greatest asset at the moment is his feel for the game. For instance, he knows where to find the open man when he draws the defense in with penetration.

On the down side, this has also led to him becoming turnover prone when the pressure is turned up. His shot consistency also needs to improve if he wants to be considered a true offensive threat and 50% of a strong backcourt.

Joyce Sr has made a big call on behalf of his son and he need know that opposition players will read it and step up to prove him wrong. Daniel already plays with a target on his back that reads ‘Coaches Son’ in the middle. Has Brendan just made the target bigger and brighter?

In my humble opinion the biggest issue is that he has been thrusted into playing major mintues before he is problary ready.  He is the third guard in the rotation behind Shane Heal and James Harvey and he really needs to be the 4th guard.  People are even making YouTube clips giving him a hard time which I feel is a bit harsh.  He has good size for a guard (194cm) and his career highlight would have been hitting that game winning shot against the Hawks last weekend.  Without being at the game, the question that I have to pose is: Why was he on the court at the end of a close game?  If Heal or Harvey were fouled out, then fair enough but if they weren’t…..  I guess that you have to give Brendan credit for showing faith in him but if the shot had of missed, he would have been taunted and criticised for years to come by the Hawks fans.  He is constantly malligned by the fans at the Ozhoopsboards and this post from ‘Go The Blaze’ is typical of what he receives:

To qualify the last two weeks:

Game vs Sydney- SOJ scores 24

- 15 of 24 pts came in garbage time during 4th quarter after Spirit were already leading by 25+

Game vs. Wollongong- SOJ scores match winner

- Scores clutch match winner- credit due

- Played 28 mins (3rd most on team) for 11 pts, 0 assists and 1 reb; still a poor contribution for the time played

- Is ranked 82nd out of 100 in the league for efficiency, a figure that could be much worse considering that he doesn’t even bring the ball up the court anymore

I think that Daniel needs to play a full off season in the ABA / SEABL / Whatever it is called this off season and put up some quality numbers.  I think that it would help his game and it would be good for him to get away from the scrutiny of getting minutes due to his dad being the coach.  I am sure that V Dog who is coach of the Bundaberg Bulls would love to have him on the roster. 

When I was doing my research for my post on the influence of college basketball on the NBL I went to each teams website and looked at the player lists and noted some of the obvious ones that I defintely knew (e.g Mark Worthington, Luke Kendall etc) and then went through the rest of the players one by one and checked if their biographies listed college experience.  When I got to the South Dragons list I noticed that there was a player on that list by the name of Daniel Dillon . I had absolutley no clue who this guy was, so I clicked on his biography and I was amazed to find out that he was:

1. A young Australian
2. Attended the University of Arizona for 4 years!

Anybody who knows anything about college basketball knows about the University of Arizona as they toured Australia a lot.  I remeber as a young lad of 14 or 15 sitting at the Auchenflower Basketball Stadium in Brisbane and watching Derek Rucker, Leroy Loggins and Andre Moore take on an Arizona squad featuring Damon Studimore and Khalid Reeves.  In short, Arizona is a powerhouse!

So I did a google search on Daniel Dillon and came up with some interesting stuff.  My google search came up with an article on his arrest for suspected DUI in 2007. I also found out that he was a member of Australian Mens World University Games team in 2005. After going to his profile at yahoo I was very interested to see that during his senior year at Arizona, he averaged 14.4 minutes per game.  So this guy wasn’t just a scrubber who sat on the bench.  He actually played minutes!

So last Wednesday night, I thought that I might have a chance to see this guy play some minutes.  As we are all aware, the Dragons blew the 36ers off the court and he saw some of his first court time for the year.  I have seen some snapshots on ESPN and Fox Sports of the Dragons training.  I saw this young guy running around with ‘Yannick Noah’ hair and it turned out to be Daniel. 

After perusing Daniel Dillon profile again, I noticed that he actually went to North Laurel High School in London, Kentucky in Year 12.  This is an interesting route that not a lot of young Australian’s go down.  Also according to his profile, he was a three time All Australian from under 16’s to under 18’s. The other thing that I noticed on his profile was his tough pose that all of the Dragons players did on their profiles.  He also has good size for a guard and seems to have reasonably quick.

So it will be interesting to see how this guy goes.  He certainly seems to have a good pedigree and will fit into the Brian Gorjian mold of player (e.g get after it defensively).  I wonder how much influence his assistant coach at Arizona Mike Dunlap had over his signing with the Dragons.  Not much I think!

Welcome to another edition of Tuesday’s Random Rambles!  Here we go!

- Got to love the Gold Coast Blaze.  They get smashed on Wednesday night against the Spirit, win a close one against the Hawks on Friday night and get demolished by the 36ers on Sunday.  Later this week I am going to write a huge post about Daniel Joyce and my thoughts on him.  Good on the Blaze for winning their 2nd game of the year but some consistency wouldn’t go astray (apart from being consistenly bad!).

- The Melbourne Tigers celebrated 25 years in the NBL on Saturday night.  It is awesome to see that this club is still around after almost going broke a couple of years ago.  It has a direct link to their junior program which is awesome to see.  Some great photos were also taken from the night. 

- Mookie has informed me that Baron Davis has signed a 5 year footwear deal with growing footwear superpower Li-Ning.  This got me thinking – is the Asian footwear market a route that Australian players could take to earn some money?  I remember the old Pony days!  How unique it was!

- The Crocs apparently finished strongly against the Breakers on Saturday night but just didn’t get over the line.  When I looked at the boxscore, I was excited at first to notice Daniel Egan’s excellent productivity due to the fact that he is in my FNBL team.  Then I got more excited when I noticed Brad Williamson’s numbers because he is also on my FNBL team.  I then realised that Williamson was on my Injured Reserve and therefore his stats wouldn’t count for my team!  I am an idiot! 

- Don’t ask me how I found this but I John Rillie has posted the funniest clip of all time on Youtube featuring Andrew Gaze doing ‘That’s Gold!’  Funny Stuff

- Obviously Shane Heal didn’t racially abuse a fan in their game against the Spirit on Wednesday night.  I guess we will leave it at that but the Hammer was not a happy man on his snippet that was on Fox Sports on Friday night / Saturday.  He mentioned the Ozhoops Message Boards and was very short with the journalist.  I guess if you were accused of something you didn’t do, you wouldn’t be happy as well.

- Brendan Joyce and Daniel Joyce apparently didn’t win themsleves many fans in the game against the Hawks on Friday night.  A thread on the Ozhoopsboards has over 100 posts about it.   The guys at asaspace.com have an excellent post on this scenario and every year there is going to be a situation with Brendan Joyce coached teams.

- I saw an add on Fox Sports for the whole Movember thing.  They showed a snapshot of the ugliest moustache of all time – Sam McKinnon.  Is he doing again this year?

- Former Brisbane Bullets coach Joey Wright is coaching Seastar Apoel in Cyprus.  He took former Brisbane Bullets manager ‘Big Joe’ with him.  Big Joe has been blogging his adventures and they can be found here It is fair to say that it is a bit of a culture shock and things aren’t travelling to smoothly over there.  Fancy having to be scared for your lives after a basketball game.   Just read in the Courier Mail that Joey got the sack.  I guess that is the end of that! 

- Darren Ng once again is keeping his fans up to date with his life.  In this blog entry, he talks about his favourite foods and the Rihanna concert. 

- 36ers coach Scott Ninnis is hoping that people don’t see Julius Hodge as the saviour.  I have news for him: All 36ers fans are hoping that he is the saviour and the messiah rolled into one!

- Cairns coach Alan Black is not happy with how his team is fading out late in the game  Is the late fade outs anything to do with the fact that he has an old team that aren’t overly athletic?

- The whole Nathan Jawai health thing is still going and apparently it is not career threatening.  Hopefully it will all work out soon.  He is an awesome palyer and has a huge future in the game.

- I never knew that Patrick Mills was an AFL star as well.   What is the AFL’s loss is Basketball’s gain!

- Speaking of Patrick Mills, Brian Goorjian has came out and stated that he was the best player at the Olympic Games for the Boomers. 

- The Sydney Spirit have an awesome feature on their website called ‘Spirit Talk’  The latest edition has an interview with Drew Williamson.   To be honest, I am a bit of a fence sitter when it comes to this guy.  Sometimes I think that he is fantastic and other times I think that he has a tendancy to float in and out of games. 

- Who will be John Rillie’s player of the week on DJ Rod and JR on the OT?  If they had an award for most inconsistent import, it might go to Justin Bowen.  In the game against the 36ers, he had some respectable numbers but (19pts, 10rebs and 3asts) but turned the ball over six times.  In the same game Aaron Bruce had 14 assists.  His relative Cameron must be happy with that effort! 

Everybody who is involved with basketball in Australia has heard of this great coach – Brian Goorjian.  His record is impeciable and speaks for itself.  It seems that everywhere he goes, he truns programs around and people want to play for him.  This bio was taken from the South Dragons website:

Brian Goorjian is the most successful coach in Australian basketball, commencing his NBL coaching career in 1988. He has coached nearly 700 games with a remarkable 70% winning percentage. Brian has won five NBL championships and five “Coach of the Year” awards, something no other coach has accomplished. He was voted by his peers the greatest coach in the NBL’s first 25 seasons.

More recently, Goorjian’s Sydney Kings created history by winning three consecutive NBL Grand Finals between 2002 and 2005. Teams coached by Brian Goorjian have reached the semi finals or better for 20 consecutive seasons, which is quite remarkable and virtually unchallenged in any code. Last season, Goorjian coached the Sydney Kings team to a record-breaking 27 wins and just 3 losses in the regular season.

Goorjian is also coach of the Australian men’s national team, the Boomers. He is the first foreign-born coach to hold the position, and led the team to Commonwealth Games gold in 2006. He attended his first Olympics in Athens 2004 and led Australia at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. American-born Goorjian played at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California before coming to Australia in 1977 as a player.

This is his first season as head coach of the Crazy John’s South Dragons. Goorjian’s previous clubs include the Eastside Spectres (1988-1991), South East Melbourne Magic (1992-1996), Victoria Titans (1997-2001) and Sydney Kings (2002-2008).

He has a distinctive coaching style which focusses on defense.  It is actual very humerous due to the fact that as a player he was considered a bit of a gunner and a three point shooter.  Andrew Gaze in his book ‘A Kid, A Ball, A Dream’ talks about the Friday afternoon pick up games that Brian and other Americans used to compete in at Albert Park and how he was a competitive character.  That competiveness doesn’t seem to have deminished throughout his coaching career and he is universally respected for his teams dedication to detail and ability to get after it at the defensive end.

In 1988, Goorjian took over the Eastside Melbourne Spectres after a successful coaching stint in the SEABL with the Ballart Miners.  I still remember as a young lad of twelve years following this team with interest because my favourite player at that time (Dean Uthoff) played for them.  I still kind of followed the North Melbourne Giants but always loved watching the Spectres play.  I still remember Dean Uthoff throwing huge ‘touchdown’ passess to Darren Lucas and an awkward left handed import by the name of Arnie Duncan putting up some huge numbers.  The team missed the finals in Goorjian’s first two seasons (amazingly these two seasons would be the only time a Goorjian coached team did not qualify for the play-offs). in 1990 the Spectres bowed out in the semi final and the next year they went one better making the Grand Final.

1992 is a year that changed my life as a basketball fan.  Everybody knows about the Dream Team and their performances at the Olympic Games.  Whilst this was a huge event, a bigger one occured for me – The merger between the Eastside Melbourne Spectres and Southern Melbourne Saints.  I was a loyal Giants fan up to that time but this merger really interested me.  I remember watching on TV the Southern Saints with Andrew Parkinson and Simon Kerle beat the star studded Perth Wildcats.  When I heard that they were merging with the Spectres, I was hooked.  They had lost my man Dean Uthoff but they had picked up John Dorge.  Brian Gorijian had also recruited an import by the name of Milt Newton.  He turned out to be a bit of a dud and got injured.  His recruitment of Robert Rose was brilliant and it helped this new franchise straight away.  One of the biggest coaching moves of all time happened in the NBL finals series.  Co Captian Darren Perry ruptured his achillies tendon in game one of the finals series.  Brian moved Robert Rose to the PG spot and this ultimately helped them win games two and three.  This move was a gutsy one and proved successful.  I totally was hooked on the whole ’Men in Black’ thing and loved every moment of it.  As a pure basketball person, watching the teamwork (which is a trademark of all Goorjian coached teams) and defensive effort (another feature) was awesome to see. 

After the Magic merged with the Giants, I was a little bit torn as a fan.  I still loved the way that they played and how BG coahced them but I really missed the old days of the Magic.   What really sparked my interest was when I heard that Brett Brown was leaving the Kings to go to the San Antino Spurs and Brian was moving up to the ‘holy grail franchise’ – The Sydney Kings.  The team was already set for the 2002 season and he would be teaming up with Shane Heal.  This scenrio could have been extremely explosive but they got the job done and won the title for the first time in franchise history.  What followed was a period of success unrivalled in Sydney’s history. 3 titles followed in 4 seasons as the Kings swept all before them. Goorjian, who had brought his captain Jason Smith with him from the Titans, coached Sydney to 5 grand finals in 6 years despite being forced to constantly re-build the team after each season.

At the end of last season Brian joined the South Dragons franchise and instantly they have gained success.  Mark Worthington was recently interview on nbl.com and he stated that he was very close to signing with Perth but having Brian made him sign with the Dragons. 

Brian also took over the national team and has had some mixed success.  The Boomers play at the 2008 Olympics was ok.  They really should not have lost the first game against Croatia which really set them up for failure in the later rounds.  He has blooded a lot of younger guys in this Olympics which will hold the Boomers in good stead for the later years.

It seems like that most people love playing for Brian.  I remember reading somewhere that David Stiff loved it but had to leave because he couldn’t take the ‘day to day’ grind on his body anymore.  Brian’s teams are well prepared and extremely fit.  I imagine that his preperation would be detailed and very goal orientated.

So where to next for Brian Goorjian?  There was talk that this Olympic Games was his last and he was going to stand down as head coach.  I personally feel that this is not a good move but if it is, I think it opens up an interesting scenario for him.  I know that he has lived in Australia and is an Australian citizen but the temptation to coach in the NCAA must be there for him.  When I heard that Lute Olsen had resigned at Arizona and Mike Dunlap had taken over as coach, my first thought was ‘I bet you that Brian ends up at Arizona as an assitant.’  Then I  read that Mike Dunlap had declined the job and somebody called Russ Pennell was named interm head coach of the Wildcats.  That put a huge spanner in the works for my thought processes!

I honestly believe that if he doesn’t end up taking the Boomers to the 2010 World Championships and 2012 Olympic Games, he will head over to the United States and coach in the college system.  When writing this entry, I found this interesting article from 2005. Here is an interesting quote from Matt Nielson and Chris Anstey:

Matt Nielsen, Most Valuable Player in last year’s grand final, said from Greece that the Kings win despite turning over players (only Brad Sheridan has been there all three seasons). “The people that bite on what he asks really improve,” he said. “Goorj understand players very well, he’s very honest with players, too – he let’s you know.”

Chris Anstey, who played for Goorjian in Victoria before and after the coach helped him get to the National Basketball Association, said from Russia this week: “Goorj is always looking to improve himself as a coach . . . He realises that becoming a great team involves so much more than putting five great players on the court.”

Players seem to love playing for him.  If he goes overseas, I think that he will get the job done! 

How could any basketball fan from the 80’s and 90’s forget Ray Borner?  For those who don’t know, Ray Borner was a institution on the Australian basketball scene and played 518 games over 22 years in the NBL.  He also represented Australia in four Olympic Games (84, 88, 92 and 96) and various world championships (82, 86, 90 and 94).  Ray grew up in Ballart and since that he was the perfect combination for Australian basketball players (big and talented) he represented Australia on many different occasions throughout his junior career as well.  For a full analysis of his olympic career click here. 

When he was named league MVP in 1985, he became the first-ever Australian to win the award in a major breakthrough for local basketballers. He won an NBL title in 1989 with North Melbourne and was a five-time NBL All-Star (1991, 1992, 1993, 1994 and 1995).  When he joined North Melbourne from Illawara, he was the final piece to the championship puzzle for coach Bruce Palmer.  I still remember reading a story about how Ray had a knee injury and he had to be driven from NSW to Victoria in the back of the car.  I was a huge Giants fan in the late 80’s and was right into the whole Scott Fisher / Tim Dillion (god that guy was good!) thing.  Borner was the final piece to the puzzle that lead us to the promised land and he helped us defeat the evil empire of the Canberra Cannons and their huge monster centre Willie Simmons. 

Obviously he started to slow down later in his career but he coached Ballarat in the SEABL.  I remeber that there was a bit of controversy when he left and this article indicates that.  He is still involved in the Big V as a board member   along with another legend (Larry Sengstock).  If you are keen you can still get his playing card which is exciting to say the least!

My friend Grandmaster Funk from League 4 FNBL fame, thinks that Ray Borner looks like Alf Stewart from Home and Away.  You be the judge:

You have got to love this man (Jalen Rose).  I used to love the whole ‘Fab Five’ thing and I even named my son after him (my wife loved the name and she wanted to spell it Jaylen but I stood my ground)  I stumbled upon this article from the Sportingnews which ranks him in the all time greatest players to play for Michigan – which of course I would agree with!

So I couldn’t think of anything to post today (it is Friday and I am posting this on Saturday), so I decided to make this a bit of a mixed bag of random basketball stuff.  So here we go:

- Firstly, nobody can be overly suprised at the axing of 36ers import Mark Tyndale.  In the game against the Dragons last Wednesday night, he looked out of place and slow.  I am sure that every 36ers fan will now be demanding that their management step up and sign the golden child Julius Hodge.  That would be a smart move and be exactly what their team needed!  Maybe head coach Scott Ninnis could put on a singlet and be more effective than some of the guys on his squad.  Once again, everbody’s favourite South Australian Boti Nagy has wrote an article on his departure. 

- Speaking of the 36ers, it seems that my post on Aaron Bruce – do we believe the hype? was not overly popular with a guy by the name of Cameron Bruce (a relative I presume).  He so elquontaley states:

your a wanker, got no game so u bag other players. stick 2 reffing “hulkamania”

I actually don’t think that I was bagging Bruce out.  But I guess that opnions are like arseholes – everybody’s got one! 

- Shane Heal could be in a bit of trouble for racially abusing a fan during Wednesday’s game against the Sydney Spirit.  This was all over the Ozhoops NBL board on Thursday and Friday.  My stupid works internal blocking system is not working so I can’t give you the direct link to it.  Let’s just say that apparently (and I state apparently) the guy has video footage of what occured and if what he is reporting is true, the Hammer could be in a fair bit of trouble.  Scratch that: I just went back to Ozhoops NBL board and I noticed that the thread on this story no longer exsists!  I wonder why  

- The latest episode of the OT with JR and DJ Rod is up and it features a huge piece with everbody’s favourite Australian / Croatian Andrew Bogut.  It is pretty awesome that a guy like Bogut would take the time to do this interview and it goes to prove that if you are a somebody (e.g John Rillie) other somebody’s (e.g Andrew Bogut) will do things for you   In the podcast they discuss various issues and Andrew gives some insight into some of the things that he does.  He comes across in the interview as a casual, down to earth guy and it was super to hear him interact with JR.  This blog even got a shout out at the 45 minute mark.  If only JR on Fire wasn’t banned at my work.  For some stupid reason I can use my iGoogle account to RSS feed the episodes of the OT.  Go figure!  I can’t access any blogspot sites, so I can’t comment on many Australian basketball blogs.

- The NBL announced today the player of the month is Kirk Penney and coach of the month is Brian Goorjian. I am not doubting either of these two people are very deserving winners but I was very amused when I looked at the overall votes.  The article made this statement: 

The NBL’s Player and Coach of the Month for December take into account Rounds 1 to 7 inclusive. All NBL Head Coaches and accredited media are eligible to vote.

So then I went and looked at the list of players who actually received votes and here is the list:

Kirk Penney (New Zealand) 89
Chris Anstey (Melbourne) 27
Corey Williams (Townsville) 19
Shawn Redhage (Perth) 17
Joe Ingles (South) 14
Mark Worthington (South) 12
CJ Bruton (New Zealand) 12
Luke Schenscher (Adelaide) 7
Sam Mackinnon (Melbourne) 5
Dusty Rychart (Wollongong) 4
Darnell Mee (Cairns) 3
Julian Khazzouh (Sydney) 2
Darnell Hinson (Perth) 2
Ebi Ere (Melbourne) 1
Glen Saville (Wollongong) 1
Adam Ballinger (Adelaide)

Are you serious?  As much as I loved Julian Khazzouh, player of the month? Even Glen Saville could bet put into this category. 

Then I looked at the coach of the month voting and had a huge laugh when I saw this:

Brian Goorjian (South) 85
Andrej Lemanis (New Zealand) 73
Eric Cooks (Wollongong) 39
Alan Westover (Melbourne) 9
Rob Beveridge (Sydney) 2
Scott Ninnis (Adelaide) 1
Conner Henry (Perth) 1

Scott Ninnis is currently coaching a team that is not playing well and he receives a vote?  How can Conner Henry only receive the same amount of votes.  At least the right people won the two awards!

- Luke Kendall hasn’t quite found his groove with the Perth Wildcats yet. In his latest outing with the Wildcats against the Crocs, he didn’t exactly set the world on fire.  Whilst the game was a blow out, it seems that Perth has some interesting issues with their rotation of playing time.  Let’s not forget people that Kendall was the last man cut from the Olympic team and is a quality player.  I am personally calling upon Connor Henry to insert him into the starting line up at the expense of Peter Crawford and see what happens.  I doubt this will happen though!

- Mookie has wrote an insightful piece on where NBL mascots go to die.  Maybe the Lion was sold when the team went into recivership! 

- How awesome are the South Dragons?  I really enjoyed watching them play on Wednesday night and I stated to my friend Grandmaster Funk, if I had $56 million and wanted to buy one of the new NBL franchises for next season, the first player that I would get from current NBL rosters would be Mark Worthington.  He just goes so hard, plays defense and is hard to guard.  He is a bit of a tweener at the international level but great at the NBL level.  I would even take him over Chris Anstey at the moment.  Matt Burston was also huge in this game and the NBL site had a good article on him.  He is a guy that has had a lot of tough breaks.  It was awesome to see him go at it and get the job done.   Next week I have a huge post on Brian Goorjian and another post on some guy that I had never heard about until the other day, Daniel Dillon. 

- How much longer will the Melbourne Tigers keep playing David Barlow out of position and PG and persevere with him?  His numbers against the Spirit last weekend were ok but it really seems to be affecting his play.  Andrew Gaze and Nigel Purchase had some interesting things to say on the running of the shuffle offense and how they are running it at the moment.  They feel that the problem is how the players are running it.  On the Tigers website, an article titled “Tigers say We Believe” has been uploaded and Alan Westover states that there aren’t going to be any changes to the system.  Two more things:

1. What is up with Rod Grizzard turning the ball over 7 times against the Spirit?
2. Why is the NBL Podcast still called ‘The NBL Hummer Podcasts’  Is Hummer still a sponsor?

- In The latest episode of the OT with JR and DJ Rod JR mentions the ‘man love’ that I have for Russell HInder at the moment and how that love is recipracated by him and I am his favourite blogger!  I appreciate the love and still think that the greatest thing about Russell Hinder at the moment is the fact that he is getting it done in multiple categories.  In the shalacking that was the Perth game, he hit two 3 pointers and 2 assists which is very reasonable for a centre.  (We won’t mention the four turnovers though!)  I would highly doubt that there is another centre in the league who is being as efficent statistcally at the moment as him.  Keep up the good work Rusty!  My FNBL team thanks you!

- The Rockhampton Rockets want PG Rhys Martin to return for another season in the QABL (or whatever it is going to be called.)  It would be interesting to see what Eric Cooks’s take on this is.  If the Hawks are in the league next year and Martin is a required player, maybe he wouldn’t be overly keen on him playing.  Everybody knows that Rockhampton plays their players quite well – not SEABL money but better than most Queensland clubs.  Cameron Tragardh has been a QABL monster over the past couple of seasons as well.  Only time will tell I guess! 

- Finally it seems as though new Gold Coast Blaze import Justin Bowen has had a tough night at the office during his second game against the Sydney Spirit. Whilst he was affective on the glass (11 total rebounds) his point production (4pts) and FG% was shocking.  Worse than that was his 9 turnovers that he had in 30:38 minutes of courtime.  Coach Brendan Joyce stated in this interview that he felt that Bowen was bumped a lot and not geting many calls.  He also states that Bowen basically has to ’suck it up’ and get the job done.  I am sure that Brendan Joyce will be addressing this during the week.  If you are reading this Brendan, read my article on Pero Cameon.  He has to go! 

So for somebody who had nothing to post, I certainly crammed a fair bit into this post!

              vs                     

Is Pero Cameron the luckiest man to be in a ten man roster in the NBL at the moment?  After reading this story about Greg Vanderjagt being removed from the 10 man roster of the Gold Coast Blaze, I would say so.  This interesting statement was made in the article:

With the addition of Justin Bowen, the Gold Coast’s TTP is 74, meaning that one player (with a ranking of seven or more) must be cut, Joyce has the choice to demote any one player, with the exception of guards Daniel Joyce and Tyson Demos whose rankings are not significant.

 In short, Greg Vanderjagt has been removed from the Gold Coast Roster to make way for new import Justin Bowen.  But why I don’t understand is why the Blaze just didn’t give Pero the big ‘heave ho’ and keep Vanderjagt on the roster? 

In the above quote, it is stated that they needed to get rid of a player with a ranking of seven or more.  After perusing the NBL Points Ranking Document I see that Pero Cameron is rated an 8 and Vanderjagt is ranked a 7. So why didn’t Brendan Joyce just bite the bullet and cut the big New Zealander?  In their last game together against the Crocs, Vanderjagt played significant minutes and Cameron played around three. 

I am the first to admit that I don’t know about player contracts and how much people earn but I would think that Pero would be on much much more than Vanderjagt who was only picked up when the Bullets fell down.  Maybe that is the reason why. 

I remember when the NZ Breakers first came into the league and Cameron was playing for them.  He is a a legend in NZ basketball and has some significant highlights throughout his NZBL career. But lets face facts – Pero is 34 years old and very undersized and slow for a forward.  His stats over the past two years have not been fantastic and in all honesty, I feel that Brendan Joyce has made a mistake in keeping him on the roster this year.

Greg Vanderjagt – you are the unluckiest man in the NBL!

NOTHING BUT NET is a rambling memoir by the renowned basketball player, Bill Walton. He concentrates on the joy he found in playing basketball at all levels. He played for the joy of competition, not for the money or glory.

Walton praises the coaches and mentors he had as a player, especially his coach at UCLA, John Wooden. Walton sees Wooden as a man who completely dedicated himself to basketball. Walton speaks of the championships he won in basketball at UCLA, the Portland Trailblazers, and the Boston Celtics as team rather than personal victories. He gives special attention to his days as a member of the Boston Celtics. After a terrible experience in Portland and a frustrating one with the Los Angeles Clippers, Walton found a place with a team that stressed team values and individual excellence. He singles our Larry Bird as a player and a man who possesses the attitudes and values Walton cherishes most.

Walton discusses his injuries at great length in the book. He missed nearly half of the games in his long career because of foot and ankle problems. Some accused him of being a malingerer, but he did have serious injuries that have only recently healed.

The second half of the book is devoted to Walton’s opinions on various issues. He opposes undergraduates leaving college after a year or two for the money of the professional league. He also suggest reforms for the National Basketball Association (NBA) and discusses his all-time dream team.

Nothing but Net is a loosely organized book that repeats many of Walton’s points and anecdotes; it could have benefitted from tighter editing to increase its coherence. Nevertheless, it is an entertaining memoir by a man who has opinions to express and values to defend.