Hey guys.  As avid readers of Basketball and Everything in Between, you will know that I have been without net access over the last week.  I honestly have not been following much NBL over the past couple of weeks but will try and write an insightful post for you all to read!

- I am currently listening to The OT with JR and DJ Rod.  It is the episode where Larry Abney apparently unloads.  I havent heard it all yet but I am looking forward to it. 

- Once again I pose the question about the Fox Sports TV deal.  What is going on?  Is there any news yet?

- Appartenly Luke Kendall is going to be a Tiger.  I think that this is an awesome move.  I think that this is a positive move for the Tigers and also a positve move for Luke himself.  I feel that he will fit in with that team like a glove. 

- How much longer will the league take to annouce what is going on next year in regards to teams etc?  I think that it is only fair on the guys who are going to be without a program (e.g. Cairns and Wollongong) and give them a chance to negotiate with other franchises.  It is only fair to guys who are trying to earn a living. 

Well that is about it.  I am sitting in Chermside shopping centre and I just added another $1 credit to my public access internet point.  I will try and write again very very soon. 

Hey!  I know that I said that I would be off line for a while but our moving date got changed.  The movers are packing today and my wife and her friends are cleaning, so I thought that I would take some time to talk some smack about the greatest game in the world. 

- Andrew Bogut was on ABC grandstand this weekend.  It was awesome to see that he is willing to fly the flag for the NBL even when he is overseas.  He is even sponsoring the official NBL podcast.  Maybe the NBL could take a page out of his book in regards to promotion etc.

- The Singapore Slingers are taking on the Darwin All Stars tomorrow.  I think that they should kill the All Stars.

- I think that it is absolutley disgusting that Alan Black has been sacked.  This quote really annoys me:

“It has been determined by the administrators that it is not financially viable to offer Alan Black, as head coach, a contract of employment during the administration of the company,” a release from the administrators said.

My point is this: when they got rid of Abney and Thomas, why didn’t they give him the push then?  I am not a huge of the Taipans but their fans still deserve better.  Then to top it off, Dwayne Vale gets caught drink driving!  Can anything else go wrong?

- The Dilema of ‘Derwinism’ is an aweomse blog post  This guy should write for the NBL site.

- Any word on who is going to replace Cortez Groves?  The mail has to be on Dave Thomas.  It would be interesting to see.  I wouldn’t be suprised to see Luke Kendall come across if he is not offered a contract extension by the Wildcats.

- Once again I am mezmorized by the voting in the NBL player and coach of the month.  I congratulate Kirk Penney Andrej Lemanis on their award but I have to question some of the players receiving votes.  How in the hell can Kelvin Robertson and the deserter Julian Khazzouh receive votes?  This is stupid people.  It is very very stupid.

- For the 3rd time I ask the following question: What in the hell is going on with the Fox Sports $35 million deal?

- Oh My God – The NZ Breakers have announced a new huge sponsorship deal.  Thank christ for some positive news!

- Andrew Bogut has done a good interview with Aleks Maric.  Pretty good stuff

- With the likely demise of Cairns next season, which guys from their team will have jobs next year?  I think that Cook, Crosswhite and Boodinkoff should hook on somewhere but would a NBL team take a risk with veterans Martin Cattalini and Darnell Mee?  Darnell seems very injury prone but Cattallini has seemed to bounce back from a injury plagued season last year. 

- John Rillie always provides us with a comprehensive review of Australian basketballers around the world.  Thanks JR for your awesome blog!

Well that will do me people.  I will hopefully be blogging again sooner rather than latter!

Well it is time for another edition of Silly Sollies.  This may (and I emphasise the word may!!) be my last blog entry for a while.  My wife, child and I are moving from our home of four years St George in western Queensland.  We are returning to civilization in Brisbane.  We are both primary school teachers and have been transferred to awesome schools on the north side of Brisbane.  The truck comes on Monday and we unpack on Tuesday at our home in Brisbane.  My mother in law has been renting our house off us for the past four years.  We have had the inside painted, the outside painted, put up a new fence and ripped up the carpet and laid floor boards.  It should be like a brand new home.  By the way, that isn’t my house.  Anyway on with the Sollies!

- If you have been away from the NBL scence this week, you wouldn’t have known that the Cairns Taipans have been placed into adminstration.  I wrote earlier about this in the week.  Everybodys favourite NBL journalist Boti Nagy has wrote a piece entitled Taipans woes have NBL reeling.  Boti basically agrees with my ideology that the Taipans decided that they weren’t going to be part of the league next year and obviously decided to cut their losses mid season.  It would have been interesting to see if they would have cut their losses if they were 12-6 rather than 6-12!   I feel very sorry for Dave Thomas and Larry Abney.  I honestly think that the Dragons may attempt to pick up Thomas.  I think that he would be a perfect pick up for them.  He would be able to play a role for their team and not be asked to be a superstar.  Abney on the other hand would be extremely handy for the NZ Breakers.  I understand it is problary a big ‘we don’t have enough points’ thing but how awesome would it be for Breakers fans to have an explosive Larry Abney in their lineup? 

- Another almost extinct NBL team (Sydney Spirit) have established a fighting fund to keep them afloat.  It is awesome that Andrew Bogut has chipped in some of his own money to help out the Spirit.  If the spirit could just get some other large corporations or famous people to chuck in $30 000 each, they would be laughing.  Every NBL fan (myself included) should try and donate $20.   

- Michael Scibilia has wrote a piece titled Plagrise at your peril I was wondering when I saw the heading what the piece was all about.  It is actually about how the NBL is plagerising the model set out by the A League.  It is an interesting read and provides heaps of statistics in regards to ratings etc.  Well worth the time to disect and think about.

- It was awesome that Boti Nagy took 35 minutes of his Monday afternoon to be the first ever guest on this weeks episode of The TO.  Boti spoke about the old days in the NBL and about his favourite players and villians throughout the history of the NBL.  He also spoke about a flamboynt coach by the name of Ken Cole.  If you haven’t already downloaded it, you really should.  It is a great listen and well worth the investment in time.  He is very passionate about the league and basketball in general. 

- I once again pose the question about the $35 million deal from Fox Sports.  What the hell is going on with this?  Are they negotiating with the new Channel 10 Sports channel?

- Justin Bowen has won the NBL player of the week award and he is a deserving winner.  I haven’t had the chance to actually watch any of this guy live on the TV but he seems like he has a pretty solid all round game.  By looking at his numbers, he seems like a poor mans Julius Hodge.  Is that a fair comparison?

- I used to enjoy the Sydney Spirits website where they had a feature called Spirit Talking.  I guess that feature has gone and they have more important things on their minds (e.g keeping their franchise on the floor)

- The Adelaide 36ers gave the Crocs a hammering on Wednesday night. I haven’t had a chance to watch the game as of yet.  I have it taped and will watch it soon.  In the highlight package it looks as if the 36ers just did what they wanted to against the Crocs.  Julius Hodge seems to get the crowd very excited.    JR talked about the changes in the Crocs attitude and the crisis type meeting that was held.  Whilst I don’t think that they need to hit the panic button again, it must be concerning to all Crocs fans at the fashion in which they got smakced.  I look forward to hearing JR’s analysis of the game on the next episode of The OT

- My boy Stephon Marbury was apparently a victim of a prank call with the subject being a huge contract with Real Madrid This is pretty funny stuff but apparently he didn’t take it to well.  He is not a happy camper and is considering taking legal action against the people who made the call.  If you ask me, it is bloody hilarious.  Whoever was doing the hoax was pretty prepared.  They even talked to the actual Knicks front office staff.   

- So obviously my post on Carrie Graf and the possibility of her coaching in the NBL has inspired Basketball Australia to appoint her as the new Opals coach through to 2012.  Now in all seriousness, I think that this is an awesome appointment.  Our womens team is the real deal people and we should be getting behind them more.  Lauren Jackson and co should still be around for a substancial amount of time and having one of the best players of all time on your roster shouldn’t hinder your medal chances.

- Darko Milicic is one of the most intense guys in the NBA.  I remember a physco YouTube clip where he threatened to kill the baby of the referee or something like that. 
Download. 

- Here is a random fact – I am a huge (and I mean huge) Harry Potter fan.  It is pretty sad that a 32 year old man is obsessed with Harry Potter and has read each book in the serious at least 6 times!  But it seems that I am not alone in my obsession.  The best muggle basketball player on the planet Kobe Bryant is also a huge fan and that is awesome in my opinion.  During the NBA finals last year, this is what he had to say:

Kobe Bryant found a magical way to get away from the Game 4 hangover and those old Celtics demons when the Lakers were given Friday off from practice. And he had an assist from his daughters.
“Like five chapters of Harry Potter,” Bryant said. “They just wanted me to read to them, and I swear, it was awesome. (Harry) had more problems dealing with Voldemort than what we have dealing with the media and the Celtics. So that was pretty awesome.”

So this is awesome in my opinion.  I was actually going to write a blog entry comparing Harry Potter characters to those in the NBL.  I still may but I will leave it for the holidays. 

- YouTube really is a great thing!  I was once again just trolling it for random videos and stumbled upon a video entitled Top 10 High School Dunks of All Time.  The first one is awesome where the backboard shatters.  There is nothing like a good backboard shattering!  Oh hang on – it isn’t even in the top 10.  I am watching this as I am posting.  10: Pretty good windmill off the backboard from a teammate.  9: Just jumped over the guy and got a T for some reason!  8: Is unbelievable!  A behind the back alley oop bounce pass!  7: Another backboard breaker 6: Another one like number 9 without the tech.  Pretty good but not as good as 8. 5: A behind the back alley oop passs from between the 3 point line and half way.  The finish is a quick one hand leaner.  4: Is out of this world!  The guy inbounds it at the opposite baseline and throws a baseball pass to his teammate.  The teammate allows it to bounce and catches in rhythm for the alley oop slam.  5 and 4 are both amazing if you ask me.  Lets get to 3!  3: Is a routine two handed alley oop slam over a couple of guys.  Pretty average if you ask me!  2: Is a 360 one hander where the guy pulls down the hoop -  not that great!  1: Is another ‘lets do a Vince Carter at the Olympics and jump over a guy’.  The guy doesn’t even touch the guy that he is jumping over.  It is ok but not as good as 5 and 4 in my opinion. 

- Whilst I was there I found a highlight package of the best of Vince Carter in High School  Some of his stuff was much better than this top ten.  Whilst we are on the High School bandwagon, here is a package of Dwight Howard’s High School career and the Shaq Disel dominating his High School competition.  Finally check out this highlight package of Carmelo Anthony vs Lebron James in High School.  YouTube is to basketball fans what wine was to Jesus!

- This fan defintely doesn’t want Brendan Joyce to be appointed Boomers coach.  Whilst I don’t necessarily agree with his method of getting his point accross, I certainly agree with his message.  I think that BG would have to be a shoe in for it if he wanted it.   

So that is it.  I may not be able to write for a while.  I apologise in advance to you all who really enjoy this average basketball blog.  I will hopefully get my internet connection up and running and we will see how things go.

Merry Christmas to you all!

Ashley

 

For some reason, I have really enjoyed the play of Dillon Boucher in the games that have been televised by Maroi TV so far this season.  He plays the perfect role for his team.  He is far from a superstar on his team and plays within his limitations.  So that got me thinking about the role of the role player and how they are perceived by the NBL public.

So what is a role player?  I did a Wikipedia search but I couldn’t get a definitive answer.  I then went back to the every reliable search engine Google and found this article at Basketball Fundamentals.  In the article it provides some information about role players and the role that they play.  It states:

We can’t all be super-stars, or even starters. We don’t all have great shooting skills or ball-handling skills. But we can still be important “spokes in the wheel”. We can still be very important to the success of our team. We are important “role players”.
Coaches love good role players, because they know better than anyone that there will be times in a game, or during the season, that they will have to get good play, some good minutes from their bench personnel. Usually, you cannot be a championship team with just five good players. You need important players who can come off the bench and play quality minutes.

I have to say that I pretty much agree with that assessment of the role player.  The article goes on to discuss what makes a good role player:

What makes a great role player?
A role player could be a starter who has a special skill… such as being a great defensive player, or a great rebounder, or a point guard who can handle the ball and pass.

A role player is often the player who comes off the bench. He/she understands and accepts his/her role on the team. While on the bench, the good role player keeps his/her head in the game, and observes what’s going on, where the weaknesses are in the defense, which opposing players are “killing us”, what’s happening on the boards, etc. He/she is “ready to go” when the coach calls

Every quality NBL team throughout history has had role players who have done their jobs for teams to win.  Players such as Warrick Giddey, Tim Morrisey and David Close made a career out of playing a role and playing it well.  David Close was pretty much a spot up shooter.  In the end his career was cut short basically because he could not do anything else but shoot.  Warrick Giddey would probably be considered the most famous role player in the history of the NBL because of the team that he played with and the role that he performed.  Actually Dillion Boucher’s overall game reminds me a bit of Warrick Giddey.

Lets like at the unsung hereos on each NBL roster this season:

Perth Wildcats: In all honesty, I don’t think that they actually have a ‘true’ role player on their roster.  I guess that they have a lot of guys playing a ‘role’.  Maybe Luke Kendall coming off the bench to add some spark?

Adelaide 36ers: David Cooper is a prime example of a role player.  Whenever he hits the court, his role is to block shots and rebound.  He has made a career out of this and plays within his limitations.

Melbourne Tigers: Steven Hoare is another awesome example of a role player.  His overall game is extremely well rounded and he can contribute in a lot of ways.  Darryl Corletto is another type of role player – an assassian off the bench

South Dragons: I am going to say that Tremell Darden is a role player.  Having a non superstar import in a Brian Goorjian coached team isn’t that unusual.  Darden is a starter who plays his role.

Sydney Spirit: Another import – David Gruber.  I have only watched them play on TV once this season but his role seems to be pretty defined.  He is a meat and potatoes type of guy who does not try to do things that he is not capable of.  He will never be a star in the league but he is pretty solid.

Wollongong Hawks:  I truly believe that the major issue with the Hawks at the moment is that they have to many role players and not enough superstars.  Late in his career, Matt Campbell has started to play the role of a defensive player and three point shooter.

Gold Coast Blaze: Casey Frank is an energetic rebounder / garbage offensive type of a player.

Townsville Crocodiles: I am going to say that Brad Williamson is a role player.  His game is pretty much spot up shooting and he is extremely accurate from the perimeter.

Cairns Taipans: Aaron Grabu is another guy who has had a long career out of playing whatever role his coach needs him to play.

New Zealand: As stated above, I think that Dillon Boucher has been fantastic for the Breakers so far this season. 

So who is the most valuable role player in the NBL this season?  I would like to announce that at this point, the two joint favourites to take out the inaguarl Basketball and Everything in Between Role Player of the Year award would have to be Dillon Boucher and Steven Hoare. 

Congraulations to all nominees for this extremely prestigeous and important award.  Your hard work has not gone unnoticed by the wider NBL communty.

At the request of my fellow host of the TO – The Official Podcast of the TO, my next NBL legends feature will be on Dwayne McClain.  Dwayne was a very athletic 2/3 man who took the league by storm when he first arrived in 1991  He was everything that the Sydney Kings needed him to be at that time – an awesome basketball player, African American, super cool and could talk (marketable)  He was the face of a national advertising campagain for Diet Coke which was a first (and still only) for our sport in this country.

Dwayne was a 6″6′ shooting guard who played his college ball at Villanova.  He was also a member of Villanova’s championship team in 1985 against Georgetown.   I ordered that tape from Pontel in 2002 and didn’t even think about it.  My goals was to get as many NCAA championship games as I possibly could.  Anyway, I was watching the introductions to the game and not really paying to much attention and who should run out but a young Dwayne McClain.  It was bloody awesome.

After his college career, Dwayne played in the NBA with the Indiana Pacers averaging 3.5 points per game in the 45 games that he played in.  Dwayne also played professionally in France, Canada, The Philippines, Indonesia and Greece before coming to Australia.  The turning point was when he joined Magic Johnson’s Touring Dadells Veteran Team.  Dwayne was the young leagues in the squad.  I remember him throwing down a huge reverse jam in one of the games. 

His impact on the Sydney Kings was immediate.  He was confident with the ball and backed himself in most occasions.  He wasn’t the greatest shooter but he could get to the rack and was pretty bloody hard to stop.  He came 3rd in the league MVP voting in 1993, was named to the All NBL first team in 1992 and was selected as a NBL All Star in 1991 and 1997.

Whilst everybody loved the Dwayne McClain from the Sydney era, I actually preferred the one who finished his playing career with the Brisbane Bullets.  In the 1996 season, he started out like a house on fire for the Gold Coast Rollers.  After six games, he he tore up his knee and was unable to see out the season.  The Bullets took a punt and recruited him in the 1997 season and teamed up with Steve Woodberry as the imports for the Bullets.  A lot of his athleticism had deserted him by then, so he relied more on his smarts to get the job done.  It was clinical to watch and proved how good of a player the guy actually was.

The NBL was a better place when Dwayne McClain was in it.  He was awesome, had a NBA type game and was extremely marketable.  Schibz Spiel recently had an article titled ‘Hip Hop Hoops’ and it talked about making the NBL marketable again by attracting marquee American guys.  Dwayne certainly would have fitted into that category. 

Episode 4 of The TO is up for your listening pleasure.  In this podcast we talk about various NBL things including game reviews, game previews, Grandmaster Funks rant about the Cairns Taipans and my rant about Corey Williams. 

In this podcast we had the pleasure of having Boti Nagy join us in the podcasting lounge (Grandmaster Funk’s messy office)  It was awesome that he spent 35 minutes talking to us.  He is interesting to see his opinion on all things NBL and go through the history of the Adelaide 36ers.  It is well worth the listen.

Listen to The TO here

Once again if you are having trouble with downloading it please email me at ashleyproud@gmail.com so that I can sort it at.  184 people have downloaded our crappy little podcast.  Please continue to do so.  This may be our last podcast for a couple of weeks (which we explain about in the podcast)

After having an awesome middle session with my year 5 class on podcasting, I open up my email account eating my lunch and scroll through my usual crap.  I then decide to go to Ozhoopsboards and I noticed this topic about the Cairns Taipans being put into adminstration.  This was not good news people and I let my year five kids know.  One kid said to me “What does that mean?”  When I told him that means that the team could go under and not finish the season, his response was “That is pretty crap!”  An honest but blunt response!

I then found this article which also talks about the current situatioin. The thing that ticks me off about this whole situatioin is this quote:

He said the club was losing “hundreds of thousands” of dollars each season

If this is the case (and I am not doubting that it is) then why is he continuning to pump money into the team?  To me it smells a little bit more of a conspiracy theory.  I think that they were given the word that there was only going to be one team from Far North Queensland in the NBL next year and they just decided to pull the pin now.  I think that this is so irresponsible of the owners to allow the situation to develop into this type of a situations. 

In the above article it is also quoted that the Taipans are losing $800 000 a season!  If this is true, what the hell is going on?  $800 000 is not just a tax write off for some rich man.  That is a hell of a lot of money.

So once again the NBL is back to the drawing board.  They saved the Spirit and what will they do now if they can’t find a new owner?  Has a precendent been set?  It will be interesting to say the least.  Lets not make any bones about it – Sydney is much more important to the NBL than Cairns.  I love the Taipans and they have awesome fans, but they don’t have 4 million people. 

Will Nathan Jawai be able to chip in some money like Andrew Bogut did to make sure that his former team mates are getting paid?  The smartest man in this entire scenario is former assistant coach Aaron Fearne.  I am not sure who is paying Aaron (the Raptors or Nathan himself) but at least he still has a job.  Alan Black could be without one very very soon!

 

Version 6 of Tuesday’s Random Rambles is here for your reading pleasure.  Hopefully you enjoy it!

- JR and DJ Rod have produced another awesome episdoe of The OT.  In this episode they have Spirit coach Rob Beveridge as their guest.  Awesome stuff!  I would have to say that if BG doesn’t want the Olympic job, he should be a shoe in for it.  After the 2012 Olympic Games, he should be the man to lead the national team for a long time to come.   My kids were actually using it the other day to slice in things for their podcasting project.  So therefore JR and DJ rod are influcing the future generations of podcasters in far western Queensland!

- How awesome was it to see the Crocs smash the Breakers on Thursday afternoon?   Grandmaster Funk was at Bollon Speech night and his wife came over to my house.  She lugged over his two children (he is a baby making machine) and I sat down on my lounge room floor (in 40 degree heat!) and played cars and turned on Fox Sports and watched the game live.  My son stopped playing with the cars and went and got an ice block.  When he returned, JR hit a three and my son pointed to the screen and started saying ‘Good boy good boy’.  When Phil Jones pushed Corey Williams in the back on the fastbreak, he pointed to the screen and said ‘Bad boy bad boy’  It was pretty funny stuff. Kirk Penney and Andrej Lemanis were obviously frustrated at the loss.  The hugest difference was that the Breakers shot 5/25 from the 3 point line and the Crocs bench had as many threes by themselves.  Trevor Gleeson was obviously very happy that his team won and they exectured his game plan.    On another point, Corey Williams looked very frustrated throughout this game.  Michael Cedar was once again fantastic and Kelvin Robertson was solid.  Maybe Cedar watched JR’s shooting instruction video!

- On another Crocs related topic, it was awesome to see that they are running a lot of Flex Offense options.  For those who don’t know what the flex offense involves, check out this Wikipedia article about it.  The Crocs are an ideal team to run this type of system as all of the players on their program have the ability to play inside / outside, slash to the basket and make descions.    Every man and his dog knows that the Melbourne Tigers run the shuffle offense to death  Continuity Offenses involve players being interchangable and being able to do multiple things.

- The Gold Coast Blaze smashed Perth 129 – 97.  In the latest episode of the OT, JR talks about the fact that if Perth lose this game, it could be the end for coach Connor Henry.  Only time will tell if this proves to be true.  Losing by 32 points can’t be good for your job security.  Remember when Cal Bruton replaced Alan Black after that shocking road double in Melbourne in 1990?  Whilst this is an entirely different time period and management team, the Wildcats fans demand excellence and they don’t seem to be getting it at the moment.  My mail tells me that Joey Wright actually had this job and declined it when the Bullets were saved.  Apparently Henry was their 2nd choice.  Maybe now that Joey is avaliable again, they might bite the bullet and pull the pin.  Gordie McLeod is another well proven coach who is currently unemployed.  Only time will tell I guess.  If the Wildcats are serious about winning a title this year, they would hire Wright straight away.  Every interview that I hear with Henry is not exactly inspiring me with confidence about his team. 

- At the other end of the coaching spectrum, Brian Goorjian is eyeing off a top two finish for the South Dragons.  If the Dragons don’t finish in the top two this season, they would have to finish off the remainder of this season pretty poorly.  I am prepared to call it now – the Dragons will be in the top two!

- Speaking of coaches, former Gold Coast and Wollongong import Andre LaFleur is continuning to flourish as an assistant coach at the University of Connecuit.  It is awesome to see that he has continued on in basketball.  I remember when the Bullets toured the USA and it was between him and Derek Rucker for the import PG spot.  Rucker obviously was the choice but LaFleur caught on with the Rollers.  I think that LaFleur played SEABL with Mt Gambier prior to playing with the Rollers.  The import pairing of Mike Mitchell and himself was a pretty handy combination.  LaFleur was more of a playmaker than Rucker.  I actually preferred him to be honest.  He was a pretty handy player back in the day!

- The NBL site has a good interview with Damien Martin.   It is a shame that he has broke his wrist and is out of action again.  The guy can go!

- Has there been any more movement on the Fox Sports $35 Million deal?  It was huge news a few weeks ago and it seems to have just gone off the radar.  If I was the NBL, I would be organising this as soon as possible in this uncertain financial times.  Get them to sign the contract Chuck!

- I think that I have stumbled upon an awesome Basketball podcasting site.  Check it out and let me know what you think!   Lots of podcasts and not enough time to check them all out.   The TO – The Official Podcast of Basketball and Everything in Between continues to grow and grow!  Over the course of our three episodes, we have had 181 downloads.  Not bad for a couple of chumps!

- The Official NBL podcast is up again and it is another professionally produced episode.  I really enjoy Nigel Purchase.  He was one of my favourite players as a youngster.  It seems that they have been listening to the TO and predicting the final make up of the play off teams etc. 

- Daniel Johnson is taking Sam McKinnon’s place on the active roster of the Tigers.  We all wish Mr Mackinnon the best and hope that he returns to the court sooner rather than later.  JR talks about taking advantage of the opportunities that life presents you.   

- Former Sydney King, Dontaye Draper, has exploded for a career high 29 points to lead Saos Hyeres to a huge comeback triumph over Keravnos in the EuroChallenge  I really enjoyed have Draper in the league last year and really think that some NBL teams could have done worse than sign him.  I love the way that he handled the ball and admired his guts when he tore his hamstring and played in the Grand Finals series.

- Luke Nevill from University of Utah is starting to put up some good numbers.  In the 95 – 81 victory of Oregon, he had 18 points and 10 rebounds.  To be honest, I haven’t heard a whole lot about this guy.  After reading his bio, I noticed that he earned honorable mention all-state and second-team all-region honors in 2003-04 while playing at Kell High School in Marietta, Ga., as an exchange student.  Just like Daniel Dillion, he went down the High School path in the USA.  It is a different path to others but the results is still the same (e.g. In the NCAA)  Hopefully this guy produces the goods.  There is some talk about him going to the NBA.  That would be awesome!

- Here is a YouTube clip of Daniel George (Geelong Supercats SEABL player) from his college career.  Daniel attended a couple of colleges in the USA and has bounced around with some NBL teams.  He is a solid player (and a Facebook friend of mine!)

- I would like to declare the BigV website the best website of all of the official sites for the leagues around Australia (including the NBL one!).  I love the player profiles and reading some obscure guys ones is pretty funny.  For example, some dude named Mark McFadden lists his career highlight as being an unsigned part time gangsta rapper.

-The 1993 Plays of the Year is awesome.  It was lots of fun to watch all of the old players from the NBL!  It is great to go down memory lane occasionally!

Every Tuesday morning, the rubbish man comes to my house.  My two year old son gets very excited and wants to help me take out the rubbish.  For some reason he just knows that it is Tuesday and the rubbish has to go out.  His first words every Tuesday morning is ‘Rubbish Man…come today’ and every time I hear him say that, I think of Dusty Rychart – the import for the Wollongong Hawks who needs a new nickname.  The Garbage Man in my opinion is the worst nickname in the NBL!

 

For those who don’t know about Dusty (and if you don’t you must have been under a very large rock for the past couple of years), he is currently an import for the Wollongong Hawks.  He has previously played for the Brisbane Bullets, Adelaide 36ers and Victoria Giants.  He is universally respected around the league for his work ethic and the little things that he brings to the teams that he is a member of.  Before coming to Australia, he attended the University of Minnesota and was a Big Ten All Conference member in 2001-02.  He has a career average of 15.6ppg, 8.7rpg and 1.6apg.

 

It was awesome that he (and the other guys who have done it for us) took some time to participate in this interview.  Hopefully you all enjoy it!

Firstly, the hottest topic in the NBL at the moment – The Sydney Spirit.  What is your take on the whole situation?

I think the whole state of the NBL is hurting at the moment and the Sydney Spirit are at the front of the pack. I feel for the guys on the team as they all have families and mortgages that need to be taken care of.  I wish them nothing but the best and hope they can get through the year

The second hottest topic in the NBL at the moment – The New NBL.  Do you think that the Wollongong Hawks will be a part of it?

 I really don’t know. You hear so many different things through out the year and no one really knows who will stay and who will go. I am sure the new NBL would want to keep the only foundation club in the league. 

I have been an avid reader of your site: d-rych.com since it’s inception.  What were the original thought processes behind the site? 

The whole idea was to inform mostly my family and friends of my basketball travels and life but it evolved into more than friends and family as many supporters of Minnesota Gopher Basketball follow it as does many Australian fans. I get great feedback and love the interaction but would love to get more involved with more interaction on my site with comments and recommendations.  Overall d-rych.com is something that I will look back at in 20 years and be glad that I wrote all those thoughts down.

You played your high school basketball at Grand Rapids High.  Tell us about your high schooling basketball career?  

High school basketball was great for me but coming from a hockey town many didn’t appreciate basketball. I loved it from the start and brought our team to the state tournament for the first time in 75 years which was something special and the school’s All-state first team selection.  It was one of the best times of my life for basketball and helped me get to where I am at today.

After you graduated High School, you went to the University of Minnesota and redshirted a season.  What was the reasoning behind your redshirting?

I redshirted because I was a walk-on and pretty skinny.  The redshirt year would allow me to gain experience playing against NBA playes such as Sam Jacobson, Quincy Lewis and get stronger.  It gave me a chance to adapt to the college game and adjust to life away from home for the first time in my life. I learned a lot that first year and grew from it.

After that you played four more years at UM.  You seemed to put up some pretty good numbers in your senior and junior years.  What was your college career highlight?

Definitely the 1999 NCAA Tourament game Vs. Gonzaga. It was my coming out and I made the most of starting. It was a total rush to be on the national stage like that and putting up numbers like 23-18 was awesome.  That game gave me respect and I was rewarded with a scholarship the next 3 years. 

Any thoughts of going the CBA / NBDL path in the USA at any stage?

The NBDL wasn’t around when I was leaving college but the CBA was. I never thought of playing in those leagues because there isn’t much money.  I love the game of basketball but I was going to play it for nothing I wanted to save money and prepare for after basketball with it. 

You played the first season in Australia for two franchises: Adelaide and Victoria.  Take us through your arrival in Australia and your thoughts on the old Victorian Giants.

I really didn’t know what to expect from Australia. I was so naive about the whole situation and really didn’t know there was a league down here until a week before I flew.  I was a typical American that thought that all Aussies had kangaroos for pets and there were no cities and nothing but outback. I just got on the plane and it was kind of an adventure as I didn’t have expectations. 

The old Giants were something interesting as they were low budget as you could get. Coming from a huge college where we had everything at our finger tips and everything was brand new to old school equipment was a shock.  Plus playing in front of a packed 15,500 every night in the Big Ten to barely getting 1500 was a major shock too. No one sat me down before I left and said professional life is way different than college. I wish someone would have told me all about it but I guess that I something you learn along the way and grow from it.  Then I got released a few weeks before Christmas which really hurt me because I wasn’t playing bad and they didn’t give me any excuses as to why they cut me so still today I don’t have closure on the situation. The owners and coaches both pointed the fingers at each other as who cut me.  Overall it was a blessing in disguise because Adelaide picked me up and I was aloud to play my game under Phil and the rest is history.

Mark Wright – were you a fan?

HELL NO!  Not that much of a fan. I wasn’t the only one that had a problem but I should thank him for letting me go so I could play on in Adelaide. Thanks Mark

You had three and a half good seasons in Adelaide.  What are the Adelaide fans like?

The fans in Adelaide are the best in Australia.  You just get this buzz before home games and when you get 5000+ in the Dome and rolling the atmosphere is electrifying! Wish it was like that everywhere in Australia.

What was your favourite memory during the Adelaide years?  Who were you favourite team mates?

The one thing that sticks out in Adelaide was the game winning shot in Carins and we ran straight from the court to the vans to the hotel and Carins stayed around thinking the game wasn’t over.  I still laugh about that and our Asst coach SJ telling us to hurry out! Haha 

I loved the guys that I played with at Adelaide and keep in touch with most. Guys like Brett Maher, Willie farely, Charles Thomas, Cooper, Oscar Foreman, Justin Wilky, Nick Hambour, Ninja, Paul Rees, Phil and SJ. Great teammates.

After plying your trade with the 36ers, you ended up at the Brisbane Bullets.  How did this come about?

The 36er’s were in financial trouble and only could offer a one year deal and then Brisbane saw that I was on the market and put forth a deal that was too good to refuse and 3 years so it was a no brainer.  It was a move that I don’t regret as I got to win a championship and be part of a team that is arguably the best ever.

In your first season with the Bullets, you won a championship.  What would you say that was the key reason that the Bullets were successful that year?

It was because of great team chemistry. That team had something about it that I can’t explain. The G-Unit which was our bench played a huge role in getting us the ring that year. They came out and won many games for us and challenged us every practice. 

 We have all heard the story about the Bullets going under last year.  When did you find out what was going on and what was your initial reaction?

We were all sitting around in Melbourne for breakfast right before our playoff game vs. Tigers and it was all over the front page of the paper.  As I walked down to breakfast guys looked as if someone died and everyone had a paper and you could say we all had a piece of us die that day.

You played a handful of games for the Brisbane Capitals last year in the QABL.  How was that as an experience playing under Bruce Palmer?

Bruce is a great basketball mind and says some funny stuff.  It was great just to play and get into shape before the NBL. At the time I still didn’t have a team in the NBL to play for so it was kind of a way to stay on the radar of NBL teams

Then all of a sudden you end up in Wollongong.  How did come about?

The Hawks were the only team that were interested in me after the Bullets went under.  So I had no other choice but to play but was happy to be somewhere since 3 teams have went out of the league. 

Wollongong went through a number of imports last season.  What do you think that you bring to the table for the Hawks?

I just bring what I usually bring. Hard work and hustle and if given the opportunity I will produce. 

What are the differences between Joey Wright and Eric Cooks as coaches?

Joey is more intense and in your face than Cookie. Every coach is different but Cookie loves Hawks basketball and the players.  Both are good coaches in their own right.

What are the teams goals for the remainder of the season?

I think the goal is to make the playoffs and stay in the league next season 

I read with interest that you may be becoming an Australian citizen.  Any movement on that issue?

If all goes to plan it should fall into place march 2009 which will be good and allow me to play for a few more years longer than I would if I was an import.

Who would win a 3 point shooting contest – Ron Ratliff or Kevin Brooks?

That is a tough one. I know rat can stroke it but KB was a game winner so I would have to say game winner would be KB but a game of horse would be Rat.

What are your thoughts on the return of a Brisbane franchise to the NBL?

I don’t know. The fans never really got behind us up there until we made the run to the Championship and it just seems as if they aren’t interested up there. Just my thoughts but Brisbane is a great place to live so I would love to see them in the league again.

Is Big Joe as good as he is cracked up to be as a team manager?

Overrated…lol  but the big man is a legend in the league. Everyone knows who he is. He always manages to get on FOX with his subway and Casey and Carfino love talking about the big fella.  Heard he has had some tough times overseas managing and is looking to come back so I am sure someone will demand is services in one way or another.

So there you go.  Hopefully he gets Australian citizenship and is here for years to come

 

 

 

 

Another Saturday, another edition of Silly Sollies.  Here we go:

- Whilst I try and keep this blog purely Australian hoops related, I am not going to be tied down to that.  Once again I want to comment on the Stephon Marbury situation which is really satring to annoy me.  Dr Browntorios from The Hoop Doctors recently wrote an article titled Is Stephon Marbury of the New York Knicks the Mike Tyson of the NBA?  Whilst some readers of the article might think that it is a comparision between their awful head tatoos (I wonder if these tatts would make the list on the OT) it isn’t.In the article Dr Browntorios states:

So is Stephon Marbury now the Mike Tyson of the NBA? I’d have to say no.
Why?

Because for Marbury to be the Mike Tyson of the NBA, he would have had to at one point been the best in the game. The MVP caliber point guard, the best and brightest of the point guards in the league. Similar to a current Chris Paul, or Deron Williams. Or even in the recent past a Steve Nash or Jason Kidd. Don’t forget there once was a time when Mike Tyson was the best of the best. The youngest of champions, raw fury and power all bottled up and waiting to explode on his next opponent. He was always a little rough around the edges but no one could deny his brilliance in the ring. Then he crashed and burned. He basically imploded and fell apart as an athlete, as a person, and as a boxer.

In my opinion Marbury never achieved even the slightest level of “greatness” to be compared to the Mike Tyson’s of the world. Sure he’s a high profile athlete that ensured the implosion of his career through a series of bad choices and attitude problems. Sure he was an all-star caliber player at one point, but Marbury was never in the conversations of an MVP level player, or even a top 3 or 4 point guard in the league. So enough with the Marbury-Tyson comparisons already……

I think that I agree exactly with what Dr Browntorios states and wish that he would just get over himself and start to play.  It is purely his own fault that he has been supsended and he has nobody to blame but himself. 

- Over the past couple of weeks there has been a lot of talk about Kirk Penney and if he should be in the NBA.  The latest people to come out and say it are Brian Goorjian and Conner Henry.  Kirk Penney is an outstanding player who is well respected by the entire basketballing community in New Zealand and Australia.  Brian Goorjian even thinks that he is the best player in the league at the moment.  In my opinion he is a very very good player who it is awesome that he is in the league.  At best he would be a role player in the NBA but he could certainly fill a role.  That role would be as a shooter.  He would never be a defensive stopper or slashing two guard but he could hit the open shot pretty effectively in my opinion.

- 35 year old Martin Cattalini has done a Cher and turned back time and found some form.  It is good to see that he is getting the job done.   I have always been a huge fan of the ‘Cat’ and love the way that he attacks the basket.  He has a new role as a weapon coming off the bench and I feel that this could extend his career for an extended period.  Hopefully he can keep on keeping on.

- Chris Anstey is ready for the rowdy reception that he will receive on Saturday night when the Tigers travel to Adelaide to take on the 36ers Anstey has never been a crowd favourite in the city of churches and after the ‘Maher episode’ he is surely to be more unpopular.  Good luck Chris!

- The Bendigo Braves are currently touring the USA and seem to be having a lot of fun! I remember a few years ago when I toured the USA with the Brisbane Capitals as their assistant coach.  We played Washington, Washington State, Oregon, Portland, Portland State, Boise State and Montana in the space of around 14 days.  It was an awesome experience but a pretty bloody hard slog and a lot of travel.  The pre season tour used to be a done thing for most NBL teams but it seems to have gone from the radar due to our scheduling change.

- Apparently Brendan Joyce is going to apply to be the next coach of the Boomers!  I am sure that the Wollongong fans will be happy to hear about this.  I wouldn’t be betting millions on it like Gold Coast owner Owen Tomilson has on the NBL 

- It seems as though Greg Vanderjagt has landed on his feet as the development officer at Southern Districts. 

- I stumbled across this YouTube clip of the signing of Simon Kerle.  He certainly could never be accused of being a quietly spoken young man!  This got me thinking – how awesome would it be to have Simon Kerle commentating on Fox Sports or writing a column for a website (how about Basketball and Everything in Between Simon?) or making comments on the game.  He certainly was outspoken and was a character which we need in our game at the moment.   

- Whilst I am on the YouTube bandwagon, check out this clip of a 3 point shooter getting monstered on the closeout  I wonder if JR included in his shooting video how avoid getting killed as you are shooting the three ball.  Also check out this situation where a player from the University of Virgina uses the hoop to commit a hard foul on his Tenesse opponent.  Here is a highlight package of the Top Ten unsportsmanlike plays from Sportscenter, a NBA ref taking out a player, a huge no call by a ref on a charge blcok situation and a NBA player called David Wesley produces the worst lay up in the history of the game