I am trying to stay away from the whole Sydney Spirit thing until I have time to sit down and write a decent post about it.  I am attempting to focus on the positivies of our league the moment.  I am very upset at the owner of the Sydney Spirit and he has pissed me off!

So on Friday night, I was flicking through the channels and came to the live telecast of the Canberra Capitals vs Sydney Flames game.  Now I am the first to admit that I don’t follow a lot of the WNBL (and I should!!) but I religiously watch the Opals play.  I used to love watching the old NWBL as a kid and players such as Michelle Timms, Robyn Maher, Shelley Gorman and Regina Days amongst others.  The WNBL is more about execution of plays and the NBL is more reliant on athleticism to get it done.

Anyway, a time out was called in the game and it was in the Capitals huddle.  I was extremely impressed with how Graf spoke to her troops and they all seemed to be into what she was saying.  So I asked myself the question: Could Carrie Graf coach in the NBL?

I went to her profile and found out the following:

Carrie Graf surprised many punters when she overcame the departure of Capitals legend Lauren Jackson to guide Canberra to the 2006/07 Championship; her fifth as a WNBL head coach. The reigning WNBL Coach of the Year has also been an assistant coach with the Opals (1996 and 200 Olympic Games) and a head coach with the New Zealand Tall Ferns and the Phoenix Mercury in the WNBA. In 2007, she led the Australian women’s University basketball team to a Gold Medal at the World Uni Games in Bangkok, Thailand

So she certainly seems to ahve the credentials in regards to her coaching pedigree.  Her manner seems to be very assertive (which it would need to be if she was coaching the men) and she has been involved with the greatest womens coach in Australian basketball history – Tom Maher.  If I remember correctly (and I am pretty unsure of this) she was a member of Brian Goorjian’s coaching staff at the Victoria Titans for a while. 

So could she coach in the NBL?  I think a few years ago, Mt Gambier had a women head coach for their SEABL Mens program.  They were reasonably successful I think.  I honestly feel that if she had the right scenario and team, she would be a success as a coach in the NBL.

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! 

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!

 
I am going to make every Tuesday a random rambling day where my blog entry doesn’t just have one category – it has many.  Here goes:

- The NBL has fined Perth Wildcats coach Connor Henry for comments made to the media following his team’s 103-99 loss to the New Zealand Breakers on Thursday night. I don’t exactly know what he said to get the fine but the NBL has become very very sensitive towards players and coaches critising officals. I am not say that we should become a ref bashing league but a coach should be able to say something like “Hey some of those calls down the stretch really affected the outcome of the game”.  They shouldn’t be able to say “That loser screwed us and his seeing eye dog needs to be on the court with him next time”.

- It looks as though James Harvey has caught the Brendan Joyce disease of not living in the real world. Let me state this very clearly for everyone to hear: there is absolutley no way that the Gold Coast Blaze will make the NBL playoffs this season.  Maybe Chocko needs to start playing some of the young kids.  Talking of the Blaze, it seems that Justin Bowen is the man to replace the injured Hawkins. Joyce had this to say about him:

He is a genuine three-spot man. We were looking for someone obviously who could put the ball on the floor and get to the rim, and someone who can create scoring opportunities for himself and others and is solid at both ends.

I will say this – unless this guy is a dead set superstar, the Blaze are in for a long long year.

- Darren Ng has posted the third part of his three part story on the pre season trip to China. It is a good read!

- Boti Nagy is still calling for the head of Mark Tyndale This scatching article was written a while ago which is very critical of Sixers management.

- Rhys Martin’s car got torched whilst he was away in Cairns on a road trip. This is very very average. Speaking of Martin and the Hawks, I am still on Lindsay Tate’s case.  His game against the Taipans on Saturday night was once again not that impressive. Come on Eric Cooks – what are you thinking?

Righto. That will do! See you all tommorow.

I couldn’t think of an exact title or subject for this blog entry, so I decided to just look at some random NBL stuff and write about it.  Here we go:

- Tony Ronaldson this weekend will surpass Andrew Gaze as the player who has played the most amount of NBL games.  A lot of people love the Bear and some hate him.  I remember when he went to Arizona State and came back half way through his freshman season and signed with the Eastside Melbourne Spectres.  He has been to multiple World Championships and Olympic Games and can be credited with hitting one of the biggest shots in Australian basketball history (QF game against Croatia at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta)  I love the Bear and how he plays the game.  Breakers fans are blessed to have him.

- It seems that Dragons import Tremmell Darden may have turned the corner and finally found some form I picked him up early (5th round) in the FNBL draft. I got rid of him when he was producing nothing. Only time will tell if his form can hold. I haven’t seen any of his games but appartently he can get it done at the defensive end.

- How awesome is it that Lindsay Gaze is going to coach Tianjin in the Chinese Basketball Association How long do you think that it will be until they are running the shuffle? I will bet during the first game! This guy is a true ambassdor for our sport. Can anybody say Asian Champions League?

- I was really disappointed to read that the NBL want be holding an All Star game this season In his article Boti Nagy refers to this season as a ‘tread water season’ It certainly seems that way doesn’t it? Mookie from A Stern Warning also has a great blog that explores heaps of different basketball concepts. He also agrees with me about the removal of the All Star Game. The All Star game is a chance to get all of the best players in one location and showcase their skill set. Is Chuck Harmission listening?

- If there was a ‘I hate the way that Lindsay Tate plays basketball’ club, I would defintely join. In my brief viewing of the game on Wednesday night, I counted four travels that were not called. Come on Eric Cooks, play Rhys Martin more.

- Former 36ers player Darren Ng has a great blog that has been outlining his season so far in Singapore. There is a great write up of the China vs Invitational Australian Team. It is an interesting read.

- Mookie has also wrote an interesting article on the Wollongong Hawks Some of the Hawks players individual stats are down but they are playing much better. They got the job done against the Taipans the other night. How long can it last for? Kavossey was huge down the stretch for them. I also love the way Anthony ‘I take no crap from Martin Cattalini’ Petrie plays.

- Patrick Hunt has been appointed to the new role of AIS Applied Technical Advancement Coach commencing in January 2009. That certainly is a big job title. I wonder what will actually come of it. Basketball Australia is looking to secure international success by appointing Australian Olympic legends Andrew Gaze, Andrew Vlahov and Rachael Sporn have been appointed by Basketball Australia to help evaluate the success of the Boomers and Opals Olympic programs following their recent campaigns at the Beijing Games, including making recommendations on what is required to secure medals at the London Games in 2012. Whilst all three of these people have very impressive credentials, the most important thing is getting our coaching staff sorted out and identifying game styles etc.

- The Gold Coast Blaze have parted company with Juaquin Hawkins due to injury concerns. I applaud this choice and can’t believe that they actually bought him back this year. Before his minor stroke last year, his stats were not overly impressive. He came in with a lot of hype but never really delivered a whole lot. John Rillie commented on The OT with JR and Rod about this scenario and had some inside mail that the Blaze were looking at former 36ers import Mike Chappell. This is not a good sign for the Blaze people. Not good at all!

- My new team the Sydney Spirit take on the South Dragons tonight in Melbourne. It should be an interesting match up. If the Spirit can pound the offensive glass consistently, they may be in with a chance. The Worthington (if he is playing) vs Knight matchup will be the key and the Martin vs Gibson matchup will also be crucial. My prediction: Spirit by 5!!

As I was watching one of my favourite reality TV shows – Project Runway, an ad break came on. My wife was cooking dinner and my legend 2 year old son Jalen (yes I named my son after Jalen Rose: I have loved him since the Fab 5 era at Michigan and my wife loved the name. Except on the day that he was to be born, she wanted to spell it Jaylen and I talked her around!) had gone to bed. Earlier at 7:00pm we had been watching another family favourite – Home and Away During the ad breaks I switched the TV over to Fox Sports and checked out some of the Hawks v Taipans game. Jalen got super excited and started calling out ‘Basketball Basketball Basketball’ I quickly changed the channel back before my wife realised what was happening and told him to be quiet. Anyway,  the ad break came on for Project Runway and my wife hit the ‘back’ button on the remote and it changed over to the game.  She realised that it was a close game and kept it on (to my excitement!)  It was just after half time and something was going wrong with the shot clock.  They had a close up on the coaching staff of the Hawks and I noticed that one of my favourite all time NBL Players Kevin Brooks was a member of the coaching staff of the Hawks. This got me thinking: who has the best assistant coaches in the league?   Then my next thought was ‘This would be an awesome blog entry’.

So here we go.  Here is a team by team breakdown of the assitant coaches.  I will attempt to do my best in being fair and impartial.  I am by no means an expert but I think that I have a pretty firm grasp on who is who in the world of assistant coaches in the NBL.

Cairns: Mark Beecroft is left as the only assistant coach after Aaron Fearne left the Taipans to be with Nathan Jawai in Toronto.  Mark has an extensive coaching background and has been a fixture on the Cairns basketball scene for a number of years. He is a good bloke who knows what he is talking about.

Townsville: Rohan Short (on his profile he has the most obvious nickname of all time – Shorty ) and Lyndon Brieffies (who I have known for years) both seem to have solid understanding and experiences. Undies was a solid NBL and ABA player for a number of years.

Gold Coast: Mark Watkins has had a stint as a head coach for the West Sydney Razorbacks and some time with the Canberra Cannons. He was criticised for his teams underperformance during his time as head coach of the Razorbacks. Not sure of him. To be honest – I haven’t heard to many positive things about him.

Wollongong: I visited the Hawks website to get some information but unfortunately all I got was a list of names (Kevin Brooks and Matt Flinn). I have no clue who Matt Flinn is and couldn’t tell you a thing about him. Everybody knows who KB is but I wonder how good of a coach he is. He was an outstanding player who had stints with the 36ers and Kings. Brooks started his managerial career as head coach of the Australian Basketball Association Woodville Warriors. In June 2005 he joined the Stamford Grand Basketball Academy in Adelaide, South Australia as assistant coach, training a future player-base for the 36ers. In 2007, Brooks was named coach of the Wellington-based Central City Saints He was a great player!

Sydney: Shawn Dennis and Brett Coxsedge both have solid pedgree’s and have been around the scene for a while. I think that Coxsedge was involved at the NSWIS level and Dennis has bounced around the league as a head and assistant coach at Newcastle, an assitant coach at Woolongong and now at the Spirit. I think that he also coached in Korea or Japan for a while.

Melbourne: Darryl McDonald, Warwick Giddey and Ian Stacker form an interesting trio for head coach Alan Westover. McDonald is one of (if not the) greatest PG and imports to ever play in our country, Giddey was a solid solid player and Stacker has had extensive head coaching experience in the NBL. Stacker really polarised people – you either loved him or hated him, but he generally got the job done. I personally feel that this is the strongest combination out there and the Tigers are lucky to have them.

South Dragons: Guy Malloy has been in the NBL for ever and a day. He has extensive head coaching experience and has gone a ‘full circle’ and ended back with BG again. I have no clue who Craig Simpson is but he has a cool job title – Video Coordinator / Assistant Coach Malloy’s coaching experience is a bonus here.

Adelaide: Richard Hill and Liam Flynn. I have known Liam since he used to coach the under 14 boys at Southern Districts in Qld. Richard Hill is not a name that I have ever heard of. Steve Brehney was here for ever and a day.

Perth: Mark Radford came from NW Tasmania in the SEABL. He is a first year assistant in this league. Mick Downer is another Southern Districts old boy who has held jobs with the QAS and WAIS. Interesting that a rookie head coach would take two rookie assitant coaches into battle with him.

New Zealand: Dean Vickerman shot to fame by being a member of the Melbourne Tigers who wore red boots. In Andrew Gaze’s book (look out for a book review next week on this!!) Vickerman tore strips off of Lanard Copeland at their first training session. He has had coaching stints in the NZNBL, Singapore and the QABL. Judd Flavell played in the NZBL for 14 years and is entering his third year with the Breakers.

So to wrap it up:

Assistant with the most kids starting with the letter ‘D’: Daryl McDonald
Best staff: Melbourne Tigers. It isn’t even close
Worst staff: Perth Wildcats (followed closely by Adelaide) No experience at all
Best assistant who would win a game of one on one: Kevin Brooks.
Best assistant to set a screen: Lyndon Brieffies.
Assistant who problary should be a head coach: Ian Stacker or Guy Malloy. Both have proven track records.
Assistant who will problary be asked to takeover mid season: Mark Watkins (that is if the Hammer doesn’t want to player/coach again!)

So there you go.  Assistant coaches are very important to the running of NBL programs.  You have got to love them. 

Go the Spirit!