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.

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)

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!

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

Hello all and welcome back to another version of Tuesday’s Random Rambles.  This is the 5th version of this and once again I will attempt to give my opinion on all things in basketball.  My photo is dedicated to the Sydney Spirit.  They have escaped from extinction but still have a challenge to face.

- A lot has been made over the comments made at the post game press conference in the Melbourne Tigers vs Townsville Crocs game from last Wedneday night.  If you haven’t seen or heard it, click here to find out what I am talking about.  My issue is the attitude of a certain Melbourne import.  He certainly had some things to say and rubbed up some Crocs fans the wrong way. 

- Sydney Spirit Captain Jason Smith has implored on the fans of basketball in Sydney to come to the games.   I truly believe that Sydney is not a dead duck and if we don’t have a solid vibrant franchise in the harbour city, our sport in Australia is doomed?  Whilst it is great that they had a good win against the Dragons on Saturday night, they need to keep the momentum rolling.  I am not sure about how I feel about Julian Khazzuah (wrong spelling) and Derek Low leaving.  I can appreciate that people need to get paid to earn a living but this is a special scenario.  Some fans are calling on Rob Beverdige to replace Low and Khazzuah as soon as possible.    I can appreciate the whole insurance thing but …. I just don’t know!  The guys at asaspace.com have an awesome photo story of the game I especially loved the photo of Dean Uthoff.  That’s Gold!

- I say this is all seriousness: has anybody approached Mark Cuban and asked him if he would like to own the Spirit franchise?  I am deadly serious!  He has money to burn and seems to be really passionate about the sport.  LIke him or hate him, you can not say that he is not a character and the NBL certainly needs them at the moment.  He has recently had some problems with Insider Trading allegations and a failed attempt at taking over ownership of the Chicago Cubs so the time could be right.  Could you imagine Mark Cuban owning the Spirit and they get screwed on a last second call in a game.  He would walk into ’Super Chucks’ office, put his feet up on the desk, write out a check for $1 000 000 and start firing off media reports at a rapid rate!  It is times like these that we have to think outside of the box!  His blog is banned at my work people.  Maybe we should start a campagin to try and get in contact with him and see if he is interested?

- So it looks as though Sam Mackinnon’s season is over due to blood clots on his lungs.  There is also talk that this may be the end of his career.  If this is the case, that is awful and it sucks big time for him.  Unfortunately Sam has been a bit injury prone throughout his career and missed a significant amount of time due to various injuries.  Whilst I think that the Tigers are deep enough to cover this loss, it still doesn’t help them at the PG position.  Mackinnon is a decent ball handler who helps them initate their offense (along with Barlow)  He surely will be missed.

- Rillie still rolling is an article that is currently on the NBL site.  The following is a direct quote from that article:

John Rillie buried rumours of his basketballing demise as he lifted the Townsville Crocs to a come-from-behind 94-90 win over the Taipans in Cairns on Saturday night.

Rillie rattled out 14 final term points including four triples and a field goal in a whirlwind four minute blitz that saw the Crocs blast past the Taipans with a 32-19 final quarter.

 Whilst I don’t necessarily agree that there were rumours of his basketballing demise, it is great to see that the ‘Self Confessed Blogger of the Year’ is running into some form.  JR thinks that his form has turned around because he has gone back to weraing a jockstrap.  Whatever gets the job done will work for me!

-   The next episode of the TO should be out on Wednesday this week.  Some people have seemed to enjoy it, whilst others have hated it!  Our whole purpose for doing it is to spread the message about the NBL and provide more content for people to listen to.  Anyway, hopefully you all enjoy the next one.  Watch out for it people!

- It is great to see Brett Maher putting up some good numbers.  In the game against the Hawks on the weekend, he produced some good stuff.  In the same game, you have got to question Aaron Bruce’s production.  I know that I have done this in the past (and I am sure that I will get a message from a relative about it again!) but apart from his assists, he didn’t (just by looking at the boxscore) seem to have much of an impact on the game.  I am sure that therre is a lot of pressure on him (being a rookie and starting in the NBL) but the 36ers need to start winning some games consistenly and he needs to be a major contributor. 

- St Marys has returned to form with a 79-54 victory of Cal State Fullerton  Whilst this win is defintely expected, it is good to see them back in some form.  Patrick Mills had 21 points which is always pleasing to see. 

- I was thinking about Joe Ingles the other day and how outstanding of a player he is.  There is a lot of well deserved hype out there about Patrick Mills, but my question is this: If Joe Ingles went down the college route, would have have the same hype that Mills has?  I think that might be a blog entry for later on in the week!

- Google Analytics is an amazing thing!  My account tells me that I have had 1 491 visits to this site.  1 322 are from Australia, 65 from the USA, 33 from the UK, 21 from NZ, 16 from Singapore, 6 from Japan, 5 from Canada, 2 from Thailand, South Korea, Ukraine and France and 1 from Malaysia, Tonga, Cayman Islands, Brunei, Portugal and Norway!  From there it also breaks down from each city around the world.  I won’t bore you with that, but I found it bloody interesting.  Thanks again people for joining the revolution to improve coverage of Australian basketball!

I recently stumbled across Darren Ng’s basketball blog and have been an avid reader ever since I found it.  During the last off season, Darren signed with the Singapore Slingers after his most productive NBL season.  Singapore are obviously no longer part of the league and Darren has stuck with the Slingers and played some fantastic basketball and had some great times.  I recently took a punt and asked Darren for an interview and he agreeded.  Enjoy!

Hi Darren.  Thank you for joining us at Basketball and Everything in Between.  How is life treating you in Singapore?

Life is good. The city is great, the people are great and I’ve had no trouble settling in. Admittedly, there have been some ups and downs since I’ve been here, but overall it has been a new experience that has opened up new opportunities for me.

You had a great season last year with the 36ers.  How did you end up in Singapore?

I was pretty happy with my season last year (actually around the time Julius came in I started playing well – I see he’s back!) and Singapore had been trying to get me to come over and play for them. It was a combination of something different for me and having a new experience in my basketball career. I always enjoy challenging myself and this was a new challenge in my life.

The Slingers are playing a series of exhibition games against different Asian teams.  How difficult is it to get yourself up for each game when there is no season and finals series?

There is obviously no playoffs to look forward to at the end of the season, but for me, and I suppose everyone on the team, when you go to play a game no matter what for, the competitive spirit comes out. Then there’s the fans that come out to watch every game and of course the special games where there are 6000+ people in the stadium. There’s also the opportunity every game to showcase what I can do and that in itself also generates interest in the region.

What was your feelings when you found out that the Slingers would not be playing in the NBL?

I was pretty shocked to begin with, of course. None of us had seen it coming. But if you looked at it objectively and did the sums, it was the logical thing to do. I’ve written about it extensively in a post on my blog and you can read more about it there.

I read with interest that Gordie McLeod left the team mid season.  Can you shed any light on that situation and how it occurred?  How did the team feel about him leaving?

Gordie was having some issues with his contract, so chose not to go on. It is tough having him leave as he is such a great coach, one that is highly respected in Australian basketball. But we have a great replacement in Frank Arsego and the team is now moving on.

You had some great games for the 36ers last season (including a career high of 30 points against Wollongong) but the 36ers came up short and missed the play offs.  What was your take on the whole season?

Its probably been talked about a fair bit already – we started slow and probably had a few injuries that cost us at the start. Obviously, when Julius came in we kicked up a gear and about that time I started to play well and find my niche in the team. We were one game away from the playoffs and finishing the season strong so it was a pity we didn’t quite get there.

Who is the best import that you have ever played with?

Julius Hodge.

Obviously playing for Phil Smyth had a great influence on your career.  How was he as a coach?

Phil was one of those coaches who not only coached, but knew how to manage a team. I think he and Steve Breheny complemented each other really well and that is clear from their success. I am indebted to both Phil and Steve for allowing me to play as well as complete my Medical degree – not many others would have been as accommodating. Not only was I able to become a doctor, but at the same time I was able to improve my game to the level it is now.

You took the 2005-06 season off to complete your medical studies.  What strand of medicine are you hoping to practice in at the conclusion of your basketballing career?

I am still considering which path in Medicine I want to take. I would like to play basketball professionally until the stage I feel I have competed at the highest level I can, or feel that I am not competitive anymore. So, I guess the medicine is going to fit around that for a few more years. I’m sure that when my playing days are over I’ll be in for a challenging career in Medicine, as that is just part of my character.

What are your thoughts on the demise of the NBL?  How can it return to its glory days of the past?

I’ve seen the NBL slowly head south since I started playing in the league. I came in at a time where it had peaked and support (particularly in Adelaide) was at a high. It is a shame that this has happened and I think some of the onus has to be put on the people running the league. Some teams have profited, while others have been left behind. When this happens, those struggling teams try to spend over their limits to compete and that’s where problems arise. Three teams fell out of the NBL in the past off season and I know that for a fact Singapore would still be in the league if they had just given us a few allowances, like better scheduling of games (something simple, but they still couldn’t do it). I suspect Sydney and Brisbane could have been saved if the NBL and other teams really wanted. ABC learning was obviously a great supporter of the league and it was unfortunate what happened there and nobody could have seen that coming. That probably kicked things into panic mode a little more. Hopefully this new review has some ideas, but at this stage it is hard to tell. I see that they would like to play in Asia, but their foothold (Slingers) is gone and we are looking towards an ASEAN league in the near future. I really do hope the NBL gets back as there are many great players in Australia and it would be a shame to lose them.

Favourite team mate of all time?

Brett Maher – a great guy, great player and someone I’ve looked up to my whole career. It was a privilege to have played with him.

I am sure that you have heard about the whole Ben Cousins returning to the AFL drama.  What are your thoughts on this?  Should he be allowed to play again?

That’s a hard one. It probably leaves the door open to superstar players thinking they can get away with whatever they like. However, Ben is such a talented player that clubs are willing to take a risk with him. And if he has gotten his life back in order, then good on him. I’m not really sure about this one. I don’t like seeing drugs in sport (or recreational drugs in life in general), so I’m probably just on the ‘not allowing him to play’ side. But it’s tough.

Last question – will we ever see you back in the NBL again?

I guess we’ll see in the future if I’ll be back. Having been up here in Singapore has opened up opportunities that I would have never have imagined possible, so time will tell where my next challenge takes me. If it is the NBL, then I’d be happy to be back.

So there you go.  I personally think that league is worse off without guys like Darren and the other guys who are with the Slingers.  I am glad that they are getting an opportunity to play and get paid but it is not for the best for basketball in Australia.  But it was awesome that he took the time to do this interview.  Check out this YouTube mix of Darren’s highlights with the Slingers and this one from his time with the 36ers and of course visit his blog to keep up to date with the things that are happening with him and the Slingers. 

Welcome to another edition of Saturday’s Silly Sollies.  I would like to dedicate this edition to the Australian Acquastion of the Year Russell Hinder.  Hopefully you will get your starting spot back soon Rusty!  So lets go.  There is a lot of stuff going on in the basketball world.

- Townsville upset the Melbourne Tigers on Wednesday night.  I was sitting there after watching the debarcle that was South Dragons vs Cairns and the score came up on the screen on Fox Sports news after the game.  I have to admit that I did a double take and was amazed to see that the Crocs had knocked off the Tigers.  Good on them for getting it done.  It sounds like it was an awesome game and Michael Cedar got the job done.  It looked like that the Crocs got it done with a lot of guys contributing. 

- On the same night, I had the displeasure of watching the Dragons rip apart the Taipans.  I knew that the Taipans were in for a long night when Darnell Mee was injured to start and didn’t even suit up.  Scott Cook looked reasonably composed against the pressure of the Dragons but Kerry Williams did not.  The Taipans seemed to run through their offensive sets but weren’t getting anything out of it.  There is a lot of pressure of Alan Black.  I think that he deserves to see out the season as he is a good coach and has a proven track record at a number of locations.  I read with interest that the Cairns Convention Centre is still throwing mud around the lease etc.  It will be interesting to see how that pans out.

- Thursday night saw the NZ Breakers give the Perth Wildcats a bit of a basketball lesson. I watched the majority of this game (my wife rang her mother and Grandmaster Funk came over for me to sign some mortgage documents) and to me the most pleasing thing for Breakers fans must be the fact that Kirk Penney was pretty well contained and wasn’t a huge contributer.  I really enjoyed watching Dillion Boucher.  I am the first to admit that I have never been a huge fan of his, but he is the perfect player for this team.  He is a pretty good ball handler, has some basketball smarts and plays a good team game.  I think that the Breakers are defintely now the real deal.  I was pretty amazed to hear the interview with Connor Henery after the game where he criticised CJ Bruton for standing at half court and playing it up to the crowd.  Get over it Connor!  He was trying to get the fans excited (which they should be) and create some atmosphere.  This seems to be an interesting rivilary brewing between these two teams.  When will teams learn not to press the Breakers?  Hopefully soon for them! Shawn Redhage’s best friend Phil Jones was also pretty good during this game. 

- In the latest edition of the OT, JR and DJ Rod discussed all things NBL with Russell Hinder and Crocs Marketing, Media & Communications Manager Mili Simic.  It was different to the usual format of the show and I really enjoyed it.  They were talking about some ideas to increase the popularity of the NBL and one idea floated around was the ‘Bonus Point’.  When the bonus point was introduced into Super 14 Rugby, some people were against the idea but it has proven to be successful.  I am not overly sure about Rusty’s idea about if you get 10 dunks and 10 threes in a game, you get the bonus, but it would sure make for some interesting times.  Thanks again to Russell Hinder for nominating this site as his favourite basketball site.  There is a lot of love here for you!

- Darren Ng has wrote an article about the Slingers latest series of games in Indonesia.  Whilst I can’t exactly imagine basketball being overly competive in Indonesia, good on the Slingers for promoting the game in Asia.  Look out for a Q & A that Darren has done for us that will be published next week (Monday maybe)  It is a great read and he is very articulate (which I am not and I am not even sure if I spelt it correctly!) and you can tell that he is a doctor!!

- Boomers 2010 is the latest entry on JR’s blog.  In his blog, he discusses the team that will represent Australia at the 2010 World Championships in Turkey.  I agree with his assessment on the automatic selections (Andrew Bogut, Brad Newley, Matt Neilsen, David Andersen, CJ Bruton and Pat Mills) and also the guys who should make the cut pretty easily (Mark Worthington, Joe Ingles and David Barlow)  So that is nine guys, which leaves three roster spots avaliable.  There are a lot of guys up for those three spots.  I am not overly sure about who could fill those three spots but I wil have a think about it and blog it soon. 

- Ross Lewis from the Western Australian has wrote an article about Australian basketball’s new head honcho will need to keep a cake of soap in his office. In the article he talks about how Perth Wildcats CEO Nick Marvin has had enough of the swearing of NBL players and coaches and he wants action taken.  I am a bit of a fence sitter on this point.  I can understand that sometimes people become caught up in the moment and can drop the occassional ‘F Bomb’ and the ‘S Word’.  I have never heard anybody say the ‘C word’ that rhymes with runt.  I can also understand that the players and coaches have a responsibility to promote the sport in a positive light. 

- This Greg Evans character is really starting to annoy me now.  It has been revealed that the Sydney players have not been paid for over a month.  I don’t want to blog heaps about it but I will say that I hope that they see out the season and make a deep play off run.  

- Andrew Bogut has a new blog entry up entitled ‘When it Rains, It Pours’   He talks about his injury at the moment and how the whole Sydney Spirit stuff is affected people that he knows and cares about.  I remember reading an interview somewhere where he talked about that one day in the future he wanted to own a NBL franchise but he didn’t want to go in half arsed. 

- In honour of the whole Movember thing, check out this article about the Great Mustaches in NBA history.  My personal favourites are Connie Hawkins and James Edwards. 

- The people out there are really enjoying listening to The TO – The official podcast of Basketball and Everything in Between.  There are some haters out there but generally speaking most people are appreciating our crappy effort to making a contribution to the Australian Basketballing Community.  We enjoy doing it and hopefully get better each week.   Speaking of podcasting, it has become a bit of an obsesison of mine over the past couple of weeks.  Obviously there is The OT and The Official NBL Podcast each week.  Is there any other NBL podcasts out there?  If there are, could you leave a comment at the bottom of this post or email me at ashleyproud@gmail.com  I am sure that you will all appreciate this non basketball related podcast.  

- This is a pretty good interview with Adam Ballinger It is interesting to see how much he loves Larry Bird.  The more I think about his game, the more he is a poor mans Larry Bird. 

- Congratulaitons to the Melbourne Tigers for allowing Bo’s Blog to return. 

The TO – Episode Two

Here is the second episode of The TO.  We discuss the round that was and the round that will be.  For some reason it has the same link as the previous episode but it is a new episdoe.  I am still not sure of this hosting site.  Hopefully it works out well.  We discuss all things basketball.  Look at for future interviews with players.  It is in the pipeline