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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

Before we start I would like to thank the 489 people that my Google Analytics account tells me that has visited my site over the past three weeks.  For those who don’t know anything about this tool, it is well worth checking it out.  It provides you with day to day analysis of visits to your site and where people are from. It is well worth the investment in time.

Anyway, after my Russell Hinder post the other day and discovering that he played some college ball at the University of San Fransisco, it got me thinking about this – how many NBL players (currently on NBL rosters) have American college basketball experience?  For those who are not aware of the college structure in the USA, Wikipedia provides a good analysis of the conferences and how they mesh together. 

Now back to my original question.  I am not just talking about NCAA Division 1.  I am talking Division 2, 3, NAIA and JUCO.  I am also not talking about naturalised Australians in this list.  Here is the list that I have come up with.

Adelaide:  Luke Schenscher, Aaron Bruce and Ryan Kersten

Cairns: Gary Boodnikoff, Ian Crosswhite, Scott Cook, Dean Brebner, Kerry Williams and Matt Smith

Gold Coast: Ben Melmeth

Melbourne: Adrient Sturt, Daniel Johnston, Bo Westover, David Barlow and Tommy Greer

New Zealand: Tim Behrendoff, Tony Ronaldson, Kirk Penney, Thomas Abercrombie, Corey Webster, CJ Bruton and Adam Tanner

Perth:  Adam Caporn, Luke Kendall, Paul Rogers, Alex Loughton and Stephen Weigh

South Dragons: Mark Worthington and Daniel Dillion

Sydney: Clint Reed, Matthew Knight, Damian Martin, Drew Williamson, Luke Martin and Jason Smith

Townsville: John Rillie, Russell Hinder,

Wollongong: Cameron Tragardh, Rhys Martin and Larry Davidson

That is a pretty extensive list!  I am sure that I missed some.  If my mathematics is correct (and I am sure that it is) 31.66% of players who are currently on NBL rosters have attended colleges in the USA in some form.  Some have attended schools for the entire four years (Matthew Knight, Luke Schenscer and Damian Martin), some have had outstanding careers at NCAA Division 2 schools (Mark Worthington), some have had good NAIA careers (Scott Cook), some have attended large schools for short periods of time (Tony Ronaldson and Ben Melmeth) and some have had outstanding JUCO careers (CJ Bruton) 

So what is that attracts Australians to go to college in the USA and coaches in the USA attraction to Australian players?  From a players point of view I think it is the fact that you can live the best part of your long lives overseas and playing the game that you love.  You also get a free education and see another country.  From a coahces point of view, you generally get players with good fundemental skills who enjoy the game.  Coaches from mid major or small schools have absolutley no chance in getting ‘big time’ USA players whilst they have a very good chance of getting a good young Australian recruit.  Patrick Mills at St Marys is the prime example of this. 

I still remember watching Andrew Gaze at Seton Hall for that fantastic Final Four run.  I also remember hearing about two young Australians (I was 11 at the time and they were 18!) called Luc Longley (attending New Mexico State) and Andrew Vlahov (attending Stanford)  These guys were really the trend setters for the young players of today.  I am sure that there are hundreds of guys playing college hoops in the USA at the moment.  The risk is that you really have to go to a school where you can showcase your talents.  I have heard stories of many young aussies who have gone over and played a specific role for their team and have actually returned worse players.

So in summary, if I was in year 12 and wanted to go to university, I would not hesitate to go to the right college in the USA and play some basketball.  These university degrees are worth thousands of dollars and set people up for the future and have the times of their lives.  They just need to make sure that their degrees are recognised in Australia.  If not…..

So all basketball fans around Australia now have 35 million reasons to be happy.  I am sure that everyone has heard the news and knows what is going on.  All I can say is ‘WOW’ and that this is awesome for Australian basketball.  But as I sit here at 7:45am on Sunday morning, I am wondering about the amount of teams in the new league. The magic number being thrown around is 8. I personally feel that 10 is going to be better. My ten team league would be:

Perth
Melbourne
Adelaide
South Dragons
Sydney
Gold Coast
Brisbane
Townsville
Cairns
New Zealand

I know that this is going to russle some feathers with Hawks fans (that was pretty funny, I didn’t even mean it to be!!!) but you can not possibly leave out Cairns or Townsville.

Anyway, I am off to the Bakery to get some bread! More on this tommorow (or maybe this afternoon if my wife lets me on the computer)

Ok, so I am back!  I am currently listening to OH-FM #12: Eight Is Enough from Ozhoops Of course the major topic of the Podcast is the NBL reform. He was talking about the similarities between the A League and the new NBL. The magic number that he keeps mentioning is 8. He was mentioning the possiblity of only having one team in North Queensland.  Derek is not obviously keen on this as he is a huge Crocs fan but he is being a realist.  He makes a point about the fact if Cairns goes, their fans will not automatically follow the new team (and I guess the same goes for if the Crocs go)  He also made an interesting point about whilst Cairns and Townsville aren’t the most popular markets in regards to population, they are the teams which are drawing the most money and have a good business model.  He also talks about the possiblity of not having an Adelaide team due to financial woes in the past 12 months.  I think that it would be disastorous if the league does not have a presence in South Australia.  They have a great venue and keen fans. 

In this article from Fox Sports made the following statement:

Thodey and Basketball Australia interim chief executive Scott Derwin stressed the revamped national league competition for 2009-10 would again start in October.

The independent review advocated a minimum of eight clubs, though Thodey and Derwin suggested that was not set in stone.

However, they suggested financial viability rather than geography was likely to be the major factor in determining which areas were represented.

Thodey said he hoped the criteria for inclusion in the new national league would be finalised before the end of this year

If this is the case, then there is no way that a new league could not have the Crocs and the Taipans.  It sounds like that I am a huge Crocs and Taipans fan but in all honesty I am not.  I just think that they have great fans who consistenly go to games, so therefore they should be rewarded with a team in any new league. 

On another track, what is FIBA’s take on all of this?  When the huge A League review happened, there was a lot of input from FIFA and they were active in the way that they helped the new league promote themesleves.  But FIBA seems to be very silent about all of this.  Isn’t Australia a member of FIBA?  Do they even care about the game in our country?  If they do, they should be flowing some money back through into our country to help promote and sustain the game. 

My only worry about this whole $35 million thing from Fox Sports is the lack of mainstream media coverage on Free to Air TV.  Super 14 and A League is only on Fox Sports and there is very little media coverage.  Unfortunately the NBL isn’t really in the greatest bargining position and $35 million is a lot of money!

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!