Chris Goulding is a development player with the Perth Wildcats.  He was a member of the Brisbane Bullets last year and the Australian Junior Team last year.  He is an exciting player who agreeded to have an interview with me.  Here is the interview:

Hey Goulds!  Thanks for joining us at Basketball and Everything in Between.  First off, your Brisbane Under 16 coach must have been the biggest influence on your career so far.  Would that be a correct statement? (It was me by the way!)

Haha yeah I guess you could say something like that. My under 16 coach was always tough on me, but he definitely knew what he was doing, and coached me to my one and only state championship as a junior. So gotta give him a lot of credit.

To be honest, up until under 18’s, you were a good representive player but nobody would have dreamed that you would be playing in the NBL.  What do you think was the biggest development in your game was when you were top age under 18’s?

In top age under 18’s I got cut from the Brisbane representative team, and moved back over to my home team the Southern Districts Spartans for the season. The biggest thing for me was getting a chance to play. I hadn’t been getting much court time the last couple years and just getting to play gave me some confidence. Couple that with the coaches that believed in me, and that was the biggest thing for my game.

 After making the Queensland South Under 18 boys team, you spent the next season training with the Brisbane Bullets and playing QABL / SEABL with the Southern Districts Spartans.  Was there ever an opportunity for you to go to the AIS and if so, why did you choose not to go?

There was a chance for me to go to the AIS. After our Emus team qualified for the world championships, Marty Clarke asked me if I would like to move to Canberra to be a part of the program. At that time I was already involved with the bullets and was training pretty regularly against some great players, and working hard on my game. I consulted a lot of people, and in the end, it came down to me asking Marty if I could still make the World Championships team if I didn’t decide to move to Canberra. He told me I still could, it would just be harder, as i wouldn’t have the luxury of being in front of the head coach everyday.  So I set my sights on working my but off in Brisbane and making the team. And I ended up achieving my goal of playing for Australia

Playing in your first QABL season for the Spartans, you were coached by Bruce Palmer.  How was he as a coach?

Bruce was awesome. He always managed to get the most out of his guys and make sure they were having fun while doing it. We had a pretty successful team that year and a lot of it had to do with Palmer.

In 2007, you also made the Australian Emus squad and went away to the World Chamionships How was that as an experience?

Being included in that Australian team was the proudest and best time of my career. Going away to the World Championships was something I thought I would never do, and it opened my eyes to the level of talent around the world. Definitely the best experience I have had in basketball.

In the Emus team, you were team mates with Patrick Mills.  How was he as a team mate?

Patty was a great team mate. He was the Captain of the team and I was the Vice Captain so we had a fair bit to do with each other. He was a real good leader on our team. Pat and AJ Ogilvy were definately the standouts on that team, and Im not surprised and couldn’t be happier with how well they are doing over in the States.

What was your experience like as a development player playing for the Brisbane Bullets? 

I loved being with the Bullets, it exposed me to all the ins and outs of playing basketball full time. Joey Wright was great towards me and whenever he got the chance to throw me into the action, he always gave me the nod.

Going up everyday against CJ Bruton, Ebi Ere and Stephen Black would have given you an education on how to play the guard spot.  What was the biggest thing that you learnt from them?

The biggest thing was just the physical nature of this league, and how much more I have to work to make it in this league.  They are 3 of the premier guards in the competition and I couldn’t have asked for better guys to help me through my first year.

We are all aware of the demise of the Brisbane Bullets.  Tell us about the process and when did you find out that they were definitely going under?

We found out that they were definitely going under at the same time as the media and all the fans did. The players and staff received a call and a text message in the morning explaining how guidelines hadn’t been met, and that the licence would be handed back to the NBL.

Last SEABL season you put up some good numbers and had some big games for the Spartans.  Why do you think that your numbers improved?

Mainly, the experience I got from being with the Emus and the Bullets. We also had a very talented team with Adam Gibson, Brad Wiliamson, Peni Nasalo, Justin Brown and Greg Vandejagt, which allowed us all to put up some numbers as opposition teams had more then one or two guys they had to worry about.

So now you are in Perth and you tell me that you are settling in well.  How did you end up in Perth?

Well, when the outlook for the bullets started to get a bit cloudy, I got a call from Mick Downer, who was my u20s coach, he and I had stayed in contact pretty regularly since the tournament. At that time, he hadn’t been appointed Wildcats assistant coach and was just calling to see if everything was all good with me, and if I had any plans of moving on from the bullets or not. When he got appointed at the Wildcats, he put my name forward, I went over for a trial with the team for a couple of weeks, and now I live over here.

What are the differences between the Wildcats and the Bullets organisations?

The main difference between the Cats and the Bullets is the community support we receive over here. All our games are pretty much sold out and the fans love it over here, they go crazy and they are loud and they are the best crowd in the league at the moment.

The Wildcats have one of the deepest rosters in the league.  What are your goals for the remainder of the season with the Wildcats?

My goals are pretty much the same as they have been for the last year or so. I want to help my team in any way I can, and if I get a chance to get out there and help the guys out, ill be ready. At the same time, I want to get better, so I’m going to use all the experience and talent on our roster to help me become a better player.

Last question: being in WA, the whole Ben Cousins thing is sure to be in the news.  Do you think that Ben Cousins should be allowed to play in the AFL?

Touchy subject this one. I don’t have a massive opinion on this, but If he has served his penalty that’s been handed down to him by the AFL, and he has passed all their guidelines and rules that they have had in place, I don’t see why a second chance shouldn’t be granted.

So there you go.  I think that Chris has a huge future in the NBL.  Check out this YouTube highlights package of him. 

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! 

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!

Well everbody is hugely concerned with how basketball in Australia is going and I am another one to add to that list. It seems that the basketball community at Ozhoops are also very concerned.  This fantastic site has so many dedicated fans who are genuinely concerned about how the league will look in the future.  Many a post on the boards have been dedicated to this topic.  My concerned is that the best players need to be playing in our league.  The whole Luke Kendall scenario has been a ridicolous scenario and thank god that the last guy who missed out on our Olympic team is back in our league.  Even though he is playing for the evil Perth Wildcats, he is still better off playing NBL than playing for Kilsyth in the ABA!  John Rillie on the OT had some interesting things to say about this topic.

On another topic (this is my first go at blogging…….please forgive my lack of blogging knowledge!) how much are the Gold Coast Blaze stinking it up at the moment.  Surely some changes have to be made.  Lets look at their lineup:

C: Ben Melmeth – career underachiever.  Left Utah because he couldn’t hack it with Ric Mujareus and missed out on playing with Keith Van Horn and making it to a national title game.

PF: Luke Whitehead – they bought this guy in to replace Hawkins last year and he was stinky then and still stinks now.  He has been slowed by injury but I wouldn’t expect much from him.  He is a pretty good athlete.

SF: Jaquin Hawkins – solid veteran guy who is not worthy of an import spot in my humble opinion. 

SG: James Harvey – love him.  He is a bit of a gunner but can light it up.

PG: Shane Heal – cops a lot of crap but is a competitor.  Has slowed down a little (he is 38 years old) but still a solid player at NBL level. 

The problem is the bench.  Daniel Joyce is the most critiqued player in the league.  Tyson Demaos rarely gets on.  Scott McGregor and Pero Cameron are both slow 3/4 men who just can’t get it done.  Casey Frank is the only positve off the bench. 

Big Shoot Joey from Ozhoops has the following to say:

Some very good constructive ideas have been put forward, but the reality is all these awesome ideas are going to fall on deaf ears…..listen carefully ladies & gents

The Board and the coaching staff are not going to make a move, they’re not even thinking about making a move…….they’re not even thinking about thinking about making a move

There are many reasons for this, obvious ones being, points cap, current salary, contract length, and other current contract issues. But the current people in power want to tough it out with the current roster, rest assured next year there will be wholesale changes.

Maybe just maybe when we reach 0-20 and the crowds fall under 1000 people then our wishes for some kind of change will be considered.

If this is the case, Gold Coast Blaze fans are in for a very very long season. My mail tells me that they could have signed Chris Goulding to their roster. He is a local SE Qld boy who would have loved to have stayed home. He had a huge SEABL season. Now he is in Perth and only time will tell if the Blaze have made the right move.

How long will Brendan Joyce keep his job for?