So last Sunday I travelled down to the Gold Coast with my father to watch the Gold Coast Blaze do battle with the Townsvillie Crocs.  My dad does stats for the Blaze so I was able to acquire a free crappy ticket five rows from the back.  It was my first trip to the Gold Coast Convention Centre.  As my dad was to cheap to pay for parking, we parked in the casino and walked across some bridge.  The stadium is great and new.  I snuck down onto the stats bench and from there parked myself in a corporate box with everybody’s favourite ex NBL team manager Big Joe.

So onto the game – I must say that I was extremely disappointed in the way that the Blaze went about their business.  They looked unimaginative on offense and couldn’t stop anybody.  Russell Hinder was a monster on the defenisve end and everybodys favourite blogger JR hit some sweet shots.  The Blaze had no answer to Corey Williams penertation and the guy who I was pleased with the most was Cameron Toovey.  In real life he is actually quite huge and was pretty bloody awesome at both ends of the floor.  For the Blaze there wasn’t a whole lot of positives to talk about.  James Harvey hit some big shots in the 4th but was pretty quiet for the remainder of the game.  The Crocs had it in the bag pretty early.  I actually think that they missed some easy opportunities that their flex offense created for them.  The final margin could have been even greater.  Another good thing to see was the coaching tactics of the Crocs.  Every time the Blaze even seemed to be getting a sniff, they called a time out and re grouped.  It was a well orchastrated win. 

Due to the fact that my father is a poor driver, we arrived later than expected.  I was hoping to catch up with JR and introduce myself before the game.  They had already entered the 15 minute pre game phase of their warm up and I thought that it wasn’t a good idea to do that.  JR then went to the bench to get a ball and I snuck across and introduced myself.  He knew who I was and he went about his pre game ritual.  I almost did the same thing with my boy Russell Hinder but I didn’t get a chance.  After the game I saw JR talking to some fans and I went up.  He told me to wait a minute and then we could have a chat.  Boy did we chat.  We talked for 45 minutes on a variety of topics.  He is an awesome bloke and the Crocs fans are lucky to have such an ambassdor.  The thing that came across strongly in our discussion is he genuinely loves basketball. 

Overall the Blaze put on a good game day produciton.  My mail tells me that bowl tickets cost around $50 per ticket!  That is super expensive.  I am not a huge fan of either of the Blaze imports, particualary Whitehead.  I can understand last season when they got him mid season and their were no other options around.  I would like to think that if they were in playoff contention that they would have given him the boot and picked up Larry Abney.  They might have had to offer Abney a lot of under the table money, but he is a huge upgrade on either of those two guys. 

So that is that.  I am currently at a public library stealing somebody elses internet connection so I better run.  I really am enjoying the fact that I am now living in civilization.  It is lots of fun.

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!

One of the most pleasing things about the season so far has been the play of Russell Hinder I am the first to admit that I didn’t used to have a lot of love for this guy when he played for the Kings and thought that he really didn’t deserve to be in the Boomers squad.  He wasn’t even in the starting five and since we saw so many Kings games on Fox Sports, I was able to see a lot of him.  He seemed like a thug and I didn’t really enjoy watching him play.

But I was wrong.  I therefore would like to announce that Russell Hinder is an early favourite to take out the first annual ‘Basketball and Everything in Between Australian Acquisation of the Year player’ (that certainly is a mouthful!).  He seems to have fitted in really well for the Crocs and those guys seem to get along with each other.  In preperation for this article, I listened to the first ever episode of The OT with JR and DJ Rod where he was a special guest. It is fair to say that he was not the biggest fan of former Kings owner Tim Johstone and mentioned this article called Russell Hinder: I can’t pay my mortage!  In the article he basically outlines his scenario.  This is part of the article:

Today Hinder’s mortgage repayment is due and he has no way of covering it and fears if the Kings situation isn’t sorted out quickly he will lose the house he wants his children Oliver, 3, and Callie, nine months, to grow up in.

Hinder spent yesterday pleading his case to the bank.

With other bills mounting up, such as childcare and electricity, Hinder is hoping that the financial crisis doesn’t tear his family apart.

“It’s getting really hard on us,” Hinder said. “I love my family and I love playing for the Kings. We have a great team but like all of us I just want to get paid so I can play basketball and look after my family.

 This guy was extremely lucky that things panned out for him the way that they did.  When Ben Pepper left the Crocodies (does anybody know the exact reason for this?) an opening became avaliable and Hinder was signed to a contract.  He is a totally different player to Ben Pepper but I don’t think that many Crocs fans will be too disappointed with him.  I think that he will also be the winner of the first annual ‘Funniest Postgame Interview’ presented by Basketball and Everything in between It was absolutley hilarious. His interview with Andrew Gaze was one of the funniest things that I have ever seen.

As some of you may be aware Ozhoops runs a fantasy league each season and my team was able to acquire Russell Hinder with the 22nd Pick in the FNBL League 3 Draft. At the time I was a bit disappointed. I really wanted Luke Schenscher and was banking on Mr Black (who already had Chris Anstey) on passing on him and leaving him to me.  He took Schenscher and that left my next best option as Hinder.  I am extremely happy that he was still there for me.  He has been extremely productive for me.  (A side note: I was able to acquire Schenscher later through a trade deal with Mr Black.  I had to give up Shawn Redhage.  Only time will tell if it was a good move)

So why has he been successful?  Here are some reasons in my humble humble opinion:

1. He is getting it done at the offensive end.  During his time with BG at the Kings he was not able to showcase his skill set due to the gamestyle of the Kings.  He is a reasonable shooter from the three point line.  He has also had a number of assists which has proved valuable to my FNBL franchise.
2. He is getting it done defensively.  He consistenly blocks shots and gets steals.  There are not many big men around the league who can do that. 
3. He seems to be a perfect fit for this team.  He has good size (208cm) but is an athlete.  Whenever you have Corey Williams on your team you better be ready to play an uptempo game.  This game style really suits him.
4. There is not a lot of competion for minutes.  Lets be honest after Hinder, Ellis and Egan, there is not a lot else at the 4/5 spots for the Crocs.  This allows him to be on the floor for a great deal of time and showcase his game.

So there you go.  Other people who will be in consideration for this award will be Ben Knight (has been solid), Glen Saville (is putting up some shots), Luke Schenser (seems to be finding some form), Mark Worthington (yeah he has been awesome), CJ Bruton (yeah he is pretty good as well) and Luke Kendall (has not found his place in the rotation yet)  Bruton and Worthington may be ahead of him at the moment but I feel that Hinder is more valuable (at his position) for his team.  Without him the Crocs would be screwed.  The Breakers could sign an American PG and the Dragons have reasonable forward depth. 

Anyway – if you read this Rusty, how about an interview for this blog?  It would be awesome!