Homicide To The Rescue

Thanks to teammate Corey "Homicide" Williams, I'm back in business. It must be said this guy is street savvy, he carries his own wireless modem around whereas I just have confidence that a hotel will have Internet access in the room. After all, we are in 2008.

The NBL preseason is in full swing with most teams playing games over this weekend.

Up here in Cairns tonight saw us (Townsville Crocs) take on the host team, Cairns Taipans. The Crocs came away with a hard fought five point win, 96-91.

The star for the Crocs tonight was Russell Hinder. Hinder would have troubled the Taipans for close to thirty points. He was doing it all tonight, 3's, pull up J's and even flirted with a dunk in traffic.

For the rest of us, it was just solid and spread around. Corey did his thing at times, Rosell Ellis was tough on the block, Michael Cedar hit some timely threes and "Man Mountain" rookie Steve Costanzo scored a couple.

It was a rather scrappy, intense game that went down to the wire. We could just not quite shake the Taipans in the last quarter. To their credit they hang around but Williams and Kelvin Robertson closed the game out by nailing their free throws.

For the Taipans Dave Thomas was good. He was a monster on the offensive glass for them. He finished the game with a double double.

Former Croc Larry Abney was active as he usually is, while Ian Crosswhite should be a good addition to their squad. He has become an effective player off the pick and roll.

The Taipans played without Stephen Black (sick?) and Martin Cattalini. Cattilini looked good in warm ups but old age got to him before tip off.

Tomorrow is a rest day for the Queensland Cup and play resumes and ends on Sunday.

We play the Gold Coast Blaze while the Taipans will play the winless Sydney Spirit in the night cap.

Preseason Results - NBL

Gold Coast Blaze defeat Sydney Spirit. Greg Vanderjagt has 22 points in fifteen minutes.

Wollongong Hawks get past the Adelaide 36ers.

Cairns Taipans get past Gold Coast. boxscore

Townsville Crocs take care of Sydney Spirit. boxscore

Perth Wildcats beat the New Zealand Breakers in game 2.

Other NBL News

As reported here days ago, Ben Knight has signed with the Perth Wildcats.

Mark Tyndale cleared to play for 36ers on Saturday.

The city of Brisbane is getting ready to make a new push for an NBL team.

It's all about the money.

Hawk Glen Saville likes Kobe.

Other News

Manu Ginobili has ankle surgery.

The Sonics will have a new name September 3.

Memphis sign Iranian Olympian Hamed Haddadi to deal.

New Orleans Hornets sign Kiwi Sean Marks.

ESPN's Ian Whittell writes about NBA stars going to Europe.

Well it's time to go because Homicide has just walked in and needs to watch some more of his You Tube videos. Hopefully he will let me use his facilities again tomorrow.