H.O.R.S.E & Crocs Ready To Go

Later today Episode 10 of "The OT" will be released. This week's guest is former NBA #1 draft pick, Andrew Bogut. We ask him questions about the NBA, NBL and his Croatian background. Keep an eye out for it later today.

Just as Corey "Homicide" Williams referred to himself as the "50 Cent" of streetball, I'm the Kanye West of basketball's game called HORSE.

Why is this relevant you ask? Upstart 36ers rookie Aaron Bruce has challenged me to a game of HORSE and he stands no chance in this contest.

This game is all going to be done via YouTube so I'm sure we will both become creative by the end of it all.

Bruce has kicked off the competition with a regulation half court shot. He is obviously just warming up! I will match this shot in my sleep, then I will reply with a gem of my own.

It should be a bit of fun but if there are any punters out there that feel like they have some HORSE game, join the party.



If you are at all tuned in to the Crocs this season you will seen or heard that we have now lost our last four games. This is certainly not a streak to be proud of I also don’t think it is quite time to panic either,…not just yet anyway.

When you take a look at the first two losses in this group, for example, you will see that they came at the hands of Melbourne and New Zealand who are two teams favoured to play for the championship at season’s end. In these two games, we played them tight and it came down to the wire on both occasions.

Our chance for revenge is right around the corner, as we will face both of these teams over the course of the next few weeks. This time it will be on the Crocs home court.

Now our last road trip against the Gold Coast and Perth was definitely not champagne basketball from the Crocs. Any team that goes into the change rooms at the half down twenty plus points is looking at an uphill battle and we came out losers on both occasions. There is no way of sugar coating our performance and there are no bright sides that I can think of.

So now is the time to pull up our bootstraps and find a way out of this mini slump.

We can start this week with training hard and getting off to a good start in Saturday’s game against New Zealand.

Our focus this week has been on getting back to playing good team defense which then should transition us into an open court style on offense. It was this style of play that led us to a solid 4-2 start to the season.

By picking up our defense theoretically should allow our offense room to breathe and gain some momentum. This is in marked contrast to our last two games in which we have allowed the opposition to notch 60 points in the first half.

If we are able to accomplish our defensive goals early in the game against the Breakers and get out to a fast start, it will not take long for the memory of our last four games to move to the back of our minds. The Crocs are notorious for picking it up at home and playing some great basketball and we are hoping that our focused efforts to turn the tables will result in another about face for the club.

Results from around the NBL this season have already indicated it is going to be a close race for one of the coveted playoff positions. Persistence and perseverance may just be the key to getting us there right now.

The majority of our games lie ahead of us. We cannot afford to let our last few weeks’ performances influence the rest of our season.

You can read my Townsville Bulletin article in Wednesday's paper.