As I eluded to a few hours ago, something big was going to shake the NBL world. Newly crowned NBL champions the South Dragons will not be part of a new look competition in season 2009/10, if it goes ahead.
Before I head to bed I thought I would provide the latest in hoop links from around the place.
- South Dragons owner Mark Cowan predicted it months ago and it has happened. Former Boomers coach Brian Goorjian has been snapped up by the Chinese National Team.
I'd love to be a fly on the wall when Goorj has his first conversation with Yao Ming.
Somehow I cannot see Yao buying what Goorj is selling as he tells him how Lygon St is much better than anything the Houston Rockets have to offer.
No chance of Rush returning to the NBL any time soon. His heroics in the final game will see him receive a contract somewhere in Europe I imagine.
Is this just one of many more to follow suit?
- While in Europe, former NBL players Larry Abney and Julian Khazzouh are locking horns in Holland as we speak. Their series is tied at one a piece right now.
- This is a message for kids in South Australia or young hoopers willing to travel a few miles to get coached by a former NBA Slam Dunk Champion. Former Boston Celtic Dee Brown will be conducting clinics in South Aussie in September/October. Click here for more info.
- "The 2004-05 Tall Black, who relished playing against his former NSW age-group teammates cum Boomers such John Rillie and Matt Neilson in the 2006 test matches, has no qualms about his pick-me-up role with the Hawks."
This passage comes from an article from the Hawkes Bay Today about gypsy basketballer Miles Pearce.
Like any article where the colourful Pearce is quoted, he leaves you shaking your head in some direction.
For those interested in the facts, I'm nowhere near Pearce's age-group and I'm not a cockroach.
QUEEEEENSLANDER!
- If your looking for NBA news head over to NBAMate. The Aussie blogger was actually at Game 2 of the Lakers/Rockets series.
Daniel Joyce hit the game winner in the Gong tonight.
- It has been reported that Daniel Joyce has landed the knock out three as the Gold Coast Blaze (2-12) snuck by the Wollongong Hawks (6-6), 111-110.
The Blaze trailed for the majority of the game before Shane Heal, Pero Cameron and finally Joyce hit from long range to get the Blaze their first road win for the season.
Once the game was over Joyce senior gave everyone any earful who cared to get involved. Beside sections of the crowd, Glen Saville and Eric Cooks were a few victims of the rather excited Joyces.
The Gold Coast now travels back home and play the road troubled Adelaide 36ers on Sunday afternoon.
Tyndale was brought in to be a solid contributor for the team but due to injuries to key members (Brett Maher and Brad Davidson) the 36ers feel they need a little more from their import position.
Only having seen Tyndale play a few times I felt he was going to be a good fit for this team. A slasher who seemed to be unselfish and who could be the guy to fill the holes on any given night. He would also be the guy given the tough perimeter defensive assignment.
It was obvious he was not the guy who was going to take over a game, but he was never recruited for this.
Tyndale leaves our shores averaging 13ppg, 6.5rpg and 4apg. Not exactly chopped liver.
- "NBL imports should improve the NBL and the teams. Cal Bruton, James Crawford, Ricky Grace, Lanard Copeland, Darryl McDonald, Rob Rose, Al Green, Scott Fisher and Leroy Loggins got people to games." "Now we've got Mark Tyndale, Dusty Rychart, David Gruber, Isiah Victor and Rick Rickert. Say no more." If you want to read the rest of The Herald Sun's Grantley Bernard, click here.
Interesting to see that Grantley did not mention any of the current imports playing in Melbourne.
- National Team coach Brian Goorjian tells a Melbourne audience that Pat Mills was the best player at the Olympics for the Boomers and Andrew Bogut cannot be expected to shoulder the load internationally.
- "Chairman of the Boards" Mark Davis is conducting a holiday camp over the Christmas break in Adelaide.
The Boomers displayed trademark Brian Goorjian defense which disrupted the soft Chinese all too easily. China's 24 turnovers did not allow them to get into any offensive rhythm all game.
The Boomers on the other hand had a very balanced team effort. Chris Anstey was the leading scorer with 11, while David Andersen was the only other Aussie player to reach double figures with ten.
Freshly cashed up Andrew Bogut was very solid for the Boomers. His 9 points and team leading 8 rebounds do not tell the whole story. He battled Houston Rocket centre Yao Ming on all possessions and made it a long night for Yao.
Yao lead China in scoring with 14 but Bogut's constant pressure created a team high 5 turnovers from the Chinese centre.
After watching this game (http://www.justin.tv/) I feel Yao needs to get in the weightroom and shoulder press his night away. The Chinese team is expecting their NBA All Star to create a miracle on every possession. Sure it is great to have every play ran for you (ask Andrew Gaze) but you need help to ease the pressure a little. He cannot carry this team on his shoulders alone.
Yao had no help out there tonight.
That leads me to newly acquired New Jersey Net power forward, Yi Jianlian. Yi had zero points tonight on 0/3 shooting. There is no other way to sugarcoat this, he was plain miserable.
Word is, he and head coach Jonas Kazlauskas are not seeing eye to eye. This little tiff apparently started the night before in their game against Angola (maybe due to Yi being abused in the post by Angola's Olimpio Cipriano) and obviously carried over into tonight's game.
Could this be a case of a NBA player coming home and thinking he is better than what he is? I'm betting on this being the case.
He is too good a talent to have zero effect on a game and Yao needs someone to ride shotgun with him. Point guard Liu Wei is no Robin to Yao's Batman.
Enough of the Chinese. This is a solid win for the Boomers but lets not get carried away as I don't think China will advance on their side of the draw in Beijing.
Tomorrow (Thursday) at 6pm EST will see the Aussies take on Angola. This game will be a good test as the team from Africa is a very free flowing style of team. They have the ability to put a lot of points on the board in a hurry.
This game will test our perimeter defense as the Angolans are happy to penetrate and pitch for the three.
The Opals ran out winners by the score of 85-62, even without the world's best women's player Lauren Jackson. Jackson sat out due to and ankle injury but should be ready in time for the FIBA Diamond Ball for Women.
Suzy Batkovic led the scoring for the Opals with 17, while series MVP Belinda Snell added 13 for the home side.
All players contributed to the end total besides defensive juggernaut Tully Bevilaqua.
Spirit debate still going on. Check out the Sydney Spirit website. If I'm Bendigo this is my argument. How serious are they about their name chance? Not to serious if it is still the "The Official Website Of The West Sydney Razorbacks". I will give them some credit. Punch in http://www.sydneyspirit.com.au/ and you get re-directed back to the Pigs website.
Although some whispers had started to circulate it is now official. The Singapore Slingers are no longer part of the NBL.
I can tell you that it is true that all player contracts will be honoured and the talk about the Slingers joining an Asian league is true to some degree.
Where the hitch in this master plan is, what league do they play in? Great question because I'm not sure if any league that is currently operating in Asia would open their arms and welcome in the Singapore Slingers. What do the Slingers offer as far as improving the current status of any league? I'm not sure, but I don't think much considering their roster is full of Aussies.
If any of you readers have read any of the newspaper articles, they have made comment about Bob Turner trying to start up a league over there. This is true but where will he get teams from to fill a league?
A factor that may hinder this process is time. How quickly can a league starting from scratch be up and running and also become viable? Once again I have never setup a professional league, but I'm guessing this will not happen over night. I will guess a timeline of about 12-18 months would be needed to set up something viable and long lasting.
Once again, I will keep you posted on this topic as it will be interesting to see what becomes of the Singapore Slingers. There is a small chance that Ben Knight could become a household name in Asian basketball. A status level he never reached in his own country.
Continuing with my individual breakdown of the Boomers roster, lets take a look at point guard CJ Bruton.
strengths: Bruton is entering his second Olympic campaign and is the veteran floor general this time round. Leading a rather inexperienced backcourt Bruton needs to perform at a high level for the whole two weeks of the Olympics if the Boomers are to advance to the medal round.
This is something he is capable of doing, the question is, does he want it!
CJ's offensive repertoire allows him to win games on his own. When he starts "feeling it" just sit back and enjoy the show.
Over the years Bruton has become a good quarterback in knowing when to pick his spots in a game. I just hope his radar is switched on in Beijing because how CJ goes, so do the Boomers.
weaknesses: Sometimes it seems CJ is just cruising through a game. Happy to keep everyone involved he can sometimes become too pass happy. This type of attitude from Bruton is going to be detrimental to the Boomers success.
If Bruton is happy to take a backseat and watch the youth of Australian basketball gain experience, there will be no medal chance for the Aussies.
overall: Easy said. How CJ goes, so do the Boomers.
Articles from pre Olympic games
"FIBA: It’s interesting to hear you say that you’ve got the most talented team that you have ever had. In saying this, aren’t you raising expectations?
Brian Goorjian: I’m just stating the truth. We’re underprepared and a bit disorganized, but the country hasn’t had David Andersen, Matt Nielsen and Andrew Bogut (all together) before. And we’ve added a lot of length on the perimeter since I’ve been here in Dave Barlow, (Brad) Newley, Joe Ingles. You’ve got 6ft 7in, 6ft 8in in those perimeter spots. We’ve been 6ft 2in, 6ft 3in and most of the guys in those spots were one dimensional where these guys can shoot it and put it on the floor. I know this - it’s a brighter future ahead than four years ago when we brought a lot of guys who were 29, 30 years old that had never played in Olympic Games, never played in the World Games, never played in the Commonwealth Games, due to the fact that that group to seven to eight guys had represented Australia in Three straight Olympics." - FIBA.COM
For the rest of this Q & A with Goorjian click here.
Good to see Goorj supporting his current players. I will argue his statement though. I will take an experienced Brett Maher, Jason Smith and myself over a young and inexperienced Pat Mills, Brad Newley and David Barlow.
In fact, when Smith is healthy again we would take them in a three on three contest.
In a few years time that might be a great statement by Goorj.
Homicide vs Artest during the summer. Read below to find out how this ended.
Breaking News: New Zealand get off to a good start as they try to secure one of the remaining three Olympic Games spots up for grabs.
They defeated Cape Verde 77-50 with Kirk Penney dropping in 25pts. Next up for the Kiwi's Dirk Nowitski and Germany.
If you want to follow all the action live from this Pre Olympic Qualifying tournament click here.
Now back to our usual schedule.
It's that time of the week again to go around the nation and see what's doing in the various ABA leagues. Whether it is the free flowing QABL (Queensland) or the self proclaimed "Australia's Premier Winter Basketball League", SEABL, you can find all the boxscores right here with the click of a button or two. (click on the League to get boxscores)
Queensland: Cam Tragardh needs to hang out with me more often. Last week I coached him in a few games in China. He took the knowledge I passed on and gave Toowoomba 67 points (30/40fgs), 26 rebounds and 11 fumbles (assists). Pretty good Tragargamel, was Jimmy Wong in the building?
Waratah: Bruce Bolden dusted off his shoes, licked his fingers in preparation for a high post jumper and player/coached the Hornsby Spiders to a loss. I cannot wait for him and Butch Hays to match up against each other. Maybe those two should just go one on one for the game.
Big V: Sandringham's Simon Conn keeps putting up impressive numbers (another solid double double this week). Why can't he get a look at the NBL level?
Western Australia: I read on Geraldton's Micheal Lay's blog where he is torn about going to Germany to play and giving up the opportunity to stay with Geraldton. I will keep you posted as to his movements.
South Australia: Last week I gave Rupert Sapwell a wrap, this week his team Norwood gets dominated by Pero Vasilijevic in a top of the table clash. Talk about going from the penthouse to the outhouse for "Monkey Boy".
SEABL: I've been storing this one up all year. Best name in the league? Ballarat Miners Brett Goodgame. I will let you insert your own joke here.
During the NBL offseason Crocs import Corey "Homicide" Williams goes home to New York to work on his playground legend status. Recently he matched up against NBA wildman Ron Artest. Check out what happened when they matched up.
"We’re going to have to play very, very well together and we’re going to have to have great team camaraderie and do something special. But I think we have the ability to do that." Words from the great Spin Doctor Brian Goorjian while moonlighting as the Boomers coach. Article courtesy of The Western Australian.
"By evolving into the Sydney Spirit, we believe we are offering all basketball fans in this city a team to call their own." Sydney Spirit chief Steve Aquilina speaking. Article courtesy of the Sydney Morning Herald.
As predicted here a month ago, Ebi Ere signs with Dragons. I wonder if Smith being released had anything to do with this?
Check out the Vegas Summer League action. It is free to sign up (only takes a minute), then you will be able to watch Aussie Nathan Jawai live in action. He makes his Toronro Raptors debut Tuesday morning (Aussie time) at 8.00am.
Self Proclaimed Australian League Superstar, Corey "Homicide" Williams!
They call me JR. Basketball is what I do.
I play the game, I live the game, I love the game.
Why do I blog?
Because maybe someone else out there loves this game as much as I do.
Is it you?
RIP
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