Brock Motum, WSU Dunk Contest

I have been scavenging through You Tube today to see what I could dig up that I'm hoping not many have seen previously.

I have come across this Washington State Dunk Contest that was held during Midnight Madness. Yes, that was a while ago but I'm sure you will be happy to take some time out of your Friday afternoon schedule to check it out.

Aussie Brock Motum (6'9 leftie, wearing white #12) is one of the participants in the show. I must say, the way he celebrates his throw downs improves over time.

Under 23 Rule Continued

Thank you Luc Longley for choosing college over the NBL - Michael Jordan.

Yesterday I started to blog about the under 23 rule the NBL has ran with over the past few years.

Today I will continue to elaborate and expand one why I think this rule needs to be scrapped.

Still using some of the material from Boti Nagy's article, lets take a look at this quote from someone from within the hallways of the NBL office.

"The whole rationale behind reserving one place for a young Australian player within each team's 10 contracted roster positions was to offer an alternative pathway for athletes looking for elite competition to the U.S. college system."

News alert. Gone are the days that young Aussie hoopers are happy to dream of pulling on the jersey of their home team (providing they have one). There is a bigger picture that has been created by the likes of Luc Longley, Andrew Gaze, Andrew Bogut and Pat Mills' success at the college level.

Aussies are running to the US college system in record numbers in the hope that they can keep working on and improving their games with the hope that the moneytrain called the NBA or Europe comes calling after a period of time.

Sure, over the past few years we have seen Joe Ingles and Brad Newley forgo the college route to stay home and develop via the NBL, but they have now been lost to our game. (It would be interesting to see if either of these guys would reconsider their path taken.) Plus they are the exception to the rule.

If basketball in Australia wants to provide a pathway for juniors to the pro level in this country, they need to cultivate a better system than the current.

Basketball needs to find it's "cash cow" so each NBL franchise can implement (something similar to the NRL) an u/23's competition in conjunction with the NBL.

Although this sounds good in theory, I'd still debate whether there is enough junior depth to support such a concept but if we are to change the landscape of our sport something like this has to take place.

It would be great to see the development of the likes of Brock Motum, Cody Ellis and Jorden Page right before our eyes instead of heading across the Pacific to college. But the simple fact that our sport does not have a system in place to stop this exodus we cannot throw rules in to make it look like we are developing youth.

Go through the NBL rosters and look at the u/23 player at each team. Please let me know who you think will have a productive 10 year career in the NBL. My pencil is still very sharp.

Tell me what last year's Young Australian Players Steven Broom and Zac carter are doing now?

The best option for kids right now is to head to college in the USA and continue to develop their game, while getting an education as well.

There is no doubting that I'm in favour of the college experience. I'm a great example of this path as there is no way I would have achieved what I did in the game without spreading my wings and heading to the northern hemisphere for college.

I hope the NBL has an overhaul of the age rule rather soon so we stop penalizing kids that are simply taking the best career path on offer right now.

News

- Joe Ingles is close to signing in Europe with CB Granada. (you will google translator)

- Townsville Crocodiles sign Mackay junior Todd Blanchfield.

Brock Motum & Getting My Nerd On

Brock Motum is heading to Washington State University.

Continuing with my scouting report on individual players from the U/20 Men's National Championships, I turn my focus to Washington State Cougar bound lefty Brock Motum.

Motum who is from Queensland is an 18yo, 205cm (6'9) power forward who must have felt a little unlucky not to have been named MVP of this national tournament. Teammate and St Mary's bound PG Jorden Page was awarded the highest individual honour of the week.

Cougar fans, get any thought of Aron Baynes out of your head. Motum is a wafer thin power forward with skill. He is not a banger but has talent that can be developed into something.

Unlucky not to average a double double at the U/20's (20pts,9rebs), but take note he produced these stats while averaging just over twenty minutes of court time.

His play was efficent (67% from the field, 60% from deep and 84% from the charity strip) and never seemed to force the issue on offense at all. He was a monster on the offensive boards and from the games (3 of 6) I saw, he turned a high percentage of these into points.

During the Championship Game he showed the ability to step out and knock down the three (3/3) with confidence.

An interesting stat that leapt out at me was the lack of shot blocking. The stats show zero for the week and now that I think about it, I did not remember a one. Unusual for a guy that was a tree amongst weeds on most nights.

What I liked about Motum's play at the defensive end was his ability to use his length (not sure what his wingspan is, but I guess it is over 7') at the top of a full court zone press. He averaged over 1 theft per game but it was his disruption due to his length he caused in the backcourt.

Motum showed me good poise and feel for the game but I would have liked to have seen some type of solid post game.

I know it is hard to criticize someone that put up numbers as he has done, but remember he is going to play in the tough Pac-10 Conference. This Aussie tournament does not resemble anything defensively that the young fella will face from Ben Howland and the UCLA Bruins.

I was trying to think of someone to compare him to in the USA and I had to go all the way back to Brad Lohaus of Iowa Hawkeye and Milwaukee Buck/Boston Celtic fame. (By the way, both are redheads.)

Motum has the tools to play in the Pac-10, but I will keep an eye out to see how he handles the physical play he will face on the interior.

I just feel the mid-major level would have allowed him to play minutes early in his career as his body continues to develop and mature.

All the best to Motum as he heads over to play in one of the premier conferences. That is of course until you play the Zags. I know the student section will come with something for this guy to remember his trip to Spokane by.

- Yesterday I started to educate myself with this new cyber tool that is known as Twitter. (I'm becoming a networking fool!) What really suckered me in though, was the ability I now have to "track" the likes of Shaq, Steve Nash and Kyle Korver (do not laugh).

Shaq was recently in Orlando to play the Magic and through Twitter anyone who could find him received tickets to his game that night.

("I'm n the mia on the beach whoever touches me gets 2 ticket u have 30 min" said SHAQ.)

Well, I could not sign up quick enough as I'm going on a family holiday to Phoenix. People who know me well, know that I love the free stuff.

Thanks to Twitter, if you here of a skinny white Aussie male stalking Shaq, you know I have found him. He just better have the tickets, otherwise, well....I'll have to revert to buying some.

Hoops News

- Melbourne Tigers level up the series at 1-1. boxscore

- Little did we know CJ Bruton was right thinking New Zealand is part of Europe. CJ and this journo must have went to the same geography class in the USA.

- "Stormin" Norm Taylor still playing the game he loves. Can anyone else not remember Taylor suiting up for the Razorbacks?

- Hey big spender or loser?

- Corey "Homicide" Williams wants to be a Croc for life.

QLD - Winners of the U/20 National Men's Championship

Jorden Page - MVP of the u/20's championship

The championship game saw Queensland take on New South Wales. The Maroons ran out easy winners in the end, 111-72.

On this occasion talent over powered everything at the end of the night.

NSW went into the Gold medal game with out centre Shane Harris-Tunks (Colorado), so it was going to take a miracle for the Blues to over come this hurdle. Maybe they played their final the night before by defeating Victoria to get into the championship game.

The first half was very even with Qld going into the half time break with a six point lead, 46-40.

It was Sean Mullan (18pts) that kept the Southerners in touch with a stellar 16 point first half.

PG Jason Cadee (20pts/6ass) controlled the game well for his team during the first 20 minutes, creating a lot of easy opportunities for his teammates. Qld did a lot of double teaming of Cadee in the back court but he made good decisions that created open space for his teammates.

Once the second half began it seemed as though Qld just turned up the pressure at the defensive end. This led to a lot of easy fastbreak points. Whether it was a layup or an open transition three, Qld was firing on all cylinders.

Tourney MVP Jorden Page (25pts/10ass) was the catalyst behind this fast pace game. This kid excels in the open court. St Mary's fans get ready for the Pat Mills comparisons.

With Page's speed causing NSW's defense problems, this allowed Brock Motum (27pts/12rebs) and Mitch Young (14pts/12rebs -8off) to control the paint.

In the end it was a case of big brother just beating down little bro'.

Cadee was always going to have to have a monster game, especially with Harris-Tunks sidelined with a dodgy wheel (sprained ankle), but Qld did a good job of making him work for everything he got.

Mullan could not keep his offense going in the second half so that left NSW's offense anemic.

On the otherhand, when Qld subbed, they lost nothing as the depth of their team proved too much for the Blues to handle.

I felt it was a good championship's as a number of these kids will on day grace the NBL hardwood.

First there are many that will test their luck in the USA college system, so over the next week or so, I will break down these players individually so the public of Australia and other places can see that basketball is well and truly alive in this country.

News

- Utah Utes Luke Nevill becomes the schools all time leader in block shots. Plus could he be the next Aussie who is ready to have an impact on the NBA? You need to listen to the next edition of "The OT" (out soon) to hear what I think.

- South Dragons coach Brian Goorjian fears "Homicide"?

"I was the girl that was tryin' to stay", says Stephon Marbury.