Aussie Hoopers Around The Globe

Whether it is over Kobe Bryant or playing in Turkey, Brad Newley knows how to score the ball.

I have not done an around the globe look in at how our exports are doing, so here is the latest on how they are performing on the international stage.

- Former Townsville Crocodile Brad Newley has taken his game to Turkey after a two year stint in Greece. Newley continues to shine as he had 19pts and 4rebs as his team, Besiktas, defeated a fellow GU Alum, Richie Frahm and his team, Mersin, 85-74.

- Let's turn to the NBA and Andrew Bogut and his Milwaukee Bucks got a win against the Detroit Pistons. Bogut helped with 6pts and 8rebs as he battled foul trouble. More importantly, I wonder how the Buck fans are going with the sweet seats Bogut has kindly purchased for the home fans?

Portland Trailblazer Pat Mills registered a DNP, while David Andersen hit the court for 10 minutes and 2 points as the Houston Rockets snuck by the Blazers and Brandon Roy's 42 pts.

Tomorrow will see Minnesota Timberwolf Nathan Jawai get a chance and Mills gets to look forward to some PT (playing time) as the Blazers play back to back games.

Re Mills: I just find it funny that he is listed on the roster but will be out of action for quite some time due to his foot injury. Got to love that.

- Former NBL scoring machine Ebi Ere had a lazy 21pts and 6 rebs as his team cantered to an easy win in Italy.

- Ever wondered what happened to Commonwealth Games gold medalist Neil Mottram. Well he has teamed up with former South Dragons championship winning guard Rhys Carter (and 10th leading scorer in the league) in the Swedish League for a team named Gothia. They had a 92-76 win over the weekend. Both Aussies had strong performances (click on score to see stats) with Mottram fouling out, which should not be a surprise to anyone. Keep up the good work boys.

- Former Sydney Spirit star Matt Knight is now eating glass in Hungary. Click here to see how efficient his last monster game of 24pts and 14rebs came about.

- Click on the individual names to see their stats from this year to date.

Aleks Maric, Aron Baynes, Joe Ingles, Matt Nielsen, Wade Helliwell and Alex Loughton.

Ingles vs Nielsen & Griffin Injury

I come across this footage of Joe Ingles on his on Facebook page. He has been pumping up his own tyres all day.

First it was his broken tooth, now he is happy driving right and finishing over fellow Aussie Matt Nielsen.

Watch carefully as Ingles give Nielsen a little head rub, but it "Nitro" that got the last laugh with the win.



The other big play of the day is 2009 NBA #1 draft pick Blake Griffin has not been able to side step the Los Angles Clippers curse.

With a routine block at one end, followed with a dunk at the other, Griffin will miss up to six weeks with a broken knee cap.

Overseas Aussies Win Awards

"The OT" is returning very soon.

While it has become a little quiet on the hoops news front here in Australia, a few of our fellow countrymen are achieving elsewhere in the world.

- Pat Mills has been named to the All-Bay Area team. This is the San Fransisco Bay area team. Other Division 1 schools that come into consideration besides St Mary's are, San Fransisco, California, Stanford and Santa Clara.

Although Mills missed a portion of the season due to a hand injury, he was in line for the MVP of this team.

- Mills is not done with his award collecting as he was joined by Utah Ute centre Luke Nevill on the CollegeHoops.net high-major All-America 1st team.

- While Andrew Bogut will not get any awards for his play this year (due to injury) he should be congratulated on the great job he did recently in raising $50k for the Bushfire victims in Victoria. Read all about the event right here.

- This may be old news to some but Matt Nielsen has been named to the All-Eurocup second team.

Nielsen's Spanish team Pamesa Valencia lost in the quarter finals of the Euro Cup to Russian team BC Khimki.

- David Andersen will get another chance to play for a European title in the upcoming weeks.

His team Barcelona will be joined by CSKA Moscow (his old team), Greek power Olympiacos and the Greek "Green Machine", Panathinaikos.

The Euroleague Final Four will be held in Berlin from May 1st through 3rd.

- As the Greek League is heading towards the playoffs, Brad Newley has continued to build on his very solid season. His last performance of 21pts and 8 rebs highlights what a great year he is having.

Look for Newley to impress with the Houston Rockets in the NBA Summer Leagues this off season.

- While on award winners...A fellow Aussie blogger A Stern Warning has asked for some good old Aussie support. His blog banner has been nominated in a contest (a Basketblog Header Playoff) and he needs our support.

Click on the above link and vote for his banner.

I find it interesting that two Portland fans would be put head to head in such a contest.

Andrew Bogut & The Bushfire Appeal

Chris Anstey Breakdown and News

Goorj, the three ball is me BABY!

The Olympics is only five days away so I better pick up the pace with my player breakdowns.

Lets take a look at the NBL's MVP Chris Anstey.

strengths: The knock on Anstey is his lack of being a consistent low post target and floating out to three point territory. I look at this as being a strength for the Boomers during international competition.

With his ability to shoot the three ball this allows Andrew Bogut or David Andersen the room they require to operate down low. I would actually look at playing Anstey with either of these guys, especially when we play against the bigger teams.

Him and Nielsen together are not so good as "Nellie" is more of a slashing power forward. You need a constant target down low so "no go" for this combo.

Anstey is a proven performer at the high end of European ball so his strengths have served him well. The Aussies need to roll with these instead of looking at his negatives.

Chris is a good rebounder and passer as well so he can be more than just a guy that will stretch the opposition defense.

Also, remember he is a legit seven foot so he can intimidate on defense when he wants to. (I'll look for Dwight Howard to monster dunk on him at least once though when they clash in the next few days.)

weakness: I believe he tends to get carried away with passing the ball at times and this leads to some very loose turnovers. Always looking for the "home run" backdoor play, it can quite often let to a fast break for the opposition.

He needs to cut down on his careless TO's. Just the other night against Argentina he had two on penetration. This stat more than any other at the international level can be a game killer.

The team that manufactures easy points usually wins.

overall: Anstey's strengths far out weigh his weaknesses. The trouble is, his mistakes can be costly to the team.

I believe he will figure heavily if the Boomers make a medal run.

News

Fast Fact: On this day in 1949 the NBA was born.

Blogger Green Bandwagon breaks down the Boomers with some interesting facts.

"This country has been built on giving everyone a fair go and Sydney and Basketball Australia haven’t given us a fair go," said Bendigo Spirit chairman Jock Clark. Courtesy of the Bendigo Advertiser.

What's wrong with the Sydney Blueys?

Julius Hodge’s agent Cervando Tejeda e-mailed HoopsHype.com to shoot down a report on the Melbourne Herald-Sun that had Hodge going to the Tigers of the Australian League.

“Neither Julius nor me have given any verbal commitment to the Melbourne Tigers organization,” Tejeda said. “Right now Julius’ focus is getting an invite to an NBA veterans camp and making the NBA.” - HoopsHype

SEABL's Ben Armstrong retires.

Cairns Taipans Martin Cattilini says, "Just think."

Team USA gets by Russia. (boxscore)

David Andersen video thanks to ESPN. (many other internationals as well)

Andreas Nocioni talks after the win over Australia

When Something Just Eats At You

I didn't agree with this at the time and still don't, but the Pigs are dead.

"The Spirit are a relatively new team to the NBL and they have had some success; however, they have never won the grand final. Being a new member to the team; what do you think needs to be done to win a championship and how are you going to help achieve that?" A question asked by Nick Thomas of http://www.nbl.com.au/ when interviewing import David Gruber.

This question has been eating away at me all day for some reason so I will be interested to see what you the reader thinks as well. (So post a comment if you wish.)

At first read I thought it was my lack of sleep over the past few days (I've been rising at 4.45am to co host a radio breakfast show. 4TO is the station if you wanted to know.) that was clouding my brain, but the more I think about it the more it eats at me.

Nick Thomas, the Sydney Spirit (and even that is questionable at the moment) are a brand new team and have absolutely no success to talk about. They have no history as a club, so how have they had success as a club?

Your right in saying they have never won a grand final but they have never been in one either, unlike the Pigs that played in two during their ten year existence.

The Razorbacks are dead and buried. The moment the Spirit was formed the history book on the Pigs was closed.

If I'm Gruber, I'm saying it is fantastic to be a foundation member of a new team and I hope the Sydney public support their team.

If you want to unite the Sydney people you cannot continue to refer back to the Razorback days. You need to move on and call it what it is.

Although I don't agree with this "merger" you have to call it a fresh start otherwise Kings fans will get sick and tired of hearing about the Pig days.

I could talk about this topic for hours but I would give you all a headache, including myself, so I will end this ranting and raving for now.

Mr Thomas and everyone else, the Pigs are dead, so we all need to move on!

Other Stories

Q & A with Adelaide 36ers Luke Schenscher.

The full Q & A with Sydney Spirit's David Gruber.

Hawaiian born Derrick Low is seriously looking at a contract with the Spirit. The Washington State grad would come in and run the point for the new franchise.

Scott MacGregor to be a catwalk model. I would love to see that. It is all for a good cause, the Jane McGrath Foundation.

Neil Mottram will study till Christmas, then hope a job comes up.

Matt Nielsen named captain for Beijing Games.

The (wild) cat is out of the bag. Andrew Vlahov is running the sport of basketball in Australia.

Tasmanian coach wins award.

NZNBL player admits to "blazing up".

Questions asked about Team USA.

George Hill - Spurs rookie guard ready to crack the Big Time.

RIP Sonics - Reign Man's Top 10 Dunks

I Agree With Bogut

CJ and the Boomers will be all smiles if he has a good Olympic Games.

Andrew Bogut has come out and said that it is the play of the guards that holds the key to the Australian Boomers success at the Olympics Games.

I could not agree with him more.

All the talk right now has been centred around the wealth of talent we have in the big man department. There is no doubting that Bogut, David Andersen, Chris Anstey and Matt Nielsen have proved themselves on the international stage.

That has yet to be done by our guards and the point guard position may be the most crucial spot of them all.

I'm even going to narrow it down ever further than Bogut. CJ Bruton is the guy that will control the Boomers destiny.

On his day Bruton can hold his own against anyone in the world, and this includes the likes of Jason Kidd and Chris Paul.

He has a skill set that allows him to get it done against such opposition. Firstly, he can stroke it from "downtown". This skill alone gains you respect the minute you step on the court at the international level. (Drain a couple of threes and the game can be over.)

Throw in his ballhandling ability and Bruton can play with any of the top flight PG's in the world.

The question is whether CJ wants to be a "player" at the Games or does he just want to attend his second Olympics? If CJ comes to play I can see him getting the Boomers into the medal round and possibly that European contract he has been talking about the last few years.

I do believe that Bruton is the key, but both David Barlow and Brad Newley need to become consistent perimeter threats to allow Bogut, Andersen, Nielsen and Chris Anstey the room to operate down low.

Yes, Barlow has been playing well in the lead up games, but now we are playing for all the marbles. Funny things happen sometimes and the margin for error is minimal now. We need Barlow's perimeter shooting to remain hot through the Games for the Boomers to be able to compete with the top European teams.

Newley had a solid year in Greece so he will be well prepared for the tough European teams. His ability to slash and finish at the basket along with his transition game will be required.

These ways of scoring by Newley allow the Boomers the luxury of some easy baskets. Something that is needed when you are in a low scoring game and no one else on the team possesses this skill. He also needs to be able to knock down the perimeter shot regularly so his game can be complete.

While all the talk will continue to centre around the "Aussie Wall", the play of the guards will be important if we are to see the best out of Bogut, Nielsen, Anstey and Andersen.

Ultimately, their play will dictate if this team can go down in history as the first Australian Men's team to win a Olympic Medal.

Other News

Rhys Carter has signed with the Dragons which means their roster is full.

Bendigo Spirit take fight for name to Sydney.

Shawn Redhage talks about becoming a Aussie and an Olympian for his adopted country.

Vegas Summer League - Aussie Aleks Maric playing for Portland Trailblazers.

Boxscores from Athens 2008 (Olympic Qualifier) - Kiwis play Germany tonight.

Marcus Camby traded to Clippers for nothing.

NBA ref made phone calls to other refs.

Stephen A Smith - Will athletes stand up for their beliefs at Beijing.

Are some NBA coaches too cozy with refs?

Chris Sheridan with all the key questions surrounding Team USA.

Don't Try This In Your Backyard!