QUEENSLAND CUP DAY 2

Crocs for the second night in a row came away with a win in the Queensland cup. !09-107 was the final in this up and down affair. The Crocs hung tough to overcome a twelve point fourth quarter deficit.

Michael Cedar fans will be happy as the youngster continued his good preseason form. Cedar ended up with 24 pts, including 5/7 from down town. Rosell Ellis had another double double with 17pts, 12rebs and 5 assists.

I thought I better help the cause tonight so I troubled the scorers for 32 points. Daniel Egan chipped in with 14 pts.

For the opposition, James Harvey dropped 27 on my head while the two imports, Crowe and Hawkins had 18 a piece.

The game was very open and free flowing but the Crocs showed good composure to come back from 12 point lead the Blaze enjoyed in the fourth. Cedar started the fight back with nailing back to back threes.

The Crocs played without Ben Pepper who is recovering from a fall he had in our first game. Big Ben should join us for Saturday’s game.

In the other game, a depleted Bullets took care of host team, Cairns. Without CJ Bruton, Sam MacKinnon, Ebe Eri and Justin Brown the Bullets won by about 15 points.

Rumour has it CJ didn’t play because he hair would not sit right, while MacKinnon was scared the Cattalini would drop 51 on him again.

The Bullets uniforms are something to see right now. Their canary yellow strip is quite bright to say the least. If you intend on checking them out this year, please bring your sunglasses for your own health.

Friday brings a rest day for the tournament, so when play resumes on Saturday the match ups are:
Bullets vs Blaze, Taipans vs Crocs.

QUEENSLAND CUP DAY 1

The Crocs have defeated the Brisbane Bullets tonight 120-106 in the Queensland Cup opening game. For the Crocs Rosell Ellis once again led all scorers with 24 pts and had 10 rebs to go with it. Six other Crocs players (Young, Robertson, Williamson, Egan, Pepper and myself) reached double figures in scoring.

I believe Galen Young will cause quite a few matchup problems at the three position. Too big, too strong for the smaller guys at this position.

Crocs got out to a 73-45 half time led. Too many turnovers leading to easy baskets gave the Bullets a sniff in the fourth quarter. Thanks to a barrage of free throws the Crocs maintained a cushion to close out the game.

One thing to come out of tonight’s was Ben Pepper smashing his melon on the deck. It will be interesting to see if the ringing has gone from “Big Ben’s” head tomorrow morning.

For the Bullets Ebi Ere had to watch from the stands. My mail has him waiting on some paperwork to clear. Sam MacKinnon pretty much kept himself on ice. He placed 18 so so minutes.

For Bullets fans, CJ Bruton looks like he has recovered from his off season surgery. Leading scorer for the champs was Brad Williamson with 21. Rookie of the Year candidate Craig Bradshaw ended up with 17. He will probably only get better as he gets familiar with the system.

After the game ended, we stuck around to watch the beginning of the Cairns, Gold Coast game. What did I get out of this in the few minutes I observed. Daniel Joyce is sporting a “tuff sticker” (tattoo) they he must of acquired in the offseason. One Life, One Chance is what the new ink says. I will endeavour to find out more about the meaning of this.

This just in. Taipans win by about ten over the Gold Coast Blaze tonight. The game was so good my mailman, the “Birdman” could not remember a thing.

Tomorrow night’s action is Crocs vs Blaze and Taipans vs Bullets.

Hope These Guys Are Ready!!!!!!

Will Larry Abney be bringing out his trademark "birdman" for his new team? Or has he found a new way to celebrate his dunks as the "Original Birdman" Chris Andersen (NBA), told him find his own original celebration style.

Mr All Everything right now. I cannot wait to see him in action while in Cairns. I just hope he gets a hand up when he's defending me!

QUEENSLAND CUP

Tomorrow brings the start of the Queensland Cup. The four NBL teams in the state of Queensland will battle it out over three games each. I'm sure all teams (Cairns, Brisbane, Gold Coast and Townsville) are looking at this as a great opportunity to really start getting their teams prepared for the upcoming season. Playing each team once will really allow the coaches to test lineups as well as offensive and defensive schemes.

I will do my best to provide all the information and stats about each game played. I'm sure you guys will be keen to know how the "new kids on the block" are performing so I will report on how the new players are travelling.

Wednesday Games:

6.00pm Brisbane vs Townsville
8.00pm Cairns vs Gold Coast

Besides getting ready for these games not much else is going on for now. The footy season is getting to an interesting stage. With only on week of rounds to go, there are still many important games as teams still fight for positions and evading the "Wooden Spoon". I hope you team makes the finals, but sadly my beloved Canberra Raiders are already waiting for next season.

ABA CHAMPIONS 2008

Here is a boxscore from the eyesore that was Game 3 of the Boomers vs Tall Blacks series. This game was a great reason why dead rubbers should not be played.

http://www.cybersportsusa.com/webgames/webgame.asp?File=../livegames/game/AusNew0824200719040.html

Congratulations to both the men of Cairns and the women of Townsville who took out their respective titles over the weekend in the ABA competition. Boxscores from both games provided below.

Men:

http://www.cybersportsusa.com/webgames/webgame.asp?File=../livegames/game/DanCai082620071400.html

Women:

http://www.cybersportsusa.com/webgames/webgame.asp?File=../livegames/game/TowHum082620071200.html

Just getting away from hoops for a minute, I have a website for all Simpson fans to check out. I have been honoured or a victim of this, thanks to our local paper, The Townsville Bulletin. The paper "Simpsonized" some people from around town, and I was lucky enough to get a run. Maybe you want to see yourself in this light or get payback on someone in the office. I'm sure you will have some fun.

http://simpsonizeme.com/#

This was also great to see over the weekend. http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_ylt=Av3gVQnZ2be21Tkwd8AbGJ68vLYF?slug=ap-millerscomeback&prov=ap&type=lgns Reggie Miller has decided to stay retired. Although I have yet to have to worry about considering this, I believe Reggie did the right thing. You know when your time is up, and I'm sure Reggie played a lot of mind games with himself to try and convince himself that he could still get it done. I am purely speculating here, but to get yourself back to the right frame of mind would be quite hard to do. At the elite level, it is more mental than physical. After being on the shelf for a few years, I could only imagine the convincing you would have to do to yourself. Great decision Reggie. That is why is he clutch!

CROCS HAVE FIRST GAME

The Crocs had their first hit out last night. The opposition came in the form of our local ABA team, the Townsville Heat. The final score read 115-111 to the Crocs. Before everyone starts asking what happened, coach Trevor Gleeson was feeling very generous and spotted the Heat 10 points per quarter.

Rosell Ellis had his first introduction to Grant Kruger and he is glad we have a rest day today. Let me tell you folks, "Krugs" still plays the same way, but is very effective at the ABA level.

For us Rosell and Mick Cedar paced the scoring with 24 a piece. My photographic memory is eluding me right now, but there were a few of us others in double figures with scoring.

As far as I'm concerned it was just good for the team to get out on the floor and get up and down in a game situation. We all need to get a feel for each others tendencies, but I'm tipping Trevor will have a few things to say after watching the tape of the game.

Next week we head up to Cairns to play in the Queensland Cup tournament. This should give us a better indication as to where we are at. Cairns, Brisbane and Gold Coast will provide the opposition. I can't wait as this means we are getting that much closer to tip off, September 19.

COMEBACK KIDS

Different Uniforms Anybody

Bring Back The Biff!


Some NBA teams are flirting or have taken the plunge of talking veterans out of retirement. Since so many fads start in the NBA, I thought I would come up with a few of my own scenarios if some veteran NBL players came out of retirement.

First comparison is Andrew Gaze to Reggie Miller. Both players have only known one jersey. The talk around the NBA circles is Miller is working out and thinking of a possible comeback. To see him in another uniform would be devastating, especially if it become Knick blue.

If the thought ever entered Gaze's head, my money is on the Adelaide 36ers. If anyone could talk Gaze out of retirement, it would be his old backcourt partner from way back, Phil "The General" Smythe. Adelaide fans would be in shock for a minute, but then realize they are getting back at the Tigers for taking Mark Bradtke away all those years ago.

Charles Oakley is talking about how he can come back at age 43 and contribute in many ways in helping a team win a championship. First person that springs to mind is my old teammate Bruce Bolden. I can see this unfolding like this. Bolden was sitting around his house (in a safari suite) giving himself a new fresh high, high cut fade haircut when he heard Oakley's comments. He said to himself, "yeah that's right Charles, a Brotha can still show these young bucks a lesson or two." I know Bolden is in a gym somewhere dropping fifteen footers from the high post.

Next we have Penny Hardaway. Ravaged by injury over the past seven years, Penny has been signed by the Miami Heat. Hardaway was an elite player in the NBA before injury virtually slowed him. I'm sure the Heat are hoping he can contribute just a small percentage of what he once did.

My comparison is Steve "Mr Magic" Carfino. After years of rest Carfino should be healed of his injuries and ready to help some team with his veteran savvy at the point. I could see Mr Magic returning in a Hawks uniform.

The biggest similarity with these guys has to be their sidekicks though. Once Penny starts to get some games under his belt, Lil Penny will have to reappear. With Carfino making a comeback this would mean his sparring partner, John Casey, would have to come out of the commentary booth to see if he could get one of his party tricks to tumble with a user friendly roll. We all know he is long over due with his none preferred left hand.

Look out for these press conferences in the next few weeks regarding comebacks:

Oliver Miller/Scott Ninnis

Chris Dudley/Paul Rees

Pheonix Gorilla/Rupert Sapwell

BOOMERS MAKE IT TO 2008 GAMES

The final score was 93-67 to the Boomers, but the Kiwis were actually leading (1 point) at half time. It was great to see the Aussie team dominate, but the New Zealand squad showed absolutely nothing in the second half. Whatever the Boomers wanted to do, they did. Darnell Mee posted up Mark "no spark" Dickel numerous times. How about sending a double team! Then Patrick Mills (see left) replaces him and it becomes a lay up drill.

It was so bad that Kiwi commentator Jeff Green had nothing to say. Good or bad, Green usually has something to tell us.

All the Boomers played well, but if you couldn't in this game your international career is going nowhere fast. Before everyone jumps all over me, yes, it was good to see Brad Newley get out in the open court in the second half. He needs to develop ways to get himself involved through like hustle plays, instead of trying the "home run " play from the minute he hit's the court. This will come though.

The game was just a good old fashion ass kicking so there is no need for me to ramble on about it. I have been trying to chase up a box score, so as soon as I have it, it will be posted. Leading scorers were: Mills 17 and MacKinnon 16 for the Boomers, while Kirk Penney had 21 and Pero Cameron with 15 for the Kiwis.

BOXSCORE: http://www.cybersportsusa.com/webgames/webgame.asp?File=../livegames/game/NewAus082220071740.html

Game 3 is Friday in Bris Vegas. I believe the first quarter will be intense, but providing the Boomers can match this early attempt, the Kiwis will shut up shop and the Boomers will get a well deserved 3-0 scoreline.

My Observations From Around The Game:

- I know I'm no fashion guru, but can somebody tell me what hair style that is called that my main man Newley is sporting.

- Comparisons are already starting with Patrick Mills. A name that comes to my mind is former SE Melbourne Magic import Adonis Jordan.

- At the end of the game when Shane Heal was interviewing Sam MacKinnon, was anybody else hoping they would finish off their little skirmish they started during the NBL last season.

ALL IN A DAYS WORK

Basketball is what we get paid to do, but there are a few other commitments that happen at this time of the year. Promotions and school clinics are always a requirement for players to fulfill, but tomorrow the Crocs get to do something no other team in the league would get to do.

After I go to practice and win a few scrimmages and work on my trash talking skills (I'm trying to get Galen to come out of his shell, but he has not taken the bait yet!), we go and have a photo shoot at Maccas for a tray mat. That's right folks, the people of Townsville get lucky and get the team to sit with them every time they dine in.

Even better, when I take my own kids to Maccas and they comment on how I'm on the tray mat. Why is it kids find a new volume anytime they need to draw attention to something that is not necessary?

This does become quite a collectors item for all Mum's of the players. Somehow parents see this and think their kids have made the big time. How wrong they are, but you have to love a parents attitude about their kids.

- Don't forget Game 2 of the Boomers/Kiwis series is on Wednesday night and can be viewed on Fox Sports.

- For anyone interested in what is happening with the USA team, here is an article about their team that starts their qualify for the Olympics in the next few days. I will be interested to see if they continue their undefeated streak at the Tournament of Americas.

http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/news;_ylt=AoQhm338npEW2lm4fD5FZmy8vLYF?slug=ap-bko-usteam&prov=ap&type=lgns

Here is a little info about the Americas tourney.

http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/news;_ylt=AnV.coOheZP.dZohwGAtdxO8vLYF?slug=ap-bko-americasqualifyingglance&prov=ap&type=lgns

BOOMERS TAKE OUT FIRST GAME

Well folks, the Boomers handled the Kiwis very easily tonight. They cruised to an easy double figure points win. The final score being 79-67. That is flattering to the Kiwis. It seems like the Australian team just wanted it a little more. That is not great news if you are a New Zealand supporter. Remember, the winner qualifies for the 2008 Beijing Games, while the loser will find it hard to punch their ticket to the Olympics as you take a "loser qualifying" road that goes through Europe.

As I predicted the Kiwis had no answer for the interior play of David Andersen (20 pts, 4rebs, 4 as) and the all round game of Sam MacKinnon (18pts, 7rebs). At the end of the day the "sheep shaggers" have no one to guard Andersen. He is too quick for Pero, or too strong for anyone else. I think at one stage Casey Frank was trying to apply the fatal "grapple" tackle to Andersen in the post.

Where the Kiwis can improve immediately is looking after the ball. Their turnover count was horrendous. They shot well from the field but they gave themselves limited opportunities will their careless ball control. Kirk Penny just has to become a hired gun for them. Pero was tough and created a lot of easy opportunities for his teammates, but all his shots came from down town. He needs to be a scoring presence on the low block if New Zealand are to scare the Aussies at any stage in this series.

I look forward to Game 2 on Wednesday that will be played in Sydney. New Zealand need to make some adjustments and I'll be curious to see if they change their starting line up to get the Australian's guessing a little at tip off.

Here is the box score of the game.

http://www.cybersportsusa.com/webgames/BoxScore.aspx?uid=0&ssid=&xmlfile=AUSNZL20820071930.xml

Other things that have caught my eye. If anyone is an NBA fan, you need to check out this Stephon Marbury interview on You Tube. Just punch in Marbury interview and enjoy. It is full of laughs....from my point of view anyway.

WEEKEND OVER......LET THE FUN BEGIN

After another solid week in footy tipping, currently 11/15 in NRL/AFL combo comp, I'm looking forward to this week to really get my sporting juices flowing. It is less than 24 hours until the Australian Boomers take on the New Zealand Tall Blacks to see who qualifies for the 2008 Olympics Games. This series is huge for the sport of basketball in this country. We lose, the sport may well fade from its professional ranks that we enjoy at this present time. (If you haven't read my previous entries I have tipped the Boomers in a 3-0 sweep.)

I believe not qualifying for the 2008 Games sucks the life out of the sport as we know and enjoy it for today. I saying this, I look at this series and say it is harder qualifying than actually playing at the Olympics. Once you are there, you can just let you balls hang out and play. If the team is in a good flow and rhythm for those two weeks, anything is possible.

I watched Italy claim silver at the 2004 Games, and they just road a great wave of momentum they enjoyed at that time.

Australia could be that team in 2008, but we have to get their first. The Kiwis have been a tough outfit over the past 5 years, but observing from the outside I believe they may have lost their mojo. They have a new coach, so will the same team play as hard for a different guy? Time will tell.

Don't forget you can catch these games live on Fox Sports 2 at 7.30pm.

On the Crocs front, we tackle the Townsville Heat ABA team on Friday night. It is always good to start playing games no matter who the opposition is. Just getting back to running up and down the court is a great feeling.

NEWLEY GOOOOONE!

If all reports from the Adelaide Advertiser to European websites are correct, this may the be closest 36ers fans will ever get to seeing Brad Newley play in his home town of Adelaide. It has been reported that Newley will take up a deal in Greece this coming season.

If these reports are true, I'm happy for Brad because if he truly wants to give the NBA a real shake, he needs to play in a different environment. Europe will provide a stronger launching pad to the NBA and improving his game. Newley's strength is his ability to slash and finish on the break. Barring injury he could enjoy a 10-15 year career here in Australia and live happily ever after. BUT, if he wants to test himself and get better, sometimes you have to get a little uncomfortable

By going to Europe he will do nothing but get better in other areas of his game, and ultimately prepare himself for a better shot at making the "SHOW", NBA.

I wish him all the best in his adventure and hope to see him in the NBA in the near future.

I know there will some very disappointed Sixer fans out there, but who wouldn't want to live in the moment. You never know when that time will be taken away from you.

Just a side note on the Newley family. Brad's sister Mia just picked up the award for best three point percentage at the world under 19 championship. Not too much passing going on at their family gatherings!

Crocs Together At Last

Well today is the first day the Crocs can say they have had all players under the one roof. Rosell Ellis was the last to arrive, but he wasted no time in showing what he was bought in to do. Having been off the plane for a total of eleven minutes, Rosell or Roe to his teammates, had his first rebound in Crocs green. Between him and Ben Pepper , my rebounding energy may be better served cherry picking this season. This is a skill that I learnt from Brad Newley.

Galen Young seems to have a great feel for the game and if he continues to find me, he will lead the league in assists for sure.

As for the rest of us that have been in the tropics for a while, we are just happy to have some new bodies to compete against.

No, I did not forget Brad Sheridan. He is giving us his best Jane Fonda stretching workout while we practice. "Rowdy" has a back issue right now so he spends his time watching practice from a horizontal position.

Now that everybody is here, lets bring on some games!

Boomers Team Announced

David Andersen, Wade Helliwell, Russell Hinder, Luke Kendall, Sam MacKinnon, Darnell Mee, Patrick Mills, Brad Newley, Damien Ryan, Glen Saville, Jason Smith, Mark Worthington

That is the team that will take on the Kiwis in next week's three game series to see who gets an immediate birth to the 2008 Olympic Games.

When you first look at the squad you see a lack of bigs, but please remember the Tall Blacks are not all that tall. Tony Rampton is there biggest along with Craig Bradshaw. Bradshaw is more of a face up guy than a beast on the block.

I will take a stab in the dark and say that coach Brian Goorjian will go with Andersen, MacKinnon, Saville, Smith and Mee. MacKinnon will create the biggest match up problem as they have no one that can match him physically. Provided Andersen avoids foul trouble, he will have a great series and fans will see why he is regarded so highly in Europe.

With this starting line up Goorjian will be looking to set a tempo with his trademark defensive intensity. This will allow Newley and Mills to come off the bench and play their lose free flowing style of hoops.

Without any knowledge, I guess Hinder and Ryan have played themselves into some minutes at their respective positions.

The Kiwis strength is their perimeter play of Phil Jones and Kirk Penny, but I feel our defense at these positions should limit these players game winning abilities.

The only way we will lose this series is if our key front court players continuously find themselves in foul trouble. Otherwise, I forecast a three nil scoreline.

I HAVE ARRIVED

Hi there people. I just felt it was time for JR to start blogging. Yes, I have a passion for sport and with this comes many opinions. I will be focusing mainly on the world of hoops, but if anything else out there catches my fancy, I will let you know where I stand.

As the hoops season is starting to gear up, I will endeavour to keep on top of all hot topics and also throw in my point of view. Many of the NBL teams are starting preseason games, while the Boomers (national team) has a massive series coming up against the Kiwi's, so there will be plenty to comment on.

Feel free to comment, ask questions etc. Please keep the personal baggings to a minimum as I'm very fragile mentally.