Pull The Trigger - The Fully, Massive, Bloody Oath Episode

Episode 5 of "Pull The Trigger" has arrived. Now being honest, it is not my favourite episode but don't let me be the judge of Cameron Tragardh's line of thought.

Check out his poor impersonation of Matt Campbell, while Glen Saville seems to have refereeing as a career path in the near future.

The funniest part of PTT for me was (look around the 6-7min mark) when Tragardh's gag got no response from a punter. He was trying the old tap on the shoulder trick, but looked rather perplexed when he got no response from the young lad. You can see the look on Trigger's face as if to say "why aren't you turning around".

Trigger, you need to tap them on the shoulder, not the backpack strap.

One Hawks fan was not happy with Townsville Crocodiles Corey "Homicide" Williams performance in the Gong, not so long ago.

Hoops Hot News

Click on the sweet 'do to the left to see other stylish locks of NBL players created by some artistic guys from the west. By the way boys, the wife loved the Vanilla Ice look.

- Yes, he's back. The NBL's MVP will be back on court this week. I can vouch for it as I spent my morning chasing him around at practice. Kirk Penney will be back in uniform when the New Zealand Breakers take on the Cairns Taipans this Thursday night.

I'm looking forward to teaming up with one of the premier perimeter players in the league.

- Adelaide 36ers Head Coach believes his team is nearly back to full strength which will allow him to go with his preferred starting line up.

- Melbourne Tigers franchise player Mark Worthington feels it is time for his team to "rip people's heads off". Read all his words here in the Herald Sun.

- Are the Cairns Taipans back after going 2-0 this past week?

- Gold Coast Blaze CEO Dave Claxton is calling the come from behind win, the best in the club's brief history.

- The Townsville Crocodiles are fired up about the officiating.

- Brad Newley continues to put up impressive numbers in Turkey. Although his team lost a close contest, Newley dropped in 33 points. He went 7-10 from down town. Newley is currently the 7th (17.8pts) leading scorer in the Turkish league and his team sits in 3rd place with a 4-2 record.

- Joe Ingles was solid with a 9 point, 6 rebound effort in his teams blow out win in Spain.

- Matt Nielsen had 10&5 as his Valencia ball club had a solid win.

- NCAA D1 Aussie performer of the day is Gold Coast native Christian Salecich. He helped lead the St Louis Billikens over Kennesaw St Owls 76-66.

Salecich finished with 15pts, 6 assists and 4 rebounds.

Fellow Aussie Cody Ellis should be joining him after the semester.

Check out this shot of the day by Kobe!

Hodge Responds

Julius Hodge thinks he is the male version of Anna Kournikova. Somehow I cannot see him pulling of a Speedo like this.

Melbourne Tiger import Julius Hodge has responded to the recent blog posted by former Adelaide teammate Brad Davidson.

Hodge down played the blog entry but responded on Gaze.com.au with a comment regarding Davidson's comparison of Julius with tennis glam girl Anna Kournikova.

He is what he had to say via Gaze.com.au.

"She's very beautiful and I would like to give a thanks to Brad cause he did know that by far I am the most handsome teammate he's ever had. So, cheers mate."

Somewhere in Adelaide Rupert Sapwell is shaking his head in disbelief at this quote.

Crocs/Breakers Press Conference

Here is video footage from the Townsville Crocodiles/New Zealand Breakers press conference.

Crocs Head Coach Trevor Gleeson talks about early foul to key members of his team.

Meanwhile, Breakers coach Andrej Lemanis talks about a team contribution which allowed his Kiwi team to taste success on the road for the first time this year.

Is Hodge A Good Fit?

Julius Hodge should probably be in the gym working on his jump shot instead of the beach if you ask former teamate Brad Davidson.

I've been surfing the net this morning just checking out all things basketball and this Brad Davidson blog entry is by far the most interesting read I found.

The Commonwealth Games gold medallist talks about his relationship with new Melbourne Tiger Julius Hodge during their time together as teammates at Adelaide.

I will let you decide for yourself and come to your own conclusions, but it would be interesting to here from a Melbourne Tiger (hey Wortho, in between beers, give us a blog on Hodge) to see if Hodge has painted a different picture in Melbourne, than the impression he has left in Adelaide.

Here is Davidson's words, let me know what you think.

"Since Julius Hodge last left our shores in the middle of the 2008/09 season, I have said to a few people that he was the worst teammate I’d ever had on my team throughout my basketball career.

Is Julius a bad person? No he’s not. Did Julius give you everything he had on game night? Absolutely yes during his first season here in Adelaide, but the second season hmmmm - most of the time.

Julius mark 2 came in so much fanfare that you can see why he was so self centreed and deluded and I think a big factor for his attitude was he didn’t want to be here after being so close to fulfilling his NBA dream. The tech fouls, not getting back on defence and general attitude when things were going bad really hurt him in the face of the team. When a guy that really did like you say that you were a cancer for the team you gotta start to think it’s you mate, not the rest of the world that has the problem! I think the Adelaide 36ers were at fault to start the disintegration of the relationship but Julius was at fault there after but not once has he said he wished he’d done something differently so he could’ve stayed in this place that he claims to love so much. I’m pretty sure he was getting some bad advice from his American agent too (and not the first person that has had that, Schensch?).

I think it’s sad that Julius is back. He is easily the most talented player I’ve played with, but is he the best player I’ve played with? No but he should be. Make no mistake about it Julius is going to come back to Australia and put up big numbers and be in the top 3 players in the league. Do you know how good you have to be to score 25 a game and put up the numbers he does with that ridiculously bad shooting style and flat shot? It was like Anna Kournikova - her serve was the worst in women’s tennis but she was still in the top 10 in the world because the rest of her game was so good. I could say that Julius is like Kournikova and isn’t a winner but I never got a championship, so you know what they say about people in glass houses……

Everyone knew Julius and I didn’t quite see eye to eye as we are polar opposites, yet also surprisingly similar. We are both smart arses who liked getting a rise out of people. I would shoot and hit a few threes in a row and say to Julius “if you had this shot you’d be earning five million a year right now” and he would call me ‘mini me’ and enjoyed dropping some short jokes any chance he got. But that’s where the similarities end. Julius worked harder in the gym during his second season here and did spend time shooting, but this was after sitting out the parts of practice he didn’t want to participate in. I personally didn’t want to shoot with Julius after training because I’d already had my workout and didn’t need more fitness work rebounding all his misses. Besides, I would get up more game type shots in 30 mins as he would get up standing still shooting in an hour.

I’ll be interested to see whether Julius has learnt anything since he left and whether he returns with a better attitude. It will be interesting to see if he helps the Tigers get better or whether he still thinks the world revolves around his every move. Either way it’ll be good to watch!!"

What I'm Up To Today

Courtesy of the Townsville Bulletin, this is what I'm up to today.

"A FAMILIAR face strode into Townsville airport yesterday in the unfamiliar colours of the New Zealand Breakers.

Former Crocs skipper John Rillie, pictured, will take to the court tonight as the enemy in his new role as a bench player for the team from across the ditch.

The 38-year-old jokingly said he was expecting a 'standing ovation' from The Swamp faithful, but knows he may cop a bit of stick from his former fans.

But first and foremost on his mind is helping his club notch up their first win on the road for the 2009/10 season after they were beaten by 77-64 Cairns on Wednesday night.

''To tell you the truth I haven't thought about that too much after our lacklustre effort,'' he said. ''Obviously the team is a bit disappointed after our performance in Cairns. That's going to be an interesting feeling, going back there and playing.

''What happens, how it happens, I'm not sure. It's just going to be one of those things when you walk into the arena how your emotions go about it.

''We haven't tasted success on the road so right now we're just trying to get that monkey off the back.''

After earning his lifeline last week, Rillie has had time to adapt to the New Zealand program which is missing sharpshooter Kirk Penney (injury) and sacked import Awvee Storey.
Rated as one of the championship favourites at the beginning of the season, the Breakers are sitting outside of the NBL top four largely due to their poor road form.

Rillie said the club was heading in a new direction though and was confident they could get their maiden away win against his former club.

''The team's a work in progress right now, I think with the changes that they've made we're just trying to see where we're going and the direction,'' he said. ''We need a road win more than anything.

''Slowly but surely I'm coming along, I think last week was just raw emotion playing a part in at all,'' Rillie said. ''I think now playing a couple of games in a couple of nights, that will be the real test, just to see where my fitness level is.''

Rillie has played two games for New Zealand so far and scored three points against Wollongong and six points against Cairns - all three-pointers. He expected his role to be more of the same tonight but said if the shots start dropping, he could be in for a big night.

''The situation coming in, (there's) not too much expectation right now, I think it's a feeling out process,'' he said.

''I guess when I do get opportunity I've got to go out there and just make the most of it.''

JR & CJ Interview

I caught up with new teammate CJ Bruton before we head out on the road for a pivotal "Sunshine Swing".

Bruton talks about his time in Europe, oops, he meant New Zealand and how we are going to do on our trip to sunny North Queensland.

CJ also mentions that the weekend consists of both Saturday and Sunday, but he questions whether Head Coach Andrej Lemanis is in tune with his line of thinking.

Corey "Homicide" Williams loves competing against the best but CJ tells him he is the boss of the final ten minutes.