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