Basketball On The Internet.

TRYING hard to get excited about the NBL’s draw revelations today but they really have paled against Townsville Crocodiles’ announcement of their signing ex-NBA big man Mickell Gladness.

Clearly while the Crocs were talking with then-free agent centre Tom Jervis before he resigned with Perth Wildcats, they were expecting that result and already were well advanced in negotiations with Gladness, 27 and 211cm.

Gladness has an NBA career-high of 14 points he scored for Golden State Warriors against San Antonio Spurs in 2012.

At Alabama A&M, he set an NCAA record by blocking 16 shots against Texas Southern in 2007 and led the NCAA in shot-blocking, averaging 6.27 per game.

“We are bringing in someone that the NBL hasn’t seen the likes of as a defensive big man since Simon Dwight,” Crocs coach Shawn Dennis said.

Willie Simmons might also be a similar comparison.

Gladness joins a retooled Townsville team which is likely to feature Brian Conklin returning in the other import slot and playing power forward, with veteran Jacob Holmes completing a tough frontline.

Steve “The Marksman” Markovic, Todd Blanchfield, Mirko Djeric and Mitch Norton also return, with Clint Steindl’s recruitment likely to be the Crocs’ next big reveal.

The Crocodiles have vacated The Swamp and will play out of the 2,200 RSL Stadium, home of the WNBL’s runner-up Townsville Fire.

It appears a positive move into a “boutique” stadium and should make Crocs’ tickets a hot item.

Townsville opens its season on the road to Wollongong on opening night, Friday, October 10, Adelaide hosting Cairns and New Zealand away to champion Perth the same evening.

The Hawks back up within 24 hours at Sydney and a day later, Melbourne makes its United debut against the Taipans.

Round One will be completed on Sunday, October 12 with the 36ers away to Townsville.

BOXING Day will have its first NBL fixture in almost a decade, appropriately in Sydney.

Former Kings coach Shane Heal was a strong advocate for staging a match on December 26 and the NBL has come to the (Christmas) party.

However it has made a blunder by scheduling New Zealand to face the Kings, meaning a disrupted Christmas Eve/Christmas Day for the Breakers and their families.

Seriously now, how much simpler would it have been to schedule the derby grudge match between the Kings and Hawks on Boxing Day?

The Hawks would have minimal Christmas Day disruptions, only requiring a drive up the highway.

They also most likely would have made a fan-contribution to the stands, with ardent Hawks fans able to make the trip.

Good work by the NBL and bad work by the NBL in one fell swoop.

“Boxing Day is a great family occasion and basketball is one of the genuinely family-friendly events so we think it is a comfortable fit,” NBL CEO Fraser Neill said.

“Australians have shown their love of sport during the festive season and the NBL has listened to the fans who told us they wanted to see basketball on Boxing Day.”

Yeah. OK. Not sure they were New Zealand fans though…

And Sydney-Wollongong on Boxing Day could have become an annual fixture.

THERE will be 14 regular season games played away from the traditional Friday-through-Sunday schedule, which is very much barely toe-in-the-water stuff by the league.

Nine of those games are on a Thursday, with five of them in New Zealand where the Breakers already have established a Thursday-night following.

The others are in Sydney (twice), Melbourne and Adelaide.

Three of the five Wednesday night fixtures include New Year’s Eve games in Cairns (hosting Adelaide), Townsville (Sydney) and Wollongong (Perth).

The other two will be in Melbourne and Perth.

Realistically if the NBL truly wanted to test the weekday market, surely a Monday night fixture or two during the January school holidays may have been worth a try?

IN the league’s last season under the present format - eight clubs, locked-in TV, NBL.TV and uniform deals - each team again will play its opponents four times, twice at home and twice away for a 28-game regular season and 112 fixtures.

And it all will unfold in 20 weeks.

“The players have made it clear they want to be playing games more regularly,” Neill said.

“The fans want to see more basketball. This helps cater to the feedback we have received.”

So that's it.

My favorite line re the draw today was on Twitter from Michael DiFabrizio, who noted: "The first Adelaide-United game clashes with an Adelaide United game."

Nice one.

TOMORROW: Right On, Friday Ladies