Basketball On The Internet.

PSST. You didn't hear it here but my (e)mail is there is a far greater chance the SEABL will affiliate with the NBL than hand its reins over to BA.

If you're more than a casual visitor here than you already are well aware I personally have never thought the moves to have the SEABL - our longest existing interstate competition in Australia, starting as the South Eastern Conference WELL before we even had the annual Australian Club Championship from 1970-79 - administered by Basketball Australia made any sense.

For starters, BA has so much on its plate with Olympics every four years and World Champs in between, juniors, camps, nationals, Centres of Excellence - just SO much to do and SO little time - that its record running national comps isn't too flash.

Look at the NBL this year since it demerged.

(Full credit to BA for stepping in to save the league when it did but, after that, it's downhill.)

And now, free of any NBL requirements, what exactly has BA done for the WNBL's profile this season?

Granted, the league now has a naming rights sponsor - and a good one at that - but what that deal is actually worth in $$$ was never released. (And, well, pardon me for being cynical but looking at the contracts BA locked the NBL into, you have to wonder. After all, if the deal was for hundreds of thousands of dollars, you'd be trumpeting that, wouldn't you?)

Apart from that, the profile of our WNBL players is no better under BA exclusivity, nor is the profile of the league. The TV deal is only what the WNBL had prior to its previous deal.

So, on the strength (or weakness) of what BA has done with the WNBL - now its only national property - why would the SEABL even want to get into a situation where the federation additionally ran its competition?

So Chuck Harmison can dole out a few fines?

So Aaron Flanagan can shut down live streaming of games? (Yes Caps, I feel your pain...)

To share resources?

Eh.

But the SEABL jumping onto the NBL, which clearly has stated and restated its expansion plans to 12 clubs in 2015-16, makes far more sense.

Stay tuned because I have a feeling this one is going to get super interesting.

 

LOVE or hate the Wildcats, false fluttering eyelashes off to the NBL pacemakers again this week with their donation of $22,406 toward bushfire relief.

Add that to the monies raised by the Perth Scorchers and a cheque for $41,897 has been handed over to the Lord Mayor's Distress Relief Fund.

Sensational stuff reinforcing just why the Wildcats are such a huge part of the Perth community.

 

STILL with the Wildcats, Matty Knight's concussions since being KO'd in the NYE game in Cairns have led Perth and the genial centre to conclude he should be on a reduced workload for the next few weeks.

The MVP of the Top End Challenge a few years ago is likely to miss the next three games, rumours abounding former big-man Jeremiah Trueman, no longer on the NZ Breakers list, may return to the West to fill the breach.

 

CONGRATULATIONS to Canberra Caps veteran Jessica Bibby for collecting the WNBL’s Player of the Week award.

Anytime you go for 32 points on 10-of-14 shooting, I, for one, doff my toupee in reverence.

That said and only slightly diminishing the achievement, it was in a 30-plus point drubbing of Worst Coast, the league’s poorest team and catching the Wives on the second leg of a road double.

That’s why I liked Suzy B’s 21.5ppg and 13.0ppg in tough road games for Townsville against Bendigo and Dandenong just a bit better.

But Bibs was hot, of that there is no doubt.

Let’s hope she plays on in 2014-15. At 34, you start to think about life beyond basketball.

Point is though, if you can still bag 32 in a league as good as the WNBL, then why stop?

Worse, by my calculations, Jess will finish the season on 349 games played. That’s gotta be a motivator!

 

RELIABLY informed Adrian Preposterous, er, Adrian Proszenko, the "chief rugby league writer" for Fairfax Media, who magnanimously dubbed Kings' import Sam Young as "the best basketballer to step foot on to an Australian court" agrees with the ABC's Darren Boyd that Phil Brown is one of the greatest coaches in Australian history.

Apparently Brown suggested the “coat-hanger'' before construction of the Sydney Harbor Bridge began.

RANKINGS

FIRST time I can remember the WNBL rankings are identical to last week so please don’t think that’s a misprint and skip to the tips.

While the NBL rankings have been volatile all season, the women’s four has been pretty much settled since before the Christmas-New Year recess, with only Adelaide’s improved form creating a modicum of interest in final placings.

NBL Rankings

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8 (7) CROCODILES – Question-marks over The Marksman leave Townsville vulnerable against the hated foe.

7 (4) BREAKERS – Like a yoyo, NZ is back near the cellar but a Hawks win would have them right back up.

6 (6) HAWKS – As Homer would say: “D’oh!” And now NZ calls and the challenge could not be greater.

5 (8) TAIPANS – Such a volatile league, Cairns can keep the roll going over the Crocs and stay upwardly mobile.

4 (3) TIGERS – Two losses becomes a skid and away to Perth and Hawks makes this a definite gut-check.

3 (5) KINGS – Three in a row is a streak. It started with Adelaide. Does it finish with the 36ers?

2 (2) 36ERS – Jumped back against Townsville but Kings in Sydney is a real finals barometer for both.

1 (1) WILDCATS – Back in business and, oh yes, Matt Knight to come back yet. Buying the finals balloons.



WNBL Rankings

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9 (9) WAVES – No way West Coast drops the bye this week. It can even score double digits in all quarters! 

8 (8) THUNDER – Glad Nat Taylor is back and firing but downing Spirit? No way. Downing Spirits? Maybe.

7 (7) FLAMES – Capital city challenges usually mean at least a split for the split-personality Sydney team.

6 (6) CAPITALS – Very capable of taking out Melbourne, especially with Boomers playing-travelling-playing.

5 (5) LIGHTNING – This weekend should sort out whether finals are feasible or fanciful.

4 (4) BOOMERS – Tough challenge against finals wannabes who will be idle when Melbourne is in post-season.

3 (3) FIRE – Losing Capt Courageous against Rangers didn’t help but Bendigo showdown will be huge.

2 (2) RANGERS – Owe Adelaide for that 20-point welt a few weeks back and will be ready for redemption.

1 (1) SPIRIT – What the? We lost? Time to get back on the horse and pinch one off the Fire.

 

THIS WEEK'S TIPS

WOLLONGONG started the season losing by 19 to the Breakers in NZ but won’t be intimidated this time. This has the potential to be a corker with the big question whether Casey Frank will commentate as well as play. NZ, but not by 19 this time around.

IF Steve Markovic wasn’t the victim of an illness which kept him bed-ridden before playing the 36ers and severely restricted in the game, you would like Townsville to beat the incoming Taipans. But with McCamey-Wilson big Cairns’ strengths, it’s hard to back the Crocs.

IN a two-game losing skid after a six-win streak, additionally losing Lucas Walker to an Achilles injury could not be more poorly timed for Melbourne, heading into Perth. Well, unless this was Grand Final week of course. Expect a tough game and a Wildcats W.

IN what may be the match of the round, Sydney will be out to prove it is legit as a top-four team and, funnily enough, so too will Adelaide, despite a great start which has pitched it into second. The rate of improvement in the 36ers since their last tryst suggests a road win, but only just.

TOUGHEST game of the round to pick is Melbourne at Wollongong because, obviously, how these teams fare in road games in Perth and Auckland respectively must in some way impact this contest. Without the benefit of Nostradamus’ foresight (yes, incredibly, I did almost type “‘foreskin”, quite the relief I didn’t. Oh. Wait. Dang.) This might be the game which turns the Hawks season upright.

LOGAN drew the short straw – that is, the first team to have to go into Bendigo Stadium after the Spirit have just had their club record win-streak shut down at 16 by that OTHER Queensland team. This could be painful, though Bendigo might try keep something in reserve.

WHEN Adelaide stunned the hockey-pucks out of Dandenong and whipped the Rangers by 20 a round back, it shot the lights out. But it also confused Dandenong with its defensive ploys. At Dandenong? Life will be a lot harder and Adelaide missing Jess Foley will be decisive.

SYDNEY will be watching the finals on TV, Karen Dalton will be extending her lifetime contract while searching through the list of available stars and Melbourne will be enjoying the fruits of its great season-start. But if the Flames want to make a statement, beating Melbourne would do it.

IT’S a tough round for the Boomers, who have to see off one playoff TV viewer before travelling to face another in Canberra. The Caps will be fired up as much as the Flames and this easily could turn out to be Melbourne’s ugliest weekend.

OK. Round 3, with Townsville 2-0 and way ahead on points against reigning champ and league-leading Bendigo. This is big because if the Fire make it a sweep, that surely will have some psychological effect on the Spirit heading into finals. And that should be just enough to get Bendigo a win.

ADELAIDE at Sydney in the men, Sydney at Adelaide in the women. An exciting and busy day for Kings, 36ers, Lightning, Flames fans, for sure. Again, how both teams have fared in road games to start the round is relevant and, sadly, I expect Sydney to lift and cause a boilover.

 

DEAR Martin Luther King Jr.
I have a dream within a dream within a dream within another dream ... What now?
Sincerely,
Leonardo Di Caprio