Basketball On The Internet.

THE first WNBL regular season under its new ownership concluded tonight in Townsville where the Fire ensured themselves of first place and a semi final against Southside, the defending champion Spirit to take on Han Xu and the Perth Lynx shooters in the rival semi series.

On the eve of the finals, tomorrow the WNBL will reveal its annual award winners, as determined by its "Awards Committee" which, allegedly, protects the integrity of the awards.

Considering how many they had wrong last season, fingers crossed this year's panel - consisting of past players, coaches and officials, along with media journalists and Basketball Australia representatives - manage to correctly identify the appropriate award recipients.

Meanwhile the Lynx have declared Anneli Maley, who produced a triple-double in Perth's last match with Sydney, as its club MVP, with Alex Ciabattoni finishing second.

Sydney named Unique Thompson its MVP and more club announcements will come before the finals tip off at the weekend.

The Lightning, for example, are deep in talks to retain Aja Parham-Ammar. You know, the coach with whom the Adelaide-based, currently interstate-owned club replaced Kerryn Mitchell after she had produced a 3-4 win-loss record.

Parham-Ammar went 3-13 so clearly her audition monumentally exceeded whatever her team managed to produce on the pine.

In the words of multiple WNBL champion and starter for Adelaide, Olympian Jo Hill: "Was there a selection process or interview that took place or are they putting people in because they are women with not the credentials that other coaches need?

"No disrespect to the coach in Adelaide but who is she, where did she come from, has she had WNBL experience before, or you don’t need any of that to become a head coach anymore?"

It's a fine question from the Hall of Famer, especially when there's a plethora of better options residing in Adelaide. It's not as if Parham-Ammar exactly set the world on fire, Adelaide finishing in the same seventh position it occupied under Scott Ninnis and before him, Nat Hurst.

So what a season that was for the WNBL's new ownership. In Adelaide, the home game presentation improved a thousandfold, even when the home game performances did not.

In Sydney, where the club inexplicably replaced one of the league's - and Australian basketball's in general - greatest contributors in Guy Molloy as coach, the Flames lost superstar Lauren Nicholson to injury but unearthed a rare diamond in Agnes Emma-Nnopu.

The Nigerian-born, Geelong-raised Vic Country star was a revelation when she returned from college in the US to reunite with Molloy in Sydney.

"Before I went to college, I trained with Guy during his time at the Melbourne Boomers (where she was a development player) and always thought he was a great and very detailed coach," she said.

"We stayed in touch while I was in the US, and it just felt right to reconnect with Guy, as I know he can help me become the player I want to be and achieve the goals I've set for myself with his developmental focus."

Now budding new WNBL coaching face Renae Garlepp - who ironically starred in Adelaide Lightning's last championship when they beat the Sydney Flames - will be the one helping craft Emma-Nnopu's burgeoning career going forward in Sin City.

The big surprises of the season were the emergence of players such as Alex Ciabattoni at Perth, Jaz Shelley at Geelong, Dallas Loughridge at Adelaide and Kelsey Rees at Bendigo.

The future looks bright, the best-of-three semi finals tipping off on Saturday in Perth where the Lynx host Bendigo before Game 2 in Bendigo on Tuesday-week, then back to Perth if necessary for Game 3 on Sunday, February 22.

Regular season champ Townsville hosts Southside Flyers in Game 1 on Sunday, the series shifting to Melbourne for Game 2 on Wednesday, February 18. If a deciding Game 3 is necessary, it will be back in Townsville on Saturday, February 21.