Basketball On The Internet.

IT’S an interesting curiosity and too much of a constant to be a coincidence that almost every team has at least one nemesis – the side they don’t like to face – regardless of their respective talent levels.

It appears to happen in most seasons, where a club seemingly cruising suddenly runs aground when it hits a particular opponent which, by rights, has no business troubling it.

One of the joys of Hall of Fame legend Ken Cole being back in Adelaide last week was just having the chance to listen to his wisdom when it comes to basketball.

We share a belief that “keeping it simple” is the way to keep it pure and a couple of areas our conversations crossed included the topic of the “hoodoo” team.

Having watched a few 36ers practices, Cole – who always has had a great eye for basketball talent – said he felt the key to an Adelaide NBL Championship this season was the level of improvement in athletic tyro Mitch Creek and import swingman Jarrid Frye.

At News Corp, we ran a story about his views on that and you can catch that here if you desire: http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/sport/basketball/hall-of-famer-ken-cole-says-mitch-creek-and-jarrid-frye-can-underpin-a-36ers-run-at-this-years-nbl-title/story-fnii09ki-1226803513927

But that further led to the conversation of which teams stood in Adelaide’s way THIS season.

Ken was a little surprised when I said I believed the 36ers matched up well with Perth but might never get to see the Wildcats in the Finals because semi final match-ups with either Melbourne Tigers or Sydney Kings might not be survived.

Before Wildcats fans start roaring their disapproval, fact is in three meetings, including the preseason, Adelaide is 2-1 and its only loss was at The Jungle by three when it was minus injured pair Adam Gibson and Frye.

While that record guarantees nothing the next time they tip-off, truth is Adelaide has a recipe to beat the Wildcats. Whether they can mix the ingredients correctly again remains to be seen.

But after taking their biggest losses of the season to Melbourne and Sydney, it is easy to see why semi showdowns with the Tigers and/or Kings might be more alarming than what might happen in the ultimate championship series.

“That’s interesting because in 1986, we had our own bogey side,” Ken said.

For those who came in late (with a doff of the mask to Lee Falk), Cole coached the Adelaide “Invincibles” of 1986 who swept through that regular season with an unprecedented 24-2 win-loss record, losing twice on buzzer-beaters.

But it wasn’t either West Sydney Westars or Coburg Giants – who inflicted those losses  - which concerned Ken.

“Our team was definitely Geelong that year,” he recalled.

“Man I was relieved when they didn’t qualify (for the playoffs).

“They caused us all kinds of problems.”

That Geelong team was coached by Ken Richardson and included the Dalton brothers Brad and Mark, Ian Davies, Mark Leader, David Leslie and Bruce Hope.

Their import – who missed the Supercats’ first match against Adelaide - was Dane Suttle, the all-time leading scorer at Pepperdine University before he was drafted by the NBA’s Kansas City Kings.

Anyone who has seen ESPN’s brilliant doco on Jim Valvano’s blessed run with North Carolina State to the 1983 NCAA Championship might recall Suttle.

In one of his career lowlights, Suttle, an outstanding free throw shooter, missed the front-end of consecutive one-and-one attempts, allowing NC State to rally, win and advance.

Often, it seemed, Suttle played with a chip on his shoulder during his stint in the NBL. That might explain it.

“The first time we played Geelong, they had us beaten but we just had one of those freaky final quarters when Al (Green) and Darryl (Pearce) and Mike (McKay) started making everything,” Ken said.

The 36ers won that game in Geelong 109-107 after rallying behind a sizzling 29-13 final period. The next day was when they dropped the game to Coburg.

But Adelaide thrashed the Giants when next they played whereas beating Geelong again at Apollo Stadium took everything Adelaide had, and a little extra.

Suttle, who would average 33.2ppg, 5.5 apg and 4.9rpg, went off at Apollo and nothing Green, Ray Wood or anyone else could do defensively would even discourage him.

He finished with 48 points, the third highest score by any player against the Sixers in the club’s storied history in what was a heart-stopping classic that went into overtime.

Suttle on one wing and Davies on the other caused Adelaide fits, the fullhouse on the edge of its seats, the roar deafening as the 36ers, unbeaten at home and now trailing by a point with just seconds left in the extension, rushed the ball forward for one last play.

Pearce took the three for the win, it caught iron and, from out of no-where, captain Bill Jones flew, caught the ricochet and slammed it through for a 120-119 victory that brought the house down.

“Yeah. I wasn’t sorry when they didn’t make the finals,” Ken said.

The Supercats’ 14-12  record put them in a three-way tie with the Sydney Supersonics and Coburg Giants for the sixth and final playoff spot and in that tie, the Sonics advanced.

Sydney went out immediately to Adelaide’s eventual Grand Final opponent, Brisbane Bullets.

Similarly in 1987, Adelaide again appeared to have the wood over Brisbane but canny Cal Bruton had left the Bullets and restructured the hapless Perth Wildcats, rebuilding the perennial battlers in the 36ers’ image.

From the moment the Wildcats beat Adelaide in the Final of the K-Mart (preseason) Classic, Bruton’s strategy appeared to have paid off and while they split their season-series, it was obvious Perth enjoyed a slight edge.

In the same way, whether it was a Cal-leaving-Brisbane thing or some other factor, the Bullets under Brian Kerle appeared to have Perth’s measure.

And to round out what turned into a critical semi final draw, Adelaide looked as if it could beat Brisbane in any three-game series.

So the order in which the teams finished was critical.

It is history now the 36ers won the regular season championship and Perth came fourth, meaning if they held their form, for any place in the Grand Final, they would have to meet along the way.

Finishing second then, was possibly a godsend for Brisbane which drew Illawarra. Had they drawn Adelaide in a semi final, the 36ers most likely would have won and Perth would have come through Illawarra and won its first Championship.

But, as it turned out, Perth KO’d Adelaide in the semis and Brisbane wrapped its second Championship with a convincing 2-0 sweep.

Does your team have a nemesis, a side they can and should beat but which poses a genuine threat in a three-game series?

It’s surprising how often the answer to that is yes.