Basketball On The Internet.

THEY may have won the Loggins-Bruton Cup but Townsville is still the dubious uncle alone in the corner at any NBL family gathering when the talk turns to TV viewing.

The Crocodiles will not have a single home game televised on free-to-air coverage this season and it appears Cairns also has been hit with the ugly stick, boasting just one.

Production costs, inadequate lighting, green and orange being unpopular at Ten headquarters... who knows what the rationale is but it absolutely sucks for north Queensland.

It's not as if the Crocs and Taipans - #1 and #2 at the Blitz - are high-rolling with the likes of the Melbournes and Perths of this (small) world.

But their survival is every bit as important as lavishing 14 TV games on Sydney and Melbourne, 13 on Perth and 11 apiece on Adelaide and Wollongong - albeit seven of those at their home venues.

If you said: "Well it is Fox doing the coverage and most of their subscribers are in Sydney and Melbourne", then you might have a case.

But it is the TEN network, not Fox. You know, the game's great saviours.

Here's the breakdown: Adelaide 36ers 11 televised games, 7 Home, 4 Away; Cairns Taipans 5, 1H, 4A; Melbourne United 14, 8H, 6A; New Zealand Breakers 8, 0H, 8A; Perth Wildcats 13, 8H, 5A; Sydney Kings 14, 9H, 5A; Townsville Crocodiles 4, 0H, 4A; Wollongong Hawks 11, 7H, 4A.

For Taipans fans wondering how long they have to hang out to get a TEN crew brave enough to venture into the jungles of the far north, it will be, sadly appropriately, on Friday the 13th of February against incoming Melbourne.

While five Australian clubs get to sell sponsorships and cultivate the corporate dollar with their TV exposure, the two clubs doing it the hardest do not.

Are their on-court performances entertaining and worthy of coverage?

You bet.

Townsville's Mickell Gladness took the Ray Borner Medal at the Blitz while Scottie Wilbekin and Torrey Craig are well worth admission price for Cairns - so the new import faces also are hot.

The young Aussie talent is exciting.

But who cares?

Clearly not Ten.

Let the countdown to the end of this Basketball Australia-inspired contract continue unabated.

One season to go and the NBL can explore new suitors.

Let's hope Townsville and Cairns are around to enjoy that.

DON'T you love auto-correct?

Recently was arranging an interview with basketball royalty Luc Longley so I sent him a quick text to confirm his availability.

Except my phone's auto-correct changed "Hi Luc" to "Hi Luv..." and I hit "Send" before I re-read it.

Suffice to say "No problem sweetheart" was the entirely appropriate reply.