Basketball On The Internet.

THE NBL needs to get the lead out if it plans to stage and promote its Preseason Blitz, especially for interstate fans seeking an inexpensive travel option.

Originally scheduled for September 21-23, most likely at the State Basketball Centre in Knox, though MSAC and Dandenong would be no less appropriate, the league must start plugging it this week or risk poor attendance and equally indifferent coverage.

Let's face it, apart from great locations at Southport and Brisbane, the "Sunshine State Challenge" last preseason was largely unnoticed by the public and unmentioned by the media, even though the NBL had a very willing Patty Mills ready to do whatever was required to promote the event, and the league.

Opportunity lost.

IF it is going to be a three-day event, I hope the NBL is going to institute an understandable and consistent format.

For example, the final placings from last season should be utilised, every team below the defunct Gold Coast elevated by one spot as a result of the Blaze's demise.

Make it 1v8, 4v5 on one side of the draw, 2v7, 3v6 on the other.

(Just so you know how that would look, that means Day 1's draw would be Breakers v 36ers, Cairns v Melbourne on one side, Perth v Wollongong, Townsville v Sydney on the other.)

The winners of 1v8 and 4v5 play in Day 2's semi final, with the winners of 2v7 and 3v6 in the rival semi final.

Similarly the losing teams from the first round meet as well, with those winners then bound for the 5th-6th play-off, the losers heading for 7th-8th.

(Obviously the two semi final losers play for 3rd and 4th.)

That means Day 3 becomes positional play-offs for 7th-8th, 5th-6th, 3rd-4th and the Final.

Very simple, very easy to follow, especially on a flow chart like they use for the NCAA tournament, the NBA Finals or even at Wimbledon.

And everyone gets three games.

Before you say "three games in three days would be too hard" - it's preseason so everyone gets to play for a start. And secondly, (perish the thought but) are you suggesting today's teams and players are softer than their counterparts of 30-plus years ago?

I recall a road trip to Melbourne with West Adelaide Bearcats where they played Coburg Giants on Friday, Nunawading Spectres on Saturday and St Kilda Saints on Sunday. And not a bitch or moan in earshot.

THE WNBL will revert to a Final Four play-off system this season, now it has been reduced to nine teams in the wake of AIS's omission.

The system will be the old recognised formula of a double-chance semi final between first and second, the winner into the grand final, the loser on to the preliminary final. Third and fourth meet in the KO semi final, the winner advancing into the preliminary final.

The preliminary final winner goes on to the grand final.

Easy. Simple. Uncomplicated. Plus it makes for an absolutely torrid regular season.

A Final Four in a nine-team comp - as opposed to a Final Five - also means no-one should reach the post-season with a negative record which is what you want to see happen.

No-one wants to see mediocrity rewarded and this way the Final Four all should be genuine shots for the 2012-13 title.

SADLY but inevitably the time had come for the AIS, one of the WNBL's original teams when it launched in 1981, to be "retired" from the competition.

It can be argued its presence in our national elite competition ultimately harmed outside perceptions of the competition as much as it helped in developing ouer young elite.

The original concept in 1981 for the AIS to compete was appropriate in the league's formative years when club teams comprised the competition and it was almost “underground” in terms of recognition.

But as the league grew through 31 seasons, the AIS contested finals just five times and won one championship.

As an elite WNBL “club” it had no real home following (by definition, it truly could not) and it was always a very difficult sell as a visiting team.

Bear in mind too, if the nation’s leading 17-to-19 year-olds could win our national championship, it did not reflect well on the state of the professional or semi-professional game in Australia, surely.

(The truth is, that only happened once and with an extraordinary group which included Lauren Jackson, Penny Taylor, Suzy Batkovic ... yeah, you get my point.)

Most of the rest of the time, Australia’s burgeoning young talent rarely won more than a handful of games.

No major credible elite national competition includes a “development team” such as the AIS.

The credibility of America’s WNBA, for example, would only be diminished if it randomly included a "US Academy team" or a local AIS-equivalent. College basketball represents that anyway.

Yes, when you're no longer playing against club teams such as St Kilda or Sutherland or North Adelaide or Bankstown or CYMS, you're no longer on an even(ish) playing field.

That said, if I was a WNBL coach looking for some tough preseason games NOT involving forthcoming in-season opponents, I would be booking exhibition games against AIS.

EIGHT million Chinese cyclists park outside and walk into a bar.

The barman looks up from where he is cleaning glasses, stares at them and says: "What is this? Some kind of joke?"