Basketball On The Internet.

TWITTER was a flutter tonight with revelations Andrej Lemanis is about to be named our new Boomers coach.

Really?

This would come as a surprise to many?

Why?

The man has just steered New Zealand Breakers to their third consecutive iiNet NBL Championship, a feat achieved just once previously - by Brian Goorjian at Sydney in 2003-04-05 and which saw him also in charge of the Boomers for the Athens and Beijing Olympics.

That, in fact, was a break from the tradition of Basketball Australia handing the reins from the departing coach to his chief assistant.

When Lindsay Gaze (1972-76-80-84) stood down as Boomers coach, the job went to his right-hand man, his assistant coach at the Los Angeles Games, Dr Adrian Hurley.

Hurley steered the Boomers through Seoul (1988) and Barcelona (1992), handing the baton to his lead assistant at the Dream Team's Games, Barry Barnes.

Barry took the team through the 1996 Atlanta and Sydney 2000 campaigns, with Brett Brown and Alan Black his assistant coaches.

This was the point at which BA divurged from its traditional system, bringing long-time Boomers captain Phil Smyth in to take over a team devastated by seven key international retirements. If Smyth was ever going to be the right man to lead the Australian men's team, this was not the time.

This was the time for a seamless transition to a Barnes assistant, a point clearly not lost on Brett Brown, back in San Antonio with the NBA's Spurs.

When Smyth's Boomers failed to qualify for the 2002 World Championship, New Zealand's Tall Blacks not only knocking off the young Aussies but going on to play for the Bronze Medal at the Worlds, the then-36ers coach fell, tripped or was bumped onto his sword.

Goorjian was his quick successor for the rebuilding phase which took him to the Games at Athens and Beijing. For a young group, Goorjian's structure was a Godsend.

Brendan Joyce and Gordon McLeod were Goorj's assistants in Beijing but BA chose to go "back to the future" by bringing back Brown for the London campaign.

When Brown stepped aside - most coaches are given at least two Olympic campaigns - there really was no contingency plan in place. What better time to revert to the "safety first" of an assistant handover, especially if that assistant has the runs on the board?

The word I keep regularly hearing is Brown, mindful of the need for some measure of continuity with the national program, strongly endorsed Lemanis as his logical successor.

And Lemanis made his own case with three straight championships at the NBL club he helped build after wrestling with a culture that needed strong and disciplined direction for success.

Have no doubt Lemanis has the Xs and Os of basketball down, and his ability to change in-game plans on the fly also point to why there are now three Dr John Raschke Trophies residing in Auckland.

Will he be able to handle the egos of NBA, Euroleague and EuroCup stars put together to represent the nation? That is the only question-mark.

At the Breakers, let's be honest now - everyone bought in to what he was doing. When you have veterans such as Dillon Boucher, Paul Henare, CJ Bruton, Mika Vukona, Daryl Corletto reinforcing your program, stars as big as Kirk Penney, Cedric Jackson, Will Hudson and Gary Wilkinson buying in and burgeoning young talent such as Tom Abercrombie, Alex Pledger, Corey Webster and Leon Henry thriving in such a positive work ethic environment, you have a team and teams all on the same page.

I'm not diminishing what Lemanis has achieved by any stretch. He's the one who put it all together, weeded out the people who weren't going to be helpful in the long-term vision, then delivered on his promise with a group that absolutely "bought in".

Can he pull off the same thing with a Boomers team?  That's what we will find out when this appointment is ratified by Basketballl Australia, which could be as early as tomorrow.

No-one can dispute Lemanis has earnt the right to have his shot.

IF the Boomers job goes fulltime, as expected, Dean Vickerman should succeed Lemanis at the Breakers.

He has more than served his apprenticeship, knows the program inside-out and is ready to move that extra metre into the head coach's hot-seat.

I don't envy him though. Dillon Boucher's retirement not only costs the Breakers an invaluable player but also a powerful positive locker-room influence.

Super guards Daryl Corletto and CJ Bruton aren't getting younger and the off-season should see Tom Abercrombie and Cedric Jackson targeted by clubs abroad.

Put it this way. There's a reason no club has won four championships in a row. Of course, right now, New Zealand is the only team which can.

GOT a couple of 36ers pieces up at adelaidenow, including an update on how Luke Schenscher is travelling at http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/sport/basketball/adelaide-centre-luke-schenscher-bounces-back-to-fitness-townsville-crocodiles-find-a-saviour/story-fne5r4t9-1226626077772 and another about Adam Gibson's plans.

For Gibbo, the 36ers' coaching appointment is paramount in his decision, as he says at http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/sport/basketball/adelaide-36er-adam-gibson-to-wait-on-coach-announcement-before-deciding-whether-to-stay/story-fne5r4t9-1226626072274

THIS just in.

Bad news for everyone in Australia.

Lawyers acting on behalf of a raft of NZ news gathering organisations have found an obscure BA bylaw declaring that should "any team based across the Tasman win, not one, not two, but three consecutive championships, for the foreseeable future all references to the league now must be amended to read: the ANBL."

Andrej Lemanis has a lot to answer for...