Sponsored by:
Specialising in Action, Team and Portrait Photography.
---
Advertising opportunities available.
Please contact me.
---
ROUND ABOUT: NBL2/WNBL3
TweetTWO rounds in and is it possible yet to determine what result is an NBL "upset?"
Had that conversation with Townsville coach Shawn Dennis during the Blitz in Sydney after his Crocs beat Adelaide and someone back in my office suggested that was an upset.
Not sure how a preseason game can be an upset really, when teams are experimenting and no form has been established. You can only call it an upset if you're going on the previous season, surely?
And in that instance, Townsville was 7th and Adelaide 8th.
Sure, they had changed personnel significantly which, again, should rule out any talk of an upset.
"We got another upset," Dennis joked to me after Townsville beat Melbourne.
So did Townsville's win over New Zealand in the "real" season constitute an upset?
If Sydney had beaten Perth, would that have been an upset? Or would it have led to a re-think of the Kings, and/or the Wildcats?
Or was the only "upset" this round the fact a mere 2900-odd showed up to watch Townsville's moment of glory?
If you want to have a team, you must support your team. Pretty basic.
Can't help feeling Logan is playing its swansong WNBL season. We don't want another Queensland club to fall by the wayside too, surely.
Basketball On The Internet's Player of the Week
Perth Wildcats veteran Shawn Redhage, sometimes I think the "forgotten Olympian", is this week's B.O.T.I. NBL Player of the Week.
Redhage had 22 points and a team-high 8 boards as Perth ran away from Sydney 81-69, then backed that up in Melbourne with a game-high 25 points at 58 per cent, including the match-winning basket with six seconds to play to seal a 75-71 road win.
Honorable mention to Marc Howard for the additional 30 players he used to add to ensure no-one felt left out or unwanted.
PotW Winners
Rd 1 - Daniel Johnson
Rd 2 - Shawn Redhage
In the WNBL, I'm going for Alice Kunek at Dandenong for "doing a Shawn" - shame on you if you said: "What? Flopping?" - and scoring the winning 3-pointer as the Rangers put out the Fire 84-81.
Kunek had a match-high 24 points at 53 per cent, including 5-of-8 triplettes, though I must confess, I did like Leilani Mitchell's 13-point, 11-assist double in the same game.
STARTING to think the Melbourne Boomers could be this season's Bendigo Spirit, meaning the team we keep expecting to falter but instead keeps flying.
The Boomers, arguably the current most successful national league team named Melbourne, keep finding ways to win and this round have another gem-in-the-making against Dandenong.
Don't you wish the NBL had a crosstown rivalry like this?
SPEAKING of the Tigers, not sure advice to fans on club letterhead advising them what derogatory remarks to chant is in keeping with the off-court camaraderie NBL clubs are showing this break-out season.
"Sean" Redhage did come back to bite the Tiggey's on the butt but, that said, it was great to see passion in the stands at a Melbourne game. At any game, for that matter.
And stands that are full!
Townsville's hardy and much-vaunted faithful, are you paying attention?
Reviews
Flames v Spirit (W)
WHEN Bendigo goes 20-10 in the second quarter and 22-13 in the third, whether you are Sydney Flames or Minnesota Lynx, you're going to be in some trouble.
The Spirit threw off their recent travails with a 77-61 road win, Kelsey Griffin with a 12-point, 12-rebound double, Elyse Penaluna off the bench for 18 points at 70 per cent and 9 boards, Kristi Harrower with 10 assists, Chelsea Aubry 10 points and Sydney with wounds to lick.
Crocodiles v Breakers (M)
FEW outside Townsville predicted this and Todd Blanchfield was the story, his consecutive 3-pointers in the third on his way to 23 points on 9-of-11 shooting, finally breaking the Breakers.
Josh Pace's 14-point final quarter cemented the 94-84 win, Kerron Johnson leading New Zealand with 21 points, also on 9-of-11 shooting, CJ Bruton sitting this one out with a stomach virus.
Boomers v Fire (W)
IMPORT Chelsea Poppens is no Mary Poppins, spanking Townville with 20 points at 62 per cent, 10 rebounds and three blocked shots to give Melbourne a 58-54 home win.
The Fire could have used a spoonful of sugar to swallow their 10-point second quarter and 8-point third, Suzy Batkovic's whopping 18 rebounds matched by another 18, her 18 per cent shooting (4-of-22).
Wildcats v Kings (M)
YOU wouldn't expect with the scores tied 62-62 and just a couple of minutes to go, Perth would produce a 15-0 run out of the blue to inflict an 81-69 win over Sydney.
Or that James Ennis, en route to 27 points, would throw down two highlight-reel dunks in those final few minutes. The Kings were hamstrung with Charles Carmouche in foul trouble but stayed competitive until a stunning last few minutes.
Rangers v Fire (W)
ALICE Kunek's 3-point swish to break an 81-81 deadlock and set up Dandenong's 84-81 home win will be one Townsville laments all season after playing the better ball for most of the afternoon.
But that and 25 cents buys you a box of matches. Speaking of Redheads, the Fire were left to rue the one that got away while still enjoying the footage of Rachael McCully's 3-point monster heave to close the first quarter.
Lightning v Thunder (W)
BUOYED by a home crowd already bigger than anything they have played in front of for two years - and that was even before the 36ers fans filed in for the second leg of the WNBL-NBL double-header - Adelaide started in sizzling fashion to throw Logan on the back foot.
Sarah Graham led a second quarter Thunder revival but a 7-0 run to start the third pushed Adelaide back to a double-digit lead and with Laurie Koehn and Hanna Zavecz well held, Laura Hodges was leading Lightning back to a 2-2 record.
36ers v Hawks (M)
THIS had everything you want in a good old-fashioned fan favorite shoot-out, with Wollongong unveiling another exciting import in Kevin Tiggs, and 36ers newbie Jarrid Frye throwing down a fast break dunk for the almost-6,000 strong crowd at Adelaide Arena.
The joint was jumping like them thar good olde days as Gary Ervin went to work and Larry Davidson again showed he would be one of this league's marquee players if he could just maintain his focus.
Capitals v Spirit (W)
GABRIELLE Richards opened with a 12-point, 8-rebound first quarter - yes, we can all name a few centres who would love those to be their match stats, let alone a 10-minute return - and Bendigo was on its way to a 2-0 road sweep, beating Canberra 89-66.
Up 29-13 at the first break on the back of Richards' superb start, the Spirit looked more like the 2012-13 version while the Caps needed 20 points from Abby Bishop to keep this interesting. Outrebounded 50-18 by Adelaide last week, the Caps did better this time, outboarded 46-23.
Small steps.
Taipans v Breakers (M)
CAM Gliddon continued his quality season with 24 points as Cairns survived a late scare to beat New Zealand 86-85 in a nail-biter in front of the Orange Army.
CJ Bruton had a shot to win it and you would back him on a game-winner every day of the season and twice on Sundays. But this was a Saturday. It didn't go down and New Zealand did instead.
Waves v Thunder (W)
LOGAN was looking at a long year before Tegan Cunningham and Laurie Koehn cut loose in a whopping 30-9 second quarter to take a 47-33 lead into halftime over West Coast.
Cunningham had 13 for the period and finished with 23, the Waves splashing home strongly when the game was out of reach, Logan winning 83-75, Koehn with 16 points.
Tigers v Wildcats (M)
MUST admit was feeling a bit of a genius with my Melbourne-to-win prediction when the Tigers led 23-8 early and had Chris Goulding, Lucas Walker and Mark Worthington wreaking havoc.
But Perth worked its way steadily back and had the lead by halftime. Evenly poised at 71-71, James Ennis broke the deadlock and Shawn Redhage struck the dagger with 6.0 seconds left for the 75-71 victory.
BEEF of the WEEK
THE ONE-HD coverage by Network Ten is plunging new depths so far and while yes, like most NBL fans I am thrilled we have free-to-air coverage, some of this stuff is just amateur hour.
Let's start in Perth on Friday where I always enjoy the enthusiastic work of Lachy Reid and marvel at the extraordinary lack of insight NBL games-played record-holder Tony Ronaldson provides.
Take his halftime summary for example when he said words to the effect that Perth missing Matt Knight was a factor in Sydney's 41-38 interval lead.
Really? That's all you've got to offer?
Knighty is a quality NBL player - no argument - but he hasn't played so far this season or preseason, yet Perth still won the inaugural Loggins-Bruton Cup. His absence from the Wildcats-Kings game was almost as irrelevant as Sydney missing Cody Ellis.
If this is what masquerades as game insight, where the hell is Steve Carfino?
How about coach Trevor Gleeson being absent due to a family bereavement being relevant to the Wildcats being a little out of sync?
Not to mention Tony's "smile" - that twisted half-cocked top right lip snarl resembling a very bad Elvis impersonator - which makes me cringe every time he unleashes it. Can't help feel it's some director in Ronaldson's ear saying: "Smile Tony".
Can't even imagine how graphic that thing would be in slow motion. Which brings me to ONE's graphics. Could they have been anymore wrong or ridiculous during this game?
Check these from Russell Sneddon's screen shots:
.jpg)
.jpg)
Since when does 17/18 amount to 29 per cent, as a random sample?
And yes, we know we are getting greater scoring this season, but 124-124?
We all know and accept that any media can be hit by gremlins at any given time but really, that was just very ordinary work behind the cameras.
Fast forward to Sunday's Melbourne-Perth game and at halftime ONE chooses to have a Carfino-Tommy Greer interview while in the background the Tigers are introducing members of their historic first championship team of 20 years ago.
Don't know about you but I was trying to ignore the interview and check out the big screen at The Cage, which was in the background, to see if I could recognise the championship players as they were introduced.
What an opportunity to tune into some NBL history - be willing to bet there was footage from the Game 3 win over the Wildcats in Perth too - wasted by ONE to bring us the mundane.
No offence intended toward Tommy. Other than his shot selection (perhaps he should speak with Warrick Giddey) I am a fan of everything else he brings to the game, on and off the court.
It was ONE which got it horrendously wrong.
BIGGEST WINNERS/LOSERS
TOWNSVILLE narrowly pipped Perth for the round's biggest winner recognition, bouncing back ferociously from its opening round loss to Cairns by stunning reigning champ New Zealand at The Swamp and hopefully exciting its absent fans.
Dropping two on the road was a big surprise for the Breakers, who clearly were the round's biggest losers.
BENDIGO was the WNBL's biggest winner, collecting a pair of important road wins and doing it very emphatically in both Sydney and Canberra.
Sadly, for the second week in succession, Townsville was the biggest loser, dropping by four to Melbourne, then by three to Dandenong in a game the Fire really should have stitched up. Even a 1-1 road trip would have saved them from the BL this weekend.
Online
You might find these stories worth your consideration:
PS
Sydney Kings coach Shane Heal is on the record saying of import Jesse Sanders: “I think Jesse rebounds and defends like Damian Martin.” Did he maybe mean Damian Cotter?
