Sponsored by:
Specialising in Action, Team and Portrait Photography.
---
Advertising opportunities available.
Please contact me.
---
ROUND ABOUT: NBL3/WNBL4
TweetIT had to happen. You know the drill. Top team. Bad start. Import goes.
Bad results continue? Club publicly endorses coach.
Privately?
Coach starts packing.
So the key was to stop the poor start.
New Zealand pulling the trigger today on Darnell Lazare was disappointing for him because he has all the tools – according to Hammer – and it’s a shame he hasn’t been able to transfer them from the track to the game-court.
Recalling Gary Wilkinson though is quite the coup for the Breakers, Big Red a key component of the club’s 2011/12 championship runs.
Clearly too, he’d had enough of Estonia’s national dish, marinated eel.
Jeremiah Trueman is probably hardest hit, having to go on wavers to accommodate the big fella.
This is a club chasing the historic and unprecedented fourth championship and today's events just reinforces that.
WORD of the week on ABC-TV’s WNBL call was “savvy”, as in “Player A is a very savvy veteran”.
It was trotted out about half a dozen times before halftime by which point I was getting quite fatigued. But more of that later.
Basketball On The Internet’s Player of the Week
THIS was the toughest round so far because I really liked what Jermaine Beal did in two road games for Perth after needing a compass in the first two rounds to even get near his jumpshot.
Rotnei Clarke also had a huge game for the Hawks, making me start to feel like Marc Howard insomuch as needing to acknowledge half the league.
But ultimately I settled on Chris Goulding for his match-winning 29-point haul – 22 in the second half, 13 in the third quarter including nine straight – which steered Melbourne to its first win of the 2013-14 season, beating Adelaide 93-79.
Special mention to Sydney’s Ben Allen for his foul and rebound in 2:45 of inaction.
PotW Winners
Rd 1 Daniel Johnson
Rd 2 Shawn Redhage
Rd 3 Chris Goulding
THE WNBL Player of the Week also is a tough call with so many legit contenders this round and I will look forward to the league’s declaration.
For mine, I liked the performance by Caps captain Jessica Bibby, whose 24 points turned the game against Adelaide and included her milestone 4,000th WNBL points.
Reviews
Breakers v Wildcats (M)
NEW Zealand copped a raw deal from the officials in this one but ultimately James Ennis and Jermaine “Seal the Deal” Beal combined to steer the Wildcats to safe waters and their third straight win, 96-89.
Jesse’s Girl Wagstaff (thanks Max) stuck 4-of-7 from beyond the arc and when the game was there to be won, Perth did just that.
Capitals v Lightning (W)
CANBERRA needed this one desperately and produced a key 23-16 last quarter which included a dramatic 13 unanswered points in a 16-2 run from 54-55 to 70-57.
The Caps’ 77-71 win sent Adelaide out of the gym looking down the barrel, Jenni Screen (ankle) hurt early and Jess Bibby (24 points) and Abby Bishop (15 points, 14 rebounds, four assists) rallying Canberra.
Taipans v 36ers (M)
NO game in NBL history – and that’s a LOT of ballgames, has seen such dramatic changes from quarter-to-quarter.
Outscoring your opponent by double figures, then being outscored by double figures, then outscoring them again by double figures, then being outscored again by double figures … yeah, it’s crazy stuff.
Mitch Creek’s two threes clinching it 87-84 is even zanier.
Spirit v Waves (W)
IT took a little while but Kristi Harrower rediscovered her stroke to go for a game-high 19 points as Bendigo manhandled (womanhandled?) West Coast 79-53.
Toni Edmondson had 16 points for the Waves but the Spirit’s 43-26 second half made this academic.
Boomers v Rangers (W)
THE showdown of the league’s unbeaten crosstown rivals turned into a bit of a fizzer as Dandenong rocked Melbourne 72-57 at the State Basketball Centre.
Alice Kunek and Jenna O’Hea pushed the Rangers out early and ahead by 12 at halftime, Dandenong was not going to be caught.
Capitals v Lightning (W)
KAREN Dalton’s 50,000th game as coach (OK, it’s a few less) went the way most big games have gone for her with a depleted Adelaide finding something for a season-defining 85-82 victory in Sydney.
Steph Talbot made some huge plays, Laura Hodges dusted off her offence and Jess Foley also came through when it mattered, the Flames offering Karen a two-year extension to her lifetime contract for staging such an enjoyable game. (Results? We don’t care about those!)
Hawks v Crocodiles (M)
THE club’s historic 1,000th game was a sizzler with the Hawks lesser known imports Rotnest Island and Cheryl Tiegs starring in Wollongong’s 85-81 win over the Townsville Turnovers.
Tim Coenraad bought a few vowels on his first trip to Wheel of Fortune as the Crocs fumbled a shot at an upset in the Hawks’ first home game of the season.
Fire v Thunder (W)
THE Batgirl found her stroke and led Townsville to a comprehensive 89-76 win over Logan, despite Emma Langford’s 24 points.
Suzy posted an 18-point, 13-rebound double but the Fire also had Micaela Cocks and Mia Newley scoring 15 apiece, Kayla Standish with 14 and rookie Alex Wilson 13, huge positives in a thorough win also achieved without Rachael McCully and Olivia Thompson.
Rangers v Waves (W)
NOT sure if Dandenong was trying to send Bendigo a message ahead of Thursday’s big top-of-the-table match-up but the Rangers gave Worst Coast a massive 90-36 humiliation.
It was sort of a “hey Spirit, you beat them by 26? We led by more than that in the second quarter, oh yeah, and Jenna O’Hea didn’t even play” type message.
Tigers v 36ers (M)
ALREADY having tapped Chris Goulding for Player of the Week honors, let’s remember here too that Lucas Walker started very well, Scott Morrison was a constant in the key, Auryn Macmillan gave great impetus and Mark Worthington was at his best after halftime in a match Melbourne had to win and did, 93-79.
Adam Ballinger had as many fouls as minutes and is concerned he may be picking up his first and second fouls during the warmups under the new tighter regime. (Who knew he was going to try his hand at defence in Melbourne?)
Kings v Wildcats (M)
PERTH’s equally historic milestone 1,000th NBL game was a very good copy of the blueprint the Wildcats laid out nine days earlier at Perth Arena.
Let Sydney hang around, then go for say a 15-0 run – no? OK, just 14-0 this time – and win 82-72, James Ennis with his highlight minutes and Jermaine Beal with his offensive game back to dazzle former Vanderbilt teammate AJ Ogilvy.
BEEF of the WEEK
OH wow, how many times are commentators going to trot out the issue of “fatigue being a factor” for teams playing the second leg of a road trip?
Can you find a new cliché please? (Yes. I know. A “new” cliché is a contradiction in terms.)
The ABC-TV team flogged the alleged “fatigue factor” to death - and on deep into the afterlife - re Adelaide having to front up on Saturday afternoon in Sydney for its WNBL clash against the Flames after playing in Canberra on Friday.
Guess what?
Adelaide won.
And Lightning also did it without starter Jenni Screen (injured Friday) which, if you are to follow the reasoning of our learned commentators, is simply impossible!
Let’s fast forward to Sunday and the NBL.TV caller – Cameron, is it? - with the classy Andrew Johnstone on the Tigers-36ers NBL game.
Before the match, he puts the “Adelaide having played in Cairns on Friday” fatigue question to Melbourne coach Chris Anstey who, RIGHTLY, dismisses it as irrelevant.
Chris’ answer is along the lines of “professionals can play two games in three days”.
But that’s NOT what Cammy wants to hear so for the ensuing two hours we get to hear over and over and over about fatigue’s effect on the 36ers.
Not the effect of terrible free throw shooting at key moments, or poor rotations leaving Tigers shooters open. Just fatigue fatigue fatigue.
Oh for the comic relief of a pained Tony Ronaldson attempt at an on-camera smile!
Now correct me if I’m wrong, but when this league started, there were three-game road trips for the semi-pros and many’s the time they shuffled back home with 2-1 marks and zero complaining.
As we became more civilised, it was two-game trips but remember the Doomsday Double to Adelaide-Perth? Or trips to Illawarra-Newcastle? Canberra-Brisbane? Coburg-Hobart? St Kilda-Nunawading? Sydney-Bankstown?
It was just the way it was and if semi pros could handle that, why all this bleating for our full-timers?
Fact is, it isn’t even the players or coaches whining but our erstwhile TV folk who, yet again, can find so little of genuine insight to give us, they just go for the standard fall back positions - the hardy superficial.
Yawn.
And this time out, a prominent coach even clearly stated it isn’t an issue!
Check this. The Harlem Globetrotters are touring Australia as we cyberspeak. They are playing 15 games in 17 days AND travelling right across the length and breadth of Australia.
Can our TV talkers find a new topic?
BIGGEST WINNERS/LOSERS
TWIN wins on the road for Perth, including the scalp of its 2012-13 nemesis New Zealand, made it the round’s clear big winner.
CAIRNS was the round’s biggest loser, several times having Adelaide fitted for a coffin, only to have the 36ers kick out so many times, it was the Taipans’ hopes going up in smoke.
DANDENONG took sole possession of first place and maintained its unbeaten start to be the WNBL’s biggest winner, turning back Melbourne and definitively decking West Coast.
IT was a toss up between Sydney and West Coast for the round’s biggest loser but twin road routs and one of them by 54 points, with 4, 9, 11 and 12-point quarters, leaves the Waves with the mantle.
Online
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 Keogh?
