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ROUND ABOUT: NBL7/WNBL8
TweetGUESSING the message got through to NBA 249-gamer Sam Young that the NBL is not the Holiday Basketball League and the Kings may now be wondering whether converting shooting guards to playmakers is a great idea.
About the second time Damian Martin came along and pinched the ball from him, Young must have started to realise the basketball played in Australia is for real.
That if Andrew Bogut, Patty Mills, Aron Baynes and Matthew Dellavedova are running around in the NBA right now, maybe Australian basketball has some talent to offer?
Maybe not all of it is in the NBA and/or Europe?
After all, as I've mentioned before, even many of the guys doing well in Europe first cut their teeth in the NBL.
So party hats off and crowns back on if the Kings are to be taken seriously.
And for those who have asked today, the rules, as they currently stand for cut players, means they cannot come back at the same club.
Of course, the NBL has never had a situation before where a cut import might have again been wanted by the club which released him, as may yet be the case with Sydney and Jesse Sanders.
Most people can name an import who was cut in-season, then re-emerged elsewhere in the league that same season. Replacing an import is nothing new.
But replacing an import with an import you cut in the same season would be new ground so those Kings fans thinking "Sanders for Carmouche?" can think again.
That said, in the days of the PLOCH (general manager of Professional League Operations Chuckles Harmison) it would have been black-and-white and no way Sanders comes back for Sydney.
But in today's world of 50 Shades of Grey, maybe the Kings can mount a case.
After taking their worst mauling since the return to 40-minute games in Perth yesterday, the Kings definitely would be thinking hard today.
Hey. Better late than never.
Basketball On The Internet's Player of the Week
ROTNEI Clarke came up with the match-winning three-point play for the undermanned Hawks in Cairns and 27 points for the game in what was a superlative effort.
But this round's BOTI Player of the Week accolade goes to Perth captain Damian Martin.
Yeah, howl away that his numbers aren't show-stopping and his team went 1-1 for the round. But numbers can lie - ever met a 6-9 American import after Pacific shrink? - and the Wildcats made a fair fist of their first loss in the first-V-second thriller at Adelaide Arena.
Damo had 11 points, seven boards, an equal game-high five assists but three significant blocks in that clash, none better than arguably this year's Play of the Year (so far, at least), a flying rejection of a Gary Ervin fast-break basket, then a horizontal leaping second-effort to keep the loose ball from going out of court, slapping it instead to a teammate.
Inspirational stuff which even 36ers fans appreciated.
Then, backing up against the Kings, he had 9 points on a perfect 4-of-4 shooting (1-of-1 threes), four rebounds, five assists and five steals in 21 minutes to set up the rout.
His baskets included a crazy dunk in traffic, his steals shocking Young. He was definitely the player of round seven.
PotW Winners
Rd 1 Daniel Johnson
Rd 2 Shawn Redhage
Rd 3 Chris Goulding
Rd 4 Charles Carmouche
Rd 5 Brian Conklin
Rd 6 Gary Ervin
Rd 7 Damian Martin
THE WNBL will reveal its PotW winner within hours but I lean toward Canberra's Natalie Hurst yet again for her second award success after 23 points in the loss to Townsville and 18, plus some wicked assists in the win over Logan. But with the tendency to favour all-things-Sydney, Katie-Rae Ebzery is a big chance.
Reviews
Breakers V Crocodiles (M)
HOW badly did the Breakers need this win? How jaded must they have felt when the boys in green worked their way back from 15 down to tie the game? (Jaded, green - you see what I did there?)
Tom Abercrombie hit five threes and Daryl Corletto the big one to break New Zealand away from Townsville for a much-needed 81-74 win.
Lightning V Spirit (W)
KELSEY Griffin just grabbed this game by the throat and shook away any hopes Adelaide entertained of winning this by pacing Bendigo's 84-76 win.
Griffin had 29 points and when Adelaide made its late run, Kelly "What are YOU looking at?" Wilson iced the game from the stripe, the Lightning dropping out of the four to boot.
36ers V Wildcats (M)
ONE of the best games of the year so far, made moreso by a quality 6,585 crowd at Adelaide Arena raising the roof as Gary Ervin led the 36ers to a 22-point lead and 20-point halftime buffet.
Yeah, "buffet" because they were eating Perth. But you don't go 8-0 if you're chopped liver and the Wildcats stormed back behind Shawn Redhage's hot hand ensuring it was a tight 91-86 finish.
Fire V Capitals (W)
SUZY Batkovic had a season-best 25 points to put Townsville en route to an 80-74 win over Canberra in a physical contest at Townsville RSL. But being held scoreless for six minutes tends to rock your plans, as the Caps found out.
Natalie Hurst had 23 points at 50 per cent and Alex Bunton continued her growth with an 18-point, 10-rebound double, the Caps still hanging around but needing Ws.
Thunder V Capitals (W)
NATALIE Hurst whipped the pass of the round to a baseline cutting Abby Bishop for the basket which ensured Canberra would come out of the weekend at 1-1, beating Logan 79-68.
Bishop had a huge game with 23 points and 11 boards as Canberra saw off repeated Logan challenges after Emma Langford, on four fouls, was lucky to escape her fifth a couple of times.
Taipans V Hawks (M)
ALL the furore is about Cairns' Alex Loughton sounding off about the call which gave Rotnei Clarke continuation and a bonus free throw after Cam Gliddon's foul to secure a gritty 75-73 road win for Wollongong over Cairns.
Sad truth is if you give up 27 first-quarter points, you dig a hole you're going to have trouble getting out of which is where Cairns should focus if it wants to resemble anything like the team most pundits picked it to be.
Flames V Boomers (W)
THEY'RE getting excited in Sin City now the Flames have beaten Dandenong and Melbourne in quick succession, especially after battling back from a 12-point halftime deficit against the Boomers.
Katie-Rae Ebzery continues to have an All Star season with 22 points while Chelsea Poppens compiled a 23-point, 16-rebound double for the Boomers. "We've had a good season and it comes as a surprise to me that we had a flat second half,'' Melbourne coach Guy Molloy said.
Tigers V Crocodiles (M)
THEY'RE hailing Steve "The Marksman" Markovic's three-point halfcourt shot to close the third quarter as the key moment in Townsville's 90-75 win over a deflated Melbourne in Melbourne.
It was big, no doubt, but the Tigers still jumped ahead again after the break and it wasn't until Wortho copped a purphy phoul at midcourt the momentum swung. Josh Pace had a good one as Melbourne went back to the drawing-board.
Waves V Spirit V (W)
GRIFFIN did all the work to underpin the win in Adelaide so it was time for Elyse Penaluna and Gabrielle Richards to have a crack in Perth as Bendigo doled out an 81-54 lesson.
Penaluna had 18 points at 63 per cent and Richards 16 at 57 per cent, with 14 boards. That was after giving blood in Adelaide courtesy of a bone-jarring nose-to-head clash with Jenni Screen.
Wildcats V Kings (M)
KINGS coach Shane Heal wanted this to be Perth's first loss and instead was treated to a 98-55 rout by the Wildcats, with Damo, Ennis the Menace and Shawno all taking highlight reel moments in a good old-fashioned one-way a$$-whupping.
In case you haven't caught up with @NBLfacts, the 43-point margin was the biggest since the return to 40-minute games, the Kings' 16 field goals was the lowest by any team in the NBL, ever and Sydney's fourth-biggest loss, ever. Nice way for Trevor Gleeson to celebrate game No.200.
BEEF of the WEEK
WE can be so quick to judgment and to write off players and it was immediately evident this round, particularly in the NBL.
Yes, the expectation was that with Melbourne signing new US import Mustapha Farrakhan, it would have no trouble packing off the Crocs at The Cage on Sunday.
So when the Tigers didn't get the job done, the focus turned to Farrakhan pretty quickly. He only had six points on 3-of-11 shooting. There have been better debuts, blah blah.
Sydney unveiled NBA vet Sam Young expecting a miracle in Perth and instead laid a massive egg. Young had 14 points on 4-of-12 shooting and was guilty of thinking he could go one-on-one whenever he wanted.
Except in Perth it's one-on-five.
Bigger question-marks hovered over Sydney's decision to cut point guard Jesse Sanders considering in his absence, the Kings had six assists as a team - and Young had two of them! - to Perth's 29.
So the craziness is on straight away. Wrong guy cut. Wrong guy brought in blah blah.
Let's start with Farrakhan. He looked good to me, he's only been here a week and he does appear the right type of replacement for Steve Dennis.
It will take him a few games - let's recall Jermaine Beal had the whole preseason AND a few matches before his stroke crossed the Pacific, and look at him now!
Ease up.
North to Sydney and Young. Chances are he had a rude awakening regarding the Picnic-in-Australia Basketball League.
Give him a chance though and also give the Kings maybe longer than a week to re-evaluate how they will function.
We have had so many ordinary imports for so long now that impatience may be understandable in some instances. But give players at least three weeks after setting foot on Australian soil to find their way.
Not every player is Bobby Locke.
BIGGEST WINNERS/LOSERS
ADELAIDE was this week's biggest NBL winner for the second week in succession after pulling its best crowd in eons, displaying all the best of its transition game, then weathering Perth's best before giving the fans the tight result they wanted.
CAIRNS was by far the biggest loser, beaten by a desperate Wollongong at home, without a go-to guy and with attention now focusing on an officiating call instead of why the team with arguably the best talent and support in the NBL is now equal-bottom.
SYDNEY is the biggest WNBL winner after not only beating Melbourne but coming back from a 12-point deficit to do it. Coach Karen Dalton should be expecting a gold watch presentation before the next home game.
ADELAIDE was the round's biggest loser, made to look second-rate for more than a half by Bendigo, losing Steph Talbot to a possible season-ending knee injury, and dropping out of the top four ahead of road games to Bendigo and Melbourne. Tough times.
PS
NZ guard Daryl Corletto says the new refereeing style is a deliberate Basketball Australia ploy to stop the Breakers winning a record fourth straight NBL title. DC also thought he heard a second shot from the grassy knoll, which would explain why he dived for cover over the advertising hoardings as Gary Ervin ran away with the ball last week. Check him out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpVMp6A7ux0&feature=youtu.be
