Basketball On The Internet.

WHAT have we learnt so far from this weekend's amazing round of NBL basketball?

Well, so much that the mind boggles with the conflicting information but Friday was a watershed day!

At Vector Arena, 7,489 fans flocked to see New Zealand flog Townsville - have the Crocs painted themselves into a corner now or what? - before the grand opening of Perth Arena, way across the Tasman AND the Great Australian Bight.

As they have for years now, the Wildcats set the standard to which other clubs can aspire and it was no different on Friday with a WA record attendance for a basketball match of 11,562 there to see the historic first home game, against the 36ers.

From, all accounts, it was an amazing night, even if the result did not quite go the way the Wildcats might have wanted.

But I reckon it would be pretty hard to find another night in NBL history when 19,051 people attended two regular season matches.

SO what have we learnt?

1 As far as a great night of NBL goes, in Carly Simons words: Nobody does it better ... than the Wildcats.

Or maybe it should be Tina Turner's: Simply the Best.

2 The 36ers are one more quality road win away from being regarded as "genuine" contenders.

Winning in Perth on Friday was sensational but I will reserve my judgment until the 36ers beat a team on the road they aren't meant to beat.

You can argue they weren't meant to beat Perth but stats facts stand in the road of your sentiments.

For starters, Adelaide was the only team last year to beat the Wildcats in Perth, twice.

Despite their struggles in the past, the 36ers appear to have Perth's number.

Even Wildcats coach Rob Beveridge on TV called Adelaide a "bogey team" for Perth.

Hell, Marty Clarke's first NBL game as coach was a 36ers win over Perth.

Like it or not, there has to be something to former 2010 championship members in Stevie Weigh and assistant coach Mark Radford's effect, and now maybe add Luke Schenscher, in breaking down the Perth mystique, because the 36ers have now beaten the Wildcats in seven of their past 10 clashes.

So, in reality, while I was as impressed with the win as any so far in the Clarke era, I still would have any lingering doubts about Adelaide's bona fides laid to rest if it beat a New Zealand in New Zealand. Or a juiced-up Melbourne in Melbourne. Or a Wollongong in Wollongong, rather than returning with valiant losses.

Call me hard-to-please but that's what it will take for me to become a believer the 36ers can be busy at the business end of season 2012-13.

3 The 36ers' curse has been lifted.

Sixers' fans will know what that refers to because the club has had an uncanny knack of being the fall guy any time they are in that "first" situation.

For "first", take some random examples. Townsville 1993. Historic first road win? Beat 36ers.

Singapore Slingers opening night in Singapore? Beat 36ers.

New Zealand historic first game in 2003-04 season at North Shore? Beat 36ers.

There's some sort of milestone to be celebrated in a rival gym? You want to see the 36ers as your opponent.

Hunter Pirates' first win? ... Melbourne's first game with Jonny Flynn? ...

Yeah. It just goes on-and-on.

I could ring Mark Slocombe, "Statman" himself, and he could reel me off another half-dozen examples of the 36ers' curse without even consulting his immaculate records.

So yes, if you were playing the odds, the chances of Adelaide winning the opening match at Perth Arena would have been fairly low if the curse was taken into account.

But it won.

The 36ers beat the curse.

4 Murray Arnold has died.

Murray coached the Wildcats to the 1991 championship after being brought to Australia by a Perth organisation already thinking laterally.

The fast-talking American added his own chapter to the fierce Perth-Adelaide rivalry by beating the Sixers 4-0 that year, but by a grand total of eight points.

They were all epic, down-to-the-wire thrillers. The Wildcats won 93-90, 99-98, then in the semis it was 102-99 and 105-104.

Always gracious, always candid, always available, Murray might have worn out his welcome - American coaches in Australian environments who haven't been players here first usually do - but he leaves an enormous legacy.

May he rest in peace.

5 Apparently - according to Friday's TV call - CJ Massingale was a huge star in SA's ABA competition for several years before being elevated by the 36ers into the NBL.

Bet Knox Raiders and the SEABL had no idea CJ was leading a double life.

6 Rob Beveridge was "gutted" by the loss.

That's understandable too.

The Wildcats definitely are off the boil.

Maybe if Brad Robbins and Cam Tovey played the ball instead of the man a bit more, their numbers might look less like those belonging to state league stringers and more like those of a co-captain and a starter respectively.

That's the risk, of course, in being labelled a "tough" player. You can start believing your hype and forget you earned the tag by being a hard-nosed ball player, not some trumped-up garden-variety so-called enforcer.

It's about focus, not fracas.

7 Yes, New Zealand is STILL under the radar but how big now will Thursday's game at Perth Arena be against the floundering Wildcats?

8 There are three more things I learnt before the round continued beyond Friday but they were all NBA-related.

One of them was just reinforcement of what many suspected of Kendrick Perkins after the OKC centre challenged Memphis' Zach Randolph with his: "I'll see you by the bus" chest-thrusting.

Both players were ejected and the Grizzlies continued to impress as they won that, then ended New York's unbeaten start at six at their next time on court.

So we learned Kendrick is not a very clever fellow; the Grizzlies are better than expected and that, despite the Knicks shipping out Jeremy Lin so Carmelo could be the focus once again, they are actually reasonably legit.

WHAT we really all already knew.

That there was less chance of Kendrick Perkins ever playing for the New Zealand Tall Blacks at an international event than there was of Kyrie Irving playing for the Boomers.

But hey, maybe David Beckham will play A-League.