2010 NBL Season & Offseason discussion

[Thiele]

Perth finishes on top after there victory tonight

[Gozu]

Round 20 results:

Townsville 102 (Hinder 19, Williams 19, Hoare 14, M. Cedar 11) def Adelaide 87 (Burston 19, Ng 15, Herbert 14, Ballinger 10)

New Zealand 109 (Penney 26, Braswell 14, Bruton 14, Boucher 11, Ronaldson 11, Forman 10) def Gold Coast 94 (Vukona 24, Goulding 19, Bradshaw 15, Harvey 14, Maxey 12)

Wollongong 94 (Saville 23, Davidson 15, Tragardh 12, Coenraad 11, Behrendorff 10, Campbell 10) def Melbourne 82 (Hodge 21, Johnson 21, Corletto 16, Worthington 12)

Gold Coast 91 (Gibson 21, Harvey 16, Vukona 14, Goulding 12, Bradshaw 11, Maxey 11) def Melbourne 73 (Anstey 13, Worthington 13, Hodge 10)

Wollongong 82 (Tragardh 24, L. Martin 14, Saville 12, Campbell 10) def Adelaide 79 (OT) (Ballinger 28, Groves 18, Burston 10, Herbert 10)

New Zealand 84 (Penney 27, Bruton 22, Ronaldson 17) def Cairns 79 (Rychart 24, Grabau 15, Jones 15, Williams 12)

Perth 92 (Redhage 32, Lisch 19, Cattalini 10) def Townsville 73 (Dowdell 14, Williamson 14, Crawford 12, Tovey 12)

[Gozu]

Final regular season ladder:

1. Perth Wildcats 17-11
2. Wollongong Hawks 16-12
3. Townsville Crocodiles 16-12
4. Gold Coast Blaze 16-12

5. New Zealand Breakers 15-13
6. Cairns Taipans 11-17
7. Melbourne Tigers 11-17
8. Adelaide 36ers 10-18

[Gozu]

2010 NBL Semi-Finals schedule:

Perth Wildcats (1st) versus Gold Coast Blaze (4th)
Game 1 – Thursday 18 February – 7:00PM – Challenge Stadium
Game 2 – Tuesday 23 February – 7:30PM – Gold Coast Convention Centre
Game 3 (if required) – Sunday 28 February – 4:30PM – Challenge Stadium

Wollongong Hawks (2nd) versus Townsville Crocodiles (3rd)
Game 1 – Friday 19 February – 7:30PM – WIN Entertainment Centre
Game 2 – Wednesday 24 February – 7:30PM – Townsville Entertainment & Convention Centre
Game 3 (if required) – Saturday 27 February – 7:30PM – WIN Entertainment Centre

[Gozu]

On the 36ers front Adam Ballinger was named team MVP for this season and Richard Hill has stepped down as an assistant coach with the team. IMO, a good move considering he's a part owner of the club and his son plays on the team.

[Major Gun]

Is Richard Hill the scapegoat for season 2009/2010 then? Was it he calling the 'plays'?

[Gozu]

I don't think he is being set up as a scapegoat but more to do with his closeness to Ninnis and being a part owner might've been seen to get in the way of a possible Ninnis move. To me it still looks like they're going to keep Ninnis on but just in what capacity.

[Gozu]

Game 1-Gold Coast @ Perth is live on Fox Thursday night at 9:30pm.

[Gozu]

The Wildcats were too good tonight but I'd expect the Blaze to bounce back at home in Game 2.

Game 1 Townsville @ Wollongong Friday night live on Fox at 7pm.

[CK]

Game Two in both series will now assume critical importance, with Wollongong belting Townsville tonight. The Crocs sitting on the edge of exiting from the finals after being so good all season.

Perth, regardless of who they meet, would now be into very warm favoritism (started the finals at $1.90 favorites).

[Gozu]

Very disappointing performance from the Crocs tonight but I can't see them getting swept and still think they will win the series. I wanted to see a Perth/Gold Coast GF series because I thought they were the two most impressive teams this season which can't happen so still think it will be Perth/Townsville.

[Gozu]

Game 2 Perth @ Gold Coast live on Fox Tuesday night at 8pm.

On the Ninnis sacking, it had to happen. Bottom of the ladder, offence & defence were crap and supposedly a few players had tuned him out, certainly looked that way to the naked eye. We need an experienced coach now with a bit about him so I hope the SOS group take a good look at former Crocs coach and current Tigers assistant Ian Stacker.

[Gozu]

Semi-Final #1

Game 1

Perth 81 (Lisch 19, Martin 11, Redhage 11, Young 10) def Gold Coast 68 (Harvey 18, Petrie 12, Gibson 10, Maxey 10)

Game 2

Perth 82 (Lisch 18, Redhage 14, Schenscher 11, Cattalini 10) def Gold Coast 78 (Harvey 28, Bradshaw 18, Goulding 16)

Wildcats win the series 2-0 and advance to the Grand Final series

[Gozu]

Absolute ripper of a game tonight. It was a shame to see the Blaze go down given they were leading comfortably for the vast majority of the game but they started tightening up down the stretch while the Wildcats were executing and Kevin Lisch hit some big threes. He's turning into a bit of a clutch performer. Really disappointing way for the Blaze to end their season but they really should've put Perth away tonight and then would've had Ubaka back for Game 3 over there, not to be.

Game 2 Wollongong @ Townsville live on Fox Wednesday night at 8pm.

[Major Gun]

Perth will be hard to beat

[Brucetiki]

Townsville have destroyed Wollongong tonight at the Swamp

Final Score
Townsville 82
Wollongong 53

Game 3 at the Sandpit Saturday night

[CK]

The margins in the Towns v Woll series have been interesting, showing just how strong home court advantage is for both teams - which leads me to expect the Hawks to go through and face the Wildcats, given the deciding game is played in Wollongong.

Even if they don't win the title, this will be one of the real "fairytale stories" of Australian sport, given they very nearly didn't even make it to the start of the NBL season.

[Gozu]

Fox were originally only showing Game 3 of the Wollongong/Townsville series on delay but will now be showing the game live on Saturday night at 6pm with a replay later that night at 10pm.

[Clever Dick]

I don't think he is being set up as a scapegoat but more to do with his closeness to Ninnis and being a part owner might've been seen to get in the way of a possible Ninnis move. To me it still looks like they're going to keep Ninnis on but just in what capacity.

Expect the "spin" to start appearing soon to deflect criticism away from the "sacked coach" debacle.
Could be a story in relation to how well the club is looking after the rehabilitation of an injured "star" player.

[Major Gun]

I don't think he is being set up as a scapegoat but more to do with his closeness to Ninnis and being a part owner might've been seen to get in the way of a possible Ninnis move. To me it still looks like they're going to keep Ninnis on but just in what capacity.

Expect the "spin" to start appearing soon to deflect criticism away from the "sacked coach" debacle.
Could be a story in relation to how well the club is looking after the rehabilitation of an injured "star" player.

Debacle?