Basketball On The Internet.

IT should be no great surprise Chris Anstey resigned today as coach of Melbourne United.

Maybe the timing - one game into the season - was shocking but if he knew in his heart it wasn't working, why persist? Why prolong the agony if the message wasn't being heard?

Many pundits, myself included, in our season previews pointed to the many off-season developments at the club and concluded Anstey would be the man most under pressure to deliver a championship this year.

But he knew it too.

Entering just his third season as a head coach and fully supportive of everything the club had done to shed its Tigers skin in its quest to win over the Melbourne disenfranchised, he had to deliver the results on the floor.

With Steve Dennis back, Jordan McRae in, Daniel Kickert the marquee, David Barlow returned from Europe and Daryl Corletto from New Zealand - which is as close to Europe as Brisbane, if you ask geographically-challenged CJ Bruton - this is a team which, on paper, is easy to admire.

They joined Mark Worthington and Lucas Walker - two of the last three players cut from the Boomers' World Cup team - 2014 Most Improved Player Nate Tomlinson, Owen Odigie and Auryn Macmillan.

There would be many who would covet the coaching job with that array of talent.

But maybe, at this point in his coaching career, Anstey felt he did not have the experience necessary to deliver a Championship.

An opening round 89-61 home loss to unfashionable Cairns no doubt contributed strongly to that perception.

The club will call Brian Goorjian and Brendan Joyce in its quest to deliver a replacement that quickly can mould this group into a contender, Anstey's assistant Darryl MacDonald holding the reins in the meantime.

Goorjian is head coach of China's Dongguan Leopards and Joyce just won a Bronze Medal with the Opals at the FIBA World Championship.

How realistic either candidate is would be debatable, Goorj on a great deal in China but an Australian at heart now; Joyce holidaying overseas but itching to coach and committed to the Opals for the Rio Olympics.

New BA CEO Anthony Moore, in his first day in the big chair, said he could not confirm whether Joyce's Opals commitments would preclude him from coaching in the NBL.

But the seasons do not clash.

And Anstey will be at United's next home game, cheering his new club with no hard feelings and still wishing them the success he was unsure he could deliver.