Basketball On The Internet.

*FLASHBACKS, a weekly "lucky dip" where I just reach into my drawers of old Australian basketball stuff and transcribe whatever I find for you.

District basketball in SA had a weekly program called TAP IN (The Voice of SA Basketball) and I yanked out the edition for June 10, 1976. Here's some general stuff from it.

PAGE ONE

Last week's games produced the best night of basketball seen in Adelaide for many years. It saw Sturt lose its first match, a magnificent debut by 6-9 American Jan Ludeks, Glenelg win right on the bell after trailing West all night, South hold off Torrens for a two-point margin after losing Ken Cole in a sensational incident, and Norwood record its first win behind 37 points from Phil Smyth.

Attendances again were well up and no wonder. We have Sturt on top still, but only two points clear of four other clubs in what is our closest competition for many years.

STATE TEAM TO TASMANIA

Everyone in SA would like to wish our State team well for the Australian titles. We must have an excellent chance of winning, although Victoria should start favorite.

SA again will be out to over-turn the ten Victorian Olympians.

Our young group is surely the most exciting ever to represent us with size, speed, youth, experience and an array of great shooters.

Coach Ken Cole feels that it's the best group he has handled and that team spirit is superb.

Werner Linde will captain the team while Lutz Heim, Phil and David Smyth will make their debuts.

Laurie Harcus, Alan Hughes and Linde all return from last year's wilderness while Andy Blicavs, Andy Campbell, Rick Hodges and Mark Lampshire have retained their places.

Things never have looked brighter in SA and while we know it won't be easy, we all hope for a South Australian victory.

KEN EDICK DEBUT

Ken Edick (6-5) makes his debut with Sturt tonight.

He hails from San Jose, California and comes highly recommended by Don Hogan who helped Keith Miller coach the 1964 Australian Olympic basketball team.

Ken will be here for at least two years and we offer him a sincere welcome.

WA GAMBLE RUINS NATIONAL CHANCES

Western Australia's gamble of hiring the Edgley Entertainment Centre in Perth for the carnival between the Belgium Nationals, Mississippi State University, the Olympic team and Western Australia has left them so far in the red they cannot afford to send a team to the national titles in Hobart this week.

An unconfirmed report said that WA had lost at least $10,000 on the carnival last month, which Belgium surprisingly won.

Basketball is growing in WA and the gamble was probably justified.

However the spectators just did not come, or certainly not enough to run the contest at anything but a loss.

It was a great shame as a lot of good basketball went unseen.

It also now means WA, which finished fourth at the nationals in the past two years, will not be competing.

HE CAN CROON BUT WE DON'T KNOW HOW HE'LL PLAY

Melbourne's latest US recruit to boost its fading VABA championship chances is none other than one Dean Martin. Yes, everybody loves somebody sometime and Deano will play his first game tonight for Melbourne against Nunawading.

Last week the Tigers held on to beat Dandenong 86-69 to enhance their season record to 4-2.

Nunawading is sitting on a 5-2 record.

St Kilda and South Melbourne are the only currently undefeated sides while Preston and Auburn have yet to draw their first win.

Caulfield got its first points when it thrashed Auburn last week.

GOODNIGHT CROSSWHITE

Olympian Rocky Crosswhite has announced his intention to return to the US after the Montreal Games.

He has said he will only go back to America for twelve months.

RICHARDSON WELL RATED

Ken Richardson, former West Adelaide Bearcat and 1975 Woollacott Medallist, has been burning for St Kilda in Melbourne despite being in a team of superstars.

Mississippi coach Kermit Davis rated Ken as the best rebounder the Bulldogs faced in Australia.

Davis also said that Coburg-Sanyo's Steve Gray was another top class opponent.

VAN DONGEN ON THE HARD ROAD BACK

Former Queensland State centre Johnny Van Dongen, who has been playing for St Kilda over the past few years and has settled in Melbourne, has started his comeback.

Van Dongen had cruciate trouble and played his first game for Altona Buzzards last week.

His presence did not make enough difference though as they fought out an exciting draw with Box Hill.

LAST WEEK'S DISTRICT RESULTS

Norwood 78 (Smyth 37, Shipway 12) d North Adelaide 75 (Miers 16, Need 15)

Adelaide 83 (Ludeks 31, Blicavs 14) d Sturt 78 (Johansen 22, Smyth 21)

Glenelg 84 (Sparrow 20, Harcus 19) d West Adelaide 83 (Linde 29, Hughes 14)

South Adelaide 78 (Cole 24, Lester 22) d West Torrens 76 (Leslie 18, Lampshire 16)

TOP TEN SCORERS (Rd 6)

1 W. Linde  184

2 K. Cole   170

3 B. Lester  159

4 A. Blicavs  128

5 P. Smyth (Nwd) 120

6 S. Johansen  108

7 M. Lampshire 107

8 R. Hodges  101

   L.Harcus  101

10 M. Jaunalksnis 94

    S.Sparrow  94