Basketball On The Internet.

The first Australian National Pro Combine to expose wannabe NBL players to the league's coaches and scouts concluded today and only needs one more thing to become an annual event.

A couple of its participants need to win NBL contracts.

The NBL endorsed the two-day event at Knox's State Basketball Centre in Melbourne and probably needs to do little more than that because, like the annual Worldwide Invitational Camp in Las Vegas on which the Combine was modelled, that too is run independently.

W Sports and Media in conjunction with Australia and New Zealand Basketball Scouts, staged a terrific event and hats off to Olaf Borutz and Richard Bolaffi.

Bringing in six-time NBL champion Phil Smyth as host of the event and also to coach, was an inspired choice.

What the NBL could do though is liven the proceedings next year with more signage. And the coaches and recruiters in attendance need to be more visible, wearing the merchandise of the clubs they represent.

It's a small observation but I'm sure a more visible NBL presence further would excite the 56 participants who left it all out on Knox's three courts, hoping to win a contract or a second look.

And there's the rub. Unless a couple of players do pick up deals for 2016-17, drawing a similar field next year arguably would be harder.

If organisers can point to Player A, B and C winning NBL contracts as a result of being seen at the Combine, obviously that's a huge plus.

Plenty did impress too, Adelaide 36ers coach Joey Wright - who brought the Combine concept over from the WIC he coaches in most years in Las Vegas - Hawks assistants Eric Cooks and Matt Flinn, Sydney Kings' Andrew Gaze, Lanard Copeland and Jeff Van Groningen, Perth's Jamie O'Loughlin and Melbourne United's Simon Mitchell either directly involved or busy taking notes.

COMBINE'S HARVESTER: Phil Smyth, not so inspired here but definitely an inspired choice.

"I think the thing that impressed me the most was the fact everyone was playing a team game, no-one was hot-dogging it," Smyth said.

"If you've seen the D-League for example, where everyone is trying to impress and it's all about 'me me me'. The guys at the Combine approached it exactly the right way."

As Cooks told me for our News Corp report, everyone is looking for that "diamond in the rough."

What would guarantee this genuinely smart idea becoming an annual fixture would be a few of them being found and secured.