Basketball On The Internet.

IT'S official, finally, Shawn Dennis has been charged with the job of reinventing the club as new coach of the Townsville Crocodiles.

You read it here first - not today but on May 2 - and it should be a perfect marriage.

Dennis, who cut his teeth coaching Newcastle Falcons - so already knows how a regional NBL club operates - also has seen "how the other half lives" as Rob Beveridge's lead assistant in Perth.

Todd Blanchfield, Russell Hinder and tyro Mitch Norton all will be back too, the Crocs' core intact.

Retaining Luke Nevill may be a much tougher exercise with regular reports linking him to Cairns Taipans.

THE Hawks have announced the retention of Larry Davidson and Dave Gruber, taking a big step toward securing the core of their semi final group.

Captain Oscar Forman, Rhys Martin, Tyson Demos and Tim Cooeennraaaad all will again be at Wollongong, good news for supporters of the league's only inaugural club.

"We have a quality group of Australian players that can deliver on and off the court for our club," coach Gordie McLeod said.

"Keeping this core group together has been a priority. We have a strong belief in one another and when we perform together at a high level, we’ve competed very well against the other teams."

The Hawks must replace superstar Glen Saville - Stephen Weigh's name keeps bobbing up in despatches - and may have yet another new US guard.

McKee, Ervin, Ubaka, Hurdle, Deleon ... the list goes on.

(Yes, I left out Showroom Glovebox for good reason.)

By the way, this will be Dave Gruber’s fifth season with Hawks, in case you were wondering.

THE Boomers squad has some fairly interesting names on it but if you were wondering why Matthew Dellavedova, Brock Motum and Ryan Broekhoff were not among them, it is because they are doing NBA workouts with a view to June 27's draft.

Now if you are curious at, say, Brendan Teys or Owen Odigie making the squad, and Cameron Gliddon being overlooked, I can only suggest you stay tuned as the list came with the caveat: "Additional players are expected to be added in the build-up to the training camp."

That's BA-speak for, when social media reacts to the squad, we will be reminded who we missed and hastily add them too...