Basketball On The Internet.

SUZY "The Batgirl" Batkovic has had a further season of her stellar career stamped with an "A" - which easily could upgrade to an A+ with a championship tomorrow - but Basketball Australia? Oh dear.

What a mess it made of its premier competition, yet again.

It started out looking positive when the talented and popular Paul Maley won the job as the WNBL’s dedicated General Manager.

Maley immediately put a number of European noses out of joint by boldly declaring the WNBL was now second only to the WNBA in terms of competitive quality and talent.

As poorly as that statement might hold up to the intense scrutiny of Euroleague fans, at least it showed BA had appointed someone who clearly believed in and respected the product.

So the off-season started with an A.

For the annual Media Guide, Maley wrote: “This year’s influx of internationally recognised talent means there is no doubt that the WNBL is the second best women’s basketball league in the world. The return of last season’s WNBL MVP – Abby Bishop - adds to the incredible list of players competing in the upcoming season.”

Yet BA could not put together its highly revered preseason Spring Shield tournament, taking the gloss off that earlier A with a U.

SEQ Stars, having already in-season cut import Denesha Stallworth for Jordan Hooper, requested permission to replace import Ify Ibekwe on “compassionate grounds”. BA agreed.

The clubs rallied, pointing out that was actually illegal. BA backflipped.

Not sure how much it cost SEQ to ship Ibekwe home, bring out replacement Jacinta Monroe, send her back, then fly Ibekwe back to Australia, but I’m willing to bet BA didn’t step up and say: “That one’s on us. Let us pick up the tab for what our misjudgment cost you.” Grading? D-

SEQ suddenly reveals it will “cease operations immediately” and pandemonium breaks out. Not another elite national league club going to the wall? Backtracking and BA’s entire process for admitting the club, in hindsight, appears seriously flawed and compromised. Grading? U

Maley heads up to Logan and within 48 hours, the Stars are salvaged and become something of a fairytale story, reaching the Preliminary Final. Grading? A

Yet two big BA challenges remained.

Just as a few years back, BA taught us all the meaning of the word “demerge”, adding to our burgeoning word power. It is something for which all basketball followers are eternally grateful – the one thing Kristina Keneally left us with that we can attribute to her time at the top.

This year? BA taught us it doesn’t understand the meaning of the word “imminent”.

From the moment the ABC last year said it was done broadcasting the WNBL – and a bucketload of other sports – BA should have been relentlessly striving to keep the league on television.

First, we were going to get the season on TV, somewhere. Then telecasts were going to happen a few rounds in. Then it became “imminent”. Then it became the playoffs. Then telecasts from midway through the finals. Maybe the Grand Final Series?

For all the talk, all the promise, we wound up with zero television coverage. Grading? U

Two years ago when the NBL “demerged” – thanks again Kristina for that word - from BA, the WNBL found itself without an awards night to share and promptly did nothing.

Actually, it was announcing All Star Fives etcetera while the regular season was still in progress! Remember that? As they declare in France: Sacre bleu!

With Anthony Moore appointed BA’s chief executive, last year it reintroduced an “awards function”, utilising an Opals camp in Canberra to bring folks in for WNBL award presentations.

This year? We’ve returned to the “NBA model” of just announcing award winners. The problem with the “NBA model” is the WNBL is not the NBA. Where a dozen or more media outlets in any given NBA city will go ape covering any award presented to a member of its pro team, how much publicity will, say, Katie-Rae Ebzery receive in Sydney for being All Star Five this season?

Players achieving success who hail from big-market cities can expect none of the accolades an NBA city will bestow on its winners.

That makes the manner in which BA has distributed its WNBL awards this season little more than a cost-cutting exercise completely at odds with how the nation’s premier sporting competition, and apparently the “second-best” such competition in the WORLD, should be treated. Grading? U

So how did BA go in 2015-16 overall? Best we can give it is a D- which is well below a pass mark.

THAT said, how magnificent was Suzy Batkovic’s MVP success again this season?

If the women’s competition’s most dominant superstar of the past five years – four MVPs and a championship the year she didn’t get the MVP! – isn’t among the first names called for Rio, BA should mount an inquiry!

Only one other player owns four MVPs from her WNBL career – Lauren Jackson in 1998-99, 1999-2000, 2002-03 and 2003-04.

That’s pretty elite company to be in.

The Batgirl's four MVP seasons have yielded the following numbers:

2011-12: led the WNBL with 24.3 points, 10.9 boards and 2.4 steals per game, the first time a centre led the latter category;

2012-13: led the WNBL with 21.3 points, 9.8 rebounds and 2.6 blocks per game, despite an injury-disrupted season;

2013-14: was second in scoring with 20.5ppg, led the WNBL in rebounding on 12.8 per game and shot-blocking with 1.8 per game;

2015-16:  led the WNBL with 20.8ppg, 8.4 rebounds (seventh) and 1.3 blocks (third).

And, as stated earlier, in 2014-15, she was integral in Townsville Fire's historic first WNBL championship.

That is quite the record.

 

All the winners

Most Valuable Player - Suzy Batkovic (Townsville Fire)

Coach of the Year - Andy Stewart (Perth Lynx)

Rookie of the Year - Alex Ciabattoni (Adelaide Lightning)

Best Defensive Player - Stephanie Cumming (Dandenong Rangers)

Referee of the Year - Damian Lyons

ALL STAR FIVE:

Point Guard: Leilani Mitchell (Adelaide Lightning)

Off Guard: Sami Whitcomb (Perth Lynx)

Small(ish) Forward: Katie-Rae Ebzery (Sydney Uni Flames)

Power Forward: Kelsey Griffin (Bendigo Spirit)

Centre: Suzy Batkovic (Townsville Fire)

There was no WNBL All Star Second Five, but we here at the B.O.T.I. Offices and Cabinet Makers of the Greater Marion Region believe if there HAD been, it should have looked like this:

The "Non" Second All Star Five:

Point Guard: Lauren Mansfield (SEQ Stars)

Off Guard: Stephanie Cumming (Dandenong Rangers)

Small Forward: Jordan Hooper (SEQ Stars)

Power Forward: Betnijah Laney (Perth Lynx)

Centre: Cayla George (Townsville Fire)