Sponsored by:
Specialising in Action, Team and Portrait Photography.
---
Advertising opportunities available.
Please contact me.
---
Week #20 Rankings: Champs in name, only
TweetWINNING basketball's regular season championship really hasn't counted for much beyond the achievement in itself and its playoff home-court rewards.
The most interesting aspect of it to me though is how we continue to use football terminology at a time when football, particularly Aussie Rules, goes out of its way to steal ours.
I realise that in far north outposts such as Cairns - where the Taipans are regular season NBL champions unless they should lose this round in New Zealand by more than 26 points (not happening) - it is history-in-the-making.
And in Townsville, where the Fire have won the WNBL's regular season championship - again, creating history - it also is a big deal.
Rightly so.
Calling it the "minor premiership" though is ignoring basketball's terminology in favour of football parlance, where the "minor round" was always the home-away season and the "major round" was the finals.
As American sports continue to surreptitiously infiltrate our psyche, football has jumped all over terms such as zones, assists, turnovers ... even though it survived and thrived as a sport for 100-plus years without needing basketball's descriptions.
For us to now do the reverse, and start taking on "season kicks off" instead of "season tips off" and "minor premiership" is frustrating in the extreme if we, as a sport, are to have our own identity.
The best-of finals format in the NBL gives us that point of difference - another reason the WNBL also should adopt it, for the Grand Final at least.
But no team has ever won an NBL premiership or a WNBL premiership.
"Premiers" is a term reserved for football.
Basketball has championships and champions.
The "regular season championship" - on "minor premiership" if you still don't get it - isn't actually a thing.
It's merely a term to indicate who finished top when the home-away season concluded.
You don't get a special banner - perhaps a club should (different conversation) - and off the top of my head, I think soccer is the only sport where that does happen.
So congratulations to Townsville Fire for finishing top. It was a great season and richly deserved achievement.
And congratulations in advance to Cairns Taipans for finishing first in a season which started great and looks likely to finish the same way.
They just didn't win a "minor premiership".
TRUST BA and the WNBL at least committed Abby Bishop to a video acceptance speech for what will be an MVP victory when the league reveals its awards.
Apparently this year's original awards plan - to weekly be revealed via carrier pigeon - has been aborted and something else is going to take place. Stay tuned...
Abby, meanwhile, had an outstanding WNBL season but has skipped the country for a stint in Hungary with Aluinvent DVTK-Pinkk Pecs.
Pretty sure the league will need something from her when she breaks Suzy Batkovic's MVP-deadlock in a few weeks.
Wow. To think Adelaide Lightning had Suzy AND Abby but didn't get to the Final. Aaargh!!
THAT shot by New Zealand's Cedric Jackson to beat Perth in double overtime on Sunday has gone viral, with eyeballs around the world relishing it on youtube.
What a great boost for the NBL.
Yes, it was a pretty decent game of basketball regardless but the fact is, that gets lost eventually if Cedric's entertaining finale isn't there as its postscript.
So congratulations to him and to both teams for a cracker of a ballgame.
MEDIA types keep emailing to ask what I know about any NBL awards this year.
The answer is "zero" folks.
Last year Paul Cochrane managed to get someone to donate a few watches so there were just as many categories from memory - placing radio and television in one race for example.
Ridiculous.
How can a radio report be compared with a video news story? Two different media.
It would be akin to lumping best news story against best photograph. Words versus vision? It's stupid.
That's what we had last year.
This year?
The sound of crickets at twilight. But hell, clubs have social media now so what should the NBL care about the mainstream?
WNBL Player of the Week
IT remains rare that we here in the environmentally-friendly B.O.T.I. sausage factory, lederhosen repair and tamborine shop agree with ourselves, let alone anyone else.
And while we still believe our pick for PotW in Leilani Mitchell for getting her team into the finals beats the WNBL's choice of Steph Talbot, we have no quibble with it.
After all, Steph's career-game DID get Canberra into the top four, for 24 hours anyway.
As for the NBL's PotW, the league's fans agreed with B.O.T.I. that Cedric Jackson was the man.
No argument here, especially as we near the unfortunate end of “Fabruary”.
NBL Rankings
This Wk-Prev (Record)
8 (8) UNITED 11-15 – Squabbling, individual and on a road to no-where. Yeah. Like last week.
7 (7) KINGS 9-17 – Spirited and feisty but lacking in marquee pieces now.
6 (6) HAWKS 6-20 – Just got over the line against Kings. Not inspiring.
5 (5) CROCODILES 10-16 – Can steal fifth and springboard to a better future.
4 (3) WILDCATS 15-11 – Will bounce back after being pipped by “that shot”.
3 (4) BREAKERS 19-8 – Buoyed by that great win, New Zealand should roll Cairns.
2 (2) 36ERS 15-11 – Eight straight wins. Those to do that in 40-minute games won title.
1 (1) TAIPANS 20-7 – Have enjoyed their all-time best season and will be strong in NZ.
WNBL Rankings
This Wk-Prev (Record)
8 (8) WAVES 4-18 – Injuries ruined a promising campaign but key players also went missing.
7 (6) LIGHTNING 7-15 – Won last four games to finish in form. Too little, too late.
6 (3) BOOMERS 11-11 – Roller-coaster season ends with a win but down in the valley.
5 (7) CAPITALS 11-11 – Finished with a flurry but blew finals shot earlier.
4 (4) RANGERS 12-10 – Losing form isn’t good form but now it’s a new ball game.
3 (5) FLAMES 11-11 – That was the way to end a season. Or is there more yet?
2 (2) SPIRIT 15-7 – Time to forget the season and start afresh. Exciting.
1 (1) FIRE 17-5 – This is what it was all for so time to clinch a home Grand Final.
This Week's Tips
A HUGE key to Sydney's chances of advancing past Dandenong in the WNBL KO semi final will be just how much Kath MacLeod brings to the Rangers. To quote insightful reader Scott Landells: "Having been rested this past month, I feel the Rangers' finals hopes may well rest on the state of her health as Cappie and Penny can be kept in check much easier when MacLeod isn't about. And Kunek and Pickrel seem to resort to role players who all of a sudden have to create their own shot a lot more." Strong points but even at less than 100 per cent MacLeod will help Dandenong and, at home, it has to start favourite. But I wouldn't put anything past Sydney this season.
THEY have had to wait for two years but finally it is the Fire hosting Bendigo at Townsville in a double-chance semi final and with home-court in the Grand Final hinging on the outcome. It would be just like those Spirit buggers to come up with an upset here and take their threepeat attempt home to Bendigo. They won the season-series 2-1 but this is the opportunity Townsville has pursued since Chris Lucas' arrival in town - to once get the playoffs on their own terms. They have that now, and hosting a Grand Final makes way more sense than a preliminary. Fire to fire.
MELBOURNE takes its team loaded with talent but playing with no heart, to Sydney where the Kings are playing with heart but seriously down on talent. The twin absences of Josh Childress and Ben Madgen removes Sydney’s main scorepower and Angus Brandt isn’t back to anywhere near where he was, either. So why select the Kings? Because heart matters.
THE battle to secure third place – it may yet prove a very important “get” – will be on in earnest at Adelaide Arena where the annual Cattalini Cup and Rogers MVP award also will be at stake between Adelaide and arch rival Perth. THIS is the league’s oldest rivalry, born in 1982, sharpened in 1987 and heightened in 2014 when the Wildcats claimed their sixth Championship and finally over Adelaide. Can’t wait for this. 36ers to win it but well short of the 28 points needed to definitively steal the series.
THE clash of the 2001 Grand Finalists in Townsville is always a much-anticipated clash and with the Crocs and Hawks both coming off wins, this should be a sizzler. Townsville was ruthless dismantling Far-From last round while Wollongong needed some late-game Oscar Forman heroics to get out of (Long Bay) jail. That wasn’t quite as imposing, but then the Hawks had a feisty opponent while the Crocs played a one-legged Swedish tourist who can’t read the “Don’t Swim Here” signs. Townsville should win at home.
IN yet a further fine example of the NBL’s regulation shite programming, Sydney gets to travel down to Melbourne to play again on Sunday (and Ten viewers can see that, as they did the Friday clash… Ugh) to close an injury-disrupted season. I am gambling that Darryl McDonald can draw one last hurrah out of his Far-From corpses and that the Kings, who had little in the tank on Friday, won’t be able to get away again on the smell of fumes.
THE Breakers have to win by 26 to steal first place from Cairns and that isn’t going to happen. But after a week of reliving Cedric Jackson’s shot-of-the-season game-winner at Perth Arena – now seen all around the world – New Zealand will be buoyed and up to get the win. There’s just no way the Taipans, now making club history every time they walk onto the floor yet still able to fly under the radar, are going to buckle to the tune of 26+ points. A Grand Final preview?
IF the Wildcats lost on Friday to Adelaide, they still could take third with a win over Townsville and a loss by Adelaide in Wollongong. Motivation enough? You bet. And winning form is the form you want to take into the playoffs. The Loggins-Bruton Cup-holding Crocodiles will want to end the season a high in the former stamping ground of coach Shawn Dennis but at Perth Arena and positioning still at stake, this will not be an upset.
ADELAIDE has played Wollongong four times in the past six years in the last round of the regular season and is 0-4. It’s a fascinating stat but if the 36ers have Championship aspirations – and they assuredly do – then losing to the bomb shelter resident in the final round is not an option. The Hawks additionally will be focused for their last home game with suggestions venerable coach Gordie McLeod may be hanging up his whiteboard, but this will be Adelaide's W.
Online
WHY did the chicken cross the road?
To celebrate beating NZ in double overtime with Perth’s NBL.TV announcer...
