Basketball On The Internet.

WHAT an extraordinary few days for basketball that was in Adelaide this past weekend - think Pete's Bar Lunch, multiplied by 10.

The "Free Throw Foundation" had its inaugural lunch in the city on Friday, the great drawcard being the chance to see and hear the legendary Ken Cole as the event's keynote speaker.

But what it turned out to be was a wonderful throwback to them there "good olde days of yore" when friend and foe alike would mix in a social gathering to share tall stories and true, while rekindling as mature adults the joys of being competitors in the full flush of youth.

Cole was The King, as to be expected, but more of that later.

Just a glance around the room threw up more Olympians than I can recall seeing together before - Pete's Bar Lunch, with its Olympic theme this year, notwithstanding of course.

But there was Inga Friedenfelds (1956), George Dancis (1956), Mike Dancis (1964), Werner Linde (1964), Scott Davie (1964), Darryl Pearce (1988), Cole (1964), Glenn Marsland (1972), Leroy Loggins (1992), Phil Smyth (1980-84-88-92), Steve Breheny (1980), Brett Maher (1996-2000-04) ... and that's just off the top of my head.

NBL superstars abounded too, with the league's original MVP Ken Richardson, Al Green, Mark Davis, and a host of state league, Boomers and national league players and coaches such as Frank Arsego, Paul Bauer, Ivars Blicavs, Uldis Bruns, Gerry Clarke, Jeff Coulls, Peter Dawe, Jason Dix, Eriks Drizners, Bryan Hennig, Roger King, Mark Lampshire, Trevor Maddiford, Greg Mules, Arthur Newley, Don Shipway ... to name just a few.

Apologies to the many smiling faces I have overlooked, missed out or neglected but it was quite an overwhelming day at times.

TO HAVE these giants of the game together alone was worth the price of the meal, a percentage of which, via the Free Throw Foundation, will go toward financially assisting those in our sport most in need.

It is a terrific cause and David Spear should be highly commended for bringing it to life.

Spear, a member of the 36ers' 1986 NBL "Invincibles", a year later captained Adelaide Buffalos to the SEABL championship, before several SBL titles as a player and coach. He is now equally committed to coaching juniors.

Spear is exactly the type of business person with a burgeoning basketball background our sport needs running it so it can continue to grow and thrive.

The lunch was packed and brilliant. Imagine what can be achieved with greater publicity, considering there were 150 at the Hackney Hotel as it was.

COLE was introduced to the podium by Al Green, the Hall of Famer enticed to consider Australia as a destination when the pair first became friends at Lousianna State University.

As is to be expected, Cole was gracious and spoke of how honored he felt to have people such as Freidenfelds and George Dancis in the room.

He spoke of "Doc" - Werner Linde, his great adversary and friend (think Larry Bird/Earvin Johnson for a similarly rich dynamic and history) - and Kenny (Richardson), the greatest American import of his era.

And he also spoke of the direction the game is going.

CLIPBOARDS have taken over the game. Clipboards, assistant-coach input, chin-stroking and deep thinking ... or so today's coaches might have you believe.

Where would the game be without hours of analysis of which way your opponent tends to lean when he has the ball on the left side of the court, below the foul line?

Or without watching and learning your opponent's offensive sets until you can run them better than they do?

Coaching has become the domain of those who would have us believe it is the brilliant mind, the thoroughly-prepared-for-every-contingency genius who rakes in the big cash.

Cole would have you believe it is about gut instinct, belief in your own system, faith in your own ability.

Filling your players' heads with too much information is a sure way to kill their natural instinct for the game.

"Get out and play," Cole said.

EIGHT players is all it takes.

"I used to have a seven-to-eight-player rotation," Cole said.

The remaining players paid their dues, knowing their time would come.

"I didn't believe in your main guys getting a 20-point lead, and then the other guys could enjoy the rewards of that effort," Cole said.

"My main guys all knew they would get to play so there was never any selfishness.

"They knew they would get the minutes and would get their numbers so they didn't have to worry about that.

"If the other team wanted to clear its bench, good luck to them. But their back-up, back-up guard was still going to have to be dealing with Al Green or Darryl Pearce.

"We were killing teams because our pressure didn't relent."

Cole said he did not subscribe to having 10 players into the game in the first quarter and doling out court time.

"People say they want to keep the pressure on you (with the higher rotation) but it just makes players edgy.

"And I don't see teams running any better today than we did.

"We would run a lot of today's teams out of the gym, and they could use 10 or 12 players."

ZONE offence?

"I never had one," Cole said.

"I didn't even know what zone the other team was playing. We just had simple rules. Attack the gaps, attack the spaces. Go where they weren't. If there were two guys (on defence) get in the gap between them.

"I didn't care if it was a 1-3-1, a 2-3, a 2-1-2, a match-up zone, you name it.

"We just had a few principles. Attack the spaces, and your big man could make cuts in the key into the holes.

"When teams switched to zone on us, players (on the bench) would be pleading with me to get them in so they could attack it.

"We didn't see a lot of zones. And if it was a match-up zone, we'd do the same things but set a few screens."

No, this stuff isn't rocket science, despite what today's coaching scientists would have us buy.

PLANNING for the opposition.

"We used to spend the first hour of practice playing 3-on-2 fast-breaking fullcourt," Cole said.

"Then we'd spend an hour scrimmaging.

"I worked out a long time ago if we were going to be training every day or six times a week and playing once, then practice needed to be fun.

"Guys used to love coming to train.

"But planning for the opposition? I didn't care who we were playing. We had faith in what WE were doing to beat any team.

"If I couldn't watch the other team warm up and work out who the potential threats would be, then there was something wrong.

"But worry about them? I never did that."

BOLD predictions.

"I didn't set out to make bold predictions," Cole said.

"When I told my team, we would win by 30 points, or set a record, I believed it. And those things then become self-fulfilling and everyone bought in.

"Look, if I said to the team we will win by 30, I would break it down. We should be six-eight points up at the end of the first quarter. Another six-eight in the second and another six-eight in the third. So we'd be 20-25 points up at three-quarter time.

"And who is going to outscore us in the last quarter? We're going to win by 30-40.

"Broken down like that, it just makes sense and everyone believed it. So we'd then go do it.

"The more you do it, the more you believe you can. It never occurred to me that it might not happen. And I never told the guys anything I didn't believe they could do."

ENJOY playing.

"I see so many guys who want to look cool," Cole said.

"It's fun to play basketball. And to get paid to do it is a privilege.

"I don't want to see guys with scowls or trying to look mean.

"My teams were always having fun and enjoying themselves."

And the crowds knew it and loved that too.

THE Invincibles...

Cole's 1986 championship 36ers team went 24-2 in the regular season, winning the 24 games by an average of 21.3ppg.

"We whacked people," Cole said.

They started with a 7-0 streak, lost 87-89 on the buzzer at West Sydney Westars, then went on another 5-0 run, including a season-best 41-point win (124-83) over Perth Wildcats.

Coburg Giants beat them on the buzzer 116-114, which sparked a further 12-0 run to the playoffs.

(That went on to 14-0, with a semi final win over Wollongong and Game One win against Brisbane in the inaugural best-of-three Grand Final Series).

Beaten twice and on the buzzer, the 36ers were about six seconds short of the perfect 26-0 season.

"Al (Green), Darryl (Pearce) and I were talking about that last night, and it still burns," Cole said, that reaction, some 26 years later, perhaps explaining why this team was so successful and so extremely competitive.

CATCHING up with people at the lunch was a great treat.

The great Iceman, Darryl Pearce, always has a few pearls of wisdom and his comment today's game is chock full of "book coaches" rang true, as always.

By "book coaches", Ice was referencing the many coaches today who have inflexible plans, times for players worked out in advance and who generally cannot think on their feet.

"Coaching is about instinct, about seeing something, recognising something and adjusting on the fly," he said.

"I wasn't very good at that (when he tried coaching) but I don't see a lot of those types of coaches anymore. Instead there's a lot of guys who don't have a feel for the play."

Coaches, for example, who sub out a player, regardless of whether he has just hit consecutive shots and is feeling good about himself.

"You know, because it's time now for so-and-so to get his run," Pearce said.

SO was there a drawback to this fabulous lunch?

Well, I hate to be a spoil-sport but I'm afraid there was. The main course was chicken schnitty with chips, a large bowl of salad to be shared, also placed on the table.

I was fortunate enough to be on the same table as Ken Cole, Ken Richardson, Darryl Pearce, Al Green and Werner Linde - some of the greatest scorers of all time.

But it meant I couldn't get any salad at all, because none of them know squat about passing anything.